I am the Bandit King of the East Sea.

Golden Lion is also a cunning and patient person, willing to spend ten or twenty years to build a huge plan... That's why the grand plan that Sieg mentioned when he was drunk could move him.

"Is Admiral Higuma a Navy mole? Is this also part of a larger plan? After being missing for ten years and returning, how could Sig have made such a big move so quickly?"

The golden lion pondered this.

"Golden Lion, what are you laughing at? Sig has been captured, what's so funny about that?"

Roger, still puzzled by the Golden Lion's unusual behavior, expressed his confusion.

"Hmm? You seem puzzled?" The Golden Lion shook his head.

“Roger, it seems you know nothing… This secret may only be known to me.”

“It’s actually very simple, Sig did it on purpose,” the Golden Lion said with certainty.

"Intentionally going to jail?" Roger paused, then said:

“That’s right, Sig also has the ability to fly... or more precisely, the ability to walk in the air.”

"Impatiens can't hold him or people like you..."

Roger paused here, a sudden, unbelievable thought popping into his head, and he couldn't help but say:

"Could it be that Sieg deliberately went to jail for my sake?"

"He risked going to jail to save my son Ace?"

The Golden Lion choked for a moment, stared blankly at Roger for a few moments, and then sighed and facepalmed.

"Impossible. How could a man like Sieg do such a thing? It seems you don't really understand him."

Golden Lion suddenly recalled the time he and Sig sat on the Sky Island and had a lively, drunken conversation.

He stated frankly:

"Roger, you have plenty of ambition, but no desire to conquer. Whitebeard, on the other hand, has long been bound by his large family..."

"Only Sig and I are the same kind of people," the Golden Lion said deeply.

"So his deliberate imprisonment must be part of a larger plan."

Roger paused for a moment, then shook his head in denial:

"That's not right, is it? Shiki. Sieg is the one I'm like. He once said that he longed for a peaceful life and envied my reclusive lifestyle."

Roger was once the Pirate King, and he also retired from the world and lived a peaceful and shameless life with Rouge, so he really resonated with the peaceful life that Higuma mentioned.

“That’s because you don’t know him well enough.” Golden Lion refuted Roger’s denial:

“Sig’s ambition is no less than mine.”

"Years ago, I had a plan for a world of powerful beasts. I planned to raise a group of powerful beasts and let them destroy the East China Sea in order to take revenge on the Navy. Of course, I have abandoned this plan because I was somewhat disappointed with the power of those beasts."

The Golden Lion continued:

"And Sig's grand plan is truly remarkable, with a very broad scope."

"For example, one part of the grand plan he personally mentioned, the Global Advanced Martial Arts Project... I admit that this is above my Strong World Plan," the Golden Lion said.

"By the way, Roger, what do you think of the Four Emperors?"

Roger laughed, "The Four Emperors? They're all very strong guys... Shanks has grown quite a bit too."

"They are indeed not bad, but there are four people with the supreme title of emperor. Don't you think that's a bit strange?"

The golden lion shook its head.

Some call him the Golden Lion, the fifth Pirate Emperor, the Emperor of the Sky, but he himself doesn't really care about this title.

"Whitebeard was content to be ranked alongside the other three, which shows his lack of ambition; he stood before the throne without striving for anything."

At his peak, Whitebeard was the "strongest man in the world." Although he was known as one of the Four Emperors along with the other three, everyone knew that he was the true king of the sea, subtly surpassing the other three.

"A truly unique 'king' should be someone like you or me who once swept across an entire era."

"You agree, right, Pirate King?" Shiki laughed loudly.

Rocks, Shiki, Roger, Whitebeard... these people once held the title of the strongest pirates of their time.

The Golden Lion didn't think much of the so-called Sea Emperors.

Now, he possesses air superiority that no pirate or navy in the world can match, and can even be called an air pirate.

"A big plan? That term actually sounds familiar."

Roger thought about it carefully for a while, and suddenly felt a jolt in his heart:

"These are the words he said when he made me fake my death and return to the present from the past."

"Is this also part of his grand plan?"

Roger paused, his curiosity piqued, and pressed for an answer:

"Golden Lion, what exactly are you trying to say? What is the High Martial Arts Plan?"

"As Sieg said back then, the Four Emperors weren't enough; he wanted to create... the Sixty Emperors of the Sea himself!" Shiki laughed loudly.

"The era of high martial arts with the existence of sixty emperors will be an unprecedentedly brilliant golden age."

"An excessive number of sea emperors will inevitably lead to unprecedentedly fierce battles, and only such battles can allow these emperors to surpass themselves and become the new [kings] of the sea."

Roger frowned, realizing something from the Golden Lion's words.

"Sixty emperors... four emperors... fifty-six emperors..."

"The Fifty-Six Emperors of Impel Down's Infinite Hell?" Roger was shocked.

"You guessed correctly," the Golden Lion said deeply.

"Back then, Whitebeard, Higuma, and I joined forces to attack Impel Down and release the Fifty-Six Emperors from Impel Down, all for the sake of this High Martial Arts Plan."

"However, some of them were disappointing, and I suppose Sieg himself was also disappointed, so he personally killed some of them, while Higuma also took care of some..."

"Ha ha ha ha..." the golden lion roared with laughter.

"I imagine Sieg hasn't forgotten his grand plan, and we should be at the next stage of it now."

Roger frowned: "What you're saying is making me more and more confused... Why do we need sixty emperors? What is the High Martial Arts Project? What is the full picture of the grand plan?"

His curiosity grew stronger.

Higuma not only planned to create sixty emperors of the sea, but also saved him, the Pirate King, from a terminal illness and brought him to the present world...

"The grand plan can actually be summed up in one sentence..." The Golden Lion pondered for a moment and then said:

"But since Sig didn't tell you, I won't presume to do it for you. If you want to know, go ask Sig yourself."

"Sig didn't even tell you something this important. How could he possibly be the same kind of person as you? Don't make me laugh."

"You..." Roger said helplessly.

"Now, back to what happened earlier, could you lend me a hand?"

"I refuse." The Golden Lion shook his head in refusal.

"I will not lend a helping hand to the enemy, and I will not change my mind even if you beg me."

"Or... do you intend to submit to me and become my subordinate?" the Golden Lion asked.

For the Golden Lion, there are only two kinds of people in the world: those who submit to him and those who have not yet submitted to him.

Among them, Roger and a few others were enemies he could take seriously, opponents he could sit down and drink with, but that was all.

His principles are not something so fragile.

"Instead of asking me for help, why don't you contact your old subordinates?"

After finishing his last glass of wine, the Golden Lion asked.

"I'm not really available," Roger replied casually.

In fact, since he set sail, he has been searching for his former subordinates, including Crocus.

However, he had no intention of asking his former subordinates for assistance.

"Our Roger Pirates have our mission. If it's for that mission, of course we can make a comeback. But the time is not yet right."

Roger shook his head:

"The navy is not as strong as it used to be, and now has a total of six admirals."

"Akainu, Aokiji, Kizaru, Fujitora, Hagoromo, and Zephyr with Black Arm. Rescuing Ace is too difficult and risky."

"For my son's life, am I really going to gamble with my partner's life?"

The Golden Lion looked at Roger coldly, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.

If it were him, he wouldn't hesitate to trade his subordinates' lives for a chance.

"Indeed, only Sig and I are the same kind of people," the Golden Lion thought to himself.

................

On the Moby Dick, a giant ship shaped like a beluga whale, in a sea area of ​​the New World.

A tall and robust old man sat in a chair, his bare and broad chest covered with numerous large and small knife scars, and his body was covered with a dense network of IV tubes.

Whitebeard is old and his health is not good.

He ignored the advice of the beautiful nurses behind him, picked up a bowl of wine, drank it all in one gulp, and his face was flushed.

Teach's defection some time ago was a huge blow to the old man.

Ten years ago, he fought a war in Impel Down to save Teach, but he never expected that this filial son would now send his other son to Impel Down.

The Whitebeard Pirates, renowned for their father-son bond, almost became a laughingstock because of Teach's actions.

But today, Whitebeard had temporarily forgotten his unpleasant affairs, and was simply drinking and reading a newspaper with great interest.

"Dad, you seem very happy?"

Diamond Joz scratched his head, somewhat puzzled:

"But the newspapers clearly reported that Sig was defeated by Admiral Higuma and imprisoned. What's there to be happy about?"

"You don't understand." Whitebeard glared at Jozu.

“Sun Bear is just a brat, how could he possibly defeat Sig and arrest him?”