I, a Celestial Dragon!

Chapter 223 Become bigger and stronger and create greater glory!

Three hours later...

In the tavern, Deuce looked at the bottles of liquor around him with tears in his eyes.

He angrily picked up one of the bottles and drank it in big gulps.

Then, Deuce almost spit out his tongue because of the spiciness.

"Hey, this isn't liquor, it's just alcohol!

This degree is totally unreasonable!"

Deuce looked at the tavern owner viciously.

Facing Deuce's dissatisfied look, the proprietress smiled happily while holding the fresh water piled up in the backyard of the room.

"Alaala, distinguished guest, we are really short of water recently, so we have to distill the wine over and over again.

But in this case, at least the alcohol content of the wine has increased, right? Haha!"

While laughing, the proprietress and her employees scooped up some fresh water and drank it in big gulps.

Although in the hot air, the fresh water in front of me was not cool, but rather a little warm.

But the lady boss and her group still made the kind of extremely comfortable breathing sounds that sounded like they were drinking ice...

Ace, who was drinking from a bottle of liquor, patted Deuce on the shoulder.

“Haha, Deus, don’t worry about those details.

The wine sold by this conscientious merchant is so pure that it makes fire come out of it when you take a sip. Isn’t that good?”

As he spoke, Ace took another big sip of wine, and then he burped a flame filled with alcohol...

Seeing Ace's heartless look, Deuce was furious.

"How dare you say that, Ace? You've replaced all our fresh water with liquor!

That’s fine now, but what next?

It takes at least five days to store the record pointer in Alabasta. What do you drink during these five days?

You can’t drink sea water!”

"Don't worry, guests. If you really don't have fresh water, we can sell you a special seawater distiller here.

A machine like that can provide about 300 milliliters of fresh water every day. A person only needs to buy five or six machines to meet the needs for the whole day!

But we can’t use Bailey’s to settle the bill. We also need fresh water to buy the machine!”

……

As the proprietress finished her words, Deuce and Ace suddenly burst into completely different shouts.

Deuce: "Fuck you, profiteer!"

Ace: "Really? You're a conscientious merchant!"

After saying that, they both looked at each other, only to see Deuce muttering in dissatisfaction.

“How can they be a conscientious business? They replaced all our fresh water and then told us that we need to buy a seawater distiller!

How can we afford it?"

At the same time, Ace laughed and patted Deuce's shoulder.

"Don't think like that. We have to change our perspective. In Alabasta, fresh water is money.

So, when the boss lady sells us the distiller, isn’t that equivalent to selling us a money printing machine?

Money can actually distill itself slowly!!!"

At this point, Ace suddenly remembered something and turned back to look at the proprietress.

"Wait, Madam Boss, does distillation only require high temperatures?

I'm not well educated, so I don't quite understand, but it should be about turning water into steam, right?"

Having said that, Ace looked around and then spoke to everyone with a big laugh.

"I am the user of the Flame-Flame Fruit, so heating up the seawater is a piece of cake. How about we do it together?

I will heat up the sea water, and you will prepare the tools to collect fresh water. Finally, we will split the water 20% to 80%, with 80% for me and 20% for you!

If I can exchange it for enough fresh water, maybe I can use it to buy enough Adam wood from the precious tree!

It's impossible that Alabasta is such a big city and doesn't even have a little wood from the precious tree Adam, right?"

"Of course, my valued partner!!!"

As soon as Ace finished speaking, the proprietress beside him began to tremble with happiness.

She just grabbed Ace's hand!

“I’ll prepare enough tarpaulins right here, right by the dock, you heat them and I’ll collect the steam!

But a 20:80 split is not acceptable, you have to pay more. If you are really strong, you will need a lot of people to collect steam for you!

At least 37!"

"30% is 30%; I won't really use fresh water as money anyway. I just want to exchange it for some materials from the Treasure Tree Adam to repair and upgrade my ship!"

Ai immediately grasped the proprietress's hand tightly.

Feeling the warmth of Ace's palm, the proprietress felt as if she was feeling the warmth of her husband who had died many years ago.

The proprietress said to Ace with a happy face.

"Quick, let's get started without further delay!

I want to change my pub into a water bar, and then make the water bar bigger and stronger, and create greater glory!!!"

"Listen, let's get started!

Deus, go see if there is a shipyard or auction house here!

The precious tree Adam is waving to us!"

With Ace's last words, the two of them successfully reached a consensus.

So, another five hours passed.

When Crocodile arrived in Cotlaina...

What he saw was a scene of tens of millions of people gathered at the docks and the coastline, cheering and collecting boiling fresh water with various devices that absorb water vapor...

At this moment, Ace was standing at the bow of his ship, with a fireball with a diameter of one hundred meters floating in front of him, like a small sun.

The fireball floated above the sea water at the edge of the pier, and the sea near it was boiling and emitting large amounts of steam.

Looking at the thick steam rising into the sky, the proprietress and Deuce and his crew used metal and wood to build a huge tarpaulin to block the thickest steam.

The water droplets formed by the water vapor gradually gathered into a small stream, slowly sliding down the oilcloth into the water tank prepared on the side!

Often, before the water could even fill a water tank, it had already been bought by all kinds of merchants for strange and exotic things.

Merchants even organized mercenary teams to prevent surrounding civilians from looting.

Soon, Ace's ship was filled with all kinds of gold ornaments.

After the merchants bought the fresh water, they actually transported it directly to the outskirts of the crowd of millions and started selling it.

Logically speaking, with stable fresh water income, the price of fresh water should fall.

But there were millions of people present, and seeing others buy the fresh water and drink it to their heart's content made all the other people who hadn't had enough water for a long time go crazy.

Just like that, the price of fresh water has been rising...

This is what Crocodile saw, and when the gathered people saw Crocodile...

"Ahhh, no! The national hero Crocodile is here!"

"Great hero Crocodile, that pirate is a very good man, so let's not catch him for now!"

"Yes, this pirate is a good man like you. He is actually helping us make fresh water. If those merchants hadn't sold it too expensively, I would have wanted to kneel down to him!"

"Lord Crocodile, can we wait to capture these pirates until they stop creating fresh water?"

"Hero, let's capture these pirates and then make fresh water together. If you are in charge of distributing fresh water, you will definitely not be like those capitalists who charge you dearly!"

“Yes, sir, capture them and force those pirates to continue producing fresh water!

If we were in charge, we would not be like the damned merchants, charging high prices to our compatriots and neighbors!"

All of a sudden, all kinds of sounds came into Crocodile's ears.

Facing the civilians around him with different thoughts, Crocodile pursed his lips and sighed deeply.

To be honest, he really wanted to kill Ace. What this bastard did reduced the drought pressure faced by the city by countless times.

I spent a lot of time and effort to absorb the water vapor from the sea.

As a result, a gap was pried out by that damn Flame-Flame Fruit user!

The most important thing is, no matter how angry I am now, I must show gratitude to that Fire Fist!

Because I am the national hero Crocodile!

When faced with pirates who are helping civilians, we certainly cannot kill them against the wishes of the civilians!

So, after seeing the situation around him clearly, Crocodile immediately put on a smiling face and walked towards Ace's ship.

In the distance, on the Spade Rocket, Deus saw Crocodile walking towards him surrounded by a crowd.

He came up to Ace and spoke to Ace who was concentrating on maintaining the fireball.

"Ace, Crocodile from the Shichibukai is here!

Haha, he seems to be doing well, people here know him and call him a hero!"

"ha?!!"

Hearing this, Ace immediately looked in the direction of Crocodile.

Seeing Crocodile being welcomed by almost everyone, Ace showed an envious look.

"You're really amazing. You've actually been recognized by the people of the entire city. You're worthy of being one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea!"

As he finished speaking, Ace continued to maintain the fireball as he rushed towards Crocodile.

In the distance, Crocodile took a deep breath as he watched Ace approaching.

The next moment, he waved to Ace in a friendly manner.

"After I heard about the pirates in Cotlaina, I rushed here immediately. But I didn't expect that the one who came here today was not a pirate at all, but our savior!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Crocodile rushed to Ace and grabbed Ace's hand.

"Young man, your name is Ace, right? I am Crocodile, one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea. On behalf of all the people of Cotlana, I must thank you for your kindness and for helping us!"

"hey-hey!"

Listening to Crocodile's words, Ace pressed his hat in shame.

“I’m just doing what I can, and I’m not doing this for free!

Although making fresh water has helped you a little, I have also been paid. I did this for the materials of the treasure tree Adam."

"That's nothing!"

Crocodile responded loudly after hearing what Ace said.

"Whatever your reasons for doing this, we should also remember the help you bring to the people of this city.

The result is far more important than the beginning and process!

What you did truly saved many people who were short of water, and for doing so, you certainly deserve the title of hero!

but……"

Crocodile raised his voice again with a righteous tone.

“But no matter what, you shouldn’t charge civilians so much money!