Chapter 172: The Aftermath of God Valley: A Seaquake in the Navy

As Karl pressed on toward the New World, the Navy Headquarters was struck by a massive ‘Earthquake.’

“From now on, the position of Fleet Admiral will be held by Kong,” the announcement declared.

Inside Navy Headquarters, delegates sent by the World Government stood at the front, reading out the Five Elders’ edicts.

None of the navy personnel below seemed surprised—since Fleet Admiral Hill had passed away, Kong was clearly the best candidate to succeed him.

Clap, clap, clap!

A wave of enthusiastic applause swept through the crowd, their faces beaming with excitement.

“Now, let’s invite Kong to the stage.”

As the World Government official finished speaking, Kong stood up straight and strode to the podium.

“The responsibility of Fleet Admiral now passes to Kong!”

Another burst of applause washed over the room.

After collecting the admiral’s uniform and a few belongings, Kong stepped down, and the World Government official returned to the stage.

“To the world, we’ll announce that Garp was the one who defeated Rocks and will be awarded the honorary title of Navy Hero.”

The crowd erupted in applause once again.

The navy wasn’t blind—letting word get out that pirates and navy worked together to beat Rocks would only hurt their image.

Their reputation was already in tatters, but they couldn’t afford for things to get any worse.

Besides, spreading news of Garp’s victory was bound to draw in a fresh wave of eager young recruits to the navy.

“Now for the final personnel appointment: Garp is hereby named the third Navy Admiral.”

“I object,” Garp shot to his feet on the spot.

The mood instantly sank. All eyes turned to Garp, who stood tall and unmoving. Nobody dared to speak up first.

The official from the World Government spoke with a harsh, iron-faced glare. “Garp, are you refusing to obey your orders from above?”

Garp crossed his arms where he stood and burst out laughing. “I’ll take the hero title, but don’t even mention the admiral stuff.” He waved his right hand, ignoring the official’s darkening expression, and swaggered right out of the hall.

“This…”

Sengoku, his close friend, immediately stepped up to smooth things over. “Let’s wrap things up for today. I’ll talk to him afterwards.”

Catching the cue, Kong jumped in. “Yeah, that’s enough for today. Let it go.”

Sengoku stepped forward and took the admiral’s uniform from the official, then headed out the door to catch up with Garp.

“By the way, about recruitment…” Kong leaned in close to the World Government official, keeping his voice low.

After three years of bloody battles in the New World and the carnage at God Valley, nearly 100,000 navy soldiers had been lost.

That was two-thirds of the entire navy’s fighting strength—severely crippling their ability to keep evil at bay across the world.

The Five Elders had already brought it up: with the navy so weakened now, they no longer posed any real threat to them.

So naturally, the recruitment proposal was approved. The official pulled out a stack of documents and handed them to Kong.

“Here are the Five Elders’ latest orders. Don’t let yourself end up like Garp.”

With that, the official handed Kong the documents and strode away.

Kong paid him no mind. Instead, he opened the file right away—the first thing inside was approval for the massive recruitment program, plus compensation details for the navy casualties at God Valley.

The World Government wasn’t going to squeeze the navy too hard—after all, they were still the top force for keeping order on the seas.

Their power couldn’t be allowed to grow too strong, but it couldn’t get too weak, either.

With the orders in hand, Kong hurried over to the command department and spread word of the recruitment drive throughout the Four Seas.

The navy needed to ramp up fresh blood—because the New World was in chaos, and Rocks’ assault on God Valley had gone viral. Now, most young people in the Four Seas wanted to set sail as pirates.

That meant sudden crushing pressure on the Four Seas navy. Every day, twenty or thirty new pirate crews sprang up—more if you counted the countries along the Grand Line.

From what he’d heard, the New World was already a boiling cauldron. Even after Newgate, Charlotte Linlin and the Golden Lion rushed back and seized most of the territory,

dozens of islands were still being fought over by pirates. Blood was spilled daily. Ever since the Rocks Pirates broke up, the fighting had never stopped. One day an island belonged to you, the next day it was someone else’s. Many islands were wiped of their people completely.

Kong couldn’t let the Four Seas or the first half of the Grand Line descend into that kind of nightmare, so he could only turn to mass recruitment—deploying huge numbers of navy soldiers to lock down the Four Seas and the first half of the Grand Line.

But he couldn’t pull naval forces away from the Four Seas, so mass recruitment was the only way to choke off this pirate outbreak.

While the navy moved into high gear, in a mysterious room at Mariejois, three of the Five Elders knelt on the floor, fear etched across their faces as they stared up at Lord Im.

“Tell me, how should you be punished?” The ethereal voice sent all four of the Five Elders into a frenzy of kowtowing.

“Lord Im, please forgive us.”

“Lord Im, give us mercy!”

Im wasn’t moved by their begging. “Do you know how many Celestial Dragons died at God Valley?”

Red light blazed in Im’s eyes. Then, in a terrifying roar: “Hundreds! Hundreds of Celestial Dragons died at God Valley. Why is it you three survived? Why didn’t you die there?”

The three Five Elders were so terrified their bodies went completely stiff and cold sweat pooled at their knees, forming ripples on the floor.

“Do you realize what hundreds of dead Celestial Dragons means?”

“You fools!”

“Raise your heads.” The cold command forced all three to lift their faces.

When they looked up, they saw a pair of burning crimson eyes staring back.

“You three will lose twenty years of your lifespan.”

Red beams shot from Im’s eyes. In the next instant, the three Five Elders had twenty years torn from their lives.

They watched as their arms turned old, their beards grew even whiter, feeling their very vitality drain away. But they could only sigh in relief—

because this punishment meant it was over, at least for now.

“If it happens again, you won’t appear before me a second time,” Im said coolly, waving them off.

The three shared a glance and rose at once. “Thank you, Lord Im. We take our leave.”

Even as they left the room, their hearts wouldn’t stop pounding.

Yet when they thought of Peter and Saint Saturn, both absent, a chill ran through them.

If Im’s attack hadn’t been so sudden, the three of them might not have made it out alive at all.

“Karl is simply too dangerous.”

“His strength feels even greater than Rocks’,” said the long-bearded Five Elder, Saint Mars.

Saint Nasjuro could still recall the terrible might of Karl’s Doomsday Cannon. “Yeah, but at least Karl is dead now.”

That one attack was so devastating, Saint Saturn didn’t even get a chance to resist—completely erased, not even a trace of his body left behind.