To become one of the rulers of the sea through sheer conquest rather than inheritance how could Kaido possibly be a fool?
Of course he understood what it meant to provoke the Whitebeard Pirates at a time like this.
But the key issue was that the Whitebeard Pirates currently possessed two top-tier monsters: Whitebeard and Renji.
Kaido wanted to take advantage of the period before the Whitebeard Pirates had fully recovered and weaken them as much as possible.
Otherwise, once the Whitebeard Pirates regained their full strength with both Whitebeard and Renji around the New World might truly become the Whitebeard Pirates' personal domain.
Not only that Kaido's battle-hungry heart had also been reignited.
Looking at Kaido, worry appeared on Jack's face.
"Governor!"
"No need to say anything more."
Kaido's expression turned serious.
"I know exactly what you're thinking."
"I want a direct clash with the Whitebeard Pirates."
"Notify Queen. The mission continues."
"This…"
Harvest Island.
Every member of the Whitebeard Pirates had arrived.
The moment they received Harvest Island's distress signal, they rushed over without stopping for even a second.
But half a month had already passed.
Queen had long since left.
How could the island possibly retain its former prosperity?
It had already become a complete wasteland.
By the time the Whitebeard Pirates arrived, the island had already been occupied by Kaido's forces.
After a battle that could hardly even be called difficult Whitebeard reclaimed Harvest Island once again.
"Count the casualties and losses."
Looking at the devastation before him, Whitebeard's expression remained calm.
He had already anticipated consequences like this.
After all, his opponent had been the entire Navy.
The fact that only Kaido had taken advantage of the situation to attack him in the New World was honestly already a relatively good outcome.
"Report!"
Very quickly, the people sent to assess the damage returned.
Their expressions were twisted with rage.
"The island originally had a population of twelve thousand."
"Now only seven thousand remain."
"More than four thousand were slaughtered on the spot by Queen."
"Over one thousand were abducted and taken away as slave labor."
"Seventy percent of the island's farmland has been destroyed."
"Sixty percent of the forests were burned down."
"The accumulated wealth of Harvest Island, built up over generations, has been completely looted."
This was no ordinary raid.
An entire island had been utterly destroyed.
Hearing the report from below, anger surfaced in Whitebeard's eyes.
This had crossed the bottom line.
Conflicts between the Four Emperors were nothing unusual.
However there was an unspoken rule that everyone followed: the ecological safety of islands had to be preserved.
After all, territory in the New World was limited.
Once an island was destroyed, it was gone forever.
Every major force understood that.
Yet this time, Kaido had completely ignored that unwritten rule.
This had gone far beyond what Whitebeard could tolerate.
Originally because of the Summit War, the Whitebeard Pirates had suffered massive losses.
Even if Kaido took some territory during this period, Whitebeard had been willing to let it go.
But now it seemed Kaido had gone too far.
"So Kaido really intends to take advantage of my weakened state and force me into a war."
Whitebeard quickly understood the reasoning behind it all.
Doing something this merciless clearly wasn't just about ending things quickly.
Kaido's real goal could only be one thing:
To weaken Whitebeard Or even kill him.
"Old man…"
At this moment, Marco stepped to Whitebeard's side.
As the Whitebeard Pirates' doctor, he understood Whitebeard's current physical condition better than anyone.
Even though Whitebeard appeared calm on the surface, just as imposing as ever he had been stabbed clean through by Squard during the war.
Then he had been surrounded and battered by both Kizaru and Akainu until he was barely hanging onto life.
These injuries were not something that could heal in just half a month.
Whitebeard's current condition made it impossible for him to go to war against Kaido.
"How about we let it go?"
Marco thought for a long time before finally voicing his suggestion.
After all, they had only just survived the Summit War.
Even if Whitebeard chose to back down against Kaido now, nobody would blame him for it.
And regardless of manpower, stamina, or battle preparations the Whitebeard Pirates were far inferior to Kaido's forces at the moment.
If they rushed into another war recklessly then Kaido might accomplish what even the entire Navy combined had failed to do.
And if that happened the losses would become even greater.
Although surrendering would be unfair to the people whose homes Queen had destroyed—
They would probably still understand.
"As long as we negotiate with Kaido and bring back the survivors, that'll be enough."
"As for the islands that were lost, they've already been mostly destroyed anyway."
"Just let Kaido have them."
"No."
Whitebeard thought for a moment.
Then he slowly shook his head.
"The fact that Kaido is willing to do something like this means he's already determined to heavily cripple us before we can recover."
"The idea that backing down will solve the problem is a joke."
Hearing Whitebeard's words, Marco remained silent.
What he wanted was more time for recovery.
His gaze shifted toward Renji aboard the Moby Dick.
If Whitebeard wanted to fully recover, he would need at least half a year of rest.
But the Whitebeard Pirates no longer had only one Emperor-level fighter.
And unlike Whitebeard, Renji's condition was different.
He had merely exhausted his stamina and overused his mental energy.
By now, Renji had already recovered around seventy to eighty percent.
As long as they could delay things for another week or so, Renji would fully recover.
And if they fought Kaido after that, they would at least have some confidence.
"How about negotiating first and stalling for ten days to half a month?"
Whitebeard looked at Marco, a conflicted expression appearing on his face.
"That still won't work."
"Kaido won't give us time."
At this point, Whitebeard paused to think.
Of course he understood what Marco was trying to do.
"Having Renji face Kaido directly still doesn't sit right with me."
Even though Renji had already demonstrated strength capable of fighting Sengoku head-on Whitebeard still couldn't completely relax.
"How about this instead."
"The Third Division, Fourth Division, Fifth Division, and Sixth Division will mobilize."
"Gather people from nearby seas to act as support forces."
"As for Renji, remove him from the Fourth Division and promote him to commander of the Seventeenth Division."
"The thousand-plus prisoners from Impel Down who are willing to follow him will become members of the Seventeenth Division."
Whitebeard's considerations were clearly more thorough than Marco's.
He intended to buy time through battle.
This way, they wouldn't need to bow their heads and because the islands Queen captured were spread out across a massive area, reclaiming them would take at least a month.
That month would become their recovery window.
"Yes!"
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