At the beginning of Sea Circle Calendar 1491.
Several World Government escort ships escorted a large ship from CP-9 as they slowly approached the waters of Wano.
On the deck, Spandine and Master Tom stood side by side, both looking out at the sea in the distance.
At first, Spandine had not planned to come with Master Tom, but later, he felt that he did not have any important matters on hand for the time being. Since the Young Master had now officially settled in Wano , as a dog serving under the Young Master, how could he not come up and pay a visit?
So in the end, he decided to escort Caesar, bring Master Tom with him, and come together to pay respects to the Young Master.
"Can one reach Wano by going against the current up this cliff waterfall? As expected of a strategic stronghold. Even if many warships were gathered against an island like this, without a suitable method, it would still be impossible to break through," Master Tom said as he looked at the waterfall hanging high in the air.
"Master, Master, let me correct you again. Starting from January 1st of Sea Circle Calendar 1491, all related geography and sea chart books published by the World Government have already removed the old name 'Wano' and adopted the new name 'Frost Island.' Please don't keep saying Wano anymore. On this sea, Wano no longer exists," Spandine reminded him from the side with a cheerful smile.
Wano itself had never been a member nation under the World Government. Now that it had been occupied by Valthior and renamed Frost Island, although no concept of a nation had been formed for the time being, the World Government was happy to see this, and it was even less likely to stop Valthior, the young master of one of the Five Elders' families, from doing what he wanted.
So at the beginning of this year, the World Government updated all related documents and officially changed Wano's name at the official level to "Frost Island."
On the Marine side, Frost Island had also been formally recognized as the main base of the Valthior Pirates.
Very soon, the escort fleet stopped directly beneath the cliff waterfall, forming a guarding formation before dropping anchor and no longer moving.
As for the warship Spandine was on, it began to pull giant koi and climb the waterfall against the current. Although the process was dangerous, no accident happened, and before long, they smoothly reached Frost Island's inland sea.
When they were below, Master Tom had not quite understood why this place had been renamed Frost Island.
But the moment he came up into the inland sea, he immediately understood.
Although he had never come to Wano before, he had still heard a little about this country. Judging from the sea area below, this place should have been an island without a fixed climate. According to rumors, the four seasons rotated here, matching the climates of the East, West, South, and North sea areas.
But right now, he felt as if this place was a winter island!
On the surface of the inland sea, many pieces of broken thin ice were drifting about, faintly giving off the feeling of an icy ocean.
At the same time, the port in the distance was completely white with snow. Clearly, it had not been long since it last snowed. From the moment they came up, they could feel the temperature constantly dropping.
Very soon, Spandine, Master Tom, and the others put on thick fur coats and changed into warm winter clothes.
The original Habu Port had already been renamed "White Frost Port."
After the ship docked, relevant personnel quickly came to welcome them, then escorted them by carriage toward Frost Island's core city, the Heaven Capital.
"Mr. Lincoln, it has been a long time," Spandine said with a cheerful smile as he greeted Lincoln while sitting inside the warm carriage. Then he asked, "Has Frost Island entered winter? Why is it so cold?"
"Commander Spandine looks to be in good spirits. The Young Master has already been waiting for all of you in the Heaven Capital for quite some time," Lincoln replied with a smile.
Spandine quickly said "I would not dare," showing his respectful heart.
Only then did Lincoln say, "Frost Island has indeed entered winter, but this time, it probably will never leave winter again."
"Oh? What do you mean?" Spandine asked curiously.
"The Young Master's ability is extremely strange, and he carries endless power within him. Even if he does not deliberately show his strength, the frost and cold air that spills from around him is constantly changing the environment around him. It can be said that now, around the Young Master, it is no longer he who adapts to the environment, but the environment that adapts to him. A month ago, Frost Island officially entered winter, and that further strengthened the Young Master's majesty. Heavy snow fell again and again, covering the whole island, and it only stopped today. According to the calculations of the environmental experts brought by the family, Frost Island's climate change has already become stable. From now on, it will be very hard for it to change again, and it will continue to maintain the climate effect of a winter island," Lincoln explained.
"Young Master's majesty is so great. This is truly a blessing for Frost Island!" Spandine also said in a refined manner.
In truth, for the unruly peasants on this island, this was not a blessing at all. Winter required warmth, and in the past, this island only had a little over two months of winter. Everyone could endure it and get through it.
But now, they could forget about that. This would last for the rest of their lives.
Without a doubt, this would greatly raise the cost of living. At the same time, for the environment and living creatures of the whole island, it could be called a destructive disaster.
Many creatures could adapt to the severe cold of winter, but they could never live in winter forever. Two or three months might still be fine, but once the time stretched too long, they would be unable to maintain enough food, and they would soon go extinct.
The large-scale extinction of living creatures, along with the permanent freezing of the forests, would also indirectly lead to a shortage of related survival resources on the island, further increasing the living costs of those unruly peasants.
They already could not afford rice, and now they could not even plow the land anymore. With this climate, they could forget about planting ordinary crops too.
As for those rebel troops who liked to hide in the forests and fight guerrilla wars, they probably would not even live long enough for Valthior to issue the "Scalp Order." They would simply die out on their own in this eternal bitter winter.
At first, Valthior and the others had not thought about these problems at all, but the environmental experts trained by the family quickly noticed these situations and reported them right away.
Now, Valthior had already begun making adjustments to the ecosystem here.
Under Valthior's orders, Lincoln had already begun purchasing large amounts of species, plants, crops, insects, microbial culture bases, and all kinds of related environmental products from winter islands all over the world. He was preparing to transport them into Frost Island on a large scale, release them, transplant them, and improve the ecological environment here.
It was still the same saying. As long as there was money, transforming this island was not a problem at all. With the old man's full support, the massive wealth that the Jaygarcia Family had gathered over hundreds of years could all be opened to Valthior. At the same time, Valthior also had his own treasury. So changing Frost Island's ecology was not a problem. It would only take some time.
As for those unruly peasants, let them suffer a little. Spencer would bear the bad name!
If they felt they could not stand this severe cold, they were completely free to leave this island. It was not like Valthior had sealed the island off. As for having no ship? If they had no ship, they could just buy a ticket!
Valthior, this "kind" strict father, was very willing to provide fleets for those unruly peasants who wanted to leave the island. The condition was that they had to pay. As for the ticket price, the New World was so dangerous, with pirates and wars everywhere, so selling one ticket for five million berries was not expensive, right?
As long as they were willing to sell their family property and grit their teeth, they should still be able to gather the money, right?
What? They could not gather it? If they could not gather it, then what country were they trying to leave?
They should honestly go become laborers!
Although the food in the construction teams was not good, and they treated laborers like expendable materials, at least meals were provided. Once people ate their fill, they would not freeze.
If they performed well and put in hard work, they would even be given a cotton coat. How could this not count as the kindness of Valthior, this strict father, toward these unruly peasants?
...
As the carriage gradually approached the Heaven Capital, Master Tom lifted the heavy wind-blocking curtain and clearly saw the outline of the city. The palace towering high at the very center of the city also made him understand why this place was called the Heaven Capital.
The original Shogun's Castle in the Flower Capital had been built on a huge ancient cherry blossom tree, standing high above and looking down over the whole Flower Capital.
Valthior's palace had been built by Lincoln through nonstop work half a month ago. The location had not changed and was still on the old site of the Shogun's Castle. The huge cherry blossom tree had not been removed either, but it had been permanently frozen into a cherry blossom tree that would never wither again.
Moreover, as the ice layer spread, the already huge tree had become even wider and thicker, providing more building space, and the newly built palace complex was right above its crown.
The whole palace was silver-white and pale blue, mysterious and luxurious, with majesty shown everywhere. On the frost-white palace walls on both sides of the main gate, the huge flag design of the Valthior Pirates was also engraved.
Above the gate hung a frost-white plaque with hanging ice, and written on it in the hand of a famous calligrapher were one large word: "Seireitei."
Clearly, this was the name of the palace, and it also came from Valthior's strange little sense of humor.
Looking at it from far away, this ice palace named Seireitei seemed to stand in the sky. In fact, it also carried the meaning of "standing in the sky," so this city had also been renamed the "Heaven Capital."
The wooden houses, streets, and districts that had originally been inside the Flower Capital had basically all been mostly torn down.
With Seireitei as the center, a high wall was being built within a ten-kilometer radius to separate the inner and outer city of the Heaven Capital. Without a doubt, from now on, the core area of the Valthior Pirates would be inside this inner court, and random people would not be allowed to enter.
The outer city beyond the walls would be the place where ordinary people, merchants, travelers, and all kinds of other people came and went.
Looking down from Seireitei at the top of the tree crown, the city wall could not block the view, so the whole Heaven Capital could still be seen. In fact, relying on this height, one could even faintly see cities and villages in other regions.
In short, the view was very good, and it also fit the strategic plan.
"You can almost no longer see any trace of the original Wano..." Spandine clicked his tongue and said.
Although Wano had closed itself off from the outside world, Spandine was an intelligence officer under the World Government and held a high position, so he had still seen some photos of the original Wano and understood some of the situation there.
Especially after the Roger Pirates destroyed the ruling class here and the Jaygarcia Family began taking over, even more information and photos had flowed out. As the Young Master's lackey, how could Spandine not properly understand it?
And now, based on what he had seen and heard along the way, the original colors of Wano had already been almost completely erased.
"Except for a small number of special features that were kept, most of the traditional elements have been erased. After all, Young Master does not like them very much," Lincoln said with a smile and a nod.
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