The pirates sat and forgot, and they really believed the nine truths and one lie.

Whitebeard is still just Whitebeard.

You said that he was burdened by fame, morality, and family—things that seem incompatible with the cruel sea—throughout his life, and that is indeed true.

Edward Newgate's gaze finally left Magellan's humiliated body.

The scales in his heart, which had been briefly swaying due to the pressures of reality, plummeted to one side when they reached a certain bottom line, and he rejected Blackbeard's proposal.

His lifelong adherence to principles, and the monument he erected behind him named Edward Newgate, truly made him an anomaly among anomalies in a pirate world where betrayal, treachery, and profit-seeking are commonplace.

Therefore, most pirates, whether friend or foe, hold him in high regard deep down.

It was a complex emotion about an ideal form—wanting to become a revered legend like him, yet not wanting to become someone like him, bound by shackles and living such a tiring life.

Teach stared intently into Whitebeard's deep eyes, noticing the fleeting confusion that had crossed his gaze due to concerns about Ace's safety and the weighing of reality.

Like a thin mist blown away by the sea breeze, it completely dissipated, becoming clear and firm again, even carrying a kind of calm after seeing through things.

Those eyes showed no desire for the poisonous fruit, only a deep and unwavering rejection.

Teach already knew the answer in his heart.

"Why do you have to do this, old man?"

Teach's voice was no longer seductive, but instead carried a rare hint of regret, "Aren't you tired of always putting on that airs of a sea saint?"

"I'm telling you, your final fate will be extremely tragic. Everything you have in your life—your reputation, territory, and so-called family—will be completely divided up!"

"Those family members and brothers you raised with your own hands, without you, this old man, holding them up, they would have died sooner or later. Can't you be more realistic?"

He brandished the arm holding Magellan, his voice rising with a cold, worldly-wise glint: "You've built up such a good reputation over time, why don't you use it now and exchange it for tangible benefits?"

"To save your foolish son's life, even if you take your reputation to your grave, how many people will truly remember you? Ten years? Twenty years? Hahaha!"

Teach knows the rules of this ocean all too well.

Once you're dead, you're dead; dust to dust, ashes to ashes.

Wasn't his father, Rocks, awesome back in the day?

Weren't the previous kings of the Giant Kingdom powerful?

After someone dies, how many people remember them?

The name of Gol D. Roger, the Pirate King, may be mentioned in the next era and the era after that because of the legend of the One Piece.

But those heroes who competed with him in the same era, those who were defeated, have long since sunk into the dust of history, and later generations have no interest in remembering the names of the losers.

History is always written by the victors, who can rewrite it however they want.

A complex, bitter smile slowly appeared on the white-bearded face.

Unexpectedly, one day he would hear such profound truths about reality, fame and fortune, and the nihilism of history from the mouth of the very son he hated most, this ambitious traitor.

As the son of Rocks, Teach not only inherited Rocks' ambition to conquer the world, but also seemed to possess a more clear-headed ruthlessness than his manic father.

Whitebeard could even imagine what it would be like if, one day in the future, Blackbeard's wife and daughter were captured by the World Government and a blatant trap was set for them.

Given Teach's extremely selfish nature, there is absolutely no way he would jump in.

He only puts his own safety first, coldly assesses gains and losses, and then abandons his wife and daughters.

Perhaps, when the Knights of God really do cook Teach's closest relatives, Blackbeard, hiding at a safe distance, will not only not come to their aid, but will actually applaud it.

He might even jokingly call out, "Hey, can I have a sip of your soup?"

"Tikki..."

Whitebeard spoke in an unusually calm voice, discarding all negative emotions and the allure of the tempting fruit, firmly standing on his principles.

They didn't fall into the trap Blackbeard wove with reality and fallacies. "I am not you, and you are not Rocks. The paths we take are fundamentally different."

Looking at the ambitious face in the air: "Even if you were to dig out your heart, which is filled with darkness, and present it to me now, I would not forgive you."

"Sachi's life cannot be exchanged for a single fruit, and my principles cannot be sold in a single transaction."

Teach was stunned for a moment after hearing these words, then he couldn't help but laugh out loud. His laughter grew louder and more manic, and he even laughed until tears streamed down his ugly face.

"Old man! Old man!"

His voice suddenly turned cold, "So what if you don't cooperate with me? Do you think that's the end of it?"

He suddenly raised his hand and pointed to the other side of the battlefield, to the castle behind the towering execution platform, where the naval admiral Sengoku, who had been watching the battle with a solemn expression, stood.

"I'm going to have your Tremor-Tremor Fruit!"

"And that Buddha of the Warring States period, that giant Buddha form, I want them all!"

His gaze swept over Whitebeard and Sengoku, his crimson pupils burning with an all-consuming ambition: "To achieve the supreme Trinity, without this strongest combination of Devil Fruit abilities, I'm not confident I can go and seek revenge on that Im above."

As a vengeful and ambitious man, Teach attributed his tragic childhood and even the destruction of the Rocks Pirates to the high and mighty Celestial Dragons.

Avenging his parents and clansmen is a personal vendetta, dominating the world is an ambition, and defeating Im is an inevitable choice on the path of this ambition, an ultimate obstacle that cannot be bypassed.

These words were undoubtedly the most naked and arrogant declaration of war against the highest ruling class of governments around the world.

If the Celestial Dragon God is defeated, the endless wealth accumulated by the God race over eight hundred years will all become his spoils of war. In this world, there is indeed no group richer than the Celestial Dragons.

"Since you remnants of the old era refuse to obediently become my stepping stones..."

Teach spread his arms wide, and endless darkness surged wildly from his body, like an erupting black volcano, instantly shooting into the sky.

The sheer nauseating malice made anyone on the battlefield, whether a navy or a pirate, tremble with fear if they were even slightly weaker.

"Then let this world burn completely!"

Teach's roar echoed through the heavens, filled with destructive pleasure: "Let the rulers of the old world become the fuel for my new era, turning them all into the cornerstones of my path to kingship..."

The towering darkness did not disperse, but rather spread wildly outwards from Teach's center, like a living black behemoth.

Blackbeard Teach had the power, and he was too lazy to pretend anymore. He would use this all-annihilating darkness to announce to the world that a new king had arrived.