Chapter 906 - 906: The More You Know, the More Lost You Become

Under Gan Fall's guidance, Crocodile and the others slowly made their way in the direction of the Golden City.

They were walking along an extremely narrow, straight valley that was almost unnaturally so.

The valley extended from the edge of the White Sea, all the way forward and deep into the heart of Upper Yard. As far as the eye could see, there was no end in sight.

By a rough estimate, this canyon was probably nearly several dozen kilometers long.

On both sides were steep rock walls that towered into the clouds.

The rock walls were smooth and even, as if cut by knives and axes, reflecting the light of the sky and giving off a cold texture.

Beneath their feet was hard rocky ground, with not a blade of grass growing anywhere. Only fine grains of sand occasionally swept up by the wind drifted quietly through the canyon.

The group walked in silence. The only sound was the clacking of their footsteps against the rocks, echoing through the canyon.

"Hey, I'm saying."

Finally, Yasopp could not hold it in anymore.

He looked up at the monotonous and boring rock walls on both sides, his tone full of mockery and dissatisfaction, "You've already let us in, so why not be a little more generous and show us more of this Golden City's scenery? Why do we have to walk through this crappy place?"

"Letting you walk this Road of God is already the greatest blessing bestowed upon you."

Gan Fall did not turn his head, his tone indifferent.

"Road of God?"

Yasopp scoffed, his face full of disdain, "This? A crappy canyon where not a blade of grass grows. Aside from the rock walls on both sides being a little smoother, what part of it deserves to have the word 'God' in its name?"

He looked around, his eyes full of unconcern.

In his view, this canyon could indeed be called straight and smooth, but that was all.

Although the rock walls on both sides were as smooth as mirrors, they were completely lifeless. There was not even a single weed growing on them.

The ground beneath their feet was nothing more than ordinary rock, and it was quite uncomfortable to step on.

How could such a passage, completely lacking in beauty and distinctive features, possibly be given such a grand name as the Road of God?

However, Robin suddenly stopped walking at this moment.

She slightly raised her head, her gaze falling on the towering rock walls on both sides, and her brows slowly furrowed.

"This was cut out by someone."

Her voice was not loud, but every word was clear.

"Huh?"

Yasopp was stunned for a moment, then burst into laughter, "What are you talking about! Cut out dozens of kilometers with one slash? How could anyone possibly do that!"

He pointed at the canyon stretching straight ahead, with no end in sight, "Look at the length! We've already walked several kilometers, right? There are at least another dozen or so kilometers ahead! Altogether, it's at least several dozen kilometers!"

"A length and scale like this is already beyond what a normal person could create with an attack!", His face was full of disbelief, "Even the captain, if he went all out, could at most slash through a few kilometers! Dozens of kilometers? Are you kidding me?"

"Whitebeard should be able to do it."

Crocodile suddenly spoke, narrowing his eyes slightly as he gave a brief comment.

What he said was actually a hint to Robin.

Don't encourage the other side while undermining ourselves.

The disparity in their strength was already great enough.

There were some things that did not need to be brought up again, as that would only add to their despair.

"This road was indeed cut out by our God."

Gan Fall's calm voice sounded, confirming Robin's judgment.

Yasopp's laughter came to an abrupt stop, "It... it really was cut out?"

He opened and closed his mouth, actually at a loss for words for a moment.

But the next second, he quickly recovered and even raised his chin, his face full of unconcern, "That's it? Then Rosse isn't that strong either."

If someone else had cut it out, he would have had to admit defeat to some extent.

But if Rosse had done it, then there was nothing remarkable about it.

After all, Rosse was the strongest person recognized by the World Government and their greatest enemy.

If their enemy was only at this level, then they really did not need to worry too much.

"Our God only set foot on Upper Yard once, twenty years ago."

Gan Fall glanced at Yasopp, his tone remaining calm as he continued forward.

Behind him, Yasopp was still chattering away in argument, "So what if it was twenty years ago? Once someone's strength reaches a certain level, they'll encounter bottlenecks and limits! Even another twenty years wouldn't prove that Rosse has become stronger!"

For some ignorant people, Gan Fall could not be bothered to waste words.

Twenty years ago, his strength was still inferior to that Straw Hat brat lying unconscious on the beach.

Yet twenty years later, today, with his current strength, he could already cut out a valley like this stretching across dozens of kilometers with a single slash.

And Rosse, who had effortlessly bestowed this strength upon him.

How could that man possibly have made no progress at all?

"Ignorant."

Robin gently shook her head. She no longer paid attention to Yasopp's chatter and quickened her pace to catch up with Gan Fall.

Although her current strength could not be considered top-tier, she had at least seen and experienced a lot.

She could still roughly understand what kind of terrifying power would be required to cut out a valley like this with a single slash.

But compared with that man's true strength, power of this level.

It was probably nothing more than the tip of the iceberg.

Moreover, that man might really be... growing stronger every moment.

She gently raised her head and looked up at the sky covered by dark clouds, as if she could sense an invisible gaze quietly watching her from high above in the distant clouds.

She was very familiar with that gaze.

It was Rosse's gaze.

And she could sense it because the other party deliberately wanted her to notice it.

Otherwise, with Rosse's unfathomable strength, if he really wanted to spy on her in secret, she probably would never discover it for the rest of her life.

"We're here."

Not long afterward, Gan Fall's voice sounded again.

The view ahead suddenly opened up.

A wide open area abruptly appeared before everyone. It was an ancient ruin resembling a wasteland, with broken walls and crumbling remains, overgrown with weeds, exuding the weathered and desolate feeling of time.

"What? This is the Golden City?"

Yasopp looked left and right, unable to hide the disappointment in his eyes.

In his imagination, the Golden City should have been magnificent and covered in gold or shimmering with dazzling light, with every inch of ground paved with gold bricks and every pillar cast from pure gold.

But the ruins before them.

The ground was made of mottled, cracked stone slabs, with weeds stubbornly pushing through the gaps.

Most of the buildings had already collapsed, leaving only a few lonely stone pillars standing precariously in the wind.

Occasionally, they could see a few scattered golden ornaments covered in dust lying in corners, their luster completely faded.

There were also some miscellaneous metal fragments, whose pieces could not be identified as either decorations or vessels, abandoned among the ruins and ignored by everyone.

The entire ruin gave off a bleak and empty feeling, as if it had been completely looted.

"Tsk," Crocodile scoffed, his tone full of sarcasm, "Since the World Government discovered this place long ago, it's only natural that there's no gold left."

He shrugged, "If it were you, knowing there was a city made of gold here, wouldn't you empty it out? Otherwise, what would you leave it here for? Set up a tourist attraction?"

"The gold here was already moved away more than a decade ago," Gan Fall stopped and raised his hand toward the front, "The Poneglyph you're looking for is over there."

Following the direction he pointed.

At the end of the ruins, a huge crimson-red stone tablet stood prominently, its heavy luster showing beneath the dim light of the sky.

The moment they saw that stone tablet, Robin and Crocodile's eyes lit up at the same time.

The two of them almost simultaneously rushed forward.

Robin rapidly scanned the ancient characters on the stone tablet with her eyes, engraving every single word into her mind.

Crocodile, meanwhile, controlled the sand and copied those characters stroke by stroke onto wooden boards.

However, Robin had only just read the first line when her pupils suddenly contracted.

Her lips trembled slightly as she softly read out the translation of the ancient characters, "There once was a Sea God who ruled over mankind. He was the father of the Mermaid Princess, Poseidon, one of the Three Great Weapons. Every eight hundred years marks a cycle, and the Sea God and the Mermaid Princess will return. At that time, the entire ocean will heed the Sea God's command..."

"What?"

Yasopp was completely confused, having no idea what these key terms represented.

But Crocodile's expression suddenly tightened.

He knew a little more than Yasopp.

Poseidon was already very clear at this point. It was Rosse's daughter, Shirahoshi.

But what was the Sea God?

He had never heard of this title before.

But since its status was worthy of being given the word "God," it sounded like it was on the same level as the Sun God Nika, so naturally it deserved his utmost attention.

And since the Poneglyph said that there was an eight-hundred-year cycle and that the Sea God was Poseidon's father.

That meant...

"Rosse is the Sea God?"

Crocodile frowned, his tone full of disbelief, "What kind of joke is this?"

This was completely different from what he had imagined.

From the meaning of this passage on the Poneglyph, the status of the Sea God should have been higher than Poseidon and the Three Ancient Weapons.

But why?

The Sun God Nika was called the King of Heaven.

Yet the Sea God was not Poseidon?

There still was far too little information here.

Robin's fingers gently brushed across the ancient characters on the crimson stone tablet, but her eyes grew increasingly confused.

She read downward line by line, and the secrets that had slept for eight hundred years slowly had their sealed veil lifted under her interpretation.

But the more she read, the more her confusion did not decrease. Instead, like a snowball, it grew larger and larger, almost completely drowning her.

'Sea God...'

'Poseidon...'

'Reincarnation...'

'Return...'

These words jumped into her mind one after another, yet they were like scattered pieces of a puzzle that could never be assembled into a complete picture.

She bit her lip, her brows tightly furrowed. The unease and confusion in her heart almost seemed ready to spill out of her chest.

Crocodile stood to the side, his sharp eyes fixed on the stone tablet, his expression growing darker and darker.

Countless thoughts collided and deduced wildly in his mind, but every line of reasoning ultimately pointed toward a conclusion that made his heart tighten.

Something was wrong.

Even Yasopp, who was usually careless and carefree, sensed that something about the atmosphere was strange at this moment.

He scratched his head, his eyes moving back and forth between Robin and Crocodile as he muttered, "Hey, hey, what kind of expressions are those? It's just a stone tablet. How come your faces look so awful the more you read it?"

No one answered him.

Robin finally finished reading all the writing on the stone tablet.

She slowly released her hand, the palm that had been touching the stone tablet trembling slightly.

She took a deep breath and suddenly turned her head. Her originally calm eyes now burned with a fire of anger as she glared at Gan Fall beside her.

"Why!"

For the first time, her voice carried a trace of emotion that was almost out of control, "Why did you deliberately show us this!"

"Huh?"

Yasopp was stunned, "How was it deliberate? Isn't this just the Poneglyph that was originally here? Could it be fake too?"

His mind did not work that quickly. Even now, he had not noticed what the problem was and was still thinking about the twists and turns between the Sea God and Poseidon.

But Crocodile instantly understood what Robin meant.

A self-mocking smile curled up at the corner of his mouth as he said in a low voice, "You mean Rosse and the World Government replaced this stone tablet long ago with the contents they wanted us to see, deliberately revealing this information to us?"

Robin did not speak. She simply nodded coldly.

Her eyes were full of unwillingness and anger.

She was one of the few scholars in this world capable of deciphering the Poneglyphs.

She had once believed that these ancient stone tablets were her only weapon against the World Government, her only key to touching the truth.

But now, she suddenly realized that even these stone tablets, even the truth she regarded as hope, might simply be a script the World Government deliberately put on display for her to see.

No, saying that they had been altered might be somewhat exaggerated.

But the World Government was completely capable of replacing every stone tablet they could see with content the World Government wanted to show them.

As for the things they were not supposed to know, they probably would never be able to know them for their entire lives.

This sense of helplessness from being completely toyed with in the palm of someone else's hand almost tore her apart.

However, amid this heavy silence, Gan Fall slowly turned his head.

Those old eyes quietly looked at Robin, his tone calm yet carrying a profound meaning that was difficult to put into words, "Then, is there a possibility—"

He paused.

"It wasn't because you were coming that we replaced the stone tablet. Rather, it was because the contents recorded on this stone tablet exist that you came here?"

As soon as he said this, Robin fell completely silent.

She opened her mouth, wanting to refute him, wanting to angrily rebuke him, but it was as if something had blocked her throat, leaving her unable to say a single word.

Because she suddenly realized that what Gan Fall had said might actually be the truth.

"Hey, hey, old man, what do you mean by that? Can you stop speaking in riddles here?"

Yasopp scratched his hair, his face full of irritation and confusion.

It was already making his brain hurt, and now he understood even less.

Crocodile took a deep breath, his voice low and hoarse as he finished Gan Fall's words for him, one word at a time, "It means that every move we made, from the very beginning, was all within Rosse and the World Government's plan. It was because this stone tablet was here that they guided us to Sky Island."

"We thought we were the ones who chose to come here."

"But in reality..."

His fist clenched tightly, "They were the ones who made us choose to come here."