Chapter 326

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"Amazing, it's truly amazing!" Tom's eyes sparkled with excitement as he observed the scene before him.

After receiving the colossal Ancient Zombie Tree, Tom couldn't resist starting to experiment with its properties.

Of paramount importance was its memory-regeneration ability after being fashioned into a specific form.

The initial attempts all ended in failure.

If there was nothing wrong with the wood itself, the problem must lie with him.

Forming—what did it take to consider it formed?

Tom didn't give up. He crafted a chair out of the wood, applying a thorough coat of wood wax oil.

At that moment, he immediately felt that the chair in front of him had changed.

It was a bizarre sensation, as if the chair possessed a hint of life, yet it remained inanimate—it was contradictory.

Without hesitation, he grabbed the axe beside him and swung down.

With a loud bang, the axe bounced off; the formed zombie tree was incredibly hard, not even leaving a mark.

Seeing this, Tom became even more excited. After much effort, he finally managed to make a split in it.

Next, he carefully poured ox blood over it, which he had prepared earlier.

In the next second, the chair seemed to come alive, its broken parts wiggling and growing nonstop, and in the blink of an eye, it had restored itself to its original state!

Thus, the scene from the beginning unfolded.

Such marvelous wood truly thrilled Tom.

Who could have predicted that the key to its setting lay in ordinary wood wax oil?

Tom conducted many more experiments.

He ultimately confirmed that this zombie wood indeed possessed regenerative memory abilities, yet they were not without limits.

If repeatedly damaged within a certain period, its regeneration capabilities would be severely diminished.

Moreover, if it were broken into several parts, the best choice would be to piece them together as much as possible and then pour blood over it. This approach was the least consumptive and resulted in the quickest restoration.

Alternatively, one could select the largest and most intact piece, pour blood over it, and let it grow into a complete object.

For some unknown reason, only one formed object of the same type could exist at a time.

It wasn't as if you could chop it into three parts, pour blood over each, and get three identical chairs.

That simply wasn't possible.

Once one part restored itself to the original chair, the remaining two remnants would automatically crumble to dust, as if sensing their redundance—quite astonishing.

When you think about it, it makes sense, similar to characters who possess ultra-fast regenerative abilities.

Although it's claimed they can regenerate from a single cell, they can't produce infinite copies of themselves!

Otherwise, if you could grow a person from a severed hand or a foot, there'd be no need to do anything else—just split yourself for fun every day and push over the world with countless clones.

That would simply be wishful thinking.

Besides its regenerative trait, the zombie wood was incredibly durable after being formed, as tough as steel!

It also had high resilience, and most importantly, it was resistant to high temperatures and impervious to water and fire!

It's hard to imagine any wood that wouldn't burn.

Yet, the zombie wood achieved this.

After verifying all the properties of the zombie wood, Tom suddenly felt that his 'perfect' design might still have room for improvement.

This thought made his heart itch uncomfortably.

In the realm of shipbuilding, he was the type of person who strove for perfection—if it could be done well, it had to be done the best.

Without such tenacity, he would not have become universally acknowledged as the world's best shipwright.

"This man is really detestable; I am so unlucky!" Tom lamented, stroking what little was left of his beard before diving back into the blueprints with a contemplative frown.

At this time, Abel was, of course, ignorant of how much awe and distress the zombie wood he had brought had caused Tom.

After delivering the materials, Abel hastily took his leave.

To become the highest-ranking officer in his family, this mission had to be done quickly and beautifully.

His competition included Diamante and Pica. 

Only by outperforming them, who were aiming for the same position, could he stand a chance.

Pica, heading to the East Blue, was hardly a concern, virtually throwing in the towel in advance.

And for Diamante to snatch anything from the clutches of the five great mafia families was no easy feat.

With this in mind, Abel's decision to head to the South Blue was accidentally correct.

Days later, Abel successfully reached the South Blue with his team.

At present, the South Blue was exceptionally weak, with hardly any noteworthy pirates making a name for themselves.

Certainly not like future stars such as Eustass Kid, Killer, and Jewelry Bonney.

What? Are you talking about Ace appearing in a few years?

Don't flatter yourself.

Ace, after all, grew up in the East Blue and set out to sea from there.

Running through his knowledge, Abel realized the South Blue indeed lacked formidable figures and thus felt at ease.

Wait a second.

"Looks like that guy, Bartholomew Kuma, hailed from the South Blue as well, and he was the king of a certain country, known as the 'Tyrant.'"

"But around this time, Kuma should have already left his kingdom to join the Revolutionary Army," Abel reflected.

"And his joining the Warlords of the Sea is a story for the future."

Remembering certain events clearly, Abel thought about how Monkey D. Dragon, with the Revolutionaries, appeared in the East Blue, saving many survivors from the fire at the Gray Terminal in Goa Kingdom's Foosha Village.

Both Emporio Ivankov and Bartholomew Kuma were present.

According to the timeline, that incident would happen next year.

Furthermore, Lightning also originated from the South Blue.

Upon reflection, the South Blue had talents; they were just recruited by the Revolutionary Army.

"Damn, the Revolutionary Army couldn't still be in the South Blue, could they?" Abel suddenly startled himself with this thought.

"Better lay low and not get ahead of myself."

At that moment, Baby-5 approached and said, "Abel, there's an island up ahead. Shall we drop anchor there?"

Abel nodded. "Take down the flags. After docking, send some clever scouts to gather information. We're new in the South Blue; we need local contacts to establish our arms trade."

Soon, the fleet docked.

This time, Abel had called in many hands from the periphery of his family.

The first batch of arms was already on board.

He couldn't be expected to handle everything personally; that would be too exhausting.

After disembarking, Abel quickly learned the island was called Breeze Island, ruled by the Breeze Kingdom for centuries.

At the port, some ships flew a distinctive flag.