At this moment, three warships were sailing on the sea, arranged in a triangular formation.

After a hearty meal and a day of rest, Kuro and the old man left and flew towards headquarters in the direction indicated by the permanent pointer.

However, they couldn't reach headquarters. After arriving at a nearby naval base, they landed and had a warship take them to headquarters, where they could also receive some basic medical treatment.

On the foremost warship, Kizaru and Kuro were recuperating in the largest room.

Kizaru was still wearing the traditional Wano Country clothing, but bandages could be seen inside the collar. He was sitting in a chair with a cup of tea in front of him.

Opposite him, Kuro's head was wrapped in bandages covering half of his face and most of his body. He leaned back in his chair, a cigar dangling from his mouth, with a bottle of red wine and a glass filled with wine in front of him.

In terms of the severity of the injuries, Kuro's injuries were more serious than the old man's.

Although the 'Life Return' technique allowed him to recover somewhat through consuming large amounts of food, his Devil Fruit ability, after all, cannot alter his entire physique like some 'superhumans'.

That straw hat kid is not only incredibly resilient, but because of his 'rubber' body, he can recover from even the most severe injuries through eating and rest, as long as he doesn't lose an arm or a leg.

And this won't take too long.

But Kuro is different; he needs treatment.

We've already reached our limit just by eating. If we want to go even faster, we need to find Lida.

Even Lida needs to rest for a while.

Even if he doesn't need to rest, he still needs to. He finally has a legitimate reason to slack off, so how could he possibly make himself appear normal?

Kizaru picked up his teacup, took a slow sip, and asked Kuro, "Have you found all the candidates for the Seven Warlords of the Sea under your jurisdiction?"

"It can't be that fast."

Kuro exhaled a puff of smoke and said, "Hawkeye, Empress, Joker, Crocodile, that's four people. Add Joe Rudolph, who recently captured Pizarro, and that half-catfish man, and that makes five. That guy captured Pizarro and also helped deal with Teach in G-3, so theoretically there shouldn't be any problem. But we still need to draft a bounty."

Watching the smoke swirling around his face, Kuro continued, "This thing brings fame to some people, but it's a burden to others. That half-catfish man needs a bounty to show his face to the world and increase his fame, but we also need to warn him that once he becomes a Shichibukai, he can't back down."

The Seven Warlords of the Sea enjoy immense power. Although Clow Reed is confident that he can reduce this power, the Seven Warlords are still the Seven Warlords of the Sea. To the world, this name represents immense power and fame.

They can recruit a large force and possess a great deal of wealth, so they need to be shackled.

In addition to the treaty applicable to all Seven Warlords of the Sea, he also has his own set of methods for dealing with individuals.

After all, there are only seven of them. Can't they be managed in a specialized way?

The World Government was too vague before; it only consisted of seven people. We still need to make deals with them to achieve something.

When Doflamingo was around, the World Government and he were essentially doing business together. Apart from the fact that Doflamingo resold the weapons of Wano Country, the other dirty work that the World Government couldn't handle was done by the Seven Warlords of the Sea.

However, the price paid was not small.

Kuro doesn't do that. He uses a different method for each monkey, so there are only seven monkeys, and he just ties them up.

Kuro values ​​face when it comes to Hawkeye. They have a good relationship, and as long as it doesn't involve Shanks, Hawkeye has no objections. They give each other face.

However, fencing is impossible; I will never fencing in my lifetime!

The Empress resides in the Calm Belt and has her own territory. Kuro can easily deal with such a person. As long as she doesn't lose her mind, she won't risk the sinking of Amazon Lily to act recklessly.

Furthermore, Kuro didn't insult her, nor did he touch upon her proud dignity.

As for the straw hat...

On the high seas, one's fate is in the hands of heaven. It is only right for the Navy to catch pirates. Hancock is not that stupid. She is also a heroine of the high seas and would not do such a particularly ignorant and shameful thing.

Crocodile has a stain on his reputation, which makes him infamous in the country. Apart from the Seven Warlords of the Sea, he can only compete with other pirates in the New World.

He wasn't stupid; he knew that it was faster to gather power as a Shichibukai, or it was more convenient to continue making a name for himself on the high seas with a group of hippos and pirates.

Buggy was even less worried. Without the Seven Warlords of the Sea, he was truly just a simple pirate. His subordinates might be a problem, but that was all.

Rudolph must become a Shichibukai for the sake of his clan, and the bounty means that if he fails, he will not only lose the privileges of being a Shichibukai and the protection he provides to his clan, but he will also be hunted down because of the bounty.

He definitely doesn't want this kind of thing.

Kuro didn't want to deal with him that way either, but he wanted to keep a backup plan. Even if Rudolph really failed, Kuro would let him continue to be a Shichibukai unless he became corrupt and weak.

If someone is truly corrupted and degenerate by the power of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, then no one else can be blamed for it.

In Kuro's eyes, the Seven Warlords of the Sea must be powerful, at least in some aspect. Ideally, they should be strong in terms of raw power, which is something all of them except Buggy lack. Or they should be powerful in terms of influence, in which case Buggy's subordinates are far superior to the other four.

Most of Bucky's men were escaped convicts, or rather, mentally challenged ones; the mentally sharp ones had all escaped.

Kuro didn't have time to capture a bunch of idiots. Capturing them one by one would be too troublesome. With too many people, they would easily escape and scatter. Given their level of idiocy, if they did something to retaliate, it would be a complete mess. It was better to just leave them with Buggy.

"Oh~ a proposed bounty, how scary. How much should we offer?" Kizaru pouted.

"The initial target is 300 million, which is about right. In the New World, that's neither too high nor too low. Those with low bounties will look up to him, but their combat strength is generally not high, so they won't cause any trouble. Those with high bounties won't submit and will fight Rudolph, which is Rudolph's own business."

The bounties for the Seven Warlords of the Sea should not be too high. If they are too high, even those with bounties of over 100 million might not dare to apply. Only when the bounties are neither too high nor too low, so that the weak are afraid and the strong are unwilling to submit, can the enthusiasm of the Seven Warlords of the Sea be actively mobilized.

"We haven't decided yet as for the remaining two spots."

Kuro said, "The Seven Warlords of the Sea are better found slowly. It's better to have none than to have the wrong one. It took the World Government quite a while to invite the Seven Warlords, so it certainly won't be as fast for me. I can't just invite any Tom, Dick, or Harry."