Chapter 478: Disaster of the Sixth Month
Regarding obtaining the pure gold, Hades was not in a hurry.
Shirley still needed some time to grow, at least enough to know the approximate geographical location of the entire World.
Only then could the super giant lantern fish be precisely located.
Divination only allows you to understand things in concept.
For example, the "Mermaid Princess" is clearly the daughter of the King of Ryugu Palace.
Otherwise, it would be like Hades' test, where he clearly "saw" the pure gold, "saw" the super giant lantern fish, and even had a picture of a certain Sea Area appear in his mind.
But because of this, he couldn't articulate it.
The Great Sea is vast, and even searching for that lantern fish would take a considerable amount of time.
Returning to the Kronos Kingdom didn't cause much of a stir.
Many people paid attention to the Pluto Pirates' operation, but they wouldn't delve too deeply.
After all, knowing too much could lead to death.
Over the years, there have been individuals and Factions eliminated by the Pluto Pirates.
In Wano Country.
Three months had passed since the disaster erupted.
In the first month, Wano Country could still hold on for a while with its food stores.
The subsequent outbreak of plague caused massive casualties in Wano Country.
Facing the arrival of the plague, Wano Country had no countermeasures prepared beforehand; they hadn't expected a plague outbreak.
Combined with the subsequent man-made famine, a large number of Wano Country subjects starved to death.
With the two combined, the entire Wano Country was like Hell.
Hundreds, even thousands, died every day, and countless Residents were infected with the plague.
In just three months, Wano Country had lost hundreds of thousands of people.
Hunger combined with plague was a terrifying strength that most people could not resist.
And this was just the beginning.
Many Wano Country Residents wanted to escape Wano Country and head to the Southern Region of Dragon Island, which was ruled by the Tyrant Dragon Pirates.
The Tyrant Dragon Pirates, having received the news in advance, immediately blockaded the Rivers connecting the various Areas.
Newly built bridges were destroyed again.
Plague was something that made most people feel afraid.
The human body is fragile.
Even a Strongman like Whitebeard would be injured when facing shooting and bombardment without Haki defense.
Even Roger contracted a terminal illness.
Let alone ordinary Pirates; perhaps some Strongman would accidentally contract the plague and die from illness.
They wouldn't dare take this risk.
Moreover, this kind of thing is impossible to guard against completely, and even Haki cannot fully resist it.
Facing the dangers of plague spread and potentially having to expend large amounts of grain, how could the Tyrant Dragon Pirates be so kind?
Furthermore, the Tyrant Dragon Pirates do not engage in production, and the number of Wano Country Residents within their rule is not large; most are within Wano Country's rule.
At this time, upon learning what was happening inside Wano Country, they could only feel fortunate.
Under these circumstances, Wano Country's situation worsened, and the number of infected was countless.
Internally, it erupted into complete chaos like a lit fuse.
The evil of human nature constantly erupted, with people plundering grain, supplies, and expelling others.
Even the Kozuki Clan and the Former Daimyo could not control the entire situation in Wano Country.
Under these circumstances, to solve the plague problem, some extreme measures had to be adopted.
Large numbers of Elders were exiled.
Samurai with their mouths and noses covered, wielding weapons, drove out the Elders of Wano Country.
During the plague, these Elders were more likely to die.
Under the severe situation of the famine outbreak.
Furthermore, choices had to be made: letting these Elders fend for themselves, allowing Wano Country's limited food to be better utilized, and letting more young people survive.
This is what Wano Country was doing now.
Some key Areas of Wano Country were Blockaded, Elders were driven out, and without food, they could only survive by eating some wild grass.
Most people couldn't even last a week.
Corpses lay scattered in the Wilderness.
And this did not change the situation in Wano Country.
The plague was still erupting, and the food crisis was becoming increasingly severe.
The Samurai, once respected by everyone, turned their blades towards the subjects of Wano Country.
Those infected with the plague, or whose bodies showed abnormalities, were all expelled from the Core Isolation Zone under powerful force deterrence.
Furthermore, to prevent the plague from erupting again, Samurai killed all those infected with the plague.
For these Samurai, those infected with the plague were already dead.
For the sake of the country, someone had to make a sacrifice.
Among the Samurai, many were also infected with the plague, and they too had to be killed.
At this moment, Wano Country had to exhibit a strong stance; only then could they overcome this crisis sooner.
In the shadows, cannibalism had already erupted for the sake of survival.
Without external strength aid and isolated by the Tyrant Dragon Pirates, Wano Country could only resort to such harsh methods.
Ninety-eight percent of Wano Country's Farmland was destroyed and could not be cultivated.
Because approximately two months after the disaster erupted, the Kurozumi Clan carried out suicide attacks, once again "destroying" most of the remaining Farmland.
Taking the risk of being discovered, Wano Country suffered heavy losses once again, and the situation became even worse.
With extremely limited food stores, they were able to persevere mainly by organizing people from Wano Country to hunt wild beasts and animals in the mountains, in addition to expelling the infected.
During this process, Wano Country's population continuously decreased.
Dying from the plague, being exiled, or starving to death.
By the sixth month of the disaster's outbreak.
At least a million people had died in Wano Country.
The Elders were basically all dead, with hundreds of thousands dying all at once.
The poison the Kurozumi Clan put in the well water infected countless people.
Of those infected with the plague, except for a small number who managed to survive in the Wilderness, most could not escape death.
Regarding the plague, Wano Country had no effective solution at all.
Besides isolation, they could only continuously expel people.
Wherever a situation arose, people were expelled from the Core Area.
Except for a few Core Isolation Zones, other Areas were desolate, and foul-smelling corpses could be seen from time to time.
Great fires burned continuously, igniting corpses and Jungles, as if to burn everything clean.
The Flower Capital, once the most prosperous, was now in ruins.
Precisely because of its prosperity, it was the most severely affected when the plague erupted.
Many people only survived by escaping to the sparsely populated Kibi Region and the icy Ringo Region.
Not counting the Residents under the Tyrant Dragon Pirates' rule.
Wano Country had only about a hundred thousand people left, scattered across these Areas.
Kibi still had many natural fruit trees to stave off hunger, and there were also plenty of wild beasts for hunting.
In the days that followed, many of them could only barely survive in this Area.
The burning fires seemed to dye the Sky red.
It was unknown how long it would take to burn everything clean.
People's lives seemed to have suddenly returned to a primitive condition.
For Wano Country, it was a heavy blow.
The disaster came too suddenly; countless people lost everything.
There was no turning back now.
(end of chapter)