The Battle with Whitebeard!

Need my Power Data?

Whitebeard's eyes, burning with Golden Flames, narrowed slightly. He could sense that the word "data" from Chen Ye was no simple display of energy.

His aura of Reign Over the World did not diminish in the slightest, but his voice was as steady as bedrock beneath the sea.

"How do I give it to you?"

This question was the final door Chen Ye had been waiting for, the gateway to his ultimate plan.

Facing that scrutiny, enough to shatter any Strong One's spirit, his face showed no fear—instead, a nearly fanatical smile emerged.

"The power that passively leaks out is too faint and too chaotic."

Chen Ye's voice was calm, but every word was like a stone dropped into a deep pool, stirring ripples.

"To raise the resolution enough to open a 'Space-Time Door' in the shortest time, I need the most condensed, purest power that represents your peak!"

"And that power..."

He Paused, lifted his eyes, and spoke the condition that would make Brother Marco's soul flee, word by word.

"Can only be born in battle!"

Boom!

Marco's brain completely short-circuited in that instant.

Battle?

With who?

With Pops?

The moment that thought surfaced, he crushed it with Full Strength!

Impossible!

This kid is insane! Absolutely insane!

"Chen Ye! Do you even know what you're saying?!"

Marco could no longer stay silent. He lunged forward, trying to pull Chen Ye Behind Him, his voice sharp with extreme shock.

"That's Pops!

The World's Strongest Man!

You want him to strike at you?

Sure, Pops is old and gravely ill now!

But that doesn't mean you can stand against him!

Are you crazy?

Are you walking to your death?!"

Yet Chen Ye's expression and Eyes were exceptionally resolute.

He didn't even glance back at Marco. His entire focus was locked onto the silent, mountain-like man before him.

He knew Whitebeard understood.

Whitebeard's silence was the best proof.

"Brother Marco, you're wrong."

Chen Ye's voice remained calm, but carried an unyielding resolve.

"I don't want to die."

I just want to take this chance

"To see how far I am from the strongest combat power on this sea!"

He turned, looked at the frantic Marco, then shifted his gaze back to Whitebeard. His voice suddenly rose, brimming with soaring Fighting Spirit!

"To win this war, to save Ace, this is a step I have to take!"

"So, Pops!"

"So, I need you to strike at me with no restraint, in the strongest state you can currently achieve! I need to analyze, absorb, and replicate your power—the power that can shake The Entire World—under the pressure of life and death!"

"Especially..."

Chen Ye's gaze burned intensely.

"Your Tremor-Tremor Fruit power!

Please use it freely in the coming attacks! Let that force of destruction become the core of my analysis!"

His words struck like thunder!

Marco was completely stunned. His mouth hung open, but no words came out.

He stared at Chen Ye's young, resolute face and suddenly felt utterly unfamiliar.

Where was the shy Newcomer who had first boarded the ship?

This is clearly a madman who dares to face a lion head-on, even challenging it!

But what's scarier than the madman is Whitebeard's reaction.

He wasn't angry.

In those deep eyes, the surging emotions shifted from initial scrutiny to shock, then from shock to a trace of... indescribable admiration.

He looked at the tiny figure before him, as if seeing himself decades ago—the same reckless fool who dared to challenge everything.

Chen Ye gave no one time to react.

He took a fierce step forward, his entire aura surging to its peak in that instant.

He straightened his spine, faced the legendary Sea Emperor before him, and with all the strength in his body, let out a roar that staked everything!

"So come on, Pops!"

"Right here!"

"Fight me!"

Dead silence.

On the deck, even the wind had vanished.

Marco's body froze in place like a stone statue.

Challenge Whitebeard?

In the decades since the Whitebeard Pirates were founded, no one had ever imagined such a thing, let alone dared to!

Yet, in the midst of this dead silence...

"Gu..."

A low sound, as if squeezed from the depths of a throat, broke the stillness.

Whitebeard slowly, slowly lowered his head.

He looked at Chen Ye, the shock and admiration in his murky eyes fading completely, replaced by a light never seen before—one called "heroic spirit"!

"Gura..."

"Gurarara..."

The laughter rose from low to high, from restrained to unrestrained, finally turning into a wild laugh that could shake heaven and earth!

"Gurarararararararara!"

Boom—!

The terrifying laughter turned into a tangible shockwave. The seawater around the Moby Dick was forcibly pressed into a massive depression, then rebounded violently, kicking up towering waves!

Marco was knocked back several steps by the blast, staring in awe at the laughing Pops before him.

It was back!

The Edward Newgate who once looked down on the world, treated everything as nothing, and burned with boundless ambition—in this moment, he truly seemed to have returned!

"Interesting!"

"Too interesting! Gurarararara!"

Whitebeard reached out with his giant hand, yanked the Murakumogiri from where it was embedded in the deck, and slung it over his shoulder. His massive frame trembled slightly from sheer excitement.

"I've sailed these seas for decades, taken in countless sons, but this is the first time!"

"The first time a son has stood before me and demanded I go all out!"

He lowered his head, his enormous shadow completely engulfing Chen Ye. The flames burning in his eyes nearly set Chen Ye alight!

"Good!"

"You really are my son!"

Whitebeard bared his teeth in a grin, revealing a row of white fangs. The smile was filled with the most primal joy and wildness of a strong one.

"Since you said that!"

"I'll grant your wish!"

The moment the words fell, an indescribable, terrifying presence exploded forth from Whitebeard!

It was Conqueror's Haki.

The purest fighting spirit released by a king who had ruled the seas for decades, answering a challenger.

In that instant, the air froze solid.