Self

Within the range of Self, everything was vividly clear and could not escape Ye Qiong's perception.

"Prepare to die!!!"

Niveya's cat-like face looked somewhat ferocious as she violently kicked off the void, teaming up with Taigu to launch a pincer attack from both left and right.

That black and white figure moved to his head in practically the blink of an eye, cat claws and bear paws slamming down!

"Shigan -- Triple-Claw Rend!"

"Shigan -- Bear Impact!"

The terrifying might blasted down like Mount Tai pressing on them. The motionless Ye Qiong had already missed the optimal moment to dodge, and he could even feel the sensation of his hair being shredded.

Then, the two brewing strikes roared down, both forces grinding the earth, tearing apart the floorboards and dirt, whipping up boundless waves of air. The churning air burst and fluctuated, scattering outward with flying debris and soil.

In the dark veil of night, once the dust settled, Niveya and Taigu maintained a posture of slamming the earth. The ground between the two caved in with a huge black crater and three deep gullies.

At this moment, however, their stiff bodies were like statues.

Niveya's eyes were filled with shock, and even the usually steady Taigu wore a look of utter disbelief.

Because the instant the Shigan touched the other's head, the opponent vanished!

He vanished silently, without a single prelude.

Just how did the opponent evade their attack?

"You two, are you looking for me?"

A hand suddenly patted each of their shoulders from behind. Before they could even react, Ye Qiong lashed out with two consecutive kicks, sending them flying. Just like before, they crashed into the ruins with flying rubble.

Ye Qiong smiled faintly and said, "Now, we're even."

The pile of rubble in the ruins was blasted apart. Niveya and Taigu quickly got to their feet, completely ignoring their tattered clothes, their beastly pupils flickering with a eerie glow in the dark.

"You're also a Devil Fruit user? Your ability is... teleportation?" Taigu asked doubtfully.

"Of course, and more than that." Ye Qiong pressed his left hand downward.

In Ye Qiong's eyes, the spherical space he had created became even more tangible at that moment, suffused with a bizarre luster.

Meanwhile, Niveya and Taigu instantly felt as though they had plunged into a massive quagmire, with resistance coming from up and down, left and right. A sense of oppression filled every corner around them.

Space Restraint.

This was an ability Ye Qiong had created a year ago. Under the premise that his control over things within the spherical space under Self had increased, it was equivalent to squeezing a balloon to generate pressure and resistance, greatly hindering enemies when they found themselves trapped within it.

If this ability was condensed and strengthened, it could even trap others by controlling space.

"This is my home turf now, you see."

Ye Qiong kicked off, his figure rushing toward them with a speed as swift as lightning, hardly any slower than Soru.

Within the R space, he was like a tiger with wings added, his combat power soaring.

"Damn it." Taigu kicked off the ground, but the resistance surging around him made even moving extremely difficult, forcing him to raise his hands in defense.

"Ancient Martial Arts -- Inch-Extreme Collapse!"

Ye Qiong rushed in front of Taigu and threw a punch, the overlapping dark forces directly shattering his hurried Tekkai defense.

Taigu's massive bear body staggered backward, his feet scraping two deep marks on the ground.

"Shigan -- Steel Split!"

Niveya, off to the side, pounced forward, her cat claws gleaming coldly.

"Oh? There's still this speed?" Ye Qiong felt a slight trace of surprise, then raised his left hand, aiming his palm at the pouncing Niveya.

The next moment, Niveya's body froze in mid-air, her outstretched cat claws suspended in the void, leaving only those cat pupils glowing with an eerie green light.

"This... just what is going on?"

Niveya's body trembled slightly, for she felt as though an invisible hand had grabbed her, rendering her completely unable to move.

"With your strength, you can't break free from my Space Restraint." Ye Qiong shook his head, flicking his wrist toward the ground.

Niveya was slammed fiercely into the ground, gravel scattering in all directions as her feline body curled up and whimpered in pain.

Was it over?

The evening breeze blew gently, a few patches of dark clouds parting overhead. Silver moonlight fell upon the pitted ruins, revealing the figures of the three people.

"You're strong."

At that moment, Taigu's deep and steady voice rang out.

"However, as CP9's third-ranked, how could I possibly let you defeat me so easily!"

"Max Wheel -- Life Strengthening!"

Taigu's expression instantly turned ferocious. He straddled his legs wide, clenched his fists abruptly, and all the white fur across his body stood on end. His already massive bear body continued to expand, muscles bulging out one by one as a continuous popping sound like roasted beans echoed throughout his entire frame.

His eyes grew extremely crimson, his heartbeat pounding like a drum. A violent and imposing aura shook the surrounding wilderness.

"This is?" Ye Qiong's gaze narrowed. He could clearly sense that Taigu at this moment was definitely stronger than before.

He was no different from a fierce beast breaking free from its cage.

"Soru!" Taigu kicked off the ground, shattering the earth beneath him. His figure blurred and stretched out as he charged fiercely toward him.

Ye Qiong widened his eyes. To his shock, Taigu still possessed such terrifying speed within the resistance domain of the Space Restraint.

That bear paw swiped down at him. Ye Qiong's figure flashed and vanished from the spot, the bear paw shattering his afterimage and striking the ground to cave in a patch of earth, leaving behind a huge bear paw print.

"This is clearly useless, why did he..." Ye Qiong, having appeared ten meters to Taigu's left, muttered with some confusion before trailing off.

Yet, as he watched, Taigu moved to that spot, grabbed Niveya's hand, and threw her with all his might, propelling Niveya's body dozens of meters away.

Once Niveya's body was thrown outside the range of Ye Qiong's R, she tumbled in mid-air, stepped on the void, and used Geppo to flee into the distance.

Ye Qiong watched quietly, making no move to intercept. He allowed Niveya's black cat form to rapidly melt into the night, vanishing from sight entirely.

"So, this was your plan—staying behind to stall me, letting Niveya escape back to report information to the World Government."

Ye Qiong felt a hint of emotion. The World Government had been able to suppress the various maritime powers for so many years; they truly possessed immense foundation and strength.

"You're wrong. I am definitely not sacrificing myself just to let her escape with her life." Taigu shook his head, those crimson eyes staring fixedly at him. "It's just that she was too much in the way, preventing me from letting loose to finish this final battle!"

Taigu abruptly kicked off the ground, shattering the soil. He sprinted with extreme ferocity, practically ignoring the resistance limits of the Space Restraint.

"Still coming from the front?"

Ye Qiong clearly tracked Taigu's movements, and almost the instant his bear paw fell, he had already teleported away.

Taigu's bear paw still missed, striking empty air instead and bursting a shockwave. Relying on the massive recoil, he whipped his massive bear body around to charge back.

"This!" The moment Ye Qiong teleported behind Taigu, he sensed Taigu turning back to attack him.

"Using hands to perform Geppo?!" Ye Qiong's expression turned somewhat peculiar.

In the original story, later generations of CP9 members never used their hands to perform Geppo. Perhaps they lacked bear paws as strong as Taigu's current state, or perhaps there was simply no need.

The bear paw surged with terrifying power as it slammed over!

Although Space Teleportation could be used continuously, it had an extremely brief interval!

Ye Qiong's hands pushed outward at that moment, and Self rapidly shrank into a compact spherical space that just barely wrapped around him.

"R Tensei!"

Centered on Ye Qiong, a powerful outwardly repulsive force instantly burst outward.

Taigu's punch stalled, coming to a halt right in front of Ye Qiong. Then his massive body was instantly blasted away, rolling across the ground and knocking down tree after tree.

Ye Qiong stood in place as a piercing pain flared through every part of his body—this was the backlash from overusing his Devil Fruit ability.

"As expected, using this move with my current body is still too forced."

Ye Qiong smiled bitterly. Yet under the circumstances just now where he had no way to use teleportation to dodge, he had been forced to employ this move.

R Tensei: instantaneously shrinking the R into a spherical space with a radius of only one meter to gain near-perfect spatial control, instantly generating an outward repulsive force for a rebound. It was the strongest defensive technique he currently possessed—an absolute defense that ignored all attacks!

Thud.

As the trees were pushed aside, Taigu's massive bear body slowly rose to its feet, those crimson eyes staring straight at him.

"To force me to use Shinra Tensei, you're an opponent worth remembering!" Ye Qiong met his gaze and nodded.

Upon hearing this, however, Taigu shook his head as his crimson eyes gradually lost their luster. He sighed, "I lost. Even after using the Max Wheel Life Strengthening, I still lost. I am utterly convinced of my defeat."

Then, his body deflated like a leaking balloon, returning to his original bear form. Immediately following that, the white fur faded from his body, and his physique shrank back to his initial human form.

Ye Qiong could sense that Taigu's entire vital energy and spirit at this moment had withered to the point of being worse than that of an ordinary person.

Ye Qiong suddenly understood that Taigu must have used a taboo martial art just now, pushing himself to the absolute limit and strengthening his body to gain power that surpassed his own within a very short time.

Yet that was all.

The CP9 member currently standing before him was no different from a cripple.

Ye Qiong fell silent. Such an opponent could not help but evoke a sense of deep respect within him.

Because if it came to pure martial arts, he had to admit he was inferior to Taigu!

"Come on, give me a quick end. Don't hold back. To die at the hands of a powerhouse like you, I have no regrets in death." Taigu said calmly.

"Alright, as you wish!" Ye Qiong walked toward him step by step, striking his palm against his heart.

Taigu's vitality was already as thin and weak as that of a flickering candle in the wind; this palm strike directly severed the remaining life force within him.

Watching Taigu's body fall, Ye Qiong let out a soft sigh.

If they weren't standing on opposite sides, perhaps they could have become good friends.

Ye Qiong found one of the bear-paw craters left behind by the battle and buried Taigu's body within it.

Sensing the Space Mark left upon Niveya, his figure flashed and vanished like a silver flash.

The ruins and shattered forest returned to their initial tranquility. Moonlight flowed quietly, draping everything in a thin veil of silver-white.