Devil Fruit

The sea glittered as waves churned violently.

Leaping back into the water, Ye Qiong felt pain stabbing through his entire body.

The saltwater irritated his torn wounds, and explosive pain and layers of accumulated exhaustion swept over him.

Ye Qiong gritted his teeth and held on with all his might, relying on his incredibly tenacious will to keep from sinking into the sea.

He lowered his head to look at Robin, only to find that, as an ability user, she was extremely weak—far worse off than he was.

They had come this far. How could he possibly give up now?

Ye Qiong pretended nothing was wrong. With one hand holding the treasure chest and Robin in his arms, he used both hands and feet to swim toward shore.

He knew that the greatest danger had not yet passed!

If the pirates on the ship saw through him and realized he was already at the end of his strength, they would definitely open fire and leave him without a grave.

On the pirate ship, a group of pirates leaned against the railings, watching him swim farther and farther away with the Devil Fruit and its ability user.

"Boss Ogu, he's obviously running out of strength. Should we open fire now..." A pirate's eyes gleamed viciously.

He seemed to have completely forgotten that just moments ago, he had knelt on the ground and begged for mercy under Ye Qiong's command.

Perhaps that was simply the ugliness of human nature.

"You can die if you want, but don't drag the rest of us down with you!" Ogu shot him a cold look before turning his gaze toward Ye Qiong's retreating back. "Do you think I don't know he's at the end of his strength?"

"But that kid is too strange, and he has a terrifying ruthlessness about him. If we attack, we'll be forcing him to fight us to the death. It's not worth it."

Ogu sighed, his eyes holding a trace of fear as he watched the distant figure.

The pirate who had suggested firing felt a chill in his heart. His companion with the severed hand was still screaming, and the terror of being utterly unable to resist crept back into his mind.

"So we just watch him leave?" Some of the pirates were still unwilling to accept it.

"Of course not." Ogu smiled sinisterly. "What he took was a genuine Devil Fruit! As long as we spread the news, plenty of pirates will help us cause him trouble!"

"Boss, you're brilliant!"

"Alright, set sail immediately!"

With a wave of his hand, Ogu gave the order, thoroughly replacing Baguli as the new captain of the Nigu Pirates.

Using the last of his strength, Ye Qiong crawled onto the shore. He set down Robin and the treasure chest, then staggered and collapsed.

His vision went black, and he completely lost consciousness.

Six days later.

Inside a hospital in the residential district on the eastern side of the island.

Ye Qiong sat on a hospital bed, wrapped from head to toe in white bandages like a mummy.

His eyes were filled with helplessness as he was forced to accept the feeding from the person beside his bed.

"Ye Qiong, come on. Ah, open your mouth." Robin urged him, bringing a spoonful of porridge to his lips.

Ye Qiong mechanically opened his mouth, closed it, and swallowed.

"I say, girl, I have hands and feet. I'm already mostly recovered. There's no need to feed me, right?!" Ye Qiong said helplessly.

"That won't do. The doctor said you're not allowed to move around for a month!" Robin refuted him with her adorable wide eyes, then gently added, "Be good. Finish eating, and you'll get candy."

What the hell, was she teasing a three-year-old?

Ye Qiong was speechless.

After enduring an entire bowl of porridge, Robin finally left to study archaeology.

As she closed the door, Robin still reminded him not to move around, leaving Ye Qiong deeply helpless.

Being mentally an adult yet cared for by a six-year-old girl was truly enough.

Ye Qiong flexed the fingers of both hands. The severe injuries on his body had nearly healed.

The self-healing and recovery abilities of his body, strengthened through physical training, had long surpassed those of ordinary people.

The reason he had not fully recovered after six days was simply because the injuries accumulated this time had been far too serious.

Ye Qiong looked at the treasure chest on the table beside his bed, picked it up, opened the lid, and took out a round fruit covered in strange patterns.

This was the Devil Fruit he had obtained last time.

Its shape was even stranger than he had imagined. Although every Devil Fruit had different shapes, colors, and patterns, one that was perfectly round was simply too unusual.

If not for the patterns, Ye Qiong would have suspected that those pirates had handed him a ball to trick him.

"Should I eat it or not?"

Looking at the Devil Fruit in his hand, Ye Qiong hesitated.

In the pirate world, the ways to gain power were physical techniques, swordsmanship, Haki, and Devil Fruit abilities.

Of course, whether it was physical techniques or swordsmanship, neither could do without Haki's support in the later stages.

Devil Fruit abilities, however, were the most unique among them.

By eating a Devil Fruit, one could become an ability user and gain the special power bestowed by the fruit. Yet at the same time, the ability user would inexplicably become afraid of seawater and Seastone.

It was like making a deal with the devil—trading for power and being cursed for life.

Ye Qiong naturally knew that there were no useless Devil Fruit abilities, only useless users.

But what worried him was whether the Devil Fruit in his hand would not suit him, or whether it possessed an ability more inclined toward support, like the Horm-Horm Fruit or the Candy-Candy Fruit.

If that gave him the additional weaknesses of seawater and Seastone, it would truly be an unwise choice.

After all, he was confident that by relying on physical training alone, he could still step into the realm of the strongest! There was no need for him to rely on Devil Fruit abilities.

"But time... won't wait for me!"

Ye Qiong was helpless. There was not much time left for him.

Two years—neither long nor short.

What he had to face was the World Government's Buster Call!

He had to seize every path that could strengthen him.

Ye Qiong made his decision. He would eat this Devil Fruit.

Since he had decided, he no longer hesitated and directly bit into the round Devil Fruit.

A thick, fishy stench burst through his mouth!

Sure enough, it tasted as bad as shit.

Although the original story said that one bite of a Devil Fruit was enough, who knew whether that was true? He might as well suffer a little more.

Ye Qiong suppressed the urge to vomit and completely ate the Devil Fruit in his hand.

He ate it clean, leaving nothing behind!

Ye Qiong suddenly froze. A very strange feeling rose within him, as though he had obtained something in the unseen depths.

Following the response from deep within his heart, he stretched out his left hand, and a bright sphere of light suddenly appeared above his palm.

For a moment, Ye Qiong thought he was seeing things.

To his surprise, his Devil Fruit ability manifested almost instantly.

"Devil Fruits are divided into three types: Logia, Paramecia, and Zoan..."

Naturally, Ye Qiong hoped he had eaten a Logia, because Logias were all extremely powerful Devil Fruits with immense potential.

Once elementalized, only Haki and Seastone could harm the user. To some extent, they were inherently immune to physical attacks and could use the natural environment to increase their damage.

But looking at the sphere of light floating above his palm, it did not resemble a Logia ability no matter how he looked at it.

Nor was it a Zoan that allowed beast transformation...

That left only the Paramecia type, whose abilities came in all kinds of strange forms.

Ye Qiong felt helpless. Some Paramecia Fruit abilities were powerful enough to rival Logias, while others were so useless that even random Zoan transformations were better.

Robin's Flower-Flower Fruit, Luffy's Rubber-Rubber Fruit, Golden Lion's Float-Float Fruit, Kuma's Paw-Paw Fruit, and Gasparde's Candy-Candy Fruit all belonged to this type of Paramecia.

Their abilities varied greatly in strength, with some suited for attack and others for support.

Ye Qiong shook his hand, trying to throw away the floating sphere of light, but it did nothing.

How exactly was he supposed to use it?

Ye Qiong was puzzled. Then, with a sudden thought, the sphere in his hand expanded.

A round space visible only to him rapidly spread outward from the center of his palm, enveloping the entire hospital.

Immediately afterward, everything within that round space appeared three-dimensionally in his mind—every room, every corner, every lamp, every bed, every person...

Nothing within the round space could hide from him!

It was as though he possessed a god's-eye view!

Ye Qiong was stunned. The sensation was like a scan; nothing could escape his "eyes."

Why did this ability resemble Trafalgar Law's Op-Op Fruit ability, R?

Ye Qiong's expression turned a little strange. Could the fruit he had eaten really be the Op-Op Fruit?

No.

He remembered that the Op-Op Fruit seemed to require its user to possess extremely advanced medical knowledge before its abilities could be properly displayed.

Moreover, the Op-Op Fruit was heart-shaped, completely unlike the round fruit he had eaten.

"Besides giving me something like a god's-eye view, what else can this ability do?"

Ye Qiong pondered as he focused on a fruit basket in the room next door and waved his right hand.

The fruit basket shook violently and fell from the table, spilling apples all over the floor.

He stretched out his right hand and grabbed at the air.

A bright red apple suddenly appeared in midair and landed in his hand.

Ye Qiong widened his eyes and shoved the apple in his hand into his mouth.

It was crisp, sweet, refreshing, and juicy—not an illusion!

He had indeed controlled the fruit basket next door and pulled one of the apples that had fallen to the floor over through the air.

"This is an ability that can touch upon space!"

Ye Qiong's heart surged with excitement. Following his instincts, a slight thought crossed his mind, and his body suddenly vanished from the hospital bed.

The next moment, Ye Qiong abruptly appeared on the hospital balcony. Brilliant sunlight bathed his entire body, while a refreshing breeze swept over him.

Clatter!

A beautiful nurse hanging laundry on the balcony stared blankly at Ye Qiong, who had appeared out of nowhere. The hanger in her hand fell straight to the ground.

At that moment, Ye Qiong was still wrapped all over in bandages, holding a half-eaten apple as he stood stiffly on the balcony...

He looked downright terrifying!

With a thought, Ye Qiong suddenly disappeared from the balcony and returned to his hospital bed.

"This ability can actually achieve spatial movement—and instant teleportation!"

Ye Qiong suppressed his excitement, ignoring the faint screams coming from the rooftop balcony.

He tried it several more times—the bathroom, the room next door...

When he finally returned to the hospital bed, his eyes shone brightly.

Ye Qiong discovered that he could move freely anywhere within the round space he had created!

It was not merely spatial exchange. He did not need to swap places with any object; he could move all the same.

This ability directly touched upon the realm of space. It was practically heaven-defying!

Ye Qiong smiled faintly. He decided to define his unknown ability as "space."

The Space-Space Fruit!