Swordsmanship Duel

Within the Holy Land beneath the grim night curtain, an old man and a young man stood with swords in hand atop elegant, imposing buildings.

Ye Qiong had just used Night Radiance Strike at his strongest state, yet it had been blocked by the white-haired elder's probing sword technique. That was precisely what shocked and impressed Ye Qiong—in swordsmanship and blade techniques, the white-haired elder had already reached the pinnacle, unknown to all and yet unmatched by anyone.

And this was the World Government's greatest foundation!

They neither flaunted themselves nor revealed their strength, silently standing at the peak of the world and turning clouds into rain with a flick of their hands. They were the World Government's highest leaders; even the Marines were merely a superficial tool for maintaining their power.

The Five Elders possessed not only the authority they wielded on the surface, but equally terrifying personal strength.

"Let me personally find out just how great the gap between us is." Ye Qiong narrowed his eyes slightly. The blood in his body boiled fiercely; the battlelust in his bones had been thoroughly stirred.

His eyes shone brightly, his fighting spirit soaring. He was completely unlike the white-haired elder's calm composure, yet he possessed the same unyielding, fearless spirit.

Ye Qiong flicked his wrist, and Snowfall gleamed with cold light. Holding Snowfall, his entire presence surged like a razor-sharp sword bared from its sheath. He stamped down hard, and his powerful leaping force sent him soaring into the air. His body was as agile as a dragon in flight, while the ink-black blade covered in Haki merged into the night, its killing intent concealed beneath restrained sharpness.

The moment he attacked, he unleashed his strongest swordsmanship without holding anything back.

"Let me see the difference between you and your master."

The elder calmly gripped his sword hilt, perfectly embodying the stillness of a maiden and the swiftness of a startled hare. His sword moved with his body as Haki and sword aura simultaneously coiled around its edge.

His masterful, flowing swordsmanship made the sword light descend like moonlight illuminating the night sky—impenetrable and flawless.

Ye Qiong charged forward without hesitation. His white robe snapped in the wind as he raised Snowfall cleanly and decisively, bringing it down with all his strength at the center of the apparent storm of sword aura. The essence of the Dark Night School lay in slashes: overwhelming force crushed countless techniques and destroyed everything.

Black lightning tore through the covering storm of sword aura. Then the two closed in on each other, their eyes meeting as their hands never paused, blades and swords clashing relentlessly.

Clang!

The crisp ringing of blades colliding and the dull roar of Armament Haki crashing together intertwined, echoing across the skies of the Holy Land.

Their swordsmanship duel erupted at once.

Tap, tap!

The speed Ye Qiong and the white-haired elder reached turned their bodies into nearly indistinct black streaks. Against the cover of night, they seemed to vanish completely. Immediately afterward, a series of sparks and shockwaves exploded through the air between the Holy Land's buildings.

Their battlefield resembled the eye of a storm of sword aura, with flashes of sword light bursting out from within from time to time, ravaging everything around them.

Slash!

A streak of black lightning shot out at incredible speed, instantly cleaving a magnificent reinforced-concrete building in two.

Whoosh!

A terrifying sword light as bright as day split the air, tearing that splendid building apart in an instant with a crash, reducing it to shattered stone and splintered wood.

The entire battlefield increasingly resembled a destructive magnetic field. Sword aura crisscrossed and sword light split the sky, quickly ravaging one section of the Holy Land beyond recognition. The surviving Celestial Dragons nearby cried and fled for their lives.

"I can't let you keep wreaking havoc!" the elder said in a deep voice. He focused his breath and spirit, finally becoming serious. His blade began to hum without cease, and the sharpness surrounding his whole body became terrifying, as though infused with divine power.

He swung his sword downward. A blade bright enough to turn the night sky into day found an opening and directly cut through the endless black sword aura. Countless streams of sword aura converged at one point, concentrating the force and might of every slash onto Snowfall's blade.

Snowfall trembled without stop. Ye Qiong felt his tiger's mouth quake violently, blood droplets spraying from his palm. Snowfall flew from his hand like a dazzling shaft of moonlight, smoothly embedding itself in the eaves of a building.

Sword light scattered cold radiance in every direction. Before Ye Qiong's horrified gaze, the white-haired elder's blade swung toward his unguarded chest.

Splat!

The terrifying slash fell, directly splitting open the thick ground. Sword aura raged wildly, cleaving apart rubble and soil alike as shockwaves churned and surged to both sides. The enormous trench it created resembled an opening leading into the abyss of the underworld.

"Hm, you dodged?"

The white-haired elder glanced in another direction. Ye Qiong stood on a rooftop, panting heavily and clutching his chest. A savage bloody gash ran diagonally from his upper left shoulder to the lower right side of his abdomen. Blood poured from it endlessly, staining a section of his white robe crimson.

Ye Qiong gave a bitter smile. He had indeed teleported away the instant before the sword fell, but the terrifying edge of the sword aura had already reached him first and touched his skin. There had been no way to avoid it.

Still, that crucial teleportation had evaded at least eighty percent of the slash's damage. Otherwise, it would not have been merely a superficial wound.

Ye Qiong stared solemnly at the white-haired elder stroking his sword. He had now experienced firsthand that the man's strength was no exaggeration. He was even stronger than Night Emperor had described; at full strength, he absolutely possessed combat power surpassing an admiral!

"A spatial teleportation ability? I wonder how many times you can teleport." The elder still stood calmly with his sword in hand. At this moment, the aura of an unparalleled swordsman around him was frighteningly sharp.

"I have to admit that I'm no match for you. But if I want to leave, you alone are far from enough!" Ye Qiong said with a shrug and a smile. He waved his hand, controlling Snowfall as it pulled free from the building. Snowfall spun once through the air and slipped into the sheath at his waist.

"Is that so? Over all these years, there have truly been very few who could escape beneath my sword." The white-haired elder was unconcerned. If the boy before him escaped after causing the Holy Land such grave losses, where would the World Government's dignity remain?

"Then I'll have to give it a try." Ye Qiong sneered. He did not waste another word. His figure flickered, vanishing directly from the rooftop where he stood.

"Don't even think about escaping!"

The white-haired elder's expression turned stern. Strands of sword aura surged from his body and wrapped around him. Then he leaped into the air, tearing through the atmosphere as he shot into the night sky like a sword.

Ye Qiong reappeared a mile away. He created Space Cubes to gain leverage and stepped through the void as he sped away from the Holy Land.

But before he had taken more than a few steps, Ye Qiong's heart tightened. A bone-piercing chill of danger enveloped him, and he hurriedly expanded R around himself.

Under R's perception, he saw the white-haired elder enveloped in sword aura, using Geppo and carrying surging currents of force. Like a streak of white sword light cutting through the sky, he closed in at a speed comparable to light.

"So fast!"

Ye Qiong was shocked. In terms of speed, the future "Kizaru" was one person who had amazed him; now, the white-haired elder was the second.

He had never expected the elder to rely purely on swordsmanship to create sword light that tore through air resistance, thereby pushing his speed into an extraordinary realm.

To achieve such an ability through swordsmanship alone was practically divine. Ye Qiong admitted that he could not even grasp a fragment of that realm.

Ye Qiong teleported several times in succession, trying to widen the distance, only to be caught up with during the brief pauses between his spatial teleportations.

Continuous teleportation inevitably had the flaw of momentary pauses. At the speed of light, it instead seemed somewhat countered.

The white-haired elder swung out a slash. White sword light pierced through the night sky as a storm of sword aura descended, intending to utterly crush and erase Ye Qiong.

Dark Night: Eight Nights!

Ye Qiong drew Snowfall to block it, raising it as he unleashed a slash. The black sword light split into two, then four, then eight, tearing apart the formidable storm of sword aura.

A flash of white sword light descended, slicing through the afterimage Ye Qiong had left behind through teleportation. The white-haired elder appeared, coldly staring at Ye Qiong, who had teleported into the night sky not far away. Spatial teleportation truly was troublesome.

"That was really dangerous."

Ye Qiong sighed. His opponent had already somewhat figured out his teleportation range and reaction speed. Escaping this terrifying old swordsman through teleportation alone was somewhat unrealistic.

"Are you at the end of your rope?"

The white-haired elder adjusted his glasses. He stood suspended in the air atop a mass of compressed air, while sword aura condensed again over his blade, gleaming with cold light.

"Of course—not." Ye Qiong waved his hand and said somewhat helplessly, "I originally didn't want to use that state. After all, it hurts me eight hundred to wound the enemy a thousand. But it seems I'll have to reveal one of my trump cards after all, or I'll be leaving my life here."

Since the beginning, Ye Qiong's strongest trump card had never been the physical arts of Vajra Body and Ancient Martial Arts, nor had it been the swordsmanship of the Dark Night School. It had always been the spatial ability he had continuously explored and developed.

Only his spatial ability was the true capital and trump card he could use against powerful opponents now!

From the moment Ye Qiong ate the Devil Fruit and gained a certain degree of control over spatial abilities, he had naturally assumed that his Devil Fruit ability was a Paramecia. Thus, all he had developed were abilities related to creating spherical spaces and using teleportation, cutting, and control.

That changed during the battle at Impel Down ten days ago. Night Emperor stayed behind to hold off Magellan, while Ye Qiong, exhausted, collapsed onto White Snow's back as she escaped Impel Down. Along the way, they encountered Sakazuki's warship, which noticed something suspicious.

At that time, Meteor Fire Rain streaked through the void, resplendent yet carrying the stench of death as it bombarded them.

The exhausted White Snow and Crow King no longer had the strength to resist that devastating magma assault.

Scorching crimson magma fists descended in a blanket that covered sky and earth, reflected in his pupils as they grew larger and larger.

Ye Qiong had thought that time he would truly die beneath Sakazuki's Meteor Fire Rain—dying so miserably beneath magma fists or in the sea below.

Yet it was precisely the pressure of death that allowed despairing Ye Qiong to glimpse another possibility for the Space-Space Fruit's ability.

He had survived only because, in that moment of despair, he broke through the limits of the human body and pushed his control over his spatial ability to a deeper level.

Or, more simply put, "awakening."

"Let me show you another state of myself."

Ye Qiong closed his eyes and slowly spread his hands. Milky-white halos emerged in his palms, and then the glow flowed over his entire body like rippling water. Rings of profound patterns emerged and coiled around his arms.

When Ye Qiong opened his eyes, golden light flickered within them. Without using Space Cubes, he simply raised one foot and stepped into the air, floating in the night sky as he looked down upon the white-haired elder.

"Ability awakening?"

The white-haired elder's gaze sharpened. In his eyes, Ye Qiong did not seem to have changed much, yet there was an indescribable strangeness about him. He was clearly right before him, yet seemed to be at the edge of the world, as though he did not exist here at all.

The elder could not figure out what Ye Qiong's ability truly was.

"Playing tricks!" The white-haired elder snorted coldly. He stepped through the air with Geppo and swung his famous sword. Terrifying slashes raged and spread, transforming into a radiance bright as day that sought to tear apart the night sky.

Ye Qiong neither panicked nor teleported away. He simply stood in the void as the powerful slash cut toward his chest, passing through him like it had struck an insubstantial illusion and flying out from behind his back without slowing in the slightest.

Ye Qiong's white robe fluttered in the wind, while both his body and clothing remained completely unharmed.

"This is..."

The white-haired elder frowned. For the first time, he felt shock and a loss of control before Ye Qiong. Even his casual sword lights were empowered by powerful Armament Haki. Even if they struck a Logia user in elemental form, the damage could not simply be ignored.

What kind of ability could disregard damage like this? Even the knowledgeable and well-informed white-haired elder could not see through the reason behind it for the moment.

Golden light flickered in Ye Qiong's eyes. As he looked at the white-haired elder, there was an aloof indifference about him, accompanied by an air as though he held all things in his grasp and stood above everything.

"Can you cut space?" he asked with a light smile.