Slaying Vix

The fierce battle continued. As time passed, the sword wounds on Vix's body grew more numerous and more terrifying.

The recovery ability of an ordinary Zoan Devil Fruit simply could not heal such horrific injuries in a short time.

What was more, Li Yuan's Sword Qi and Armament Haki lingered over those wounds, both forces preventing Vix's injuries from healing.

If Li Yuan's Sword Qi were powerful enough, it could even leave permanent scars on a strong person's body. Even if the wounds healed, the scars would remain forever.

Just like the two scars Oden Kozuki's slash had permanently left on Kaido in the original story.

"Zoan Devil Fruit users really can take a beating. But it's about time this ended!"

After the battle had continued for a quarter of an hour, Li Yuan suddenly launched an upward slash, sending Vix flying into the sky.

Vix could not use Geppo. Once his feet left the ground, his safety dropped drastically, and a terrified expression appeared on his face.

At the start of the battle, while he had been airborne, Li Yuan had nearly cut off one of his feet. The lingering fear still haunted him.

Now, he had unexpectedly been sent into the air again. At this moment, he deeply regretted not learning Geppo from the Marine Six Styles.

With both feet planted on the ground, Li Yuan sheathed his sword, gripped its hilt, and stared fixedly at Vix as he fell from the sky.

"Wait, wait! I can submit to you! I'll recognize you as my Captain!!"

The instant Vix had been sent skyward, he had felt as though his life was no longer under his own control.

With Li Yuan below eyeing him like a tiger watching its prey, it was obvious that he was preparing some powerful Sword Skill.

For the sake of his life, Vix decisively admitted defeat and surrendered, hoping only to save himself.

Besides, the other man possessed Conqueror's Haki and was stronger than him. Submitting to him was nothing shameful.

"I don't need your submission. I'll invite and recruit my future crew myself. You should just die."

Li Yuan remained unmoved by Vix's pleas.

During the battle, Li Yuan had already seen through Vix's character. He was the sort of ungrateful wretch who could betray him at any time.

Li Yuan would never allow someone like that aboard his ship. It was safer to kill a Timer Bomb like him outright.

"Limitless: Void-Breaking Sword Art."

"Clang!!!!"

A crisp sound of a blade leaving its sheath rang out. Dense Sword Qi coated the Sword Body, and in an instant, Li Yuan unleashed a gigantic slash a hundred meters long.

The slash shot toward the sky with lightning speed, tearing through the air's restraints and reaching the speed of sound. It was so powerful that it could even split the heavens.

Even the sky let out a wail, unable to withstand the explosive force of the slash.

As Vix watched the massive slash tear through the air toward him, a sense of impending death rose within him.

"Peerless Leopard Claws!!"

Under the threat of death, Vix unleashed his greatest strength. His pair of black Leopard Claws struck toward the powerful incoming slash.

He wanted to block it, or use the force of the slash to shift his body aside and evade the attack.

However, the Void-Breaking Sword Art's slash was far too fast. Vix's Leopard Claws could barely catch its trajectory, leaving him no chance to dodge.

"Sshhk!!!"

Vix's scar-ridden Leopard Claws could not withstand the Void-Breaking Sword Art's slash. The powerful attack severed both his claws, then took Vix's head along with them.

"Bang!!!!"

Vix's corpse and head crashed to the ground. His wide, unclosing eyes stared fixedly at Li Yuan, the extreme unwillingness in his heart laid bare within them.

"Your Armament Haki was stronger than Jessno's, and you had a Zoan Devil Fruit as well. But your hand-to-hand combat was lacking, so you couldn't bring out your body's advantages. Otherwise, I wouldn't have beaten you so easily."

Li Yuan looked at Vix's unwilling eyes. Whether Vix was dead or not, Li Yuan still felt like saying a few words, explaining where his weaknesses lay, though Vix could no longer hear him.

People always said villains died from talking too much, but Li Yuan felt that saying a little more to a dead man did not matter.

The other man was already dead. It was not as if he could come back to life, take Li Yuan's words as a lesson, grow stronger, and defeat Li Yuan in return.

"Everyone, get down and clean up the battlefield. Finish off every pirate, and haul all the supplies onto the ship."

After sheathing his sword, Li Yuan spoke to the crew aboard the ship.

"Yes, Senior Brother!!"

Seeing Li Yuan kill the enemy, his junior brothers on the ship were extremely excited. They quickly disembarked to clean up the battlefield.

They were already quite skilled at finishing off enemies: one slash across the throat, one through the heart. Two strikes for each person, ensuring no fish escaped the net.

"Senior Brother, here!"

Everyone else went to clean the battlefield and gather the spoils, but Lazuli did not. Instead, she took out a wet towel and used it to wipe Li Yuan's sweat and face.

"Thoughtful of you."

Li Yuan took the towel, wiped his face, and spoke as he did so.

"It's what I should do."

Lazuli lowered her head and spoke somewhat shyly. Back on Fei Qing Island, she had often done such things as well.

She had never felt this way before. She did not know why she felt it now.

In the forest behind Suoluo Island

While Li Yuan and Vix were fighting, a group of people dressed in black suits and wearing white masks descended from beneath the rocky outcrops behind Suoluo Island, using ropes or Geppo to reach the island.

They then charged directly toward the remote, uninhabited forest at the back of Suoluo Island.

"Surround the entire forest!"

The leader was a man wearing a Tiger Mask. With a single gesture, the thirty subordinates behind him immediately began surrounding the forest from every direction.

Judging by their speed, all thirty possessed at least the strength of a Marine Headquarters Colonel.

"Geppo!!"

Tiger Mask Man stepped through the air and flew into the sky. Then he removed the fuse from the one-meter-tall iron canister on his back and threw it into the center of the forest.

"Boom!!!"

The iron canister exploded the moment it landed in the forest, though the blast itself was not particularly powerful.

However, after the explosion, it released large amounts of blue gas that rapidly spread outward from the forest's center.

Inside a hidden cave in the forest were large amounts of paper, Den Den Mushi, and all kinds of equipment. It was clearly a secret base, and an intelligence outpost at that.

There were five people here in total, all engaged in intelligence work. The explosion in the forest instantly pulled them from their work.

"This is bad. Our base has been discovered. Leave immediately!"

Among the five, the leader was a woman wearing a Fox Mask.