Chapter 327

Translator: PapaSmurf0700

With Sengoku and the Golden Lion joining the fray, the battlefield of Marineford fractured. The war became two entirely different conflicts unfolding in the same space.

Outside the newly-formed encirclement wall, a war of attrition raged. Tens of thousands of Marine soldiers clashed with the combined pirate forces. It was a chaotic sea of bodies, but a battle of scale, not substance, where the true damage was minimal.

Inside the wall, however, it was a war of legends. The Whitebeard Pirates' division commanders, the Straw Hat Pirates' strongest fighters, the Seven Warlords of the Sea, and the Navy's absolute elite were locked in devastating duels that shook the very foundations of the island.

Aokiji vs. Roronoa Zoro & Sanji!

Kizaru vs. Bartholomew Kuma & Marco the Phoenix!

Akainu vs. Monkey D. Luffy & Sabo!

Garp vs. Whitebeard!

Sengoku vs. Golden Lion Shiki!

The situation had devolved into a delicate, terrifying stalemate.

This balance, however, was predicated on the three shadowy figures of CP 0 remaining on the sidelines. The moment they entered the fray, their power would be enough to shatter one of these duels and free up a high-level combatant for the Navy. Their mission was precise: not to waste time on fodder, but to assassinate the command structure of the pirate alliance. It was why they had targeted Bai Ye, the Straw Hat's strategist, from the moment they appeared.

As the three cloaked agents prepared to move, a calm voice spoke from behind them.

"My apologies. I was unable to respond just now."

The three assassins spun around. Not far from them, a shimmering portal, like a door cut into the air itself, had opened. Bai Ye, having shed his heavy outer robes and now clad only in trousers, stepped through.

He smiled faintly at the three masked figures. "Round two has just begun."

Beneath their masks, the agents' expressions were ones of pure shock. It wasn't just the speed of his return that was impossible; it was his condition. The grievous sword wound and the searing fist mark that had torn across his torso were gone. His skin was flawless, a sight so pristine it felt like a mockery of their efforts.

They couldn't possibly know the truth: Bai Ye was running on a cocktail of forbidden alchemy and sheer force of will. After Kuma had teleported him to safety, Chopper had immediately administered a powerful pill they had developed together, a potent medicine designed for just such a catastrophic injury. Simultaneously, Bai Ye's own internal energy cultivation, the Pure Yang Limitless Art, began to furiously cycle, absorbing ambient energy to fuel his recovery.

It allowed him to return to the battlefield. Seeing him standing tall once more, Luffy, Zoro, and the others felt a wave of relief, allowing them to refocus entirely on their own desperate battles.

But it was a facade. Outwardly, Bai Ye looked whole. Inwardly, his energy pathways were damaged, and the force from Akainu's magma and Doss's blade had wreaked havoc on his organs. In this state, victory against a single one of these agents was uncertain, let alone all three.

But he had to come. He had to stand in their way. Their focused, immediate assault on him proved they were here for the pirate leadership. If they joined the main fight, the fragile stalemate would collapse long before the Red Hair Pirates could arrive.

"Don't the Celestial Dragons need your protection?" Bai Ye asked, his voice casual. It was a probe for information, a gambit to buy precious seconds. "Or did they send more of you?"

"Killing you is the greatest protection we can offer them," Doss, the swordsman, replied, his voice clipped. The blade in his hand seemed to pulse with a blood-red aura.

"Hmph. The top agents of the World Government, reduced to sneak attacks," Bai Ye taunted, his tone laced with biting sarcasm. "And you failed, at that. I imagine the Five Elders will be quite displeased."

"We were merely conserving energy," sneered El, the Logia user. "You were lucky. You won't be, a second time."

Before Bai Ye could retort, Bol, the user of the Sealing-Sealing Fruit, cut in. "Enough talk. He's stalling." His voice was cold and decisive. "He is alone. Finish him now!"

In a blur of motion, Bol shot toward Bai Ye. With the power to seal away a person's abilities, leaving them with only their physical strength, he was the perfect counter to a Devil Fruit user or a Haki master. As a CP0 agent, his own physical prowess was already world-class. He closed the distance in an instant, his right palm aimed down at the crown of Bai Ye's head.

Bai Ye took a single step back and met the attack with a simple punch. Bol's left hand shifted into a claw, intending to intercept and crush Bai Ye's fist.

At that moment, a soft golden light flared around Bai Ye's body. As fist met claw, he looked Bol directly in the eye.

"You are correct that I am stalling," he said softly. "But you are wrong about one thing."

"Who told you I was alone?"

Before Bol could react, Bai Ye's fist opened into a palm, catching the agent's wrist in an iron grip. Using Bol's own forward momentum, Bai Ye pulled him off-balance and, in a single fluid motion, threw him over his shoulder, directly into the path of the other two charging agents.

Bol skidded to a halt, his eyes wide with confusion. "This martial art..."

In that brief exchange, Bol, a master of physical combat, had felt completely controlled, as if his own strength had been turned against him. His attack had been swallowed by an ocean, only to be thrown back as a tidal wave.

Bai Ye settled into a stance, his hands held level, left palm forward, right palm back, his body sinking low. It was the opening posture of Tai Chi. To the agents, his movements held no discernible speed or power, yet he seemed to generate a unique, unshakable aura—an aura of absolute centeredness.

The other two agents felt it but pressed their attack. As Bol said, the three of them together could challenge an Admiral. This one man, no matter how strange his technique, would fall.

Doss lunged, his blade trailing a blood-red arc that seemed to stain the air itself. Simultaneously, El slammed his hands on the ground, and the earth beneath Bai Ye's feet fractured and erupted, a wave of stone and dirt surging upward. At the same time, Bol vanished, moving to strike from an unseen angle.

Faced with a three-pronged assault, Bai Ye's eyes sharpened. He did not retreat but flowed. He swayed sideways, allowing the blood-red sword slash to pass by a hair's breadth, his golden-glowing palm gently slapping the flat of the blade, redirecting its lethal energy.

As the ground exploded beneath him, he did not leap away. Instead, he channeled the golden light into his right foot and stomped down. A concussive force shot through the earth, striking the epicenter of the impending blast and triggering it prematurely. A shockwave, far more powerful than the original attack, erupted, launching Bai Ye, who had anticipated it, into the air.

The fight was not over. Twisting in mid-air, he saw El had sent Bol rocketing out of the ground toward him. Bai Ye met him with a downward punch.

"Tai Chi Fist: Crushing Blow!"

The impact bypassed Bol's Armament Haki entirely, striking his body with internal force. A grunt of pain escaped the agent's lips.

Bai Ye landed softly back on the ground. The entire exchange had taken mere seconds.

Beneath their masks, the faces of the three CP0 agents were grim. None of them had expected to encounter such a unique and confounding fighting style.

Bai Ye's own face was a mask of calm, but he silently swallowed the mouthful of blood that threatened to erupt from his throat. Tai Chi was a master's art, perfect for using a foe's strength against them, for the weak to defeat the strong. But he was facing three opponents, all of whom were arguably stronger than him in his current, wounded state. He could not maintain this facade for long.

Crushing another alchemical pill between his teeth, Bai Ye turned his consciousness inward, reaching for the core of his being.

Within his mindscape, a figure opened his eyes. Hei Ye, his mirror self, looked around the shifting internal world, confused. He closed his eyes, sensing the state of his other half, and when he opened them again, his expression was one of exasperated disbelief.

"A mid-battle breakthrough... while on the verge of death? You truly are a madman."

A grin touched Hei Ye's lips.

"But... I admit, I am eager to see the world you envision."

"Very well. Let us be mad together, just this once."

Hei Ye sat, closing his eyes and crossing his legs. An instant later, a complex, glowing formation—a Qimen divination chart—materialized in the space beneath him, spinning with ethereal light.