"Hiding here, you think I can't find you?"
Within his azure eyes, a blue light shimmered, laced with silver mist. Kong Tai looked at the old man behind the bar, smoking a cigarette as if he were a completely ordinary person.
He spoke with a playful tone, "I told you, your little tricks are useless against me. As long as you exist in this world, no matter where you hide, I will find you."
"Your only way out is to come out and fight me honorably. Perhaps if I'm in a good mood, I might let you go."
"Thump, thump, thump!!"
The old man didn't look at Kong Tai. He calmly removed his pipe, tapped it against the edge of the bar, and then murmured to himself, "You know? At my age, I don't have many days left. Even if you let me go, my life is drawing to a close."
"Old man, your life is ending, what business is that of mine!"
"Indeed, it is not your business. But what I want to tell you is that my life is on a countdown. I don't fear death. If I'm truly pushed to my limit, I can unleash an ability I can only use once in my life: opening the gates of the Yellow Springs."
"Gates of the Yellow Springs?"
Picking up his pipe, he took out some tobacco, packed it into the pipe, lit it, and took a deep drag. Only then did the old man turn his gaze towards Kong Tai. His aged face, faintly visible in the darkness of the burning tobacco, was full of an eerie aura.
"Yes, the Gates of the Yellow Springs."
Hiss~
Taking another puff, the old man exhaled, allowing the smoke to drift out from the corner of his mouth. "I am a Devil Fruit user who ate the Zoan-type, Mythical Zoan, model: Yamata no Orochi."
"This fruit not only allows me to control the souls of the dead, replicate the abilities of other Devil Fruits, and create illusions through my eyes, but upon awakening, it grants me the authority to open the Gates of the Yellow Springs once."
"While I don't know what lies beyond those gates, I do know that it is the world of the dead. And I..."
"Can plunge this island into a true Yellow Springs world."
He straightened his back, locked eyes with Kong Tai, and said with a cold gaze, "Although I will surely die afterward, and I believe you might be able to escape, your companions on this island… I’m afraid their fate is uncertain."
"Are you threatening me?"
Kong Tai's brow furrowed. He stared at Carteles, a flicker of anger in his eyes.
He didn't know if this guy was telling the truth, but regarding the Yellow Springs, he knew that such a concept did exist in this world.
Brook, that fellow, had eaten the Yomi Yomi no Mi, returning from the Yellow Springs after death to revive.
"Yellow Springs."
"Let this guy go?"
He stared at Carteles, a terrifying killing intent erupting from him. He wanted to kill this man, but he didn't want to risk his companions. He was unsure if he could truly deal with the unknown Yellow Springs, especially since it involved souls.
Yet, he was unwilling to simply let this man leave.
No one knew what would happen if the old man spread information about him. It might incite the World Government to go mad.
He himself might not be in danger then, but those around him would face greatly increased peril.
This included the Isshin Dojo back home. He might even inadvertently implicate his master, Koushirou.
After all, the World Government was constantly researching Lineage Factors, studying Kaido, Charlotte Linlin, the Lunarians...
They wanted to replicate the bodies and abilities of these monsters.
If they learned of his abilities, that he wasn't a Devil Fruit user, and that he possessed more than just instantaneous teleportation, they might truly go insane.
Because, if they captured him, they could genuinely achieve world domination.
Even if it was a pipe dream, even if they couldn't possibly capture Kong Tai, one couldn't stop the World Government's true ambitions.
If he didn't let this man go, and couldn't prevent him from opening that unknown "Gates of the Yellow Springs," then his only option was to kill him instantly.
Instant kill. With his current offensive power, he truly couldn't achieve that.
This guy wasn't an ordinary person, but a complete monster, a powerhouse no less than a Yonko, and someone with countless terrifying abilities that were like bugs to ordinary people.
How could he possibly achieve an instant kill?
Carteles wasn't in a hurry. He leaned lazily against the counter, smoking and observing Kong Tai's ever-changing expression, a slight curve on his lips.
He was confident that this person in front of him would let him leave.
Because without the ability to kill him instantly, this person wouldn't gamble with the safety of his companions against the power of his Gates of the Yellow Springs.
And to kill him instantly? He wasn't bragging, but in this world, besides Lord Imu, whom he absolutely couldn't resist, hardly anyone could achieve it.
However, many things often happen against one's will.
Conventional attacks certainly couldn't kill Carteles instantly, but who was Kong Tai?
He himself was the biggest bug in this world!
Just then, a peculiar fluctuation rippled through the space.
Carteles, who thought everything was under his control, suddenly felt a force that caused his entire body to prickle and his soul to tremble, directed at him.
He looked up, gazing into Kong Tai's cold, emotionless eyes, and then at Kong Tai's right hand, which had been extended at some unknown point.
His pupils constricted to an extreme.
On the tip of Kong Tai's extended right index finger, space itself seemed to twist and warp like a vortex.
And at the center of that distortion, a black, utterly black hole, even darker than the souls of the dead he imagined fleeing into the Yellow Springs, was gradually forming.
A layer of distorted red halo surrounded the black hole. It was silent, yet it exuded an extreme danger, and that danger was pointing directly at him.
"What is this?"
Terror instantly spread across his face and his soul.
The moment this black hole appeared, he felt the aura of death.
This made him show a rare loss of composure in front of Kong Tai.
He had always believed he didn't fear death, but when death arrived, the primal fear of mortality ingrained in his being made him realize he was still human, and thus he couldn't face death as calmly as he imagined.
Kong Tai gazed at Carteles, his eyes filled with killing intent. Then, his gaze sharpened, and he pointed without hesitation in Carteles's direction.
This energy, compressed to its extreme by his spatial domain, capable of obliterating all things, was the only ability he could think of to kill this guy instantly.
And this time, it wasn't a casual attack like killing fish last time.
He was using his full power.
In his perception, the energy contained within had at least increased fivefold compared to last time.
The moment this power was unleashed, he felt a very dangerous aura appear outside his spatial domain.
Along with the aura, the space outside his spatial domain became viscous, as if the world itself feared the energy in his hand and was automatically defending itself.
And this defense was accelerating as the energy in his hand accumulated.