Chapter 141: Fish and Dragon (Part Two)

Qiubai and the Whitebeard Pirates were merely acquaintances by chance; it was impossible to make the two ships stay attached. As for following right behind the Moby Dick... well, that might indeed directly deter Donquixote Doflamingo, but in exchange, they would have to bear the immense pressure of the Whitebeard Pirates.

That would be pushing one's luck a bit too far. Whitebeard certainly wouldn't mind a small boat passing by, but being tailed or used as a shield was an entirely different story. Whitebeard wouldn't even need to say a word; any random officer or even a regular crewmate could easily beat Qiubai and his companions to a pulp.

Comparing the two, Qiubai would rather deal with Doflamingo. Whitebeard was a massive variable—not just for Doflamingo, but for Qiubai as well.

What if Whitebeard found two annoying flies buzzing in front of his eyes and simply swatted them away?

Therefore, while Doflamingo hung suspended in the distant horizon in a state of hesitation, the two ships gradually drifted apart. As Whitebeard departed, Doflamingo seemed convinced that their encounter had been purely accidental, and thus he resumed his pursuit.

"Stay calm, maintain our heading. Doflamingo won't be able to reach us," Qiubai commanded with a thoroughly unperturbed and reckless confidence.

The heading he referred to meant areas devoid of clouds. However, while the current weather could not be described as overcast with dark clouds, a completely cloudless sky was equally nonexistent. They could only move toward areas with fewer clouds, rather than areas with no clouds at all, because "areas with no clouds" simply did not exist here.

Despite drawing his blade so decisively, Qiubai still had no intention of fighting Doflamingo head-on at this stage. He knew very well in his heart that he probably might or might not be able to defeat the man, so he opted for a very straightforward countermeasure.

Although his movements were erratic, Doflamingo's path of travel was still traceable. He was merely like a tram running on tracks, except his tracks were high-altitude clouds.

The method to break away from him was therefore extremely simple: just sever the "tracks."

"Qiubai!"

Doflamingo rapidly closed the distance once again, his furious voice carrying over from afar. He had previously thought his anger had reached its absolute limit, but he hadn't expected Qiubai to effortlessly push him into an even deeper rage:

He spotted Trafalgar Law standing in the mast's lookout post.

In that instant, Doflamingo's mind raced through countless possibilities, but at the very least, he realized that Qiubai must have played some kind of trick back on Minion Island!

Rosinante had stolen the Ope Ope no Mi, Law had eaten the Ope Ope no Mi, and now Law appeared aboard Qiubai's ship... Exactly what had happened here?

None of it mattered anymore. Right now, the only thing Doflamingo wanted to do was wipe out everyone on that ship.

"Does it really come down to a face-to-face farewell after all?"

Doflamingo's pursuit came as a surprise to Qiubai, but he still maintained the confidence to pull through.

He stood atop the flat roof of the sterncastle, his right foot forward, left leg pulled far back. At the same time, his left hand gripped the scabbard parallel to the sea level, while his right palm hovered lightly over the hilt...

Although the weapon in his hand was a sword, it felt somewhat reminiscent of a cowboy waiting for the "1, 2, 3" countdown before drawing his gun for a duel.

He was indeed waiting for the precise moment to unsheathe his blade...

The slight sway of the hull, the delicate tactile feedback of the sea surface, the humid and invigorating air, and...

An overwhelming aura that subjugated everything, encompassing both the ocean and the sky.

In a single fleeting moment, Qiubai's gaze sharpened. The longsword flashed out of its scabbard, and he executed a near 360-degree circular slash. By the time he sheathed his sword back into place, his back was already turned toward Doflamingo's approach.

The sea surface behind him seemed to be instantly cleaved apart. The sword qi moved in a wide, sweeping arc, and due to the centripetal force generated by the swinging trajectory, the slashing energy gradually converged into a spiral.

The seawater agitated the atmosphere, and the center of the spiral transformed into the eye of a tornado. Following a momentary pause and stillness, a colossal pillar of water surged straight into the sky.

Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet—cough, pardon me, wrong scene. This was Qiubai's eighteenth sword technique:

[Fish Dragon]

The duration of this technique was not long, but the turbulence it created in the atmosphere completely blew away the clouds in the sky. Doflamingo was less than two thousand meters away from the ship, but he could no longer advance any further.

That goes to show that one must always keep their feet on the ground and never get too carried away. At this moment, Qiubai gave Doflamingo a firsthand lesson on the true meaning of a "surprise."

The furthest distance in the world is not between life and death, but rather: I am on this side of the cloud layer, and you are on the far side.

"This should do the trick, right?"

However, before Qiubai could even exhale that breath of air, a streak of light flashing with the brilliance of sunlight struck straight toward him!

Like a vicious whip...

This was Doflamingo's long-range attack technique—a lash formed by bonding dozens of strings together: God Thread.

Given the sharpness of his strings, this single blow would likely split the ship right down the middle.

Ass Shield!

At the critical moment of life and death, intercepting the whip was Qiubai's conceptual armament, Rho Aias: The Sevenfold Ring that Covers the Fiery Heavens.

The smooth curved surface deflected the long-range whip strike, but the momentum caused its attack trajectory to deviate. The blow that was originally meant to split the ship in two veered to the side, cutting into the hull from the right starboard bow.

The deck planks splintered, and seawater rushed madly into the vessel through the gaping breach!

Will this never end?

No, this time it truly was the end. That final strike probably stemmed entirely from Doflamingo's lingering resentment and frustration.

With his path forward blocked, Doflamingo was ultimately left stranded in the distant sky once more. Qiubai didn't waste his breath shouting any more nonsense; instead, he simply waved a farewell to his opponent.

At this juncture, Doflamingo was left with only two choices:
First, turn back immediately along the same route, filled with resentment.
Second, hang suspended in the sky for two hours, and then turn back along the same route, filled with even greater resentment.

So, what was the point of making this trip in the first place? Just as the bulging veins on Doflamingo's forehead teetered on the brink of bursting from pure rage, a loud explosion echoed behind him.

Oh no!

Because of the excessive range of the God Thread technique, retracting the whip after lashing out was quite difficult. Hearing that explosion caused Doflamingo to instinctively assume the worst: he thought his attack had retracted too far and accidentally struck the Moby Dick behind him.

You couldn't blame him for thinking that, given his streak of terrible luck. If he had inadvertently attacked Whitebeard, the burning question was: would he even be able to make it back alive?

Doflamingo instantly transitioned from furious to terrified.

However, when he turned around, he immediately realized he had been overthinking things. There was indeed some commotion over at Whitebeard's end, but it had nothing to do with him.

Doflamingo let out a sigh of relief. Yet, when he turned back to look for the Miss Love Duck, that ship had already sailed far beyond his maximum range.

Strangely enough, after being thoroughly startled, his anger toward Qiubai seemed to subside. At the very least, he had finally regained his rationality and sound judgment.