Konoha's Mission Master

The human and the cat moved quickly, heading in a straight line, searching for any remaining traces. Milkball soon locked onto the aura of the powerful figure, as well as the aura emanating from the kidnapped young girls.

This proves that the powerful figure did not mysteriously disappear, but rather concealed his whereabouts through some method and influenced the visual senses of the intelligence department members.

Milkball began to run through the air, and Yakumo controlled the airflow to support it.

The two traversed a great distance over several hours until a gray transport ship appeared on the horizon.

Yakumo spread out his soul energy to make a judgment and finally confirmed... this was the transport ship that the intelligence department had lost track of.

An assassin with the strength of a general, and many kidnapped girls.

Bang! The milk ball turned into white smoke and disappeared.

Yakumo carefully observed and tracked from high above. This was the opportunity to pinpoint the Celestial Dragons' stronghold, and he had to be extremely careful.

The sky gradually darkened.

The gray transport ship continued to cut through the waves, with Yakumo keeping a close watch on it from thousands of meters in the air.

From darkness to light, a night passed.

The gray transport ship changed its course several times during its journey, but eventually turned into the doldrums.

Dragon's analysis was correct; the Celestial Dragons' stronghold is indeed in the Calm Belt.

The sunlight was a bit dazzling, but the gray transport ship continued its voyage.

Yakumo was somewhat detached from worldly affairs, only using his soul energy to lock onto the gray transport ship on the sea surface, maintaining a distance of nearly eight thousand meters.

He was confident that he would not reveal his presence.

Half a day passed in the blink of an eye.

Suddenly, Yakumo accelerated and used his spatial abilities to reach the location where the transport ship had been. The empty sea surface had long since vanished from sight.

Where did it go?

Yakumo quickly scanned the surrounding sea with his soul energy, but found no trace of the transport ship. It seemed to have vanished into thin air, disappearing from his soul's lock.

"Could it be underwater?"

Enveloped in crimson vine armor, it plummeted directly into the sea, manipulating water and air currents for propulsion, and combining this with spatial movement.

Half a minute later, Yakumo reached the seabed.

There are no transparent barriers here, nor is there a second Fishman Island; there is only a thick layer of seabed silt and strangely shaped deep-sea fish.

"So...where did it go?" Yakumo sighed.

Suddenly, it shimmered with multicolored light in the seabed.

Yakumo stared intently and saw a group of fluorescent fish, only about three centimeters long. They weren't dazzling, but their presence was hard to ignore.

But this has nothing to do with the Celestial Dragons.

With a whoosh, Yakumo appeared on the sea surface and dialed the dragon's Den Den Mushi.

"Brother, did you find it?"

Ryu answered the phone almost immediately, presumably having been waiting in front of the Den Den Mushi for Yakumo's call.

"That person used some method to interfere with the intelligence department's vision. The transport ship didn't just disappear into thin air. I continued to chase it for a day and a half, and this time it vanished right before my eyes."

"Even with the soul lock, it still disappeared."

Yakumo recounted what he had seen and heard over the past two days in a way that Ryu could understand, while he also repeatedly searched for the changes in the surrounding environment when the transport ship disappeared.

"Well... Brother, you stay here and wait. I'll send Aokiji and Fujitora to support you. We'll discuss a solution when they arrive."

After thinking for a moment, Long offered his suggestion.

"can."

After exchanging a few more words, Yakumo turned off the Den Den Mushi.

Yakumo put away the Den Den Mushi and crashed back into the seabed to search the surrounding waters, striving not to miss any clues.

Half an hour later, Yakumo emerged from the seabed.

He still couldn't find any trace of the Celestial Dragons, as if the ship had truly vanished into thin air, which made Yakumo feel somewhat frustrated.

Just a few days ago, he was so confident.

That night, the dark green flying boat arrived.

Masako Mori, Chiyuki Yukoto, and Reiko Aoyama arrived.

Kakashi was sent back to the Free City on the Red Line and temporarily placed in Dragon's care, allowing the others to explore more freely and without worry.

Yakumo used Wood Release to create a small island and used it as their base. The group then sent out shadow clones to search the surrounding area.

The next morning, the group gathered in the wooden house built by Yakumo.

"I searched eastward all night but found no trace of the Celestial Dragons."

Masako Mori spoke first to Yakumo, while the other two shook their heads, clearly indicating that they had also gained nothing.

“Yesterday I had Milkball smell those people’s scent. It was the kind of scent that disappeared very suddenly, and the scent around here is quite chaotic.”

Yakumo spoke up and shared the results of his investigation from yesterday. The Milk Ball's search and tracking capabilities were extremely powerful. If even it couldn't find a way to track them, it meant that these people had truly vanished from their original locations.

"We've ruled out several possible answers, so we have to admit that the ship used the ability to teleport."

Yukotsuki gently stroked her weapon and spoke softly. This was an answer that Yakumo did not want to consider, because if the enemy had mastered spatial teleportation, the difficulty of tracking would rise to an extremely terrifying level.

Even spatial movement is subject to limitations of distance and volume.

Even Yakumo couldn't perform long-distance spatial transfers, so the Celestial Dragons' Devil Fruit user certainly couldn't transport a ship over long distances.

Due to the limitations of spatial movement, volume and mass directly affect the burden on the body during movement. Instantly transferring a transport ship that is nearly 100 meters long over a distance of more than 10,000 meters would consume an extremely high amount of physical strength.

Yakumo doesn't believe that anyone in this world can bear such a terrifying physical and mental burden.

"There are inside stories here that we can't understand."

After a moment's thought, Masako Mori asserted.

"Pop, pop."

Yakumo took out a Den Den Mushi and contacted Ryu, as he needed to confirm some of his suspicions.

"Dragon, does a Devil Fruit exist that can construct space?"

In Yakumo's understanding, strong individuals can create additional small spaces attached to the main world, such as Trafalgar Law's Devil Fruit ability and CP9 member Bruno's Door-Door Fruit.

In short, there are many such examples... The idea that the Celestial Dragons could create an extra dimension is not entirely unfounded.

"I'm not too sure about that. After all, the Devil Fruit encyclopedia I saw was compiled and written by the Celestial Dragons. They may have hidden the abilities of a few Devil Fruits as a trump card to suppress their clans."

Dragon replied, "But if the Celestial Dragons really establish an extra world, then annihilating them will be an incredibly difficult task."

“We have searched the surrounding area from top to bottom, but we have not found any trace of the Celestial Dragons. However, there is a very scattered aura remaining in this location.”

Yakumo explained to Ryu.

"If you remove all possibilities, then whatever remains, no matter how outrageous, can only be the truth."

Yakumo said, enunciating each word clearly.

"Find them!"

......

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Chapter 431 The Path to Grandmastery for Two

The following day, Aokiji led Fujitora to the temporary island.

After losing Yakumo's control, the surrounding wood-elemental creations underwent a terrifying growth, their knots spreading into an island with a diameter of 500 meters, upon which dozens of giant trees, each over 100 meters tall, stood, blocking out the sun.

The vines drooped down from the branches, touching the ground.

Lush greenery, yet fraught with hidden danger.

If left to develop freely, this place will soon become a second Sabaody Archipelago. However, this island is more dangerous, and anyone without safety certification will be attacked by Wood Release creations.

The group searched for the boundary near the sea.

The connection between the space controlled by the Celestial Dragons and the world of One Piece is such that even when Yakumo enters Sage Mode to enhance his perception, he still cannot detect the boundary between the two spaces.

Inside the wooden house, Yakumo gazed at the sea chart before him.

Currently, the search for the Celestial Dragons has seemingly stalled, and sometimes he even doubts whether his vision and soul perception have been affected by the enemy.

Logically speaking, there shouldn't be any powerful beings in the pirate world who could affect his soul perception. He still believed that the Celestial Dragons had created their own small space here.

He just couldn't find the entrance to the space...that's all.

Physical fitness and intelligence.

The former can enhance the fit with space, while the latter can enhance perception to find fluctuations in space or the boundary between two worlds.

Currently, the intelligence attribute is at a bottleneck, requiring two Dao Transformation Scrolls.

Improving...physical constitution requires attribute points.

To gain attribute points, the only option is... the new dungeon!

"You cannot challenge the new dungeon yet."

Yakumo shook his head. The conditions for challenging the new dungeon were not met. Yukotsu Chiyuki was still at the threshold of the Grandmaster level in swordsmanship.

Countless thoughts arise, only to vanish just as quickly.

Countless ideas were born, only to be quickly rejected.

The Celestial Dragons, who possess their own world, seem to be invincible. Even if Yakumo is stronger than them, if he cannot find the door, he is destined to be unable to annihilate them.

Are we just supposed to wait?

If we can't rely on the game system, what can we count on?

A sense of confusion arose in Yakumo's heart. He was used to constantly improving his attributes to defeat his enemies, but when his attributes hit a bottleneck, or when he couldn't exchange gold coins for them for the time being, he didn't know how to solve this problem.