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And so, with all the townspeople watching, the Straw Hat crew boarded the Going Merry and slowly sailed into the Rainbow Mist.
It wasn't until then that Whedon, the island's ruler, finally showed up.
Philip and Rake, who had both been smacked down by the Straw Hats, arrived too.They stood beside Whedon, complaining about everything the crew had done.
But Whedon didn't seem to care. His eyes stayed locked on the giant ship at the dock.
After a long silence, he finally spoke.
"…It's been a long time, my pirate ship."
Fifty years ago, Whedon was a pirate captain. He raided and pillaged Luluka Island.
Back then, a group of kids formed their own crew—the Pumpkin Pirates.Henzo was one of them.
Long story short, the Pumpkin Pirates clashed with Whedon's crew aboard that very pirate ship.To save their captain, Rabani, Henzo dragged Whedon into the sea with him.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Pumpkin Pirates—and one of Whedon's men—got swallowed up by the Rainbow Mist.
Since then, Whedon became ruler of Luluka Island.And Henzo, determined to rescue his friends from the mist, had no choice but to work with Whedon to study it.
Now, Henzo had finally entered the Rainbow Mist once again.
"This is Aipus Kansad? The so-called Pirate Graveyard?"Robin murmured as she looked at the broken pieces of ships all around them.
"This place is kinda amazing," White Night said, eyes closed as he tried to sense the warped time and space surrounding them.
Yep, he'd totally called it.
The real reason he told Luffy there was treasure here… was to get into the Rainbow Mist.
In the original story, this place was full of strange phenomena.First, the space here is warped. No matter where you go, you always end up back at the same spot.
Then there's the time distortion—Even though fifty years passed outside, barely any time passed inside.
Not only that…This mist can even send people to different times.
In the anime, after Luffy and the Pumpkin Pirates escaped the mist,some went fifty years into the past… others fifty years into the future.
A place like this?Of course White Night was intrigued.
And now that he'd spent a bit of time sensing it—he was getting seriously hyped.
He was already about 80% sure.
The Rainbow Mist… was actually an unclaimed pocket dimension!!!
"Luffy, guys."Having reached this conclusion, White Night couldn't hold back his excitement anymore.
"I'm gonna step away for a bit. Don't worry—I'll be back real soon."
From their earlier interactions, White Night had already locked onto the core of this space.
But before going, he had to at least let the crew know.
"No problem, White Night,"Luffy replied without hesitation, nodding.
The others didn't object either.
If they had to pick the most reliable person on the crew, it'd definitely be White Night.So no one was too worried about him leaving.
Seeing everyone's trust, White Night smiled.
Then, without saying another word, he closed his eyes and used his innate Qi to connect with the Rainbow Mist.
In full view of the crew, he stepped forward—and disappeared.
The crew:"…Did something totally magical just happen?"
Before they could even process it, a few ghost-like figures appeared before them.
Then, they met the Pumpkin Pirates.
Meanwhile, White Night had entered a completely white space.
"So the seven colors combine into white, huh?"He muttered as he looked around.
His innate Qi wasn't just some inner power—it was a way for spiritual cultivators to communicate with the world.
That's how he used it to link up with the Rainbow Mist and enter its core.
But the thing that shocked him most wasn't the energy…
…it was how simple this core space was.
Normally, even tiny pocket dimensions have a chaotic, swirling core…
All things are born from chaos.
That was how ancient cultivators understood the world at its core.
The same applies to the inner world.
If someone could enter the very center of Bai Ye's inner world, they'd see a scene like the primordial chaos that birthed the universe.
This had nothing to do with the world's level or size.
After all, only chaos can give rise to all things.
But to Bai Ye's perception, the core of this rainbow mist wasn't some wild, messy energy—it felt more like a perfectly ordered palace.
It was like…
"…Was it created?"
Recalling ancient Taoist scriptures, Bai Ye began to piece things together.
The inner world—like the macro and micro cosmoses—are usually born out of the original chaos of the universe.
Those worlds were opened up by pioneers, not created from scratch.
But some beings, so powerful they could pierce the heavens and shake the earth, could use their own inner origin to create a world from nothing.
Those kinds of worlds weren't based on the unpredictable and infinite possibilities of chaos.
They were built on the creator's own ordered laws and essence.
To test his theory, Bai Ye slowly reached out with his right hand, palm facing the space in front of him.
As his hand got closer, a clear blue light began to glow from his palm.
This… was the origin power of Bai Ye's inner world.
Like I said earlier, the Taoist inner world is kind of like a 2.5-dimensional existence—it's parallel to the real world, and the two can't normally interact.
Only once a cultivator reaches a certain level can they pull their inner world into the real world.
After passing his inner demon trial, Bai Ye's control over his inner world had reached a new stage.
And with it came a new ability—manifesting the origin of his inner world!
In simple terms, he could now tap into a tiny bit of his world's origin power and use it in the real world.
Even if it was just a little, it was still the core power of an entire world.
For something like the rainbow mist—a small world—this made it the perfect medium.
"Let's take a gamble."
Bai Ye muttered to himself, already prepared to retreat at a moment's notice. After all, he had no idea what kind of reaction this 'infiltration' might trigger.
Bzzz~
The moment he placed his palm on the white space, he heard a faint hum.
Then, just like that, Bai Ye's inner world origin flowed smoothly into the core of the rainbow mist.
"…Just as I thought."
He could sense the rules and laws embedded into the core—marked clearly by someone.
"A creator's imprint, huh?"
Bai Ye murmured to himself.
"If I was able to come here, it either means the original owner of this space is dead... or they're in some serious trouble and can't afford to look after this little world."
Thinking that, Bai Ye smiled with satisfaction.
"Well, if I found it, no reason to give it away."
"....."