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As Bai Ye stepped into his inner world...
He looked up at the sky and saw a newly imprinted law glowing above—and his lips curled into a big grin.
[Devouring Law!!!]
Bai Ye rubbed his chin and glanced over at Wapol's corpse.
Thanks to the unique nature of this inner world, Bai Ye could clearly see waves of law radiating from Wapol's body.
And from his perspective, those law waves almost seemed to have minds of their own.
Maybe they'd already realized something had changed in their world.
Bai Ye could even sense a hint of unease coming from those waves.
He wasn't all that surprised, though—not after remembering a certain late-series reveal: "Devil Fruits choose their users."
Back in the ancient days of the Qi-cultivating warriors, even magical weapons without sentience were said to choose their owners.
So for something as legendary as a Devil Fruit—this world's "top-tier treasure"—having a bit of pride made total sense.
Take the Nika Fruit, for example. The World Government had been after it for centuries and still couldn't get their hands on it.
What did surprise Bai Ye was the change happening in front of his eyes.
The law waves… they were splitting?
Just a moment ago, they'd been tightly connected. Now, they were in chaos.
Some waves even looked like they were trying to break off and go solo.
"Wait a sec…"
A thought hit Bai Ye.
"Is this how lower-tier Devil Fruits come into existence?"
He rubbed his chin and started to speculate.
Maybe when the law waves can't find a new host for too long, they start to drift apart…
That could cause part of the power to break off?
And that fragment becomes a new, weaker Devil Fruit?
Basically, a "lower-tier" version of the original one.
Then maybe, sometime later, the original Devil Fruit gets reprojected back into the world?
Just within a few minutes, Bai Ye had come up with yet another theory.
He even wondered—what if the lower-tier version of the Munch-Munch Fruit only gave you power-ups from eating food instead of devouring everything?
He could've kept observing, but honestly, getting the actual Munch-Munch Fruit was way more important to him right now.
So with a single thought, Bai Ye summoned an apple from the outer world into his inner world.
And the moment it arrived—
The Devouring Law waves shot into the apple like a bunch of cats pouncing on a mouse.
In no time, the once-ordinary apple transformed into a full-blown Devil Fruit.
If Bai Ye had ever looked at a Devil Fruit encyclopedia, he'd recognize it immediately—it was the Munch-Munch Fruit.
Looking at the fruit in front of him, Bai Ye couldn't help but feel a surge of pride.
In a way...
He'd just discovered a foolproof method to extract Devil Fruit powers from a user.
Maybe even better—and faster—than Blackbeard's method.
"…Only problem is, I still can't strip away the curse."
That was Bai Ye's one regret.
Even though the Devouring Law he'd imprinted in his inner world came from the source…
He didn't yet have the power to remove the curse tied to it.
If he tried to force it, it could completely scramble the law waves.
And if that happened, Bai Ye really would be crying.
The Munch-Munch Fruit lets you eat anything and either absorb it into your body or use it to create new things.
Wapol could even eat himself to change his own body shape.
Honestly? Calling this just a "law" doesn't feel like it does it justice.
Eat a fruit, and boom—you instantly gain the ability to devour anything, no digestion needed, and make it part of yourself.
If someone told Bai Ye this was straight-up the essence of the universe, he'd probably believe it.
But when Bai Ye looked at the Devouring Law he'd recorded inside his inner world…
He couldn't help but feel a bit underwhelmed.
"…Doesn't seem quite as powerful as I expected."
He wasn't trying to humblebrag—he was just honestly reflecting on the difference after carefully examining the law in his own inner world.
In theory, with the Devouring Law recorded, his inner world should've granted him the same power.
But it didn't feel anywhere near as crazy as the Munch-Munch Fruit's abilities in the One Piece world.
"Is it because of the difference in world tiers?"
Bai Ye's inner world had been built through Daoist techniques—essentially cultivation methods from an ancient Qi-refining world.
So it made sense that there'd be a pretty big power gap between that and the One Piece world.
Maybe that's also why he'd been able to capture the Munch-Munch Fruit's law so easily.
It was a bit of a letdown… but honestly, Bai Ye was already thrilled with the results.
His main goal had always been to figure out what Devil Fruits really were…
And to see if he could take those abilities from their users—and maybe even record them.
Now he'd not only achieved both, but also made some unexpected gains.
First: the Devouring Law.
Bai Ye realized that his inner world could not only record it—
But use it too.
And that opened the door to an idea he'd always dreamed of:
Devouring the inner world from the Daoist Compilation.
Even though both inner worlds were technically his...
He only had access to the second one—not full ownership.
It was like having a master key to enter someone else's house, but it still wasn't your house.
For a Qi cultivator, owning a complete, high-level inner world meant a massive jump in power.
That was Bai Ye's third reason for killing Wapol.
If he could devour the other inner world using the Devouring Law...
He might finally evolve completely—and maybe even become invincible.
Too bad the version of the Devouring Law he got wasn't powerful enough… yet.
So all Bai Ye could do was wait—and hope that day would come sooner rather than later.
With that thought, he gave a mental command, and a blaze of fire appeared inside the inner world, cremating Wapol's body until there was nothing left.
As a token of gratitude for Wapol's "contribution to the world," Bai Ye made sure the guy got a full-on fire burial.
Though... not even ashes remained.
After a brief moment of silent thanks, Bai Ye left the inner world.
As for the Munch-Munch Fruit, he didn't bring it out right away.
Partly because it'd be hard to explain.
But also because the person he had in mind for it hadn't shown up yet.
That's right—Bai Ye had already made plans for this fruit.
With a treasure like this, of course he was going to give it to one of his own people.
Considering the Munch-Munch Fruit's two main traits—devouring and combining things—there was really only one person on the Straw Hat Crew who fit the bill.
That underwear-loving, pervy cyborg who kept yelling "SUPER!!!" all the time.
Bai Ye was honestly looking forward to seeing what that guy could do once he got the Munch-Munch Fruit's powers.
"....."