"S-so strong! Luffy and the other two are no match for him at all. Is this how strong a priest is?"
Watching their fight from the bow, Chopper stared with his mouth wide open in amazement and spoke as he looked at Luo Chen's back.
"Hey, hey, hey, no way! Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, what's wrong with you? Hurry up and beat that priest already!!!"
Usopp was also stunned by Luo Chen's strength and kept urging them to end the fight quickly and defeat him.
"How could it be as easy as you make it sound? We don't even know if we can beat him!"
Zoro tightened his grip on his swords and spoke without looking back, then fixed a wary gaze on Luo Chen.
"Heave-ho! Heave-ho! Great, I finally got my head out! Be careful, you two. The enemy's really strong."
After several attempts, Luffy finally pulled his head out of the ground. He stared at Luo Chen with a tense expression, then turned his head slightly to warn the other two.
"You don't have to tell me. This guy's stronger than any opponent we've faced before. If we let our guard down even a little, we could all get taken out. You two be careful too!"
Sanji walked over as he spoke, rubbing his left foot, which had gone a little numb.
Just as they were all gearing up for another round to settle the fight once and for all, Luo Chen suddenly waved his hand and interrupted them.
"All right, I have a pretty good idea of your strength now, so I don't intend to keep fighting. Let's face each other again and settle this when the trial begins!!!"
"What?!!!"
The Straw Hats were stunned. Trembling, Usopp asked him,
"You mean you're not going to attack us again now?"
"That's right. I only followed that young lady here because I wanted to see what the people Enel and the others called intruders were like.
"Now that I know your strength, I naturally won't attack again. Let's wait until the trial begins!"
With that, Luo Chen turned and left.
"Hey! Wait! What's this trial you've been talking about? Do we really have to take part in it?"
Seeing him leave, Nami was the first to recover and called after him.
"You'll find out about the trial soon enough. Someone will explain it to you, so there's no need to rush. You'll definitely take part, and then you'll see how interesting it is. I'll be looking forward to your choice too."
Luo Chen didn't stop as he answered Nami's question. He explained without looking back, his figure gradually disappearing from sight as he walked across the sea of clouds.
"A trial? Sounds like it should be fun. Let's take part and see!!!"
With one hand on his straw hat, Luffy looked in the direction Luo Chen had gone and spoke with a hint of excitement.
"Hey!! Wait! Have you really decided to take part in that trial? You can tell it's dangerous just from the name. For everyone's safety, we shouldn't take part in it."
Usopp immediately ran over, grabbed him by the shoulders, and shouted at him, trying to get Luffy to give up the dangerous idea.
"Give it up, Mr. Long Nose. It's no use. Never mind whether we can persuade the captain to give up the idea, didn't that priest already say we'd definitely take part? So this should be that god's arrangement. We can't escape it."
Robin also walked over to him and told him the one fact he was least willing to admit.
"Why do we have to run into something like this after going through so much to reach Sky Island?"
Nami held the ship's railing with one hand and covered her face with the other, sighing as she spoke.
Nearby, Conis and her father both looked as though they wanted to say something but held back, watching them with troubled expressions.
"Heh heh! Just you wait, pirates. Even Lord Luo Chen, the priest, said so. What awaits you is endless hell. None of you will escape."
Captain McKinley hid himself in the bushes and watched them, speaking quietly.
Meanwhile, below, the Straw Hat Pirates were engaged in a heated argument over whether to stay and take part in the trial or sail away at once.
Nami was the strongest advocate for leaving. After witnessing Enel's terrifying lightning and Priest Luo Chen's formidable strength, she had no desire to stay and only wanted to sail back to the Blue Sea as quickly as possible.
But Luffy, as captain, was eager to find out what the trial Luo Chen had spoken of was like, and even Nami's vehement objections did no good.
With no other choice, Nami and the others returned to the ship first, intending to take the cloud road back down to the Blue Sea as soon as Luffy and the others came aboard, without giving him a chance to react.
"Um... I know a safer, more timely way down. You only have to take that route, and you'll be able to leave Sky Island quickly."
Looking troubled, Conis came aboard and spoke to Nami and the others on the ship.
"Really? Thank you so much, Conis!"
Hearing that there was a quick and safe way out of there, Nami excitedly grasped her hand and thanked her.
"Mm, it's nothing. The route is here..."
Conis absentmindedly said it was nothing, then showed Nami the route out before leaving the ship and returning home to entertain Luffy and the other two, who were still at her house.
Not long after Nami happily directed everyone to raise the anchor and lower the sails, a giant sea crab, the Express Shrimp, a specialty of Sky Island, emerged from the seabed. It clamped its pincers onto the broken wings along the outside of the ship and swiftly carried them off in a certain direction.
"Huh? What's going on? Why did a sea crab come out? And where is it taking us?"
Nami braced herself against the deck and shouted.
"Tch. Keep an eye on the ship. I'll make it stop."
With that, Zoro jumped off the ship and landed on the Express Shrimp's hard shell. He drew his swords and quickly slashed along its pincer.
"Clang, clang, clang!!!"
A harsh metallic cutting sound rang out. The Express Shrimp's hard shell was sliced open, and several streams of green liquid sprayed out.
"Hmph!!!"
Seeing that his attack had worked, Zoro smiled and prepared to strike again, but Robin called out and stopped him.
"Unfortunately, that won't work! Come back up first, Mr. Swordsman."
Robin threw a rope ladder down to him and told him to climb back up.
"Tch!..." Zoro was about to argue with her.
"Look behind us first!"
Hearing Robin's next words, he turned to look behind them.
"Splash!!!"
A huge school of giant Sky Island fish was pursuing their ship. If they stopped the Express Shrimp, things might turn out even worse.
Zoro therefore gave up on stopping it and climbed back aboard, letting it take them to the place that god wanted them to go.
Meanwhile, Luffy and the other two were beside themselves with worry when they saw Nami and the others being carried away with the Going Merry. Led by Conis, they arrived at the dock, preparing to take a ship to the trial grounds, the Sacred Land Upper Yard, and rescue them.
"Look, Usopp, Sanji! This bull-headed ship is amazing! Let's borrow this one to go rescue Nami and the others!"
Luffy and his companions had arrived at the dock under the hostile glares of Sky Island's residents. On seeing a grand, luxurious ship, Luffy stood in front of it and spoke to them excitedly.
"Thud!!!"
Sanji kicked him in the head and said,
"Shut up. We're going to rescue Nami, Robin, and the others, not go sightseeing."
"Follow me. The boat I'm lending you is over here."
Conis then led them to a black waterbird boat at the end of the dock and introduced it to them.
"This is the Crow. It's the boat I used when I was little, before I learned how to ride a Waver."
"You can hardly call this a crow. It looks more like a waterbird!" Usopp remarked.
"It's so lame!"
Luffy stared at the Crow with his mouth wide open, making no attempt to hide his disdain.
Just as everyone thought they were about to board the boat and leave the dock, and were ready to breathe a sigh of relief, Luffy's next words made their hearts leap again.
"I don't want to go anymore!"