Chapter 87 Encounter with Angels and Priests on the Sky Island"Yay!!! Angel sister, I'm here!!"
Sanji immediately executed a high-difficulty triple somersault in mid-air, yelling as he plunged into the white sea.
Zoro: "..."
"You perverted cook, you're even more embarrassing than them!"
A moment later, the beauties, dressed in bikinis—vacation gear brought from Alabasta—emerged from the cabin.
"Let's go! To the beach!"
Nami took the lead, jumping off the ship and rushing towards Luffy and the others. At that moment, fines and gods were forgotten.
Robin watched her exuberant companions, a gentle glint in her eyes: "This is the taste of adventure, it's been so long."
Just then, a melodious harp tune drifted on the wind.
"Who's there?"
Usopp instantly cowered, darting into the bushes.
"Something's coming?" Zoro's hand gripped his sword hilt.
Only Sanji's eyes turned into hearts, and his tongue lolled out: "Damn! That's... a real angel!!"
On a cloud not far away, a beautiful girl with wings on her back and a pure, elegant air was playing the harp. Seeing everyone's gaze, she stopped and gently greeted them: "Hey-soo."
Luffy: "..."
Everyone: "Hey-soo?"
"That's a greeting from the Skypiea people, roughly meaning 'hello'," Luffy explained.
"I see, hey-soo!" Everyone suddenly understood and returned the greeting in kind.
Luffy thought to himself: Couldn't you use a different word? This pronunciation sounds like... something... Japanese soldier.
"Are you from Qinghai?" The angelic girl, named Conis, approached carrying a harp. "Welcome to Angel Beach in the Land of Gods. Feel free to ask me anything."
"Ah! My heart has been struck!" Sanji writhed like a maggot. "Miss Conis, your eyes healed my desolate soul. Please allow me..."
That arrogant Enel had no idea that the maximum potential of his supposedly powerful Rumble-Rumble Fruit was at most 200 million volts.
But how could he have foreseen that Luffy possessed Misaka Mikoto's super template, capable of unleashing a terrifying 1 billion volts of lightning with a casual wave?
The difference in their power levels was more exaggerated than the distance between the East Blue and the New World.
Luffy's counterattack just now was merely a casual adjustment of the voltage to 300 million volts; this instantaneous energy burst directly pushed Enel's tolerance limit.
Thus, the comical and embarrassing scene just now unfolded.
"This is impossible!"
Enel, enraged, smashed the golden goblet in his hand, furiously unleashing his psychic net at full power, attempting to pinpoint Luffy and the others' location.
But he was immediately dumbfounded. Luffy seemed to be enveloped in a chaotic magnetic field, completely blocking all sensory signals.
Enel's usually cold face instantly turned a deep purplish-red, veins bulging on his forehead.
"Pass down the order! Have all the priests mobilize and lure these arrogant blasphemers to Apayado. I'll show them what divine punishment is!"
A priest with a goat's head, his goat's wool standing on end, trembled and shouted "Yes, sir!" before bursting out of the palace like a frightened wild dog.
The remaining four priests exchanged bewildered glances, their eyes filled with terror. None of them had ever seen their revered "god" so utterly disoriented.
The scene shifts to another point, where Conis is leading Luffy and his crew along a cloud-shrouded path, heading straight for the legendary, perilous entrance to the Trial of the Gods.
These so-called trial traps seem childish and laughable to Luffy, like children playing house.
However, for Zoro and Sanji, who haven't yet mastered Haki, these four priests with Observation Haki are practically perfect sparring partners.
Following Conis to the crossroads, Luffy, without hesitation, chose the most spacious and luxurious phoenix-tailed ship and swaggered into Apayado.
Since Luffy acquired his "power-up," his strength has been like a rollercoaster—powerful, but always fluctuating.
In terms of physical combat alone, he's only just barely scratched the surface of Armament Haki.
However, his targeted development of the Nikka Fruit, a heavily modified version, coupled with occasional system rewards, has already firmly established him among the top tier of pirates, comparable to the Sweet Commanders of Big Mom's crew or the top lieutenants of Kaido's crew.
While he might struggle against near-Admiral-level "first mates" like Katakuri or King, if he went all out against heavyweights like Cracker or Jack the Drought, it would be a piece of cake.
In contrast, the Straw Hat crew's other two main fighters seem somewhat lacking.
Despite Zoro and Sanji's rapid progress under the Navy's Rokushiki-inspired training, their overall combat strength is at best at the level where they easily defeated CP9 at Enies Lobby.
This is clearly a serious gap, lagging behind Luffy's rocket-like growth rate.
However, Luffy never doubted the potential of these two. After all, these two were prodigies who could leap from Haki novices to Yonko commander level in just two years. If Kaido knew about this speed of advancement, he'd probably cry in the bathroom.
The strongest creature trained diligently for forty years, only to be overtaken by a few youngsters who had been at sea for less than three years. Where's the justice in that?
It's also because of Luffy's "cheat code" that he's taken away many of the life-or-death battles that Zoro and the others should have experienced.
This created an awkward situation where their swordsmanship and physical skills weren't as solid as in the original story.
Therefore, Luffy had already planned that he absolutely couldn't steal the experience boost from the Four Priests; he had to leave it for Zoro and Sanji to level up.
The only variable now is that Sanji hasn't shown any signs of awakening Conqueror's Haki yet. Otherwise, once they both have Conqueror's Haki, Luffy could try teaching them the cheat method of extracting chakra.
In Luffy's understanding, swordsmanship imbued with chakra is essentially equivalent to simultaneously activating the dual effects of Ryuo (Advanced Armament Haki) and Conqueror's Haki.
Referring to the Naruto anime, Sakumo Hatake, who commanded respect even from the legendary Sannin, relied on this chakra-infused swordsmanship to become invincible throughout the ninja world.
While the bodies of people in the Naruto world are as fragile as paper, the amount of chakra they cultivate is far less impressive than that of the powerful figures in the One Piece world.
But this is precisely why ninja skills, while seemingly flashy, often lack the actual destructive power of a single punch in the world of One Piece.
In contrast, overpowered characters like Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju, having inherited the chakra of Indra and Ashura respectively, possess terrifyingly long mana bars, resulting in maximizing skill effects.
Luffy, after carefully studying the system templates several times, discovered a startling conclusion.