After the Phantom Troupe split up, Uvogin, Nobunaga, Phinks, and Feitan followed the Shandian warriors' directions and headed toward the site of the Ordeals.
Riding a bamboo raft down the Milky Road, the four men soon found themselves facing a massive, ancient stone statue. It depicted a grotesque human face, and inside its gaping mouth were four tunnels leading in different directions.
Uvogin looked up. Above each tunnel was a carving: Ordeal of Balls, Ordeal of Iron, Ordeal of String, and Ordeal of Swamp.
"So, this is the entrance to the Priests' territory the Boss was talking about?"
Uvogin grinned, cracking his knuckles. Good. Another fight.
"How do we choose?" He glanced back at the other three.
But even as he asked, his body was already moving toward the first tunnel—the Ordeal of Balls.
In his simple logic, the one listed first had to be the strongest.
Nobunaga rested his hand on his katana hilt, his expression calm as he walked toward the second tunnel, the Ordeal of Iron. "I'll take this one."
Based on the name, it likely involved blades.
Phinks chose the Ordeal of String, leaving the Ordeal of Swamp for Feitan. Once they had picked their lanes, Nobunaga looked up at the entrances and spoke. "Before we left, the Boss mentioned that while these guys aren't physically strong, we need to be careful of their ability to predict attacks..."
However...
Uvogin had already walked into his tunnel and vanished.
Phinks waved his hand impatiently and stepped into his own tunnel without looking back.
Feitan just gave Nobunaga a flat stare, muttered a single word—"Noisy"—and disappeared into the Ordeal of Swamp.
"..."
A vein popped on Nobunaga's forehead. Wasting my breath on a bunch of muscle-heads...
He sighed, suppressed the urge to cut them, and walked into his own tunnel.
"Tch."
"Idiots."
---
Uvogin was the first to emerge. He looked up to find that the exit of the Ordeal of Balls opened out onto a massive cliff floating above the sea of clouds.
In the air, countless white spheres, about the size of yoga balls, were drifting aimlessly.
One of the balls floated toward Uvogin. He reached out and poked it.
Pop.
But the moment it burst, a man-sized carnivorous flower sprang out from the airy sphere and clamped its jaws down on Uvogin.
CRACK.
However...
Uvogin's shoulder didn't even have a scratch. Instead, the flower's teeth shattered on impact. The plant seemed to shed tears of pain before falling limply from the sky.
As if that action had triggered a trap, more and more white balls began to flock toward Uvogin.
BANG!
CLANG!
Some contained bombs, some had hammers, some held biting monsters, and others released arm-thick anacondas.
Explosions kicked up dirt and debris until Uvogin's figure was completely obscured by the smoke.
"Hoh hoh hoh~!"
A high-pitched, mocking laugh echoed from above. A round, obese man with short limbs was sitting on top of a floating ball. He had a tiny pair of white wings on his back, and he bounced up and down in rhythm with his laughter.
"I am one of the four Priests guarding this Forest of Illusion! Satori of the Forest!"
"Welcome to the Ordeal of Balls, where the survival rate is 10%!"
"Are you ready to offer up your heart? Hoh hoh hoh!"
"Looks like I came to the right place," a nonchalant voice drifted out from the dust cloud.
As the smoke cleared, the grin on Satori's punchable face slowly stiffened.
Uvogin stood there... completely unscathed.
"What are these things called? They're kinda fun."
Uvogin looked interested. He turned to a white ball floating next to him, raised his hand, and casually backhanded it.
SPLAT.
The ball... along with the red-billed crocodile inside it... was obliterated in a shower of blood and gore.
"..."
"T-This is called a Surprise Cloud. It has the buoyancy of a cloud but can store various objects inside," Satori answered honestly, his voice trembling slightly as he looked at Uvogin's terrifying face.
Something is wrong... shouldn't the lost intruder be the one trembling right now?
"So it's basically a loot box," Uvogin said, losing interest. He turned his attention to the enemy.
"10% survival rate... does that mean you're the strongest of the four Priests?"
"Of course! I am Satori of the Forest!"
Hearing the question, Satori assumed Uvogin was scared. He puffed out his chest, his confidence returning.
"Then I definitely picked the right door." Uvogin's face lit up with the excitement of a battle junkie. "Come on!"
...This isn't going how I expected.
"B-Bluffing! You're just bluffing!"
To maintain his dignity as a Priest, Satori attacked first. Despite his bloated appearance, he moved with surprising agility. He leaped, spreading his arms like a giant Surprise Cloud, drifting through the air and launching a palm strike straight at Uvogin.
"Hah!"
He channeled the force into his palm. His Mantra told him the enemy wouldn't dodge!
"Hidden within my palms are Impact Dials that release powerful shockwaves!"
"Fall off the cliff and die, intruder!"
"Hoh hoh hoh—"
But a split second later, Satori's expression froze.
His hands connected solidly with Uvogin's chest. The Impact Dial released its stored energy, the recoil numbing Satori's own arms. He could clearly see the shockwave rippling across the man's pectoral muscles.
And yet... the intruder stood there like a statue. He hadn't moved an inch.
"..."
Satori looked up, staring into Uvogin's face, which looked even more demonic with the sun behind it.
"H-How?!!"
Uvogin looked down, genuinely confused. That's it?
Did I misunderstand something?
For an attack like that, he didn't even need to use Armament Haki.
Thinking the guy was underestimating him and holding back, Uvogin looked down at the Priest and sighed.
"Put some back into it. I can take it."
"..."
"..."
"Damn you! Don't look down on me!!"
Satori thought Uvogin was mocking him. Enraged, he unleashed a flurry of palm strikes, unloading every ounce of impact stored in his Dials until he was panting for breath.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
But the intruder remained immovable as a mountain.
"???"
Uvogin's face fell into disappointment. Is this really the best he's got?
This guy is a Priest?
"Trash."
Bored, Uvogin raised his arm and swung a lazy slap toward Satori's face. "Try one of mine."
But then, Uvogin's eyes widened in surprise.
Just as his hand was about to connect, Satori utilized the elasticity of the Surprise Cloud to bounce away, narrowly dodging the blow and floating back into the air to create distance.
"Huh? What ability is that?"
Uvogin was certain that with this guy's physical stats, there was no way he could have reacted to that swing. And yet, it was as if he knew it was coming before Uvogin even moved.
The corner of Uvogin's mouth curled up. The smile returned to his face as he looked up at Satori.
"Okay... now things are getting interesting."