Starting with the Uchiha clan, they began cultivating demonic arts.

Chapter 226 Twin Gorges and Baroque Works

As the Going Merry approached the Reversible Mountain in the East China Sea, the roar of the towering waves filled their ears, and the ship's speed increased as it rushed toward the mountain waterway in front of them.

A moment later, the ship entered the ascent channel, and its speed suddenly increased rapidly. A strong wind rushed towards them, making it almost impossible to open their eyes.

"Wow, that's fast... Even speeding on the highway probably wouldn't reach this speed!"

It's terrifying that a boat can travel at such speeds. The buoyancy of the water causes the entire hull to rise, almost like skipping stones, making it much more difficult to control the direction.

Usopp kept shouting that he was going to die, but he kept a steady grip on the ship's rudder. This guy was also a god of war in desperate situations. The more critical the situation, the more godlike he became.

Of course, all the Straw Hat crew members have a bit of the "god of adversity" and "god of success" traits, but this trait is more pronounced in Usopp.

With Usopp at the helm and Nami in command, the Going Merry made it safely to the top of Reverse Mountain.

But as soon as he reached the summit and looked down, Usopp's expression changed drastically:

"Oh no! Oh no! Oh no! We're going to die! Oh no! Oh no! There's a ship coming from the other side!!"

Before Uchiha Tou reached the deck, he saw a huge pirate ship charging towards the Going Merry from the side, and frowned slightly.

"These are pirates from the West Blue?? What bad luck..."

The inverted waterfall connects the four seas, and ships from all four seas converge here simultaneously. Therefore, when riding the reverse waterfall, you might bump into pirate ships coming from other seas.

Of course, Upside Down is very large, and the Reverse Falls is also very long. The chances of being unlucky enough to collide with it are actually not many—but obviously, the Going Merry was not very lucky this time.

This is because Reverse Mountain is the gateway to the Grand Line, with a large number of ships coming and going; otherwise, it might take a year or two before any ships collide.

However, luck is a thing of the past. Of the ships that travel from Reverse Mountain to the Grand Line, seven or eight out of ten will crash into the Reverse Mountain's rock walls. Of the remaining two or three out of ten, about one in 100 ships will collide with ships from other seas. Obviously, Uchiha Tou and his crew were among those unlucky ones.

At that moment, the pirate crew opposite was also screaming in alarm, but unfortunately, under the impact of the seawater, the ship had no power to resist and charged directly towards the Going Merry.

Uchiha Touyu remained calm and composed, speaking in a low voice:

"Long Nose, you just need to steer the ship; leave the rest to me!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Uchiha Tobi unsheathed the Third Generation Kitetsu at his waist, drawing a blood-red arc as he rode the waves toward the opposite ship.

A crack was instantly cleaved open in the sea, and the pirate ship that had been charging forward was immediately split in two by the sword light, and then shattered completely under the impact of the ocean current with a loud bang.

The pirates on the pirate ship instantly turned into fireworks, scattering across the ground. Some crashed directly into the Upside-Down Mountain, turning into a cloud of blood mist, while others fell into the Reverse Waterfall, only showing their heads briefly before disappearing from sight.

"You damned bastard... Die!!"

With an angry shout, a bald, Mediterranean pirate flew out of the pirate ship, his hands transforming into wings in mid-air as he flew over.

"This guy... is the captain of the West Blue Vulture Pirates, a guy with a bounty of 2900 million Berries... his name is..."

Usopp was still yelling when a flash of light appeared, and the captain of the Vulture Pirates screamed as he fell from the sky. Uchiha Touya's figure blurred past, appearing behind the captain, then grabbing him by the back of the neck and stepping back onto the ship's deck.

"Watch out, long nose! Don't crash into the mountainside!"

"Huh!? Oh oh oh..."

Usopp, who was dumbfounded, finally came to his senses and hurriedly agreed with a few words. He occasionally looked up at Uchiha Tou, his face filled with fear.

For the timid Usopp, Uchiha Tou's ability to cleave a large pirate ship in two with a single sword strike was enough to intimidate him.

(Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, when are you going to come and save me?!)

After capturing the vulture-like birdman, Uchiha Hiyu stuffed him directly into a wooden barrel filled with seawater. This was a common practice for pirate crews without Seastone when capturing Devil Fruit users.

This is the first Devil Fruit user that Uchiha Touyu has captured, so naturally he wants to study the power of the Devil Fruit carefully.

Even if he himself doesn't need the flawed power of Devil Fruits, it's excellent for training his subordinates.

After narrowly escaping a collision with another ship in the sea, the rest of the journey was smooth sailing. The ship followed the currents of the Reverse Mountain downwards and entered the Grand Line without encountering the whale Laboon to obstruct it.

In fact, the appearance of the whale Laboon is an even less likely event than the collision of ships from the four seas. It should be noted that not all pirates from the four seas are easy targets; some of them are also strong individuals.

If Laboon had frequently appeared at the foot of Reverse Mountain, he would probably have been killed by powerful pirates from all over the world long ago!

For example, Shanks once lingered in the East China Sea for a period of time. If he had suddenly encountered this giant whale blocking his way when he passed by Reverse Mountain on his way back, he probably would have cut it in two on the spot!

Aside from these powerful individuals who retrace the Grand Line

The other seas are not the weakest seas like the East Blue. They are not lacking in powerful pirates who have mastered Haki or possess powerful Devil Fruit abilities. Although Laboon is big, his combat power is actually quite ordinary. If he were to frequently obstruct the sea lanes, an accident would have already occurred.

Uchiha Touyu wasn't too bothered by not encountering that giant whale. It was just that the giant whale was lucky, not that he was lucky, because he was the kind of strong person who could cause that giant whale to have an accident.

"Finally... we've arrived at the Grand Line!!"

"Wuhu!! Is this the Great Xing?! This is amazing!"

Seeing Nami and Usopp's happy faces, Uchiha Touyu waved his hand:

"Don't get too excited yet. The climate of the Grand Line isn't easy to adapt to, and we still need to get the Log Pose."

The Log Pose is an essential item for traversing between islands after entering the Grand Line. The Log Pose can record the magnetic field between islands in the Grand Line and directly point to the direction of the island.

This is an essential item for sailing the Grand Line. In fact, Nami bought some back in Loguetown because of Uchiha Tou's suggestion, but they were all blank Log Pose.

Uchiha Touyu estimated that there should be Memory Grips filled with magnetic energy in Loguetown, but obviously they wouldn't be sold openly. Although Smoker implemented a policy of cracking down on the big pirates and letting the small ones go, he was very strict about prohibited items like Memory Grips.

Actually, it was because Uchiha Tou and the others left too early. Otherwise, it wouldn't have been difficult to get a Log Pose filled with magnetism from Loguetown or the Navy.

As for now, Uchiha Touyu turned his gaze to the lighthouse beneath Mount Reverse.

"Let's go check out the lighthouse. The lighthouse keeper there might have a magnetically charged recording pointer."

Although Uchiha Toya knew that the tower guard was the Pirate King's ship doctor and not someone to be trifled with, he was just buying a Log Pose and wasn't going to go and kill someone directly, so he didn't have any reservations.

"Lying in at the beginning of the Grand Line, selling Log Pose... that sounds like a good business!"

Nami blinked her eyes. When it came to business, this little thief who cared so much about Beric always became very sensitive.

Whether Crocus, who was lurking in Twin Gorges, was actually in the business of trading Log Pose was unclear to Tomokazu Uchiha. However, considering how easily he gave the Log Pose to the Straw Hat Pirates, it was highly likely that he was involved in such a business.

Otherwise, if he only had one Log Pose and gave it to the Straw Hat Pirates, what would he use himself?

Soon the Going Merry arrived at Twin Gorges. Uchiha Tou jumped off the ship, but did not see the trendy-looking ship doctor.

"Isn't he here? Perhaps he went on the Laboon submarine... or maybe he went hunting at sea?"

After searching around, Uchiha Touyu had to confirm one thing: the lighthouse keeper of Twin Gorges was not here.

"Looks like we'll have to wait a while... I wonder when that old man will come back. Without the Log Pose, things will be really troublesome on the Grand Line."

"Feiyu, there are ships coming from the other side!"

Just then, Nami, who was standing on the bow of the ship, shouted loudly. Uchiha Touyu was slightly taken aback, turned his head, and swept his Observation Haki over. Sure enough, he saw a small ship in the distance.

"A ship from the Grand Line... That's strange, what are ships from the Grand Line doing here?"

Reverse Mountain is a place you can enter but not leave. It's not entirely impossible to leave the Grand Line, but it's absolutely impossible to get through Reverse Mountain. So generally speaking, only pirates from other seas come down from Reverse Mountain, and you never see ships from the Grand Line coming to this side of Reverse Mountain.

"Could it be a supply ship delivering goods to this lighthouse keeper?"

Uchiha Touyu's eyes lit up with a sudden thought. If Crocus wanted to live in Twin Gorges, he certainly couldn't just rely on fishing for food. He would need to communicate with the outside world, and there should be ships coming here to deliver supplies to him at fixed times.

However, Uchiha Touyu soon realized he had made a wrong guess, because he had already seen the two energetic young men and women on the bow of the ship.

A man carrying two baseball bats, wearing a crown and strange green clothes, was walking around on the deck, occasionally doing somersaults.

Another girl with blue hair, dressed in a trendy, youthful style, wearing clothes with strange patterns, was looking in this direction through binoculars.

"So it's the Barrot Works, and Princess Vivi and her partner at that. I remember they came here to hunt the whale Laboon and get its meat as food for the Whiskey Island bounty hunters..."

To be honest, Uchiha Touyu didn't know how to describe this behavior. Although the island whale had a relatively gentle nature, it was considered to be the weakest in terms of combat power among sea beasts of the same size.

But that refers to sea monsters of the same size! With Princess Vivi's limited skills, plus a useless agent from the Barrot Studio, wouldn't they be killed by a sneeze from Laboon?

Anyway, Uchiha Touyu had no idea how these two could be so audacious as to come here and cause trouble for Laboon.

The small sailboat was quite fast and soon arrived at the Twin Gorges dock. Vivi's partner, Mr. 9, was the first to get off, carrying two metal baseball bats, and swaggered up to Uchiha Tou.

He first glanced at Uchiha Touyu, then rummaged through his bag for a moment, and finally frowned:

"Huh? You're not a pirate after all!"

"So you're looking for bounty posters. I'm sorry, I'm not a pirate. My specific profession is adventurer plus bounty hunter."

Uchiha Touyu spoke lightly, but unexpectedly, Mr. 9's expression darkened even further upon hearing this:

"Bounty hunters? Aren't they in the same line of work? Seriously, they've actually come all the way from the Four Seas to the Grand Line. Is the bounty hunting profession this competitive now?"

"Hey kid, which sea area did you come from?"

"Um...we're from the East China Sea!"

It wasn't Uchiha Tou who spoke, but Usopp, who had just run off the ship. Hearing this, Mr. 9 looked up and snorted.

"The East Blue, is that the weakest sea? I've heard there's a pirate hunter there named Zoro who once refused a job offer from our Baroque Works. Could it be you?!"

"Zoro? His name has already spread throughout the Grand Line? And what kind of organization is Baroque Works?"

Usopp muttered to himself, only now realizing how awesome his former companion was! How come he hadn't noticed... Well, actually he already knew Zoro was awesome, after all, not just any swordsman could be praised by Hawkeye, the world's greatest swordsman.

"Huh!? You really are that pirate hunter Zoro? Wasn't your hair green? Perhaps you were afraid of the power of our Baroque Works, so you dyed it black!"

Mr.9 clearly misunderstood Usopp's words. He quickly did a few somersaults, picked up two baseball bats, and struck a pose that made Uchiha Touu's lips twitch.

"What happened? What's going on, Mr. 9?"

"Is a fight about to break out? Feiyu, are they pirates on the other side?"

Princess Vivi and Nami, seeing that a conflict seemed to have broken out, also ran over, looking at each other with wary expressions.

(End of this chapter)