Deva Path Pain followed the direction Konan pointed, walking over at an unhurried pace. If an ordinary person had walked through such a silent, pitch-black cave for half an hour, they would have been trembling with fear. Even Ming Jing and Konan had only made it out by holding each other's hands, yet Deva Path Pain's expression never changed from beginning to end. His face remained locked in that eternally cold expression.
At last, he reached the deepest part of the cave and saw both the plant that had frightened Konan away and the mysterious spring.
The plant noticed Deva Path Pain as well. Its red fruits let out a rapid ringing sound—"jingle, jingle, jingle"—and tens of thousands of branches shot toward him like countless arrows piercing his heart.
Just as the branches were about to surround Deva Path Pain, he raised one hand, his palm facing the innumerable branches rushing at him. "Shinra Tensei!"
With a muffled boom, every branch was blasted apart and sent flying by Deva Path Pain. Yet unexpectedly, the plant's regenerative ability was downright terrifying. Within seconds, new branches grew from the ones that had just been broken, and they surged toward Deva Path Pain once more without pause.
"Hmph!" Deva Path Pain barked coldly as a black rod slid from his sleeve. He gripped it in one hand and swung it with fierce force. No matter how frenzied the branches' attacks became, they could not break through Pain's defense.
The red fruits on the plant shook more urgently, their ringing growing shriller. Suddenly, one red fruit was flung out by the whipping branches and smashed toward Deva Path Pain's head.
Deva Path Pain swept his rod, its tip striking the red fruit. To his surprise, the fruit exploded on impact!
With a bang, Deva Path Pain was blown away, and even his mysterious black robe patterned with red clouds was damaged.
The plant's ringing suddenly turned pleasant as thousands of branches shot at Deva Path Pain like lightning.
"Shinra Tensei!" Deva Path Pain used the technique again to repel the branches, and his Rinnegan finally regarded the plant seriously.
The plant knew neither pain nor fear. Its branches continued their mad assault on Deva Path Pain. Man and plant fought fiercely underground, tearing through rock and soil as though they were paper and easily blasting out hundreds of caves of varying sizes.
Deva Path Pain felt a slight pressure. Another black rod slid from his other sleeve, and with a rod in each hand, he moved like a dragon and tiger beneath the earth. For a time, he actually suppressed the plant's rampant aggression. The plant realized it had kicked an iron plate, and the red fruits hanging from its branches were flung out as though they cost nothing—nearly twenty of them at once.
"Shinra Tensei!" This was exactly the moment Deva Path Pain had been waiting for. Chakra burst from him, blasting the red fruits back.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
The consecutive explosions collapsed much of the cave and separated Deva Path Pain from the plant. But this was not the result he wanted. He swept his black rod, directly brushing aside every stone and clump of dirt blocking his path. When he moved closer, he discovered that in such a short time, the plant had formed a shell-shaped canopy, tightly protecting the spring.
Deva Path Pain narrowed his eyes. It seemed this spring truly was something good. In that case, he would gladly accept it!
"Banshō Ten'in!" Deva Path Pain extended one hand, drawing all the spring water toward himself.
"Jingle, jingle, jingle!"
This time, the plant was truly enraged. Its rapid, clipped ringing conveyed its determination. Countless branches stabbed toward Deva Path Pain from every direction. "Shinra Tensei!" Deva Path Pain gripped his black rod and thrust upward. With immense force and Chakra working together, he blasted open a huge gap leading outside. Then, holding the spring water in one hand and his black rod in the other, he flew out without hesitation.
The plant pursued relentlessly. Branch after branch squeezed out through that opening after Deva Path Pain. From afar, it looked like a volcanic eruption. The difference was that a volcano spewed lava, while this one spewed plant branches.
One slender, leafless branch moved as fast as lightning. Concealed by the other branches, it pierced the outside of Deva Path Pain's thigh in the blink of an eye. Before he could react, the branch burrowed into Pain's body.
"Hm?!" Deva Path Pain was startled. This body had been strengthened and refined by Nagato many times. Nagato was confident that even an A-rank ninjutsu would struggle to harm it, yet a mere plant had effortlessly burrowed into it! While Deva Path Pain broke the branches with his black rod and continued rising, the section left inside his body seemed intent on taking root in his blood vessels. He could feel it trying to feed on flesh and blood to grow!
"What a pity..." From nearly a thousand meters in the air, Deva Path Pain looked down at the writhing mass of branches below, like a swarm of dancing snakes. If this plant had entered the body of a truly living creature, it would have been an utterly horrifying experience. Unfortunately, Deva Path Pain was not strictly a living person. The branch could not drink any blood from his body at all!
Deva Path Pain thrust one hand into his own body and pulled out a three-meter-long branch that was still wriggling from the outside of his thigh.
"Looks like I can't leave you in this world." Deva Path Pain frowned slightly. This thing could not distinguish friend from foe. What if it accidentally harmed an ally in the future? It had grown this long in such a short time within Deva Path Pain's body, which barely had any blood. Wouldn't it suck a flesh-and-blood creature dry within minutes? More importantly, what Nagato wanted was world peace, not destruction.
So how should he deal with this thing? Nagato fell into thought. Shinra Tensei would not work. Wasn't the severed branch still twisting in Deva Path Pain's hand? If he used an enormous Shinra Tensei and blasted the plant into tens of thousands of pieces scattered all around, that would be a true disaster!
"Looks like I can only use that technique!" Nagato quickly made his decision. Under his control, Deva Path Pain brought his hands together, then slowly pulled them apart. A tiny black sphere appeared between his palms.
"Chibaku Tensei!" With a casual flick of his hand, Deva Path Pain sent the black sphere flying five hundred meters above the plant. Its immense attraction pulled in all the plant's branches. The mountain crumbled apart as well, turning into chunks of stone large and small that were drawn upward and stuck to the plant.
Once the mountain's rocks had been pulled away, Deva Path Pain could see the situation underground. A trace of tension actually appeared on his cold face. He saw the plant's roots—like countless spiderwebs layered over one another, spread across the underground in layer after layer.
"Hmph!" Deva Path Pain snorted coldly, and the black sphere's pull grew even stronger. It actually tore the plant's roots from the earth layer by layer. The plant sensed the threat and tried to resist. It struggled with all its strength, stabbing branches out through the rocks and dirt and continuously flinging red fruits at Deva Path Pain. Unfortunately, those fruits were also drawn back by the black sphere's attraction. They exploded one after another beside the branches, directly blowing apart the branches that had so painstakingly pierced through.
A quarter of an hour later, a bird's-nest-sized sphere hung in the sky, with the plant compressed at its very center by Deva Path Pain. He deliberately descended from the air and inspected it carefully. Only after confirming that the plant had not left behind a single root or branch did he breathe a sigh of relief. Deva Path Pain flew beneath the earthen sphere and pressed one hand against its surface. "Shinra Tensei!"
With a boom, the earthen sphere shot into the atmosphere like a rocket, blasted directly into outer space by Deva Path Pain.
In the distance, Ming Jing watched the giant sphere fly farther and farther away and said with relief, "Looks like it's been dealt with! Good thing we ran quickly earlier, or we really would've died in there."
"I'm leaving first. You can go back on your own!" Konan withdrew her gaze, gave Ming Jing that instruction, then grew wings again and flew away. Watching Konan's retreating figure, Ming Jing understood that she was worried about Nagato's condition.
After a while, Deva Path Pain returned, carrying a sphere of water. He looked at Ming Jing and said, "You saved Konan this time. I don't like owing favors. Come to the Land of Rain in a week, and I'll repay you."
"No need to be so distant, right? Maybe we can become good friends," Ming Jing said tentatively.
Deva Path Pain was silent for a moment before saying, "I don't need friends."
Before you continue