Secret

Uchiha Zhuang watched the coffin slowly creak open, his heart tightening with anticipation. He hoped for a flash of golden light to reveal some hidden treasure; it felt just like opening a blind box. Finally, his two shadow clones used all their might to push the lid aside, only to stare at the contents in utter bewilderment. Uchiha Zhuang stepped forward and peered inside. Ho! A hollow, golden sphere shimmering with light lay before him. Its design was exquisite, adorned with intricate carvings of birds, beasts, fish, and flowers, radiating a profound sense of aesthetic beauty. Uchiha Zhuang looked at his clones, and one reached out to lift it. As Uchiha Zhuang examined the sphere closely, he discovered a smaller golden ball inside, perfectly integrated into the whole. At this moment, Persia slowly stirred awake, her eyes landing on the golden sphere as she sighed, "Gold, gold, gold." "I know it's gold, and very valuable at that," Uchiha Zhuang remarked. Persia used natural energy to communicate with him, "This is Jinkela, the sacred relic of the Balaxia shrine, the embodiment of wisdom. Holding it can cure brain poison." "What is brain poison?" Uchiha Zhuang asked. "It means your brain is malfunctioning," Persia replied. Uchiha Zhuang was speechless; this was clearly an artifact for dispelling mental control. As he held the Jinkela sphere, a warm current surged into his mind, followed by a sense of relief so profound that his entire body's fatigue vanished in an instant. Feeling refreshed, Uchiha Zhuang offered the golden ball to Persia, but she hurriedly refused, saying, "I'm afraid." Suspecting nothing, Uchiha Zhuang sealed the golden ball in a scroll, then looked at the massive golden coffin and, steeling his resolve, used his final sealing scroll to pack it away as well.

The two walked slowly along the temple path, and as the light at the entrance grew brighter, Uchiha Zhuang grew vigilant. By convention, this was when the monsters should appear. Sure enough, the statues, which had been thick and imposing, began to tremble as chunks of stone fell away. Uchiha Zhuang pulled Persia along and sprinted toward the exit. By the time they reached the outside, the temple began to collapse, sending a massive cloud of dust and debris flying. Though the temple fell, the giant statues remained standing, unmoving. Uchiha Zhuang finally caught a clear look at them: flat noses, large ears, gaping mouths with fangs, round faces, and bald heads—the spitting image of fifty-year-old men. The statues slowly turned their heads, and their dull stone eyes suddenly sprouted living eyeballs! They were the same eyes that had chased them by the thousands earlier. Uchiha Zhuang realized these statues were being controlled. With no time to think, he grabbed Persia to continue their escape, but she nimbly dodged his grasp, cleanly severed the rope, and stood at a distance, watching him.

"Did you control Persia last night, or when the eyeball monsters appeared?" Uchiha Zhuang asked calmly. Persia gave a charming smile. "Guess! Maybe I am her!" "Fine, I won't bother asking. What do you want?" "I want you to go to the very bottom, and then I will tell you what to do!" "And if I refuse?!" "You can try, young man." The two locked eyes. Uchiha Zhuang's two-tomoe Sharingan had no effect on her; she stared back with a smile, her eyes clear and devoid of any killing intent. "I can go, but you must withdraw those statues!" "That won't do. My delicate body couldn't withstand the ravages of a hero like you," the smiling Persia said. Uchiha Zhuang understood, so he turned and headed downward. Persia followed at a distance, and the statues slowly came to a halt, their eyeballs retracting back into the stone.

Along the way, Uchiha Zhuang kept asking, "Who are you? What do you want? Where is this place?" But she would only smile and refuse to answer, "That is a secret," like a robot programmed to repeat a single line. Uchiha Zhuang deliberately walked slowly, and she followed suit, unbothered by his tactics. However, if he stopped, she would urge him to hurry. Uchiha Zhuang tried sprinting at full speed, but she kept pace as if tireless. They descended for countless kilometers. By Uchiha Zhuang's pace, he should have covered seventy or eighty kilometers in three hours, yet he checked his watch—nearly six hours had passed, and the depths remained shrouded in darkness. "If your goal is to exhaust me, you should give up now. The body of Persia you've possessed cannot handle such long-distance running." "Hehe, we are almost there, young man. It is just below." The deeper they went, the more chilling the aura radiating from Persia became, making even Uchiha Zhuang's vigorous body shiver. He turned his head, ignoring her, and continued downward. Sure enough, within half an hour, the scene below came into view: a massive open-air sacrificial ground with four metal pillars as thick as a man standing upright. The ground was also metal, stained with grime as if uncleaned for ages, and the surroundings were littered with countless skulls and shattered bones. As he stepped onto the ground, Uchiha Zhuang noticed a pool of water beneath the altar, dark and murky, perfectly still. Walking along the only path to the altar, Uchiha Zhuang moved slowly, recovering his strength while saying, "We've arrived. Even if I am to die here, please let me die knowing the truth!" Persia moved closer to Uchiha Zhuang and whispered, "I am the object of the Balaxia sacrifices. I am their god."

Uchiha Zhuang stopped in his tracks, looking at Persia in disbelief. "I imagine that elf has already told you. During the catastrophe a thousand years ago, the entire nation of Balaxia used divine power to protect the God Peak and the surrounding forests. Unfortunately, this was done while they forcibly controlled me. In the face of disaster, a so-called god is nothing more than a rag for the people—discarded once used." She grew more agitated as she spoke, eventually becoming hysterical. "When they used the Anti-Magic Stone to trap me and fix me to this altar, did you think this was my doing? No! It was those beasts! To stimulate my divine power, they slaughtered half the women, elderly, and children of the nation, pouring their resentment and blood onto this altar." Her expression turned calm as she fell silent for a moment, then continued, "With the resentment, the blood, the magic array, and the Anti-Magic Stone, my divine power was drained on this altar. The power I unleashed through the array held back the riots of the otherworldly Divine Tree. After the disaster passed, Balaxia sent their strongest men. I was ravaged on this altar for ten full days. They wanted to use me to bear children with divine power, but how could a god unite with ants? During that time, because the blood polluted the spirit spring beneath the altar, the spring grew restless. Under my manipulation, I finally used the spring's upheaval to destroy the array and wash away the ugly men crawling on me. Thus, the revenge began!"

Persia looked at Uchiha Zhuang with a sweet smile, as pure as a lily in spring. In a daze, Uchiha Zhuang almost saw a young girl in a flower crown and golden robes smiling at him. He blinked hard; she was still her, yet something seemed different. Uchiha Zhuang continued to stall for time, "Then, the extinction of Balaxia was your doing. But a thousand years have passed; you should have let go of your hatred and moved on to reincarnation. This world no longer has a history of Balaxia, which means it has no history of you." Listening to his persuasion, she continued calmly, "Ants defiled my divine body, ants stole my divine power, and ants broke the covenant between us. Therefore, even if I lose my divinity forever, I must have my revenge. Do you think such hatred can be dissolved by time? Even after I sealed all the exits and tortured every single person in Balaxia to death, I felt no relief. This revenge makes me feel exhilarated and addicted. Thinking of the ugly faces and desperate pleas of those ants before they died makes me excited. I need more!" She grew increasingly manic, even dancing with joy. "I spent a hundred years torturing them one by one, from the old to the middle-aged, to the young. It is a pity that I spent the remaining nine hundred years in agonizing loneliness. No sacrifices, no voices, no kindness, no evil. I just wandered this so-called God Peak."

At this point, she regained her composure and naturally tucked her hair behind her ears. "Until I met you. From the moment you entered the cave I prepared for you, you slowly stepped into my world. I cannot be impatient anymore; I want to play with you properly. It would be best if you could keep me company for a while, Zhuang-kun!" Hearing this, Uchiha Zhuang froze. When was it? It was that moment! When he was chased by the eyeball monsters and felt dizzy in the room—this woman had ambushed him. She could read memories. Uchiha Zhuang's eyes widened, his Sharingan locked onto her. But she looked at him with the tenderness of a lover, staring deep into his eyes. "Leave Persia's body. I will no longer interfere with your history or your future, woman!" "Hehe."

She laughed softly. "That won't do. I still want to go to the outside world; I'm tired of playing here. Your natural aura is incredibly dense, dozens of times stronger than the elves who came in before! I need your power. Now, please stand obediently in the center of the altar, or this elf will die." "You mean elves like Persia have come in before?!" "Sa, who knows? That is a secret! Hahaha~"