Damn It

Uchiha Zhuang drew the Flowing Light Red Dragon Tachi and pointed it at Persia. "Oh! So this is your answer? The woman you care about is going to die, you know! Or are you one of those beasts too?" Her voice grew colder as she slowly approached him. "If I use Natural Energy to free you, can you guarantee we'll get out of here alive?" "This innocent little girl can. But you have to stay here with me!" Uchiha Zhuang realized there was no room for negotiation. He could only defeat her.

"Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!" He struck first, but Persia made no move at all. She simply slid sideways, avoiding the fireball, then thrust out her right hand. The still surface of the pool suddenly rippled, and lash after lash of water swept toward Uchiha Zhuang. Dozens of water whips lashed at him as he dodged and weaved at high speed. One whip missed, and Uchiha Zhuang flicked his hand, sending a dozen Shuriken toward Persia, mixed with Explosion Pills. Her attack faltered. She extended her left hand, and a water shield slowly formed in front of her. The Shuriken and Explosion Pills were ineffective against it. Uchiha Zhuang narrowed his eyes. His opponent wasn't using chakra, but pure Natural Energy. The so-called divine power she wielded was probably Natural Energy! The woman attacked again, turning a large amount of water into sharp spikes and sending them toward Uchiha Zhuang. He threw several Kunai, including Explosive Kunai, at Persia, then cried, "Water Style: Water Formation Wall!" The wall stopped every spike. The woman had no experience dealing with explosive-tag Kunai and still formed a water shield to block them. But the explosive tags ignited at the ends of the Kunai, and the powerful shock wave struck her, flipping her onto the ground. She rolled more than a dozen times before stopping. As the dust settled, Uchiha Zhuang stared at her motionless body from a distance.

Uchiha Zhuang stood on guard with his sword, completely unaware as two thin cords of water quietly emerged from the pool. They crept toward his heels, then suddenly wrapped around both ankles and yanked him into the air. Uchiha Zhuang had been caught off guard and paid dearly. Hanging helplessly, unable to brace himself, he swung back and forth, growing dizzy and disoriented. The woman slowly rose from the ground. Though covered in dust, she was unharmed. She sauntered toward Uchiha Zhuang, looking triumphant. "I'm a god. You may have mastered a vast amount of Natural Energy, but you're still just a slightly larger ant. Stop trying to struggle." She controlled Uchiha Zhuang, making him walk toward the altar as she taunted him. "Guess what's at the bottom of this pool? Hee-hee, if you guess, I'll tell you! Ha-ha, can't guess, can you? Heh-heh, it's all corpses! Hee-hee, hundreds of thousands of them! You'd never believe how much this pool can hold. It swallowed them all, and still wasn't full! Ha-ha!" The crazed woman danced about.

"Did my arrival wake you up, or had you been waiting for me all along?" "I sensed your unusual scent! Your presence woke me beneath God Peak. I wanted to absorb you at once and become a god again." After speaking, Persia began forming Hand Seals and walked into the formation. Uchiha Zhuang hurriedly summoned the shop and looked at the reward he'd received for completing the quest to create an organization. He took out the mysterious reward: the Immortal-Binding Rope. It could nullify the abilities of beings from the natural, mystical, and mythological realms, then bind them automatically. Yes, he hadn't been sure when he encountered the group of eyeball monsters, but now he could be certain that she was a being the Immortal-Binding Rope could subdue. A golden rope shot from Uchiha Zhuang with a "whoosh," heading straight for the woman. She reacted quickly. The moment the golden rope appeared, she sensed the danger and instantly teleported from place to place. But the golden Immortal-Binding Rope pursued her relentlessly. At last, driven to desperation, she plunged into the pool and swam deeper. The rope circled once over the surface, then plunged into the water after her. Its golden light gradually vanished into the dark depths. Uchiha Zhuang broke free of her control and flipped down to the ground, but the instant he landed, his ankles tingled, then erupted in pain. He rolled up his pant legs and saw that both ankles were black and purple, streaked with red. The pool water had corroded them. Hiss! He never would've guessed that the calm water was so terrifying. Good thing he hadn't jumped in.

Sitting on the ground, Uchiha Zhuang took out the Nano Healer and carefully scanned and treated his injuries. After the device had been shining on him for a while, the symptoms in his ankles began to ease. Just then, a loud boom came from the pool, and water splashed everywhere. Uchiha Zhuang hurriedly used Fire Style to evaporate the droplets around him. When the steam cleared, he saw that the Immortal-Binding Rope had securely bound the woman and knocked her unconscious. Looking at the rope's noticeably dimmer golden glow, Uchiha Zhuang felt a pang of regret. It was a divine artifact, and some of it had been corroded just like that. But when he thought that if he'd been too reluctant to use it, he might have lost his life here, he felt better.

Uchiha Zhuang slowly approached Persia and prodded her with his tachi. She didn't respond. He then held a Kunai in one hand and lifted Persia with the other, channeling Natural Energy into her. A moment later, Persia slowly awoke. Her clear eyes gazed at Uchiha Zhuang, brimming with tears. He held her and patted her back, letting her cry. After she'd cried for a while, Uchiha Zhuang asked softly, "Woman, how long are you going to keep pretending?" The girl sobbing in his arms stiffened, then went still. Finally, she raised her head and looked at him with a radiant smile. "Oh, you're so mean. Can't you hold me a little longer?" Uchiha Zhuang said nothing, only watched her. The woman seemed to notice his ankles and exclaimed, "You're healed already? You really are something, Zhuang. Why don't you loosen this rope a little? I'll use my divine power to heal you." He remained silent, staring straight at her. The woman began to scream and thrash frantically, burrowing and ramming herself against him. But without her divine power, she was like a frail girl, and her blows felt soft against Uchiha Zhuang—more like a massage.

After a bout of coquettish headbutting, the woman finally stopped, panting. She kept staring at Uchiha Zhuang, her big eyes full of resentment. The two gazed at each other for a long while. Then the woman closed her eyes and said, "Go ahead. Now that I've lost my divine power, you can do whatever you want to me. Just like that bunch of beasts." Her body trembled slightly. Uchiha Zhuang could feel how frightened she really was. She was only using madness and cruelty to cover the wound in her heart.

He untied the woman's hands and feet. "There's no hatred in your eyes. You forgave them long ago, didn't you?" The woman kept her eyes closed and said nothing. "As the god who protected Balaxia's civilization, your strength must have been immeasurable. Protecting God Peak and resisting the aftershocks of the Divine Tree's rampage couldn't have been that difficult, could it?" The woman opened her eyes and glanced at him, then closed them again. "You were angry because your people, your believers, were weak and ignorant in the face of disaster. They foolishly abandoned their faith and tried to enslave and even defile what they once worshipped, didn't they?" Her slight trembling showed how deeply unsettled she was. "You were angry at being treated like a rag and enslaved. You were angry at their distrust and their turning against one another. But you didn't resent them much for wanting to have children through you, because you were their god, and without them, you wouldn't exist, right?" "But they're still unforgivable. You don't have to make excuses for them. Balaxia is gone. I destroyed the things that betrayed me with my own hands. I destroyed everything I had." Her voice grew softer with every word. "I think after you took your revenge, your divine power gradually drained away, and your body became more and more broken until it disappeared. By now, what keeps you going is mostly your obsession and your spirit: your attachment to the home where you were born and which you destroyed, even after you'd slaughtered everyone there in your madness. What Balaxia did to you has already happened, and you've already taken your revenge for what it did. All that remains is an empty hatred trapped in your memories. It's meaningless!"