Forest

The campfire crackled in the night. The clothes hung beside it dripped with water as the two of them warmed themselves by the flames. Uchiha Zhuang sat cross-legged on a blanket, naked, cultivating Natural Energy to heal his injuries. Persia yawned beside him, gazing at the flickering flames. Her eyelids trembled, then slowly closed, and she curled up beneath the blanket. As expected, she still can't behave herself. That crazy woman. Uchiha Zhuang thought to himself. Looking back on everything that had happened at Balaxia God Peak, several key moments seemed to hold a deeper meaning.

The first was the seemingly endless swarm of insects. They hadn't appeared when Persia and he first entered the interior, but at the altar they had attacked relentlessly, refusing to die. Insects wouldn't normally sacrifice so much of their colony for a couple of morsels, especially in a pool they feared so greatly. The crazy woman had deliberately tested his strength. If he was strong, she would submit for the time being; if the swarm devoured him, she wouldn't miss the chance to absorb him.

The second was the so-called Jinkela. It was definitely the crazy woman's phylactery. A spirit had to be bound to a physical object, and it had been far too easy to take the Jinkela. She had practically pointed us toward it. If I had a way to remove her parasite from Persia, she could still escape her cage through the Jinkela she'd kept in reserve. That crazy woman had schemes within schemes. And her so-called act of breaking the control was just her giving me a brain massage, wasn't it?

The third was the most important. Who had been pulling the strings a thousand years ago!? It wasn't simple to make a civilization abandon its beliefs, but it wasn't hard, either. All it took was exploiting human greed and desire. The hard part was choosing the perfect moment and applying just the right amount of pressure. Looking across the shinobi world, there didn't seem to be anyone capable of setting up such an elaborate plot and manipulating the fate of an entire nation. Uchiha Zhuang furrowed his brow, unable to make sense of it. He looked at Persia's lovely face in the firelight, peaceful and serene. That crazy woman probably never got to sleep this peacefully, either! His stern expression gradually relaxed. He calmly sensed his surroundings, then tossed another log onto the fire.

The surging current of the underground river swept the two of them up and down. Persia lay across Uchiha Zhuang's back, her arms and legs wrapped tightly around his sturdy body. Uchiha Zhuang bobbed along, narrowly avoiding jagged rocks, sharp spires, and dark, unknown openings. He had no idea how long the current had carried them. He only knew he was utterly exhausted. Moving through water took far more energy than moving on land. Feeling the current ease and slick things brushing past him now and then, he knew they were nearing the Forest River. He shook Persia on his back, but she didn't react. Judging by the rhythmic rise and fall of her ample breasts, she had probably passed out.

Using the last of his strength, he cast Water Release: Water Flow Technique, letting the current carry him faster to conserve energy and push away the unknown creatures beneath the water. The creatures in the calm riverbed seemed to have stopped bothering Uchiha Zhuang. Perhaps it was the affinity of the Child of Nature! After a long while, a light appeared ahead. It grew brighter and larger until, at last, Uchiha Zhuang entered it with Persia on his back. Rubbing his eyes, he slowly regained his sight and saw the lush forest all around him. The feeling of having escaped alive rose within him. Thank heaven, and thank myself!

A crackling sound woke Uchiha Zhuang. So I fell asleep. My mind and body are still on edge after all these recent adventures. It'll take a while to recover. He sensed his surroundings, then lay back down. In the meantime, he opened the Universal System and found the assistant sprite. "Search for all information related to Balaxia in the shinobi world, and explain the causes and events leading to Balaxia's destruction." "Ding! Search complete. All information on Balaxia costs ten thousand points. The causes and events leading to its destruction cost three thousand points." Uchiha Zhuang hesitated at the steep price. He had just over five thousand points left. Points meant strength; points were the food that would keep him alive in this dog-eat-dog world. Points were his greatest treasure. Was he really willing to go this far for that crazy woman? He looked at the sleeping woman. Her breathing was even and rhythmic, and her beautiful long hair gleamed. He took a deep breath, drawing in a faint, fresh scent of grass and trees. Uchiha Zhuang reached out and stroked her smooth, warm, dewy cheek. Tiny, almost invisible hairs brushed against his large hand. He stopped himself before giving in to his desire. Not yet, he reminded himself. Don't sacrifice the greater goal for a little pleasure. Don't give in too soon and stop striving. He tucked the blanket around her and laid his cloak over it.

Uchiha Zhuang made up his mind and redeemed the information about the causes and events leading to Balaxia's destruction. Three thousand points were deducted, and a block of text appeared in his inventory. Uchiha Zhuang opened the text, titled "The Fall of the Weak and Lowly Civilization of Balaxia Was Inevitable." Ignoring the summarizing title, he read it word for word.

Balaxia began in the savage age, when people in the shinobi world still practiced primitive farming and struggled against nature for survival. The land around God Peak was an inexhaustible expanse of fertile soil, dense forests, abundant water, and flat ground, making it home to many small tribes. After centuries of contact and integration, the tribes coalesced into a larger one. Following a devastating flood, the entire tribe migrated to the foot of God Peak. Centuries of growth gradually made them more powerful. They worshipped God Peak and nature. When they opened a route into the mountain, the primitive priests began cultivating their tribe's deity through witchcraft. For generations, they devoted every mysterious power they could find to nurturing each successive deity. The deity was infertile, and the people of Balaxia had long tried to uncover the secret. Abuse, humiliation, and slaughter of deities on the verge of losing their power were commonplace. Those tortured to death were all thrown into the spirit spring beneath the altar.

A deity was chosen from among the infants born to the tribe over several generations. Witchcraft and arrays, spiritual power and Natural Energy combined to form a god's power. The deity inherited a unique legacy from each predecessor. By the time of the last deity, Xia Mi, that power had grown immense. She could even commune with the source of the land itself, allowing her to wield Natural Energy and spiritual power capable of turning the world upside down. All of this set the stage for the destruction of Balaxia's civilization.

The Divine Tree from another world descended upon the shinobi world. Driven by human greed and the Ōtsutsuki's desire, the world teetered on the brink amid the Divine Tree's rampage. After Ōtsutsuki Kaguya was sealed away, Black Zetsu fled in despair. The Divine Tree's rampage couldn't be quelled in an instant. It took those two a long time to devise a solution and calm it. During that time, Black Zetsu searched the world for a way to save Kaguya.

By chance, it heard of the power of Balaxia's deity and secretly infiltrated God Peak. After learning all it could, it took advantage of the panic sweeping the country. The priests had prophesied that the Divine Tree's rampage would soon reach God Peak, and the entire nation was in turmoil. Black Zetsu quietly approached the high-ranking priests at the sanctuary, claiming to be the embodiment of nature's will. It manipulated them into resuming their research on the deity and extracting her power for study, while promising to suppress the deity, Xia Mi. Later, it contacted the king and his court, stressing that it had come bearing the will of nature. The deity Xia Mi was about to fall, it said, and she should be sacrificed to save the lives of everyone in the country before the shockwave arrived. After all, wasn't it a deity's duty to sacrifice herself for others?! Thus, Balaxia's leaders, who should never have trusted a stranger's words so readily, gave in to their greed and cowardice. They slaughtered half the women, elders, and children, used their people's blood to draw an array, restrained the deity Xia Mi with the mysterious Anti-Magic Stone, and lured the naive Xia Mi into the altar with lies. Then they began draining her power.

Black Zetsu discovered at the altar that the deity's power was too weak. Witchcraft and Natural Energy alone were nowhere near enough to defeat the two brothers, or even to undo the seal. With a look of contempt, it quietly vanished into the blood-soaked darkness of the ritual. In the end, Xia Mi exhausted her power, then communed with Natural Energy to save God Peak. But during the later disturbance of the spirit spring, she broke through the array and slaughtered all the priests and men present. Over the course of a hundred years of revenge, Xia Mi's body gradually withered away, while her spirit remained, relentlessly torturing the very people she should have protected.

Reading this, Uchiha Zhuang was filled with conflicting emotions. How could she forgive the people who had betrayed her!?