The road across the Bridge of Helplessness was fraught with danger.
With every step forward, she entered a Dark Thunder scenario, where monstrously vicious creatures lurked.
Even the weakest among them were several times stronger than the top-tier Moon Beasts Xiaoxue had encountered in Double-Moon Space all those years ago.
This time, Naruto and Sasuke Uchiha were not by Xiaoxue's side. The only one fighting alongside her was her constant companion, a battle pet named Nue.
Perhaps many had forgotten.
When Xue was eight years old, Yu had bestowed something upon her. It was carved onto Xiaoxue's back and called the Edict of Phoenix Grace—the place where Nue resided.
Nue possessed the ability to manipulate other dimensions and absorb Chakra without limit.
Through the Edict of Phoenix Grace, Nue could feed the absorbed Chakra back to Xiaoxue.
On the journey across the bridge, Nue had been an enormous help to Xiaoxue. Otherwise, she truly would not have been able to take even a single step.
But the farther she advanced, the stronger the Dark Thunder monsters became as a whole.
In the middle stretch of the Bridge of Helplessness, Xue finally awakened her own Rinnegan at the very brink of death...
Without the powers of Asura and Indra, this should have been impossible.
But Asura and Indra were, at their core, still Ōtsutsuki. Their Chakra happened to be a key to awakening the Rinnegan, but not the only way to unlock it.
Miracles could always be born from desperate straits.
After awakening the Rinnegan, Xiaoxue's strength leaped forward. She advanced more than ten steps in succession, only to be blocked once again by new, even stronger monsters.
Having exhausted every ounce of her potential and reached her limit again, she had no hope of moving forward.
"Why must you do