Where Is Your God?

Pitch-black color wreathed the Demon Blade Thousand Blades, and flames burned along its edge as he swept it into a horizontal slash!

Shhk-!

The blade instantly broke into countless fragments that formed a long blade.

A sharp, piercing crack rang out.

Heizhi's blood-streaked flesh was as fragile as paper.

The blade fragments sliced away great swaths of flesh, sending them flying as crimson blood gushed like a spring!

"Haaah?!"

Heizhi roared in pain, a trace of inhuman ferocity in his eyes blazing fully to life.

"Hahahaha, everyone bullies me! Everyone bullies me!!!"

Amid his roars, the incomplete Immortal Physique bestowed upon Heizhi by Jashin instantly activated. The gushing blood surged back, writhing and reshaping, while his sliced flesh visibly healed, regenerated, and recovered at incredible speed.

In a mere instant, the blade wounds on Heizhi's body had completely healed.

"Hahahahaha! Just as I thought, only Lord Jashin loves me!"

As his flesh recovered, Heizhi's expression grew increasingly deranged.

For a moment, all the blood in Heizhi's body boiled wildly-yes, literally boiled.

Through Uchiha Gen's Sharingan, the blood inside Heizhi that actually belonged to him was rapidly evaporating, while the surrounding "waves of blood" were merely constructs of energy.

"Then I'll offer everything to Lord Jashin!"

Heizhi raised the Blood Scythe high.

In an instant, he gathered all the blood mist hanging in the air under his control. Countless crimson spikes materialized out of nowhere, filling the sky as they stabbed wildly toward Uchiha Gen from every direction.

"Noisy."

Uchiha Gen spoke softly, his body not moving an inch.

Crackle!!!

With a raise of his hand, violently raging blue lightning instantly enveloped Uchiha Gen, and high-voltage electromagnetic force erupted.

The crimson spikes hurtling down from across the sky were forcibly annihilated the instant they touched the lightning!

At the same time, the flames on the demon blade in Uchiha Gen's hand burned even fiercer.

Sun Breathing-First Form-Dance: Lotus!

As he silently recited the words, scorching flames immediately covered the blade. When Uchiha Gen swung the demon blade, countless fragments shot out, transforming into burning lotuses that descended toward Heizhi.

Clang!!

Facing the countless fire lotuses, Heizhi immediately raised the Blood Scythe and swung.

Yet when the scythe's edge touched the fire lotuses, a metallic clash rang out.

Those fire lotuses were all solid blade fragments.

But how could a single Blood Scythe possibly block the demon blade's thousands of attacks?

Countless fire lotuses turned into flaming meteors and fell straight down. No matter how Heizhi blocked, more than half of them still landed on his body.

Wrapped in flames, the blades instantly left countless charred, bloody holes in Heizhi's body.

"Aaaaah!!"

As countless fire lotuses pierced his body, Heizhi experienced bone-deep agony for the first time.

Unlike the ordinary external wounds he had suffered before, this was one continuous injury after another. Even his incomplete Immortal Physique could not regenerate anywhere near as fast as those numerous fire lotuses inflicted damage!

Under the heavy assault, the Blood Domain around Heizhi began to collapse, dissolving into a sky full of bloody froth!

Watching Heizhi's pained face, Uchiha Gen gave him no opportunity to rebuild himself and counterattack.

He closed in with the Body Flicker Technique.

The Susanoo Armguard instantly covered his elbow, already coated in Armament Haki.

With tremendous force, Uchiha Gen drove his elbow hard into Heizhi's chest and abdomen!

Bang!!

Under that immense force, Heizhi's body instantly flew backward and slammed heavily into the courtyard wall.

The wall collapsed, and a deep crash shook the night sky.

Amid the dust, Heizhi lay limp in the rubble, his chest caved in, his bones shattered, and great mouthfuls of crimson blood dripping from the corners of his lips onto the ground.

"Playing with blades does look pretty cool, but I still prefer fighting like this. Every punch hitting flesh-that's what really feels like beating someone up. What do you think?"

As he finished speaking, Uchiha Gen flickered in front of Heizhi and raised his hand again.

He threw another punch.

Uchiha Gen stood quietly in the middle of the ruins, his clothes neat.

In the shadows beneath distant eaves, two figures stood silently, saying nothing for a long time.

They were Shibi Aburame and Maruboshi Kosuke.

After dealing with the Cultists outside and rescuing some of the children who were still alive, both had quickly approached Uchiha Gen's location.

They had originally only been worried that something might happen to Uchiha Gen. However, after seeing his battle with Heizhi, their worries vanished completely.

Uchiha Gen's battle with Heizhi was nothing short of a one-sided crushing.

Although they wondered why Fujii Sakura was absent, the scene before them was even more shocking.

Because at that very moment, a mass of dried, mangled flesh was slowly writhing in front of Uchiha Gen.

"What's wrong? Burned through all your blood? Go on, keep recovering."

Uchiha Gen lowered his eyes to look down at him, his tone light, with a hint of casual mockery.

Heizhi's Immortal Body was clearly inferior to Hidan's. Although he could also recover, he relied on his own blood to do so.

Once his blood had burned dry, Heizhi's recovery visibly slowed.

Sizzle-

The sounds of flesh rebuilding itself were sticky and disgusting, mingled with faint, hoarse gasps like a broken bellows.

Little by little, the outline of a shattered head barely rose. A pair of bloodshot eyes on the verge of falling apart struggled open and stared fixedly at the boy before him.

There was no longer any madness or arrogance in them.

Only bone-deep terror and despair remained, along with bewilderment on the verge of collapse.

He wondered whether the boy before him was the true demon...

Every time he had barely recovered a little, all that greeted him was punch after punch.

His blood... really was nearly burned dry...

"Don't you rely on Jashin so much?"

"Can't you gain power by sacrificing yourself?"

Standing in front of Heizhi, Uchiha Gen did not speak loudly, yet every word drove like an icicle into Heizhi's nearly shattered mind.

"Go on."

"Offer up everything you have left."

"Let me see whether your Jashin can save you even once."

That cold mockery was the very last straw that broke Heizhi.

"Aaaaah-!! Lord Jashin!! Save me!!!"

An utterly wretched wail burst from Heizhi's ruined throat.

Yet what answered him was not Jashin, but another heavy blow.

"Fujii Sakura escaped?"

Maruboshi Kosuke stepped forward and spoke with an odd expression as he looked at the lump of flesh writhing unconsciously in front of Uchiha Gen.

"Yes. He's the scapegoat they threw out, and most likely the one who killed that Chunin Squad, too."

Uchiha Gen dismissed the Susanoo Armguard on his arm and spoke calmly, his face expressionless.

"I see. I've already asked those two Anbu Ninja to report the situation here to Lord Third in the village as soon as possible. Other personnel will take over here next. After all, this mission involved the mayor of an entire town."

Maruboshi Kosuke spoke softly.