I Will Grind My Way To Godhood

Countless thick roots surged forward as if striking out. Xue Jing controlled the black translucent giant, slashing diagonally with the massive long sword in its hand.

The air shrieked sharply, and a dozen roots were severed tidily under the keen blade, while several dozen more crashed against the black giant's body.

“Bang bang bang bang bang—”

It sounded as if hitting a steel plate. The armor on the black giant was pierced with several dents and holes, but due to its enormous size, the roots stopped after penetrating one or two meters.

“Tch, the current material limit of Shadow Blaze Activation is still not strong enough.”

Xue Jing, controlling the giant, swung the gigantic long sword and severed all the roots embedded in its body.

Then, countless streams of black energy emerged at the wound sites. After a moment of wriggling, the wounds gradually mended and returned to their original state.

On the other side, several dozen Shadow Blaze Crows flew towards the cloaked woman. Their innate agility allowed them to evade the intercepting roots, moving closer with nimble ease.

“Are they... alive?”

The cloaked woman was taken aback but remained unfazed. With a casual wave, dozens of roots coiled around her, wrapping her up into a massive, thick wooden sphere.

The Shadow Blaze Crows opened their beaks, let out silent cries, and dove suicidally into the wooden sphere.

“Bang—bang bang bang—”

The moment they collided, the crows burst into shadow flames, blowing large holes into the wooden sphere. However, the sphere, composed of several dozen thick roots, was immensely robust. Despite the impacts, other roots continually extended over to patch the damage, never allowing the crows to breach through.

Once the crows smashed and vanished, the battered wooden sphere wriggled slightly and opened a crack.

The cloaked woman's gaze peered through the fissure at Xue Jing, who had summoned the black translucent giant below.

Roots continued their relentless assaults towards him, but with a swing of the colossal long sword, even the thin air detonated into a cyclone, severing the attacking roots entirely. The ground was littered with countless severed wooden chunks.

“What kind of ability is this… I've never heard of any Heretical Cult possessing the power to control such strange black flames.”

The woman pondered aloud.

“Moreover, it can transform into something material, even into sentient creatures... That's incredibly convenient.”

“Or could it be this isn’t the power of the Heretics, but some divine relic’s ability I’m unaware of?”

Xue Jing looked upwards, his eyes narrowing.

Controlling the giant formed by shadow flames, he swung again, cutting through several looming vines. He then struck a poised stance, ready to draw an arrow from an imaginary bow.

Simultaneously, the shadow flame giant mimicked his movements.

The long sword in its hand disintegrated and transformed into a massive, pitch-black bow. Two enormous black feathered arrows materialized between its fingers.

The bowstring was drawn back, and the dark arrow was aimed at the ball of wood in the air, causing the cloaked woman’s eyelid to twitch uncontrollably: “This...”

“Thwack—Swoosh—”

The bowstring snapped, and the arrow flew out, piercing towards the wooden sphere.

The cloaked woman hastily manipulated the wooden sphere to crack open a large gap. Leaping from it just in time, she barely escaped as the massive black arrow punctured straight through the sphere.

“Boom!”

The arrow burst into an explosion of shadow flames, obliterating the wooden ball composed of dozens of roots without a trace.

A single root extended out to catch the leaping cloaked woman, but before she could catch her breath, she saw that below, the shadowy giant was already preparing a second arrow.

“Thwack—Swoosh—”

The woman leapt back again to evade, but this time she couldn't completely dodge.

The arrow's edge grazed her, cutting a line across her waist, burning away part of her black robe and revealing her slender, white waist and the edge of her pure white underwear.

A layer of skin on her waist was also stripped away, as if gnawed by a wild beast, along with two ribs.

Clutching her waist, the woman bravely endured the pain, allowing a stem to catch her while summoning countless other stems to intertwine and form a thick barrier between her and Xue Jing.

“I'm very disappointed.”

From the other side of the barrier, Xue Jing's mocking voice echoed.

“What are you doing? You've already seen me use Susanoo. It’s only polite to meet my attack head-on with Wood Release, don't you think?”

“And what's the result? You're stuck playing with your tentacles instead.”

“Weakness, thy name is Woman.”

The cloaked woman, suppressing the pain from her waist, wiped the sweat from her forehead and replied, “I have no idea what you're talking about.”

She waved her hand, making several stems twist together to form a spiral drill-like shape.

“What I'm saying is, when the guy opposite you brings out a Gundam, don't you also need to get one out? Isn’t that the romance men cherish?” Xue Jing lamented, failing to understand.

While speaking, he transformed the giant's black bow into a shield, knocking away the spiraling drill stems.

The stems struck the shield with a clang, like a hammer on steel.

“...I'm a woman. How would I understand this men's romance?”

The cloaked woman said silently, “It's okay if you don't understand. I'll teach you. Just combine these tentacles and make a wooden giant …”

Xue Jing kept up the banter as he knelt on one knee, touching the ground with his palm.

Dark energy surged from his palm, transforming into a shark.

The shark, formed by the shadow flames, leapt soundlessly with hollow white eyes, diving into the ground like it was an ocean, only its fin visible. It swam elsewhere, vanishing into the shadows.

“... Who would use such an inefficient method, idiot!” the cloaked woman scolded.

Xue Jing chuckled, “Oh? Compared to your pretentious mystic act earlier, this way of speaking is much more entertaining.”

The cloaked woman did not respond, a faint green glow appeared on her waist, and her wounds began to heal visibly.

She reached up and lifted the hood off her head, revealing a mature, pretty face.

Her left eye, unlike the deep brown of her right, was a vivid kaleidoscope of colors.

Peering out from the thick wooden wall barrier, she glanced at the black giant dozens of meters away.

It looked like a scene from legend, the giant wielding a massive blade in one hand and a shield in the other, blocking the onslaught of stem-like serpents, slicing off their heads with its sword.

The hollow white eyes showed no emotion, and its solid armor was adorned with blossoms of black flames, giving it a strange grandeur.

'This can't go on endlessly.'

Resolute, the cloaked woman reached for her colorful left eye.

But the act of gouging out one's eye is daunting for anyone; her hand hesitated, trembling slightly.

“Hey.” Xue Jing suddenly spoke up.

The cloaked woman, who had just peeked out, instinctively turned her eyes toward the source of the voice, meeting the gaze of Xue Jing within the dark, translucent giant.

She saw a pair of silvery white eyes.

They were as serene and gentle as the moon in the sky.

In the calm silence, moonlight spilled softly.

The cloaked woman froze, her consciousness lightly sliced by a gentle blade.

Though it lasted only a fleeting moment, her divinely imbued spirit quickly shook off the blade's influence—but it was too late.

Beside her, a subtle black fin had been lying in wait. The shadow shark leaped from the ground, its gaping maw filled with sharp teeth, and clamped down on the cloaked woman.

This time, it didn’t explode into shadow flames but transformed, becoming a black steel yoke, encircling her in tight coils and leaving only her head visible.

“You!?” The cloaked woman was taken aback.

Xue Jing smiled, “Surprise? I can even use Tsukuyomi!”

“How could you have such a bizarre ability? What on earth are you?” the woman questioned in disbelief.

“This is the way of the Uchiha,” Xue Jing replied, snapping his fingers.

A part of the black steel yoke binding the woman reshaped itself into a frying pan.

"Bang——"

In the midst of a resonant and melodious knocking sound, the woman in the black cloak fainted with a look of unwillingness on her face.