Gor had never felt such pain in his life before. It was as if his entire skin was on fire, and getting ripped off his flesh at the same time. What did Arad do? He just slapped him on the back, so how does that technique work?

^What did he target? A special spot on the body, a pressure point? Or was it all in the way he slapped my back? I can’t figure that out now, especially while under this immense pain.^ Gor quickly gave up on trying to figure out how Arad slapped him, and jumped back to his feet.

"But pain had never stopped me from moving." He was still crying, but his body moved and took a stance. With a face full of tears and snot, he rushed forward at blinding speed. "I shall never lose to pain alone!" 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Arad easily dodged Gor’s straight punch, and with a second swift move, he slapped him again, now on the chest, ripping the skin off.

"Pain always wins. It is the signal bodies use to relay damage to the soul, so it understands death might be near. You can ignore it as much as you want, but it’ll eventually break your mind." Arad watched as Gor dropped to his knees, screaming his lungs out.

"This is why torture is so effective. You aren’t harming someone, so they tell you the truth, you’re hurting them until their minds break and they babble whatever you need to hear." Arad lifted his arm. "So, what will it be now? Will you give up, or should I just keep going?"

"Have you... Ever heard... of emotional discipline?" Gor stood again, "Over decades, we train to endure pain, sadness, and to break free from our mortal desires." He looked at Arad with a twisted face. "We spend months, bleeding our fingers and creating magnificent art from sand and crushed shells, only to immediately destroy it."

He clenched a fist. "We punch our arms elbow deep into burning coal, sleep on nails, and stand beneath raging rivers for weeks to harden our bodies and souls."

Arad smiled. "So, you can still keep fighting?"

"Everyone has their own unique way to deal with pain, sadness, and fear. You said it yourself; pain tells the soul that death might be near, and I’ll just turn that from agony into terror."

Gor’s arms and knees started shaking, and his entire body sweated like a hog. "Another hit like that, and I’ll feel the same unbearable pain again. It is making me afraid. I want to run away, but there is no escape."

"When people get afraid, they either run away, freeze in place... or fight!" He immediately started clapping his hands at a supersonic speed, and soon, the air between his palms combusted into flames.

"The only path for me to survive that pain is to defeat you here and now!" Gor was indeed ready to keep fighting. His well-trained body and soul will never give up, and the pain would only make him fight harder.

With a single, powerful step forward, Gor rushed toward Arad at blinding speed, and Arad took him head-on. A fist to fist, and a kick to kick, the two of them blasted through the wilderness, tearing the ground apart and shaking the entire region.

Soon, the Elders from the sect, even Liana and her Father were flying nearby, watching the scion of the martial clan of Mount Valor face against a being far beyond their understanding.

"Isn’t that Pig God? How did he end up that skinny?" A woman asked, and another old man sighed. "He might’ve been fat, but that was just him storing energy for later. I’m more interested is who that man is."

"The World Tree is protecting him, don’t get entangled with him." An old woman growled in the back, "Unless you want to die."

A young elder laughed, "The World Tree is protecting him? What? I never heard of it owing a debt to any clan. Just what kind of man he is?"

The old woman sighed, threw a glare at the young elder, and then shook her head. "He can burn this entire world to the ground, and chop the World Tree for firewood. Those were the words of the sacred tree. There is no clan, just him, and his power alone can threaten all of our world."

The young master frowned. "Are you certain?! And a man of such power married such a fai..."

"Watch your mouth, brat! Or I’ll cut your tongue myself. We don’t ask questions about him; we just follow the Tree’s lead and wisdom." The old lady was already at the young elder’s throat with a knife. "The World Tree is listening to us, and he is as well."

At that moment, the old lady froze in place as she felt something on her shoulders, and that was Kali. None of the Elders could move an inch, except Liana and her father. Eris and Isabelle were also around, but unlike the demonic little girl, they weren’t as impulsive.

All of the Elders could see it, a massive golden statue with a million arms and legs, all stretched across the sky, and from these arms, several of them were what kept them in place. Kali had each of the Elders inside one of her palms, held tight enough that even with their harrowing power, they could barely breathe.

"We all know that Tina is weak, and that is because she is sick; her soul is sick. Where is the problem with that? And if you’re just wondering why someone as strong as Arad would marry her? Don’t worry, he doesn’t just have her, but me as well." Her eyes glared at them with a deathly stare, and her golden palms started tightening around their bodies.

"I don’t take slander toward him or any of the other wives. But I’m not doing this because of that..." She glared at the young Elder. "What were you thinking of a second ago? Do you think I didn’t hear your thoughts? What were you going to do to Tina to enrage Arad and see what he can do?"

She released all other Elders, except the young one. "You know what? Looking into your memories, you’ve done that to many other women before, and that tactic seemed to have worked well enough for you that you thought it would work again for Arad and Tina..."

The Young Elder’s body started steaming and burning with demonic flames. "So, as a punishment, I’ll show you a few tricks that I’ve learned through the years."

As the Young Elder screamed, his voice changed, and his body shifted. After a long minute of agony, he cried. "What... what did you do to me!?"

"Called in some favours, and turned you into a woman. All of your cultivation is gone, and it’ll never come back. But don’t worry, I have blessed you with a stunning body; you’ll be cursed to attract all the wrong kind of men."

"What... trickery is this you foul demon?!" He cried, and she glared at him with a grin. "Foul demon? I’m their goddess. Now begone! Be cursed to walk the land as the prey for once, you rotten piece of filth." She threw him, now a her, into the darkest pits of the slums, and with a finger snap, wiped him from everyone’s memories as an elder, except from the other Elders’ memories, so they take him as an example.

When she turned around, all the other Elders backed away. "Anyone else want to test my patience?" Looking at her eyes, they couldn’t see a child, but a harrowing demon that shouldn’t even exist in their world.

The old woman, the oldest of the Elders spoke, "The World Tree just spoke to me. This little girl is no mere girl. She is a demon older than time itself, she is the very incarnation of pure destruction and ruin, and that man’s wife."

The old woman gulped, "She is even older than the World Tree by a lot, enough for her to call her a Great Elder." She started shaking as Kali jumped away from her shoulders and walked in the air. "She is also... not the only one of that man’s wives who could erase this entire World with a single finger; those two can as well."

Eris and Isabelle were there as well.