The Evil God Has Arrived

After racing forward at high speed for quite a while, Fei Yun's powerful senses clearly detected that people from Konoha were still following him.

After thinking for a moment, he suddenly realized something and gave a bitter smile. They must be tracking by scent. Are they following my scent, or the scent of the Supreme Autumn Song's head?

Fei Yun quickly stored the head in his backpack using a space ninjutsu scroll. Then he changed into a new set of clothes, tossed his old clothes and the backpack to a Shadow Clone to carry, and split off from the clone again.

This time, it worked. The Konoha people vanished from his sensory range. What a pain. Why hadn't they split up to chase him?

If Sarutobi Clan Asuma had caught up alone, Fei Yun would definitely have gone all out and fought him. Maybe he could have claimed that huge bounty of thirty-five million ryo.

But this unexpected incident also reminded Fei Yun that Konoha had begun making a serious effort to deal with him, and that made him laugh.

Konoha truly was dark to the core. Good thing he had become a rogue ninja.

Fei Yun felt that if he had stayed in that kind of village, constantly brainwashed and suppressed by the Will of Fire, he would probably have become a hotheaded fool too. If he got lucky later on, maybe he would even have a child.

Then at the age of six, Konoha would instill the Will of Fire into them, and they would howl as they rushed to the front lines to risk their lives.

It was simply unimaginable. What kind of bright and righteous village sent six-year-old children to die, and made them go willingly, with such blazing conviction?

This Will of Fire was terrifying.

They even claimed it was to protect Konoha's tender leaves. More likely, they were protecting their own tender leaves.

Although Konoha had deliberately erased the relevant records, as Konoha ninja, everyone still knew about that period of history.

During the Second and Third Shinobi World Wars, large numbers of children between six and ten graduated early to become ninja, then were encouraged by wave after wave of impassioned speeches to head to the battlefield.

Uchiha Itachi had gone to the battlefield many times when he was six, but he had always followed his father, Uchiha Fugaku, so he had not died as miserably as the other children.

Kakashi graduated from the Ninja Academy at five and was promoted to chunin at six. He participated in the Third Shinobi World War many times. At that time, his father, Sakumo Hatake, had just been driven to death by Konoha. It had to be said that Konoha's method of deepening the Will of Fire was truly impressive. Even when they were asked to brave fire and water, even when their entire families died, they still shouted that it was all for Konoha.

People in the Shinobi World might possess great strength, but there was seriously something wrong with their brains.

Still, it was not entirely their fault. Almost all ninja had never received a proper education. From childhood, they underwent all kinds of physical and chakra training, followed by endless ninjutsu practice and improvement in every ability. Even their pitifully limited literacy education was only meant to ensure they could read scrolls while learning ninjutsu and understand intelligence reports during missions.

As a result, ninja throughout the Shinobi World were generally rather naive. Even after becoming jonin or rising even higher, they could not escape that cognitive trap. Even genius ninja with exceptional intelligence had their thinking confined by it. Otherwise, after fighting for a thousand years, they would not still be working for powerless daimyo and dying for them.

Fei Yun made a wide detour and arrived at a dock, but he sensed quite a few ninja inside, so he did not enter. It was not that he feared Konoha ninja; he simply did not want to risk confronting Might Guy head-on. He had expected Konoha to blockade the dock and set an ambush there. It did not matter to him. At worst, he would stay in the Land of Hot Water a little longer and soak in more hot springs.

After Might Guy left, he could even turn around and hunt Konoha's people instead.

Konoha's situation was far from optimistic. He did not believe those elites could afford to remain here for long. Before long, they would probably be transferred away.

After all, Konoha's combat strength had greatly declined because of the Uchiha Clan massacre. The other great nations had been eager to make a move all along.

Still, Fei Yun was rather depressed. Why were those great nations not taking the opportunity to launch an attack?

Everyone knew Konoha was weak and hollow now. It had lost the Uchiha Clan, such an important fighting force. They had such a perfect opportunity, yet they were not seizing it. I'm worried for those great nations on their behalf.

While Orochimaru had set his sights on Uchiha Feiyun, Akatsuki had also taken notice of the young man whose bounty had recently skyrocketed.

Akatsuki was currently short on manpower and was searching everywhere for suitable rogue ninja. This recently risen Uchiha Feiyun was clearly a promising rogue ninja. His bounty and strength both seemed quite impressive, so Fei Yun naturally entered Akatsuki's field of vision and was placed on its list of candidates.

To that end, Pain had specifically asked Uchiha Itachi for information about Uchiha Feiyun, but Itachi had merely shaken his head and said that they were not familiar and he did not know much.

When Itachi learned that there were Uchiha survivors, he was shocked as well. He secretly resolved that, if given the chance, he would return to Konoha and ask what had happened.

After enjoying himself in the Land of Hot Water for several days, someone beat Akatsuki and Orochimaru to the punch and found Fei Yun.

A tall, thin man with a smile plastered across his face began following Fei Yun from the moment he entered the town, chattering endlessly as he promoted his organization.

"Brother, are you interested in joining a religion?"

"Our faith is wonderful. You have to join!"

"Are you still worried and afraid of birth, aging, sickness, and death?"

"Are you still confused by pain and the fragility of life?"

"Then join our big family, the Cult of Jashin! Believe in the Evil God with us, and you will surely receive the Evil God's grace. All the troubles of mortal life will vanish. As long as the Evil God recognizes you enough, you may even become undying and immortal. Eternal life is not impossible!"

To recruit Fei Yun, the tall, thin believer put in tremendous effort, as if he were giving it everything he had.

He had no choice. He had not made a single recruitment in months. The higher-ups had already spoken: if he failed to bring in anyone this month, he would be sacrificed to the Evil God.

Although being sacrificed to the Evil God would not be too bad, he still wanted to earn the Evil God's favor and become a divine messenger who offered sacrifices of others.

How could a person live without dreams?

Although no one had truly become the Evil God's messenger yet, as long as the new recruits kept offering sacrifices, these believers would definitely succeed.

Upon hearing "Cult of Jashin," Fei Yun, who had originally not wanted to pay him any attention, suddenly stopped and revealed a thoughtful expression.

Fei Yun had no interest in the so-called Cult of Jashin, but he was interested in Death Controlling Possessed Blood. Linking his own body to an enemy and sharing damage—this secret technique was useless to most people, since its greatest achievement was merely dying together with the enemy. But if one possessed an Immortal Body, then it would become an incredible ability. When he encountered someone he could not defeat, he would only need to obtain their blood...

Seeing Fei Yun stop, the tall, thin man's eyes lit up. He praised the Evil God with even greater enthusiasm and promoted the glory of his faith.

Fei Yun smiled. "After all that, aren't you just telling me that those who believe in the Evil God gain eternal life?"

The tall, thin man slapped his thigh. "Exactly! That's it!"

"Little brother, you're very talented."

"I can tell you have a bright future. You'll definitely earn the Evil God's favor."

Fei Yun reached out and hooked an arm around the man's shoulder. "Come on, missionary brother. Take me to see your church."

"Sure, sure, little brother. Let's go."

The missionary grinned so broadly that his mouth would not close. With his arm around Fei Yun's shoulders, he headed out of town.

My quota is finally complete. As for whether this little brother gets sacrificed, used for immortality experiments, or truly earns the Evil God's favor, none of that matters. What matters is that my quota is complete, and I can enjoy myself in the cult for quite some time.

If this little brother really makes something of himself, I can bask in some of his glory too, can't I?

The two hurried along and, after passing through a stretch of forest, finally arrived at the entrance to an underground base.

The missionary scratched his head. "Little brother, don't be fooled by how remote this place is. Our big family is especially warm and welcoming."

As he spoke, the missionary stepped forward, activated a switch, and opened the stone door.

After passing through twisting corridors, the two finally entered the base. As they passed an unlocked secret chamber, Fei Yun saw the bloody scene within. Rows of men and women tied to wooden racks had been pierced through with all kinds of weapons. Blood flooded the entire chamber. They had all voluntarily participated in experiments testing the Evil God's power. What a warm family.

Fei Yun laughed. "Haha, it really is nice. I've finally found an organization. This place feels just like home. Everyone here is so talented. Since this is my home, it's perfectly reasonable for me to take a few secret techniques and spend some money, right?"

However, Fei Yun did not act immediately. He planned to first learn the full details of the Cult of Jashin.

After looking around, Fei Yun had not even completed the procedures to join the cult, and no one had asked his name. They simply assigned him a small private room and locked the door.

Still, Fei Yun had roughly figured out the Cult of Jashin's situation. The cult definitely had plenty of money, because every day they conducted experiments researching immortality and eternal life. Such large-scale research experiments could not be carried out without substantial funding.

What puzzled Fei Yun was that he had found no clue about Death Controlling Possessed Blood.

Before long, believers came to distribute the Cult of Jashin's creeds and doctrinal books. Every few hours, everyone would gather to attend a lecture.

Over the next few days, Fei Yun would come out and gather with the Cult of Jashin's believers to attend lessons or chat.

There was one thing the missionary had not lied about: those believers who were taken away for human experiments truly did so voluntarily. They firmly believed they would receive the Evil God's favor and gain Immortal Bodies.

Fei Yun questioned everyone indirectly, but no one knew anything about a secret technique. Could it be a power and method bestowed directly by the Evil God?

As he listened to a believer beside him talk, Fei Yun suddenly saw a grayish-white-haired youth being brought into the laboratory.

Isn't that Hidan?

Fei Yun was startled. It seemed that Hidan had not yet successfully obtained an Immortal Body, because the Cult of Jashin had not yet produced a successful subject and was still in the exploratory stage of experimentation.

For the rest of his time there, Fei Yun focused all his senses on the laboratory. His Level 60 Spiritual Power allowed him to clearly see and hear everything inside.

There was a huge altar in the laboratory, and the experimental sacrifices were bound upon it.

At regular intervals every day, the researchers of the Cult of Jashin drove iron rods into the sacrifices inside the laboratory.

Batch after batch of living sacrifices died and were replaced with new ones, but only the youth named Hidan remained alive even after his body was filled with iron rods.

On the third day, a researcher viciously hacked a huge Triple-Bladed Scythe into Hidan's body, piercing vital areas such as his heart and lungs.

Hidan screamed. His eyes bulged, and blood poured wildly from his seven orifices.

"Hold on!"

"You have to hold on!"

The researchers stared at Hidan with excitement and madness. He was the experimental subject who had come closest to success in all their years of work.

However, Hidan's pupils rapidly lost focus. His body went limp, and he stopped moving.

"Damn it!"

"Did we fail again?"

"Has the one the Evil God has been waiting for still not appeared?"

The researchers clutched their heads and roared in agony.

Their expressions were crazed, their eyes burning with fanaticism.

"It's all right. The Evil God is already drawing near us. The Evil God will definitely descend!"

"Drag them away and bring in the next batch of test subjects!"

Just as the researchers untied Hidan and prepared to drag him away, Hidan's cold voice rang out. "Hey, don't touch the blade in my chest. It hurts!"

"What?"