"Come, you two lay devotees! Purify these two demons with sacred fire!"
The cult leader, dressed in a red, gold-threaded kasaya studded with pearls and jade, looked at the torch-bearing couple with compassion on his face, but cruelty and mockery filled his eyes.
Apart from executing traitors without trial, his favorite pastime was holding sacrifices and making the victims' relatives light the fire themselves.
This was not merely a test of obedience. It also meant that his followers severed every bond with their past, leaving them devoted to him alone!
Being worshipped without question, toying with other people's feelings at will-like his earlier power over life and death, these sensations gave him the illusion that he had become a god.
The couple's expressions shifted uncertainly. Facing their sobbing sons, even their torch-bearing hands began to tremble.
At last, the mother could bear it no longer. She dropped her torch, knelt before the cult leader, and kowtowed repeatedly:
"Merciful leader, please forgive us! Please forgive us! We've changed our minds! We won't sacrifice them..."
The cult leader ignored the children's mother kneeling on the ground. Instead, he stared at their father and squeezed a few words out of his expressionless, fleshy face:
"And you?"
The children's father gripped his torch and gritted his teeth, trying to act, but failed several times. In the end, he too broke down, prostrating himself on the ground and choking out:
"Please forgive me, leader. I'll donate everything I own instead..."
"Seize these two sinners who have betrayed the true faith!"
The cult leader kicked the man over and barked an order. The monks watching nearby swarmed forward, bound the couple hand and foot, and dragged them aside.
Bloated and corpulent, his belly bulging, the cult leader bent down with difficulty and picked up the torch, then preached loudly with impassioned fervor:
"Worldly money, family bonds, even life itself are nothing but bubbles and illusions, like dew or lightning. Only my salvation is eternal! Believe in me, follow me, obey me, and you will be saved! You need nothing else!"
Hundreds of followers cheered loudly. Ignoring the rain-soaked mud, they all knelt and kowtowed without cease!
Yes, this feeling! the cult leader thought in delight.
Many among these hundreds of followers had merely been dragged to the religious gathering by friends or relatives. At first, they had glared at him, cursed him to his face, or swallowed their anger, murmuring agreement while their eyes betrayed their disdain. But once he displayed his supernatural powers, didn't they all obediently bow at his feet and become his faithful devotees?
This was the supernatural!
This was Buddhist teaching!
I am a god!
The cult leader raised the torch and hurled it onto the firewood with a mighty swing.
Boom!
Lightning flashed amid the dark clouds, serpents of electricity darting through them. The rain grew heavier, the drizzle threatening to become a downpour.
The firewood was already soaked and had absorbed plenty of moisture. With the rain growing heavier, the flames flickered a few times after the torch landed, then were extinguished.
"Motherfucker! Goddamned heavens!"
Thoroughly humiliated, the cult leader wiped the rain from his face and began cursing outright. He hurriedly beckoned several monks over:
"Go get the gasoline... no, go to the kitchen and bring all the oil."
As the rain grew heavier, even the cult leader found it hard to endure. He swept his sleeve and turned to seek shelter in the worship hall.
As for the other followers, they could only remain in the courtyard and get drenched. How else could they demonstrate the strength of their faith?
Bang!
A gunshot rang out, clearly audible even through the rain, reaching the cult leader's ears.
A gun?
The cult leader was startled. The True Faith Society's secret stockpile of firearms was confidential, a precaution for the worst-case scenario. Only a few trusted disciples and monks who had received initiation had been gathered for firearms training.
What had happened in the front courtyard that required a gun?
Just then, he saw a white-robed monk with thick eyebrows and large eyes emerge from the corridor.
"Who are you?!"
Seeing this unidentified monk, whose robes were clearly nothing like those of the True Faith Society, the cult leader frowned. Unease stirred within him, and he shouted harshly.
Ida, whom he had sent out, was nowhere to be seen either. Together with that gunshot, it made his eyelid twitch and filled him with a foreboding sense of impending doom.
Looking at the corpulent cult leader before him, as stupid as a pig, Uchiha Naruto, who had transformed into Chiriku, could not help curling his lips into a cold smile!
Although this was his first face-to-face encounter with the cult leader, his airborne lookout had been watching the man all along. Even capturing this fat pig and burning him alive would be less than he deserved.
"Amitabha. This humble monk has come to discuss Buddhist teachings."
After killing so many wicked monks, Uchiha Naruto's blood had gradually begun to boil. His killing intent had yet to subside and now surged even more strongly.
"You heretic! Behold my Buddhist power!"
Startled, the cult leader raised a hand and thrust it toward Uchiha Naruto!
"Hah!"
A golden Buddha palm over a meter long appeared above Uchiha Naruto and slammed down. With a thunderous crash, muddy water splashed everywhere, and a hole the size of a door panel and half a meter deep was smashed into the ground!
"Did I kill him?" The cult leader's eyes widened.
Just then, another white-robed monk with thick eyebrows and large eyes emerged from the corridor, identical to the first.
"So this is your Buddhist teaching, leader? Then it's time you witnessed mine."
Uchiha Naruto flicked his sleeve and drew a gleaming black handgun.
Bang!
A bullet pierced the cult leader's shoulder.
A flicker of embarrassment crossed Uchiha Naruto's eyes. He had actually aimed at the man's round, bulging belly, but since this was his first time handling a gun, hitting him at all was decent enough.
"Aaah! It hurts! It hurts! Protect me!"
Clutching his shoulder, the cult leader screamed shrilly, then stumbled toward the worship hall.
Several monks saw the handgun in Uchiha Naruto's hand and fled with their hands over their heads. Some fanatics were about to charge him, but the Three-Tomoe Sharingan in his left eye spun. He glared at them, then unleashed a deafening lion's roar:
"Get lost!"
The followers froze in their tracks.
A single Three-Tomoe Sharingan was not enough to control dozens or hundreds of people at once; it could only stun them briefly. Uchiha Naruto opened his mouth and spat out a stream of fire, sweeping it from far to near to create a flaming barrier between himself and the followers.
Then, using the Phoenix Flower Jutsu, he spat out fireballs that engulfed the fleeing monks before pursuing the cult leader with his gun in hand.
On the way, he spotted a man and woman bound on the ground. Casually holding his fingers together like a blade, he sliced through their ropes. The two knelt and kowtowed toward his retreating back, then rushed toward the rear.
By then, the cult leader had reached the worship hall and ducked beneath the lotus pedestal at the feet of the Wisdom King statue. Seeing his murderous pursuer draw his gun and aim, he broke into a sweat and shouted frantically:
"Wrathful manifestation! Wrathful manifestation! Show yourself at once and purge this enemy of the Buddha!"
A flash erupted from the muzzle as bullets spun along the rifling and shot out one after another!
"Aaah-"
The cult leader could only close his eyes and await death, but the bullets did not strike him. Instead, they hit the Wisdom King statue, punching holes into it.
Crack!
The face of the Fierce-Eyed Wisdom King Statue fractured. A chunk of clay fell from the corner of its eye, revealing an eerie green eye that swiveled ceaselessly.
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