The Journey Home

No matter how strongly Hidan expressed his disgust for Shinji through words or actions, it proved nothing.

Because the system's assessment never lied!

After bringing Hidan back to Mira Peng's estate once again, Shinji began tallying his gains from this trip.

First were his Bond Points with Hidan. They shot up as though someone had suddenly applied a dose of Jinkela fertilizer.

The more reluctant Hidan acted, the more Bond Points he gained...

He was the sort whose mouth said no while his body was perfectly honest.

In short, his body betrayed his words!

And so, for the first time, Shinji's Bond Points with Hidan broke the four-hundred mark, reaching 401!

Compared to last time, he had gained a full 150 points in total!

He was now less than a hundred points away from completing the second-stage mission. Victory was in sight.

If he had figured out how to farm Bond Points sooner, he would not have spent a whole month barely raising them to 100.

Of course, Bond Points were bound to be harder to raise at the beginning and toward the end.

The former required establishing a relationship, making the breakthrough from zero to one... Hmm? Why did that sound a little odd? Whatever, it didn't matter.

The latter required taking that relationship to a higher level, transforming it into a different kind of relationship.

Everyone had friends, for instance, but friends they would trust with their lives? Did they have any? How many?

So this bond mission was bound to be a massive trap!

Shaking his head, Shinji stopped dwelling on the issue and took out the Kubikiribōchō to study it again.

He was not studying the blade, but the system's new function.

Luckily, he had asked for the Kubikiribōchō beforehand just in case. Otherwise, who knew how long it would have taken him to discover that the system could convert weapons into Cursed Tools?!

But what did "special weapon" mean?

Was it made of special materials, or did it possess some special power? Or was it something else?

He had touched every object in the room without attracting the system's interest again. Only the Kubikiribōchō seemed to have the potential to become a Cursed Tool.

Which raised a question: by that logic, did the other six Ninja Blades have the same potential?

What about Six Paths Tools like the Seven Stars Sword and the Benihisago?

Smack, smack!

Shinji could not help slapping his own cheeks. He was getting too far ahead of himself.

He did not even have the "money" to turn a single Kubikiribōchō into a Cursed Tool yet. Why was he getting greedy and daydreaming? He needed to scrape together five thousand Cursed Soul Points first!

Before long, a knock suddenly came at the door.

"Come in."

"My apologies for disturbing your rest."

The person who opened the door and entered was none other than Mira Peng, who had said he was going to rest after they returned.

Shinji paused. If the man had suddenly come looking for him, something unexpected must have happened again.

Could it be... he had found out that I asked the tailor to sew Hidan's mouth shut?

"Something wrong?"

Mira Peng seemed worried, his brows tightly furrowed. "Those two bodies... are gone."

"Huh? Gone? What do you mean?"

It took Shinji a moment to realize which bodies he meant, and then surprise appeared on his face.

"The people I sent to collect the bodies just returned. They said everything was normal at first, but when they transported the bodies to their destination and counted them, they discovered that the two killers' bodies had suddenly vanished. And none of them knew when or how they disappeared."

"I thought something was strange about this, so I hurried over to tell you."

Shinji pondered for a moment, then thought of a possibility and asked, "What do you think happened?"

Mira Peng gave a bitter chuckle. "There are only so many possibilities. Either someone deliberately stole the bodies,

"Or someone is lying. It's not as if the bodies could have run off on their own." "Maybe the bodies really did run off on their own."

Shinji's remark carried a pointed implication.

"Huh? But..."

"You don't need to worry about this. I'll handle it."

"Then I can rest easy."

Mira Peng breathed a sigh of relief, feeling increasingly glad about the decision he had made back then.

Without these two men sent by the Jashin Cult, he might have met a very ugly end.

This made him value Shinji and Hidan even more. Yet no matter how many benefits or rewards he promised, neither of them was tempted, which left him frustrated.

Were all believers in the Evil God free of worldly desires?

How could that possibly be true!

If Hidan were asked that question, his answer would definitely be for Mira Peng to send him sacrifices, the more the better.

That was the difference created by conflicting worldviews and values.

Simply put, they had no interest in what Mira Peng possessed, and Mira Peng could not give them what they wanted.

They were not remotely the same kind of people!

The next day, while Hidan was still recovering, Shinji went out alone and did not return until evening.

Regrettably, after trembling through the task of stitching Hidan's arm back on-with a doctor guiding him from the side-the tailor ultimately had not dared to sew the vicious-looking bald man's mouth shut...

The third day went much the same.

By the fourth day, Hidan's injuries had mostly healed, and he had even put on a little weight.

Shinji then proposed leaving.

This time, Mira Peng did not try to persuade them to stay, knowing it would only be a waste of effort.

Still, if he encountered any troublesome problems he could not solve in the future, he could always seek help through the Jashin Cult again. The price would merely be money and supplies, things he could neither bring into this world nor take with him when he died. He truly did not care.

As long as he remained alive, he would never lack those things!

A fully laden ship slowly set sail...

Meanwhile, inside a small wooden cabin in a remote village in the Land of Waves.

A delicate, handsome boy was gently feeding medicine to the man lying in bed.

"Cough, cough..."

The man was tall and strongly built, but his body was covered in bandages, his face deathly pale, and his breathing weak. One glance was enough to tell he was either gravely ill or seriously injured.

"Has that guy come back?"

The boy's hand paused briefly as he fed him the medicine. Then, with a bright smile, he said, "The poison in my body has been cured, and your injuries are beginning to improve too, Lord Zabuza. Aside from that man, no one knows we're hiding here. We could live here under new identities from now on."

"I won't accept this!"

After a moment of silence, the man shattered the boy's dream.

"The next time I meet that bald man, I won't lose. And the bastard who took my Kubikiribōchō-I'll never forgive him!"

"The Jashin Cult... I'll remember that."

A flicker of sadness passed through the boy's eyes before his gentle expression returned. "Yes, whatever you say, Lord Zabuza. Now open your mouth and take your medicine. Ahh~"

A rare hint of embarrassed irritation appeared on the man's face, but before he could voice his reprimand, the bitter medicine stopped his mouth.

(PS: Please keep reading the new chapters~ I know everyone likes letting chapters pile up and prefers books with higher word counts, but that's how Qidian's system works now. Whether a book gets recommendations depends entirely on its ongoing readership figures. In other words, you might think it doesn't matter and that reading once there are more chapters is just the same. But plenty of books die precisely because readers let them pile up... So if this book is at least somewhat to your taste, I'm begging you on my knees not to stockpile chapters. Please contribute to the ongoing readership numbers. Old Faceless bows in thanks!)