A few days later, inside a certain secret room, the candlelight flickered uncertainly.
Shinji sat cross-legged on the ground, a massive sphere of blood floating right in front of him.
That sphere of blood suddenly burst apart, and then froze in midair with eerie stillness.
Anyone looking from a distance would see that those densely scattered blood droplets were not only identical in size, but the distances between them were completely uniform as well!
In the end, they actually formed a magnified, hollow sphere.
Then these blood droplets suddenly transitioned from stillness into motion, instantly fusing and shifting into eighteen different weapons one moment, and transforming into a fierce dragon-and-tiger struggle the next.
Even more outrageous was what came after: strings of blood-red characters arranged and combined in midair to form a Memorial on the Dispatch of the Army!
Hoo...
After letting out a long breath, Shinji immediately manipulated all the blood in the air to fall into a container on the side.
Although he had diligently practiced Blood Manipulation for many years through the perspective of others and successfully retained that precious experience, differing bodily conditions naturally required a process of re-adaptation.
Fortunately, he was "experienced" and did not take too long to complete the transition, thoroughly converting it into his own combat power.
Not only were various methods of use deeply ingrained in his mind and readily available, but he had also accumulated enough to independently pioneer his own Maximum Technique cursed technique!
It was only at this very moment that Shinji dared to say that even without Immortality, he was no longer some minion to be carved up at will.
Having completely cleaned up all the various traces left behind in the secret room, Shinji finally took his leave.
He certainly did not want the Jashin Cult to know too much, lest they seize upon a weakness if they ever fell out in the future.
Before he even walked back to his room after heading out, someone called out to him.
"Akagi Shinji, Cult Leader is waiting for you in Prayer Room No. 1. Go quickly."
"Alright, got it."
Shinji nodded and immediately changed his route.
When he arrived at the location, he discovered that besides him, Cult Leader Takihata had called someone else over as well-none other than that idiot Hidan.
By now, Hidan's injuries were not only completely healed, but his eyebrows and hair that had been burned off by fire that time had also grown back to some extent.
Of course, it was currently just fine stubble; waiting for it to return to his original slicked-back hairstyle would take a bit longer, but at least he was no longer bald.
Looking at the future of the Jashin Cult and his two capable subordinates, Cult Leader Takihata felt as though he could hardly suppress his own ambitions.
"Ten days ago, I procured a batch of sacrifices from the Land of Grass. But now this batch of sacrifices, along with the personnel escorting them, has completely vanished without a trace."
"I intend to have the two of you go investigate the whereabouts of these sacrifices. If they were waylaid by someone, find them and sacrifice them all to Lord Jashin. If it was a case of the Land of Grass people turning on their own and playing dirty, make them pay a heavy price!"
"Understood, Lord Takihata." Shinji and Hidan replied.
Nowadays, following the rapid expansion of the Jashin Cult, practically no living people were left to be found near the base.
And in order to maintain the quantity of sacrifices, they had to plunder people from everywhere.
Cult Leader Takihata knew this was not a long-term solution, so he had already secretly begun buying and selling people across various nations.
The transaction with the Land of Grass was a mutual probing test between both sides.
Only, the current result did not seem very good.
With the Kubikiribōchō-which had evolved into a cursed tool-strapped to his back, Shinji and Hidan set out once more.
According to the accounts from the Land of Grass side, the convoy escorting the sacrifices suddenly disappeared near the border between the Land of Rivers and the Land of Rain. They had also dispatched people to search, but ultimately came up empty-handed. They even suspected that the Jashin Cult people were the ones who made a move, seeing as the Jashin Cult hardly possessed a good reputation and could well be described as notorious.
Assuming both sides believed the other had issues and neither was lying, then a third party had intervened with high probability.
He just didn't know who this third party actually was. To dare waylay cargo belonging to both the Jashin Cult and the Land of Grass, they were probably either fools or didn't take them seriously at all.
Shinji hoped it was the former; otherwise, this mission would prove troublesome.
Especially since the location of the incident was very close to the Land of Rain, and he was all too aware of just how terrifying the current Land of Rain truly was.
If there was even the slightest possibility, he wanted nothing to do with experiencing any pain.
Along the way, Shinji did not rush his journey, frequently darting out to "hunt."
Whether cute little rabbits or ferocious wolves, not a single one managed to escape his ruthless hands.
To the point where even Hidan eventually found it a bit unbearable. "What on earth are you doing? Killing so many animals, can you finish eating them all? Don't expect me to help you carry them on the road."
Shinji looked helplessly at the Seven Kill Lamps on the Kubikiribōchō; not a single one lit up.
Sure enough, trying to take shortcuts was not so easy either.
After killing so many animals, it hadn't triggered a single Soul Imprisonment. Did the targets really have to be human?
Would Tailed Beasts work?
What about someone who had eaten the Pig-Pig Fruit, or a reindeer that had eaten the Human-Human Fruit-how would those be judged?
Alright, he was getting carried away; this world lacked Zoan Devil Fruits and druids, so he could temporarily set that question aside.
"Never mind, let's go."
Shinji sliced off a few large chunks of meat, preparing to use them as food along the way, while the rest had to be left behind entirely.
Fortunately it wouldn't go to waste; before long, it would be devoured clean by wild beasts drawn in by the smell of blood.
Yet, whether through good luck or bad, Shinji and Hidan had not been walking for long before they noticed the sounds of battle echoing from the forest ahead.
If he encountered this kind of thing under normal circumstances, there would probably only be two possibilities.
One was to pretend not to see it and walk straight past.
The other was for Hidan to grow excited and rush over to slaughter that group of people to offer as a sacrifice to Jashin.
But this time, Shinji could hardly pretend he hadn't seen anything.
Finding a few people to test his blade on out here in the wilderness wasn't easy!
He just hoped there would be enough people down there to let him execute a few more Cloak-Breaking Strikes and get a feel for it.
"I'll go check it out and chop down a few people while I'm at it."
Hearing this, Hidan immediately raised an eyebrow with a surge of interest. "Together?"
"Forget it, you want to steal this from me too?"
"Tch, boring!"
Hidan unlatched the Bloody Triple-Bladed Scythe, then sat down with his back against a large tree. "Don't make me wait too long."
Shinji nodded, then drew the Kubikiribōchō and heaved it onto his shoulder, walking in the direction of the loudest noise.
"Kill!"
"Protect Her Royal Highness!"
"You scoundrels have quite a lot of nerve!"
"Hahaha, who would've thought that this rare, extraordinarily fat sheep is actually a princess? Brothers, we're in luck today."
"Charge together, slaughter them all!"
"This plot is way too cliché. Good thing I'm neither a hero nor here to play the savior."
"Well, I'll just finish testing the blade and leave..."
As Shinji drew closer, he took in the entire scene unfolding before him at a glance.
A gang of forty or fifty people composed of bandit samurai and rogue nomads was launching a frenzied assault, while a group of guards defended desperately around a sedan chair.
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