Seeing the fist hurtling towards him again, Teiichi tightened his grip on the vice leader's arm slightly.
The vice-leader was suddenly pulled and staggered, his fist lost its direction, and he fell to the ground.
Teiichi's gaze followed the vice-leader's body as it moved slightly downwards.
Then, he raised his hand.
Bang!
Seeing Yamaguchi lying on the ground, not getting up again, the cult leader swallowed hard, raised his gaze, and looked at the young man walking towards him. The cult leader said in a flustered voice:
"Wait, do you need money? I can give you money, lots and lots of money! So much money that you could never..."
Bang!
The chop was swift and decisive, and the cult leader collapsed to the ground.
Kanae walked to Teiichi's side, her brows furrowing slightly as she looked at the two who had collapsed on the ground.
"Call the police?"
Teiichi nodded. "We need to call the police, but not us! Let the hidden team handle it. There might be others behind this kind of person, and we don't have time to waste here with them!"
Kanae nodded slightly upon hearing this. "So, where shall we go next?"
Teiichi thought for a moment and said, "Let's go to the next place closest to here. The closest one is the Harvest Cult, right?"
"Yes, it's the Harvest Cult!" Kanae nodded gently.
The letter received this time mentioned four sects that are suspected to be cults.
These are the Harvest Cult, the World Purification Cult, the Eternal Paradise Faith, and the Eternal Paradise Cult.
Teiichi found it strange when he learned the names of these sects.
One is like agriculture, one is like the end of the world, and the other two are like pure cults.
So when it came to choosing which to go to first, Teiichi specifically chose one of the latter two.
Of course, the second one also looks like a cult, but unlike the latter two, it doesn't try to hide it at all.
Upon receiving intelligence that there were four sects, Teiichi deduced that one of them must have been manipulated.
After all, using religion to cover up cannibalism is not something a brainless devil would do.
But I never expected that the first sect I chose would be one founded by humans...
emmm...
I don't know whether this is a good thing or not.
Being sold by human traffickers probably doesn't end well, but if you're a ghost, you might not be sold but eaten!
It's hard to say which is better or worse!
emmm...
Now we can only hope we don't end up being the last to encounter Doma!
Of course, there's an even worse situation!
That means Doma wasn't even among those sects that were within the scope of the intelligence!
Two days later, a donkey cart slowly moved forward on the winding and rugged mountain road.
Teiichi, Kanae, and Nezuko sat quietly in the car.
Teiichi sat to one side, Kanae and Nezuko sat to the other, and some goods were piled up around them.
The person driving the carriage was a member of a trading company under the Ubuyashiki Family named Shinsuke, who was the one who delivered the news that there was a possible evil spirit here.
He happened to have some goods to transport to Kuroishi Village, so Teiichi and the other two got on the truck and he Teiichi to the situation in Kuroishi Village.
At this moment, Shinsuke sat at the front of the donkey cart, driving it while introducing the people on board:
" Kuroishi Village is one of the poorer villages in our area."
"Furthermore, the location here isn't great; it's surrounded by mountains, and the mountain roads are difficult to navigate. It takes almost a whole day to get to the nearest major city."
"For these reasons, the population here has remained stagnant, with only about a hundred households."
The brief introduction gave Teiichi a general understanding of Kuroishi Village. Teiichi and asked:
Why do you think there are ghosts here?
Upon hearing Teiichi's question, Shinsuke replied:
"A while ago, a notice was issued from above, one of the points of which was that some churches might be suspected of having demonic possession."
Speaking of this, Shinsuke suddenly realized that he and the two officials in front of him were from different departments, and what he knew, the two officials might not know.
Shinsuke turned his head and asked, "Are you two aware of this matter?"
"Of course I know, this came from me..." Teiichi nodded slightly and said:
"Yes, I know!"
Shinsuke nodded, then continued:
"The original inhabitants of Kuroishi Village worshipped Inari, and there was even a shrine dedicated to Inari in the center of the village."
"Then, a couple of years ago, they suddenly switched to the ' Harvest Cult,' and the Inari shrine was converted into a Harvest Cult shrine!"
"I've never heard of this Harvest Cult when I deliver goods to other places!"
"This Harvest Cult is the only one here; I wonder where it came from!"
"But that's not the main reason I think this place is haunted."
"What's the main reason for that?" Teiichi asked.
"Mainly because of Yuta..."
When he mentioned the name " Yuta," Shinsuke paused again before slowly explaining:
" Yuta is a kid from this village that I know."
He was an orphan from a young age and had no relatives.
"So I often play with him when I come here!"
"But when the delivery came before I reported the news, Yuta suddenly disappeared, even though I clearly saw him last month!"
"Therefore, I suspect..."
"So you suspect he was eaten by a ghost?" Teiichi asked.
Shinsuke remained silent for a moment, as if recalling the moments he had spent with Yuta, before gritting his teeth and nodding firmly:
"Yes! In particular, I asked many people in the village, and they all said that Yuta was taken away by relatives!"
"But... Yuta clearly told me before that he has no relatives!"
"Besides, I asked a lot of people, and that's what they all said!"
"But this village isn't that big, nor that small, how could everyone possibly know so much about Yuta's situation?!"
Teiichi nodded thoughtfully upon hearing this, then continued to ask:
Are there any other missing children around here?
"I don't know about that! After all, we only deliver goods once a month, and after delivering, we Ueya don't stay for long before rushing back!" Shinsuke shook his head.
Teiichi nodded, then asked:
"Besides what you just mentioned, is there anything else unusual about Kuroishi Village?"
"Is something wrong...?"
"Yes, especially the anomalies that appeared after the Harvest Cult emerged here!"
"Let me think about it!"
Shinsuke pondered for a long time, seemingly unable to come up with an answer, and asked somewhat uncertainly:
Is it unusual that they're selling more grain?