Corpse.
Terrifying ritual.
God statue with strange and grotesque shape.
And a cult name that, once displayed, would immediately tell others "I'm not a good thing."
Ryosuke asked, "Evil God Cult… have you ever heard of this cult?"
Kakashi had been carrying out missions outside for many years, Tsunade, though not doing missions, after leaving Konoha also traveled all over the world for leisure.
But when they recalled the past, they found that they had never heard of a cult called "Evil God Cult."
Kakashi analyzed, "It should be a newly emerging cult in recent times. With their killing frequency, if they were inside the Five Great Nations' territory, they would have been wanted long ago."
"I speculate that at present the Evil God Cult is only limited within the borders of the Land of Hot Water."
"You look here."
Ryosuke pointed at the corpse's chest area in the photo, where a sharp, pitch-black long needle was inserted.
Because the corpse was a man, and there is height difference between men and women, but as long as it is proportional and slightly adjusted, upon looking, one can see that the position where the corpse was pierced by the long needle is exactly the same as the position of Tsunade's wound, without the slightest difference.
Ryosuke had roughly understood the enemy's ability.
"Borrowing cause-body and ritual, using one sacrifice as the price, carrying out a super long-distance 'curse killing.'"
"Only, what these fanatic believers didn't expect was that their sacrifice died, but you are still alive."
Tsunade took the photo and looked at it carefully for a long time, "The thing that's been making me keep bleeding, turns out to actually be a corpse that's already dead? This… this is too freaky!"
"What's freaky is not only this."
Ryosuke said, "These cultists haven't planned to let you go yet."
Kakashi and Tsunade were not fools, after thinking it over a little, they understood.
If the cultists decided to let Tsunade go, it would be absolutely impossible for them to waste manpower to maintain the ritual.
Wouldn't it be better to just throw away this corpse connected by curse to Tsunade and find the next target?
Ryosuke turned his head to look toward the outside of the alley; he always felt that someone was, from far away, secretly and quietly spying on them, "These cultists are like hyenas who have set their sights on prey, ready at any time to pounce from the corner and bite you… In short, be careful."
The Aviation Smith had already taken off, but the Land of Hot Water, as a tourist nation, had extremely high population density, people everywhere, fundamentally unable to determine who is the enemy by carbon dioxide detection.
The greatest shortcoming of Hermit Purple is precisely this.
As long as there is enough "cause-body," it can trace backward in reverse, ignoring the restrictions of time and space, directly locking on the target, carrying out psychography and spying.
But "being able to see" and "being able to find" are two different things.
This corpse connected by cause-body with Tsunade was now placed in a closed space without any distinguishing features, fundamentally making it impossible to judge, from the details in the picture, the location of the Evil God Cult's lair.
Ryosuke checked the system.
When Konan took away the book, it gave 300 soul fragments; when Samui left, it gave 100 soul fragments, plus the scattered gains of the past more than a month.
At present there remained 875 soul fragments.
Raising the four-star Hermit Purple from level 1 to level 2 only required 300 soul fragments.
Ryosuke thought for a moment.
In the past, the situations that required Hermit Purple to activate were indeed few.
Because in the past, enemies always took the initiative to deliver themselves to Ryosuke to be beaten, but now Ryosuke had become stronger and stronger, especially after taking down Yagura, many enemies would deliberately avoid Ryosuke.
Now Ryosuke needed to take the initiative to find others to beat; the role of intelligence was becoming more and more important,
Ryosuke made a decision,
'System, upgrade Hermit Purple.'
After all, it's only 300 soul fragments; once we find this cult and take them all down, we'll definitely be able to earn it back.
A streak of starlight fell, sprinkling on Hermit Purple's vines; it became more tenacious, and vaguely one could see dots of purple starlight flickering on and off.
[Hermit Purple (Four-Star): Level 2]
Its ability was still psychography, however…
When Ryosuke picked up the photo, Hermit Purple's vines swayed slightly, pointing in a general direction.
Level 2 Hermit Purple possessed the ability of causal direction guidance.
'This is what's called the 'least worthless' Stand.'
If after reaching max level, the Hermit Purple that had evolved through dimensional ascension star core, could it directly locate the opponent's coordinates, and then the max-level little airplane could fly over and drop a nuclear bomb?
Ryosuke chuckled softly and closed the system interface.
"Let's go."
If the cultists really were watching them from the dark as Ryosuke guessed, then as soon as Ryosuke moved toward the direction of the cult's lair, it would inevitably provoke the cultists' reaction.
For Ryosuke, Kakashi, and Tsunade, this combination of three, just a bit of an opening would be enough.
———
"Konoha's Tsunade, one of the Three Legendary Ninjas."
"Copy Ninja Kakashi."
"And…"
The silver-haired cult leader held the photo in his hand, "Ryosuke, who just overturned the Fourth Mizukage's rule and supported the puppet Terumi Mei regime to take the throne."
Calling him a cult leader, his clothing was extremely plain, just a simple black robe, straw sandals like those of commoners on his feet, yet his appearance was handsome, his eyes bright and piercing, gaze carrying an insight and affinity that saw through the mundane world, and his head of silver hair fell like a waterfall all the way to his waist.
He sat directly on the ground; opposite him were two men and one woman, also sitting on the ground, the Left and Right Protectors of the Evil God Cult and the Saintess.
These three also had refined and otherworldly temperaments.
If not for the terrifying and grotesque Evil God statue standing beside them, if placed outside, no one would be able to see that they were a group of murder-loving lunatics.
"Lord, should we hide for a while?" the Left Protector asked.
The three people before them exceeded the limit of what the Evil God Cult could deal with; though they didn't know what method the other side used, judging from the direction Ryosuke's group was heading, it was directly toward them.
They were cultists, lunatics, but not fools.
They couldn't win in a frontal confrontation.
"It's 'cult leader,' not 'lord.'"
The silver-haired cult leader said, "Between us there is no difference; I merely listened to the Evil God's teachings earlier than you, understood the 'emptiness' of the world earlier than you."
He pressed his palms together.
"Flesh empty, death returns home."
The Left and Right Protectors and the Saintess also pressed their palms together, facing the Evil God's direction, and chanted in unison,
"Flesh empty, death returns home."
Clearly it was an extremely terrifying Evil God, like the fusion of the most hideous things in the world, yet in their eyes, it appeared as gentle and moving as a mother; they only wished to quickly go toward death and throw themselves into the Evil God's embrace.
But they still could not die.
If they died, who would spread the blessings of the Evil God?
And the people living amid suffering in this world, who would save them and send them peacefully to death?
Only when everyone in the world was dead would it be their turn; this was the Evil God's test for them.
"Also, we cannot let Ryosuke's group of three go."
The silver-haired cult leader said, "Because of the Evil God's protection, we have found the 'Holy Son Hidan.' He will become the Holy Grail, holding the sin called 'life' in this world."
"In the past, I merely wanted to turn him into a sorrowful undying, unkillable being, so that his painful living would allow more people to happily die, but now..."
The silver-haired cult leader picked up the photos of Ryosuke and Tsunade.
"Tsunade's life force is at this moment continuously flowing into the Holy Son's body; if we could offer her and Ryosuke, whose life force is equally terrifying, together as sacrifices, giving all that life force to Hidan, perhaps… we could bring even more happiness to the world."
The Left and Right Protectors and the Saintess stood up.
"We will take Ryosuke's 'blood' back."
The silver-haired cult leader slightly bowed.
"Please trouble you, all of this is for..."
The three said in unison, "Death returns home."
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