chapter 93 part 3
The Konoha ninja present seriously observed Troy, filled with awe.
...
Land of Hot Water.
Rushing all the way from Hidden Leaf Village to here, Tsukasa Kaede had expended quite a bit of energy. He took a breath and immediately headed towards Hidden Steam Village.
"I didn't expect something so interesting to happen." Tsukasa Kaede's expression was odd.
At this moment, in Hidden Steam Village, a group of people were holding a secret meeting, fully engaged in a ritual.
"God! Great Jashin! These are the sacrifices your loyal followers offer to you!"
"But, Bishop, if we just put a corpse up there, aren't we deceiving God?"
"Shut up, Hidan, you just joined the Jashin cult, you don't understand anything. This guy is still moving, he can't be considered a corpse. And didn't you dig him up? Besides, isn't this Undying Body precisely a manifestation of Lord Jashin's power?"
"Eh? It can be understood that way too?"
Young Hidan was a bit bewildered, but having just joined the Jashin cult, he felt that the Bishop must have his reasons for doing so.
He watched, bewildered, as a group of followers swarmed the moving corpse, dismembering it with various strange rituals.
No matter how it was dismembered, as long as the head was intact, the corpse showed no signs of "discomfort."
After the ritual, the group looked at each other, feeling absolutely nothing.
"It seems this thing cannot please Lord Jashin. If we could capture Tsukasa Kaede, we could surely make Lord Jashin happy. Only then can He bestow upon us the power of Immortality." The Bishop mused.
Hidan bared his teeth. He felt he could be a Bishop too. Why not find an opportunity to kill the Bishop and take over?
Such an obvious matter, does it still need to be verified in such a clumsy way?! "Corpse Release corpses are completely different from true Living Humans, okay! This is a Ninjutsu, not Lord Jashin's divine power!"
"Foolish! Kill Tsukasa Kaede, seize the Corpse Release Secret Technique, and wouldn't that then become something Lord Jashin has bestowed upon us? This must be Lord Jashin's instruction!"
The Bishop and his followers fervently spread their arms, muttering incantations, and prayed devoutly.
Hidan thought these guys were crazy. "I still think Lord Jashin prefers Living Humans."
"Well said! Kaedence you understand Lord Jashin so well, then you shall be the Sacrifice!"
The Bishop finally revealed his true intentions. He regularly recruited new members to please Jashin; completing the ritual was the main goal.
Immediately, ignoring Hidan's resistance, a group of people placed Hidan on the stone platform and re-etched the Technique Formula.
"Damn it! Why don't you guys sacrifice yourselves!" Hidan cursed loudly.
At this time, he hadn't yet experienced Jashin's power and wasn't particularly superstitious about Jashin—one always needs to experience something to truly believe in it.
The Bishop said coldly, "Lord Jashin surely prefers young, strong, and resolute sacrifices. In the current Land of Hot Water, such people are rare."
It couldn't be helped. The Land of Hot Water, this nation of hot springs, was too deeply wounded during the Second Great Ninja War.
The Land of Hot Water battle, a major turning point in the late Second Great Ninja War, though it didn't involve many combatants, caused immense damage to the Land of Hot Water.
The Four-Tails Jinchuriki used Lava Release to detonate the Underground Volcano, and although primarily concentrated along the northern coastline, it did stimulate the Underground Volcano, permanently altering parts of the Land of Hot Water's terrain, leaving this tourist nation, famous worldwide for its hot springs, severely devastated.
Devastation in all aspects, affected by the volcanic eruption, the skyrocketing casualties, and the collapsing economy—to recover from this, God knows how many years of effort it would take. At the very least, they would have to wait for the Underground Volcano to stabilize again.
Who knows how many famous hot springs would be rendered useless because of this.
While Hidden Leaf Village and Hidden Stone Village ended the War and enjoyed peace, the Land of Hot Water's citizens were still struggling.
This also gave the Jashin cult an extra opportunity for development. Hidan was just one of the members recruited by them during this period, and was about to become one of the sacrifices.
Thud!
A follower plunged a knife deeply into Hidan's chest, muttering incantations.
Others followed suit, constantly cutting into Hidan's flesh, releasing Hidan's blood, filling the ritual area beneath him with the smell of blood.
Hidan's screams were continuous: "It hurts so much, you bastards! How dare you do this to me! I'll kill you all, none of you will live!"
"Say that when you meet Lord Jashin," the Bishop said coldly.
But then he noticed something was wrong: "Why aren't you dead yet?"
"Dead? What dead? Before Lord Hidan kills you, you're the ones who deserve to die!" Hidan cursed profusely. He didn't know if it was his imagination, but the intense pain in his body didn't diminish with time; instead, it grew stronger and stronger!
It was as if they were cutting not just his body, but his Soul as well! Not only that, he felt something else mixing in, his body temperature rapidly dropped, and he felt increasingly cold.
With a glance, Hidan was dumbfounded to see the Zombie, which was left with only half its body and its chest cavity ripped open, dragging its head with one arm that was mostly bone, take a bite out of his calf.
"...What are you doing? Even you won't let me go? I didn't intentionally dig you up; I just wanted to find some food from the ground!" Hidan was done with it, feeling everyone was against him.
Indeed, these damn guys, they all deserve to die! Kill them all and offer them to Lord Jashin!—But why was he having such thoughts? He clearly didn't trust Jashin. But never mind that, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill!
Hidan's thoughts were swallowed by this extreme pain as he rambled wildly.
In a daze, he heard many people's screams and scolding.