After answering countless questions, Shinji, with his head spinning, finally escaped from the crowd.
Then he saw Mei standing there with a beaming smile.
Shinji immediately prepared to sternly question her, but as soon as he approached, he heard her say, "Let's go, it's time to choose a curse object."
All the vulgar words he was about to utter were instantly swallowed back, and he uttered a single, "Okay."
"For the sake of the curse object, I won't hold this against you this time."
They went deeper and deeper, all the way to the bottom floor.
"This is it. Although all curse objects are stored separately, some of them still pose a danger."
Shinji naturally knew about this.
Some powerful curse objects could continuously affect their surroundings even without contact with any living beings; this was considered curse energy leakage.
Upon entering, it indeed did not disappoint him.
There were about twenty to thirty stone platforms, spaced apart, each holding a curse object in a glass container.
"It seems the theory of curse object formation does have some truth to it. Otherwise, it's hard to imagine how Mist Hidden collected so many curse objects."
Shinji nodded inwardly and then began to wander around.
Although the system would only create an entry after he touched it with his hand, it didn't prevent him from getting a general idea first, so he would be prepared.
"How is it, have you chosen? Each curse object has a description on its platform."
After Shinji had taken a general tour, based on the descriptions of each curse object, he immediately ruled out most of them.
As he had expected, most curse objects had rather disappointing or redundant effects.
Truly useful ones were few and far between.
Moreover, he strongly suspected that this was not the entirety of Mist Hidden's curse objects. The truly powerful ones might have long been sealed in other locations.
This was understandable.
Even though Mei was Mizukage, she absolutely could not do anything that harmed the village's interests.
She couldn't even make the decision about a single ninja sword, so how could she give away curse objects that were truly useful to the village?
It was impossible to imagine.
"Which one should I choose?"
The best of the bunch, Shinji walked around and still fancied a few, provided he ignored the troublesome side effects.
Just as he was about to make a choice, he suddenly had an inspiration.
"There should still be curse objects whose specific effects haven't been identified, right?"
Mei was first stunned, then frowned, "There are, but are you sure you want to choose those?"
Shinji smiled, "It's all about fate with these things. If I don't find anything I like, I'll just pick one randomly here later."
Mei knew he wasn't telling the truth, but she could still make decisions about some curse objects whose effects hadn't been identified, which wouldn't be harming the village's interests.
"Follow me."
So Mei led him to another secret room. This room stored the curse objects whose effects had not yet been identified. There weren't many, only about 4 or 5.
Shinji casually picked up one of them and began to examine it.
Mei was about to give him a few reminders, but then thought better of it.
Curse Object: [Crystal Heart]
Usage: Dig out one's heart and replace it with this.
Effect: Grants the ability to freely transform one's body into crystal.
Side Effect: Amnesia. Memories will gradually fade over time until everything is completely forgotten.
Shinji quickly put down the sparkling pink crystal. This side effect was simply too detrimental!
The ability to freely transform one's body into crystal sounded good, but compared to the price to be paid, it was nothing.
He didn't want to end up forgetting everything, even forgetting that he was human, and remain forever in a certain place as a crystal.
It was no wonder this curse object hadn't been identified by the people of Mist Hidden. It required digging out a person's heart and then placing this thing inside. Who would even think of it, let alone do it?
However, if there was truly no other choice, he might be able to use this thing to trick Kakuzu.
With such a rare crystal heart, he didn't believe Kakuzu would be able to resist.
Shinji picked up the remaining few curse objects one by one, but finally shook his head and put them all down.
As expected, this method of relying on luck was also not working. These items either had useless abilities or side effects he couldn't accept.
Until he picked up the last item, which looked like a waterskin, he had already given up hope.
As expected.
Curse Object: [Thirsty One's Stomach]
Usage: Fill with the same liquid for 7 consecutive days.
Effect: Can continuously obtain this type of liquid.
Side Effect: Highly toxic.
...
For example, filling it seven times with Moutai would allow one to drink Moutai endlessly, is that what it means?
Get lost!
There is a saying called "drinking poison to quench thirst," which literally means quenching thirst with poisoned wine.
Shinji felt that this damn thing perfectly embodied the meaning of this idiom.
Although he wasn't afraid of poison, this was too much of a hassle.
Just as Shinji was about to put it back, he suddenly stopped, muttering repeatedly, "Continuously obtain this type of liquid… this type of liquid?!"
So, does his blood count as a liquid?
"I'll take this one."
Shinji made his decision instantly.
He felt he could take a gamble.
If he won the gamble, he wouldn't have to suffer the daily grind of drawing blood and storing it, nor would he have to worry about suddenly becoming anemic during a fight.
He would have an endless supply of blood to punish every enemy who dared to bare their teeth at him!
Even if it turned out to be useless in the end, it didn't matter. He could still exchange it for Curse Soul Points, so he wouldn't lose either way.
Mei glanced at him, said nothing, and asked nothing.
After the two of them went out, Mei cautioned, "I will have someone send the remaining curse objects over as soon as possible. Although you can be said to have saved the Mist Hidden Village this time, any gratitude would be insufficient. However, as Mizukage, I cannot truly disregard the village's interests, so I hope you can understand."
Shinji nodded indifferently, indicating his understanding.
Having gained tens of thousands of Curse Soul Points for free, he didn't care about these small gains. Anything would be fine.
He was more eager now to test the idea in his mind.
"Also, regarding the Executioner's Blade…"
"What, is Mizukage-sama planning to cross the bridge and then burn it down?" Shinji's smile turned cold.
Mei shook her head. "Although some people strongly requested that I take back the Executioner's Blade, I have explicitly refused."
"What I want to say is, you can take it with you and don't need to return it. However, nominally, it still belongs to Mist Hidden. Do you understand what I mean?"
Hearing this, Shinji immediately understood.
Borrowing it for a hundred years was essentially no different from giving it to him directly, but the meaning was different.
Shinji didn't insist on dwelling on this. He was just curious and asked, "Can I borrow a few more? Anyway, no one is using them."
"Get lost!!!"
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