When battles reached a fever pitch, ninja would roar hoarsely, much like samurai.
Inside Shapo Port, Kiri-nin and Suna-nin had slaughtered until their eyes were red.
On a ship far from the piers, Fox stood by a second-floor window, watching the battle raging in Shapo Port in the distance.
The Kiri-nin had set fire to a warehouse. A fiery dragon from the warehouse soared into the sky, illuminating Fox's fox mask.
A shuriken spun through the air and thudded into the wooden plank beside the window.
"Stray Arrow, no need for alarm. No one has spotted us."
Hearing Lord Fox's assessment, Leaf Monkey and the others returned their instinctively drawn kunai to their ninja tool pouches.
The Kiri-nin commander was Hoshigaki Kisame and the prodigy Hōzuki Mangetsu.
The Suna-nin commander was Scorch Release Pakura.
Leaf Monkey said softly, "Lord Fox, Scorch Release Pakura is a genius who emerged in Sunagakure over the last two years. Her strength is formidable."
"Hmm, Scorch Release's destructive power far surpasses Fire Release, and it's also very flexible."
Amidst the encirclement of Kiri-nin, Pakura continuously manipulated Scorch Release fireballs to block attacks left and right. Water Release was utterly incapable of extinguishing the Scorch Release flames.
Fox wasn't interested in the war between Suna and Kiri—unless Pakura's life was in danger, he wouldn't intervene.
After four years and three cycles of reincarnation, Fox's "Top Transformation: Buddha" had reached the same thousand-handed scale as Senju Hashirama's. His chakra reserves had increased from 1 times Kage-level when he first ascended to that rank, to 2 times Kage-level now.
His physical and spiritual energy had once again touched their limits.
For ninja, breaking through limits was difficult. Every ninja would encounter several bottlenecks where their strength would cease to grow, or even regress.
Compared to killing, Fox cared more about the growth of his soul. Hidan, on the edge of Shapo Port, was his greater focus.
Amidst the chaos, a small boat washed ashore.
Hidan crawled out of the boat.
Hidan cracked his neck and said, "I haven't eaten in ten days. Anyone else would have starved to death by now. Wait, I'm hungry, so why am I cracking my neck? Feels like someone's gonna chop my head off. Why am I giving myself that kind of mental hint?"
Kunai occasionally flew over from the main battlefield, scattering everywhere like stray arrows.
One such kunai lodged itself in Hidan's shoulder.
"Ow!"
Just as Hidan was about to pull the kunai from his shoulder, another flew over and pierced his other shoulder, making him look like a trident.
Hidan shook his shoulders. The kunai scraped against his shoulder blades and flesh. The pain stimulated his nerves, giving Hidan a peculiar sense of pleasure. "How gratifying! This place is filled with suffering!"
Hidan pulled the kunai from his shoulders and continued towards the battlefield. On the way, he saw the wreckage of a ship, found food in the cabin, and wolfed it down. He had drifted from a port in the Land of Rivers all the way to the Land of Wind. He wouldn't starve to death, but the hunger was excruciating.
After eating and recovering some energy, Hidan took out his necklace. Inside the circular pendant was a trident. This was the emblem of the Three Gods Religion.
Picking up a random ninjato from the ground, Hidan noticed blood on it. He licked the blood and said, "All who do evil must repent... Let me see, who to sacrifice first today? What if the owner of this blood is already dead? Whatever, I can't resist. Dead or not, I'll sacrifice them anyway."
Using his own blood, he drew a circle enclosing a triangle on the ground—the ritual array. He took out a sharp spike and stabbed it fiercely into his own heart.
In the distance, a wounded Suna-nin struggling against a Kiri-nin suddenly felt a piercing pain in his chest. He could no longer hold on. It felt as if his heart had been impaled. He died before the Kiri-nin could strike.
Inside the ship's cabin, Fox raised an eyebrow slightly. Hidan had just sacrificed a soul to him. A drop of blood appeared on the Evil God. His own soul strengthened a bit more.
But how strong did his soul need to become to reach Six Paths level, to deal with those Ōtsutsuki?
"Lord! The flames of war have reached the nobles' district!"
Fox followed Leaf Monkey's pointing finger and indeed saw Hōzuki Mangetsu, wielding the Twin Swords: Hiramekarei, killing six Suna-nin with a single blade aura.
The nobles' lives were threatened. The Suna-nin could retreat no further. The battle line pushed from the docks at the shore into the residential and noble estate districts.
"Lord, should we create chaos? Wouldn't it be too cheap for the Kiri-nin to take the docks so easily?"
Fox shook his head. "Sunagakure, though the weakest of the Five Great Shinobi Villages, isn't so weak that three or four hundred Kiri-nin could take the Land of Wind's only port. Impossible. Let them fight a bit longer. At least another two or three hours."
Hidan continued searching for sacrifices behind the battle lines.
One ninja after another was killed by Hidan—Kiri-nin or Suna-nin, Hidan wasn't picky.
The Great Evil God said: Stance determines morality. Stance comes first, then morality.
For commoners, samurai, nobles, and ninja are all demons.
For samurai, nobles and ninja are demons; commoners are sheep.
For nobles, ninja are demons; commoners are sheep; samurai are sheepdogs.
For ninja, outside the ninja village, there are only two types of people: those who can be killed freely, and those who must be killed carefully, preferably assassinated without a trace.
The Great Evil God said: To expand the scope of sacrifice, the Evil God must stand with the commoners. Thus, anyone who picks up a weapon is a demon that can be sacrificed.
When Hidan sacrificed his 100th soul, Fox suddenly felt a stir within.
Over the past four years, Hidan had focused mainly on practicing the Eight Gates. Occasionally, when he felt an itch, a craving to feel pain, he would sporadically perform some sacrifices.
Fox's chakra reserves, which hadn't increased for a long time, had actually grown!
[Chakra Reserves: 2.1 times Kage-level.]
His body infinitely approached Senju Hashirama's Sage Body, unable to improve further. If he studied Shikkotsu Forest's Sage Mode, Fox felt he could also instantly heal injuries in battle, obtaining a Sage Body.
To continue progressing, spiritual energy—that is, the soul—was the only path forward.
After Hidan sacrificed 100 souls, Fox's soul improved, and his chakra reserves also increased by 0.1.
The growth was slow, but any improvement meant hope.
In the original story, Naruto and Sasuke reached Six Paths level because the Sage of the Six Paths transmitted power to them. The Sage of the Six Paths would absolutely not transmit power to him.
Collecting soul-related forbidden techniques, mastering the three deity systems of the Vidyārāja, Evil God, and Shinigami, his spiritual energy had finally broken through human limits.
From Kage-level to Six Paths, without the Sage of the Six Paths' transmission, Fox was confident he could forge his own path.
Feeling the power of the sacrificed souls, a sudden sense of sorrow arose in Fox's heart.
The God Tree hung everyone in the world, absorbing nutrients, sucking the lifeblood of the entire world, feeding it to Ōtsutsuki Kaguya to reach the Six Paths level.
The path he was treading, wasn't it also a form of bloodsucking?
Sacrifice offered the souls of the offerings to him, enhancing his spiritual energy.
To become stronger, to become a Six Paths-level powerhouse, the ultimate path was to suck the lifeblood of the entire world, to sacrifice others.
The ninja world was the same. Labor and struggle were lies. Only exploitation could lead to wealth and power.
Sacrificing thousands of souls, his spiritual energy might reach a terrifying level, entering the Six Paths tier.
Hidan sacrificing alone was too inefficient. He needed Hidan to expand the ranks of the Three Gods Religion's followers.
At this moment, Hidan had been stabbed through the heart once, his throat pierced once, and a kunai was still lodged in the top of his head.
At the current Evil God's recovery speed, Hidan's injuries would take a long time to heal.
Suddenly, Hidan heard a divine oracle.
"Foolish Hidan, you have reached your limit for today. In this war, search for subordinates, search for believers, spread my faith!"
Dragging his mangled body, Hidan got up from the ground again.
"I humbly obey your divine oracle! I will go find new believers immediately!"
Hidan walked around the beach, leaving bloody footprints behind, until he saw an overturned small boat. Through the gaps in the boat's planks, a single eye filled with hatred stared out.
Ah! That eye was so beautiful! Extreme hatred could only breed extreme suffering.
Hidan had never seen eyes with such intense hatred before.
Flipping open the overturned boat, Hidan saw a young man with a ferocious expression, shielding a middle-aged man.
Hidan paused. It really was just one hate-filled eye. The young man's other eye had a kunai stuck in it, blinded. The kunai was heavy, seemingly ready to pull his eyeball out at any moment. Judging by his clothes, this youth was likely a young sailor who worked with his father.
"Stay back! My father is already badly injured by you!"
Hidan said, "Hey, hey! Your left eye is blind, so you can't see. Your father isn't badly injured; your father is dead. Turn your lovely head and look with your good right eye. Isn't your father already dead?"
The young man whirled his head. The kunai tugged at his eyeball, causing a line of blood to instantly appear beneath his left eye. Yet, he ignored the pain.
His father was truly dead. His pupils were already dilated.
Hidan continued, "I'm not a ninja either. Look at me, covered in ninja weapons. Young man, I like your eyes. Join the Three Gods Religion, and the God will grant you the power for revenge. All who do evil must repent. Those ninja who have killed countless people all deserve to die, deserve to be sacrificed to the Great Evil God!"
Hidan gesticulated wildly as he spoke. The spike in his heart, the kunai in his throat, the kunai on his head swayed in the wind.
This scene left an extremely deep impression on the young man.
He and his father were in a pitiful state. However, the madman before him seemed even more pitiful, even more full of hatred for ninja.
"Join the Three Gods Religion, and you can sacrifice those brutal ninja! Young man, tell me your name!"
"My name is Black Sail. If I join the Three Gods Religion, I can kill and sacrifice those ninja? As many as I want?"
"The Great Evil God would only fault you for being insufficiently devout, for not sacrificing enough. You can sacrifice as many as you want!"
***
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(End of Chapter)