A dead body.
A scary ceremony.
A strange-looking god statue.
And a religious group name that clearly tells everyone, "We're not good people."
Linto asked, "Jashin Cult... have you guys heard of this group?"
Kakashi had been on missions abroad for many years, and although Tsunade didn't do missions, she traveled around the world after leaving Konoha.
But when they thought back, they realized they had never heard of the "Jashin Cult" group.
Kakashi analyzed, "It must be a newly formed group. With their murder rate, they would have been wanted long ago if they were in the Five Great Nations. I guess the Jashin Cult is currently only in the Land of Hot Water."
"Look here."
Linto pointed to a sharp, black needle stuck in the chest of the body in the photo.
Since the body was a man, there would be differences in height between men and women, but if you adjusted the proportions slightly, you could see that the position where the needle was inserted into the body was exactly the same as the position of Tsunade's wound.
Linto roughly understood the enemy's ability.
"Using cause and effect and a ceremony, they perform a super long-range 'curse' at the cost of a sacrifice.
It's just that these crazy believers didn't expect that their sacrifice died, but you're still alive."
Tsunade took the photo and looked at it carefully for a long time:
"The thing that's been causing me to bleed is actually a dead body? This... this is too weird!"
"It's not just this that's weird."
Linto said, "These cultists aren't planning on letting you go."
Kakashi and Tsunade weren't stupid. They understood after thinking about it for a moment.
If the cultists decided to let Tsunade go, they would never waste manpower to maintain the ceremony.
Wouldn't it be better to throw away the body that was cursed and connected to Tsunade and find the next target?
Linto turned his head and looked outside the alley. He always felt that someone was secretly watching them from afar:
"These cultists are like hyenas that have spotted prey, ready to pounce from the corner and tear you apart... Anyway, be careful."
Aerosmith had already taken off, but the Land of Hot Water was a tourist country with a very high population density. There were people everywhere, so it was impossible to use carbon dioxide detection to determine who the enemy was.
Hermit Purple's biggest drawback was this.
As long as there was enough "cause and effect," it could trace back, ignoring the limitations of time and space, directly lock onto the target, and perform mind reading and spying.
But "being able to see" and "being able to find" are two different things.
The body that was connected to Tsunade by cause and effect was now placed in a featureless, enclosed space. It was impossible to use the details in the picture to determine the location of the Jashin Cult's hideout.
Linto checked the system.
Konan gave 300 soul shards when she took the book, Samui gave 100 soul shards when she went back, plus the scattered gains from the past month or so, and the previous 4700 remaining:
Currently, there are 5570 soul shards remaining.
It only takes 300 soul shards to upgrade the four-star Hermit Purple from level 1 to level 2.
Linto thought for a moment.
In the past, there were very few situations where Hermit Purple needed to be used.
Because in the past, enemies would actively come to Linto to be beaten up, but now that Linto was getting stronger and stronger, especially after killing Yagura, many enemies would deliberately avoid Linto.
Now, Linto needed to actively go find others to beat up, and intelligence was becoming more and more important—
Linto made a decision:
"System, upgrade Hermit Purple."
Anyway, it's only 300 soul shards. After finding this cult and beating them all up, he'll definitely be able to earn it back.
A streak of starlight fell, sprinkling on Hermit Purple's vines. It became more resilient, and faint purple stars could be seen flickering.
Hermit Purple (four-star) · Level 2.
The ability is still mind reading, but...
When Linto picked up the photo, Hermit Purple's vines swayed slightly, pointing in a general direction.
The level 2 Hermit Purple has the ability to guide the direction of cause and effect.
"This is the 'most useless' Stand."
If the Hermit Purple that evolved with an ascension star core after reaching the maximum level, could it directly locate the other party's coordinates, and the fully leveled Aerosmith could launch a nuclear bomb?
Linto chuckled and closed the system interface.
"Let's go."
If the cultists were really watching them in the dark, as Linto guessed.
The cultists would react if Linto and his group moved towards the cult's hideout.
For the combination of Linto, Kakashi, and Tsunade, even a small flaw was enough.
...
"Konoha's Sannin, Tsunade."
"Copy Ninja, Kakashi."
"And..."
The white-haired cult leader held the photo in his hand: "Linto, who just overthrew the Fourth Mizukage's rule and supported the puppet Terumi Mei regime."
Although he was called a cult leader, his clothes were very simple. He was wearing a simple black robe and ordinary straw sandals. However, he had a handsome appearance, bright eyes, insight and friendliness that saw through the world, and white hair that fell like a waterfall to his waist.
He sat on the ground, facing two men and one woman who were also sitting on the ground. They were the left and right protectors and the saintess of the Jashin Cult.
These three also had an elegant and refined temperament.
If it weren't for the terrifying and strange evil god statue standing next to them, no one would be able to tell that they were a group of lunatics who enjoyed killing.
"Cult leader, should we hide for a while?" the left protector asked.
The three people in front of them exceeded the limit that the Jashin Cult could deal with. Although they didn't know what means the other party used, judging from the direction that Linto and his group were moving, they were coming for them.
They were cultists, lunatics, not idiots.
They couldn't win in a direct confrontation.
"It's cult leader, not honored one."
The white-haired cult leader said, "There is no difference between us. I just heard the teachings of the evil god earlier than you, and understood the 'emptiness' of the world earlier."
He put his hands together.
"Body empty, death returns home."
The left and right protectors and the saintess also put their hands together, facing the direction of the evil god, and chanted in unison:
"Body empty, death returns home."
Even though it was a terrifying evil god, like the most ugly thing in the world merged into one, in their eyes, it was as gentle and moving as a mother, and they just wanted to go to death earlier and embrace the evil god.
But they couldn't die yet.
If they died, who would spread the evil god's blessings?
Who would save the people living in hardship, and send them to a peaceful death?
Only when everyone in the world was dead would it be their turn. This was the evil god's test for them.
"In addition, we cannot let Linto and his group go."
The white-haired cult leader said, "Because of the evil god's blessing, we found the 'holy son, Hidan'. He will become the Holy Grail, holding the sin called 'life' in the world.
In the past, I just wanted to turn him into a miserable, immortal being. He would live in pain, so that more people could die happily, but—"
The white-haired cult leader picked up the photos of Linto and Tsunade.
"Tsunade's life force is constantly pouring into the holy son's body. If we can sacrifice her and Linto, who also has an equally terrifying life force, and give the entire life force to Hidan, perhaps... we can bring more happiness to the world."
The left and right protectors and the saintess stood up.
"We will go and get Linto's 'blood' back."
The white-haired cult leader bowed slightly.
"I trouble everyone. Everything is for—"
The three said in unison:
"Death returns home."
---
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