Chapter 494: The State of the Evil God
Holding the Priestess Bell, Ishiro entered Chiga's blood perception space and immediately fixed his gaze on the phantom of the Evil God not far away.
Unlike Ishiro's own clear form, the phantom of Jashin, like its followers, was blurry and indistinct. He could only make out a rough outline.
This time, Ishiro did not act rashly. He first observed the Evil God from a distance. This was the first time he had seen its form.
He could vaguely tell that it was humanoid and had two horns on its head.
I wonder if this is its original form, or if its followers just imagine it this way, Ishiro thought. The Death God from the Dead Demon Consuming Seal looks roughly the same. Could it be that these beings all belong to the same race? If so, the ancestors of the Uzumaki clan were truly incredible. They turned an entire race of beings approaching the level of Sages into individual masks.
But there was no need to dwell on these things now. He quickly collected his thoughts.
After a moment, following the method Katsumata had researched, Ishiro launched an ordinary Yin Release attack at the phantom.
Then, both the soul-form Ishiro and the distant Chiga saw the phantom tremble slightly. After the attack ended, it became a little dimmer.
Ishiro and Chiga were both delighted. It worked.
He then used the phantom as a target, practicing all the Yin Release attacks he knew, from the most basic Mind Body Disturbance Technique to the killing moves that came with the Spirit Transformation Technique.
After one full round, the phantom was still there, just much dimmer.
So, he went another round, and another.
Only after the phantom had completely dissipated did Ishiro exit Chiga's blood perception space.
At this time, the figures of the two cultist test subjects were still in her perception space, but the connection between them seemed to be broken.
After his soul returned to his body, Ishiro turned his gaze to the two cultists. Sure enough, they were both still alive and well, unharmed by the destruction of the phantom that had linked them.
However, the one who had communicated with Jashin and used the Death Controlling Possessed Blood technique had already reverted from his pitch-black state to normal. This was a situation he had never encountered before, nor had he heard any other cult members speak of it. He was now staring with a look of disbelief and panic. Ishiro's actions had clearly entered his knowledge blind spot, and were even shaking the very foundations of his faith.
Ishiro didn't care about the man's feelings. He just said, "It seems your Lord Jashin has abandoned you. Why don't you try and see if you can communicate with him again?"
Hearing this, the man subconsciously tried to do as he was told, but no matter what he did, he received no response.
Ishiro nodded thoughtfully. It seemed the contract between the Evil God and its followers could indeed be severed.
This man was now useless. But that was fine; he could be used as a sacrifice.
Then, Ishiro released the seal on the next cult member. After he had completed his communication with Jashin, Ishiro stuffed the blood of the one who had just been abandoned into the former's mouth.
As expected, the one who had just connected with Jashin immediately turned black.
Ishiro then entered the blood perception space again and destroyed the new phantom with his Yin Release.
In this way, he and Chiga conducted several more experiments, carefully testing the most effective ways to fight with Yin Release within her perception space.
After this was finished, Ishiro said to Chiga, "For the next experiment, I'm going to risk possessing the Evil God to test it out."
Chiga was alarmed. "Teacher Ishiro..."
But before she could finish, he cut her off with a wave of his hand. "Don't worry. After the previous experiments, I have some confidence. One thing is certain: this Evil God seems to have only instinct, not the thoughts of a normal living being."
"My guess is that it's related to the fact that it has absorbed too many souls. Its current state is equivalent to insanity. It is a spiritual body without a physical form, and it has fused with too many different souls, making its own soul impure. Disturbed by a large number of other souls, it has lost its way. It has lost the ability to think like a normal living being."
"It can now be seen as a chaotic fusion of miscellaneous souls. The original soul of the Evil God might not even make up a large portion of it. Perhaps it doesn't even deserve to be called 'Jashin' anymore."
"Besides, I'm just going to merge with it for a moment to experience it, not to attack it. There won't be a problem."
Seeing that Ishiro was determined, Chiga could only cooperate. Following the previous steps, she once again pulled the phantoms of both Ishiro and the Evil God into her perception space.
Ishiro then used the Spirit Transformation Technique to enter his own phantom.
He came before the Evil God, calmed himself, and then plunged headfirst into its body.
The next moment, he felt all sorts of chaotic emotions instantly slam into his mind.
It felt as if countless terrified, despairing, hysterical people were screaming in his ears at the top of their lungs all at once.
Caught off guard by the impact, Ishiro was left feeling dizzy.
Fortunately, the initial shock was brief.
After that moment, although he felt as if he were in an endless ocean of emotions, constantly being bombarded, he could handle the slow, small impacts for the time being.
After a long while, the dizziness from the initial impact subsided. A large number of emotions were still washing over him, but it was much better than at the beginning.
"Phew..." Ishiro's soul form subconsciously made a sighing motion.
"How terrifying. To be constantly bombarded by all these emotions, most of them extremely negative. No wonder this Evil God has completely fallen into depravity."
He estimated that he could probably last a month in this continuous barrage before going mad. And that was an optimistic estimate. Considering the fatigue from being unable to sleep or rest, he felt that half a month was his absolute limit.
I wonder how many years this Evil God has been in this state, he thought. And I'm only in contact with a phantom. There must be a difference between the phantom and the main body.
Only a madman would think of using such a method to absorb other people's souls. What benefit could such an extreme negative emotional impact have for the Evil God?
Ishiro shook his head, unable to figure it out.
He then refocused his attention on his surroundings.
He was now inside the Evil God—or to be precise, inside its phantom. While resisting the negative emotions, he carefully observed his surroundings.
"Hmm, these emotions are souls! Can souls be used like this?" he wondered in surprise.
These souls were all imbued with emotions. Or rather, the Evil God had actively separated out strands of soul, and these strands each bore a trace of emotion for it.
After a while, Ishiro discovered a phenomenon: the emotions weren't completely chaotic. Similar emotions seemed to be moving rapidly along similar paths.
With this discovery, he realized he might have underestimated the Evil God.
Calming down and observing carefully, he finally pieced together a rough picture:
"This Evil God is not simple. It is indeed constantly enduring the impact of those many negative emotions and is currently in an unconscious state. However, it must have come up with a countermeasure back when it was still sane."
"It absorbed a large number of souls, then sorted the different emotions into relatively detailed categories. Anger with anger, fear with fear, despair with despair..."
"Wait! The Evil God did this on purpose! It designed that cruel sacrificial ritual to ensure the victims would have similar emotions, making them easier to categorize! What emotions are easiest to obtain? Undoubtedly, the fear of death, hatred for the caster, and other negative emotions. Although these have a greater mental impact, if they are all extreme negative emotions, at least the variety is small, making them easier to process."
Thinking of this, Ishiro immediately raised his guard. He had still underestimated these monsters who had lived for who knows how many ages. They might have weaknesses, but they certainly weren't stupid. If they were, they probably would have been made into masks by the Uzumaki clan already.
Thinking a layer deeper, this situation might not have been a hasty solution, but a path planned out even before the creation of the Cult of Jashin.
Thinking of it this way, the Evil God was even more terrifying. It must have a definite, workable method to solve the problem of its consciousness being affected by the emotional impact.
With this newfound respect, Ishiro once again observed the emotion-laden souls around him.
"Its instincts are slowly controlling these emotions, causing similar emotions to gradually merge, while some non-mainstream emotions are pushed to the edges," he analyzed.
Although the process was slow, he could see the trend from some of the details.
"Incredible!" he couldn't help but praise in his mind.
After a while, he had another judgment: "The Evil God isn't always in a state of insanity. After it roughly sorts through the emotions, it should be able to regain consciousness. The reason for the current situation is likely because the cult members have sacrificed too many people recently. This has caused the Evil God to receive too many emotions at once, breaking the balance of negative emotions within its soul. Perhaps, after some time, once it re-sorts these new emotions, it can become lucid again."
Thinking of this, Ishiro had a flash of insight. This might explain why, in the original story, the Cult of Jashin only had Hidan.
"If there are too many cult members, a situation like the present one is likely to occur. Although this state of insanity will eventually end, this period is definitely dangerous for the Evil God. For example, right now, I am using this opportunity to peek into some of its secrets."
"But if you replace the numerous cultists with just one person, Hidan, it's a different story. The number of sacrifices Hidan makes alone would not be large. The Evil God wouldn't face the situation of being overwhelmed by the emotions of many different people and losing its mind. And as Hidan grows stronger, the quality of his sacrifices would be very high; one would be worth hundreds or thousands of ordinary cultists. Moreover, a single sacrifice, no matter how strong, provides a more regular set of emotions, making them easier to sort."
Just as Ishiro was still thinking, all the surrounding impacts suddenly vanished.
He looked around. The Evil God was gone. Even the two cult members had disappeared. Only he and Chiga were left in the blood perception space.
He nodded to Chiga and used the Spirit Transformation Technique to return to his body.
Just now, Chiga had killed the two cultist test subjects. This was their agreement. If Ishiro didn't emerge from the phantom after a certain amount of time, she was to get rid of it. And the way to do that was to kill the cultists.
After returning to his body, Ishiro let out a long breath. He took a moment to recover before saying to the worried Chiga, "Don't worry, I'm fine."
He briefly explained his discoveries. After resting for a bit, he once again merged with the Evil God's phantom.
In this way, Ishiro merged with the phantom again and again, analyzing its methods for processing these souls laden with negative emotions. And each time he reached a certain time limit, Chiga would pull him out.
Over the course of two days, Ishiro and Chiga finally finished sacrificing all several hundred cult members from the village.
And through these repeated observations, Ishiro finally figured out the Evil God's processing method.
The method was of no direct use to him, but as a reference, its value was immense.
After recording the information, he prepared to leave Yugakure.
At this time, Chiga was standing in front of a group of sealed ninja and civilians. These were people captured by other cult members over the past two days. The ones who had captured them had, of course, already been sacrificed by Ishiro and Chiga. The seals had also been placed by him; he couldn't be disturbed during his experiments.
He walked up to the group, thought for a moment, and released their seals. "I am the Fourth Tsuchikage of Iwagakure. I have come at the invitation of your Daimyo to investigate and deal with the Cult of Jashin's rebellion."
"The headquarters of the Cult of Jashin has been destroyed by me. Before long, our Iwagakure will send ninja to clean up the rest of the members throughout the country. Find a place to hide for now."
With that, he released their seals and chased them out of the village.
After they had all left, he said to Chiga, "Search the place. Find all the wealth accumulated by Yugakure and the Cult of Jashin. We're taking it all back!"
Chiga's eyes lit up. "Yes!" she said loudly.
Ishiro created many shadow clones, and together with Chiga, they thoroughly searched the village.
A long time later, the two of them, their harvest bountiful, set off on their journey home.
Konoha Village.
While Ishiro and Chiga were conducting their experiments, Kajiyama Ri, in Konoha, sent a signal to Danzō during a negotiation session.
The next day, Danzō once again blatantly dismissed the Anbu and Hyuga members monitoring the Iwa delegation and came to see Kajiyama Ri in person.
Last time, after he had done the same thing, Tsunade had only berated him half-heartedly in a high-level meeting. Her concession had made him even more reckless.
This feeling, it was as if he had returned to the days of working with Hiruzen.
Back then, it was always like this. Hiruzen would want to do something but would be hypocritically unwilling to do it himself. Then he, Danzō, would bypass the Hokage and get it done. In the end, Hiruzen would pretend to criticize him in a meeting, and the matter would be over. He would gain fear, and Hiruzen would gain reputation.
Hmph. Hiruzen, your disciple is just as weak as you are. Konoha still needs me. Only I can lead Konoha back to its position as hegemon and then unify the world, Danzō's inner drama was rich.
Kajiyama Ri looked at the blatant, increasingly audacious Danzō and thought: Choosing Danzō to be the new troublemaker within Konoha after the Uchiha was truly a wise decision. An idea this foul must have come from Teacher Ishiro! I refuse to believe otherwise!
He smiled at Danzō. "Advisor Danzō, our last cooperation was a pleasure. My teacher asked me to convey to you that you will always be Iwagakure's best friend."
"My teacher emphasizes again that if you have need, we are willing to help you ascend to the seat of Hokage."
Danzō ignored this nonsense and got straight to the point. "What does the Tsuchikage want this time?"
Kajiyama Ri smiled. "There has been a change in the Land of Hot Water. At the invitation of their Daimyo, Iwagakure will be stationing forces there."
Hearing this, Danzō's exposed eye instantly became incredibly sharp. He stared at Kajiyama Ri and said, word by word, "Audacious!"
Kajiyama Ri was completely unfazed by his aura. "My teacher is willing to cooperate with Konoha, to send troops together and carve up the Land of Hot Water."
Danzō's eyes narrowed as he analyzed the pros and cons and Ishiro's objective.
Soon, he understood.
Iwagakure wanted to annex the Land of Hot Water but lacked the ability, so they wanted to pull Konoha in to share the pressure of starting a war.
A fine calculation. But why should we agree to it? There is not much benefit for Konoha in taking the Land of Hot Water.
So, Danzō let out a cold laugh. "Tell the Tsuchikage to give up this idea. I do not agree! Iwagakure can wait to bear the consequences of starting a war."
But Kajiyama Ri smiled confidently. "My teacher's offer to support you in becoming Hokage was not just talk. He is willing to cooperate directly with you, Advisor Danzō, to carve up the Land of Hot Water."
A sharp glint flashed in Danzō's eyes. Various thoughts raced through his mind, the desire named "ambition" stirring restlessly.
After a long while, he finally spoke again. "How does the Tsuchikage propose to divide it?"
"Hehe," Kajiyama Ri smiled. "Advisor Danzō, don't be hasty. Some of the higher-ups in my village have proposed cooperating with Kumo, so this matter has not yet been decided."
Danzō was unmoved. "Name your price! This tactic of bringing in a supposed third-party buyer to drive up the price is too clumsy. I've seen it all before."
Kajiyama Ri said just as calmly, "The same conditions as last time. Two items, in exchange for a thirty-percent share of the Land of Hot Water."
Danzō knew what he meant. It was the list Ishiro had given him.
"This time, we will also bring in Kiri. So, three parties in total. We will take forty percent, and you two will each take thirty," Kajiyama Ri added. Correction: The text says two parties (you two) each take two-tenths (twenty percent), and Iwa takes four-tenths (forty percent). Thirty percent is wrong.
Danzō's brow twitched. He said decisively, "Deal."
Two ninjutsu in exchange for thirty percent of the Land of Hot Water was a good deal. If that thirty percent was his, then it was an even better deal.
Then, the two of them had another "cordial and friendly discussion" about which two items Danzō would provide.
In the end, Danzō offered the Mutual Multiplying Explosive Tags technique and the Inuzuka clan's ninken breeding methods.
A few days later, without asking for Tsunade's permission or reporting to her, Danzō dispatched several hundred Root elites from Konoha.
At the same time, Iwagakure and Kirigakure also dispatched an army of several hundred.
The three forces had a common goal: the Cult of Jashin in the Land of Hot Water.
They agreed to surround and kill the cult members simultaneously from the southeast, and west.
All three sides had understood the nature of the cult beforehand, so when they acted, they showed no mercy, adopting a "better to kill the innocent than let one escape" mentality. Any civilian who showed any goodwill toward the cult was treated as a member and killed.
In the space of a day and a night, the armies of the three great villages swept through the Land of Hot Water from three directions. The cult's headquarters had already been wiped out by Ishiro; the rest were just low-level small fry. How could they stand against the elites of three great villages?
Except for a very few who escaped north into the Land of the Moon, the Cult of Jashin was almost completely uprooted.
For a long time after, the words "Cult of Jashin" became a taboo that the civilians of the Land of Hot Water dared not speak.
The cleanup didn't take long, but the subsequent wrangling was not something that could be resolved in a day or two. Although the three sides had roughly agreed on the division of interests beforehand, many specific matters afterward caused their representatives to argue until they were red in the face.
Especially when Root's detachment arrived at Yugakure at top speed, only to find an empty shell that had been picked clean by Ishiro's shadow clones and Chiga. Root immediately questioned the pre-arranged division.
Meanwhile, Danzō was loudly trumpeting his achievements in Konoha, claiming that he had suppressed the Jashin rebellion for the Daimyo and had won huge benefits and prestige for Konoha.
This made Tsunade extremely furious.
Especially when she received a letter of inquiry from the Fourth Raikage, she was on the verge of exploding.
Only after Shikaku Nara's persuasion did she manage to curse and bear it.
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