October, Konoha Year 43.
The night before the full moon, Yōkō sat atop the head of the First Hokage on the Hokage Rock.
He looked down upon Konoha Village.
On the village streets, many people were busy during the night.
Some were anxious, others strolled slowly.
In the many months since Yōkō's transmigration, every month had been filled with missions.
After returning to the village this month, spending time with Kyōi, with the child, arranging Anbu missions, and helping Uzumaki Kushina with her special training, the pace had suddenly slowed down.
This night, he no longer thought about Anbu missions, about the Ōtsutsuki, about Uchiha Madara, about Danzo, or about his Jashin religion.
He simply sat on the Hokage Rock, emptying his mind.
The night wind was a bit cool, and before long, it blew away the heat from his body.
Once his mind was completely calm, Yōkō formed the Buddhist Scythe Seal.
After cultivating the Three Worlds Vidyārāja Form, Yōkō could experience the three worlds on his own without needing to die.
Last month, he encountered the Evil God and died by its hand. This month, nothing happened, so he prepared to enter Nirvana on his own and experience the three worlds.
Squinting his eyes slightly, all visuals faded away, all sounds receded.
Yōkō's body temperature instantly dropped to an icy cold.
All afflictions cease; this is Parinirvana, this is Nirvana.
All conditioned things are impermanent; this is the law of arising and ceasing.
The Three Worlds Vidyārāja Form in his heart slowly rotated, its three heads looking towards the past life, the present life, and the future life respectively.
When the Vidyārāja's three Buddha heads completed one full rotation, Yōkō also completed one cycle of Three Worlds cultivation.
A few minutes later, Yōkō slowly opened his eyes.
The Three Worlds Vidyārāja Form had strengthened by one portion.
The system's reward was an enhancement of spiritual energy.
If measured by the Thousand-Handed Vidyārāja, he had gained nine additional Buddha arms.
Just as Yōkō was enjoying the progress after his cultivation, a voice suddenly sounded in his mind.
His believer, Hidan, was praying to him in the most devout posture.
"Great Jashin-sama, I can only serve you this far..."
Why does it sound like a last word? Yōkō quickly sank his consciousness into the Blood Deity Realm.
Hidan had been very diligent, assassinating a noble every one or two weeks.
He held a deep-seated hatred for the nobles of the Land of Hot Water.
At this moment, there were four pools of sacrificial blood in the blood pool, all thanks to Hidan's efforts.
As the sacrifices increased, Yōkō's power as the Evil God was also strengthening.
What exactly happened to Hidan?
Hidan's faith in Jashin was extremely firm, and his talent for the Blood Deity Secret Technique was high. He was a rare talent for the Jashin religion.
He cannot die.
In the deity realm, the Jashin statue was covered in blood, appearing exquisite and translucent.
One drop of that blood came from his believer, Hidan. Using Hidan's blood, Yōkō sensed Hidan's condition.
In an underground prison of a noble.
Four samurai, who were the ones administering the torture, looked on with terror at the youth nailed to a wooden plank.
Over a dozen long nails pierced through Hidan's shoulder blades, elbow joints, palms, knees, and ankles. The scene was extremely gruesome.
The noble's samurai, still unsatisfied, were lashing Hidan with whips.
Hidan's strength was too weak. His attempt to assassinate the noble had failed; he hadn't obtained the noble's blood and was captured by the noble's samurai, who were torturing him mercilessly.
The more the samurai whipped him, the more fear appeared in their eyes.
No matter how they tortured Hidan, he kept reciting incomprehensible prayers and refused to reveal who sent him to assassinate the noble.
This youth seemed immortal; his vitality was so strong it sent chills down their spines.
For the first five days of torture, Hidan was very excited due to the pain all over his body.
"Cleanse sin with pain! Please the gods with blood! You bastards who know nothing of pain! Jashin-sama will punish you! My pain only brings Jashin-sama greater pleasure!"
After being tortured for five days and shouting for five days, Hidan still hadn't died.
By the end, the samurai felt fear.
This youth is like a monster!
Their actions became even more ruthless. They abandoned the whips and switched to knives.
Stabbing through Hidan's body repeatedly, they finally made Hidan lose consciousness.
Hidan's body had reached its limit.
Five days without a drop of water, and more importantly, he had lost too much blood; his blood vessels were nearly dry.
He performed his final prayer, informing Jashin-sama that he could no longer serve Him.
Yōkō opened his eyes. First, he threw a Flying Thunder God kunai to the side rear; it embedded itself in a tree trunk. Then, he used the Ephemeral Technique to leave.
Using the Ephemeral Technique at full power, Yōkō reached the Land of Hot Water by the afternoon of the next day.
In the noble's underground prison.
Four samurai, despite being the torturers, stared with horror at the youth on the wooden plank.
This kid is simply a demon.
Anyone else, even a ninja, would have been tortured to death long ago.
This kid's lungs were punctured and ruined, yet he still had faint breaths.
Two samurai held axes, encouraging each other.
"He can't live if we cut his head off, right? He has to die eventually."
"You take one side, I'll take the other. We'll take turns chopping. I'll shout 'one' and chop, you shout 'two' and chop. Let's not hit each other."
"Good, let's do that."
All the samurai looked at Hidan as if he were a monster.
"One!"
The samurai shouted on the left, then brought the highly raised ax down towards Hidan's neck.
At that moment, a hand suddenly appeared and caught the ax.
The heavy, sharp ax was like paper in front of this hand.
Yōkō exerted a little force and crushed the axe.
These samurai have all witnessed Hidan's abilities. They cannot be left alive.
Four Iron Vines shot out, strangling the four samurai.
Yōkō took the unrecognizable Hidan and disappeared into the ground.
Finding a spring in the wilderness, Yōkō placed Hidan beside it.
After some simple suturing, Yōkō left a good amount of food nearby.
With Hidan's immortal body, as long as he had food and water, no matter how severe the injury, he would heal.
Looking at the unconscious Hidan, Yōkō thought, I must quickly plan a development path for Hidan, otherwise he'll get himself killed.
It's time to conduct the compatibility experiment between the Eight Gates and the immortal body.
The immortal body excels in close-quarters taijutsu, trading injury for injury.
The drawback of the Eight Gates is that it easily injures the user and can even cause death upon opening the Eighth Gate.
Practicing the Eight Gates, injuries will heal due to the immortal body.
Opening the Eight Gates, death is nothing in the face of the immortal body.
A perfect closed loop.
Beside the Flying Thunder God kunai on the Hokage Rock, Yōkō appeared instantly.
He quickly looked down, checking himself to ensure no body parts were missing.
Good, all here.
He went to the Anbu headquarters and summoned Hippo.
"Hippo, design a mission for this person, have him leave the village."
"Might Dai?"
Hippo had never even heard of this person and was very confused.
But he was now Lord Fox's confidant, so he immediately went to carry out the order.
After a brief investigation, Hippo was even more puzzled: "A perpetual Genin? Why does the Lord specifically want him to leave the village?"
Might Dai had participated in the Chūnin Exams several times, each time ending in miserable defeat. Later, no team would take Might Dai, so he could only perform cheap D-rank missions within the village, living a very difficult life.
Not only that, this perpetual Genin was passionate and generous every day, like a fool.
Hippo made some slight arrangements, and Might Dai unexpectedly joined a small team heading to the Land of Hot Water.
***
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