After kicking away the Jashin cult's high priest's 'tools of the trade,' Hibari disgustedly threw him to the ground, then clapped his hands together as if to brush off something dirty.
The man suddenly gained 'freedom' and, ignoring the sharp pain, struggled to crawl forward a couple of times, seemingly trying to escape.
But Hibari couldn't even be bothered to look at him. He said casually, "Remove his limbs and stop the bleeding. Don't let him die. Take him back and get everything out of his head. I want to know everything about this Jashin cult."
As soon as Hibari's words fell, an Anbu member wearing a mask with a 'mountain peak' symbol emerged from the darkness and said, "Leave it to me, Commander. I'll make sure to get all the information out for you..."
After speaking, he crouched down next to the high priest, who was struggling to get away. He then took out a short knife from his waist. The knife wasn't very sharp; instead, it had a serrated blade.
The Anbu member then let out a cold snort and said, "You can enjoy this pain, trash!"
As soon as he finished speaking, he began to saw off the high priest's arms with the serrated short knife. The scene was bloody and messy. The 'grating' sound in the darkness, combined with the high priest's painful wails, was exceptionally horrifying.
But for some reason, all the Anbu members present felt a sense of perverse enjoyment from the sound.
On the other side, Sakumo quickly untied the girl, whose body was covered in foul blood, from the cross. The girl was very beautiful, with a delicate and pure look.
Perhaps it was precisely this kind of person who could ignite the perverted tendencies in some. The high priest of the Jashin cult wanted to turn her into a 'Defiled Maiden' and had cruelly killed her parents to prepare such an evil ritual.
After being rescued, the girl's eyes were filled with sorrow. She struggled and ran to her parents' corpses, placing the internal organs around them back into their opened chest cavities little by little.
Then, something surprising yet seemingly expected happened. She picked up a dagger that someone had dropped on the ground and plunged it hard into her own heart. A look of relief appeared on her face as she took her own life next to her parents' bodies.
Hibari watched this scene with a heavy heart, but he knew very well that this world was just this dark. In places unseen, who knew how many people were even more miserable than this girl? And who knew how many people had been harmed by this Jashin cult?
Walking forward, Hibari looked at the girl's beautiful face. Her unclosed eyes were filled with despair for the world and a longing for death. He gently shook his head, then reached out and closed her eyes. He murmured softly, "May you be reborn as a free and happy lark, no longer suffering the hardships of this mortal world..."
After speaking, Hibari looked at Sakumo, who was also wearing a mask and remained silent. He said, "Find a place to bury these three poor souls..."
Sakumo did not speak, only nodding in silence. He then walked forward and picked up the girl's body, completely unconcerned about the foul blood staining his clothes.
By the time the sky began to grow light, Sakumo had buried the three unfortunate people together. On the other side, the Anbu member who was handling the high priest of the Jashin cult had also finished his work, managing to stop the bleeding from his injuries and making sure he didn't die so easily.
The high priest of the Jashin cult had all four of his limbs sawed off little by little with a serrated short knife, and his 'fifth limb' had been kicked into a bloody mess by Hibari. The man was now just a torso with a head that could twist around in agony—a human stick.
Looking at the miserable state of this beast, Hibari felt nothing. He stepped forward and kicked him hard in the waist, saying, "Take this animal back, extract the Jashin cult's information from his head, and then each of you will disguise yourselves and infiltrate the cult. Clean out all the unforgivable bastards, but for now, spare the lives of those who were simply deceived. Then, take over the Jashin cult in place of this beast. It's imperative that we fully control this evil sect so they can no longer harm people."
For Hibari, he needed to command a private force that belonged entirely to him. He felt the Jashin cult was a perfect fit, but he couldn't let this unrighteous sect tarnish his reputation. Therefore, he needed to thoroughly cleanse the cult of its scum and then completely reform it.
First, the name 'Jashin' should be scrapped, as it didn't sound like a good thing. Hibari was going to give the sect a new name. Of course, while it would be a bit more 'righteous' than the Jashin cult, it wouldn't be a 'glorious and righteous' name.
He planned to reform the Jashin cult into the 'Necro Cult.'
Although the name didn't sound like a good thing, the essence was different. The Jashin cult worshipped Jashin, pursued murder and evil, and spread fear and chaos, often performing human sacrifices. It was clearly a pure evil cult.
But Hibari's envisioned Necro cult would be a religious organization that researched his self-created Shiryōjutsu ninja art style. When needed, it could also help him with some 'private business,' which was enough.
All the other messy things like Jashin and sacrifices were not needed. Instead, they could build a church or something, do some good deeds, and provide relief to refugees who couldn't even get a meal due to the war.
Cultivating and commanding a new force distinct from the ninja villages of the various countries was indispensable for Hibari. After all, things were fine for him now, but as the situation became more complicated in the future, he couldn't take the Anbu to do everything. Ultimately, the Anbu was a force belonging to Konohagakure, not to him.
In the following days, many of the Jashin cult's strongholds in the Land of Hot Water were purged. The cult was truly a group of people who didn't do a single righteous thing. Aside from the ordinary, misled followers, anyone in the cult with any official position, every single one of them, deserved to be tied up and beheaded without any possibility of a wrongful execution. They were all animals that no one would care about even after they died.
In a small town in the Land of Hot Water, Hibari and his team had now shed their Anbu uniforms and were busy with something. Some members of the Mitsumine Group's investment team had also arrived here.
This place was the Jashin cult's main base. The entire town had been ravaged by the previous war, and they had seized the opportunity to spread their deceptive rhetoric, essentially brainwashing the whole small town...
However, this changed two days ago when Hibari and his team arrived. They captured the cult leaders who had been lording over the town and beheaded them one by one in the square, causing a river of blood to flow.
This approach was quite simple and brutal. The deceived townsfolk saw that the people who claimed to have Jashin's protection and be immortal were all beheaded, crying and begging for mercy just like ordinary people. Their belief and reverence for Jashin were naturally 'broken.'
Hibari was standing in front of a large cathedral with an unusually dark style. This was the headquarters of the Jashin cult. Hibari pointed at the cult's emblem hanging on the cathedral and said, "We'll take down all these emblems and insignias later. There's no need to demolish the cathedral itself. I've looked it over inside and out, and while the style is a bit dark, it's a good fit for the new cult we're going to establish. So we'll start here and transform it into the headquarters for our Necro cult."
The leader of the Mitsumine Group's construction team stood beside Hibari and nodded quickly at his boss's words. "Yes, Hibari-dono. Is there anything else you need changed?"
"Yes. We need to renovate the entire small town. All these broken walls and ruins look like a place that has been hit by war. Those low-class Jashin cultists liked this feeling of destruction, but I don't. We'll build a complete architectural complex with this cathedral as the center, and the style must be consistent with it. I want to incorporate this entire town into the 'Necro Cult' and operate it as the main base. I won't be returning to the Land of Fire for a while, so I'll settle down here first." Hibari said after some thought.
Hearing Hibari's words, the construction team leader hesitated for a moment and then said, "Hibari-dono, renovating this cathedral is one thing, but if we're to renovate and rebuild the entire town, we don't have enough manpower with us this time..."
Hibari smiled and tapped his head, saying, "Can't you use your brain a little? Look, who are those people over there?"
Hibari pointed into the distance, where a group of refugees from the town were watching Hibari's side, seemingly curious about what they were doing.
"They're refugees from the war..." the construction team leader said after a glance.
"They're refugees, but they're also labor. If you don't have enough people, aren't they people? These people are currently confused about how to survive. We came here to rebuild the Land of Hot Water to save people like them. Understand 'workfare'? Hire them all to be our labor force to rebuild this town. That way, they'll have food to eat and money to earn, right? After this town is built, they'll be the most loyal followers and the most willing to live in the town they built with their own hands. That way, we'll have both people and followers. It's killing two birds with one stone. Use your brain more when you do things. Do you understand?" Hibari said with a laugh.
The construction team leader looked stunned and then said, "You're right, so that's how it is. No wonder you're the head of our Mitsumine Group, Hibari-dono. Impressive, truly impressive!"
"Don't flatter me, you little rascal, just go and get to work!" Hibari said with a laugh.
The construction team leader scratched his head with a smile and went to arrange the work. There were so many refugees in the Land of Hot Water that there were enough people not just to rebuild a small town but even a capital city!
As soon as Hibari finished arranging things here, an Anbu member walked up to him and said, "Commander, we've extracted everything from that guy's head..."
"Oh? Is that so? Summarize it for me. I want to see if there's anything I need in there..." Hibari's eyebrow raised, looking interested.
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