"Praise be to Lord Jashin!" the cultists chanted in unison.
Regardless of what Cult Leader Takiki was actually thinking, in front of the others, the glory of Lord Jashin surpassed all else!
Was it illogical?
Of course it was illogical!
If these people cared about logic, they wouldn't be worshipping an Evil God whose very existence was highly debatable!
In the eyes of these cultists, no matter how absurd something seemed, as long as it was tied to Lord Jashin, it instantly became the most logical truth in the world!
Don't believe it?
They had two living, breathing examples standing right in front of them. If something as ridiculous as an [Immortal Body] existed, what wasn't possible?!
It was precisely because Shinji understood the thought process of these cultists so well that he dared to play the "You're all a bunch of brainwashed idiots" card, pushing the entire explanation onto the so-called "Lord Jashin."
As long as it involved their absolute faith—the Evil God—no one would dare question the authenticity of his words.
After all, as long as Shinji stuck to his story, it wasn't like the invisible, hypothetical Lord Jashin was going to suddenly jump out of the sky and expose him as a fraud!
Of course, this strategy only worked when praising the deity or displaying miracles. If he dared to slander Lord Jashin, there was no doubt these people wouldn't bother asking for proof—they would just furiously tear him to shreds!
Things progressed exactly as Shinji anticipated. Even if a few individuals harbored doubts, absolutely no one was stupid enough to jump out and interrogate him.
Instead, they all joined in to praise the benevolence and greatness of Lord Jashin!
When it came to playing dumb, everyone in the room shared a profound, unspoken understanding!
Once the formalities were out of the way, Cult Leader Takiki began asking for specific details about this new Cursed Technique bestowed by Lord Jashin.
Shinji was very candid. He explained what he could, and for the things he couldn't explain, he simply claimed he didn't know. After all, he had just received this power from the System; he honestly didn't know much about it himself yet.
If you want more intel, go interrogate the System yourself!
Faced with Shinji's open and seemingly honest demeanor, Cult Leader Takiki felt a headache coming on.
It appeared that this new Cursed Technique could only be used by Shinji. For the time being, it couldn't be mass-produced, nor could it be taught to Hidan.
As for whether Shinji was telling the truth or lying through his teeth, Takiki wasn't prepared to dig too deeply into it just yet.
He knew that if he didn't tear away all pretenses and torture the boy, he wasn't going to extract any more valuable information. It was better to employ a softer approach and continue brainwashing him slowly.
As long as the boy remained useful and fought for the Jashin Cult, the minor details didn't matter.
Cult Leader Takiki genuinely believed he had Shinji Akagi firmly in his grasp. He had no idea that Shinji was fundamentally different from all the other pawns he controlled.
"Blood Manipulation? Heh! My Immortal Body combined with the Death Controlling Possessed Blood is the absolute strongest!"
Having laid on the floor "de-coloring" for quite a while, Hidan finally stood back up, looking incredibly annoyed.
"Heh."
"What the hell are you laughing at?! As long as I get a single drop of blood, even if the Sage of Six Paths shows up, I'll kill him right in front of you, you bastard!"
"Mhm, sure. Good luck with that."
"ARGHHH! I'm going to kill you! I swear to Jashin I'm going to kill you!"
"Oh, did you need something else?"
"..."
Shinji's extremely dismissive attitude made Hidan so angry he practically wanted to vomit blood.
But then again, if Hidan actually had a way to deal with him, he wouldn't have been reduced to just throwing out empty threats all this time.
As long as Shinji didn't betray the Jashin Cult, Cult Leader Takiki would never actually allow them to fight to the death.
So Hidan was furious, but it was purely impotent rage!
"You just wait! This isn't over!"
[Ding! Bond Value +1]
After hastily throwing down a completely non-threatening ultimatum, Hidan stormed out of the room in a fit of rage.
We aren't elementary school kids anymore. Who gets intimidated by 'meet me after school' level threats?
Still, the fact that he actually gained a Bond point from that was incredibly surprising. Is this really the correct way to trigger the System?
Shinji shrugged and didn't bother replying. Instead, he hurried to collect the sealed bags that had been brought over, carefully storing all the blood he had drained from his body.
One of the major drawbacks of Blood Manipulation was that the human body only contained a limited amount of blood. He didn't want to end up in a tragicly stupid situation where he died of severe blood loss before he even managed to kill his enemy.
Because of this, users typically drained and stored reserve blood during their downtime to use later in combat.
Naturally, Shinji had thought of this as well, so he decided to seal it up now to avoid wasting it.
At this moment, his face was noticeably paler due to the massive blood loss, but his eyes were shining brighter than ever!
Because he had suddenly realized something: his [Immortal Body] was the absolute perfect countermeasure to maximize the advantages of [Blood Manipulation]!
...
The next day, on top of the daily experiments and physical training he was forced to participate in, Shinji was assigned a new task: developing applications for [Blood Manipulation].
Obviously, compared to the [Death Controlling Possessed Blood]—which guaranteed a kill the moment blood was drawn—[Blood Manipulation] was not nearly as simple, brutal, or uncounterable.
On the contrary, [Blood Manipulation] was highly flexible and versatile. Its destructive power relied entirely on how creatively the user applied it.
This meant he needed to dedicate far more time to developing the technique. He couldn't just be a brainless brute like Hidan.
Another thing worth mentioning was that, perhaps due to the cult's forbidden experiments being imperfect, both he and Hidan had suffered a severe side effect. While they still possessed Chakra within their modified bodies, the difficulty of executing standard Ninjutsu had multiplied by over a hundred times.
It was exactly like Naruto back in the Ninja Academy. Every time they tried to cast a Ninjutsu, some unknown factor would interfere, causing the jutsu to fail.
According to the cult's researchers, this was likely because their Chakra pathways had undergone some sort of mutation during the immortality ritual. This caused their Chakra flow to become erratic during hand signs, resulting in constant jutsu failures.
This was the current conclusion the cult's scientists had reached after observing them for the past month.
Of course, the Cursed Technique [Death Controlling Possessed Blood] was a complete anomaly.
Shinji wasn't even sure if the cult had somehow developed this bizarre Cursed Technique first and then decided to start human experimentation...
Or if they had specifically created the technique to be paired with the 'Immortal Body'.
He suspected that the reason he couldn't learn [Death Controlling Possessed Blood] was because he was actually a failure—a defective product.
If he hadn't transmigrated into this body, the original "Shinji Akagi" would have undoubtedly died a miserable death just like all the other test subjects.
If he hadn't lucked out and received [Blood Manipulation] from the System, it probably wouldn't have been long before the cult officially labeled him a 'semi-failure'.
Thinking about it, Shinji felt a mixture of profound relief and deep frustration.
He was relieved that he had successfully navigated the immediate crisis and finally acquired a baseline level of self-preservation in this terrifying world.
But he was frustrated because, from now on, it seemed he had no choice but to walk the path of a Jujutsu Sorcerer to the bitter end.
What a massive headache!
He honestly didn't even know where to begin complaining!