"Praise Jashin."
The chamber echoed with unified voices.
No one cared what made sense.
Belief did not require logic.
If pseudo-immortality existed, then anything tied to Jashin was automatically possible.
That was how the cult thought.
Shinji understood this mentality well.
So he leaned into it.
Any unexplained phenomenon?
Jashin's will.
Any irregularity?
Jashin's blessing.
As long as his words were wrapped in that name, no one would challenge him.
Doubt was heresy.
After the ritual concluded, Lord Takigawa approached Shinji.
"Explain this new technique."
Shinji answered plainly.
What he knew, he stated.
What he didn't, he said he hadn't discovered yet.
No embellishment.
No mysticism.
Just incomplete data.
Lord Takigawa quickly realized something.
Blood Art: Red Dominion could not be taught.
It did not behave like Blood Curse: Death Link.
It belonged solely to Shinji.
That made it useless for mass replication.
But not useless overall.
A controllable asset was better than a rebellious one.
"As long as you grow stronger," Lord Takigawa said gently, "that is enough."
Shinji nodded.
Behind him, Hidan sat up.
His skin had returned to normal.
His markings faded.
He clicked his tongue.
"Blood Art, huh? Whatever."
He grinned.
"My immortality plus Blood Curse: Death Link is still better."
Shinji gave a faint smile.
A hollow one.
"You're probably right."
Hidan paused.
That wasn't the response he wanted.
"Tch. Laughing at me again?"
"I agreed with you."
"Don't look so calm!"
"Is there something else?"
Hidan's eye twitched.
He pointed at Shinji.
"This isn't over!"
Synchronization Level Increased
+1
Hidan stormed out.
Shinji stared at the notification.
So provoking him still worked.
Good.
Shinji sealed the blood he had released into storage bags.
Blood Art: Red Dominion had a limitation.
Blood volume.
If he exhausted his own supply mid-fight, he would die before the enemy did.
That was unacceptable.
So he stockpiled.
His face grew paler.
His eyes grew sharper.
A realization surfaced.
His pseudo-immortality made Blood Art: Red Dominion far more dangerous than it should be.
Loss of blood did not mean permanent death.
It meant ammunition.
The following days settled into routine.
Experiments.
Physical training.
Cursed Energy control.
And technique development.
Blood Art: Red Dominion demanded creativity.
It did not offer instant kills.
It offered options.
Piercing.
Binding.
Cutting.
Internal rupture.
The outcome depended entirely on the user.
Unlike Hidan, who only needed to gather blood to guarantee a kill, Shinji needed precision.
Another discovery followed.
Both Shinji and Hidan still possessed chakra.
But forming ninjutsu had become extremely unstable.
Hand seals failed.
Energy flow misfired.
Techniques collapsed.
Cult researchers concluded their chakra pathways had mutated during modification.
Cursed Energy circulated smoothly.
Chakra did not.
Blood Curse: Death Link appeared to bypass this issue entirely.
Which suggested it had been engineered specifically for their altered bodies.
Shinji drew a quiet conclusion.
He was an imperfect product.
A survivor, not a success.
If he had not arrived in this body, Shinji Akagi would have died during the experiment.
Blood Art: Red Dominion saved him from being labeled defective.
For that alone, it was enough.
He felt both relieved.
And cornered.
Relieved to possess a viable path.
Cornered because that path was narrow.
He would walk it anyway.
Survival came first.
Everything else was optional.