You say this is a love game?

"I went with your mother today, and I did see... Yutsukiko. You can't lie to me."

Can't deceive people?

Matsushita Kei was completely bewildered.

Looking at the tear marks on his mother's face, then glancing at the anxiety and expectation hidden in his father's eyes, he didn't dare to easily deny his parents' tiny hope. He said in a daze that he needed to calm down, then took the flyer from his mother's hand, huddled in the corner of the bedroom, and stared at it quietly.

[Karma...]

The Lost Child...

[Parents need to practice more, and eliminate their own karma through meditation, asceticism, and dedication...]

[Zi'an, the Great Bodhisattva of Compassionate Mother...]

all fake.

Matsushita Kei told himself this.

These words echoed repeatedly in Matsushita Kei's mind like a series of mantras. They were wrapped in various religious terms to make them solemn and sacred, but the more so, the more he felt an indescribable absurdity and anger.

Those cult organizations exposed in the news all say almost the same things - first they create fear, claiming that "you have karma", then they give hope, saying "as long as you believe in me, you can be saved", and they always come back to the final point, which is "dedication".

The so-called "dedication" is actually asking people to voluntarily donate their property, saying that the further away from worldly troubles, the more they can find spiritual peace and eliminate karma...

Isn’t this just a money-making scam?

As a young man who has received a serious modern education, Matsushita Kei can be sure that what is said above is complete bullshit.

My parents must have been deceived.

How could his sister, Yutsukiko, have been missing for over a year, so how could she have just happened to show up in that strange church? And they even said they couldn't bring her home, saying that as parents, they had to constantly practice and dedicate themselves to eliminating their karma...wasn't this just a way for his family to continue giving money to the church?

But his parents' resolute attitude made him particularly entangled and confused...

Matsushita Kei sat in the corner, hugging his knees, his head in a mess.

He thought for a long time, but for some reason his heart suddenly skipped a beat, and the chaotic thoughts in his mind disappeared in an instant.

At this moment, it was as if my heart felt something.

Matsushita Kai raised his head and saw a petite crow perched on the small windowsill of his bedroom.

Jump and skip.

Knock knock, knock knock.

The bird was pecking at the window glass, making a rhythmic sound.

The bird's head tilted slightly, and its red eyes seemed to reflect his face.

“…Where did the crow come from?”

Crows are said to be very intelligent birds. Crows that have lived in cities for a long time even understand how to properly interact with humans...

Matsushita Kai propped himself up on his knees and walked forward to check. He pushed open the window and wanted to reach out to touch it, but was pecked by the crow.

He retracted his fingers as if he had been electrocuted, and found that his fingertips were pricked by a needle, and a few drops of bright red blood squeezed out and dripped onto the windowsill.

thump!

The crow spread its wings and landed on the floor. Its sharp claws grabbed the flyer on the ground and tore it to pieces in a few seconds.

Then the crow raised its head and let out a sharp and piercing cry.

"quack!"

The sound was not like the cry of an ordinary crow, but a shrill voice like a child's scream.

The next second, it flapped its wings suddenly and flew up towards the sky outside the window.

……

……

It has been a while since Mizutani Makoto and Miyamizu Inaba reunited.

The girl, who was traveling at night and wearing a coat, was only a head shorter than Mizutani Makoto. After listening to Mizutani Makoto's story, she turned around and glanced at Yoshida Akira, who was at a loss, and frowned.

"It is indeed the breath of a vengeful spirit."

Miyamizu Inaba seemed to be ready to make a move.

Shuten looked at Yoshida Akira with interest. With her keen eyesight, she could certainly sense what was going on, but she said nothing. Instead, she turned her gaze to Mizutani Makoto.

Chidorimaru disappeared back into the boy's body, but she couldn't ignore Chidori's strong presence.

Where did the Demon Sword Princess come from?

Behind every demon sword princess is the legend of a famous sword. There are very few swords in the world that meet the requirements. In addition, the transfer of legend requires the original sword to lose its spirituality, and only then will a new sword spirit be born from the legend... Whether you can encounter this thing really depends on luck.

Anyway, Shuten has never seen this thing.

First there was the unusual Zashiki-warashi, and then there was the Youdaohime, who only appears once in a century.

Why does this guy always take out such rare stuff?

Mizutani Makoto was looking for information about the "Red Lotus Seed Guard Society", but this information could not be found on the Internet. It seemed that they were quite low-key.

"Want me to track?"

Makoto Mizutani originally had this idea in mind.

But before Wa Yao and Miyamizu Inaba could play their roles as scouts, he received unexpected news.

[Hai Shui: Mizutani, I have something very important to do right now.]

[Hai Shui: I think I should tell you...someone is using Yutsukiko's story to spread a religion to our family. It should be a cult, but my parents are convinced of it and even said that they actually met Yutsukiko in that religion.]

[Blue-haired water monster:? ]

[Blue-haired water monster: What cult? ]

under night.

Kei Matsushita ran out of the apartment building.

He didn't know why he was so excited.

Above his head, the crow's silhouette almost completely blended into the night. Even Matsushita Kei, who had been resurrected from the dead and gained some "enhancement", had to squint his eyes and try hard to catch a glimpse of the crow's traces under the night sky.

The boy ran hard, chasing the bird flying above his head, panting and typing a text message to Mizutani Makoto.

[Seawater: Red lotus seeds guard the assembly, and the Bodhisattva of the compassionate mother is at peace.]

[Hai Shui: I've seen their flyers. Their base is a sanatorium called "Three Wings."]

……

……

Three Wings Sanatorium.

Mina Matsui is not a mother, and there is no missing child.

Two months ago, a childhood friend contacted her, claiming to have found a sanatorium where she could meditate to calm her inner restlessness. This was extremely tempting for Mina Matsui, a 26-year-old who had suffered from insomnia at an early age. Especially after experiencing the "meditation" process in the smile of the envoy, she tentatively believed in this magical church.

Being religious doesn't mean she's lost her mind.

Mina Matsui had not been a member of the religion for long and had no obsession with children. She had great respect for the divine power of the Bodhisattva Koan, but she also felt quite detached from it. At least she did not worship the venerable one as crazily as others did, but stood on the edge and watched from afar.

However, young and beautiful girls are popular everywhere.

Especially the Red Lotus Seed Society, most of the believers here are elderly housewives. Even if they take good care of themselves, most of them are in their thirties or forties. A young girl in her twenties is extremely rare among these middle-aged women. Soon a priest noticed her and threatened to take her to practice.

What does it mean to “eradicate karma”?

Mina Matsui never thought that the "roots" the priest mentioned would be "roots" in the literal sense.

That guy is simply a perverted criminal.

"I told you!"

Inside the room, a man in a priest's haori raised his fists and punched the woman again and again. His usually kind and compassionate face was replaced by a ferocious look that had been released.

"This is also part of the practice!"

There were scratches on his body from the woman, and the marks on his eye sockets were the deepest, almost as if they were scratching him blind.

"I've already taught you all this! Practice! Dedication!"

"Did you hear that? Dedication. Why don't you understand how to learn to dedicate yourself?"

Every time he landed a punch, the woman let out a scream of pain.

“Something that others can do!”

"Why can't you do it?"

"Your karma is still too deep! Don't worry, I will help you eradicate the karma in your body!"

Whether it is to deceive those obedient and ignorant believers or to force these shallow believers who are not pious, the priests of the Red Lotus Seed Guardian Society have already summed up various methods.

Most of them were professional cult cadres who had followed His Holiness to set up the Happiness Relief Society before His Holiness had his "enlightenment" and had been deceiving people everywhere. Later, the Happiness Relief Society was renamed the Red Lotus Seed Guardian Society, which basically inherited all the original members of the Happiness Relief Society.

These people knew the dark history of the Venerable before he achieved the "Bodhisattva status", but precisely because of this, they admired the Venerable even more for becoming a "Great Bodhisattva".

They were originally a group of cult cadres involved in pyramid schemes, and of course they knew they were talking nonsense, but they could not resist the fact that the Venerable later became successful and led three "envoys" with divine powers to sit in the church. After witnessing the Venerable's "divine power" that could not be explained by science, they gradually felt that they were really some kind of chosen sons of God, destined to accomplish great things with the Venerable.

After all, their peers are fake, but they are real!

Since they are true priests who spread the gospel, isn't it only natural for them to be served by believers?

"It's your pleasure!"

Bang!

After one punch, the woman finally curled up on the ground with her head in her hands. Seeing the priest raise his fist again, she let out a shrill scream before the fist landed.

Seeing this scene, the priest finally smiled with satisfaction.

He said that we have to fight these tough guys!

When they are hurt, they will naturally give up resistance.

After beating them until they give up resistance, they can enjoy this delicious food, and then lock them up in a sanatorium for a period of time. By using both kindness and force, they can quickly develop a victim mentality in them. In addition, the religious atmosphere in this place is already strong, and it won't take long before they are gradually influenced by the believers around them and become conformists, and then completely give up resistance.

He warned: "Don't make too much noise...If you disturb the Imperial Envoy, you will know what cruelty is."

Matsui Mina did not answer, but just buried her head and sobbed quietly.

She curled up tightly, her joints aching slightly. Her mind couldn't even think about what was going to happen. She just kept expressing pain and a deep despair.

The footsteps are getting closer.

However, it suddenly stopped in front.

The priest frowned and turned to look suspiciously in the direction of the door. There was a sound of footsteps, whispers, and a kind of suppressed panic. He frowned, as if thinking about something, and a trace of impatience and vigilance appeared on his face.

"You stay here for now."

He said to Matsui Mina, his tone full of threats and commands.

"Don't run around, you can't get out."

"There is a royal envoy patrolling outside right now."

"If the Imperial Envoy finds out... your fate will be much worse than it is now."

After saying this, the priest straightened his clothes, pretended to be proper, turned around and left, and the door slammed shut behind him.

Mina Matsui was the only one left in the room.

She rolled and crawled into the corner, feeling her heart beating rapidly, and hugged her knees tightly with both hands, as if this could give her a little sense of security.

But this sense of security is an illusion.

The noises coming from the corridor seemed increasingly strange.

At first there were the sounds of footsteps, hurried and chaotic, followed by human voices, not prayers or sermons, but screams, curses, and running, followed by extremely shrill screams like pigs being slaughtered.

"Ahhh!!"

What on earth had happened to cause such an extreme scream that seemed to be torn from the depths of the throat?

Bones were broken and flesh was torn.

Even though the room was well soundproofed, the sounds still leaked in through the crack in the door and drilled into her ears like a poisonous snake.