Through the image from the Scroll, he looked at Orochimaru once more. It seemed he could only let the respected Lord Orochimaru suffer a bit more.
At the same time, Orochimaru slowly calmed down from his ecstasy. "Hah." He let out a deep breath, his cold and satisfied smile blooming as if the air itself carried death and rebirth. "There are still flaws," he murmured, his voice echoing through the empty laboratory with a researcher's reason and indifference.
"The removal of impurities can never be perfect." Feeling the remaining will and scattered memories in his mind, Orochimaru's brow tightened. These tiny residues clung like a disease and would build up with each soul devoured, until one day he would no longer be himself.
Was there a way to solve this problem? As he thought, his gaze fell on the Scroll, and a light far more intense than before burned deep in his eyes. A new path had been opened, but this was only the beginning. That Scroll had to hold even more terrifying secrets.
With that thought, Orochimaru slid his snake tail and picked up the Scroll again. In the shadows, a pitying smile appeared on Ryuji Hyuga's face. The Time Space Cave had not been found yet, and Lord Yunshi was not satisfied, but your effort pleased Lord Yunshi greatly.
Since you want it so badly, I will grant your wish. The Scroll that Orochimaru could not open before now unfolded in his hands, and the contents slowly appeared in the reflection of his narrowed snake eyes. Just the first line plunged his expression into wild joy.
[ To slay a Hollow, one must use an Asauchi to pierce its bone mask, draw the Hollow soul into the blade, use the Hollow soul as the guide, join it with one's own spirit as the medium, call its true name and release the initial form, thus forming a Blade that Cuts the Soul… ]
Renlei Zhu Hollow requires using an Asauchi to pierce the bone mask, draw the Hollow soul into the blade, use the Hollow soul as the lure, merge one's own soul as the medium, call the true name and release the initial form, and in the end form the Zhanpo Blade.
When he saw the first line on the Scroll, Orochimaru's hand could not help but tremble. His pupils shrank slightly as his breathing stalled for a moment. The words seemed simple, yet they struck at something deep inside him.
"Humans, using a so called Asauchi to pierce a bone mask, can actually kill a Hollow and even grow stronger from it?" he muttered. "So injecting a spiritual body, that is, mental energy, into this Asauchi and forging the so called Zhanpo Blade is the path for a human soul to become stronger?"
"But what exactly is this so called Asauchi?" Orochimaru asked softly.
His long, thin tongue unconsciously swept across his dry lips as he looked further down the text, his gaze carrying a near manic hunger for answers. The dim light reflected in his eyes as if he had forgotten everything else around him. He continued reading without blinking.
A Hollow can devour countless souls to strengthen itself. Yet the thickness of a human soul is determined by nature, and later tempering can hardly change its essence.
Thus my method takes one's own soul as the base, injects it into the Asauchi, slays a Hollow to seize its soul, and devours external spirits within it. By nurturing the soul within the blade, it gradually gains awareness and can be wielded as naturally as one's own arm.
When the Asauchi is first formed, its interior is chaotic. The master must use their own soul to consume the remaining fragments within the blade. When refined souls accumulate like deep seas, the fragments within the blade finally merge as one, gain consciousness, and choose their own true name.
See its true form within the blade, call its true name, and release its spirit to display its might and obtain its power. Its abilities differ in countless ways, yet all ultimately reflect the mirror of the master's soul and mind.
This path I call Shinigami. Three parts are decided by heaven, seven parts are seized from spirits. Hollow and Shinigami both excel in spiritual bodies, yet they represent two sides of yin and yang.
The soul of a Shinigami is rich and pure, like sweet rain drawing insects, attracting Hollow to hunt and devour it. Yet a Shinigami must also hunt Hollow to seize souls and strengthen its own Zhanpo Blade.
Yin soul and yang spirit give rise to and restrain each other, life and death flowing in cycles, returning again and again.
"Gulp."
Orochimaru's Adam's apple rolled with difficulty, the sound unnaturally clear in the dead silence. The text on the Scroll no longer felt like words, but like an invisible blade cutting straight into the deepest Wang within his heart.
"Devour souls to form a blade, command one's true form," he murmured, his fingertips sliding along the ancient ink. "Three parts decided by heaven, seven parts seized from spirits."
"Yin soul and yang spirit, mutually born and opposed, life and death in endless return." His voice was low and unsteady.
Orochimaru slowly raised his head, the lamplight casting shadows across his pale face. A soft sigh filled with understanding and extreme excitement slipped from between his teeth. "So that is how it is."
Devouring the souls of others with a human body would only cause one to be gradually influenced by those remaining consciousnesses and become less and less like oneself. That had always been the flaw he could not resolve. The corruption was inevitable.
But if, as the Scroll described, those souls were instead injected into an Asauchi, and then a portion of one's own soul was split off to devour them, everything changed. The souls within the Asauchi would fuse bit by bit, nurturing a blade with self awareness and unique abilities, and its power could be released by calling its name.
As for what the Asauchi actually was, Orochimaru already had a guess in his mind. A Chakra blade. If a Chakra blade could accept the five elemental Chakra natures, then naturally it could also accept Yin Release Chakra.
One could split off part of their own soul and inject it into the blade, then use a special Sealing Technique to seal it. After that, it could devour more souls to grow stronger until a qualitative change occurred. The entire process unfolded clearly in his thoughts.
"Ha. Is this what a god is?" Orochimaru laughed softly.
A nearly feral smile spread across his lips as he said in wild delight, "This is the so called Shinigami. This is the so called Zhanpo Blade." He paused for a breath, eyes burning. "No, now it should be called a soul cutting blade."
This was the true power that belonged to the domain of the soul. Thinking of how his past research on souls had only been used for replacing bodies, Orochimaru had never felt so foolish.
Yet as that thought settled, his mind turned again to the owner of the Scroll. A feeling of deep awe and curiosity rose unceasingly within him. What kind of terrifying existence, so powerful and wise, could personally create a world, a species, and a path that led to godhood?
If the Pure Land of the Sage of Six Paths could preserve the power one had in life, then the owner of this Scroll had already allowed them to surpass it. Shinigami and Hollow, the living and the dead. Indeed, yin soul and yang spirit, life and death in endless return.
"Calm down. Calm down," Orochimaru said, exhaling deeply.
He forced down the wild joy and shock in his heart and began to think clearly. "A Chakra blade. My Kusanagi Sword will be enough." He then added, "What I still lack is a Sealing Technique to seal souls, and souls that I can devour."
"According to the Scroll, devouring a single Hollow should be far more effective than devouring human souls." As this thought settled, his eyes flickered with certainty. "So I still need to continue searching for the entrance to the Void Realm, that so called Time Space Cave."
kacha.
The laboratory door was pushed open, interrupting Orochimaru's thoughts. He frowned and turned around, seeing Hiruko standing there with a dark expression. The air between them instantly cooled.
"Heh," Hiruko sneered.
He glanced at Orochimaru's half human, half snake appearance, then looked at the corpse on the restraint table. With open sarcasm, he said, "Studying that trashy Scroll again?" His voice carried no attempt at politeness.
"Orochimaru, I seriously wonder if your brain has been affected by that female snake inside you," he continued. "Your intelligence must be declining if you actually believe the nonsense written in a Scroll."
Orochimaru did not speak, only staring at him coldly. If it were not for the inconvenience of his current condition, he would never have chosen to temporarily cooperate with a fool like Hiruko. The thought made his eyes narrow slightly.
Fortunately, using the name "Greil," a servant once mentioned by the owner of the Scroll, and with Hiruko's help, he had already gathered some information. He had found strange merchants suspected to be descendants of Greil, who claimed to have come from across distant seas.