The soul of a Shinigami is rich and pure, like sweet rain drawing insects, attracting Xu to hunt and devour it. Yet a Shinigami must also hunt Xu to seize souls and strengthen its own Zanpakuto.
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 Zanpakuto." 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 Xu, 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 Xu 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.
Some of them possessed something called the Stone of Gelel, a mineral that seemed to have mutated after being soaked in Chakra for too long. Without a doubt, that Chakra most likely originated from the Time Space Cave, and the veins were located near it. Before long, he would be able to follow them and find the location of the Time Space Cave.
When that time came, he, Orochimaru, would be the only existing Shinigami. That certainty made his breathing slow and steady.
Ding. Your lie has been judged as Obscuring the Truth, Making the Fake Real, Calling a Deer a Horse. Orochimaru has produced an extremely intense emotional fluctuation, reaching the level of Revering as a God, and you gain 2500 Reality Points.
Remaining Reality Points: 38000.
At this moment, seeing his vast wealth, Yunchuan Hyuga's eyes flickered slightly. Since Orochimaru had not yet found the Time Space Cave, he still could not mass produce Xu. Placing one Xu and a large number of ordinary souls for Karin's mother in the Underground Palace was fine, but if the number increased sharply, the area would not be able to contain them.
"Let the formal appearance of Xu before the Ninja World wait for later," Yunchuan Hyuga thought with a faint smile. "With my points, collecting a few more souls and cultivating one or two Xu into high level Great Hollow for experiments will not be a problem."
As it happened, he had long ago thought of two very suitable candidates. They were the two who had never entered the Pure Land and wandered in the gap between the living world and the Pure Land. Rin Nohara and Sakumo Hatake.
"Speaking of which," Yunchuan Hyuga thought as he looked at Hiruko through the image, "it feels like Chimera Technique also has room to operate." Chimera Technique could directly allow the user to devour and fuse Kekkei Genkai, simple and brutal, and it could even fuse a Summoning Beast.
"If Chimera Technique were used to turn Kekkei Genkai and other abilities into something that melts on contact," Yunchuan Hyuga mused, blinking thoughtfully. These mad researchers in the Ninja World were all very useful tools.
Of course, Orochimaru was still his current favorite. For now, the key lay in Shinigami and Xu, and Chimera Technique remained only an idea. Before Xu officially appeared, he still needed to understand their limits, so one or two high level Great Hollow were necessary.
Rin Nohara and Sakumo Hatake were the most suitable choices. As for where the souls to feed them into high level Great Hollow would come from, the answer was already forming.