"Lord Orochimaru, these are the sacrifices needed for the revival jutsu."
"I have specially selected a female prisoner sentenced to life imprisonment by the Five Great Nations. Do you think she is suitable?"
Wu Wei dragged a comatose female prisoner before Orochimaru and asked nervously.
Orochimaru waved his hand dismissively.
"It doesn't matter if she's male or female, as long as she's alive."
"Place her in the center of the formation on the ground, and leave the rest to me."
Wu Wei nodded excitedly and swiftly placed the woman in his hands into the center of the magic circle drawn on the ground. He retreated behind Orochimaru, his face filled with anticipation.
Tiger – Serpent – Dog – Dragon
Orochimaru formed the four hand seals in an instant.
"Ninpō – Edo Tensei!"
With a low shout, the gates of the Pure Land were flung open.
A phantom soul image suddenly returned from the Pure Land to the present world, drawn by the power of Edo Tensei into the sacrifice covered by the soil of the netherworld.
The moment the soul merged with the sacrificial body, a large amount of soil fell off the body like snowflakes, revealing the original appearance of the soul's owner.
"Did… did it succeed?"
Seeing the familiar face before him, Wu Wei was filled with a mixture of surprise and joy.
Although her eyes were still tightly closed, and her face bore many mottled cracks,
Wu Wei instantly recognized the identity of the person before him.
If not his wife, whom he had missed for many years, who else could it be?
"Still not quite there."
Orochimaru chuckled and shook his head.
"She is merely a spirit controlled by the Edo Tensei power, temporarily returned to the living world."
"For her to be fully revived, we need to proceed to the next step…"
Picking up the small pouch Wu Wei had brought earlier from the table, Orochimaru took out a dried umbilical cord.
"Rikudō – Yin-Yang Creation!"
The Rikudō power within Orochimaru surged like waves. Using the residual maternal cells in the umbilical cord, under Wu Wei's utterly stunned gaze, a tender sprout of flesh and blood with vigorous vitality slowly emerged.
The sprout greedily absorbed the Yang Release power emanating from Orochimaru's hand, rapidly wriggling and dividing.
Flesh, bones, meridians, internal organs…
In just a few breaths, Orochimaru, referencing the appearance of the woman resurrected by Edo Tensei, forcefully created a new body for her using the Rikudō power.
Slightly nodding to avoid impropriety, Orochimaru stepped aside, reached out, and pulled a soul with an emotionless expression out of the Edo Tensei body. He casually placed it into the newly created body behind him.
The Edo Tensei soil dissipated, and the sacrificial woman's corpse fell to the ground with a thud. The Rikudō power in Orochimaru's hand also receded.
"Dress her up!"
"Once her soul adapts to the new body, she will wake up soon."
"Live well, and then…"
"Await my summons!"
Orochimaru waved at the trembling Wu Wei and, picking up the ready-made Paradise Gourd, vanished before Wu Wei's eyes.
…
At an unknown corner on the border of the Land of Fire.
With the affairs of the Ghost Castle concluded, Orochimaru finally had time to study the treasure passed down from the Sage of Six Paths.
The box was square, rendered in an indescribable dark gray. It fit together perfectly, making it impossible to distinguish top, bottom, left, or right from the outside.
"The Paradise Gourd, which can grant wishes…"
"Heh…"
Orochimaru stroked the Paradise Gourd placed on the ground, a hint of disdain flashing in his eyes.
"A mere demon sealed within a box by the Sage of Six Paths, daring to spread the word of fulfilling wishes."
"Isn't it just trying to exploit human greed, gather enough chakra, and escape the seal?"
"If that's the case, before you grant my wish, let me grant your wish for freedom first!"
"Then, you and I will have a 'fair' transaction…"
Orochimaru scoffed, and chakra flowed continuously from his palm pressed against the Paradise Gourd.
Instantly, the Paradise Gourd, dormant for a thousand years, erupted in a blinding radiance. The box trembled and visibly expanded to the size of a house.
Its original dark gray color underwent a drastic transformation as its size increased.
Orochimaru, standing on the ground, could not see the top of the box, but the outer wall facing him slowly grew a fierce, roaring, monstrous face.
Joy, anger, sorrow, pleasure.
The four sides of the box, under Orochimaru's gaze, grew four faces bearing different human emotions.
After a thousand years, the Paradise Gourd, used by the Sage of Six Paths to seal the demon "Wu," finally revealed its true form.
"Roar!"
An excited roar erupted from within the box. The Paradise Gourd vibrated with the roar, emitting a series of cracking sounds.
The next moment, the Paradise Gourd shattered into thousands of fragments, and a black figure with massive wings descended before Orochimaru.
A slender body, followed by a somewhat sloppily drawn tail. It was flat like a whale's, but its texture resembled bird feathers.
However, compared to its posterior, the front half and head of this demon were even more bizarre.
Its thinness was completely disproportionate to the two monstrous claws that grew from its shoulders.
At the armpits, above the body joints connected to the arms, sprouted a pair of wings larger than its entire body.
But matching these bat-like wings was a large head that, at first glance, only appeared to be a mouth.
Such a visage, even for the well-traveled Orochimaru, made him feel that this creature truly deserved to be sealed by the Sage of Six Paths back then.
Putting aside its dark power that could manipulate minds, just by its appearance, one could instantly tell that this must be an anti-human demon.
As soon as Wu escaped its confinement, it hovered before Orochimaru, its six small eyes glinting with cunning, attempting to read Orochimaru's desires from his mind and find his weaknesses.
However…
"No need to use your clumsy telepathic ability."
Orochimaru chuckled, shaking his head at the incredulous Wu. He casually released the seal on the void within him.
"I provide you with enough chakra to break the Sage of Six Paths' seal, and in exchange, your power belongs to me."
"A fair transaction, wouldn't you say?"
Wu's body trembled. He was almost so angered by Orochimaru's shameless words that he forgot to flap his wings.
In all its existence, it had never encountered such a brazen human.
But what surprised Wu was that, from the thoughts it read in Orochimaru's mind, this human actually believed his own words.
Was this what humans called self-deception?
This was truly bizarre!
However, before Wu could fully comprehend Orochimaru's intentions, an aura that filled it with fear and despair from the depths of its soul suddenly surged from within this human.
The newborn soul of the void sent waves of joyous gratitude to Orochimaru, then transformed the terrifying dark chakra into a vast net that covered the sky and earth, engulfing Wu in mid-air.
"Roar!"
Having just broken free from the seal, even with the large amount of chakra absorbed with Orochimaru's supply, how could Wu possibly be an opponent of the void, which had already digested Mouryo?
As the net descended, Wu, who had only recently seen the light of day, could only let out a roar of fear before being dragged back into Orochimaru's body by the void.
Orochimaru smiled in satisfaction and was about to mentally praise the obedient void when the Rikudō power within him began to undergo some inexplicable changes with the sudden surge of dark chakra.
"This is…"