Chapter 173: Orochimaru Falls Into The Pure Land! An Endless, Bone-deep Parasite!
Consciousness sank like into a cold, lightless deep ocean, only to be forcibly pulled out at some hazy, muddled point.
This made Orochimaru blankly open his eyes.
Everywhere his vision reached was an endless, deep and viscous gray darkness. No sky, no ground, no sense of direction, only a suffocating void slowly flowing, with not a shred of life.
Light from an unknown source, faint as a candle in the wind, barely outlined some blurry contours.
Carrying an aura of deathly silence like the end of all things.
“Here… where is this? Does Ryuchi Cave have such a weird place? Why do I have no impression at all…”
Orochimaru instinctively tried to step forward, but felt no substantial support underfoot, a sensation that made him extremely uncomfortable.
At that moment, from the depths of the gray mist ahead, a figure gradually came into clarity.
It was a boy.
Not tall, wearing the green vest of a Konoha genin, his face bearing the vibrant and hopeful smile from Orochimaru’s fuzzy memories.
The other was standing there, waving vigorously at Orochimaru.
Orochimaru’s pupils contracted sharply the instant he clearly saw that face.
A mix of shock, realization, and some deeply buried complex emotion surged over him like icy tides.
“…Nawaki?”
He dryly uttered the name, his voice abnormally faint in the deathly silent space, carrying a faint tremor.
Nawaki! Tsunade’s younger brother, one of the disciples he had once placed high hopes in, the boy who forever fell into a pool of blood on the battlefield!
And the instant he saw Nawaki, all the confusion in Orochimaru’s heart dispersed like mist blown away by the wind.
The ultimate despair of memories burned by Heavenly Punishment Fire scorching his soul and body surged up.
All memory fragments slammed together.
“…So that’s how it is.” On Orochimaru’s pale face, always carrying cold calculation, blank bewilderment appeared for the first time, soon replaced by deep desolation.
He lowered his head, looking at his intact hands unstained by any blood, and let out a light sigh.
His tone filled with endless exhaustion and a destiny-like mockery: “This is… the price of pursuing eternal life? There will always be self-righteous guys jumping out to stop me… But every time before, I dodged it. This time, I didn’t.”
“Teacher Orochimaru!” Nawaki’s voice came, carrying the clear brightness unique to a boy and a hint of urgency.
He seemed to want to run over, but as if blocked by some invisible boundary, could only stand at the edge of the gray darkness, waving vigorously: “Teacher! Over here! Here…”
However, just as Nawaki called to Orochimaru, trying to say more.
“Urgh——!!!”
Orochimaru’s just-lifted foot abruptly halted, his illusory body trembling violently.
A familiar, bone-deep pain originating from the depths of his soul, as if tearing existence itself, struck without warning like billions of scalding steel needles piercing every inch of his skin!
“Hiss aaaahhhhh!!!”
A wail shrill enough to tear this deathly silent space erupted from deep in Orochimaru’s throat.
He arched his body fiercely, his face utterly distorted by unimaginable pain, hands clutching his chest desperately as if to dig something out from his soul.
The despair and pain in that scream were ten or a hundred times worse than at the bottom of Ryuchi Cave!
This Pure Land could not isolate that curse at all!
Nawaki was scared pale by the sudden change, retreating several steps, his youthful face full of terror: “Teacher Orochimaru?! You… what’s wrong with you?!”
He dared not approach another step, for as Orochimaru writhed in pain, a mass of weird flames ignited out of thin air on his body.
The flames had no heat, yet emitted an aura that made Nawaki’s soul tremble.
It clung to Orochimaru’s illusory body, silently burning, making his wails even more shrill!
“No, impossible… This is the Pure Land, why… hiss aaaahhh!!!”
In the gaps between the endless soul-tearing pain, Uchiha Ikeizumi’s cold words clearly echoed in the depths of his consciousness.
——”The pain you feel will be like maggots in the bones, following you eternally. Whether you cling to life or your soul returns to the Pure Land, you cannot escape. Every minute and second, you will plunge into the abyss of endless pain.”
Orochimaru understood; the other’s words were not threats or intimidation—they were reality!
He would suffer the exact same fate as Danzo!
“Uchiha Ikeizumi!!!”
Orochimaru, filled with ultimate despair and heaven-scorching hatred, used the last of his soul’s power to roar heart-rendingly.
“Hiss aaaahhh!!!”
Nawaki nearby could only watch in terror and helplessness as his once-revered teacher writhed and wailed in eternal torment beyond death, forever falling into the endless purgatory.
……
“Little Jiraiya, what’s wrong?” As Jiraiya walked out from the Uchiha Police Force, he suddenly seemed dazed, causing Sage Fukasaku on his shoulder to look over with concern.
Jiraiya took a deep breath, then shook his head somewhat blankly.
“I’m not sure either.” Jiraiya’s voice carried rare confusion and heaviness: “Just… suddenly had a very strange feeling. Not the pre-battle danger warning, and not quite an ominous premonition.”
“More like…”
He raised his hand, unconsciously pressing his chest, brows furrowing tighter: “Like some important part inside my body was brutally dug out. The whole person feels empty, heart panicking.”
Jiraiya paused, his face growing more grave, as if digging into deep memories: “Come to think of it… this feeling seems… not the first time.”
Sage Fukasaku and Sage Shima on the other shoulder exchanged glances, both seeing gravity in each other’s frog eyes.
“Last time…”
Jiraiya’s voice sank, carrying a faint sigh: “Not long after the last time I felt this emptiness and panic… I received news of Minato and Kushina’s sacrifice.”
Sage Fukasaku’s small body tensed instantly, his frog face unprecedentedly serious: “Little Jiraiya! This feeling is anything but ordinary! Your intuition has always been sharp, especially regarding important people! This very likely… concerns the Child of Prophecy, or someone linked to your destiny! We must take it seriously!”
Just as the atmosphere grew heavy.
“Ribbit! Gurgle ribbit!
A small, jade-green toad nimbly jumped out from the shadows of a nearby flowerbed, landing on the stone path in front of Jiraiya.
It bounced anxiously, emitting urgent, unique croaks.
“This is one of Mount Myoboku’s messenger toads.” Sage Shima immediately recognized the little toad’s origin.
Sage Fukasaku jumped down at once, listening intently to the series of rapid croaks.
Sage Shima also listened closely; the two sages’ faces grew increasingly grave with the croaks, brows tightly furrowed.
Seeing the two sages’ reactions, Jiraiya’s strange feeling intensified, and he couldn’t help asking urgently: “What… what is it saying?”
Sage Fukasaku looked up, his frog eyes full of complexity and worry, speaking slowly with unprecedented heaviness: “Little Jiraiya… This is a messenger specially sent from Mount Myoboku by the Great Lord. It brings what the Great Lord saw in a ‘prophetic dream’…”
Sage Fukasaku took a deep breath and continued: “The Great Lord said—he had a dream. In the dream, he saw a huge, purple snake writhing and struggling. Then it was entirely melted by scalding red lava!”
“At the end of the dream, the Great Lord suddenly felt that the melted snake… wasn’t entirely a snake. Its aura carried a strong human scent.”
“After waking from the dream, the Great Lord had a strong premonition—this dream has some profound connection to you, Little Jiraiya!”
Hearing this, Jiraiya’s face was extremely grave: “Lava, purple snake, snake with human aura, and related to me…”
These three pieces of information were already enough for Jiraiya to guess something.
“Uchiha Ikeizumi!”
“Orochimaru!”
……
“Pfft!!!” Tashin-no-Hime, one of the three Snake Princesses, was no stronger than Orochimaru; even Orochimaru couldn’t withstand the Wooden Golem’s strike, let alone Tashin-no-Hime.
Bone-cracking sounds horrifying to the scalp erupted densely like popping beans.
Her slender waist, fragile ribs, slender arm bones… before the Wooden Golem’s absolute power, none lasted even a second, inching apart and even shattering!
Her entire body carried a series of terrifying bone-shattering sounds and spraying blood mist.
Shooting backward at astonishing speed.
The other two Snake Princesses—Ichikishima-hime and Tatsuta-hime—immediately turned into streams of light upon Tashin-no-Hime being struck away, trying to catch their heavily injured companion!
“Tashin!”
The two princesses cried out sharply, reaching out their hands.
However, they severely underestimated the terrifying power in the Wooden Golem’s palm.
The instant their fingertips were about to touch Tashin-no-Hime’s broken body, an unstoppable massive force slammed into the two Snake Princesses.
They felt as if hit head-on by a charging Tailed Beast, both grunting, their delicate faces draining of color.
Their bodies uncontrollably flew backward, carried by Tashin-no-Hime’s “maimed cannonball”!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Three figures crashed heavily into a hard, massive cliff wall hundreds of meters away, the heavy impact echoing as rubble fell.
“Cough cough cough…”
Ichikishima-hime coughed up blood mixed with organ fragments, feeling like her whole body was falling apart.
Enduring the intense pain, she struggled to turn her head to find the most severely injured Tashin-no-Hime. But the sight made even this millennium-old Snake Princess feel a chill rush to her head!
In a deep dent in the cliff wall, Tashin-no-Hime’s body was embedded deeply into the rock in a posture completely defying human structure, horrifying to behold.
Limbs twisted at weird angles, spine seemingly broken into several segments, her gorgeous ancient kimono stained filthy with blood and rubble.
That once coldly beautiful face now a bloody mess, half her cheekbone collapsed, breath faint as a candle in the wind.
Only her body still twitching unconsciously.
Immortal Technique Energy like faint fireflies struggled out from her broken body, trying to repair the horrific wounds.
“Hiss…”
Ichikishima-hime inhaled sharply, scalp tingling.
She had never imagined that Tashin-no-Hime, a high-ranking Ryuchi Cave figure with powerful Immortal Technique power, would be wounded to this extent by a human.
Thud!
Thud!
Thud!
Fatal footsteps like death drums approached from afar, carrying momentum that made the ground tremble.
The massive Wooden Golem was striding with heavy footwork toward their crashed cliff wall.
Each step left a scorched footprint burning with lava.
Atop the giant’s head, Uchiha Ikeizumi’s figure was like an icy sculpture.
Those scarlet Sharingan eyes pierced through the smoke, firmly locking onto them!
Still hundreds of meters away, Uchiha Ikeizumi acted!
His right arm bent, the red lava flowing on his arm instantly swelled violently like a boiling volcano, viscous lava roiling and roaring, in a blink coalescing into a nearly ten-meter-diameter lava giant fist radiating destructive high heat!
His entire arm fully elementalized into a red bridge connecting the giant fist.
Boom——!!!
With a fierce forward punch, the lava giant fist like an unbound lava dragon, carrying air-tearing shrieks and incinerating heat, struck toward the three Snake Princesses embedded in the cliff like a falling lava meteor.
The massive fist shadow nearly enveloped all three!
Ichikishima-hime and Tatsuta-hime’s pupils shrank!
Intense death threat made them decide instantly.
Two shrill snake hisses echoed through the cave; the two Snake Princesses could no longer maintain human form, massive Immortal Technique Chakra erupting from their bodies, their forms rapidly inflating, twisting, deforming like balloons!
Bang!
Bang!
Two colossal giant snakes not inferior in size to Manda instantly replaced the graceful figures, both coiling before the cliff wall.
Scales on their bodies refracted cold, hard metallic sheen under the red glow of the lava fist. Their massive snake bodies like two mountains firmly guarding the heavily injured Tashin-no-Hime ahead.
But evidently, in Ryuchi Cave’s long and relatively “peaceful” years, they had forgotten how to fight true powerhouses.
Nor learned any lesson from Manda’s mangled body.
“Foolish.”
Atop the Wooden Golem, Uchiha Ikeizumi coldly uttered judgment.
Orochimaru had never dared clash his lava head-on multiple times, yet these two Ryuchi Cave Snake Princesses tried blocking lava with flesh and blood.
Boom——!!!
The lava giant fist with overwhelming force slammed into the foremost Ichikishima-hime’s massive snake body covered in metallic scales.
Sizzle!
Pfft!
Scalp-exploding sounds rang abruptly; those scales seemingly able to withstand direct ninjutsu strikes melted with piercing sounds upon contact with the lava giant fist, like a hot knife into solidified lard.
Without the slightest hindrance.
The lava giant fist with terrifying heat and impact pierced straight through Ichikishima-hime’s snake body unhindered!
A horrific scorched black giant hole with dark red lava oozing at the edges exploded on Ichikishima-hime’s snake body.
Directly hit organs, bones, flesh carbonized instantly by the lava’s extreme heat in a split second.
Intense charred smell and protein-burnt stench instantly filled the air.
Only because the lava giant fist’s diameter was smaller than the snake body’s thickness.
Did it not bisect her on the spot!
“Hiss aaaahhh——!!!”
Indescribable agony made Ichikishima-hime emit a shrill wail, pain like her soul being torn alive.
The massive snake body twisted and thrashed madly, blood mixed with scorched morsels of meat gushing like a waterfall from the horrific wound.
Her vertical pupils bloodshot from pain, nearly bursting.
The lava giant fist’s momentum weakened less than thirty percent by this massive flesh body; carrying Ichikishima-hime’s screams and skyward blood rain, it unrelentingly slammed into the rear Tatsuta-hime.
Bang—
Sizzle!!!
This time, though not fully piercing, the horrific force and still-blazing heat blasted a several-meter-deep massive dent in Tatsuta-hime’s snake body.
Hard scales shattered inch by inch like fragile glass.
Intense burning pain and organ-shaking agony made Tatsuta-hime emit pained hisses.
“Hiss aaaahh——!!!”
The two massive giant snakes writhed and convulsed miserably before the cliff wall, blood and lava staining the scorched ground red, shrill hisses echoing endlessly in the cave.
Moments later, Tatsuta-hime endured her body’s burns and churning internal injuries. Her massive snake head snapped up, bloodshot vertical pupils locking dead on Uchiha Ikeizumi atop the Wooden Golem.
Tatsuta-hime’s voice hoarse and twisted from pain and utmost rage: “Human! I remember Ryuchi Cave has no enmity or grudges with you or your Uchiha Clan behind you!”
“Instead, you intrude uninvited into the holy site! Slaughter Manda, kill Orochimaru! Heavily wound Tashin!”
“Now you even strike to kill us—what is the reason?!”
“What exactly do you want?!”
Uchiha Ikeizumi stood quietly atop the Wooden Golem, its height letting him levelly face the two writhing giant snakes. Facing Tatsuta-hime’s angry and puzzled questions, he said nothing.
He merely slowly turned those scarlet, demonic Mangekyo Sharingan gaze toward Tatsuta-hime’s massive snake pupils.
The instant their gazes met!
Tatsuta-hime’s massive snake body stiffened! She felt the surrounding space instantly twist and change.
“This is…?!”
Astonishment flashed in Tatsuta-hime’s massive vertical pupils.
Before her eyes was no longer the scarred, lava-flowing battlefield, but a desolate moonlit night.
She suddenly saw a familiar figure ahead, sneaking into a human village under cover of night.
Looking closely.
Wasn’t this herself?
Wait!
Distant memories surged; Tatsuta-hime immediately realized: “This is Sharingan Illusion Technique!”
In the illusion.
She watched her “self” ahead infiltrate farmhouse after farmhouse… followed by shrill terrified screams piercing the night, children’s helpless cries, men’s despairing roars, women’s dying wails… erupting like tides from everywhere in the village.
Thick, nauseating blood smell instantly filled the entire illusion.
Cold sweat beaded on Tatsuta-hime; why was she seeing scenes from memories? Was this illusion to stir up distant recollections? Or had her memories been seen by the other?
Next second, the scene abruptly switched.
This time, to a hidden, dim cave deep in Ryuchi Cave filled with massive snake sheds.
She saw her “self” for fun deliberately torment a trial-taker about to pass Ryuchi Cave’s test to death, just to see how desperate humans could get? What actions they’d take in utmost despair?
Then, the scene shifted again.
Countless memories flashed like a lantern show in the illusion.
The only pattern Tatsuta-hime caught was that every scene showed her killing!
But what puzzled her was…
The other’s Sharingan Illusion Technique only made her recall many forgotten memories, yet these caused no mental torment, nor instantly sapped her fighting strength.
So what was the purpose of the illusion?
Suddenly.
The illusion receded like tides; stinging sulfur smell, wound pain, companions’ wails instantly returned.
Tatsuta-hime’s massive snake pupils still held lingering shock and bewilderment.
She saw again the towering Wooden Golem.
Saw the figure atop the Wooden Golem.
At this moment, Uchiha Ikeizumi’s indifferent voice echoed faintly: “These are the evils you committed in the Ninja World. There is no personal grudge between you and me; I act against you solely because you are a villain. As long as you live, countless innocent victims cannot rest in peace. I merely bring them justice delayed by a millennium.”
Tatsuta-hime was dumbfounded.
This guy…
Is crazy!
Such a lame reason…
Is he serious?
……
……
