Chapter 122: A Deal with Orochimaru

"You want the data on the Cursed Seal? As far as I know, Feiyu, you should have already mastered Sage Mode, so you don't need this kind of inferior version anymore, right?"

"Could it be that you are also preparing to attempt the Reincarnation Jutsu? But with your talent and age, you simply cannot find a vessel stronger than your own body right now..."

"Sorry, I feel like I can still live for a few hundred years, so I don't need to go looking for any vessel!"

Uchiha Feiyu rolled his eyes and spoke indifferently.

Although Orochimaru and Uchiha Feiyu were merely a pair of plastic master and apprentice, and their relationship was mostly based on mutual utilization, after spending a long time together, the two did indeed have a sense of mutual appreciation.

Well, perhaps it would be more appropriate to describe it as colluding for evil, birds of a feather, or being cut from the same cloth; two extreme egoists, in this era where everyone is out of place and obsessed with the "Will of Fire" and "World Peace," were huddling together for warmth while simultaneously probing for each other's trump cards.

Orochimaru glanced at the Hunyuan Treasure Box, a flash of greed in his eyes, and asked:

"Does that kind of Soul Pill also have something to do with the Hunyuan Treasure Box?"

"Then I really do have something to discuss. The pills and the Cursed Seal are just a side dish. The real purpose of my visit this time is, first, I hope Teacher Orochimaru can give me some intelligence on Konoha. I believe you should still have quite a few eyes and subordinates left in Konoha."

In Orochimaru's view, everyone else in this world would decay and die; only this cheap apprentice of his had the potential to walk the path of eternal life just like him.

The main reason for targeting the Uchiha Clan was Uchiha Feiyu's own greed, not because the Uchiha Clan had offended him.

Uchiha Feiyu chuckled. He had already modified the Reanimation to a certain extent, allowing him to directly control the reanimated soul through the Spirit-Binding and General-Commanding technique, rather than turning them into a Reanimation body.

Orochimaru was stunned for a moment, then spoke in a low voice:

"In that case, you are preparing to leave a shadow clone with me? But how long can a shadow clone last?"

Orochimaru was slightly taken aback, looked at Uchiha Feiyu, and asked:

"You want Konoha's intelligence and informants from me? Why? Could it be that you are preparing to make a move against Konoha?"

As he spoke, Orochimaru was also speculating in his heart that with his cheap apprentice's strength, plus the Sand Ninja who had now recovered a bit, they might really be able to flatten Konoha in one go!

"Of course not... Flattening Konoha now does not serve my interests. Besides, although I don't have any feelings for Konoha, in the end, I don't have any grudges against them either."

As soon as this pill was taken out, Orochimaru's gaze was fixed straight upon it; he could clearly feel that his soul felt an incomparable greed for the pill before him.

"I don't have money, but I do have a pill. Just tell me if you want it or not?"

Orochimaru widened his eyes, looked at Uchiha Feiyu, and gasped:

"Cough, cough, cough, I say, apprentice, if you have something to say, just say it. Otherwise, if you just give this thing to me, I wouldn't dare to accept it!"

After hearing Uchiha Feiyu's explanation, Orochimaru nodded slightly. Although there was still a hint of greed in his eyes, he ultimately didn't say anything more.

It was just that after his Living Corpse Reincarnation was fused with the Lich Reincarnation Ritual, although the defects of soul deficiency and the incompatibility between soul and body were greatly improved, the requirements for soul power were also extremely harsh.

"So?"

"The person you want to find is the Reanimation body of the Second Hokage!?"

This Soul Pill was refined by Uchiha Feiyu directly by extracting the souls of five Chunin he had controlled.

In fact, in the past, the failed human experiment materials on Orochimaru's hands were all handed over to Uchiha Feiyu to deal with; otherwise, Uchiha Feiyu wouldn't have been able to provide him with large amounts of funds to squander every day before he had any results.

"The Hunyuan Treasure Box can transform living ninja into Qi and Blood pills, significantly increasing a ninja's physical strength and physical talent. At the same time, increasing physical strength will also increase one's own chakra volume. As long as they eat enough, even a pig could become a Shadow-level Ninja!"

By then, even if this cheap teacher of his was unwilling, he would have to become a tool in his hands.

"Asking for a person?!"

Although he didn't understand the implication of Uchiha Feiyu's words, after hearing this, Orochimaru still felt a sense of horror. His intuition told him that his apprentice was definitely not thinking of anything good again.

"Fine, I'll give you the Cursed Seal data, give me the pill."

After putting away the pill, Orochimaru handed the Cursed Seal data to Uchiha Feiyu, and then he waved his hand:

"If there's nothing else, don't look for me. I still have experiments to do!"

After thinking it over, Orochimaru gritted his teeth and decided on this trade. Looking at the expression in his eyes, Uchiha Feiyu immediately knew what was going on; he guessed that his cheap teacher wanted to analyze the ingredients of the pill to see if he could make it himself!

Uchiha Feiyu didn't think his cheap teacher had the ability to truly rely on himself to produce Soul Pills. Once Orochimaru exhausted all methods and became completely disappointed, he would definitely come back to trade with him.

Although the Spirit-Binding and General-Commanding technique could only allow one soul to possess the body at a time, and the power displayed depended on the basic quality of the host body in addition to the requirements for the soul, there was one point: the Spirit-Binding and General-Commanding technique was much stronger than Reanimation, and that was its control over the soul!

The one who truly refined soul energy into pills was Uchiha Feiyu's Soul Refining Method.

The ones who truly had a grudge against Uchiha Feiyu were Shimura Danzo and the Root, who caused the death of his parents. As for the others, the Third Hokage, who might have known something about this, could be considered slightly involved.

Not to mention that once Orochimaru's Living Corpse Reincarnation was developed, this kind of pill could also be used to cultivate vessels, making the vessels even more perfect.

In this regard, Uchiha Feiyu naturally occupied an absolute advantage. After all, Uchiha Feiyu basically knew everything Orochimaru knew, and even if new things were developed later, it was because of the changes brought by Uchiha Feiyu.

Uchiha Feiyu directly took out a pill refined using the Origin of the soul. The souls stored in the Box of Ultimate Bliss for many years had been exhausted, but the number of souls Uchiha Feiyu had captured with the Spirit-Binding and General-Commanding technique was not small, and their purity was far superior to the vengeful ghosts in the Box of Ultimate Bliss.

"Moreover, this Hunyuan Treasure Box can only be used by my shadow clone. If other ninja want to use the Hunyuan Treasure Box, they will only be completely drained by it!"

Orochimaru glanced at his apprentice, and seeing his smiling face, he knew that he probably wouldn't be able to ask anything out of him, so he simply threw his hands up and asked for benefits.

Uchiha Feiyu chuckled, took out a Hunyuan Treasure Box, and spoke indifferently:

"Konoha intelligence and such are simply not worth this Hunyuan Treasure Box in your hand!"

But it was different with Soul Pills. Now, every time his soul power increased by one level, it would be easier to perform the brand-new Living Corpse Reincarnation, and the success rate would also increase significantly.

Orochimaru blinked. He didn't remember having anyone under his command who would be coveted by Uchiha Feiyu... No! The living people under his command were indeed not worth Uchiha Feiyu's attention, but if it were a dead person, it would indeed have enough value for Uchiha Feiyu to take seriously.

"To say it's related, that's not wrong. The Hunyuan Treasure Box can store souls, but to specifically refine them into pills, I still have to rely on my unique Soul Refining Method to extract the energy within."

"If Teacher Orochimaru doesn't believe me, you can find a way to do research. Of course, you must never try it yourself; I don't want you, Teacher, to be sucked into a dried snake by this Hunyuan Treasure Box."

Although the Uchiha Clan forced him to become a ninja, they at least gave him some basic ninja arts, and when his strength greatly increased, they even paid a lot of Secret Techniques to win him over, so he actually had no grudge against the Uchiha.

"Forget it, forget it... I won't ask what you're trying to do anymore. But the Cursed Seal is not a simple thing; that is a top-tier Secret Technique I painstakingly developed that is enough to change the entire Ninja World..."

Forcibly seizing it was definitely out of the question; his apprentice's strength over the past few years had become increasingly unfathomable. As for trading with other things, Orochimaru didn't have any equivalent ninja arts or treasures on hand.

Orochimaru had a very deep understanding of the soul, and his own soul power was considered top-tier even among Shadow-level Ninja.

In other words, although the ninja art was perfected, the difficulty had also increased. Until now, Orochimaru had not performed his first reincarnation because the new Living Corpse Reincarnation was too difficult.

Now with the Hunyuan Treasure Box, it was at most just a more efficient way of processing.

However, Orochimaru was also very clear about his apprentice's personality. Some ordinary ninja arts and treasures were one thing, but for things like the Soul Refining Method, this cheap apprentice would definitely not easily hand it over to him.

However, Orochimaru had also probed some things out. At least he knew that Uchiha Feiyu's strength improvement was related to his killing on the battlefield, and he also knew that Uchiha Feiyu, like him, was proficient in soul-related Ninja Art.

Hearing Orochimaru's words, Uchiha Feiyu chuckled and said something that Orochimaru found a bit difficult to understand:

"Of course, it is so that when it comes time to harvest in the future, there will be more well-grown leeks!"

"Teacher, haven't you always been curious about why I could improve my strength so much during the war? This is the answer!"

"You'll have to pay more!"

This statement was not wrong; although the Hunyuan Treasure Box could be called an automatic pill furnace, it did not have a very good method for processing Soul energy, merely inheriting the ability to store souls that originated from the Box of Ultimate Bliss.

"Not bad... The second thing is that I want to ask you for someone, Teacher!"

Uchiha Feiyu looked at the faint panic of his cheap teacher and revealed a speechless expression; had he left such a huge psychological shadow on his cheap teacher?

Usually, he would just call him Feiyu, but now he had even blurted out "disciple"!

However, Uchiha Feiyu still carefully explained it to Orochimaru:

"Teacher, don't worry, I have four Hunyuan Treasure Boxes in my hands; I am just leaving one with you."

Orochimaru took a look with great interest; such Blood Qi Pills could not be said to be without value to any ninja. Although Orochimaru did not have much interest in taijutsu and felt his own chakra was sufficient, he absolutely could not refuse the temptation of increased body strength and chakra.

"The shadow clone I create, when combined with a special sealing formation, can exist for a long time, so there is no need to come back repeatedly to replenish it."

When he was in the Grass Ninja Village, Uchiha Feiyu had used this trick to artificially create a "holy land" of high-concentration Natural Energy, using it to absorb Natural Energy and maintain the existence of the clone.

"Then what do you want the Cursed Seal for? You aren't really wanting to develop Sunagakure properly, are you? I don't think my disciple has that much sense of responsibility."

Therefore, from a long time ago, Uchiha Feiyu had already been crossed off his list of vessels. On the contrary, he had even discussed his Living Corpse Reincarnation and the Lich Reincarnation Ritual with Uchiha Feiyu; in this respect, these two were the people in this world who understood each other the best.

Uchiha Feiyu spoke up, possessing the Secret Technique of the Swallowing Heaven Demonic Art; as long as enough concentration of Natural Energy was gathered, the clone could also rely on absorbing Natural Energy to perform energy conversion and exist for a long time.

"Alright... leave your clone here. I will hand over the intelligence and informants of Konoha to you when the time comes. You just said this was the first thing, so could there be other matters?"

The so-called Pill was just an external form, or rather an outer shell; its essence was a mass of incomparably pure Soul energy. As long as it was swallowed, one could increase their own Soul power!

Licking his tongue slightly, Orochimaru's gaze turned toward the Hunyuan Treasure Box, and he asked:

"That is really direct. It seems you are very confident in your current strength and no longer need to hide secrets? I wonder how many Blood Qi Pills you can provide me, Feiyu?"

An ordinary ninja might not be able to see the details of this Pill, but Orochimaru was almost the number one person in the Ninja World today regarding Soul research; almost the moment he saw this Pill, he had already sensed the essence of the Pill.

Uchiha Feiyu shook his head directly:

"It is not providing you with Pills, Teacher, but giving you the Hunyuan Treasure Box directly!"

The Soul power of a Chunin is roughly twice that of a Genin, and the Soul Origin obtained through the Soul Refining Method would only remain about one-tenth; in other words, this one Pill is equivalent to the Soul energy of one Genin.

"Tsk, forget it. It seems you have your own plans again. But in an equivalent exchange, I give you Konoha's intelligence, what can you give me?"

"It seems I don't need to say it, Teacher Orochimaru, you also know who I am looking for."

Top-tier powerhouses brought back by Reanimation basically cannot be controlled by anyone, but once the Soul-Controlling General technique is unleashed, even the First Hokage or Madara Uchiha would be completely manipulated as a result.

After completing the modification, Uchiha Feiyu's first thought was to summon the Second Hokage, but the result was that he could not find the soul of the Second Hokage no matter what.

At that time, Uchiha Feiyu knew that the soul of the Second Hokage had likely been snatched away by his cheap teacher first.

(End of this chapter)