Chapter 300: Orochimaru: Muzan Kibutsuji, what do you consider life to be?

"Don't—don't kill me!"

Muzan Kibutsuji was trembling all over; after losing that veneer of the Demon King, even after hundreds of years, deep down he remained that same cowardly ghost who once lay on a sickbed, terrified of death.

When faced with the threat of death, he chose to submit without hesitation.

"I am glad you can understand the current situation, but I do not like the look in your eyes."

Orochimaru frowned deeply; a non-human creature actually displayed the cowardly gaze only humans possessed, and despite possessing a purely natural Dark Attribute bloodline, it felt such immense fear of death.

He caught the scent of fear radiating from Muzan Kibutsuji,

very intense.

It was just like a piece of cannon fodder Genin who had just graduated from the Ninja Academy, was about to enter the battlefield, and had never seen death before.

Could it be that the undead creatures of other worlds were all this pathetic? "My lord."

Muzan Kibutsuji cursed inwardly; he could not understand at all why the other party was still unsatisfied when he had already been willing to submit.

"Tell me all the intelligence you have about your world."

As Orochimaru spoke,

he directly twisted off one of Muzan Kibutsuji's arms, performed a game verification, and stuffed it into his inventory slot so he could take it back to reality.

Fresh blood flowed,

and Muzan Kibutsuji endured the pain, not daring to resist, and recounted the general intelligence of the Demon Slayer World.

"Interesting, you are actually the strongest creature in your world."

Orochimaru stuck out his tongue, licked his chin, and said expectantly: "A prescription used to treat an illness that could actually create a creature like a demon—it certainly couldn't have been that easy."

Muzan Kibutsuji dared not hide anything, because he realized that although Orochimaru could not read memories and thoughts like he could when controlling demons,

he could judge whether he was lying by relying on subtle expressions and reactions, as well as by capturing the emotional scent he radiated through his undead aura.

Helpless, he had to tell everything, including the process and experience of how he became a demon.

"The Blue Spider Lily—can it allow demons who fear sunlight to overcome the sun?"

Orochimaru frowned, deep in thought,

and without a shred of pity, he tore off another of Muzan Kibutsuji's arms, summoned a scavenger dog, and threw it into the dog's mouth.

After the scavenger dog finished eating the arm, its body underwent a very obvious change.

Its originally gaunt, rotting body began to sprout flesh and blood, until finally, all four dog paws were wrapped in wisps of dark red flames.

Orochimaru looked surprised and said: "Just by eating your arm, a lowest-level scavenger dog was actually able to evolve into a Hell Hound."

Scavenger dogs are the lowest-level undead creatures and require the consumption of large amounts of Dark Attribute materials to evolve into higher-level Hell Hounds.

However, even a slightly higher-level Hell Hound only possesses weak hellfire abilities.

Its individual combat capability is very weak.

Only in packs can they become a huge threat, but the cost of raising a pack of Hell Hounds is too high; if switched to other undead creatures, they could exert much greater power.

Therefore, undead creatures like Hell Hounds are very lackluster and have always been used by Orochimaru as scouts and cannon fodder.

"As long as I can be of help to you."

Muzan Kibutsuji was completely devoid of the arrogance he had when speaking to the Lower Rank Demons in the Infinite Castle.

Suppressing the rage in his heart, he chimed in.

*Snap. *

Orochimaru, expressionless, tore off the arm that had just regrown on Muzan Kibutsuji.

This time, the scavenger dog that ate the arm did not evolve into a new Hell Hound.

This subsequently grown arm did not have the same effect as the first one.

Orochimaru's eyes flickered, his desire for research exploding, and he muttered to himself: "The first arm was your original arm brought in from the real world, containing a large amount of Dark Energy, so the scavenger dog could evolve after eating it."

"But the second one is an arm regenerated within the Samsara Game, so it does not possess Dark Energy."

"So that's how it is."

Orochimaru showed a look of astonishment,

as if he had deduced something, and looked at Muzan Kibutsuji with a very strange gaze.

He hadn't expected there to be such a special world; it was truly interesting.

"Orochimaru is truly an excellent research-oriented player; he was actually able to find the uniqueness of the Demon Slayer World in such a short time."

Fang Yi, who was monitoring the movements of the Pollution Source, cast his gaze toward the Grand Forest.

Orochimaru's research ability was the strongest across the entire ninja world.

It was different from the ability of someone like Tobirama Senju to research Ninjutsu.

Orochimaru's research capabilities—whether it be Cursed Seals, genetic modification, cell transplantation, etc. —were all studies directed at the essence of the ninja world and chakra.

Even in the Pirate World, Vegapunk, who ate the Brain-Brain Fruit, might not have a mind as broad as Orochimaru's.

Therefore, it stood to reason that Orochimaru, who was so keen on scientific research, would set his sights on Muzan Kibutsuji, this 【special work of the entire world】.

"Sure enough, my hypothesis was correct."

Orochimaru's gaze was fervent; he tore off the rest of Muzan Kibutsuji's flesh and blood like bread and fed it to the undead creatures one after another.

It was indeed as he had thought: Muzan Kibutsuji's original flesh and blood all contained large amounts of Dark Energy.

"Muzan Kibutsuji, is it?"

Orochimaru's cold gaze looked at him, and he suddenly asked: "What do you consider life to be?"

*Hiss. *

Hearing the question, Muzan Kibutsuji trembled all over, almost instinctively.

He was too familiar with this sentence; it was almost carved into his cells. It was the angry question asked by that Swordsman who had nearly killed him when he swung his blade.

Even after nearly a thousand years, he still felt a fear from the depths of his soul upon hearing this sentence.

He instinctively raised his head, his fearful gaze falling upon Orochimaru, as if overlapping with a figure from years ago.

But soon, this sense of familiarity vanished without a trace.

Because,

although the words were the same, Tsugikuni Yoriichi's voice had been laced with anger and interrogation.

The Orochimaru before him, however, was more like someone treating life as a tool to be utilized.

It was as if in the other's eyes, everything was important, yet nothing was important—like weeds, like pearls, like gemstones—a stark contrast to his own attitude of viewing human life as mere grass and considering himself a superior being.

It was more like every life had a meaning for its existence and should be placed in its proper position; this was an absolutely rational mindset after directly discarding all superfluous emotions.

"."

Kibutsuji Muzan did not answer.

This was the second time in his life as a demon that he had been asked about the meaning of life; it was not that he did not want to answer, but that he had no idea at all.

To him,

born in the Heian period, he had been shrouded in the threat of death even before he was born, his heart having once stopped beating due to weakness while in his mother's womb, entering the world as a stillborn.

He had survived by relying on a strong belief in life, but was diagnosed with a terminal illness and told he would not live past twenty.

It was not until the appearance of that doctor, who developed a special medicine, that he regained his health and became a Demon King capable of controlling the life and death of others.

The only flaw was being unable to walk under the sun.

What he wanted was to make up for that flaw and become a truly perfect being; this was the life he desired.

"It seems most worlds are the same."

Orochimaru looked at Kibutsuji Muzan as if looking at an imperfect, flawed work.

He teased, "Without the appearance of the Samsara Game, the essence of life is merely a toy created by fate, its ending destined from the moment of birth."

"Just like you, Kibutsuji Muzan."

"The Demon King of the Demon Slayer World?"

"From the second you killed the doctor, your death a thousand years later was already destined."

"Everything is destined by fate."

"Since you did not become a perfect life form, it means you are a defective product that should be eliminated by fate."

"That is why Tsugikuni Yoriichi, whom you fear, appeared; why you haven't been able to find a single Blue Spider Lily—perhaps as cheap as a roadside weed—in a thousand years; and why you possess such great power yet cannot eliminate the feeble Demon Slayer Corps."

"This is the power of fate."

Orochimaru's hoarse voice seemed to carry a special magic,

"However, once you arrive at the Samsara Game, fate has already begun to change."

Kibutsuji Muzan, who had originally been terrified at the thought of Tsugikuni Yoriichi and fearful in the face of the threat of death, felt his inexplicable emotions calm down.

The ill will he felt toward Orochimaru in his heart actually began to gradually diminish.

(End of chapter)