Orochimaru's tail lightly tapped the ground as he thought aloud, "With power great enough to create a world, no one could bear that true body. It probably does not even have organs in the usual sense."
However, when he thought of the brat named Yunchuan Hyuga, killing intent rose in his eyes. If not for that scheming little bastard, how could he have ended up in such a miserable state? That day, while gravely wounded, he had been suddenly summoned to Ryuchi Cave by the White Snake Sage using a Reverse Summoning Jutsu, escaping the pursuing forces from Konoha but falling into even greater danger.
The giant snakes, the Three Snake Princesses, and the White Snake Sage were all greedy and cold creatures, unlike Tsunade's Shikkotsu Forest or Jiraiya's Mount Myoboku, which treated contractors kindly. Just as Orochimaru thought he was about to die, the usually aloof White Snake Sage reacted as if he had seen something unbelievable. Its attitude turned warm, instantly healing his fatal wounds with a stone and even offering to teach him senjutsu.
The price he paid was becoming something neither fully human nor ghost, neither clearly male nor female, and remaining under constant surveillance in Ryuchi Cave. "That old white snake must have seen something in me," Orochimaru frowned. "My fate was changed, it said. Why does it sound as meaningless as Jiraiya's talk about a chosen child?"
He could not understand it. Whether it was Yunchuan Hyuga's sudden change or the White Snake Sage's schemes, Orochimaru could not grasp the reason. He hated the feeling of everything being hidden in fog, impossible to see clearly.
"What matters now is what I can gain from this Scroll."
Orochimaru shook his head to clear his thoughts and lowered his gaze to the rest of the Scroll. The later sections recorded the owner's notes from the Void Realm, and Orochimaru even saw some familiar yet distant names that appeared in ancient legends. In the owner's words, those people had truly existed, but had already been fed to the Void.
When Orochimaru reached the final pages, the remaining text was once again sealed by a Sealing Technique. His eyes stopped on the last visible sentence. "The passage between the Void Realm and the Ninja World is called the Hole of Space-Time, hidden on a solitary overseas island, guarded by my servant Greil for generations."
"I once strictly warned him that the Void is born of violent resentment and must never be cultivated by human hands, nor should the passage be opened, otherwise…"
The final line was cut off by the Sealing Technique, and Orochimaru could not see the rest. Even so, he understood one fact from that single sentence. "There is a passage between the Void Realm and the Ninja World, and it can still be opened."
His hand trembled slightly as he held the Scroll, greed and calculation flashing in his eyes. "The Void can be cultivated by humans." At that moment, Orochimaru quietly made a decision.
The choices of the Scroll's owner and the Sage of Six Paths had already proven that flesh would eventually decay, and only the soul had a chance at eternity. Yet a simple spiritual form was far too fragile, and if an upper Great Hollow could be called incomparably powerful, then its strength must be unique. "Only souls bound by obsession and filled with resentment can become Void after long erosion?"
Orochimaru raised his head, his eyes flickering. "Then I will try, whether by cultivation or by summoning." He would attempt to cultivate Void, steal their power, search for the overseas island, and find the Hole of Space-Time.
If the Second Hokage could use Impure World Reincarnation to summon the souls of the dead from the Pure Land, then why could he not use Impure World Reincarnation to summon Void from the Void Realm? It was only a matter of connecting the summoning location, which meant finding the Void Realm itself.
Orochimaru's idea was theoretically feasible.
After all, Impure World Reincarnation was essentially a form of Summoning Jutsu, except that the target of the summoning was not a summoning beast but the souls of the dead. The premise, however, was that the so-called Void Realm truly existed. That single question determined everything.
So, did the Void Realm exist?
"When Orochimaru finds the Time Space Cave, the so-called Void Realm will naturally exist as well."
In the Land of Rain, Yunchuan Hyuga smiled faintly, already able to guess Orochimaru's reaction after reading the contents of the Scroll. To be precise, the Void Realm was fake, and the concept of emptiness was also fake. But the Time Space Cave that connected to an independent space was real, and the theory that souls could grow stronger by devouring other souls was also viable.
To make his lie more convincing, Yunchuan Hyuga had frequently infiltrated the Hyuga Clan Ancestral Library during this period. He read through neglected ancient books and obscure legends that few people cared about. In those texts, he found records related to the Wandering People.
That ancient civilization, remnants of which appeared in old legends, had used the powerful Stone of Gelel to establish an empire. They also possessed a Time Space Cave that connected to an independent space. For Yunchuan Hyuga, all he needed to do was seize that connected space when Orochimaru discovered the ruins, and then turn it into his own Void Realm.
As for Orochimaru's later research on souls devouring souls to grow stronger, Yunchuan Hyuga would naturally convert those results into rules of the world through points. By then, souls that died with obsession and resentment would no longer enter the Pure Land. Instead, they would follow instinct, devour other souls, and be born into this world as emptiness.
There was also a line Orochimaru never saw. Once such emptiness was artificially cultivated and a passage opened, it would break away from the Void Realm and appear in the Ninja World. At that moment, the entire Ninja World would fall into fear and unrest, and his lie would become reality.
"Although the idea of manifesting abstract rules has existed for a long time, this is the first time it has truly been put into practice."
"The system's response back then was insufficient points, not impossible to manifest. That alone proves such rules can be made real."
Yunchuan Hyuga's eyes flickered slightly as he thought to himself that although it would cost a huge number of points, the return would likely be beyond imagination. The targets of this lie were not just all the ninja of the Ninja World. It would also deceive the Sage of Six Paths and even Isshiki Otsutsuki hiding in the shadows.
In a sense, what he was deceiving was the entire world.
A notification rang out in his mind.
His lie was judged as layered deception, and Orochimaru experienced an extreme emotional shock that reached the level of doubting reality, granting 2000 Reality Points. The current Remaining Reality Points stood at 12194.
As expected.
Hearing the system prompt, Yunchuan Hyuga once again confirmed his thoughts. Just Orochimaru alone had contributed two thousand points. Only by shattering their understanding of the world and rebuilding it with lies could such massive gains be achieved.
"I hope the esteemed Orochimaru can make progress quickly. With his talent, as long as he dares to act, developing a technique where souls devour souls to grow stronger should not be difficult."