As Orochimaru intoned the jutsu in his slightly hoarse voice, a solid-wood coffin burst up from the ground. A chilling mist spread through the basement, filling it with an eerie presence.
Crack!
At the sound of the coffin lid opening, a handsome young man with silver hair opened his eyes.
The pitch-black pupils, the vacant, bewildered gaze, and the cracks running across his exposed skin all unmistakably marked him as a dead man.
"Welcome back to the world of the living, Dan."
Though Orochimaru hadn't slept in days, he was now wide awake. Thanks to Guo Wang's influence, he had used more than a dozen lives to finally complete the Impure World Reincarnation of Dan Katō. With this good start, he could summon more famous figures from the Shinobi World, such as Hashirama Senju and Uchiha Madara, who had shaped the world as it was.
So what if they had Mangekyo? Once he grasped the power of those two, he could reach the very source of Chakra.
Naturally, Orochimaru wasn't the sort to settle for being under someone else's thumb. But after Guo Wang acquired a complete pair of Mangekyo, his strength became so formidable that Orochimaru wasn't sure he could escape him. So he continued to play along.
His plan was to complete Living Corpse Reincarnation, use Impure World Reincarnation to obtain all of the First's knowledge of Wood Release, and then take over Yamato's body. If possible, he would acquire a pair of Mangekyo as well, combine the powers of the Senju and Uchiha, and explore the mysteries of the Sage of Six Paths.
"Orochimaru, what's going on?"
As contemporaries, and with Dan being Tsunade's fiancé, Orochimaru and Dan Katō had gotten along reasonably well when he was alive. Dan's memories ended on the battlefield, where his flesh had been torn apart and he had died of his injuries. He tried to step forward, only to find his legs as heavy as lead.
"Impure World Reincarnation, but it's incomplete. It can only keep you in the real world for one night."
"Don't waste time. The technique is unstable."
Guo Wang stood at the edge of the Summoning Jutsu formation. The Three-Tomoe Sharingan in his eyes spun as he copied most of Orochimaru's research into the technique. This jutsu, which dragged the souls of the dead back from the underworld, opened his eyes. It brought to mind the Qushen Sect, second among the Eighteen Sects of the Demon Gate, and its divine art for commanding the great Oni of the underworld.
In his previous life, he had been a spy in the Qimo Sect. Ranked third among the Demon Gate's sects, it had contended with the Qushen Sect for hundreds of years, so he knew that divine art extremely well.
"You're Elder Danzo!"
Only then did Dan notice Guo Wang standing in the shadows. He remembered the gloomy Hokage Advisor well. When Dan was alive, he had been the one to insist on sending him to the most dangerous front, indirectly causing his death.
"I'm sorry, I haven't finished the control formula yet. Why don't you talk with Dan and see if he's willing to hand over the Spirit Transformation Technique?"
Orochimaru wore a strange smile and spread his hands, looking as though he were in a difficult position. He wasn't trying to embarrass Guo Wang; he genuinely couldn't do it. The control formula was the core of Impure World Reincarnation. He needed to devise a Fuinjutsu on his own, and that required more experimental data.
"Spirit Transformation Technique? I see. But bringing a dead man back to life over something so minor seems like rather a lot of trouble."
"Young man, tell me everything about this technique."
Dan looked at Orochimaru, then at Guo Wang. After a moment of silence, he spoke.
"I can, but I have one condition..."
"I've never liked forcing people, but sometimes I have no choice."
Before Dan could state his condition, the Tomoe in Guo Wang's Sharingan spun, and a powerful Genjutsu took control of the dead man who had been resurrected through Impure World Reincarnation.
"Hand Seals: Rooster–Rat–Ox–Snake–Pig–Goat–Tiger. As for Chakra extraction... The key is to have a clear understanding of your own soul. You must never lose track of your body's location, or it'll be easy not to find your way back and become a wandering ghost..."
By the time Dan finished describing the Spirit Transformation Technique, Guo Wang had completed his Hand Seals. Then his powerful, steady Primordial Spirit, wreathed in five-colored radiance, flew out of his body, revealing the hazy figure of a Daoist.
Fortunately, Dan was under control and had no awareness. Otherwise, he would surely have noticed that Guo Wang's face looked nothing like Danzo's.
"What a wonderful feeling. I haven't been this free in ages."
After cultivating their Primordial Spirit, Qi Refiners had to spend a long time wandering the spirit and riding the Qi, gathering the essence of the land to nourish their bodies in turn. But with no home for his Primordial Spirit, Guo Wang had spent far too long inside the Five-Colored Stone. Though taking over a body had freed him from that confinement, he had then become trapped in this world.
Now, at last, after obtaining the Spirit Transformation Technique, he could open his eyes and see this world.
He used the Qi Observation Technique he had perfected in his previous life, relying solely on his Primordial Spirit to "see" Konoha's fortune.
It blazed like a raging fire, yet dark clouds hung overhead.
This was a sign of a great disaster!
Guo Wang was taken aback. His Primordial Spirit stirred again, and the five-colored figure broke through the earth, rose into the sky, and took in all of Konoha.
The Hokage Building was shrouded in the twilight of old age, yet a forceful, enduring vitality lingered there. That old Sarutobi Hiruzen didn't seem likely to die anytime soon.
So whose head would those dark clouds fall upon?
The clouds hanging overhead heralded a disaster capable of destroying the entire village. Yet Konoha's fortune was like that of a towering tree: even if its thickest trunk fell, its roots would still be extensive. The village wouldn't perish within the next twenty years.
"So that means the Fourth Hokage..."
With a vague understanding, Guo Wang's Primordial Spirit flashed across the sky above Konoha, surveying the fortune of every Hokage candidate.
Namikaze Minato was blessed with auspicious fortune, his aura soaring above the clouds. His fortune alone outshone that of all the other candidates.
Then Guo Wang saw something else that delighted him: a dark cloud also hung over the Uchiha Clan. With some careful maneuvering, it could become a disaster that wiped them out.
In the laboratory, Orochimaru watched Guo Wang standing motionless with his eyes closed and his hands forming Seals, his expression shifting uneasily.
After seeing Dan's vacant eyes and realizing that the Sharingan had taken complete control of him, Orochimaru raised a hand and dispelled the Summoning Jutsu.
The coffin lid closed by itself. The solid-wood coffin seemed to sink into the ground, but in truth it had fallen into Orochimaru's contract scroll.
"That old man has always been meticulous. He wouldn't use the Spirit Transformation Technique without taking any precautions. This must be a test. No, I can't make a move..."
Though he coveted the Mangekyo, Orochimaru's reason won out over his greed.
"You look like a good-for-nothing, but your fortune is astonishing—you're destined for a remarkably long life."
At that moment, a strange remark reached Orochimaru's ears. Guo Wang opened his eyes, his Primordial Spirit returned to his body, and he fixed a deeply perplexed Orochimaru with an incredulous look.
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