"Ulquiorra, what do you think 'meaning' is?"
"..." Ulquiorra remained silent.
"Meaning isn't bestowed by existence itself, but by the conqueror."
Liuyu looked toward Konoha. "I will plant the flag of Las Noches across the Shinobi World. That is meaning.
I will push the Hōgyoku's power to its limits. That is meaning.
As for whether the process is boring, or the world is empty-"
He held out his hand, catching the raindrops falling from the sky.
"That doesn't matter."
An almost imperceptible flicker passed through Ulquiorra's hollow eyes.
"I understand."
"Go prepare." Liuyu withdrew his hand. "Soon, there will be something that requires your intervention."
"Yes."
Liuyu left the tower and headed to Orochimaru's underground laboratory.
In the three months since his last visit, the laboratory had tripled in size.
All manner of precision instruments glimmered faintly. Grotesque biological tissues floated in cultivation tanks, and the mingled scent of reiatsu and chemicals filled the air.
"Your Majesty!" Orochimaru looked up from a pile of data scrolls, his golden, serpentine eyes brimming with excitement.
"You've emerged from seclusion at just the right time-I have a major breakthrough to report!"
He led Liuyu to a sealed chamber in the deepest part of the laboratory.
A tube of thick, dark purple liquid floated inside, bubbles rising through it from time to time.
Whenever a bubble burst, it released a faint, unsettling pulse of reiatsu.
"This is a special substance I extracted from the bodily fluids of that evolved Gillian."
Orochimaru licked his lips. "I've named it 'Hollow Poison.'"
"What does it do?"
"It can temporarily suppress Tailed Beast Chakra." Fanatical excitement gleamed in Orochimaru's eyes.
"I experimented on several captured clones of Matatabi-after injecting them with Hollow Poison,
their chakra activity dropped by seventy percent, lasting approximately three hours."
Liuyu took the tube