The other side.
Ning Xue walked forward with heavy steps.
He forced himself not to look at the empty eyes in the cells on both sides or listen to the weak breathing.
Every step he took seemed like he was struggling in a quagmire, making it difficult to move forward.
And Transformation Technique could barely hold on under the violent mood swings.
Just then.
"Hey!"
A lazy voice came from the front.
Ning Xue raised his head and saw a wandering ninja leaning against the wall, holding a cigarette in his hand and looking at him with his head tilted.
"Are you new here?"
The man exhaled a puff of smoke and glanced around Ning Xue.
"Look at how nervous you are. Is this your first time in the cellar?"
Ning Xue didn't answer, just looked at him silently.
"Forget it, it doesn't matter if you are new here or not."
The man waved his hand, threw the cigarette butt on the ground, crushed it with his foot, turned around and walked deeper into the corridor.
"We happen to be short of manpower, come here and help."
Ning Xue followed.
The corridor is getting deeper and deeper, and the smell of blood in the air is getting stronger and stronger.
The smell was no longer like the blood mixed with various stenches in the cell, but was so strong that it was almost solid, disturbing.
The man stopped in front of a door, pushed it open, and stepped aside.
"Go in."
Ning Xue stepped into the room.
Then, his breathing stopped suddenly.
The room is huge, as big as a warehouse.
But what is piled in the warehouse is not goods, but corpses.
Men's, women's, children's.
One by one, layer upon layer, they were piled up in the corner of the wall, forming a pile of hills.
Most of their bodies have obvious stitching marks.
Those rough black lines crawled all over their torsos like centipedes, some extending from the chest to the abdomen, and some were sewn around the neck, as if they were forcibly pieced together.
Some corpses had their eyes open, some had their mouths open, and some limbs were twisted at unnatural angles.
Some skin shows an abnormal blue-grey color, which is the trace of being repeatedly soaked in embalming fluid after death.
There are several other people in the room.
They were squatting next to the pile of corpses, some were stitching, some were recording, and some were transporting.
Hearing the sound of the door opening, one of them raised his head, glanced at Ning Xue, and then looked at the ninja who brought him here.
"Who is this?"
"New here."
"New here?"
The man stood up, patted the dust on his knees, and looked Ning Xue up and down.
His eyes fell on Ning Xue's slightly trembling body, and a mocking smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.
"What? You've never seen so many corpses?"
Ning Xue did not answer.
He just stood there, staring at the mountains of corpses, his Adam's apple rolled, and then he squeezed a question through his teeth.
"Why... are there so many bodies here?"
The voice was hoarse and low, as if he was suppressing something.
"Oh, these are Lord Orochimaru's experimental materials."
The person who recorded it said casually, lowered his head and continued to write and draw in the book.
"If you can't survive it, it will be wasted. It happens every day, just get used to it."
He paused and added another sentence, with a hint of complaint in his tone.
"But it's true Lord Orochimaru. So many materials are consumed every day, which makes us busy in the end, but I'm exhausted."
The wandering ninja who led the way leaned on his chair, held the back of his head in his hands, and echoed.
"That's right. A batch of more than thirty was delivered last week, but today there are less than ten left.
The remaining ones probably won't last a few days."
"This batch is considered to be of good quality."
The man squatting on the ground sewing up the corpse said without raising his head.
"Most of last month's batch died on the day it was delivered, and we didn't even have time to do experiments."
The three of them talked to each other in a relaxed tone, as if they were discussing today's dinner.
Ning Xue stood there, cracking his knuckles as he listened to those words.
"Hello."
The person who recorded it raised his head, pushed up his glasses, and his eyes fell on Ning Xue.
"You're not pitying them, are you? Or... are there people you know here?"
Ning Xue said nothing.
He just raised his feet and walked towards the pile of corpses step by step.
Behind him, the eyes of three people followed him, some were curious, some were disdainful, and some were careless.
"Don't think about it."
The person who recorded it shook his head and spoke in an understatement.
"These are ordinary people who were arrested, how can they recognize each other?
It is their honor to be the material of Lord Orochimaru. Ordinary people are just wasting food, so they might as well make some contributions to science."
"That's right."
The wandering ninja who led the way yawned.
"There's no point in showing mercy, they will all die sooner or later anyway."
"But..."
The man squatting on the ground finally raised his head, wiped the blood on his hands, and grinned.
"If you really feel sorry for yourself, you can burn a few sticks of incense for them.
Hahaha."
Laughter echoed in the empty room.
Ning Xue ignored those words.
He walked to the edge of the pile of corpses and squatted down.
Beside the white cloth, a little girl about twelve years old was lying there quietly.
Her body was not covered by any clothes and was so nakedly exposed to the air.
The skin was bruised and covered with stitching marks.
There was a long incision on the chest, extending from the collarbone to the abdomen. The edges of the incision were roughly sewn together, and the threads hung messily to the side.
Her eyes are open.
Empty, without a trace of life, just staring blankly at the ceiling.
No, I should say staring at Ning Xue.
Ning Xue, on the other hand, stared at those clean and bright eyes, as if his heart was gripped by something.
This child, who should have grown happily like a flower in the sunshine, now died so ugly and without a trace of dignity in this dark cellar, in this damn experiment.
He stretched out his hand, his fingers trembling slightly, and gently closed her eyes, closing her eyelids, and pulled the white cloth aside to preserve the last trace of dignity for her.
Then, he stood up, turned around, and looked at the three people who were still laughing and joking.
"You."
Ning Xue spoke.
His voice was calm, too calm to sound like he was angry.
But for some reason, when those people heard this sound, they involuntarily stopped what they were doing.
"What do you think... of ordinary people's lives?"
The room was quiet for a moment.
Then, there was a burst of laughter.
"Hahaha--!"
"What is he talking about? Ordinary lives?"
"I'm laughing so hard that this newcomer asked such an interesting question!"
"Hahaha, did you not wake up last night? Or were you frightened by these corpses?"
They laughed so hard that they almost burst into tears.
It was as if I had heard the funniest joke in the world.
Ning Xue stood in the midst of those laughter, head lowered, motionless.
The laughter continued.
No one noticed the faint white mist rising slowly beside him.
That is the trace of Transformation Technique being unlocked.
The white vertical lines under the mask spread from the corners of the eyes to the neck, and the silver-white hair stood out in the dim underground.
"Where's the fun?"
Ning Xue raised his head.
His right hand had condensed a white Ice Blade at some point.
The cold light flickered in the room illuminated by Kakkō, and the chill spread instantly.
"What's so funny?"
His voice was still calm, but the eyes behind the mask were filled with chilling murderous intent.
The laughter stopped suddenly.
The expressions of those people changed from ridicule to shock, from shock to vigilance.
They looked at the cold mask, at the Ice Blade glowing with cold light, and at the white vertical lines spreading from the edge of the mask, and finally realized.
This person is not their companion.