Living Corpse Reincarnation? Orochimaru's Plan

Amid the mad sand filling the sky, Yuan sat astride a giant boulder beside Rasa's headless corpse.

He lowered his head, his fingers rubbing his chin, those Mangekyo Sharingan fixed on an intelligence scroll that had just been delivered into his hands through the dark web. The sealing clay on the scroll was black; this was the highest-priority mark he had specifically ordered the dark web's intelligence chief to leave.

"Land of Earth border, abandoned Barren Rock Temple... heavy stench of snakes and frequent transport trails of human experimentation supplies." A bloodthirsty sneer tugged at the corner of Yuan's mouth. A mass of black lightning-fire rose from the fingertips of his right hand, instantly burning the scroll to ash.

"Orochimaru, that dead long worm with both hands crippled, actually ran pretty far." Yuan stood, patted the dust from the hem of his trench coat, and turned to glance at the fifty Uchiha covert guards kneeling on the sand behind him.

"Take Temari and these Hidden Sand remnants and advance slowly toward the Land of Earth border. Before you break camp, hang Rasa's corpse at the top of the canyon at One-Line Sky. I want the entire ninja world to see that this is what happens to anyone who gets in my way." Yuan dropped the command in a hard voice.

"Yes, Lord Yuan!" The leading covert guard captain showed no hesitation and immediately rose to carry it out.

Yuan could not even be bothered to look at the trembling Hidden Sand ninja behind him. Chakra erupted beneath his feet with a roar. With a muffled bang, he crushed the giant rock underfoot and turned into a wild gale laced with black lightning, shooting straight toward the northwest.

The Land of Earth border.

This place was shrouded year-round by barren rocky mountains and gray clouds. Inside an ancient, abandoned temple, more than half buried in the mountainside, the flames in the braziers glowed an eerie ghost-green. The altar at the center of the temple was covered in extremely complex blood-red curse runes.

Orochimaru stood at the edge of the altar. His hands still hung limply at his sides, the price of having his soul taken away by the Third Hokage's Reaper Death Seal. A chilling, sinister smile hung on his deathly pale face. On the stone pillars behind him, three Sound Ninja boys of thirteen or fourteen were chained with iron links. On each of their necks was the three-tomoe-shaped Cursed Seal of Heaven, and they were now in an extremely painful, half-conscious state.

"Hiss... I knew you would come, Uchiha Yuan." Orochimaru stuck out his long tongue and licked his withered lips. "A beast like you, ruled by berserk emotions, could never let a single prey go. For today, I prepared for three whole months."

He knew that in his current state, he absolutely could not beat Yuan. Even with both hands intact, he might not be a match for that monster who could smash Susanoo apart with one punch. But he did not need to win. As long as he could delay him for even ten seconds, let himself complete Living Corpse Reincarnation, and completely abandon this collapsing body, his core consciousness could slip into a new vessel and vanish without a trace.

Rumble—!

The temple's giant stone doors, three feet thick, along with the stone carvings on both sides of the doorframe, were instantly blasted into rubble that filled the air by a physical force so violent it had reached the extreme.

Stone chips whipped madly through the temple along with the violent airflow. Yuan's slender figure, clad in a black trench coat, stepped through the main entrance at an unhurried pace, as if strolling through a courtyard. His scarlet Mangekyo Sharingan looked especially glaring in the ghost-green firelight.

"Your taste in this dump is even worse than that hole you had in the Hidden Leaf Village." Yuan did not even draw his blade, merely sneering as he swept his gaze around the temple.

"Do it!" A trace of madness flashed through Orochimaru's eyes as he stomped hard on the summoning formula on the altar. This was a blood formation he had drawn in advance with his tongue.

Poof! A huge cloud of white smoke exploded through the hall. A terrifying giant snake over a hundred meters long, its whole body covered in purple markings, reared its head from the smoke with a hiss and roar. It was none other than Orochimaru's strongest summoned beast—Manda.

"Orochimaru! You dare summon me to this damned place to die?!" The instant Manda appeared, he sensed the terrifying pressure coming from Yuan. So frightened that his snake skin went taut, he opened his bloody maw wide and lunged to bite Yuan, trying to strike first.

"Die? You're right."

Red light flashed in Yuan's eyes. Vast dark-red chakra surged from his body like a volcanic eruption, directly condensing into a half-bodied skeletal Susanoo within the cramped space of the temple. In an instant, Susanoo's great hand formed a massive chakra sword burning with lightning, and facing Manda's open maw, brought it down in a plain, direct slash.

Screech—!

There was no room to resist. The giant sword cleaved down from the top of Manda's head to the very end as if cutting tofu. Foul-smelling snake blood sprayed across the temple's stone walls like a waterfall. Manda did not even manage to let out a full scream before he was split in two alive, his enormous serpent body crashing to the ground and shaking the entire temple.

But Orochimaru did not care whether Manda lived or died. The instant Manda lunged forward, he had already fully activated the Living Corpse Reincarnation ritual.

"Hiss-ah—!" The three Sound Ninja boys tied to the pillars suddenly let out hysterical screams. The curse marks on their necks instantly went berserk, black flame patterns crawling over their entire bodies, their skin hardening as horns grew from them. Cursed Seal: State Two, fully unleashed! These three boys, who had originally only been at the level of genin, had all their life force forcibly squeezed out of them, and their chakra fluctuations briefly soared to jonin level.

The three monsters broke free of their chains and threw themselves at Yuan with no regard for anything else.