Talking Orochimaru into It

As long as light existed, the dark black market would always exist. It had been so since ancient times, unless the world exploded and humanity in the Human Realm went extinct.

Besides, whether it was Konoha or the powerful nobles of the Land of Fire, they did plenty of business through the black market and Bounty Exchange. Without them, who would do those nobles' dirty work?

Little brother, you should keep a lower profile lately too. Your bounty has already skyrocketed to ninety million ryo, the same as Konoha's Copy Ninja.

As he spoke, Que Ni handed over a bounty notice for Uchiha Feiyun. The amount on it had indeed changed from thirty million ryo to ninety million ryo.

Feiyun looked utterly unconcerned, even a little proud. He was now a genuine big shot!

"Whoa, this Uchiha Feiyun is really valuable!"

Feiyun deliberately laughed as he said it.

Que Ni did not expose him and simply smiled as he nodded.

After exchanging intelligence and money, Feiyun left the Bounty Exchange. He glanced back at the familiar temple. He likely would not come here again in the future, since the Bounty Exchange would soon relocate. Saying goodbye to this familiar place made him feel somewhat reluctant.

This was a good place. Everyone inside was talented, and he really liked it here. Not only could he earn plenty of money, but they could also do many things for him, even kill his enemies. This place was as warm as home, giving him everything Konoha could not.

"Hahaha!" Feiyun gave a strange laugh as he walked forward. He needed to buy some combat gear too.

As he passed through a forest, his sharp senses detected a trace of danger.

Suddenly, an extremely sinister sensation enveloped Feiyun's powerful Spiritual Power, forming an image of a giant python flicking its tongue behind him. Its gaping bloody maw seemed ready to swallow him whole the next second.

Feiyun sighed inwardly. Sigh, it looks like I was still targeted.

But he was not flustered. Stopping in his tracks, he snorted coldly. "Come out. Let me see who has come to die!"

He made a grasping motion through the air, and a one-meter-long katana slid out from the storage scroll in his sleeve and appeared in his hand.

The youth stood with his blade in hand. Nearly six feet tall, he carried himself with arrogant pride. Beneath his hood, his handsome face emerged, mysterious and cold.

Just as Feiyun assumed a fighting stance, the surroundings trembled. Dozens of enormous black snakes appeared and trapped him in the center.

Feiyun's three-tomoe blood-red Sharingan spun into shape. Holding his blade horizontally, he prepared to fight at any moment.

"Well, well, how interesting."

At that moment, a sinister voice came from deep within the forest, carrying the tone of a hunter observing and toying with its prey.

Feiyun's pupils contracted. "That voice, that aura, and this number of snakes... You're Orochimaru, aren't you?"

"Oh? You can actually recognize me. This is becoming even more interesting."

"Haha..." The sinister, hoarse laughter continued.

"Then, Feiyun-kun, let me see just how talented you truly are!"

Before the words had even faded, countless giant snakes around him launched their attack, wildly coiling around Feiyun and biting at him from all sides.

His three-tomoe blood-red Sharingan spun. Feiyun constantly weaved through the snake swarm, his katana dancing and creating streaks of cold light. One giant snake corpse after another fell to the ground, yet even more enormous snakes continued pouncing at him without end.

With a flash, Feiyun landed atop a tree trunk. He thrust his katana aside and rapidly formed hand seals with both hands. "Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"

A massive fireball appeared, and Feiyun continued spewing flames from his mouth.

The sustained high-temperature chakra set the surrounding forest ablaze, preventing the giant snakes from getting close.

Orochimaru's voice sounded. "The scale and intensity of this Fire Release are not inferior at all."

"But, Summoning Technique: Myriad Snake Formation!" Countless black snakes surged forward like a tsunami, destroying everything in their path. The forest vanished directly beneath the terrifying snake swarm.

"Hey, hey, hey, you're not playing by the rules!"

Going all out right from the start, huh? Watching the snake swarm fill the sky as it charged toward him, Feiyun felt his scalp tingle. His trypophobia was practically acting up. He was not Naruto Uzumaki, capable of breaking all techniques with overwhelming chakra.

Still, Feiyun created three Shadow Clones and attacked the snake swarm with Fire Release ninjutsu at the same time. Every snake opened its mouth and spat out long swords as they entered their attack state, bombarding Feiyun's massive Fire Release over a wide area.

The sea of fire and sea of snakes collided, offsetting one another's explosive power and creating waves of air.

Seeing that his full-power Fire Release had finally blocked the snake swarm, Feiyun had only just breathed a sigh of relief when he sensed danger behind him.

Several giant pythons swiftly coiled around Feiyun and his clones, restraining them as they slowly tightened.

Feiyun's clones could not withstand the crushing pressure and turned into smoke one after another, leaving only the original body trapped by the giant pythons.

"Shadow Clones? Judging from their performance just now, Feiyun-kun has quite a large amount of chakra too."

"Not bad. Truly not bad at all."

Orochimaru's smooth long hair fluttered in the fierce wind. Staring at Feiyun before him, he could not help extending his wet tongue.

Feiyun only felt his handsome face get thoroughly licked, leaving it damp.

A chill ran through his entire body, and goosebumps rose all over his skin.

"Um, we can talk, but could you please stop getting handsy? Can we leave the touching alone?"

Seeing Orochimaru merely stare greedily at his body, Feiyun felt increasingly uncomfortable.

"Could you not act like this? We're both handsome men. How are all those lovestruck young girls supposed to live if you act this way?"

Suppressing the disgust in his heart, Feiyun asked.

"I'm curious. How did you find me?"

"My movements should have been very discreet. I didn't leave a trail, did I?"

"For me, that is no difficult matter."

Orochimaru felt that he had already captured Feiyun, so naturally he did not mind explaining a little more.

He continued with a smile. "Many people do not go to Konoha, but there is only one person who would spend an astronomical sum to place bounties on the clans of those old Konoha geezers."

Feiyun nodded. "That number one handsome man of the Shinobi World is me."

Orochimaru extended his long tongue and licked his lips before continuing. "By gathering intelligence from every side, one can roughly infer the region where the bounty notices first appeared. If I watched the Bounty Exchange in that region, would I not eventually encounter Feiyun-kun?"

"And I happened to be in this region."

It truly was quite a coincidence. If Orochimaru had arrived even a little later, Feiyun would never have come near this place again.

Feiyun's expression remained calm as he spoke lightly.

"Then, Orochimaru-kun, what advice do you have for me?"

"Feiyun-kun, do you know what eternal life is?"

Orochimaru asked his classic philosophical question.

"Hmm." Feiyun pondered for a moment before speaking.

"I suppose I do. I still don't know, which is why I need a perfect physical body."

"Come—"

Orochimaru stopped halfway through his words.

"Ah, you already know."

Feiyun's answer left Orochimaru slightly stunned. The Shinobi World's foremost scholarly mind was nearly short-circuited by Feiyun.

Feiyun smiled and nodded.

What a joke. Could this kind of philosophical academic question possibly stump him?

As a Chinese student who had received compulsory education, he had encountered plenty of essays involving ultimate questions. They usually sounded lofty and profound, but precisely because of that, they rarely had a clear answer.

And even setting essays aside, there were countless pseudo-philosophical videos of this kind.

If Feiyun wanted to talk about it, he could chat with Orochimaru for an entire day and night. For example, some people lived but were already dead, while some people died but still lived, so eternity meant leaving behind an immortal legacy and never being forgotten, and so on.

"So what should we do, then?"

Orochimaru smiled faintly. "Then, Feiyun-kun, what do you believe eternal life is?"

Feiyun also smiled. "It is Spiritual Power, eternal and indestructible."

"Only by abandoning the physical body can one obtain the physical body. Only by abandoning the physical body can one obtain the physical body."

Orochimaru's entire body trembled. He muttered Feiyun's words over and over. At that moment, Orochimaru's golden snake pupils moistened. On the path he had pursued all his life, someone who understood him had finally appeared.

A flash of cold light cut the giant python wrapped around Feiyun into countless pieces, and an eruption of chakra blew away the blood.

Feiyun broke free of his restraints. Orochimaru was not particularly surprised, because he had already realized that this man was extraordinary. From beginning to end, Feiyun had not shown even the slightest fear.

More importantly, Orochimaru had just sensed Feiyun's incomparably powerful Spiritual Power. The Reincarnation Ritual of transferring bodies was, at its core, a seizure of Spiritual Power.

Orochimaru felt that even with the advantage of his home ground, he would be unable to seize control of Uchiha Feiyun's body, because Feiyun's Spiritual Power was simply too strong.

After breaking free, Feiyun did not continue attacking. Instead, he shook the blood from his katana and sheathed it.

"Orochimaru, do you know any Spiritual Power cultivation methods?"

"Spiritual Power cultivation methods?"

Feiyun put away his katana and continued, "Then do you know about ancient Spiritual Power cultivation?"

Orochimaru still looked completely confused.

"Spiritual Power cultivation?"

Feiyun nodded and began making things up.

"A very, very long time ago, there was an empire. Within that empire, there was an... Well, there was no chakra in those days. What people cultivated was Spiritual Power, and they were also called immortal cultivators."

"They soared to the heavens and descended into the deepest earth, roamed the seas, summoned dragons and rain, fought against the heavens, received the blessings of all creation, enjoyed eternity, and held stars in their hands while crushing the blazing sun."

"One sword flash chilled nineteen provinces; they fought gods and demons across thirty thousand miles."

"If the heavens had not given birth to the eternal path of you and me, the ages would be like an endless night, Orochimaru-kun!"

"If the heavens had not given birth to the eternal path of you and me, the ages would be like an endless night, Orochimaru-kun!"

"If the heavens had not given birth to the eternal path of you and me, the ages would be like an endless night, Orochimaru-kun!"

Feiyun's passionate roar echoed endlessly in Orochimaru's ears, making his mind buzz and his blood boil.

Orochimaru felt like he was about to ignite.

But after a moment, the calmed-down Orochimaru noticed something wrong.

"Ancient Spiritual Power cultivation?"

"I have read extensively and understand the mysteries of the world. How have I never heard of it?"

A trace of embarrassment flashed through Feiyun's eyes, but he concealed it well, and Orochimaru did not notice.

"Of course you haven't heard of it. I made all of that up."

However, Feiyun truly wanted to use Orochimaru's intelligence to explore the uses and mysteries of his sixty-point Spiritual Power, so he had spun this enormous lie.

Feiyun remained expressionless, putting on the cold arrogance unique to the Uchiha Clan as he spoke in a deliberately profound manner. "Of course you have never heard of it. Do you think that ancient era was merely long ago?"

"Even the Sage of Six Paths' ancestors had not been born in that era, let alone you, Orochimaru-kun."

"Others simply do not have the qualifications to know about such things."

Feiyun was incomparably arrogant, almost looking down at Orochimaru through his nostrils. He had perfectly captured the Uchiha Clan's distinctive temperament.

Orochimaru was thoroughly bluffed, though he still asked, "Then, Feiyun-kun, how do you know about it?"

Feiyun spoke lightly. "Because I am a Spiritual Power cultivator."

"I see. Can you teach me, Feiyun-kun? I can help you take revenge."

Orochimaru licked his lips. Feiyun sighed. "Actually, I only understand a little myself, and I don't know how to use it. I don't understand the path forward either."

"But isn't the path to eternity supposed to be like this?"

"Filled with the unknown and endless mysterious challenges."