Soul's Roar

The passage deep within the cave grew wider the farther they went.

The pungent, earthy smell in the air gradually faded, replaced by a strange fragrance.

It made his head spin.

Qian Ye hurriedly mobilized the pitiful amount of chakra in his body and forced himself to stay awake.

Orochimaru walked ahead without looking back.

"Don't breathe it in too deeply. That's the scent of the goddesses. It's highly toxic to ordinary people, and even ninjas will hallucinate if they inhale too much."

Qian Ye quickly held his breath.

This damned place really wasn't fit for humans. There were traps everywhere.

At the end of the passage stood an enormous underground temple.

It was not as gloomy or terrifying as he had imagined. Instead, it was brightly lit. Hundreds of fist-sized luminous pearls were embedded in the dome, illuminating the hall as brightly as day.

A massive water mirror stood in the center of the hall.

On the seat of honor, a wrinkled old woman sat cross-legged, puffing away on a long smoking pipe.

Three alluring women stood beside the old woman, sizing Qian Ye up from head to toe.

They looked at him as though he were meat on a chopping block.

"Orochimaru, is this the disciple you took in?"

The woman in green on the left covered her mouth and chuckled, her voice sickeningly sweet.

"He does look rather delicate, but his chakra is far too weak. There isn't even enough to fill the gaps between my teeth."

Orochimaru bowed slightly.

"Ichikishimahime, don't scare him. This child is timid."

Qian Ye rolled his eyes inwardly.

Which eye of yours saw that I'm timid? Why didn't you say I was timid when you threw me to that giant snake just now?

The old woman on the seat of honor exhaled a thick plume of smoke.

"Enough. Stop talking nonsense."

The White Snake Sage's cloudy yellow eyes locked directly onto Qian Ye.

An utterly terrifying pressure descended in an instant.

Qian Ye felt his shoulders sink violently. His knees went weak, and he nearly dropped to the ground.

But he clenched his teeth and stubbornly refused to kneel.

His physical strength came into play at that moment. His muscles tensed, forcibly withstanding the pressure.

The pressure was too heavy.

Qian Ye felt as though a mountain had appeared on his back out of nowhere, crushing him until his spine creaked.

His legs trembled uncontrollably, and his knees slowly bent downward.

The White Snake Sage remained seated cross-legged on the seat of honor, puffing on her pipe.

She had not deliberately released any chakra, nor had she formed any hand seals.

Qian Ye understood perfectly well.

This was not some attempt to intimidate him.

This was the absolute crushing force of a higher life form over a lower one.

The White Snake Sage had lived for over a thousand years. The magnitude of her life had long surpassed the limits of human understanding. Simply sitting there, she was a massive gravitational field.

It was like an elephant passing an anthill. It did not need to deliberately raise its foot and stomp down; the wind stirred by its enormous body alone was enough to make the ants suffocate.

That was the natural oppression of a higher-dimensional creature against a lower-dimensional one.

"Oh? He can take quite a bit." Ichikishimahime covered her mouth, laughing so hard her body swayed.

Tagitsuhime crossed her arms, her face full of mockery. "Look at those legs of his. They're about to shake apart. Kid, stop forcing yourself. Kneel down and kowtow. If the Sage is pleased, she might even reward you with a sip of soup."

Tagitsuhime shook her head. "Humans just love this kind of meaningless struggle."

Orochimaru stood to the side with his hands tucked into his sleeves, saying nothing.

He was watching too.

Watching to see just how far this disciple, who always managed to surprise him, could endure.

Qian Ye clenched his teeth, his mouth filled with the taste of rust.

Sweat ran down his forehead and into his eyes, stinging painfully.

A Genin's chakra had long since run dry. What kept him from collapsing now was entirely the physical foundation Garp's brutal training had built, along with the vitality and blood he had accumulated from swallowing five pounds of Sea King flesh raw last night.

But even that was not enough.

His knees were less than ten centimeters from the ground.

"Kneel." The White Snake Sage exhaled a thick cloud of smoke, her voice old and hoarse. "Dragon's Lair only respects the strong."

Kneel?

A burst of vicious fire suddenly surged through Qian Ye's mind.

On my first day after crossing over, I was sent to the front lines as cannon fodder.

I was hunted by Sunagakure Chunin and had my ass roasted by Pakura's fireballs.

Orochimaru set me up and threw me into a snake nest. I nearly got swallowed whole by that blind giant snake.

After everything I've been through, I'm not even afraid of death. I dared to pin Shadow Level experts to the ground and grind them into the dirt, and now you want me to kneel before some old snake?

Keep dreaming!

"Get the hell..." A rasping growl squeezed out of Qian Ye's throat. "...up!"

He suddenly bit down on his tongue, and the intense pain jolted his nerves.

The soul that had lived through two lifetimes was pushed to a breaking point by the extreme pressure from outside.

The existence of the Cross-Border Mutual Aid Group had already made his soul far stronger than that of an ordinary person.

At that very moment, his obsession with never yielding and never accepting fate detonated a power that had long lain dormant in the depths of his soul.

Bzzzt—!

A deep, muffled tremor suddenly reverberated through the air.

Centered on Qian Ye, an invisible aura erupted.

There was no chakra fluctuation.

There were no hand seals.

It was simply a pure spiritual impact, tyrannical beyond measure!

Crackle!

Several black-red bolts of lightning exploded into existence around Qian Ye's body.

That aura became a tangible shockwave and slammed directly into the pressure emitted by the White Snake Sage.

Crack!

Several luminous pearls closest to Qian Ye in the temple dome were actually shaken hard enough to crack under the impact of that aura.

The expressions of the three goddesses, who bore the brunt of it, changed drastically.

Ichikishimahime's laughter stopped abruptly. She felt as though her mind had been struck hard by a massive hammer, and she involuntarily staggered back two steps.

Tagitsuhime and Tagitsuhime were no different. Their faces went pale as they stared in shock and uncertainty at the twelve-year-old boy standing in the center of the hall.

Orochimaru suddenly raised his head, his golden vertical pupils shrinking to pinpoints.

He stared fixedly at the fleeting black-red lightning around Qian Ye, his breathing stopping for an instant.

What kind of power is this? A storm raged in Orochimaru's heart.

There was no chakra.

It lay entirely outside the scope of ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu.

This was a spiritual pressure born purely from the manifestation of willpower!

The White Snake Sage's pipe froze in midair.

At last, unmistakable astonishment appeared in her cloudy yellow eyes.

The air in the hall seemed to freeze solid.

Qian Ye panted heavily, and his legs finally straightened.

He raised his head and looked directly into the White Snake Sage's eyes.

"I..." Qian Ye grinned, his teeth covered in blood. "...have hard bones. I can't kneel."

Silence.

The entire underground temple was so quiet that only Qian Ye's bellows-like breathing could be heard.

The three goddesses exchanged glances, and none dared to speak. That instant of spiritual impact had actually filled the three snake demons, each of whom had lived for centuries, with an intense but fleeting fear.

The White Snake Sage stared at Qian Ye for a while.

Then—

"Hahahahaha!"

Her piercing laughter echoed through the temple.

The White Snake Sage tossed her pipe aside, and the terrifying pressure enveloping Qian Ye instantly vanished without a trace.

Qian Ye felt his body lighten. Exhausted, he collapsed onto the ground, soaked from head to toe as though he had just been pulled from water.

"Good! Very good!"

The White Snake Sage looked at Qian Ye sprawled on the ground and nodded repeatedly.

"In a thousand years of life, this is the first time I've seen someone produce a tangible sense of oppression without using chakra."