"Next, I'll let you see for yourself what... true immortality means!"
Shengu Xuan's voice, like a demon's whisper, sent a shudder through Orochimaru as he reeled from the agony of his severed arm!
He watched helplessly as Shengu Xuan held up his bloody severed arm, an eerie blue light he could not comprehend flickering in Shengu Xuan's eyes.
"Hum-"
An uncanny blue halo instantly enveloped the severed arm!
Then a horrifying scene unfolded, one Orochimaru would never forget for the rest of his life!
The severed arm, which had already lost all signs of life, actually began convulsing violently! Its five fingers clawed wildly as though crazed, and its wrist twisted at a bizarre angle, as if something were forcibly granting it new "life"!
"Crack! Crack, crack!"
Accompanied by a teeth-grating sound of grinding bones, a fissure forcibly split open at the severed arm's elbow, forming a crude "mouth"! Two fleshy lumps bulged from the back of its hand as well, turning into a pair of bloody, mangled "eyes" without pupils!
"Alive... I'm alive..."
Using its crude mouth, the severed-arm monster that had been granted "life" uttered an extremely garbled voice that seemed to come from the depths of hell.
Then, like a worm, it writhed in Shengu Xuan's hand, turning those bloody, mangled eyes to "look" at its original owner-Orochimaru.
"..."
Orochimaru's pupils had dilated as far as they could from sheer shock and terror.
Looking at the monster his own arm had become, he felt his views of the world, life, and values ground completely to dust in that instant!
Granting life to dead matter!
This was not the Puppet Technique, nor was it Impure World Reincarnation!
This was true "creation" from nothing! An authority possessed only by gods!
"Well? Was my little magic trick interesting?" Shengu Xuan admired Orochimaru's utterly shattered expression and smiled in satisfaction.
He casually tossed the still-writhing severed-arm monster onto the ground, then stomped down!
"Squelch!"
The severed-arm monster was crushed straight into a puddle of minced flesh.
"Aaaah!" Orochimaru let out a scream with no clear meaning, scrambling backward in an attempt to get away from Shengu Xuan, this devil through and through.
He would rather face a hundred Uchiha Itachis wielding the Yata Mirror and the Totsuka Blade than spend even another second with this monster who defied all reason!
Yet Shengu Xuan appeared before him again like a phantom, planting a foot on his chest and pinning him firmly to the ground.
"Don't be in such a hurry to leave, Orochimaru. I told you, the game has only just begun." Shengu Xuan applied a little pressure with his foot, making Orochimaru's breastbone crack.
"What... what exactly do you want?!" Orochimaru asked in terror.
"Nothing in particular." Shengu Xuan crouched, his smile becoming utterly pure, yet utterly wicked. "I just suddenly realized that you seem to make a very good 'toy.' Your obsession with 'eternal life' interests me. So I've decided to let you observe the essence of 'eternal life' at closer quarters."
As he spoke, Shengu Xuan slowly extended his left hand.
"Didn't you just use your regenerative ability to grow a new arm?" Shengu Xuan looked at Orochimaru and said with a smile, "Now, if I cut mine off, do you think it'll grow back?"
Before he finished speaking, Shengu Xuan pressed the fingers of his right hand together into a blade and swung sharply at his own left arm!
"Slash!"
Blood splattered everywhere!
Shengu Xuan had actually severed his entire left arm at the shoulder himself!
The severed arm fell to the ground, and scalding blood gushed out, staining half his body red.
Yet despite such a grievous injury, there was not a trace of pain on Shengu Xuan's face. Instead, he still wore that playful smile.
Orochimaru stared, utterly dumbfounded.
Self-mutilation?
What was this monster doing?
But in the next second, a sight a hundred times more horrifying than the "revived severed arm" appeared before Orochimaru's eyes!
The blood pouring from the wound on Shengu Xuan's left shoulder suddenly, eerily stopped flowing! Immediately afterward, the flesh at the wound began writhing and multiplying furiously at a speed visible to the naked eye!
Tendons, bones, flesh, skin...
Under Orochimaru's vacant stare, a brand-new, completely intact arm grew back in less than three seconds!
Shengu Xuan flexed his newly grown left hand, producing a series of crisp cracks from his bones.
"Mm, feels pretty good."
The Horse Talisman, Healing Divine Authority! It granted its wielder ultimate recovery power, allowing severed limbs and penetrating wounds alike to heal in an instant!
"..."
Orochimaru's breathing stopped completely at that moment.
He looked at Shengu Xuan's perfectly restored arm, then at Shengu Xuan's severed arm on the ground, his entire body frozen in place as though he had been subjected to a petrification technique.
High-speed regeneration...
No!
This was no longer "high-speed regeneration" as he understood it!
His regeneration relied on the vitality of Hashirama Cells, consumed vast amounts of chakra and life force, and had its limits.
But the "regeneration" of the monster before him seemed to create something from nothing! There were no chakra fluctuations, no signs of life force being consumed! It was as though being "injured" and "healed" were as simple as breathing to him, a "rule" engraved into the very essence of his life!
Eternal life...
Undying...
These two terms exploded in Orochimaru's mind like twin thunderclaps!
He had pursued this all his life, willingly betraying his village, conducting countless inhumane human experiments, and even altering his body into something neither human nor monster, all to reach this unattainable realm!
And now, a living, perfect "immortal" stood right before him!
In that instant, the fear in Orochimaru's heart was actually replaced by an even stronger, almost pathological fervor!
He no longer looked at Shengu Xuan as though he were a devil, but as though he were the most perfect work of art! A walking embodiment of "truth"!
"You... you're also... an 'immortal'?" Orochimaru's voice shook violently with extreme excitement, unprecedented greed and longing erupting in his serpentine eyes.
"An immortal? I suppose so." Shengu Xuan shrugged indifferently.
Upon receiving that affirmative answer, Orochimaru's breathing instantly grew incredibly heavy!
He abruptly broke free of Shengu Xuan's foot, braced both hands against the ground, and addressed him fervently in a posture of near-total prostration. "Lord Shengu Xuan! Please... please, you must let me study your body! I'll do anything for you! I can become your most faithful servant, your sharpest weapon! As long as you let me glimpse the secret of 'eternal life'!"
At that moment, Orochimaru, one of the Sannin, completely cast aside all his dignity and pride, like the most devout believer begging his god for a sliver of grace.
Watching Orochimaru's complete reversal in attitude, Shengu Xuan's smile widened.
"Oh? You want to study my body?" Shengu Xuan tilted his head. "Sure. But before you do, you'll have to prove your worth."
"My worth?" Orochimaru abruptly raised his head.
"That's right." A cold gleam flashed in Shengu Xuan's eyes. "Let me see just how much play you can withstand as a 'toy.'"
The moment he finished speaking, Shengu Xuan vanished from the spot!
The next second, he appeared behind Orochimaru, a whipping kick whistling through the air as it lashed viciously toward the center of Orochimaru's back!
Orochimaru was horrified, but his survival instinct still made him react.
His body instantly softened, and his neck stretched backward at an incredible angle. Opening his mouth wide, he violently spat a gleaming longsword from deep within his throat!
It was none other than his divine weapon-the Kusanagi Sword!
"In that case, please experience my 'worth' for yourself!" A trace of madness flashed in Orochimaru's eyes. Controlling the Kusanagi Sword, he thrust it viciously toward Shengu Xuan's whipping kick!
The Kusanagi Sword could cut through anything!
He refused to believe that this monster's body could truly withstand a divine weapon head-on!
Yet faced with that blade that could slice through iron like mud, Shengu Xuan showed no intention of dodging.
Instead, the corners of his mouth curled into an even more excited, almost crazed smile.
"That's more like it!"
"Finally willing to bring out something decent?!"
Deep in Shengu Xuan's eyes, an ancient-looking "dog" character totem emitting a faint golden light flashed and vanished!
Before you continue