A special thank you to all my patrons.
The List of My "Wandering Reader":
-Davis Nguyen
-Cain
-Jacob Mooe
-HADES
-Varun Madhu
-Gonzalo Sumalavia
-kevin Williams
-Shadow260802
-MIKE
-KD2001
-merp.
-Jose Carrillo
-Derek M
You can read 30 chapters ahead of everyone on p@treon.
P@TREON - [email protected]/lessaservantofcosmos
(just replace the "@" with "a")
ps: Please support me on P@treon. I can really use your help!
-------------------------------------------------------------
As more trees sprouted fresh green leaves and more flowers bloomed, winter gave way to spring, and another month passed.
During this month, Kaito, along with his paper clone, had been rushing all over the world, busy with far too many matters.
First, Orochimaru's experiment to obtain an Ōtsutsuki clan body had, unsurprisingly, failed.
It was a genuine failure.
Although Kaito had secretly planned to prevent Orochimaru from succeeding, he hadn't even had time to interfere before the experiment failed.
The Ōtsutsuki clan and humans were ultimately two entirely different species.
Although over the past thousand years, the bodies and souls of shinobi had been eroded by chakra across several generations, making them closer to the Ōtsutsuki clan than ordinary people, they were still far from being comparable to true Ōtsutsuki.
Despite Orochimaru's painstaking efforts to clone a body using Isshiki's cells, his soul could not possess that body through the Dead Soul Possession technique.
Even with Kaito's personal assistance, it was useless.
"It's a matter of soul strength," Kaito concluded. "Putting aside the damage to your soul, even if you were completely intact, your soul strength is far inferior to Ōtsutsuki Isshiki's."
"Then, can the soul be strengthened?" Orochimaru, who had taken over another young shinobi's body after the failure, inquired.
Kaito answered truthfully, "To the best of my knowledge, unless one becomes an onmyōji or a yokai, there is no other way."
Of course, becoming an evil spirit and devouring others' souls was a simple and brutal alternative, but Kaito did not mention it.
Thus, Orochimaru ultimately chose to be taken by Kaito into a separate dimension alongside Shinga of the snake clan and Jin of the crow clan. After forty-nine days of transformation, he successfully acquired the identity of a yokai.
Unexpectedly for Kaito, Orochimaru, who relied on the Yamata no Jutsu (Eight Branches Technique), gained immense power after becoming a yokai.
Although not yet comparable to the legendary ancient great yokai, the true Yamata no Orochi, he still possessed much of its majesty.
At the very least, after the transformation was complete, he immediately shifted from a colossal eight-headed white serpent that blotted out the sky to a human form.
In comparison, the much younger Jin and Shinya, who had far deeper accumulation than Orochimaru, not only saw their size reduced by more than half but were also unable to assume human form. Their envy and jealousy toward Orochimaru were beyond words.
"This is the difference that fame makes, Shinya," Kaito remarked with a sigh. "Speaking of which, when Orochimaru was still human, thanks to his past achievements and methods, many people already saw him as no different from a yokai."
"Heh heh heh…"
Orochimaru's long black hair had turned silver, two sharp horns covered in white scales had grown on his forehead, and his extended tongue had become a true snake's tongue—crimson and forked.
"Is this the power of a yokai?"
Powerful demonic energy surged around him. Orochimaru's silver hair and white robes billowed fiercely, and the air around him warped under the expanding yōki (demonic energy).
"I am quite satisfied."
He habitually licked his lips, his golden snake-like eyes devoid of warmth as they fixed on Kaito.
"Thank you for your help, Kaito-kun."
"As long as you're satisfied."
Kaito stood together with Shinya and Jin, watching him from a distance.
"Then, the transaction between us is now complete."
Kaito strolled up to Orochimaru and extended his right hand.
"Pleasure doing business with you."
"Pleasure doing business with you, Kaito-kun."
Orochimaru extended his icy cold right hand and shook Kaito's.
"Might I ask what plans Orochimaru has for the future?"
After releasing the handshake, Kaito asked curiously.
"The future?"
The twin horns on Orochimaru's forehead slowly retracted, and his silver hair gradually darkened, returning to his human appearance.
"I wonder if I too can stay in the yokai territory, Mount Ōeyama?" He smiled somewhat strangely. "I'd also like to interact more with other yokai. Perhaps I can learn much knowledge unique to yokai, no?"
Hearing this, Kaito feigned reluctance. "Well... strictly speaking, Mount Ōeyama originally belonged to the king of the oni, Shuten-dōji."
He glanced back at Shinya and Jin.
"Previously, I only spoke to Shuten-dōji about Shinya and Jin's matter. Out of regard for me and Ōtengu's face, Shuten-dōji agreed to their residence."
He turned back to look at Orochimaru.
"As for you, your current power far surpasses theirs. It wouldn't be appropriate for me to make decisions on my own authority."
"Then what should be done?" Orochimaru smiled as he looked at Kaito.
"I can agree to introduce you to Shuten-dōji. After that, whether you can persuade him will be up to you, senpai."
'Let the Shuten-dōji deal with Orochimaru,' he thought. 'After all, neither of them is an easy character.'
Upon hearing this, Orochimaru habitually extended his tongue and licked his lips. "Please take care of it. Sorry for the trouble, Kaito-kun."
Thus, Kaito brought Orochimaru to the tenshukaku (keep tower) at the center of Mount Ōeyama castle and met with Shuten-dōji and Ibaraki-dōji.
After introducing them to each other, Kaito did not get involved and promptly withdrew.
"Yūrei?"
Exiting the tenshukaku, Kaito spotted the colorfully dressed young woman standing under a cherry blossom tree in the distance and immediately quickened his pace to approach her.
"You're not angry anymore, Yūrei?"
He joyfully surprised, actively grabbing hold of Yūrei's hands.
"..."
Yūrei choked up slightly, forcing a smile. "Mmm, not angry anymore."
In truth, she simply felt it was pointless to stay angry! 'You idiot, Kaito!'
Previously, after the banquet, Yūrei had gotten drunk and fallen asleep at the Uchiha residence. She had deliberately complained a few times in front of the paper clone while drunk, thinking that Kaito would immediately come to comfort her upon finding out.
However...
Kaito did not take immediate action. Instead, he confidently planned a later apology and surprise.
Yūrei waited for Kaito to come personally but waited in vain, which immediately made her rather irritated.
Then, with Seimei's sudden departure and a series of other busy matters, he completely forgot about the plan.
Thus, Yūrei naturally became thoroughly angry.
By that point, even though Kaito eventually carried out his planned actions, it was useless. Yūrei ignored him for a very long time.
Although Kaito had many things keeping him busy and little time to strive to appease Yūrei's anger, he still felt uneasy whenever he occasionally remembered the situation during this period.
Today, Yūrei had actually initiatively appeared before him again. How could he not feel surprised?
'Thank heavens, this young lady's temper had finally passed!'
Kaito's heart leaped with joy.
"Let's go." Yūrei pulled Kaito forward. "Accompany me strolling around. Mount Ōeyama has become much livelier now, and I haven't had a chance to explore it yet!"
"Okay."
Kaito didn't dare object at all.
"Let's go!"
Yūrei quickened her pace, glancing back at Kaito's forced smile, her eyes filled with amusement.
'Such a fool, Kaito.'
Although she couldn't help getting angry sometimes, she could only convince herself to let it go.
'Getting angry with someone as stupid as you feels like a waste of effort!'