The appearance of the Shinigami added another layer of chill to the already heavy atmosphere.
Orochimaru curled the corner of his mouth and chuckled: "To take out certain things from the Shinigami's belly, you must first sacrifice yourself!"
Next, Orochimaru activated a jutsu.
Soon, the Shinigami phantom behind Orochimaru used its hand to take the dagger it held in its mouth, savagely stabbed it into its stomach, and sliced it horizontally, cutting open its belly!
Almost simultaneously, a jet of fresh blood sprayed from Orochimaru's belly, which was fiercely cut open by a mysterious force.
Karin's gaze sharpened: "This is...!?"
With her current eyesight, a few trickery means were simply not worth mentioning, so there were not many people or things that could truly move her, and the scene before her happened to be one of them.
"It is the power of a contract!"
However, Karin quickly used the insight of the Rinnegan and the perception of the Mind's Eye of Kagura to determine that the mysterious force that cut open Orochimaru's belly belonged to the power of a certain kind of contract.
And Orochimaru, who had successfully cut open the Shinigami's belly, endured the severe pain, activated the jutsu again, and guided a chakra-like spiritual body out of the Shinigami's belly.
"It's out!"
Looking at the spiritual body floating in the air, the corner of his mouth slightly rose.
Cough
But immediately after, he couldn't help but cough up a large mouthful of fresh blood.
Yakushi Kabuto beside him shouted: "Orochimaru-Leader, are you alright?"
Orochimaru shook his head.
Being cut open by a knife was a fatal injury for an ordinary person, but for an anomaly like Orochimaru, it was nothing at all.
However, for some reason, Orochimaru's life force was rapidly weakening and decaying, as if he was about to completely die instantly.
"The power of the contract, he can't be saved!"
Karin was slightly relieved upon seeing this.
Orochimaru's rapid loss of life was not due to the wound on his belly, but because of the contract he signed with the Shinigami, so conventional body treatment methods such as medical ninjutsu and medicine had no effect on Orochimaru at this moment.
This was good, though, as she wouldn't have to personally deal with Orochimaru.
...
And just as Karin relaxed slightly, the dying Orochimaru suddenly formed a hand seal and roared: "Impure World Reincarnation!"
Bang bang bang
Instantly, accompanied by two bursts of white smoke, two more spiritual bodies were summoned by Orochimaru, floating in the air side-by-side with the spiritual body of the Fourth Hokage, which had just been freed from the Shinigami's belly.
Undoubtedly, these two spiritual bodies summoned by Orochimaru using Impure World Reincarnation were none other than the spiritual bodies of the First Hokage and the Second Hokage.
After Orochimaru was captured, the village forcibly had Orochimaru summon the Impure World Reincarnation bodies of the First Hokage and the Second Hokage, and then sealed these two Impure World Reincarnation bodies.
However, no one in the village other than Orochimaru understood this forbidden jutsu, Impure World Reincarnation, so Orochimaru exploited a loophole: the two sealed Impure World Reincarnation bodies were just empty shells, and the spiritual bodies of the First Hokage and the Second Hokage had been secretly extracted by Orochimaru.
It was for this reason that Orochimaru prepared four living sacrifices this time, because he not only wanted to thoroughly summon the Fourth Hokage back to the present world with Impure World Reincarnation, but also to find new vessels for the spiritual bodies of the First Hokage and the Second Hokage.
Ah
Ah
Ah
As the three spiritual bodies floating in the air successively plunged into the three living sacrifices that had been prepared, the three living sacrifices immediately let out a series of heart-wrenching screams!
Immediately after, these three living sacrifices were wrapped in countless paper talismans that seemed to have traveled from the underworld, gradually changing their appearance, becoming the likenesses of the First Hokage, Second Hokage, and Fourth Hokage.
At this moment, Orochimaru, whose life force had weakened to the extreme, suddenly transformed into a human-headed white snake, and with a whoosh, drilled into the last living sacrifice he had prepared.
After only one or two breaths, the living sacrifice that Orochimaru drilled into regained consciousness and slowly opened its eyes.
Then he rose from the ground, and in the few seconds it took for him to stand up, his body shape, appearance, and even chakra presence rapidly changed. When he stood still, he had completely become a brand-new Orochimaru.
The previous Orochimaru, who had been cut open, slumped powerlessly to the ground, losing his breath. His corpse rapidly shriveled, turning into a piece of rotten flesh with no vitality!
At this point, Orochimaru, who occupied the new body, moved his hands and feet, and smiled: "As expected, a body without seals is more comfortable!"
Karin's expression darkened.
Everything just now happened too fast. Although she realized something was wrong, it was too late to act when she wanted to stop it.
And Shinji, who was also paying attention to this through Jikibi, thought to himself: "So that's how it is. No wonder the strength of the First Hokage and Second Hokage in the Chunin Exam was significantly higher than in the original timeline!"
Shinji had no way of knowing what sacrifices Orochimaru used in the original timeline, but the most luxurious would have been using a jonin as a sacrifice.
But even a jonin was clearly not as good as these experimental subjects, into whom Orochimaru had injected a Cursed Seal and 'remodeling fluid'.
After exercising his body, Orochimaru looked at the silent Karin and smiled: "I suddenly changed my mind. If your Akatsuki organization wants to continue the transaction, you must provide something that interests me!"
Yakushi Kabuto also raised his hands at this time, making the movement of forming hand seals.
It was only at this moment that Orochimaru finally showed his fangs!
All of his cooperation before was undoubtedly a disguise because he was unable to determine how many personnel the Akatsuki organization had invested on his side, and his body had various seals left by the village, putting him in extremely poor condition. Therefore, he worried that immediately turning against them would result in being suppressed by the Akatsuki organization.
Subsequently, he took the opportunity of attempting to break the Dead Demon Consuming Seal to carry out various probes, eventually confirming that only 'B' from the Akatsuki organization was involved in this matter.
Even at this point, he still did not choose to turn against them.
Because he knew the power of a Mangekyo Uchiha. In his eyes, 'B' was an enemy on the same level as Uchiha Itachi, so he still chose to play along until this moment, when he completed the Impure World Reincarnation of the First Hokage, Second Hokage, and Fourth Hokage, gaining the fighting strength of the three Hokage's Impure World Reincarnation bodies.
He himself also bypassed the contract with the Shinigami through the Living Corpse Reincarnation, and by replacing his body, dissolved the various seals the village left in his body.
After this series of operations, it could be said that Orochimaru not only recovered to his peak state but also possessed the three Impure World Reincarnation bodies of the First Hokage, Second Hokage, and Fourth Hokage, as well as Yakushi Kabuto, who mastered Sage Mode. With these four powerful combat forces, he chose to turn against them.
In his opinion, no matter how powerful the Akatsuki organization's 'B' was, it was impossible to simultaneously deal with five major combat forces, including him, so whether it was genuinely starting a fight or negotiating for better conditions, the initiative had already fallen into his hands.