"Why stop me? Wouldn't it be perfect to let Fugaku do the genjutsu experiment?"
"There's no need anymore."
Genie waved his hand, and a transparent screen appeared in front of Orochimaru. "Take another look at the soul strength stat now."
Orochimaru's eyes narrowed. If he remembered right, the number before wasn't this high—it had increased by a full one-fifth.
After thinking for a moment, Orochimaru's tone turned a little odd. "Didn't you say soul strength is a universal stat across all worlds, completely accurate?"
One-fifth. Such a big difference was enough for Orochimaru to treat Genie's panel as nothing but waste paper.
"Are you joking?"
Genie snapped back, "This isn't an error—it's your soul strength that has really grown. Think carefully about what you just did."
Orochimaru frowned, recalling what had happened, and suddenly his expression changed.
A stat as important as soul strength wouldn't go up from a few arguments in the medical tent. Between then and now, he had only done one thing.
"Looks like you figured it out too."
Genie leaned forward slightly, a playful smile on his face. "The curse mark, or rather, the method you used to separate chakra—it even split your soul."
If that was true, then his low soul strength had been caused by himself.
Orochimaru frowned deeply, staying silent.
"I've seen a lot of things. At your current level of life, even a small crack in the soul should've left you as a vegetable, let alone splitting it apart. So how did you manage it?"
Genie rubbed his chin, sizing Orochimaru up from head to toe. "Oh, seems you don't know. Then it must be a feature of you—or maybe of the ninja form of existence itself… Tsk tsk, chakra, I didn't expect it to show such a trait this early."
Genie was genuinely excited. He knew about Otsutsuki Kaguya's revival method, so he wasn't surprised by splitting and merging chakra and soul bodies.
But Otsutsuki Kaguya was pure-blood Otsutsuki, standing at a very high level of life, so it wasn't strange for her.
Yet Orochimaru, who was neither this nor that, just a mere kage-level ninja, could do it too—that was worth serious thought.
Was it something any ninja with chakra could achieve? Or was there something special about Orochimaru himself? If so, could that special trait be copied by Genie and passed on to future hosts?
Genie was very interested in this.
Just like a flexible moral line allows things ordinary people can't do, a soul that can be freely cut and split could open up endless tricks to play with.
Especially in the early stages, when the host was still weak.
The sun was setting in the west, and the evening breeze was gentle.
Orochimaru stood on the fortress wall, lost in thought for a long time before suddenly asking, "Compared to your last host, how does my soul's strength measure up now?"
"It's still terrible. If I had to put it simply, the gap is like that between an adult and a child."
Genie chuckled. "When judging the strength of a soul, it's not just about how much you have—the key is in the quality. And in that area, your gap isn't small at all."
"Even if this world is different and you have certain unique traits, splitting your soul is not something you should be doing at your level."
"It's like a chair with a broken leg. You can put it back together and still use it, but can you really say it's the same as before?"
"You want eternal life, but if your soul has such a huge weakness, then in the end, maybe only your body will live forever."
Orochimaru's face turned serious. With his knowledge, he knew Genie wasn't exaggerating, and a chill crept through him.
The curse marks, and even the Living Corpse Reincarnation, were all attempts he had made in his pursuit of immortality.
The road ahead was dark and uncertain. With no pathfinders before him, he could only stumble forward on his own.
Looking back, some of his experiments now seemed foolish. Others seemed right at first, but hid endless problems he hadn't noticed.
But Orochimaru had no choice, and no regrets either. People can't be full by eating only the fifth piece of bread—every step before it is necessary.
"Genie, is there any way to strengthen my soul and fix the harm I've caused myself?"
Orochimaru lifted his gaze toward Genie. After all, he was no longer fighting alone.
Genie thought for a moment, then replied, "First, you need to reclaim all the curse marks you've spread out. At the very least, you need to recover the amount you originally lost."
Orochimaru nodded.
The curse marks had been meant to work with his Living Corpse Reincarnation, as a backup in case of an unexpected death. But now that he understood the side effects of splitting his soul, he resolved to abandon that plan.
What he sought was eternal life, not such a fragile kind of immortality.
He had only planted curse marks on a few chosen disciples, like Anko, no more than a handful.
After all, placing curse marks weakened him as well, so taking them back would be easy.
"As for how to strengthen your soul…"
Genie rubbed his chin. "From what I learned two worlds ago, a powerful body can also nourish the soul in return. That's the most practical way. Of course, another method is to devour large amounts of pure soul energy."
Hearing this, Orochimaru licked his lips.
The first method Genie mentioned would naturally progress as his research on the First Hokage's cells advanced. But what interested him more was the second one.
Devouring soul energy—just the sound of it fit perfectly with his nature.
And as it happened, Orochimaru already had a way.
Strictly speaking, it was a by-product of his Living Corpse Reincarnation. After all, if he was to seize another person's body, dealing with the original owner's soul was something that had to be addressed.
Devouring it was clearly a good option.
Orochimaru explained his method in detail, asking Genie to check for flaws. But Genie shot it down without hesitation.
"Your way is terrible!"
Genie's voice was firm and righteous, his tone carrying authority, making even Orochimaru's expression tighten.
"Even when people catch wild beasts, before they eat them, they skin them and clean the insides. And you—you just swallow them raw? That's the way of a savage."
Genie glared at him. "Do you even know how many impurities are in another person's soul? Can you digest that?"
What he said was true, but when it came to treating a human soul like prey to be processed, Orochimaru had no real method.
In the shinobi world, there were jutsu that let one separate their own soul from the body, like the Spirit Transformation Technique or the Mind Body Switch. But methods to strip away another person's soul didn't exist.
Did this mean that devouring other people's souls was a dead end?
Orochimaru frowned, fixing his eyes on Genie. He didn't believe Genie would bring up something with no possibility at all.
"Pure soul energy—you don't need to hunt people for it."
Genie smiled. "Honestly, you're lucky. In this world, there's a place that's been cultivated for thousands of years. Inside it, soul energy without owners drifts everywhere."
"The Pure Land. If you can reach it…"
"Then the damage from splitting your soul will be nothing worth mentioning."
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