In the pitch-black passage, the tide-like Black Beetles made crunching noises as they completely devoured the corpses submerged within the swarm.
These corpses would be converted into energy stored within their bodies to deal with the battles ahead. Furthermore, when upgrading the Black Beetles, Simu had specifically invested skill points into their reproduction abilities.
This meant that these Black Beetles were now a true race capable of continuation and breeding. If Simu were to relinquish his control over them, they would immediately swarm and consume everything lootable in the vicinity, then rely on instinct to begin breeding frantically.
In such a scenario, the population of the Black Beetles would continue to expand until it infringed upon the interests of other, more powerful species. Eventually, a life-and-death war would break out to decide the fate of the race.
Actually, this was not just the destiny of insects; it was also the destiny of humans.
Simu adjusted his glasses and continued walking into the interior of the passage. At the end of the path stood a massive steel wall. It seemed it could only be opened smoothly by using a specific technique.
Simu, of course, did not know this technique, nor had he obtained specific information from Orochimaru's Snake Clone. Consequently, he could only resort to more violent methods.
This is a perfect chance to test the power of those little ones.
Simu slowly raised his palm. Several black insects flew out from the mouthparts in the center of his palm, attaching themselves to the steel gate in the shape of the character "Big" (大).
These insects were different from the Black Beetles. While the Black Beetles were pitch-black and incredibly hard—with a hardness comparable to iron sand—the explosive insects had very soft bodies. They possessed large bellies and were bigger in size than the Black Beetles.
After all, a full Explosive Tag formula was hidden within their bodies. With just a thought from Simu, the chakra produced by the explosive insects would immediately trigger the formula buried inside them, achieving an explosive effect.
Simu pretentiously held up his fingers in a hand sign and said flatly, "Insects Style: Great Insect Explosion Jutsu."
In the next second, the explosive insects clinging to the gate swelled up bloatedly. With a roar, a terrifying firelight instantly illuminated the entire passage, making even the ground tremble violently.
Even the heavy steel gate could not withstand an explosive impact of this intensity. Under the high temperature, the door rapidly turned red and melted, before shattering and being blown away by the subsequent blast.
Crossing through the high-temperature air currents and thick smoke produced by the explosion, a massive Colosseum appeared before Simu. The floor was covered in bloodstains and scratches left by various weapons.
Surrounding the Colosseum were countless high-stacked prison cells, though many of them were empty. Behind the arena, there should be the laboratory Orochimaru used for his various research projects.
As soon as Simu stepped into the Colosseum, dozens of figures appeared almost simultaneously. They seemed to have no fear in their eyes, launching an attack on the intruder without a second thought.
However, the battle was extremely short. The moment they appeared, the surrounding Black Beetles gathered together, forming a slender black Grim Reaper's scythe under Simu's control.
"Insects Style: Evil Insect Dancing Blade Jutsu."
The scythe flashed past, instantly harvesting the souls of the dozen enemies and cutting their bodies in half. As the corpses fell one by one, Simu's true goal finally emerged: Orochimaru's laboratory.
Simu was looking forward to seeing what kind of research results Orochimaru would display for him. At this moment, Hidan, having finished his battle, finally arrived and immediately started questioning him.
"Huh? You bastard Simu, if you kill everyone, what am I supposed to kill?"
Simu glanced at Hidan and said, "It's your own fault for being so slow. They were just a few small fries."
For Hidan, who possessed an Immortal Body, powerful Taijutsu, and a Kagune, dealing with those guys was as simple as drinking water.
Hidan tilted his chin up and spoke with disdain, "What do you know? Killing is also about the art!"
Lord Jashin will never be satisfied with your way of taking down enemies in a single strike!
At this point, Hidan revealed a fanatical smile. "Only by torturing them alive until they die, releasing all the pain and fear within the sacrifice's heart—only then will Lord Jashin feel the greatest pleasure."
"Boring."
Simu gave his evaluation directly. "No matter how hard you try to please Lord Jashin, little Hidan, he won't forgive you."
"Huh?"
Hidan tilted his head, puzzled. "I don't think I've ever done anything to wrong Lord Jashin? Why wouldn't he forgive me?"
"Wait, if I haven't done anything wrong, why would I need his forgiveness anyway?"
To this, Simu only gave a mysterious smile. "You'll find out when Lord Jashin reappears in the Shinobi World."
This explanation naturally caused Hidan's dissatisfaction. "What the heck? I hate people like you who keep secrets the most!"
Hidan wanted to pester him further, but he noticed that Simu's Black Beetles had already appeared on his neck. If he continued to be annoying, the consequences were predictable.
"Hmph, what an annoying guy!" Hidan said, quite frustrated, though there was nothing he could do.
Although having his head cut off by Simu wouldn't kill him and even provided a special, comfortable sensation, Hidan would never show it. In fact, he had to deliberately act as if he really didn't want his head cut off. Otherwise, Simu would definitely stop cutting his head off just to punish him.
Hehe, I, Lord Hidan, am truly a little genius!
Following Simu into the laboratory, a rare look of astonishment appeared on Hidan's face. "Wait, this Orochimaru looks more like a follower of Lord Jashin than we do!"
Hidan wasn't joking. Inside the laboratory, hundreds of large test tubes were placed densely. Each tube was filled with a certain green liquid, which Simu guessed might be some kind of nutrient solution.
Inside the nutrient solution were various test subjects. From infants to the elderly, there were subjects from every age group of humanity! Furthermore, every experimental body possessed some degree of deformity.
It was impossible to tell exactly what kind of experiment Orochimaru was conducting. Even the Jashin Religion only killed people to offer them as sacrifices, but Orochimaru captured them to perform all sorts of inhumane human experiments.
If there were a "Living Yama" (King of Hell), it had to be him!
Of course, Simu wasn't particularly repulsed by all this. On the contrary, the technological level displayed by Orochimaru's laboratory truly surprised him. Not only were there various precision instruments, but there was also a large-scale computer used for monitoring experimental subjects and analyzing data.
This completely overturned Simu's imagination regarding the world's technological development level. After all, the ninjas outside were still using the most primitive cold weapons for combat, yet here, they were using computers.
This tech tree was skewed to a somewhat ridiculous degree.