Orochimaru took Maji out for dinner and then returned home, dragging his exhausted body with him.
After settling little Maji for the night, Orochimaru finally had a moment to himself. He leaned back lazily against a pillar on the courtyard veranda.
It was a clear night, and even the moon seemed brighter. It was late spring, around May, and the courtyard was lush and full of life. An occasional evening breeze carried the fresh scent of grass and wood.
Orochimaru half-closed his eyes, enjoying the moment. Then, he sat cross-legged and began performing a special Refining Technique that he had mastered in his previous life while researching vitality and Cursed Seal techniques.
Under Orochimaru's superb control, light blue chakra was rapidly refined and condensed, gathering on the surface of his body, even permeating individual muscle tissues and muscle fibers.
For Orochimaru, who had dissected thousands of different corpses in his previous life, this step posed no obstacle. The entire process was as easy as looking at the lines on his palm, taking only about fifteen minutes to complete.
If an instrument could generate a clear 3D image of Orochimaru's body, it would astonishingly show that his skin and muscles were completely saturated with a thin layer of light blue chakra, like a sheer veil or scattered starlight.
After the first step was complete, Orochimaru paused to recover from the mental exhaustion. He then began executing the most essential part of this secret technique.
The light blue chakra began to condense into strands as thick as chopsticks. These chakra chains traveled, weaving and interlacing through Orochimaru's skin and muscles. As they moved, Orochimaru used a specific secret method to slowly change the strength and structure of the skin and muscle cells.
From the outside, the cross-legged, closed-eyed Orochimaru was visibly twitching and trembling slightly. His brows were furrowed, his thin lips tightly pressed. Beads of fine sweat clearly trickled down his forehead. He seemed to be enduring intense pain.
Suddenly, a slender white shadow slipped out of Orochimaru's clothes. It was the young Golden Python, Yamata. Under the bright moonlight, the delicate gold patterns on Yamata's body were even clearer.
Yamata moved quickly over Orochimaru, slithering rapidly to his left forearm. This extremely intelligent and unusual small snake coiled on Orochimaru's forearm and opened its mouth to emit a stream of faint golden-colored energy (unnamed essence).
As this faint golden energy permeated Orochimaru's forearm, the smooth skin broke out in blue veins, wriggling like earthworms—the exact tracks of the chakra chains moving beneath his skin.
After the golden energy seeped into these worm-like veins, it instantly reversed, becoming a subtle stream of light blue chakra. Yamata sucked this stream into its mouth. Immediately after Yamata inhaled the chakra stream, the bulging veins flattened. After Yamata finished traveling over Orochimaru's entire body, it displayed a human-like look of satisfaction.
Meanwhile, Orochimaru, sitting cross-legged with his eyes closed, felt strange streams of faint golden energy rapidly permeate his entire chakra circulatory system during Yamata's actions.
In a moment, these strange energies quickly converged into a single stream, flowing through all the sections of skin and muscle he was refining, penetrating each one. After accepting this influx of unknown golden energy, Orochimaru could clearly sense that the strength of his physical refinement was several times better than he had anticipated.
Given the immense benefit to his body, Orochimaru decided to ignore it. He had a faint idea who was responsible for this golden energy. He continued to execute the final procedure of his secret technique.
Instantly, one-third of the total chakra from his entire body and circulatory system was drawn out. Along the way, it even carried a few wisps of the strange golden energy. This energy all converged on the center of Orochimaru's left chest, where it formed a peculiar, brand-new Cursed Seal tattoo!
The seal contained one-third of Orochimaru's total chakra, serving as one of his ultimate trump cards in battle.
Orochimaru opened his eyes. A faint, light blue chakra glow flashed and vanished within his dark-golden pupils, making his already unusual snake eyes even more sinister and demonic!
"Hoo—" Letting out a deep breath of stale air, Orochimaru squeezed his hands, assessing the changes in his body. Very good. The density and toughness of his muscles and skin had nearly doubled, and his strength had increased by about fifty percent. The weighted clothing he had put on earlier now felt as light as if it weren't there.
Orochimaru smiled with satisfaction. However, he knew that this exceptional result was only possible because it was the first time he used the secret technique. He likely wouldn't enjoy such incredible benefits again, and the subtle golden energy was likely one of the crucial reasons for this success.
Orochimaru opened his shirt. Under the light of the moon, one could clearly see a majestic and fierce image of an eight-headed, eight-tailed serpent, the Yamata no Orochi, imprinted on the skin over his left chest.
Even more magically, the color of this eight-headed serpent was the same as the young Yamata—white mixed with faint golden streaks.
The entire Yamata no Orochi Cursed Seal covered his left chest. It subtly shifted with the rise and fall of his heartbeat, the vivid tattoo appearing almost alive. Eight pairs of scarlet snake eyes emitted a chilling killing intent, ready to devour a person, while the pure white body, interspersed with the faint gold, radiated an inherent nobility and prestige!
Orochimaru suddenly felt a slight difference on his shoulder.
"Swoosh—"
The playful Yamata slid down and coiled, attaching itself to Orochimaru's Cursed Seal. It didn't fall off and even affectionately flicked its scarlet tongue at Orochimaru.
Orochimaru gently stroked Yamata's head and said with a smile, "You little rascal, was this your doing?"
Yamata adopted a human-like, fawning posture and proudly nodded. It affectionately licked Orochimaru's hand, then slowly settled into its coil and fell soundly asleep.
Orochimaru looked at the strange Golden Python coiled on his Cursed Seal and faintly realized that Yamata seemed to feed on chakra.
After watching for a while and seeing no further reaction from Yamata, Orochimaru's interest faded. He quickly took a shower. Between the grueling training and the Shadow Clone's activity, he was tired. He fell onto the bed and was soon fast asleep.
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