Starting with rogue ninjas, building the insect kingdom.

Chapter 284 Artificial Hand-Made Witch

Just then, Aburame Shisei's figure quietly appeared in the camp.

He looked at Orochimaru, his tone slightly mocking: "I didn't expect you to still like kidnapping children like this."

The nervous girl standing nearby quickly spoke up, "Sir, I..."

"Follow us if you like; we don't force you to be free."

Aburame Shisei interrupted her, then turned to Orochimaru, his expression turning serious. "By the way, this should be the second time we've met in our true forms. It's really difficult to see you, since you're always avoiding me."

Orochimaru chuckled softly, "After all, this was once a very dangerous thing. If I hadn't cooperated with you so many times, it would have been difficult for me to build this trust."

The girl was shocked. The two adults were talking about these things so openly in front of her. Did they mean they were going to... silence her?

However, what she expected did not happen.

You Nu Zhicheng turned to look at her and casually tossed her a bottle of dark green insect medicine.

"Your talent is too poor. Although you've officially left us, as your former home turf, even though I didn't know you existed. Take this as your salary, just don't embarrass us."

The girl hurriedly caught it, bowing deeply with trepidation: "Thank you so much, Master Shiraki!"

"I didn't expect Zhicheng-kun to be so generous." Orochimaru narrowed his eyes and took out a small scroll from his pocket. "In that case, I can't be stingy either. This is my human modification technique. When it comes to saving lives, your skills are a bit lacking, and you don't have the talent for it either. Well, I think you're right. You must have a great talent for abnormal modifications."

"Thank you so much, Lord Orochimaru!" The girl couldn't hide her excitement; she hadn't expected such luck and surprise to come so suddenly.

A girl of mediocre talent received gifts from two powerful individuals in a short period of time, an opportunity that could have changed her destiny.

Unfortunately, she didn't know that the more skilled the person, the harder it is to obtain their possessions.

Soon, she realized that every gift of fate came with a hidden price.

Orochimaru's words quickly shattered her beautiful dreams: "Little girl, now that you've received our gifts and heard our secret plot, there are some things you'll have to get involved in."

"Me?" She was holding a bottle of pills and a scroll, and I pointed to myself.

"That's right." Orochimaru said awkwardly in a hoarse voice, "We need to hold a mysterious ritual to find the missing souls, but the core of the ritual must be a young girl, so I think you are very suitable."

"Why a girl? Can't it be a boy? Actually, I know a friend." The girl stared at the two of them with wide eyes. Without the slightest hesitation, she prepared to sell her upline.

"Hehehe!" Orochimaru said with a laugh, "That won't work... A long, long time ago, it took a witch to communicate with the spirits and deities. Although you are not very strong, with the help of the two of us, it shouldn't be difficult for you to become a witch for a short time."

Girl: "..."

So she simply couldn't refuse, right? She really wanted to say, "I don't want it anymore, can you let me go? Is that okay?"

But she didn't dare say those words out loud, because if she said she was going to let her go, she really meant it; once she left, she was gone.

So after she nodded, a purple wizard's robe with butterfly patterns was tossed into her arms, along with the witch's cymbal and hand drum, and a book with dance steps drawn on it.

Orochimaru said, "Put on your clothes and memorize the dance steps from the book."

As the girl turned to change her clothes, Orochimaru took out a small piece of meat, which was imbued with a rich and chaotic natural power.

Aburame Shisei immediately recognized it as flesh from Jugo's body. "You're so cruel. You cut flesh off such a small child."

"There's no other way, it's for the ritual!" Orochimaru said. "But I don't see what kind of kind-hearted person Shicheng-kun is. Enough of the small talk, my research on natural energy isn't as deep as yours. Now I hope you can find a way to temporarily grant the girl the authority to use the power of nature."

Orochimaru's words were actually a test, or perhaps he wanted to see Aburame Shisei's control over the power of nature so that he could learn from it and improve his own cursed seal technique.

Because his current curse seal technique has too many flaws, if he were to temporarily sew this piece of flesh into the girl's body, it would only keep her conscious for a few hours, or even less.

So, he was actually trying to ensure the success of the ceremony!

Orochimaru smiled with narrowed eyes, making excuses for himself in his mind.

Aburame Zhicheng could naturally guess his general thoughts, but there were some things he dared not gamble on, so it was better to be more cautious.

"Let's find an open space; there are too many people and too many eyes around here!"

"I knew you had a way." Orochimaru smiled and said, "Don't worry, the ritual altar is ready, it's in a cave not far away."

Soon after, the girl came out of the house, not having heard what the two were plotting, and was quickly taken to a cave.

This place resembles a stage, but it is surrounded by many strange patterns, and there are even various ancient wooden stakes and masks.

In fact, the requirements of the ritual are cruel and direct: by offering a specific spiritual object and consuming the target's body tissue, one can command spirits to track their soul.

The origin of this supernatural technique was found by Orochimaru after days of searching through forbidden texts from various countries, finally discovering a few fragments in the ancient temple scrolls of the Land of Cai.

At that time, there were six paths in the world, not the Sage of Six Paths. It was only after the Sage of Six Paths appeared that the six paths disappeared.

The ritual they were holding was to summon evil spirits from the realm of hungry ghosts, who are said to have a very sensitive nose and are best at tracking souls.

When the girl was led to the center of the altar, she was completely stunned.

"That's pretty scary!" the girl said, shrinking back.

Under the watchful eyes of two Kage-level powerhouses, resistance was futile. She took a deep breath and, as if using all her strength, spoke: "My lords, my name is Maria Ozawa. If I die... could you please remember my name?"

"Wait a minute," Orochimaru called out to her, "You have no natural power, so dancing won't help. But now you're in luck; you have another chance to become a sage."

Orochimaru took out the tiny piece of meat, no bigger than a bean, while Shisei Aburame took out a summoning jutsu and placed it in front of him.

"Choose!" Orochimaru said with a wicked grin.

Aburame Shisei said bluntly, "Stop with the silly banter, let's get down to business. Maria Ozawa, come here and sign the psychic contract on it."

The girl stared blankly for a moment, then finally climbed down from the altar. She pricked her finger and wrote her name on the scroll—Maria Ozawa.