Chapter Sixty-Eight: The Secret of the Sacred Land

“Orochimaru.”
The White Snake Sage was an enormous serpentine creature, gazing down at Orochimaru with an air of majesty. Its voice descended from above, filled with authority.
Orochimaru glanced at the three sages, then peered through the gaps between their bodies to glimpse the world outside.
“Where is this place?”
It was neither Mount Myoboku nor the Ryuchi Cave, nor Shikkotsu Forest, but a vast, grayish realm, where lightning and thunder occasionally streaked across the sky.
Orochimaru looked down; the ground beneath his feet felt insubstantial, and below flowed a mighty river of green energy. The entire world seemed primitive and untouched.
He crouched, broke the earth with a tap, revealing a pit the size of a washbasin, beneath which the green energy river surged.
“Too bad, it’s a fake,” Orochimaru murmured, gathering some of the green energy in his hand. It resembled a solidified form of natural energy; if it were real, simply lingering here for a while would render him invincible.
The Great Toad Sage slowly peered down, his aged, cloudy eyes scrutinizing Orochimaru. “So this is Orochimaru. It’s the first time I’ve seen you in person.”
His voice was not loud in itself, but given his colossal size, it thundered to human ears, and his exhaled breath whipped up a fierce wind, scattering the green energy from Orochimaru's grasp.
“So lifelike, half-illusion, half-reality,” Orochimaru mused, then raised his head to look at the Great Toad Sage.
“You must be the Great Toad Sage.”
He turned to nod at the White Snake Sage as a greeting, then gazed at the Slug Sage.
“I’ve never seen such a massive Slug Sage,” Orochimaru marveled.
He had learned of the Great Toad Sage’s existence from Jiraiya, knowing he was on par with the White Snake Sage.
He had also met the Slug Sage through Tsunade, though never of such a size, which suggested Tsunade was not particularly strong.
The Slug Sage, somewhat familiar with Orochimaru, explained, “This is the Origin World.”
“The Origin World?” Orochimaru began to understand.
He had once inquired about the immortal power from the White Snake Sage, who explained that those forces originated from the source of a certain secret realm.
Perhaps it was connected to the Origin World.

The White Snake Sage lowered its massive head, fixing its gaze on Orochimaru. “You understand we summoned you here by force, to kill you, don’t you?”
Orochimaru nodded, his expression unchanged. “I figured as much. At the critical moment when I was about to eliminate the Akatsuki and the lower ranks of the Four Nations Ninja Alliance, you forcibly dragged me here; what else could it be but to stop me?”
Yet he seemed unconcerned, rather intrigued. “I can sense your bodies brimming with nearly infinite senjutsu chakra. Just one of you could easily kill me, so why are all three gathered here?”
The Great Toad Sage admired Orochimaru’s calm composure in the face of death. “It’s a matter of rules.”
All three were masters of secret realms, nearly fused with the source power of those realms. In gaining that power, they acquired many rules.
Orochimaru nodded, looking at the White Snake Sage. “Once, I experimented by slaughtering over two thousand snakes in the Ryuchi Cave, yet you didn't kill me. It seems the real reason lies here.”
Back then, many snakes in the Ryuchi Cave sought to kill Orochimaru, but none except the White Snake Sage possessed the strength, and the matter faded away.
The White Snake Sage nodded, neither confirming nor denying.
Orochimaru smiled faintly. “So, how do you plan to kill me?”
Direct action was impossible; were they to use the rules instead?
The Great Toad Sage greatly admired Orochimaru’s meticulous composure in peril; few could display such calm. Every question from Orochimaru was in fact probing for a chance at survival.
“Ah,” sighed the Great Toad Sage. “Had I met you earlier, I would have had you sign a contract with Mount Myoboku, and tried to preserve you. What a pity.”
He truly lamented for Orochimaru.
Orochimaru had already signed with the Ryuchi Cave, but the Great Toad Sage was undeterred, still wishing to form a contract. If so, Orochimaru would become the only human in history to contract with two sacred lands.
Moreover, since the Great Toad Sage himself proposed it, the contract would be far from ordinary.
“Orochimaru, you have no chance for survival.”
The Great Toad Sage explained, “This world is not an illusion, but a real place. What you see now is a scene from a certain period of its history.”
The Origin World has no fixed form; its scenery is randomly mapped, displaying scenes from various eras.
It was from the Origin World that the secret realm worlds once derived.
Orochimaru nodded. “So, you plan to combine the powers of the sacred lands into one, recreating the original force.”

The Great Toad Sage nodded. “Indeed. Though we prefer to call that force ‘the Source’. The power of the Source defies description. In fact, you should have experienced it.”
Both the Great Toad Sage and the White Snake Sage possessed prophetic abilities. In the future they foresaw, Orochimaru was not supposed to sweep through the ninja world as he did; the stage was meant for the Hidden Leaf Village.
Their prophetic abilities came from the Source, never failing—unless Orochimaru had used the Source.
The White Snake Sage said, “The Source has no form. It appears in a shape you can comprehend. Thanks to the Source, your life’s trajectory changed. You must realize how powerful it is.”
Orochimaru pondered: the Source’s power altered his fate. Thus, the ninja scroll that enabled his rebirth was not truly a ninja scroll, but the Source manifesting in a form he could understand.
Suddenly, he became deeply interested in the Source, the wellspring of senjutsu chakra.
“What do you intend to do?” Orochimaru asked.
The Great Toad Sage, White Snake Sage, and Slug Sage all radiated senjutsu chakra, releasing it and blending it together.
A sound like shattering glass echoed, and before Orochimaru appeared a deep green pool; the liquid was not water, but pure energy.
“These green energies are the fusion of our powers over countless centuries. We have tried to turn them into Source energy, but something is always missing. Your arrival has given us a new idea; the shattered secret realms must also be merged.”
Orochimaru possessed the power of immortality, which was the source power of a secret realm; they planned to merge Orochimaru into the deep green pool of energy.
A hum resonated.
The White Snake Sage stared at Orochimaru, instantly transforming him into a stone statue. Though Orochimaru did not die, he was unable to move.
The Slug Sage nudged its body, pushing the stone statue of Orochimaru into the green energy pool.
“In this way, we have both eliminated Orochimaru and merged new secret realm power.”