As the saying goes, laymen watch for excitement, experts watch for the technicalities.
Without truly understanding the essence of the soul, one cannot comprehend how impossibly difficult it is to create one.
No.
Orochimaru didn't even understand the soul's essence; he only glimpsed a fragment, extrapolating to understand how complex a soul's composition is.
In his cognition, unless it was myth or legend, no human could possibly touch this domain.
But now, Ryuji told him he could create souls.
How could he dare believe it?
"Is it truly soul creation, not soul transfer?" Orochimaru asked again for confirmation. This time, not only his voice trembled, but his body trembled slightly too.
"You heard correctly. It's soul creation, soul creation, soul creation. You can completely trust your ears." Ryuji said it three times, even writing the characters for 'soul creation' on the table with tea water. Only then did Orochimaru finally accept he hadn't misheard.
"How is this possible!?"
Orochimaru lost his usual composure, looking at Ryuji with astonishment. "Forget the complex structure of a soul; the particles constituting the soul itself are non-material. Such things don't exist in the world. How could you create a soul?"
"Did you clear someone else's soul of memories and call that soul creation?"
"Because you don't know something, you think it doesn't exist..." Ryuji's lips curled slightly upwards, mocking. "You call yourself a researcher? Don't you have even this basic common sense?"
"This..."
Orochimaru was speechless.
He felt Ryuji was tricking him, but as a researcher, he also knew the correctness of the other party's words.
What you don't know doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
In research, one must never deny outright but repeatedly experiment to eliminate possibilities, then conclude.
But Orochimaru was studious from childhood. Not only did he finish the Shinobi Academy curriculum early, but he also frequented the library, reading all science-related books in Konoha's library as a youth.
Later, under the Third Hokage's guidance and within secret archives, he continuously expanded his knowledge.
Orochimaru, though not arrogant enough to think himself the most knowledgeable, could be considered highly learned, exceptionally talented. He might not be the strongest Shinobi in the world, but he was certainly the most erudite (in scientific research) Shinobi.
If someone like him didn't know something, did it truly exist?
"You're not deceiving me?" Orochimaru cautiously confirmed again. "Do soul-constituting materials truly exist in this world?"
It wasn't strange he was cautious; his worldview was being shattered.
Something he always believed correct was being corrected as wrong… a blow difficult for any proud person to accept, especially when their expertise was negated.
"Of course they don't exist. If they did, they'd have been discovered long ago."
"Then you..."
"Although they don't exist, they can be artificially created."
Seeing the flustered Orochimaru, Ryuji quickly explained. "Even non-researchers should know this: many materials in the world don't exist naturally, but humans create them through various means."
Orochimaru's eyes widened. He instinctively wanted to say: Impossible, that's impossible.
But remembering the earlier possibility of being proven wrong, he stopped himself.
He took deep breaths, calming his mind before softly asking, "Is such a thing really possible?"
"Of course. Someone achieved it countless years ago."
"Someone achieved it back then!?" Orochimaru's barely calmed mind surged again.
He widened his eyes. "Who?"
"The Sage of Six Paths!"
"You..."
Orochimaru opened his mouth, wanting to curse. But remembering his purpose here, he forced it down.
He took deep breaths again, calming his mind before looking at Ryuji. "Ryuji-kun, are you mocking me?"
"Do I look that bored?" Ryuji sneered. "I'm not referring to the mythical tale of the Sage creating all things, but the real history that evolved into myth."
"You're saying the Sage of Six Paths truly existed?"
"No way, no way. A Konoha's Shinobi like you doesn't know the Sage of Six Paths truly existed?"
Repeatedly being doubted, Ryuji couldn't help but mock sarcastically.
This made Orochimaru's face burn.
He didn't know Konoha's relation to the Sage, but judging by Ryuji's tone and expression, it seemed shameful for a Konoha's Shinobi not to know the Sage's true existence.
This instantly dispelled his doubt about the Sage's existence, making him suspect Konoha had secrets even he didn't know.
"The Sage of Six Paths once used immense Chakra to create nine beings. They still exist in the Shinobi World today, closely related to Shinobi, known to virtually everyone."
Ryuji's words brought the pondering Orochimaru back. He quickly analyzed and found the key words.
Immense Chakra created nine beings, living since ancient times, closely related to Shinobi...
"Are you talking about the Tailed Beasts?"
"Congratulations, correct!" Ryuji snapped his fingers, continuing. "The Nine Tailed Beasts were created by the Sage of Six Paths using Chakra. If you're on good terms with them, you can verify the truth from their mouths."
Ryuji didn't mention the Ten-Tails; explaining that would be too troublesome and offered no benefit.
Orochimaru fell into shock.
The Sage of Six Paths from myth was real, and the Nine Tailed Beasts were beings he created.
Suddenly hearing such ancient secrets felt unreal, yet also refreshing, as if discovering a new world.
This feeling wasn't his first.
When he first encountered Ninjutsu, he felt the same.
The novelty of new things made him devote all energy and effort to exploration.
Now, he felt the same.
"This is incredible!"
Orochimaru extended his tongue, licking his lips, excited, unable to control himself.
"If the Tailed Beasts are so powerful, what level was the Sage who created them? Current people, even the Five Kage, cannot compare. Even the First Hokage-sama, hailed as the God of Shinobi, probably never reached that level."
"The road ahead is still far, with no end in sight."
This time, Orochimaru didn't doubt Ryuji's words.
Because for him, verifying this was simple.
Just find Kushina, say he needed to confirm something with the Nine-Tails.
Whether the Nine-Tails would answer...
That wasn't a problem.
Even if he didn't know the Nine-Tails, even if the Nine-Tails hated humans, he had many ways to get the desired answer.
He wouldn't even need special methods; just rhetoric would suffice.
"Then, Ryuji-kun..." Orochimaru's feverish eyes fixed on Ryuji. "You specifically told me this not just to satisfy your vanity, right?"
"Of course not. I want to make an exchange."
"Oh!"
Orochimaru's eyes lit up, excited, but quickly calmed. "I'm afraid I lack anything to exchange for soul creation technology."
His most precious possession was Hashirama's cells, then a three-tomoe Sharingan. Then some rare, special corpse samples from battlefields.
But Hashirama's cells, the other party didn't value it. The rest were even less valuable than Hashirama's cells.
He didn't know what else he could trade for soul creation technology.
"You don't have it, but you can obtain it."
"What is it?"
Ryuji's lips curled slightly upwards. He enunciated each word, "The Scroll of Seals!"
"What!?"
Orochimaru's expression drastically changed, turning extremely ugly. "How do you know about the Scroll of Seals!?"
The Scroll of Seals wasn't confidential in Konoha; even many Chunin knew.
But as Shinobi, they didn't gossip about it.
Other villages didn't know about the Scroll of Seals, so naturally wouldn't think to gather intel on it.
But the fact was, Ryuji knew about the Scroll of Seals and offered something of considerable value in exchange.
This showed he understood its importance.
"I have my own intelligence channels." Ryuji maintained his smile. "Alright, stop probing. I won't reveal a thing about that. You'd better seriously consider whether to accept this deal."
Hearing this, Orochimaru hesitated.
If it were any other Konoha's Shinobi, they'd refuse without hesitation.
Because they didn't know the difficulty of soul creation technology, nor the value mastering it could bring.
But they knew the Scroll of Seals' value.
It was recorded by the First Hokage over ten years after Konoha's founding, containing and sealing all Ninjutsu within the village that caused great harm or even death to the user or others.
In other words, forbidden techniques.
The Scroll of Seals recorded all forbidden techniques developed by Konoha's Shinobi from the village's founding to the present.
If one person mastered all its techniques, they'd become an incredibly terrifying existence.
Therefore, no Konoha's Shinobi would use the Scroll of Seals as a bargaining chip.
But Orochimaru knew soul creation technology's value.
At high levels of science, a single technology comprises countless combined technologies.
Soul creation technology was even more so.
Mastering soul creation technology meant mastering many other technologies, developing numerous related products.
Developing an immortality technique was just one; other unknown benefits were beyond imagination.
Soul creation technology's value was no less than the Scroll of Seals', perhaps even greater.
But...
Was this really okay?