novelnext Chapter 201 Kurozumi Orochi
Chapter 201 Kurozumi Orochi
Chapter 201 Kurozumi Orochi
"Then I'll take it back for her to eat."
Connor said seriously, "She must have never eaten anything this delicious before."
"Are you sure? This is your dumpling."
Connor nodded vigorously.
"Yeah! It's okay if I eat one less skewer, but she might never have the chance to eat something this delicious in her entire life. If I give her this skewer of dumplings, she'll know that there are such delicious things in the world, and then she'll want to live even more, right?"
Bai Yu reached out and ruffled Connor's hair.
"right."
He said, "She would want to live even more."
The old man selling dumplings looked at this scene with a strange expression on his face.
He opened his mouth as if to say something, but ultimately closed it, lowered his head and continued roasting his dumplings, pretending he hadn't heard anything.
Bai Yu noticed this detail.
He didn't say anything, but simply continued leading the group forward.
The City of Flowers is very large.
They walked for almost an hour before they had covered half of the main street.
Along the way, they saw even more.
I saw nobles dressed in gorgeous kimonos sitting in palanquins, being carried by palanquin bearers through the streets. The bearers were sweating profusely and panting, while the nobles didn't even glance at them.
I saw a member of the Beast Legion openly steal fish from a fishmonger on the street. The fishmonger knelt on the ground and begged for mercy. The superhuman laughed and kicked him, sending him flying and crashing into the stall behind him.
They also saw a young woman being dragged into an alley by two men. She screamed and struggled. People around glanced at her and then quickly looked away. No one stepped forward to stop her.
Bai Yu stopped in her tracks.
He stared at the alley, his eyes as cold as ice; he hated being forced.
"Ranchiku".
"understood."
Rangiku's figure flashed through the air, and the next moment, two muffled thuds and two screams came from the alley.
Then Rangiku came out, followed by the young woman whose face was covered in tears and whose body was trembling.
"It's alright now."
Rangiku patted the woman's shoulder, her voice unusually gentle for someone who had just kicked her away: "Where do you live? I'll take you home."
The woman pointed in a direction with trembling hands. Rangiku glanced at Shiraha, and Shiraha nodded.
Rangiku left with the woman, and Shiraha stood there, looking at the two people lying in the alley.
Their bodies were contorted at strange angles, blood trickling from their mouths, but they were still alive.
Rangiku did not kill them.
It's not because I can't, but because killing them would only bring more trouble to that woman.
This is the Land of Harmony.
A place where even resistance would bring annihilation.
Bai Yu turned around and continued walking forward.
But after walking a few steps, he heard a voice.
A sharp, shrill voice with exaggerated laughter.
"Oh~~ Hehehehehe! I received another good thing today! Lord Orochi will be very happy!"
Bai Yu looked in the direction of the sound.
A man dressed in a gorgeous kimono stood in front of a grand mansion, followed by a group of subordinates, with several large trunks at their feet.
The lid of the box wasn't closed properly, and Shiraha's Sharingan clearly saw what was inside.
food.
Fabric.
besides----
a child.
A boy, about seven or eight years old, was bound with rope, his mouth gagged with a strip of cloth, huddled in a box, his eyes filled with fear.
Bai Yu's pupils suddenly contracted as he thought of some people's strange quirks.
The man turned around, revealing an oily face, small eyes, a flat nose, and a large black mole on the corner of his mouth with a few long hairs growing from it.
"Um?"
The man's eyes lit up when he saw Bai Yu and his group, and he scanned them with the same look he would give a merchant when he saw goods.
When his gaze swept over Robin, Unohana, and Violet, that greedy, disgusting light became even more pronounced.
"Oh, hehehehe! What great luck today! A few more good catches have arrived!"
He licked his lips and waved to his men behind him: "Go, bring those women to me. Lord Orochi will surely reward me handsomely!"
Several henchmen immediately rushed out and pounced on Robin and the others.
Then they flew away.
It wasn't knocked away, but rather propelled away by an invisible force.
Bai Yu didn't even move; he just stood there, staring at the oily-faced man with the look of someone looking at a dead man.
The man was stunned, his small eyes filled with confusion.
"Who—who are you?"
Bai Yu didn't answer, but slowly walked to the boxes, bent down, and reached out to take the boy out of the box.
The boy's body was trembling violently, and tears were streaming down his face, but he dared not make a sound.
"Don't be afraid."
Bai Yu said softly, untying the ropes binding the boy and removing the gag from his mouth: "It's alright now."
Bai Yu put the boy down and looked at the man.
The man's face had turned pale, but he still forced himself to keep going, shouting at the top of his lungs, "You...do you know who I am? I'm Lord Orochi's trusted confidant! If you dare touch me, Lord Orochi won't let you get away with it! Lord Kaido won't let you get away with it either!"
Bai Yu looked at him and suddenly smiled.
That smile was so gentle, so gentle it sent chills down your spine.
"Where is your Lord Orochi now?"
"In...in the castle! What's wrong? What...what do you want?"
"It's nothing."
Bai Yu's voice was very soft, as if he were talking about something insignificant: "I just wanted to tell him that from today onwards, the fate of Wano Country is about to change."
The man froze, his small eyes widening in shock.
"You—you're insane—do you even know what you're saying—this is the Flower Capital—this is Lord Kaido's territory—"
"I know."
Bai Yu said, then looked at Robin, "Could you take care of this child for me?"
Robin took the boy's hand. The boy was still crying, but not as hard anymore; he was just sobbing.
Bai Yu turned around and looked at the man.
"Take me to see your Lord Orochi."
The man's face turned completely pale. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but Bai Yu's eyes suddenly turned scarlet, and three black tomoe slowly rotated in his pupils.
The man's body stiffened, and his eyes became vacant.
"Take me to see Kurozumi Orochi."
Bai Yu repeated it.
The man nodded mechanically and turned to walk towards the castle.
Shiraha followed behind, with Artoria, Robin, Unohana, Connor, and Violet following even further back.
Rangiku returned and, seeing this scene, raised an eyebrow but didn't ask anything; she simply silently followed the group.
The seven people put down the boy they had rescued and headed towards the magnificent golden castle in the very center of the Flower Capital.
The people on the street watched them, whispering and pointing, but no one dared to step forward.
Orochi's castle was even more luxurious than Shiraha had imagined.
From the outside, it is a typical Japanese castle, with white walls and black tiles, layered and magnificent.
But once inside, I discovered that the interior decoration was in a completely different style.
Gold leaf was everywhere, jewels were inlaid on the pillars, and the ceiling was covered with brightly colored ukiyo-e prints. The paintings didn't depict landscapes or myths, but rather—
woman.
Women of all kinds, in all different poses.
Bai Yu's gaze swept over the murals, and his brows furrowed slightly.
"What a tasteless fellow."
Rangiku gave a cold laugh.
Violet murmured something as her self-light swept across the decorations on both sides of the corridor—the dolls, the statues, the paintings hanging on the walls—all of them, without exception, were filled with blatant, vulgar, and nauseating sexual innuendo.
Bai Yu offered no comment.
He simply followed the puppet man, through corridor after corridor, and through door after door.
They encountered several guards on the road. When the guards saw them, they were stunned for a moment, and then immediately drew their swords.
Bai Yu didn't even look at them. He simply flicked the air with his finger, and the guards were sent flying as if hit by a truck, crashing into the wall and losing consciousness.
They were not killed.
Not yet, at least not yet.
Finally, they arrived at a door at the deepest part of the castle.
The door was enormous, about three meters high, and carved with a huge multi-headed serpent whose eyes were rubies that gleamed eerily in the candlelight.
The puppet man stopped, turned around, and said in a hollow voice, "Right here, Lord Orochi is inside."
Bai Yu nodded, then looked at Rangiku.
Rangiku kicked open the three-meter-high door.
The sight inside the door made everyone pause.
A huge room, covered with thick tatami mats, surrounded by golden screens.
In the very center of the room sat a man.
A man who is difficult to describe.
He was wearing a crimson kimono embroidered with gold snake patterns.
But what's most striking is his hair.
His hair was dark purple, but there was a bright red tuft on top of his head, like a snake's forked tongue.
His eyes were small, and he was squinting as he looked at the women dancing in front of him.
The women wore thin, almost transparent kimonos, their faces bearing stiff smiles, their bodies swaying to the rhythm of the shamisen.
There was no joy in their eyes, only fear.
The man watched them dance while drinking, a disgusting smile playing on his lips.
The sound of the door being kicked open made his smile freeze for a moment.
He turned his head and saw Bai Yu and his group.
Then his expression changed.
It wasn't because of anger.
It was because of fear.
Although Kurozumi Orochi was a tyrant, he was not a fool.
He knew that anyone who could move freely in his castle was no ordinary person.
"Who—who are you people?!"
His voice was shrill and piercing, like fingernails scratching a blackboard.
Bai Yu did not answer.
He first looked at the dancing women, then at the trembling servants peeking out from behind the screens, and finally fixed his gaze on Kurozumi Orochi.
"You're Kurozumi Orochi?"
His voice was calm, so calm that it didn't sound like he was addressing the ruler of a country.
Orochi's expression changed repeatedly as he slowly reached for his waist, where a short sword was tucked.
"I'm warning you—this is my territory—if you dare lay a finger on me—Kaido won't let you get away with it—"
Bai Yu looked at him and suddenly smiled.
He walked up to the giant black serpent and looked down at him.
"I'm just here to tell you something."
Kurozumi Orochi's body was trembling, but he was still holding on, glaring at Shiraha.
"Starting today, your rules no longer apply."
The black charcoal serpent stared wide-eyed, as if it had heard something unbelievable.
"Who do you think you are?! What gives you the right to order me around?!"
Bai Yu did not answer.
He simply extended a hand and gently placed it on the shoulder of the black charcoal serpent.
Then, Orochi sensed it.
An invisible, terrifying force, capable of crushing everything, emanated from that seemingly ordinary hand.
The black charcoal serpent's body was trembling violently.
The feeling of that hand on his shoulder wasn't like a human hand, but rather like a mountain pressing down on him.
His knees buckled, and he almost collapsed to the ground, but a twisted sense of pride kept him standing.
"You—you think you can scare me like this?"
His voice trembled, but in his small eyes, besides fear, there was something even more dangerous: resentment.
"I, Kurozumi Orochi—have spent so many years—to climb to this position today!"
His voice grew louder and shrewder, and the muscles in his face began to contort and distort.
"Do you know how I lived all those years?! I crawled on my knees! I licked other people's shoes! I begged for mercy like a dog in front of those who looked down on me!"
His body began to swell.
Bai Yu withdrew his hand, took a step back, and watched quietly.
The black charcoal serpent's skin began to turn black, as if it had been tainted by some ancient power.
His neck split open, and one, two, three—one snake head after another emerged from his body, each with hideous scales and scarlet eyes.
His body continued to swell, bursting through the crimson kimono and transforming into a gigantic, scale-covered form.
Eight long necks extended from the torso, and eight snake heads swayed in mid-air, flicking their black tongues.
Yamata no Orochi.
The mythical monster, right now in the castle at the very heart of the Flower Capital, has opened its blood-red maw.
"I! Will! Not! Give up!"
The eight snake heads spoke simultaneously, their voices overlapping: "This is Wano Country! It's my country! You outsiders, what right do you have to tell me the rules need to be changed?!"
The black charcoal serpent's voice was filled with madness, and the eyes of all eight serpent heads burned with the same rage.
"I'm going to eat you all up! Eat you all up!!"
His men finally snapped out of their shock.
A man in black armor pulled a Den Den Mushi from his waist, dialed a number, and shouted into the Den Den Mushi: "Enemy attack! Enemy attack on the castle! Requesting backup! Requesting backup!"
He didn't finish his sentence because Violet appeared behind him at some point.
"No matter who you are, you're all dead! Lord Kaido will—"
"It's so noisy."
Artoria frowned and looked at Shiraha: "Should we stop them?"
Bai Yu shook his head.
"Need not."
He looked at the enormous eight-headed monster in front of him, and a slow smile curved his lips.