New Goals

BAM!

Fatty hie slammed his palm on the table causing the various cheap bowls and wine to rattle. "What happened to Kang Yuan!? No he's O-Oroxi Maru now!"

The past few days had been trying for Fatty Fei and horse faced Kong. They'd been running around the ruined estate and New Moon City completing various tasks and errands for Kang Yuan.  These tasks and errands weren't the usual debauchery, no longer did they fetch over young maidens to play with or buy interesting toys.

Gone were the days they spent the young master's money lavishly. They couldn't even taste a drop of high grade wine or eat any expensive dishes. No, they had to spend on a budget and purchase boring stuff like cheap profound scrolls, ink and many other miscellaneous items the manor needed to be up to Kang Yuan's liking.

Kang Yuan or Oroqi- something, had different tastes now. He developed a taste for tea and soup. He purchased all kinds of creatures. Ugly toads, slugs and worst of all: Snakes! The Kang Yuan they knew feared snakes and was disgusted with toads! Yet he has a whole den built for them now!

"Has he gone mad?" Fatty Fei asked for the thousandth time. He threw back a shot of cheap wine before throwing the drinking dish to the floor directly at the feet of the ugly maid who served him.

He couldn't even take his stress out on her body! She was too skinny! Too ugly and dirty to even touch!

"Maybe a demon or ghost possessed him?" He added.

"No! That's too outlandish!" Kong Shizu said holding out a wine dish as the trembling maid poured him a portion wine.

"If not that then what!? All of a sudden, in the course of one night, Kang Yuan changed drastically! We were to spend more time at the Moon Lake Pavilion! But no! He sold everything and moved to this filthy place and shut himself away for days!" 

Kong Shizu sighed heavily, not being able to rebut Murong Fei's rant. If he knew things would get so bad, he'd have stayed in the Grand Asura Nation rather than come to this poor place.

"Shut up! Do you want word to reach back to him!?" Kong leaned over to hie and whispered harshly.

"I don't care anymore! I'm already in so much suffering what more can that mad fool do to me!" He shouted, his chubby face red from drunkenness.

"Haaah...." Kong Shizu let out a breath after taking a shot of the rice wine. When fatty became like this, reasoning with him was impossible. He threw down the wine dish- annoyed by the cheap taste. He made to get up but a sudden weakness caused his knees to buckle.

Before he knew it his face was planted on the table. The gaunt servant girl standing respectfully by the table smiled lightly. A small poof sound was made as her form vanished behind a cloud of smoke.

The cloud dissipated quickly, revealing the smiling face of Kang Yuan- Orochimaru's new vessel. With a new show of strength he picked up the lanky Kong Shizu and placed him on his shoulder whilst dragging the heavy Murong Fei by his foot out of the room and down the dark hallways of the ruined Manor....

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Fatty hie opened his eyes. He was in a brightly lit room. The air stunk of herbs. The smell reminding him of the alchemy lab he'd go to purchase high grade medicinal powder and scents to put stubborn maidens to sleep.

'Why am I naked? Where is this?' Fatty Fei thought as he felt his naked back pressed against a cold surface. As if he was lying on a stone bed. He strained to barely move his head to observe his surroundings. His eyes passed over the tables covered with scrolls, herbs and alchemical apparatus.

Suddenly a masked face appeared above him. "Oh? You're awake?" A familiar voice  asked.

"Kang Yuan? What is this?" He began panicking. He wanted to move but he couldn't move his limbs! This was too strange! The odd actions and current appearance of Kang Yuan frightened him.

Kang Yuan didn't answer his question; instead he placed a hand on Murong Fei's flabby chest; closing his eyes as if  in concentration. A strange sensation radiated from Kang Yuan's palm and into his body.

"Hmm.... Your profound energy aided your body to break down the poison far quicker than I anticipated. But it's not enough to completely deal with the paralysis. This is worth noting." Kang Yuan removed his hand and moved from Fatty Fei's line of sight.

"P-poison?" Fatty hie was full on panicking now, his heart pounded in his chest and his breathing was quickened but that didn't stop his fear-heightened hearing from the sound of writing.

"Y-young master yuan- I, I mean young master Orochi- please if I offended you in any way let me apologize. I'll do anything please spare my life!" Murong Fei mumbled out through his trembling lips.

The masked face of Kang Yuan or rather Orochimaru appeared over him again.

"Oh dear 'elder brother' Fei, I'm hurt. I'm not trying to kill you." A sincerely hurt look appeared in Orochimaru's eyes as they peered down at him.

"R-really?" In desperation Murong Fei grasped at hope, was the naïve Kang Yuan returning?

"Of course! Why would I kill a prized specimen like yourself?" Orochimaru's eyes squinted in a way that showed Fatty Fei that he was smiling under the medical mask but for some reason this didn't make him feel better.

"S-s-specimen?" He struggled to vocalise the strange sounding word. He didn't know what the it ment. The coldness of whatever he was on could stop the beads of sweat gathering on his forehead. He was hyperventilating.

"Oh no brother Fie. You should relax. Here let me help you." The voice of Orochimaru said before Murong Fei felt pricks of needles poking various parts of his body.

Miraculously, his breathing and heart rate slowed and stabilized. 

"There! Isn't that better?" Orochimaru's silky smooth voice sounded out in Fei's ears.

"Now..... Let's begin." Those words signaled the start of timeless torment and humiliation for the former lacky. No matter how he pled or cried. Orochimaru examined his body. Poking and prodding his entire body with needles and chakra. Never before had he felt so exposed- so violated.

He welcomed the murky darkness as Orochimaru poked his forehead with a needle. As unconsciousness took him- he wondered: 'Is this how they felt?' remembering the look of brokenness on the faces of the poor maidens he'd drugged and defiled.

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Orochimaru removed the surgical wear and left the room. He wasted no time activating his traps and alarms. He would've cast a few layers of genjutsu over the area but unfortunately he no longer had the prerequisite chakra control or affinity to do so... as yet.

He made his way over to his study. The room was full of scrolls covered in the language of the elemental nations. A jumbled assortment of characters that would look both familiar and foreign to a native of this world along with scrolls showing rudimentary profound arts and techniques.

Orochimaru took up one particular scroll showing the complex profound entrances, meridians and meridian points found in a human body.

The snake sanin narrowed his eyes at the page. His research and experiments just now and the current data he collected from the scrolls proved that there were generally minor meridians points and 54 profound entrances in the human body.

They had different names in the shinobi world but aside from the profound entrances, chakra coils and meridians were exactly the same and served similar proposes to circulate energy or release energy.

Profound entrances were the anomalies. 54 abnormally large chakra coils. These mutated coils didn't just circulate energy. They mainly absorbed it from the surroundings. They were also quite good at manipulating profound energy.

The real kicker was that most of these profound entrances were blocked! His two new test subjects had only 10 profound entrances opened while he had 11. Apparently this was the normal.

If this was the shinobi world and a ninja had 41 of his chakra points blocked then casting jutsu, or even movement would be hindered! But luckily the people of this world weren't quite as hindered by chakra. Though his test subjects reacted negatively to induced blockage of the other 307 chakra points.

The 54 abnormal chakra coils and chakra points were mostly separate and molded to absorb profound energy. With channeling energy being a secondary function, having most profound entrances blocked seemed to only slow down the absorption and flow of profound energy.

According to the data he collected, some people were born with more open, his vessel being one of them by opening 1 more than the norm. This was possibly why even though the previous owner of this body could reach the 3 level of the elementary profound realm by only cultivating a few times.

As it currently stood, his vessel had no way of ever seeing the  Spirit profound realm in his lifetime without the use of high grade profound pills or jade. Even then it would be a stretch.

The top countries in this were rumored to be individuals at the Emperor profound realm or even the mythical Tyrant Profound realm! Close to the peak any creature could achieve. Most People with their ordinarily blocked profound veins would never rise up no matter how good they were at comprehension, battle or how diligent they were in cultivation!

Wasn't this system too cruel?

This knowledge didn't cause the sanin to flinch or waver. In fact this made almost made him shiver with anticipation. In this world there were so many new things to discover and experiment with. In the elemental nations he tried and mostly succeeded in escaping death. He tried to learn and master every jutsu aiming for the peak of strength. To become a supreme existence!

But the methods he needed to use were drastic. He had to steal bodies and abandon his own. Just for a few years until the body began to degrade. He'd need to keep doing so until he found the perfect vessel, and even then he could only live out that host's lifetime.

Kimimaru was a failure with a diseased body, Itachi and his damned sharingan was too powerful-so much so that just as he was on the cusps of taking Sasuke's body he almost got sealed. 

But here in this strange land; a mysterious and new energy hung densely in the air, crystallized in jades and could be refined! In this world he could increase his overall strength and lifespan beyond anything possible in the elemental nations. The path to immortality and supremacy wasn't quite as elusive anymore.

In fact the steps were already laid out, only obstructed with barriers!

'Blocked profound entrances? How could something so trivial stop me!'

Orochimaru's eyes read a scroll that sung praises of the legendary Heavenly God's Spiritual Veins. A state where all profound entrances are open. Granting the owner a maximum absorption, circulation and control of profound energy.

"It seems I have a new short-term goal....." Orochimaru licked his lips in sweet anticipation.