Chapter 150: The Blood Ocean Planet

This planet had been drenched in blood. Save for the small patch of ground where Orochimaru and his companions stood, boundless oceans of blood stretched out in all directions.

The sea of blood churned, rippling like restless waves, accompanied by the sound of surging tides and a thick, pungent scent of blood drifting in the air.

Standing on the tiny island, Orochimaru gazed down into the sea of blood. In reality, his eyes were wide open, faint purple light shimmering within them as he pierced through the surface to observe the depths below.

To be precise, he was looking at the core of the planet.

The entire planet was soaked in blood, down to its very planetary core. Within the crimson core, a massive, bloody power lay dormant.

Many figures were bustling about near the core.

On the islet, the frog-headed humanoid’s expression shifted drastically. His skin, initially a deep green, turned pale green—the equivalent of a normal person turning white with fear.

He realized he had been duped and had walked right into a trap.

The others felt the same way. They had simply wanted to take a shortcut to save on travel expenses, never expecting to plunge headfirst into mortal danger.

"Forget it, I'm breaking through! A tiny sea of blood can't stop me!" The frog-headed humanoid wore a fierce expression.

Anyone capable of navigating the cosmos possessed at least the strength of flight. Under normal circumstances, shattering a planet would be effortless for them.

However, since their captors had specifically teleported them to this blood-drenched planet, it meant this place was far from ordinary. Destroying it would be exceptionally difficult.

Thus, leaving was their only option.

The frog-headed humanoid levitated into the air, adopting a flying posture with his right arm raised, and shot upward into the sky at high speed.

Two or three others followed closely behind him.

Yet, just as they reached mid-air, a pair of deeper, more sinister crimson eyes abruptly manifested in the sky—a sky already dyed scarlet by the sea of blood. It was the Blood Dragon Eye!

The moment these eyes appeared, blood-red tears began to drip down. Instantly, the figures suspended in the mid-air froze, their expressions turning utterly vacant.

"This is... Blood Dragon Eye genjutsu!"

Someone on the island recognized the technique and cried out in alarm.

They hadn't followed the others into the air because they reasoned that since they had been teleported here, leaving couldn't possibly be that simple. Even if flight wasn't explicitly forbidden, there had to be mechanisms in place to prevent it.

They had let the frog-headed group test the waters.

Sure enough, measures to prevent flight did exist, and they were inescapable. The genjutsu of the Blood Dragon Eye was something they could not break.

High above, the individuals caught in the Blood Dragon Eye's illusion maintained expressionless faces. Coldly, they plunged their hands straight into their own chests, ripped out their beating hearts, and crushed them, scattering gore into the sea below.

They had committed suicide, their lifeless bodies plunging from the sky to merge with the sea of blood, becoming a part of it.

This gruesome display filled the remaining onlookers on the island with terror, their eyes wide with horror as if they were witnessing their own imminent future.

They desperately wanted to escape this place, but if flight was impossible, what else could they do? Were they expected to cross the sea of blood on foot?

Moreover, the sea of blood undoubtedly harbored other lethal traps designed to ensure their demise!

That went without saying.

"Lord Orochimaru, what should we..."

Torre also wore a grave expression. Things had grown troublesome; they had clearly been plotted against. While his combat strength was quite formidable, he had no absolute certainty of escaping safely.

"It's fine," Orochimaru replied calmly. He stepped upward into the sky and said, "The plan remains unchanged. Let them deliver us to the Uchiha main planet."

Witnessing Orochimaru ascending into the sky, Torre, Misei, and the remaining survivors were utterly shocked.

With the grisly example of the frog-headed group still fresh in their minds, who would dare take to the air now?

Torre Misei hesitated, paralyzed by the fear of death and lacking the confidence to counter the Blood Dragon Eye projection in the sky. He was unsure whether he should follow.

Yet, recalling the overwhelming dominance Orochimaru had displayed all along the way, he gritted his teeth and took flight as well.

Back on the islet, the few remaining individuals exchanged bewildered glances. They had no idea what to do, but at the very least, they could watch and see what fate awaited Orochimaru and Torre Misei.

In the sky, as Orochimaru ascended high enough, that pair of deep-hued Blood Dragon Eyes materialized once more. Weeping bloody tears, the eyes unleashed their genjutsu.

Yet, Orochimaru remained suspended mid-air, tilting his head back to gaze at the Blood Dragon Eye without the slightest change in his expression.

The genjutsu of the Blood Dragon Eye had no effect on him.

"The evolutionary path of the Blood Dragon Eye, is it?" Orochimaru thought to himself after observing for a moment.

This was a blatant evolutionary route for the Blood Dragon Eye—cultivating by harvesting the blood of others.

"He's fine?"

Seeing that Orochimaru and Torre Misei appeared unharmed, as if the Blood Dragon Eye's ability had vanished, Torre Misei’s admiration for Orochimaru's power deepened. Meanwhile, the people on the islet assumed the genjutsu had failed.

Emboldened, some of them took flight, but the moment they reached a certain altitude, they were struck by the illusion. Fortunately, they had maintained their guard, forcibly breaking free from the trance before hastily dropping back to the ground.

"The genjutsu effect is still active, but they... they..."

Those individuals pointed at Orochimaru and Torre Misei, utterly speechless.

Deep beneath the sea of blood, near the planetary core, a humanoid alien with an oversized head and stubby limbs was urging his subordinates to work faster.

The blood-drenching of the planet required deliberate human intervention, and this was their handiwork. Every single one of them possessed a pair of Blood Dragon Eyes, capable of manipulating blood techniques. They were extracting energy from the sea of blood and injecting it into the planetary core.

Everything happening on the surface of the blood ocean was projected here, clear as day.

Viewing the imagery, the large-headed alien muttered, "A powerhouse who broke through the projected Blood Dragon Eye genjutsu?"

The blood of such a strong individual contained immense power. If harvested, it would greatly accelerate the transformation of the planetary core.

However, intervening was troublesome. If the对方 intended to leave, he wouldn't bother stopping them.

"Uchiha Itachi... finally, this moment is almost upon us!" Turning his gaze toward the nearly matured planetary core, the large-headed alien murmured to himself.

...

Of course, Orochimaru had no intention of leaving. After examining the Blood Dragon Eye in the sky, he cast his gaze back toward the depths of the blood ocean.

Since they had promised to deliver him to the Uchiha main planet, they needed to fulfill their obligations properly.

He flew toward the sea of blood. The red waters automatically parted to both sides, not touching him in the slightest, with Torre Misei following closely behind.

Near the planetary core, the large-headed alien sensed that not only had the intruder not left, but he was actually descending into the depths.

"Hmph, overestimating your capabilities."

He remained unimpressed. While flying in the sky triggered the genjutsu, crossing the ocean was even deadlier, and the illusions within the water were far more potent.

The closer one got to the core, the greater the pressure of the genjutsu. Even his own physical body couldn't withstand the illusions at a depth of twenty thousand leagues; it would suffer mental collapse and drive him to suicide.

Losing interest, the large-headed alien cast his thoughts toward a grander scheme.

"Uchiha Itachi, it's almost time. I'm going to give you a huge surprise!"

Orochimaru descended at a steady, unhurried pace, moving vertically downward. Ever since arriving in this future era, aside from handling miscellaneous tasks—such as modifying communication energy orbs—all his energy had been devoted to studying and adapting the jutsu of various alien races.

With Earth's cultivation methods having spread throughout the cosmos, he needed to exploit the backdoors within those methods to master the techniques of myriad extraterrestrial species.

There were simply too many techniques, more than he could handle at once, and he couldn't learn them all in a short time.

However, he could study them selectively.

For instance, right now, he was focusing exclusively on jutsu related to the Blood Dragon Eye.

Having been modified by aliens, the Blood Dragon Eye had long since transcended its past limitations, and Orochimaru was rapidly absorbing its principles through these systemic backdoors.

The underwater genjutsu, which should have been lethal, was virtually non-existent to him. In fact, it was rendered entirely useless.

His entire journey downward was completely unobstructed.

Near the core, the large-headed alien checked the monitors and discovered that Orochimaru and Torre Misei had already passed the twenty-thousand-league mark beneath the sea. Surprised, he muttered, "Impressive. Stronger than I anticipated, but you certainly won't pass forty thousand leagues."

"What? They passed it!"

"Well, then you definitely won't get past eighty thousand leagues!"

"This, this, this... impossible!"

"I refuse to believe this! At one hundred and sixty thousand leagues under the sea, you are dead for sure!"