Chapter 171: Orochimaru Makes a Move

Orochimaru walked out of the house, and Shoichi Yoshida immediately stepped forward to greet him with a smile on his face.
He had been guarding the doorway the entire time.
"Lord Orochimaru, let's go quickly," he called out eagerly.
Orochimaru noticed that Shoichi Yoshida actually had a bundle strapped to his back.
"Go? We are indeed leaving," Orochimaru said.
He raised his head to look up at the sky, where a massive, dark swarm of puppet soldiers was diving downward.
Sounds of panic echoed everywhere throughout the base.
Shoichi Yoshida said, "Yes, yes, yes! With your strength, it will be easy for us to get out of here."
He wore an expression of profound relief, raising a hand to wipe the cold sweat from his forehead.
Orochimaru smiled silently; Shoichi Yoshida seemed to have misunderstood something.
Without offering any explanation, he stepped up into the air, heading straight toward the diving army of puppets.
After following Orochimaru for just two steps, Shoichi Yoshida looked ahead and behind, completely bewildered. "Lord Orochimaru, aren't we going the wrong way?"
Clearly, the escape route was back the way they had come.
Orochimaru said nothing. The path was not wrong; he intended to give battle.
Realizing what was happening, Shoichi Yoshida's face instantly twisted in conflict.
He possessed an ability that rendered him immune to being surrounded by the puppet army, but that ability came with a strict time limit.
It was fine for slipping past obstacles or running away, but if he stayed to help Orochimaru fight the puppet army, the time limit would undoubtedly expire, trapping him within the encirclement of puppets to die.
"Lord Orochimaru, we..." He tried to persuade him once more.
He didn't want the boss he had just acquired to throw his life away so easily.
Orochimaru still paid him no mind.
Gritting his teeth and showing a resolute gaze in his eyes, Shoichi Yoshida turned and ran away by himself.
Orochimaru didn't pay any attention to him.
……
The puppet army attacked. An army nearly half a million strong, terrifying like a plague of locusts, threw everyone in the base into a panic.
Someone shouted at the top of their lungs, "Where are the base leaders? Where are the leaders?!"
Another person said with a dead expression, "The base leader openly betrayed us—the rest of the leadership must have betrayed us too!"
Someone else wept and cried out, "No wonder they barely broadcast any news about the puppet army's advance lately! It turns out the higher-ups were treating us as a gift to the puppet army!"

Chaos gripped the base. Some fled with their families and friends, while others picked up weapons, preparing to fight back.
There were also those whose hearts had turned to ash, quietly staying inside their homes to await death.
With the invasion of the puppet army, all facets of human nature were on full display within the base.
In truth, the base leaders were just as bewildered. How could the leader have abandoned them?
Left without a leader and drifting like a rudderless ship, the base's higher-ups actually turned on one another in infighting, starting a massive brawl as each tried to seize the other's resources to escape.
High in the air, Yusei Kurosawa and Shosei Kurosawa stood side by side, looking down at the base below. Their eyes were filled with excitement.
Shosei Kurosawa said, "Brother, brother, look, blood-food from another base! Our eyes can grow even stronger!"
Yusei Kurosawa affectionately patted Shosei Kurosawa on the head and said, "Yes."
History was astonishingly similar. In the main universe, Shosei Kurosawa hunted down various races to forge the Blood Sea Star Core for his cultivation.
Yet in this universe, he and his brother were just as blatantly hunting blood-food.
The methods differed, but the path they walked remained the same.
The white-haired old man stood quietly behind the Kurosawa brothers. As he listened to their conversation, a chill crept into his heart.
These were two demons who cultivated using human lives. He wondered if this deal with the tiger was right or wrong...
Just as the puppet army was about to plunge into the base below for a massacre, an invisible repulsive force suddenly erupted. The vanguard of the puppet army was blasted straight back into the sky.
Because the formation was so tight, those knocked back crashed into the puppet soldiers behind them, causing a significant number of casualties.
"This is..."
Shosei Kurosawa gazed down into the base and saw a human walking step by step into the air.
That human wore a calm expression, looking at the diving puppet army without the slightest emotional fluctuation, as if it were nothing at all.
Shosei Kurosawa said, "He must be that Orochimaru, right?"
Both Yusei Kurosawa and the white-haired old man behind him looked at Orochimaru. The old man nodded and said, "It's him. His strength is formidable."
Shosei Kurosawa curled his lip in disdain. "No matter how strong he is, can he match an army of half a million puppets? He will surely die among them."
Yusei Kurosawa wore a faint smile; he thought so too.
Even for someone like him, a certain amount of sacrifice would be required to slaughter such a vast horde of puppet soldiers.
Individuals of his caliber were few and far between.
As they spoke, Orochimaru made his second move.
For his first move, he used repulsive force to blast away the front lines of the puppet army, throwing their ranks into chaos.
For his second move, he employed the Oil Release. Orochimaru formed hand seals and brought his hands to his mouth, unleashing a torrent of oil that shot straight into the sky.
Every single puppet soldier in the vast army was drenched in oil.
Beside them, Shosei Kurosawa burst into laughter and mocked, "What's the use of attacking with these greasy liquids? Want to burn them? These puppets aren't afraid of fire..."
Before his voice even faded, Orochimaru abandoned hand seals, his eyes widening as a flash of purple light swept through the air. Black flames erupted wherever his gaze fell.
This was one of the ultimate Mangekyo Sharingan techniques of Itachi Uchiha: the Super Amaterasu.
The flames of Amaterasu were known as the ultimate physical attack, capable of burning anything to ashes.
Normal Amaterasu only manifested black flames at the exact focal point of the caster's line of sight, but Super Amaterasu caused black flames to erupt across everything within the user's field of vision.
Orochimaru's visual range was extremely vast, entirely encompassing the half a million puppet soldiers.
Instantly, the oil-soaked puppet army burst into a roaring inferno.
Their burning was a magnificent spectacle, forming a veritable sea of black fire high in the sky.
There were no screams; the puppet soldiers possessed no emotions, silently burning away into ashes.
Shosei Kurosawa's eyes and mouth were wide open in utter disbelief. They were all burned to death?
This was completely unexpected, and even more unexpected was the fact that his opponent was using Itachi Uchiha's technique!
Through the blazing sea of fire, both Shosei Kurosawa and Yusei Kurosawa stared at Orochimaru's impassive face.
They bore a deep grudge against Itachi Uchiha and loathed anyone who used his abilities even more!
Down in the base, the people who had experienced a hundred emotions were now stunned and bewildered. What was this sea of black fire in the sky?
That dense swarm of puppet soldiers, terrifying like a plague of locusts, had all been buried in the sea of flames?
Who had made a move?
Suddenly, they recalled a rumor from a few days ago—that the base's leader had been replaced by an outsider who had violently fought his way in to usurp the position.
At the time, they had thought it was just a tall tale, but perhaps it was true?
Regardless of anything else, they saw hope for survival!
They wouldn't have to die!
Orochimaru continued walking step by step up into the sky. Passing through the sea of fire, which parted automatically before him, he rose to a height level with the Kurosawa brothers.
"Hmph, so you're quite strong, aren't you?" Shosei Kurosawa said sinisterly, killing intent radiating from his body.
At that moment, his older brother Yusei Kurosawa stepped forward, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Shosei Kurosawa.