Starting as a pirate, he rose to become the strongest Shinigami in Soul Society.

Chapter 405 Orochimaru and the Mythical Zoan-type Eight-Headed Serpent Fruit.

Cantilevery military base.

At the execution ground, several serious criminals await execution by firing squad.

Near the execution ground, Bane and his group of marines, along with Orochimaru, were gathered.

"Don't say I'm too arrogant. In fact, I now control the fate of death in this world. All souls will eventually return to my embrace. You can all watch closely," Bane said, standing in front of the crowd.

The others looked at Bane with expectant eyes, and soon, the execution began.

A chorus of gunfire rang out, and the hardened criminals were quickly killed.

"I didn't do anything, did I?" Bane asked, spreading his hands.

Garp said with a curious look, "Yes, yes, hurry up, it's not that we don't believe you, it's just that we all want to broaden our horizons."

"Watch closely," Bane said with a grin.

As soon as he finished speaking, he raised his hand and created a crack in the air, instantly opening up the barrier between the mortal world and the Pure Land. Then, with a gentle wave of his hand, several pale green souls were summoned out of the crack, looking bewildered.

Normally, souls are invisible to ordinary people, but at this moment, thanks to Bane's special care, Garp and the others can see this situation.

"So it really is the prisoner who was just executed!?" Sengoku said in surprise.

"This is truly a power that only a god could wield," said Professor Zephyr, his face filled with awe.

Without showing off, Bane waved his hand again, and the souls quickly returned to the Pure Land. Then the cracks disappeared, and the space returned to normal.

"How was it? Pretty impressive, right?" Bane said proudly. "This is the biggest gain I made on my trip to the ninja world."

"Absolutely amazing." Sengoku regained his composure and exclaimed without reservation.

"I've already marked your souls, so don't worry about anything. As soon as you die, I'll receive a notification and come to collect your souls myself," Bane said with a smile. "Then, no matter where I am or what world I'm in, we can reunite."

"That's a rather ominous thing to say," Garp laughed.

"Human lifespan has its limits, and you are all getting on in years." Bane's tone became serious, and he said earnestly, "Even those paths to immortality cannot be enjoyed by everyone, so you all have to face reality. Moreover, if you don't want to die, there are ways. This 'Spiritual Transformation Secret Technique (Modified)' is a major breakthrough for us. You should study it carefully, cultivate diligently, and strive to achieve the unity of spirit and body. This will allow you to achieve 'immortality' in the soul. You only need to absorb enough soul power to maintain your existence and transcend birth, aging, sickness, and death. As for this soul power, there is plenty of it in the world that you can absorb, and my Pure Land has plenty of it, which I have prepared for you."

Hearing Bane's words, the elderly Sengoku and the others looked somewhat wistful.

On the contrary, Garp, despite his advanced age, had a youthful mindset. After a moment's thought, he asked, "If one dies a natural death, can't one go to the Pure Land and become stronger by absorbing soul power?"

"Theoretically, it's not possible." Bane nodded immediately and said, "In the entire Pure Land, I am actually the only one who has this qualification, but in reality, I can grant you this right."

"If that's the case, then I don't need to cultivate this spiritification technique at all. I can just die and then go to your place to cultivate, right?" Garp laughed heartily.

"But ultimately it's separated from the physical body. Putting aside everything else, the Devil Fruit ability will definitely be gone. There are still differences. It will greatly weaken one's own strength, so it's best to achieve the integration of spirit and body," Bane said after thinking for a moment.

Orochimaru, standing nearby, asked earnestly, "Once we reach the point of unity between spirit and body, we can sense the call of the Pure Land. At that time, no matter how far apart we are, or how many worlds we are in, as long as we enter the Pure Land, you, Spirit Lord, will be able to detect us and summon us to our respective world, right?"

"That's right, this is the new path I envisioned. In this way, even if we leave this world, we won't have to lose contact like before. We can still communicate through the Pure Land," Bane explained with a smile.

Orochimaru pondered for a moment and said, "Currently, my spiritual-physical integration process is the fastest, but due to issues such as talent, it will take at least another five years to fully spiritualize my body. I estimate it will take even longer for the others, right?"

Bane had the blessing of the Soul-Soul Fruit, but it still took him several months to fully spiritualize himself.

Orochimaru has some research and expertise in the soul, after all, he was able to develop the Reanimation Jutsu to transfer his own soul. But even so, he still needs at least five years to achieve spiritualization. Others may be stronger than Orochimaru, but they may not have Orochimaru's talent in this area. It is estimated that they will also need at least five years.

After thinking for a moment, Orochimaru said, "You all cannot easily abandon your physical bodies because you have the power of so-called Devil Fruits, but I don't, and I have no attachment to my physical body. Thinking about it this way, I might as well just give up my physical body."

"Speaking of which, Orochimaru." Bane casually took out a Devil Fruit from the dark space, shook it, and said, "A few days ago, when I was talking about these things with Mr. Garp and the others, I acquired some more Devil Fruits. This one was seized by Admiral Sakazuki in our world when he was fighting against the pseudo-reign of Wano Country. The power of this Devil Fruit is very suitable for you."

Orochimaru looked at the Devil Fruit and swallowed greedily.

Although he is not a superhuman, he has seen too many superhumans in this period of time. If you ask him if he is interested in superhumans, the answer is definitely yes.

However, Orochimaru had heard that these abilities were very rare, so he was too embarrassed to speak up.

At this moment, Bane took out a Devil Fruit, which was still very attractive to him.

Zoan type, Snake-Snake Fruit, Mythical Zoan type, Yamata no Orochi.

This was originally the power of Kurozumi Orochi, the shogun of Wano Country during Kaido's era. Later, the Kozuki clan launched a counterattack and successfully regained power in Wano Country, and Kurozumi Orochi was also killed by them.

Surprisingly, after Sakazuki went to fight the Kozuki regime in Wano Country, he accidentally found this Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit in Wano Country.

As a Devil Fruit user, he had no need for Devil Fruits. Although he was able to become a user of multiple Devil Fruits after coming here, he had no interest in changing it. As a result, this Devil Fruit ended up in the hands of the Navy's high command until a couple of days ago, when it ended up with Bane.

When Bane heard the name Yamata no Orochi, he immediately thought of Orochimaru.

As far as I can remember, he had some kind of Eight-Headed Serpent Technique, which allowed him to transform himself into the appearance of an eight-headed serpent. Clearly, he had some longing for snakes, and this ability suited him very well.

After briefly explaining the Devil Fruit ability to Orochimaru, Orochimaru's expression became even more complicated.

"So, are you planning to directly discard your physical body and enter the Pure Land to cultivate your soul and achieve immortality, or are you going to eat the fruit of the Yamata no Orochi and calm down to cultivate the unity of body and soul?" Bane asked temptingly, like a devil.

"Five years." Orochimaru considered it for a moment, then said with a serious expression, "Our bodies and hair are given to us by our parents, how can we easily discard them? I was just joking with you earlier."

Not a single mistake, not a single poem, not a single post, not a single piece of content, not a single look!

With a body like his, which is a one-to-one clone, how dare he say it's a gift from his parents?

After uttering these shameless words, Orochimaru unceremoniously took the Eight-Headed Serpent's fruit from Bane's hands and said, "I'm not actually that greedy for this power; I just wanted to broaden my horizons."

"When did you become so hypocritical?" Bane looked at Orochimaru with disdain and said, "That image of someone who doesn't hide their thirst for power, truth, and knowledge, and who will stop at nothing to achieve it, suits you much better, Orochimaru."

"Since you say so, Lord Spirit, then I won't stand on ceremony," Orochimaru replied with a smile.

After finishing discussing Orochimaru's situation, Bane took out a huge scroll, hung it around his neck, and patted it, saying, "Aside from the Pure Land and the Tailed Beast chakra we've already given to Dr. Genus, our greatest gain from this exploration of the ninja world is this entirely new knowledge system, including the Ninjutsu system and the Sage Mode system. We meticulously categorized and compiled this knowledge before we returned, and it's all recorded in this large scroll. Everyone can try practicing it."

"A couple of days ago, that little brat Nami asked me to spar with her. At first, I was looking at her with my old eyes, and I almost got kicked to death by her. Luckily, I have enough strength to suppress her with the help of the Momo-Momo Fruit. I learned from her that she has mastered a taijutsu called the Eight Gates Formation, which is very strong, really strong!" Garp said with a sigh.

He was too familiar with Bane and the others. When Nami left, she was just a nobody. How could he not know her strength level?

When he came back, he suddenly became ruthless. Once he opened the Eight Gates, he didn't care about anyone. With one kick, he almost killed him, but he also nearly strained his back.

With Garp's personal testimony and the strange changes in Nami and others, Sengoku, Kuzan, and other naval leaders were quite interested in this new knowledge system.

Now that a full-scale war is about to be waged against the Empire, it would certainly be a good thing if our side could be strengthened. Ordinary ninjutsu and taijutsu could even be popularized throughout the army, comprehensively improving the navy's combat power!

As everyone was pondering these matters, Kuzan suddenly seemed to sense something and asked, "Wait, why do you sound like you're making your final arrangements today? Are you not leaving again? You've only been back for a short time?"

Bane smiled and said, "That's indeed the plan. When I came back, everyone was doing a great job. Even without me, we've continued to achieve victory after victory. As for the tactics and strategies to come, I haven't participated in the major battles of the past two years, so I can't offer any opinions."

"But your strength and prestige are undeniable. Just your presence at the Kanertsky base is enough to boost morale, and we can be confident in our abilities," Sengoku said in a deep voice.

"That's true, but if I stay here, I'm afraid my strength will slow down," Bane said with a slightly troubled expression.

Just then, Master Zefa spoke up: "If we can't help him, we shouldn't cause him any more trouble. Besides, didn't we just say that with the Pure Land here, we can still communicate even if we're separated by worlds? If there's any obstacle he can't overcome, I'll die and go call this kid back."

"Hahaha, the teacher is right." Bane laughed and said, "If anything happens, you can contact me by dying. I'll open the door and come back anytime."

"The price to see you is far too high," Garp joked.

After saying this, Sengoku asked again, "So who went with you this time?"

Bane immediately shook his head and said, "For now, it's just me. Ain, Orochimaru, and Sasuke said they'll come to the Pure Land to find me after they've mastered the Spirit Transformation Technique. As for Zoro and the others, they said that since a great war is about to break out here, they might as well join the war and try to end this world war as soon as possible and defeat the Empire. At the same time, they also need to master the Spirit Transformation Technique. They can come to find me whenever they've reached the required level."

"Are you sure you'll be okay on your own?" Garp asked, sounding a little worried.

"I have the Pure Land here. To be honest, I'm actually safer on my own, and I can move freely," Bane laughed.

(End of this chapter)