Starting with rogue ninjas, building the insect kingdom.

Chapter 549 Even Souls Have a Lifespan

The next day, Shigeaki Aburame personally attended the funeral of Ryuji Ida.

The funeral ceremony was very grand, almost to the point of national celebration, with virtually all members of the leadership or above who could attend coming.

However, no one present played any mournful music; only Aburame Shisei stood before his coffin, her hand pressed against his forehead.

A swarm of insects silently devoured his body, while his soul had already been consumed by the ghost insects before he collapsed.

Ryuji Ida died at the age of seventy-three.

From a traveling merchant who was extorted by a petty businessman, his identity changed constantly over the decades after he got involved with Aburame Shishiro.

Small merchant, big merchant, merchant of the Land of Waterfall, mining partner of the Land of Earth, nobleman under the Land of Earth, eventually moved to Konoha to become a spy, developed a spy organization, and became a world-renowned merchant.

He connected with the former six underground families, walked the line between the legitimate and criminal worlds, and eventually became a powerful figure in the ninja business world.

But he eventually transitioned from business to politics, and still actively planned for the unification of the ninja world. He has been in the ninja world for over thirty years, and now, thirty years have passed in the blink of an eye.

If he hadn't died today, no one would have noticed how old he had become.

His life witnessed the rise of the nation, and his death offered the final nourishment for the nation's future.

A few days later, in the laboratory, Shisei Aburame discovered that the soul has mass.

The upper limit of information that anything material can contain is quantity. Once the quantity exceeds the amount of information it can contain, information leakage will occur.

Just like a USB drive, you have to delete the contents before you can store something new. But the soul is not a USB drive. Past experiences and memories become information and are recorded in the soul.

When they exceed a certain limit, their souls begin to break down.

But why is Ryuji Ida's soul so fragile? Does he think he already knows the answer?

Aburame Shisei did not continue his research. Instead, he distributed the research data to Orochimaru and Sasori, allowing them to continue their studies.

Kurosaki Ichiro visited Aburame Shisei on the thirtieth day after Ida Ryuji's death.

Unlike Ryuji Ida, Ichiro Kurosaki's soul power is much stronger.

Aburame Chishin's primordial spirit penetrated his soul, examined it, and discovered that his soul could probably live for another thirty years. For an ordinary person, thirty years is already a considerable amount of time.

But Kurosaki Ichiro is a martial artist, and in theory his soul should be much stronger than that of an ordinary person, so he shouldn't have collapsed so quickly.

However, his body is indeed on the verge of collapse, and it's only a matter of the next day or two.

"I want to switch to a spare body, the most ordinary, purest human body," Kurosaki Ichiro said.

Aburame Shichika glanced at him: "You know the price."

"I know." Kurosaki Ichiro nodded. "All traces of training have disappeared, and we have to start all over again. But sir, I also know the limits of my talent. Being a cadre-level officer... is a hurdle I can never overcome in my lifetime."

His tone was calm, and he was indeed stating the facts.

"If I can't break through to the cadre level, I can't increase my soul's lifespan. Thirty years from now, I'll still be facing the same problems I'm facing today. Rather than dying a miserable death then, I'd rather start over now."

Aburame Shisei didn't try to dissuade him. Everyone has their own path, and Kurosaki Ichiro chose the most difficult one—to abandon everything from the past and become a nameless person.

"I will change my appearance myself," Kurosaki Ichiro said finally. "After that... there will be no more Kurosaki Ichiro in this world."

The transformation of his body went exceptionally smoothly. Three days later, after he had adapted to his new body, he turned and left, never to have any further contact with anyone.

Many people knew he was still alive, but they were well aware that they had lost an old friend forever.

This is not the first case of physical and spiritual collapse. After the incidents involving Ryuji Ida and Ichiro Kurosaki, similar things have happened to many people who had previously been inoculated with human symbiotes.

Following standard procedure, Aburame Zhicheng proactively saw them off.

Among these people, the appearance of Nan Shi was unexpected. Not only had his body not reached its limit, but his soul was also very strong, and it was almost impossible to tell when he would collapse.

"There's nothing wrong with your body." After examining him thoroughly, Aburame Shisei wondered why he was in such a hurry to change bodies.

Nan Shi said, "My lord, although my physical appearance has remained at around thirty years old, I know I am no longer young, and my strength growth has reached a bottleneck."

"So you changed your body to increase your strength."

He chuckled and said, "Actually, it's not entirely true."

I understand, I've reached that age, and I want to experience the bitterness of love.

Aburame Zhicheng instantly understood his expression. I knew then what kind of attraction a seventeen or eighteen-year-old's body would have on a fifty or sixty-year-old man.

Actually, this swordsman used to be very pure, just driven by lust, but now he's starting to get emotionally involved.

If there weren't no traces of parasites in his mind, he would have thought that Nanshi had been parasitized by love.

"Let's go to Orochimaru's place. His technique is already perfected." Shisei Aburame raised his hand to shoo him away, while also wanting Orochimaru and Shisei to study it thoroughly and not let it slip by.

Inside Orochimaru's laboratory, he was quite surprised to see Nanshi arrive.

"Oh my, what a rare guest! I didn't expect your health to be on the verge of collapse."

Nan Shi shook his head and said, "No, I just want to change to a younger body."

"Oh, what kind of body do you want?" Orochimaru said with a smile, crossing his arms. "We have many types."

The first type is a standard ninja body, which perfectly matches your genes.

The second type is a pure human body that has been freed from the Otsutsuki gene infection. However, as is well known, the human soul can also be infected with information.

In fact, things will gradually change after your soul enters the body, but we don't know the specifics.

The third type is the extremely powerful Otsutsuki God body. Besides these, there is a fourth type: the insect-human fusion body!

Orochimaru was thrilled and gave it his full recommendation.

However, what he did not expect was that the man would choose the purest human body, without any trace of cultivation, like a blank sheet of paper.

"I'll start over," Nan said to the two men while lying on the operating table. "This time, I'm going to build a foundation that's more solid than anyone else's."

He chose to hone his skills rather than pursue a higher level of artistry. Whether it takes ten or twenty years, he wanted to perfect every move he made.

Orochimaru and his companion were quite surprised, but in the end they still granted his request.

A few days later, Nan Shi returned to being a teenager and was attending high school.