Only Tobirama Senju and Ling remained on the platform now. Wind swept past the Castle's spires, carrying faint shouts from the distant training ground. Those sounds only made the silence here feel heavier, almost suffocating.
Tobirama did not speak immediately. His eyes-so sharp they seemed capable of piercing flesh and looking into a person's bones-examined Ling inch by inch. His gaze moved from the faint yet stubborn thread of senjutsu chakra within Ling to the Beacon glowing silver-blue deep in his soul, then settled on his eyes, where feigned composure could not conceal his distance and wariness.
"What the other 'me' left in your soul isn't merely a Beacon," Tobirama finally said, his voice steady but cold as ice. "It's a Composite Jutsu Core. It has three functions. First, positioning across time and space and emergency communication, as we're doing now. Second, under specific conditions, it can serve as coordinates and a vessel through which 'my' power can descend."
He paused, his gaze pressing into Ling like a red-hot branding iron.
"As for the third function, the one he valued most-it's the prototype of a 'purification furnace.' Or, to put it another way, a... 'specially formulated vaccine' against that dark power."
Ling's heart jolted, and he abruptly raised his head. "A vaccine?"
"Yes." Tobirama took a step forward, and an invisible pressure instantly bore down on Ling. "That 'me' spent a long time concealed within you. He had already unraveled the dark power's patterns of corruption and energy structure. He compressed all that information, along with his entire understanding of Water Release, Sealing Jutsu, and even the workings of the soul, and imprinted it into this Beacon. He had only one goal-to use your 'Purifying Karma' constitution to nurture a set of 'purification rules' within you that could fundamentally identify,