Shihōin Naraku's consciousness was clear.
This was his only activity in this alternate space, and the only thing that had not been completely sealed off.
His mental energy was still circulating, all of it dependent on his soul.
Time had frozen his flesh, but it could not freeze his soul.
But that made no sense.
Naraku frowned.
Of course, his body could not perform that action; it existed only in his consciousness.
Even if his mental energy could circulate, chakra required a mixture of physical energy and mental energy to be produced.
Without physical energy, mental energy alone could not possibly condense into chakra.
This was the most fundamental law of the ninja world.
Unless...
Naraku's thoughts suddenly paused for a moment.
Unless his mental energy itself carried something that could substitute for physical energy.
Or, more precisely, his soul itself possessed qualities beyond this world.
Because of a reward he had drawn from the system, his soul had become a Zanpakutō.
Simply put, it was his soul given tangible form and turned into a weapon.
The density and strength of a powerful Zanpakutō's soul far surpassed those of ordinary people.
However powerful the Time-Sealing Box was, it was ultimately a treasure of the Ōtsutsuki Clan, a sealing jutsu created according to this world's rules.
It targeted chakra, time, and the flesh.
But could it target a soul from another world, one fundamentally different in nature?
The more Naraku thought about it, the more plausible this hypothesis seemed.
His soul was a Zanpakutō.
That form of existence alone meant that his soul possessed strength and density far beyond those of ordinary people.
The Ōtsutsuki Clan's Time-Sealing Box might be able to freeze his flesh, and even freeze the chakra originally within his body, but it could not completely freeze a