Naruto: I, who fooled the ninja world, was hailed as a savior.

Chapter 136 The Automated Hatchery of 'Virtual'
Once, the Box of Ecstasy contained neither heaven nor earth, only a distorted existence devoid of any concept of time.

But now the interior of the Chest of Elysium has completely changed.

The ground is paved with huge stone slabs that are as smooth as a mirror and as black as ink, and the top is also a huge arched dome made of the same black stone.

The stone walls on all four sides, reaching to the dome, are carved with four faces representing "joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness." Ten giant pillars, like supporting giant trees, stand in various parts of the palace, supporting the dome at the very top.

The interior of this Box of Bliss is now clearly a vast, well-structured palace with boundaries and a solid framework.

The only stone seat is located at the top of the highest platform at the deepest part of the stairs, where the 'Shadow' sits quietly, watching everything before it.

The eerie blue candlelight burning on the four walls could not illuminate the darkness outside the hall, but it was enough for 'Shadow' to clearly see the devouring feast unfolding below.

Hundreds of illusory humanoid spirits are now colliding, tearing, and devouring each other, relying on their remaining instincts.

After melting other spirits into itself, the illusory spirit will solidify into a trace.

And such things happen in every corner of the palace space.

"Woo..."

"hiss……"

Countless illusory and blurry spirits emitted incomprehensible hisses, wandering and devouring within the palace like headless flies, filled with the most primal and uncontrollable hunger.

"Now that the Box of Elysium has been modified, it should be considered a virtual, fully automated incubator."

Looking at the scene before him, 'Shadow' pondered in his heart.

Once the modified "Box of Elysium" is placed in a specific location, it will act like an invisible black hole, or rather, like a giant "soul siphon" device.

It can automatically attract and devour all the recently deceased souls within a certain range that have not yet dissipated or entered the Pure Land.

Most importantly, the "Box of Elysium" is not only for storing souls.

Joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness—these four emotions intertwine and encompass most feelings, which is also known as "obsession."

The seemingly conflicting and repetitive words "joy" and "happiness" actually have different meanings. The former is more in line with the meaning of "joy," while the latter is more inclined towards "desire" and "love."

The original purpose of the Box of Elysium was to amplify these human emotions, thereby seeing through and manipulating human desires to guide their behavior.

After being modified with points, the Box of Elysium can use its twisted power to amplify the emotions of those souls and erode them.

Only one intense obsession and desire remained, amplified to the extreme by the Box of Elysium: the thirst for power, the obsession with revenge, the instinct for survival...

Therefore, the stronger a soul's obsessions and desires were in its previous life, the more it yearns for survival and the stronger its instinct to devour other souls to maintain itself.

In this enclosed space where only souls exist, they are like wild beasts that are never full, following only one law: eat, or be eaten!
This is the cruel ecosystem of the Box of Bliss, a place of endless devouring and evolution where losers are merely nourishment for the strong.

Thus, the concept of 'emptiness' came into being.

'Shadow' turned its head to look in another direction.

A soul that had devoured dozens of its kind gradually coalesced as if catalyzed by an invisible force. The dozens of souls roared and struggled, and began to mutate.

Their twisted and deformed bodies gradually merged, their size rapidly expanding like an inflated balloon, and the chaotic spirits were forcibly mixed into one body.

A massive, bloated figure, several meters tall, slowly took shape. A white, bone mask, consisting only of a mouth, gradually covered where the face should have been. It had no hands or feet, only a black body, as if draped in a black robe.

A newly born lower-level Hollow has successfully transformed.

It let out a low, hollow roar, moved clumsily, instinctively searching for more souls to secure itself, and opened its mouth to greedily devour several spirits that couldn't escape in time.

The devoured spirit collapsed and decomposed like a sandcastle, turning into a clump of turbid spiritual energy that was sucked into its mouth, while the ethereal body swelled and emitted a satisfied growl.

"Has it already begun to take shape?" 'Shadow's' eyes flickered slightly. "It's indeed different from the lower-level Hollows that were forcibly created using points before."

Previously, he transformed Karin's mother into a 'Hollow'. Because she was forcibly catalyzed into a Great Hollow using points, she was like an ordinary spirit, unable to touch physical objects, nor could she be touched by ordinary weapons or ninjutsu.

However, the Hollow that Orochimaru transformed through his "Soul Eater" and the Box of Elysium now possesses a physical form to some extent, so it can naturally destroy physical objects and be touched by some ninjutsu and weapons.

“However, the Hollows born in this way are completely different individuals compared to the original spirits that still possessed memories,” 'Shadow' said thoughtfully.

If Karin's mother, who was previously brought to life using points, still possessed a certain degree of memory, emotion, and rationality.

So, the Hollows born in this way are like Orochimaru who tried to devour souls with a human body, but was also affected by the memories and emotions mixed in with the souls.

These great voids will have their memories, emotions, and personalities from their previous lives disrupted, reorganized, and merged, ultimately being completely distorted and polluted, transforming into a completely new individual existence.

With that in mind, 'Shadow' turned its gaze to another spot in front of it.

In the presence of lower-level Great Void beings, ordinary spirits are the lowest level of sustenance.

However, there are also predators at higher levels of the food chain in this space.

"Roar!"

A creature with biological features such as hands and feet casually grabbed and crushed several tearing spirits into pieces, absorbing the spiritual energy released after the spirits were crushed into its belly.

Compared to those lower-ranking Hollows, it is not particularly tall, but it is very robust and strong, and it has already begun to show signs of human form and intelligence.

A hollow void lies in its abdomen, and a stark white bone mask covers its entire face, from which two points of cold, scarlet light can be seen.

Its movements are swift and precise, weaving through countless souls.

Wherever it passed, countless spirits were swiftly annihilated like candles blown by a gale.

Without a doubt, this is a mid-level Hollow.

A low-level Hollow requires the spirits of dozens of ordinary ninjas to be absorbed and fused together, and these low-level Hollows basically have no individual consciousness and act purely on instinct.

However, if among all the merged spirits, one spirit has a higher level of individual consciousness and strength than the others, then a lower-level Hollow with individual consciousness can be formed.

Only these special lower-level Hollows, by absorbing more lower-level Hollows to strengthen themselves, can eventually evolve into mid-level Hollows.

Therefore, although the face beneath the mask of that mid-level Hollow cannot be seen, the 'shadow' is very clear.

The core consciousness of that Hollow was none other than the former White Fang of Konoha.

—Sakumo Hatake.

(End of this chapter)