[Whoosh!]
As Jigen hovered in the air, anxiously scanning his surroundings,
a white figure instantly appeared roughly a hundred meters away from him.
Sensing it, Jigen immediately shifted his gaze and stared fixedly at Imu, clad in a white robe with gold trim and a red-gold longsword hanging at his waist.
Imu returned the stare with an exceptionally cold gaze.
Neither spoke first. They merely faced each other from afar through sharp, unfathomable eyes.
At that moment,
as two invisible auras erupted and collided, all was silent between heaven and earth.
An intensely oppressive atmosphere filled every inch of the air in all directions.
Wind or clouds alike, all fell still.
As their auras grew increasingly fierce, even the originally brilliant sunlight seemed to dim.
At the same time,
the auras around both of them had become visible to the naked eye.
Waves of white energy radiated outward from Jigen, while Imu's pale golden aura stood impregnable.
No matter how violently the former's energy surged, it could not stir the slightest ripple against it. Imu remained as steady as a mountain.
This greatly shocked Isshiki Ōtsutsuki within Jigen's body.
He had not expected even the second state of the Black Karma to be unable to suppress his opponent.
Moreover, this man's bearing and eyes were astonishingly similar to those of the Ōtsutsuki main family: equally cold and detached, lofty and disdainful of all beneath them.
Most importantly, the strength of that aura gave him an intense sense of tension even before they had exchanged a single blow.
If not for the other man's skin being insufficiently pale, his lack of horns, and the absence of Byakugan,
Isshiki Ōtsutsuki would have suspected that another member of his clan had arrived.
"Who are you?"
Unable to restrain himself any longer, he spoke