Ice Seal

At night, Hyuuga Nen left the small town where he had lived for over a decade and sprinted toward the highest peak in the Land of Iron.

The territory of the Land of Iron was not particularly vast, and by the time night deepened, Hyuuga Nen had already reached the mountainside.

Hyuuga Nen stood on the snow, white mist puffing from his mouth. "The temperature here must be thirty or forty degrees below zero. This should meet my requirements."

With that, Hyuuga Nen activated his Byakugan and gazed into the distance, seemingly searching for something.

"Found it. There's a cave right over there." He then headed toward that cave.

As Hyuuga Nen approached the cave, he discovered a creature inside. "A bear, just as I thought," Hyuuga Nen said softly.

"My apologies, but I need this space." No sooner had the words left his lips than Hyuuga Nen appeared instantly beside the hibernating bear. He raised his palm gently and struck the bear's head; the creature lost its life in its sleep, devoid of any pain.

Hyuuga Nen used Wind Release to clear the debris and odors from the cave, then pulled out a storage scroll and activated the technique.

As the technique took effect, Rika's body appeared on the cave floor. Hyuuga Nen had already treated Rika's body beforehand, and since there was no air inside the storage scroll, her remains still looked lifelike.

Hyuuga Nen then began to carve the formulas for the Four Symbols Seal and the Seal of Resilience onto Rika's body.

In less than half an hour, Hyuuga Nen finished the inscriptions. He then injected a sufficient amount of Yang Release Chakra into Rika's cells. Through the combination of the Four Symbols Seal and the Seal of Resilience, the Yang Release Chakra could be maintained within her body for a considerable amount of time.

Hyuuga Nen intended to temporarily freeze Rika's body, and the Yang Release Chakra would prevent her cells from being damaged during the freezing process.

After tending to Rika's body, Hyuuga Nen picked her up, intending to place her in the corner of the cave.

As he walked, Hyuuga Nen murmured, "The core formula of the Yin Seal must be the Four Symbols Seal." This was the conclusion he had reached while working on Rika's body just moments ago.

"I wonder if this sealing technique works on men as well. If it does, I might try to get my hands on it." He added this as he laid Rika's body down.

Hyuuga Nen returned to the center of the cave and performed the Shadow Clone Technique. "One, two, three, four, five. Five clones should be enough."

Hyuuga Nen ordered one clone to go outside to collect snow and ice, another to perform Earth Release, and the remaining three to stand by.

As the Earth Release technique was performed, a set of apparatuses gradually appeared before Hyuuga Nen, consisting of two stills and one container, all connected by two pipes.

During the Earth Release process, Hyuuga Nen incorporated not only shape transformation but also nature transformation, making the material of the apparatus closer to quartz to facilitate the distillation process.

Soon, the clone collecting snow and ice returned. He placed the snow into one of the stills and immediately rushed back out to collect more.

Seeing the ice and snow collected, one of Hyuuga Nen's clones immediately began using Fire Release to heat the first still.

As the heating progressed, the second still collected enough water, and the clone began to heat that one as well.

Through double distillation, relatively pure water appeared in the final container. The clone heated the water a third time to prevent it from freezing.

Watching one clone performing Earth Release, three performing Fire Release, and one collecting snow, Hyuuga Nen nodded with satisfaction. He sat down, took out a Military Ration Pill, swallowed it, and began to extract chakra.

Because the ninjutsu could not be interrupted during the purification process and would take a significant amount of time, Hyuuga Nen's main body was responsible for extracting chakra, ready to provide it to his clones at any moment.

After some time, Hyuuga Nen opened his eyes, feeling somewhat exhausted. He approached the final container of pure water and found it filled to the brim.

Looking at the container, which was two people tall and two people wide, Hyuuga Nen dispelled four of his clones. He left only one to maintain the Earth Release, and he no longer maintained the two stills, leaving only the water container behind.

"Now, I just have to wait for the water temperature to drop to match the surroundings. It might take a few more hours, so I'll rest for a bit."

Although Hyuuga Nen possessed a large amount of chakra, the constant use of ninjutsu had left him feeling drained. He walked to the corner of the cave, leaned against Taro, and closed his eyes to rest.

Several hours later, Hyuuga Nen woke up. He went to the container and felt that the water inside had reached the ambient temperature.

Even though the water temperature was below zero, it had not yet frozen.

"So this is supercooled water. I've heard of it, but this is my first time seeing it." Hyuuga Nen remarked, then began to weave hand signs.

"Water Release: Water Prison Technique!"

Although Hyuuga Nen did not know how his father had obtained this Mist Ninja technique, it was certainly proving to be a great help to him now.

Hyuuga Nen extended a hand and, through the Water Prison Technique, took control of the supercooled water. At this point, his clone had already canceled the Earth Release.

Even with the Earth Release gone, the water remained floating in mid-air in a spherical shape under the control of his Water Prison Technique.

The container had been shaped like a sphere by Hyuuga Nen from the start, so he found it easy to control the pure water.

His clone brought Rika's body over. Using the Water Prison Technique, Hyuuga Nen controlled the water sphere to open a gap in the center at a very slow pace.

The clone placed Rika's body into the water sphere, along with some snow and ice.

Once the water sphere had completely encased Rika's body, Hyuuga Nen struck the sphere firmly with his other hand. With a series of cracking sounds, the water sphere froze rapidly, and soon Rika's body was completely encased in ice.

"Finally finished. It's a pity I don't know Ice Release; otherwise, this wouldn't have been so troublesome." Hyuuga Nen let out a sigh of relief.

Looking at the frozen Rika, Hyuuga Nen recalled a sentence from that night that had left a deep impression on him.

"I will make Hyuga Shun apologize to you in person," Hyuuga Nen said solemnly.

After burying the ice sphere underground, Hyuuga Nen turned his head to look at Taro, who had been staying in the corner of the cave, and said, "Taro, let's go."

Hearing Hyuuga Nen's words, Taro wore a reluctant expression but followed him out of the cave.

After exiting, Hyuuga Nen used Earth Release to gently seal the cave entrance before heading down the mountain.