The Ultimate Struggle for Energy Balance and Going with the Flow on the Scene

Pain.

It was as if two rough millstones were grinding in opposite directions inside his body—one made of sand, the other of rock.

The sand came from the One-Tail Shukaku, carrying frenzy and hatred as it tried to tear his meridians apart and turn them into a desert. The rock came from the Kyoto Underground Palace, heavy and ancient, seeking to grind his bones into powder.

Baishi knelt on one knee on the cold metal floor, his right hand pressed against the sealing crystal and trembling slightly.

The Fox Mask hid all his expressions, but the blood dripping from the edge of its jaw silently testified to the torture taking place inside his body.

He was like an acrobat walking two tightropes, except the two tightropes themselves were waging a war to the death.

He had to establish a balance.

That thought was the only reef amid the raging waves of agony.

He abandoned the idea of using his own Chakra to forcibly suppress either side. That would have been foolish. What he needed to do was not suppress them, but harmonize them.

Yin Release Chakra extended from his sea of spirit, transforming into countless threads thinner than spider silk yet tougher than steel cables. Rather than colliding with the two torrents, the threads silently seeped into them like the shrewdest shepherds, searching for the patterns and pathways of their flow.

One stream of energy surged toward his heart, while the other sought to tear apart his lungs and organs.

Before they could intersect, Baishi's Yin Release Threads gently nudged them, like tiny stones altering the course of a river. This allowed them to pass each other, forming a tiny whirlpool at the point just before collision.

Once one whirlpool formed, a second followed.

Countless tiny whirlpools quietly took shape