The instant everyone was swallowed by the immense energy, Neji clearly saw the massive force rip open a passage through the void. Like tiny ants, the four of them were thrown into it one after another by an irresistible pull.
Neji felt as though an invisible giant hand had seized him, every inch of his bones groaning under unbearable strain.
He could only watch as his companions' figures gradually blurred within the twisted spacetime.
Neji poured every ounce of strength into trying to reach them, but he could not move even the slightest distance, as if he had been trapped inside amber that had frozen time itself.
At that moment, time suddenly became tangible. Neji clearly sensed it flowing backward, like a movie being rapidly rewound.
On both sides of the Spacetime Tunnel, everything was reversing along its original course of development, returning to its starting point.
The Evil God, the Ninja Academy, Hizashi's death, the peace talks with Cloud Village, the Nine-Tails Rebellion... Every scene tore at his nerves, as if countless hands were dragging fragments of his soul toward different times and places.
Soon, Neji could no longer make out the flashing images. They were moving too fast, accelerating toward points in history ever further from the present.
"Move! Damn it... Move already... You swallowed an Evil God last time and only left me a few scraps, but now that it's time to work, you're playing dead..."
Neji tried to activate the Primordial Bagua Diagram, but it remained completely unresponsive, pretending to be dead.
"Damn it!" he roared within the frozen spacetime, but his voice was compressed into a dull vibration in his chest.
The Primordial Bagua Diagram lay deathly silent in his Dantian. Its greed when it had devoured the Evil God now felt like a mocking