Deep within the Glacial Mine Tunnel, ice crystals frozen across the rock walls refracted a faint, ghostly blue glow.
Hyuga Xiao sat cross-legged on a flat boulder, holding the Watcher Seed crystal stripped from Hiei Hyuga's body in his palm. The crystal was no larger than a fingernail, pale golden patterns flowing over its surface while what seemed like liquid light slowly revolved within.
"Are you sure you want to absorb it now?" Kurenai Yuhi leaned against the opposite rock wall. The wound on her right shoulder had been roughly treated with medical bandages, but her face still bore the pallor of blood loss. "After that fight, your condition..."
"That is exactly why I need power while my condition is unstable."
Xiao's voice was perfectly calm, without the slightest ripple.
He spread open his left hand, and pale blue chakra patterns surfaced beneath the skin of his palm—the sign of the Tenseigan Prototype activating. Wrapped in chakra, the crystal slowly rose into the air and began breaking down into countless tiny motes of light.
The motes seeped into Xiao's palm like flowing sand.
At that instant, the temperature inside the mine tunnel plummeted.
It was not cold in the physical sense, but something more fundamental—the air seemed to solidify, the light turned viscous, and even sound traveled half a beat slower. Kurenai instinctively stepped back, her pupils contracting.
She saw Xiao's body trembling.
It was not the trembling of fear, but a more violent shock erupting from the cellular level. Veins bulged across his forehead, and blood vessels emerged one by one beneath his skin, glowing an unnatural pale gold. A faint cracking sound came from the Caged Bird Seal—not because the Curse Mark was breaking, but because the connection between the mark and his skin was being forcibly torn