The third underground level of the Hyuga Ancestral Shrine.
The air was thick with old dust and a faint, elusive stench of decay. Xiao stood before a stone door carved with curse inscriptions, the azure glow of his Tenseigan outlining his cold, stern profile in the dim space.
"Destroy it directly?" Clone Shisui—Number Seven—asked quietly, his Sharingan glinting dark red in the darkness.
Xiao shook his head.
The sealing formula wrapped around the stone door was so complex it made his scalp tingle. It was not one of Leaf Village's common Five Elements Seals or Four Symbols Seals, but something older, something closer to the essence of sealing itself—the inscriptions moved slowly across the stone like living creatures, each wriggle sending ripples of chakra through the air. He could sense that if he forced the door open, the entire Ancestral Shrine's defenses would activate at once, perhaps even triggering a self-destruct mechanism.
"Try simulating Main House chakra." Xiao raised his right hand.
The Tenseigan's ocular power gathered in his palm, and azure chakra began to mimic the unique bloodline fluctuations of the Hyuga Main House—the frequency he had memorized after secretly observing Hiashi, Hizashi, and other Main House members countless times over the years. The chakra stretched toward the stone door like threads, and the instant it touched the inscriptions—
Buzz!
Blinding white light erupted from the stone door's surface!
Xiao's pupils contracted. He instantly severed the chakra connection and retreated three steps. The writhing inscriptions on the stone door twisted wildly like enraged venomous snakes. Countless phantom images of pure white eyes vaguely appeared within the white radiance, staring fixedly at the intruder.
"No." Xiao's voice remained calm, but the cold sweat seeping from his temples revealed the danger just now. "The seal has a bloodline recognition mechanism embedded