The air in the underground altar had frozen solid.
Hyuga Hiashi was pinned to the stone wall by Tenseigan Chakra. The Watcher Seed on his forehead throbbed violently beneath the azure light, like a black heart parasitizing his flesh. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth, yet he bared a twisted smile.
"Want to know where the scroll is?" Hiashi's voice was hoarse, carrying a morbid excitement. "It's inside the child you've always wanted to save."
Xiao's pupils narrowed slightly.
"Hyuga Neji—Hizashi's son." Hiashi enunciated every word. "When he was three, the Main House secretly implanted a Watcher Seed in him. Not an ordinary Seed, but a 'coordinate-class' vessel. When the Lunar Overseer descends, Neji's body will become the perfect host. His consciousness will be completely erased, and he will become a shell for the Ōtsutsuki Clan to walk the human world in."
At the altar's edge, Shisui Uchiha, bound by sealing chains, abruptly lifted his head. Shock flashed through his eyes.
Xiao said nothing. The glow of his Tenseigan only intensified, crushing Hiashi's chest inward as his ribs let out strained cracks.
"Cough, cough... The Byakugan Advancement Scroll is sealed within the Seed Core inside Neji." Hiashi coughed blood, but his smile grew increasingly savage. "It can only be taken out if he willingly gives it up. If you forcibly remove it, the scroll will self-destruct, and Neji will die too."
He stared into Xiao's eyes, as though trying to find even the slightest wavering there.
"Will you kill him? That Branch House prodigy you once wanted to save? That child whose fate you swore to change when you watched Ryota be turned into a monster on the third underground level?"
The only sound left in the air was the dull throb of the Watcher Seed.
Xiao remained