The light gate at the entrance to Shikkotsu Forest twisted violently the instant Xiao stepped through it.
It was not rejection.
It was devouring him.
Everything before his eyes—Tsunade's grave face, the Slug Sage's enormous body, the light gate at the entrance to Shikkotsu Forest woven from natural energy—all of it was torn apart, reassembled, and dissolved into a chaotic expanse of deep blue in an instant.
Xiao did not even have time to react.
His body felt as though it had been thrown into a high-speed centrifuge. His organs shifted, and his bones groaned under unbearable strain. The Tenseigan activated instinctively, blue chakra bursting from every pore as it tried to resist the tearing force.
But it was useless.
That force was not an attack, but a "pull"—dragging him bodily from the dimension of reality into some deeper space.
"So this is... the Bloodline Corridor?"
Xiao gritted his teeth and forced himself to remain conscious.
His vision finally stabilized.
He stood within a void.
No, it was not a void.
Beneath his feet lay something translucent, like glass and yet like water, reflecting the endless starry sky above. Those stars were not the familiar silver-white points of light in the Shinobi World's night sky, but cold, metallic deep blue. They densely filled his entire field of vision, each one slowly rotating and radiating energy fluctuations that made his heart palpitate.
There was no wind in the air.
There was no sound.
There was only an almost tangible sense of "presence"—something so immense it surpassed comprehension, watching him from every corner of this starry sky.
Xiao took a deep breath.
A stabbing pain came from his lungs—this "air" was not oxygen, but some kind of highly concentrated energy particle. Every breath felt like swallowing scorching gravel. His skin tingled faintly,