Pure white.
Endless, boundless pure white.
When Hyuga Xiao opened his eyes, he found himself floating in a space without any point of reference. There was no ground beneath his feet, no sky above his head, and only soft yet icy light surrounded him. He looked down at his hands—his body was still there, and chakra still flowed through him, but the Tenseigan Prototype's perception seemed to have struck an invisible wall, restricted to within three meters of his body.
"Inside the Starry Sky Altar?"
He remembered the last scene—the instant the Raikage admitted defeat, that ancient altar had suddenly erupted with a blinding pillar of light and swallowed him whole. The stunned expressions of the Five Kage still lingered on his retinas, and the next second, he was here.
He did not panic.
Xiao merely slowly adjusted his breathing, allowing chakra to circulate steadily through his chakra pathways. The more unknown the environment, the more one needed to remain absolutely calm. It was an instinct carved into his bones after countless brushes with death.
"Buzz—"
The space trembled.
The pure white light began to flow and converge, condensing into a massive stone stele a hundred meters in front of Xiao. It stood over thirty meters tall, pitch-black from top to bottom, a glaring contrast against the surrounding white. There were no words on its surface, only countless fine patterns slowly writhing like living blood vessels.
Xiao narrowed his eyes.
Those patterns... he recognized them. They were a variation of the Caged Bird Seal, but far older and more complex, containing sealing formulas far beyond the Hyuga Clan's comprehension.
"The Humanity Stele."
A voice sounded directly within his mind. It did not pass through his ears, but pierced straight through his consciousness with an inhuman indifference.
Xiao did not respond.