Morning light was sliced into narrow strips by the blinds, slanting across the rough wooden bed.
The temperature in the room was plummeting at an unreasonable speed.
Hyuga Xiao pinched the Silver Scale between his fingers, a layer of frost already forming over his fingertips. The thing was so cold it did not feel like an inanimate object, but like living flesh and bone freshly dug from the depths of a glacier.
On the bed, Hinata's skin, which had only just regained its color, was now covered in a fine layer of goosebumps. Beneath her left shoulder blade, the Star Map Coordinates condensed from residual Astral Matter pulsed rhythmically like a miniature heart, giving off a dim blue glow.
"Xiao..." Hinata bit her lower lip, her voice trembling slightly. "My back... it's so hot, but so cold too."
The torment of ice and fire at once.
Xiao did not immediately put the scale away. Instead, he moved it forward another half inch, suspending it above Hinata's shoulder blade.
Buzz!
The Silver Scale trembled violently, releasing a deep hum. The previously chaotic patterns across its surface came alive beneath the dim blue starlight. Threads of silver spilled from the scale's edges like little snakes slithering through the air, piercing precisely into the Star Map Coordinates on Hinata's back.
His vision penetrated through. In the azure star-like eyes of the Tenseigan, he saw the two powers blending together seamlessly.
That idiot Danzo had expended countless Branch House Byakugan and killed so many test subjects, yet he had not even grasped the surface of this thing. He had only thought of forcibly combining Astral Matter with Hashirama Cells, never realizing that this thing itself was a key.
"Bear with it." Xiao's tone allowed no argument. His left hand pressed against Hinata's shoulder to