The air in the underground cavern was cold as blades, every breath scraping a sharp pain through the lungs.
The enormous shed skin of the White Snake hung from the dome hundreds of meters overhead like an inverted ghostly blue tent. Faint light passed through its translucent scale patterns, casting mottled shadows over the skeleton nailed in place.
Hyuga Xiao stood outside the shed skin, his azure eyes fixed on the pitch-black rod piercing Tennin Hyuga's brow.
"Ōtsutsuki..." Xiao forced the word through clenched teeth, his voice as faint as icy grit, yet it made Kabuto behind him shudder violently.
Orochimaru dragged his crippled leg forward two steps. His golden vertical pupils contracted sharply as he stared at the remains. As one of the Shinobi World's foremost research fanatics, he immediately saw what was wrong.
"Lord Xiao..." Orochimaru's voice carried undisguised terror and greed. "That skeleton's density far exceeds that of an ordinary person. In life, he must have been a master who had reached the pinnacle of taijutsu. But the truly lethal thing is that black rod. It's breathing! It's forcibly drawing in the natural energy within this cavern to maintain some sort of suppressive seal. It cannot be touched! The instant someone touches it, that energy will shred their meridians and mind alike!"
"You know nothing of true power."
Xiao spat the words coldly. His combat boots crushed the ice on the ground as he strode straight toward the massive translucent shed skin.
Orochimaru swallowed and wisely shut his mouth, staring fixedly at Xiao's back. The soul implanted with the "Star-Track Wedge" was frantically warning him to stay away from the Black Rod, but his morbid curiosity nailed him where he stood.
Rip.
Xiao raised his right hand, gathering a sharp layer of Gravity Blade around his fingertips.