At the instant space was torn apart, there was no sound.
Only a nauseating dizziness, as if her organs were being forcibly twisted.
Deep within the underground shelter of the Land of Iron, the originally deathly still air suddenly froze. Invisible ripples spread from a single point, and the frost congealed on the walls fell away in soft showers.
Kurenai Yuhi, sitting cross-legged on a stone bed, abruptly opened her eyes.
Her crimson eyes, once alluring and captivating, now flickered with a silvery glimmer belonging to time. Instead of looking at the distorted space, she instinctively tensed up as a tremor born of instinct shot up from her tailbone.
She sensed it.
A... terrifying aura beyond description was seeping through from the other side of that rift.
It was not merely powerful.
It carried an overwhelming stench of blood, the indifference of an ancient god, and an absolute tyranny that regarded all things as insignificant.
She recognized that aura, yet it felt utterly unfamiliar.
Rip—
A hand forced the spatial rift open from within. Azure light poured out, illuminating the dim underground chamber as brightly as day.
A slender figure slowly stepped out.
He still had that handsome face, almost eerily beautiful. He still wore the spotless robes of the Hyuga Clan.
Yet the instant Kurenai Yuhi saw him clearly, her heart skipped a beat.
The Hyuga Xiao before her was utterly different from the man who had left several days ago.
The deliberately restrained sharpness around him was gone, replaced by an aura of extreme inward restraint that nevertheless radiated terrifying pressure at every moment. Those azure Tenseigan were no longer merely brilliant; deep within them, stars seemed to rise and die. With every blink, invisible gravity appeared to tug at the surrounding light.
What made her heart tremble