Rumble—
The rock beneath their feet groaned.
Hyuga Xiao pressed down with one hand. The dazzling azure glow in his palm was the only sun in this underground world. With every slight movement of his fingers, tons upon tons of rock were precisely stripped away, pulverized, and reshaped by an invisible gravitational field.
The temperature in the air was plummeting at a visible rate. The walls, the dome, every inch of exposed rock rapidly condensed beneath a thick layer of frost that exuded an eerie blue chill. This was not natural ice, but the physical manifestation of Extreme Cold Gravity, formed entirely from Tenseigan Chakra.
Kurenai Yuhi curled up on a stone bed in the distance, wrapping her arms tightly around herself, yet her teeth still chattered uncontrollably.
Cold.
A cold capable of freezing the soul.
But what made her tremble even more was the scene before her, as though a god were creating the world.
Hyuga Xiao did not form a single hand seal. He merely stood there, manipulating matter and energy as he pleased. The indestructible rock strata, aged tens of thousands of years, were more obedient in his hands than the softest clay. A massive circular depression over thirty meters in diameter was being violently excavated nearly a hundred meters underground in a manner that defied the laws of physics.
He was not constructing something. He was creating it.
"A perfect 'container' needs absolute cold to suppress cellular collapse, and absolute gravity to lock down rampaging time."
Hyuga Xiao's voice rang out amid the roaring noise, calm yet clear in Kurenai Yuhi's ears. It sounded as if he were talking to himself, yet also as if he were explaining it to her.
Fine beads of sweat seeped from his temples, and his breathing was heavier than usual.