The wind and snow still howled, yet they could no longer sweep away the thick, pungent stench hanging in the air—a mixture of scorched metal and ozone.
The massive ruins of the base resembled a dead steel beast, half its body deeply embedded in the snow while the other half twisted toward the gloomy sky. Severed cables continued to spit terrifying blue arcs with a sizzling crackle, melting and vaporizing the surrounding snow, leaving patches of muddy craters.
Hyuga Xiao stood amid the wreckage, his expression calm, as though the Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion that had pierced the heavens and erased an airborne fortress a hundred miles away had merely brushed off a speck of dust.
His chakra was slowly recovering, but the exhaustion left by his battle with a higher-dimensional existence still washed over him in waves from the depths of his soul.
Yet that weakness was firmly suppressed by an even stronger, icy thrill—the excitement of a hunter locking onto prey.
Kurenai Yuhi knelt on one knee not far behind him, breathing lightly. As she watched Hyuga Xiao's back, her Eye of Time—newly awakened to self-awareness, gorgeous and dangerous—held not only the lingering shock of surviving disaster, but an almost frenzied worship.
This was her master.
This was the god she would follow at any cost.
Hyuga Xiao ignored the "work" behind him. His gaze was entirely drawn to the communications module embedded in an alloy plate, still stubbornly flashing with a dim blue glow.
He walked forward slowly, disregarding the high-voltage current that could instantly char even an Elite Ninja. When those violent energies came within half a meter of his body, an invisible gravitational field forcibly twisted and deflected them, guiding them obediently into the earth.
He extended his right hand, his pale, slender fingers gently