"Your fate was sealed the moment you met me: utter defeat."
Shengu Xuan's cold, contemptuous words stabbed like sharp steel needles into Neji Hyuga's proud self-esteem.
"Such arrogance!" Neji's previously cold face instantly twisted with rage. His eyes widened fiercely, and the veins around them bulged like the tangled roots of an ancient tree, looking hideous and terrifying.
"Byakugan! Activate!"
With Neji's low shout, the world before his eyes instantly turned black and white, and a full three-hundred-and-sixty-degree field of vision burst open without a single blind spot. He stared fixedly at Shengu Xuan, trying to see through the network of meridians inside his body.
Yet the sight before him made Neji's heart sink.
Nothing! Still nothing! The inside of Shengu Xuan's body was like a deathly silent black hole, without even the faintest glimmer of chakra. This completely defied everything that was normal for living beings in the Shinobi World!
"Enough tricks! Without chakra, how will you block my Gentle Fist?!" Neji gritted his teeth, forcing down his unease. He bent his knees slightly and assumed the classic opening stance of Hyuga Style Taijutsu.
"Then let me show you the Hyuga Clan's true power! Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms!"
An enormous Eight Trigrams formation seemed to appear on the ground beneath Neji's feet. He kicked off hard, his entire body becoming a white afterimage as he instantly rushed in front of Shengu Xuan!
"Two palms! Four palms! Eight palms! Sixteen palms! Thirty-two palms! Sixty-four palms!"
Neji's hands became a sky full of palm afterimages. With piercing whistles and highly concentrated chakra, they rained down like a raging storm, striking the sixty-four vital pressure points on Shengu Xuan's body with absolute precision!
"Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud, thud!"
The dense barrage of dull impacts echoed through the arena, making the spectators'