The Supreme Soul, Starting with Death

This boundary doesn't seem to be very solid in itself?

Both Hollows and Shinigami are forms achieved by ordinary souls undergoing specific changes; in other words, their origins are actually the same.

However, as their strength increased, Hollows evolved into Killian and Adjuchas, while ordinary Shinigami mastered Shikai and Bankai. Hollows and Shinigami went further and further down their respective paths, naturally getting further and further away from the "origin".

Therefore, the distance between Shinigami and Hollows naturally increases exponentially, making it increasingly difficult to break through the "boundary between Shinigami and Hollows" and reach the other side from one's own side.

Therefore, the stronger a Shinigami or Hollow is, the more difficult it is for them to break through the limits?

Conversely, for a newly Hollowfied Hollow or a regular Shinigami who has just become a Shinigami, breaking the boundary between the two might be accomplished with just a "turn".

Gu Shi frowned and pondered for a long time. He felt that although he initially thought his conjecture was outrageous, the more he thought about it, the more reasonable it seemed.

Perhaps I should go to the real world and find a Hollow who has just completed Hollowfication to verify it?

If my guess is correct, then perhaps we should try to complete the Orcish before evolving Adjuchas?

While Gu Shi was pondering, the changes within the bone cocoon finally ended. The distorted humanoid figure had completely dissipated, but the long, narrow object beside it had fully taken shape, transforming into a metal strip resembling a knife.

Chapter Ninety-Eight Death

corpse...

corpse...

corpse...

As far as the eye could see, there was only barren white sand and corpses scattered everywhere.

How long has it been since I last saw anything alive?

Fifty years?

a hundred years?

[It should...take a little longer, right?]

The solitary figure lay on the pale sand dune, its gaze calm and undisturbed, as if it had become one of the many corpses around it.

He used to lie on the sand dunes and hated the endless darkness of Hueco Mundo, which had no stars or moon. Otherwise, at least he would have his friends to keep him company. But now he has accepted his loneliness.

A tiny phantom flash condensed at his fingertips, which he casually launched, watching it pierce through mountains, shatter the earth, and disappear into the distance. Hearing the distant roar of massive objects being destroyed, the figure's lips twitched into a stiff, small smile.

In the deathly silence of the world, such a sound was a rare comfort. The figure closed his eyes contentedly, trying to drift off to sleep in enjoyment.

I'll definitely be stronger after I wake up, right?

【Oh well, whatever.】

Ultimately, it will only mean the further expansion of a desolate world.

The figure in the shadow mocked himself and the world in his heart.

"Powerful"—what an alluring word! Countless people have gone mad in their pursuit of "power," and he was once one of them, vowing to be stronger than anyone else and to stand taller than anyone else.

He succeeded. There were no thrilling twists and turns, no painstaking struggles. He naturally became the "strongest" one.

His spiritual power was so profound and surging, like a boundless ocean.

His spiritual pressure was so intense and brilliant, it was like the blazing sun falling upon the earth.

No life is qualified to be his opponent, or even to stand before him.

Even if he tries his best to restrain himself, the slightest leak of spiritual pressure is enough to turn the area around him into a forbidden zone for life. Any life that tries to get close to him will be stripped of all its vitality by his spiritual pressure before it even sees him.

No living thing could appear alive in his sight.

Kylian won't work.

Adjuchas is no good.

Wastodd... that won't work either.

He became the strongest one, but also the loneliest one.

He has lived alone, with only corpses as his companions, for over a century. But as long as he lives, he will continue to grow stronger, and his desolate world will continue to expand.

Sleep, sleep, and when you wake up, maybe a second "strongest" will come to my side.

Clinging to a hope that was no longer hope, the figure's consciousness gradually faded, but just as he was about to fall asleep, he suddenly awoke, and for the first time, his eyes, which had been dead for a hundred years, were tinged with surprise.

Just now, he suddenly sensed something; the strange fluctuation of spiritual energy was extremely weak, even weaker than the air currents created by his breathing.

but……

wonderful!

Absolutely amazing!

It's not fake!

It's not Death itself!

They are not the same as the wicked people in hell!

This is a spiritual energy fluctuation I've never seen before!

A brand new power has appeared? Can this power weaken me?! Help me escape this world of only death!!

In an instant, the dead silence in my heart began to tremble once more.

Carefully discerning the direction from which the strange spiritual energy emanated, the figure quickly locked onto its target. But at that moment, the already weak spiritual energy reaction became even weaker... yet also more stable?

Weakening and stabilizing! Yes, that's exactly what I wanted!

[What should I do? Should I go check on him? He'll probably be crushed to death by my spiritual pressure too, right?]

It's alright! Even if all we get are corpses, we can't let this rare opportunity slip by!

[Eat his corpse, absorb that wondrous spiritual power!]

Sensing the target emanating a strange spiritual power, a blue Cero flash condensed at his fingertips and shot out in an instant. Compressed to its limit, the Cero flash, as thin as a needle, instantly pierced through the pale desert beneath his feet, shot into the Great Void Forest, and accurately hit the target he sensed.

“I’m going there. Run away. In a hundred breaths, how far you can get is up to you.”

The figure's voice, calm to the point of loneliness, traveled through the passage pierced by the Cero and into the Great Hollow Forest.

In the Great Void Forest, Gu Shi had just picked up the long metal bar that he wasn't sure could be considered a Zanpakuto when a blue flash streaked past his eyes, easily piercing through the metal bar and embedding itself deep into the ground beneath his feet, leaving a small, bottomless hole.

Immediately afterwards, an incredibly terrifying voice rang in his ears. In an instant, Gu Shi seemed to see some kind of terrifying behemoth that could not be described in words roaring madly at him, as if it would devour him and the surrounding "world" in the next second.

The terrifying sense of oppression made it impossible for Gu Shi to fully discern the meaning the voice was trying to convey; he could only catch bits and pieces of words like "breathing," "time," and "escape."

Without any hesitation, and without even having time to calm his breath, which had become rapid with fear, Gu Shi immediately ran towards the camp at top speed, shouting at the top of his lungs.

"Run! Run now! Don't take anything! Run immediately!"

In the nearby camp, everyone heard the terrifying sound. Ashido collapsed to the ground, desperately trying to get up, but his limbs were as limp as instant noodles that had been soaking all day. Kisuke Urahara's eyes were also filled with fear, but he was in much better condition than Ashido and was about to help Ashido up to escape together.

Tianpeng's gaze became vacant, as if he had completely sunk into the abyss of fear, unable to come back to his senses for a moment. The big rabbit next to him had tears streaming down her face, but perhaps because she was often "terrified," she broke free from the shackles of fear before Tianpeng. She was wailing and desperately shaking Tianpeng's body, trying to awaken her consciousness.

As Gu Shi's shout came, Erlang gritted his teeth and rushed towards the Kyrian group where Gu Shi was. When he saw Gu Shi rush out of the Kyrian group, he visibly breathed a sigh of relief. The fear that had been pressing on his heart began to rise, and he let out a low whimper. He turned around and ran to Tianpeng's side, slapping her across the face.

"Stop standing there! Run!"

Needless to say, Da Xu's speed was incredible. In just a few breaths, Gu Shi had already run back to the camp. He grabbed Tian Peng, who had finally come to his senses, and A Xi Duo, who was still unable to get up, and without a moment's hesitation, he continued to run at full speed.

Several Hollows fled in a sorry state, not even having time to think about what they were running away from. Around them were a large number of Hollows also running for their lives.

Behind the fleeing Hollows were the corpses of countless smaller Hollows, who too had heard the voice warning them to flee, and had died because of it.

The "shallow" spiritual pressure in the voice, which was "insignificant" to the figure, destroyed all their life force in an instant.

Chapter Ninety-Nine: Hope

"...Ninety-nine, one hundred."

The figure patiently counted to one hundred, and then his spiritual pressure spread out beneath his feet. The pure white sea of ​​sand spontaneously dispersed outwards from him, completely exposing the Great Void Forest below.

In the instant when the field of vision became clear, there was almost no trace of movement. In just a flash, the figure that was on the surface of the desert a moment ago was standing on the land of the Great Void Forest the next moment.

Guided by spiritual perception, without needing to search around, the figure's gaze immediately locked onto the long white metal bar lying on the ground. The figure had not shown any change in expression for a long time, so much so that a faint look of surprise appeared on the somewhat "expressionless" face.

[This spiritual energy... it doesn't even originate from a living being? Who created it?]

A slight doubt arose in his heart, but the figure acted without hesitation. He picked up the metal bar, examined it for a moment, and then used the method most often used by the Great Hollow when researching something—

eat!

With two fingers gently pinching one end of the metal strip, and with just a little force, a corner was easily broken off and put into the mouth to chew and savor.

The metal, which should have been hard and sharp, quickly turned into a pile of crumbs in the figure's mouth, like a crispy puffed biscuit. The figure closed his eyes, carefully savoring and experiencing the spiritual energy in the fragments, absorbing it all without wasting a single bit.

Soon, the figure had a "sample" of that strange spiritual power within his body. He began to adjust the composition of his own spiritual power, trying to simulate this power that he had never seen before.

However, the attempt was unsuccessful. In the human's perception, this strange spiritual power was quite similar in composition to that of the Great Hollow, but another part seemed to have an irreconcilable conflict with the Great Hollow's spiritual power.

This causes the spiritual power belonging to the Great Void within his body to surge violently whenever the human figure simulation is initially successful. It spontaneously crushes and devours the simulated spiritual power in a frenzied, life-or-death manner.

After several attempts, not only did they fail, but the repeated surges in spiritual energy caused the already limited amount of spiritual energy samples in their bodies to be completely obliterated and devoured by their own Great Void Spiritual Energy.

Having temporarily abandoned the blind attempt, the figure's gaze fell upon the ground to the side.

There lay a piece of rubble with many holes on its surface, and on the surface of the rubble, there were some tiny blue crystals that shimmered with a mysterious light.

【What is this? 】

Muttering to himself, the figure picked up the pebbles and plucked a blue crystal from them. Upon closer inspection, he discovered that it seemed to be some kind of highly concentrated spiritual energy crystal.

Is this how it's manufactured?

The figure tried to open his right hand, and an enormous and terrifying spiritual power surged from his palm, quickly forming a sphere of spiritual power capable of instantly destroying an entire Kylian group. Then, the figure's five fingers slowly closed, and with his movement, a spiritual pressure powerful enough to crush Vastod enveloped the sphere of spiritual power and steadily compressed it towards the center.

Soon, the figure clenched his right hand into a fist, and when he opened his palm again, a blue crystal several times larger than a normal person's eyeball appeared in his hand.

Tianpeng needed to use the alchemy furnace and Urahara Kisuke's seal, and exert all his strength, to barely create a spiritual energy crystal the size of a millet grain. But with the human figure, he only needed to clench his fist slightly to compress the spiritual energy into a solid.

However, the figure was not satisfied. By comparing the two spiritual energy crystals side by side, it was clear that although the spiritual energy crystal he had created was larger and the blue color was purer, and even the surface of the crystal was more rounded and smooth, it was just a crystal of spiritual energy and had no "activity" at all.

The blue crystal plucked from the porous gravel shimmered with an "active" light, as if it were the steady, rhythmic breath of a living creature.

What exactly is the difference?

After confirming that there were still a few blue crystals on the surface of the broken stone in the hole, the figure decided that it wouldn't matter if one was lost. He decisively put a small blue crystal into his mouth and gently crushed it.