The Supreme Soul, Starting with Death

Anyway, when they practice together, they sometimes get carried away and beat each other badly. Last time, Kisuke got so excited that he didn't stop and actually broke her right arm. But she still went back to Doichi and continued to spar with Kisuke the next day.

Therefore, Yoruichi felt no psychological burden when he punched Kisuke Urahara in the head.

To Yoruichi's surprise, Kisuke was genuinely startled by what was supposed to be a routine greeting; his pale face looked as if he had just been dug out of the ground.

[Could this be a fake? Has Kisuke been switched?]

Yoruichi Shihouin withdrew her punch just in time, but her gaze towards Kisuke Urahara held a sharper edge and more suspicion.

Kisuke Urahara didn't have time to observe Yoruichi's reaction. He quickly opened the small bag on his back and made sure that the transparent crystals inside hadn't cracked before he relaxed and his face regained its color.

These crystals contain dangerous spiritual energy that, upon contact, generates the "Lock of Sin." The crystals themselves are not very hard. If Yoruichi's punch had actually landed, although he certainly wouldn't have been seriously injured, he would most likely have been sent flying and crashed into the wall, crushing these crystals.

At that time, he and Yoruichi will probably have to go to Hell to catch up.

At this moment, Yoruichi Shihouin roughly understood what was going on. She came over and curiously looked at the transparent crystals containing dark red spiritual power, raising an eyebrow at Kisuke Urahara.

"Kisuke, tell me what kind of dangerous item this is that could scare you like that."

Chapter 172 Chicken Soup is Here!

The curiosity in Yoruichi Shihōin's eyes sent a chill down Kisuke Urahara's spine. He quickly closed the lid of the small bag, lest Yoruichi take these dangerous items and play with them without him noticing.

"Yoruichi, just treat it like a poison that will kill you if you touch it. Don't touch it carelessly. I just got my hands on this stuff and haven't had time to figure out the 'antidote' yet. If you get infected, there's nothing I can do to save you."

Yoruichi Shihouin was simply lively and curious, not unaware of the gravity of the situation. When Kisuke Urahara spoke so seriously, she immediately abandoned the idea of ​​stealing one to play with and nodded gently.

"Tsk tsk, Kisuke, you're always tinkering with such dangerous things. Be careful you don't get yourself into trouble one day. Alright, I was going to beat you up, but now that's all done, I've lost interest. Come on, let's have a couple of drinks."

Having not drunk alcohol for some time, Urahara Kisuke was genuinely craving it after hearing Yoruichi's words. He immediately nodded and followed Yoruichi to the side hall, where he immediately saw the large sake barrel, a head taller and several sizes bigger than himself, placed in the center of the room. His eyelids twitched involuntarily.

"My esteemed Lord Yoruichi, I would like to ask, in your original plan, after beating me to a pulp, were you intending to enjoy all of this by yourself?"

"What nonsense are you talking about, Kisuke!"

Yoruichi Shihōin lifted the lid of the sake barrel, grabbed the large bowl next to her, filled it to the brim, and handed it to Kisuke Urahara.

"I only intended to break your legs, not to dislocate your jaw."

Heh, heh heh, it's so great not having to drink with a broken leg.

Kisuke Urahara chuckled dryly, barely managing to keep the already overflowing wine from spilling out of the bowl thanks to the restraint of his spiritual power. Resigned, he tilted his head back and gulped it down. As soon as he put down the empty bowl, a second bowl was handed to him.

"Don't just drink. The snacks will be served soon. Let's drink slowly. You've taken so many days off, so it doesn't matter if you sleep all day tomorrow. Let's drink all night tonight."

Kisuke Urahara knew that he had been busy with research these past few years and hadn't spent much time with Yoruichi. He had finally managed to leave the research lab, supposedly to go to the Shinsengumi Academy, but a few days later he ran off to the human world. Yoruichi must have a lot of resentment in her heart, so he didn't haggle and took the bowl of sake and drank it down with a death-defying spirit.

While Kisuke Urahara was being forced to drink, Gu Shi from Hueco Mundo was also urging others to drink.

"Come on, chicken soup is here! Don't be shy, just drink it all in one gulp!"

As he spoke, Gu Shi grabbed the other end of the Killian's head with one hand, forcing it to open its mouth with brute force. Then, he picked up a large basin filled with milky white liquid and poured all the liquid into it in one go.

The poor little Killian tried to struggle, but the fierce-looking Jiro held his hands and feet firmly, making it impossible for him to struggle. He could only reluctantly swallow the milky white liquid in his mouth.

As soon as the last drop of liquid disappeared into Killian's throat, Gu Shi immediately let go and stepped aside. Erlang also let go and retreated. Instantly, Killian, now free, began to twist and struggle wildly on the ground.

At first, its twisting was limited to "struggling," with its hands and feet scratching wildly on the ground. But in the blink of an eye, the situation became strange, and its limbs and neck began to twist and deform irregularly.

Its neck stretched out eerily, growing a thick mane; its left arm shrank and shrank, with crab-like pincers growing from its tip; the joints of its right leg seemed to have increased dozens at once, becoming incredibly flexible, twisting around like a snake; the black robe on its belly was torn, revealing large patches of feathers, scales, and a starfish-like mouth filled with sharp teeth.

At the same time, the spiritual pressure on the monstrous Killian was rapidly expanding, increasing by more than one level in just a few breaths.

"Wow, the effect is better than I expected, isn't it?"

Gu Shi gently kicked the pale calluses at his feet, his expression showing a hint of surprise.

After seeing Kisuke Urahara off, he immediately returned to Hueco Mundo to verify his conjecture. He grabbed a Hollow in the shape of a rooster and caused it to break its mask. After the Hollow formed a bone cocoon and its body melted, he immediately made a hole in the cocoon and poured out all the liquid inside. Then he stuffed another Hollow in the shape of a hen inside.

The changes inside the bone cocoon were not yet over. In the spirit of thrift and not wasting any resources, Gu Shi simply grabbed another head of Kylian and poured all the liquid extracted from the bone cocoon down its throat to see what would happen.

As a result, the effects of these liquids were better than expected.

Logically speaking, the blue crystal (the degraded semi-finished Hogyoku) does contain a lot of spiritual power. After all, when Stark was refining it, he added at least one Adjuchas to the raw materials. However, most of this spiritual power should be consumed in "breaking the boundary between Shinigami and Hollows". After the Hollows were awakened, their spiritual power level was about the same as that of ordinary Killian.

But now, after that Killian drank the liquid, not only did its spiritual power increase by several times compared to that of an ordinary Killian, but it also showed obvious signs of evolution. Those feathers and scales were clearly the features that would appear when it evolved into an Adjuchas and took on an animal form.

However, in the normal process of Killian evolution, the Killian's body should be guided by instinct to become the animal form that best matches its own consciousness: those with explosive personalities tend to be beasts, those with sinister personalities tend to be snakes, lizards, or octopuses, and those who yearn for freedom tend to be birds.

However, this Killian that Gu Shi casually grabbed had no self-awareness at all. Without consciousness as a reference, its evolutionary direction inevitably became chaotic, with various animal characteristics mixed together. In the end, its evolution would most likely end in failure.

If it were a Kyrian with self-awareness, it might have already evolved and become an Adjuchas.

As Gu Shi was thinking this, the spiritual pressure of that Killian finally swelled to the limit that its body could currently contain. However, its evolution was still delayed, and its body failed to iterate into a more superior form. Finally, it could not hold on any longer and let out a loud explosion. The spiritual power in its body began to escape violently outward.

Soon, only a broken fragment of a mask, barely even qualifying as wreckage, remained on the ground, lying in the pale desert beneath their feet. Perhaps in a few days, it would completely merge into the sea of ​​sand, further contributing to the environmental degradation of Hueco Mundo.

Gu Shi didn't pay much attention to the disappearance of the Killian. What he was curious about was that, until its eventual demise, the Killian's spiritual pressure was far less than that of Nel, whom he had seen before.

While it's true that Nel's high talent and status as a veteran Adjuchas with substantial accumulated power are factors, is this Killian's final spiritual energy reserve truly sufficient for evolution under normal circumstances?

Or perhaps the liquid produced when Hollows melted during their Arrancar transformation, while losing the ability to break the "boundary between Hollows and Shinigami" again, still retained some of its "breaking the mold" characteristics, which played a role in the "boundary" between lower-level and mid-level Hollows, accelerating and bringing forward the evolution that should not have happened yet?

Is it similar to the "Breakthrough Pill" in fantasy novels?

Perhaps, we can have Tianpeng try using this liquid as a raw material to refine elixirs later.

Chapter 173 Dual Blades

"So, this liquid can accelerate evolution, or even allow us to evolve ahead of time?"

Erlang blinked and, after listening to Gu Shi's summary, precisely extracted the part that was most meaningful to him.

"It's possible, but there might be some hidden dangers or flaws. Perhaps we should capture a Kyrian with self-awareness and repeat the experiment a few more times."

Gu Shi shook his head and pressed down on Erlang, who was getting agitated.

Although not as brutal as a typical Hollow, Jiro clearly shares some characteristics with other Hollows, such as his reverence for power.

Previously, Erlang was far stronger than Tianpeng and had little desire to fight against Gu Shi, so Erlang's mentality was relatively stable. However, ever since Tianpeng completed the Breaking Mask, Erlang has been unable to defeat Tianpeng. Over time, it is inevitable that his mentality became somewhat unbalanced. It is hard to say that his ability to develop a set of martial arts so quickly was not an effort made to defeat Tianpeng.

Therefore, it's understandable that Jiro was excited upon hearing that it could accelerate his evolution into Adjuchas. However, while understanding is understandable, evolution is a major event, and Gu Shi didn't intend to let Jiro eat random things to avoid any potential problems.

Although Erlang was somewhat anxious, he did not lose his composure and was able to understand Gu Shi's good intentions, so he slowly nodded.

"Well, then let's wait a bit longer, but..."

Erlang blinked and brought up a possibility that Gu Shi hadn't considered.

"If this liquid is too irritating to take orally, can it be applied topically?"

In martial arts stories, besides the rare and precious herbs that can be ingested to enhance one's skills, aren't there also various external medicines used for physical training?

Even if you don't eat it directly, can't you just apply it to your body and let it absorb slowly?

Gu Shi was taken aback when he heard this, realizing that he had fallen into the habitual thinking that all virtual beings have. When he saw something good, all he thought about was eating it. Even if he thought carefully, he only thought about whether it would be harmful to eat it. He had completely forgotten that medicine can also be used externally.

"...Perhaps, we could give it a try?"

Gu Shi nodded slowly, somewhat uncertainly, then quickly shook his head.

"Wait, let's just grab a random head of Killian and see how it goes first."

"No problem! I'll go catch it right away!"

As soon as Gu Shi finished speaking, Erlang shouted and ran out. After a while, a little commotion broke out in the distant Kylian herd. Then, Erlang grabbed a Kylian by the neck, covered its mouth, and forcibly dragged it out of the Kylian herd.

Gu Shi shook his head helplessly, picked up the bone cocoon that had fallen silent, and looked into the small hole. The little Void that had been stuffed inside, though unharmed, had already lost its breath and died inside the bone cocoon.

It seems this simple and crude method won't work. Next time, perhaps we should try breaking open the two small cocoons at the same time, and then swapping some of the liquid inside the two cocoons.

Gu Shi pondered what other attempts he could make, broke off a piece of the bone cocoon that had begun to slowly dissipate into spiritual particles, chewed it in his mouth, and then decisively spat it out.

As expected, whether it was the bone cocoon that formed when the Hollowfied was broken or the white bone mask that appeared when the Hollowfied was transformed, these bone fragments formed from the white liquid gushing out of the Hollowhole were utter dross and filth to the Hollows who wanted to maintain the purity of their consciousness and fight against their Hollow instincts.

Even though he only chewed a few times and didn't swallow at all, Gu Shi clearly felt that his appetite had started to rise, and a sense of irritability arose in his heart without warning.

If we collect these things, we might be able to use them as poison? It's a pity that containers with good spiritual energy sealing effects are all used to store pills. It's really not worthwhile to make room for a box just for such a small amount of poison.

In the end, Gu Shi simply watched quietly as the enormous bone cocoon completely dissipated, turning into spiritual particles and returning to the atmosphere of Hueco Mundo.

Not long after the bone cocoon completely disappeared, Erlang ran out.

As Erlang rushed out, Tianpeng followed without a word, returning a little later with two small phantoms in his arms.

Unlike the Kyrians that are everywhere, Hollows are relatively hard to find. After all, Hollows have a complete sense of self, and through word of mouth, they have long known that there are several Hollows in this area. They would occasionally capture Hollows to take back for a meal, so the Hollows that wanted to survive had long since run away. If you wanted to catch one, you would have to go to a more distant place.

Gu Shi and the others certainly wouldn't use the little Void creatures for a treat; they had no interest in such a tiny bit of spiritual power. However, compared to other Great Void creatures that completely ignored the existence of the little Void creatures, Tianpeng and Gu Shi did capture them for experiments quite frequently, which became an urban legend among the little Void creatures, so it's not surprising.

Taking the unconscious Xiao Xu from Tian Peng's hands, Gu Shi didn't waste any words. He fed them two blue crystals and watched them turn into large white cocoons while they were unconscious. He silently counted in his mind, and when he counted to thirty-seven, he decisively broke the eggs, poured out a portion of the liquid from each one, and gave it to Erlang to smear on Killian's body. Then he began to switch the liquid in the two bone cocoons.

Ultimately, each of the two bone cocoons retained about 50% of its own liquid and about 30% of the other's liquid. Although their auras had weakened somewhat, they had at least survived, and the process of breaking through to the next level was still progressing steadily.

Glancing at Jiro's side, and seeing that the Kirian with the liquid applied still had no reaction, Gu Shi turned his gaze back to continue observing the changes in the two bone cocoons.

About a minute or two later, the liquid inside the two bone cocoons became viscous at the same time, wriggling and forming a blurry human shape. At the same time, two long, hard objects slowly emerged beside the human shape.

...Double-edged swords? Both of them?

Unlike Shinigami, the Zanpakuto of Arrancars seals in a "combat stance." Once released, it can not only greatly increase their strength but also transform into some of their pre-Arrancar body structures, increasing their combat capabilities, such as wings, tentacles, and horns.

If one possesses two Zanpakuto, does that mean both Arrancar can transform into two different fighting stances—one that one originally possessed, and one that the other possessed?

Gu Shi's eyes flickered. After a moment's thought, he decisively took out one of the Zanpakuto that was forming inside the bone cocoon and then stuffed a shallow blade inside.

Since the two cocoons were at roughly the same progress, when compared with each other, it can be seen that when the cocoon inserted into Asada was inserted, although the viscous liquid was still wriggling, the changes obviously stopped, as if it had crashed due to a bug. After a while, a portion of the liquid that made up the body of the Arrancar was separated and wrapped around Asada, and then the incomplete Arrancar process continued.

Gu Shi immediately became excited. Could this Arrancar, who was about to take shape, really possess a Shinigami's Zanpakuto? Could he unleash his Zanpakuto? What about Bankai?

Chapter 174 The Nature of Seeking Death

As Gu Shi had been waiting, the changes in the two bone cocoons finally came to an end one after the other.

The first Arrancar to emerge had a mask fragment resembling glasses on his eye sockets, giving him a gentle and refined appearance. He was indeed carrying two Zanpakuto at his waist, and both of them could indeed be released.

The combat stance gained after the sword is released is an ant-like weapon that can greatly increase the body's strength, derived from the original Hollow form of this bespectacled broken face.

The other sword grants him a combat stance resembling that of a camel, greatly enhancing his energy reserves after the Spectacle Arrancar's release and significantly improving his combat endurance. This is another characteristic of the Hollow.

If both swords could be used simultaneously, the resulting improvement would certainly be more than just 1+1. Unfortunately, these two swords can only be unlocked separately and cannot be used at the same time.

Given that this broken face seemed relatively rational, and didn't think he was invincible as soon as he emerged from the cocoon, shouting that he would kill everyone, and seemed to be someone who could be properly communicated with, Gu Shi simply handed him over to Tian Peng, letting Tian Peng talk to him slowly, and then continued to guard the other bone cocoon that was about to complete its transformation.