Starting with Naruto, I'll become stronger through my own efforts.

Chapter 461 Yhwach escapes into the Soul King's palace

A few minutes later, the spatial blade completely destroyed the royal palace.

The sturdy wall collapsed with a crash, and Retsu Unohana, who was guarding outside the door, was almost hit by the collapsing, heavy door.

Then, even the spatial folding barrier of the Ice Palace collapsed, and the huge inner space collapsed as well, restoring its original true size of only tens of thousands of square meters.

As the expanded space collapsed, inanimate matter was swallowed up by the space, while the powerful Grim Reaper was pushed out.

The Death Captains, who were originally scattered in various corners of the Ice Palace, suddenly appeared near the collapsed royal palace walls, completely bewildered.

To their surprise, they found their companions standing within easy reach, forming a circle around Shazor and Yhwach, who were locked in fierce combat.

The Grim Reapers, exchanging bewildered glances, asked each other: "Should we launch a coordinated attack?"

Clang!

Yhwach raised his Spirit Sword horizontally to block Shazor's heavy blow.

The white spatial folds erupted violently, and spatial blades were ejected, sweeping wildly across everything around them.

The Grim Reapers scattered in all directions, and even the most domineering and imposing Captain-Commander Yamamoto had to crouch down to dodge a flying spatial blade.

Old man Yamamoto lost a lot of face in front of his subordinates and was so angry that his scalp turned red.

But no matter how angry he was, there was nothing he could do.

The battle between the two on the core battlefield was beyond Yamamoto Shigekuni's comprehension; he could do nothing but evade him.

Suddenly, Yhwach burst into laughter, his eyes gleaming: "I saw your moves! I saw them all!"

"Omniscience and omnipotence are not ineffective against you, it's just that your strength is too great and your influence on the future is too strong, which is why I can only see 3 seconds of the future."

"But a 3-second warning is enough!"

Yhwach suddenly erupted, using all his strength to shake off Shazo, and then transformed the Spirit Sword into a Spirit Bow, firing a series of Holy Annihilation Arrows at Shazo.

Each arrow struck Xia Zuo's dodging defenses with precision, forcing him to constantly change positions, but he was still hit by the sixth Holy Annihilation Arrow.

The Holy Arrow exploded the moment it hit, sending up clouds of smoke that completely enveloped Xia Zuo.

"Oh no!"

"Xia Zuo!!"

The captain silently took off the clothes he had just put on, preparing to go into battle.

Impatient Kenpachi Zaraki and Ichigo Kurosaki had already drawn their swords, with Ichigo even shouting out his Bankai incantation: "Bankai: Tensa Zan—"

Retsu Unohana stepped forward and shouted to all the Shinigami, "Stop! Don't cause trouble for Natsuzo!"

"Especially you, Ichigo Kurosaki, do you want to give your Bankai to the enemy?"

"Everyone! Put your knives away!"

Sister Hana swept her gaze over all the Shinigami with an air of authority, and said in a deep voice, "As Shinigami, especially as captains who have mastered Bankai, you should learn to trust the strong!"

The commotion caused by the Grim Reapers had no effect on Yhwach on the battlefield; he became excited after accurately hitting Shazor.

He chuckled and growled, "Just as I thought! I knew my omniscience and omnipotence were real!"

Having successfully seen the future three seconds in advance, the shadow weighing on Yhwach's heart instantly dissipated.

If omniscience and omnipotence work on Xia Zuo, then we can take him down!

Before the smoke cleared, an excited Yhwach drew his bow and fired a series of arrows.

The Prince's Battle Tactics have reappeared, which shows that even though Yhwach was excited, he was still uneasy. Otherwise, he wouldn't have wasted his power to make himself feel at ease.

As more than a dozen sacred arrows approached the smoke, the Zanpakuto, Megumi-no-Kage, suddenly emerged from the smoke and dust, drawing an equilateral triangle in the air.

The triangle then revealed a pitch-black void, so vast and profound that it sent shivers down one's spine, swallowing up all the sacred arrows of destruction.

Then, the triangular portal collapsed, and Xia Zuo leisurely walked out of the smoke and dust.

He casually brushed off a charred mark on his chest, the spot where the Holy Annihilation Arrow had struck him directly, piercing through the Death Knight's armor but not damaging Xia Zuo's skin.

"So what if you can see the next three seconds?" Xia Zuo said with a forced smile. "And what if you can hit me?"

Yhwach asked, puzzled, "What do you mean by that?"

Xia Zuo replied, "What I mean is: you can see the future, but have you seen the result of me being hit—that I can't be penetrated?"

Yhwach fell silent. He truly hadn't seen the result. Even though he hadn't stopped observing, after he observed that Shazor had been hit, everything became blurry and he couldn't see anything clearly.

Xia Zuo suddenly burst into laughter. No one could sense his spiritual pressure, but everyone could feel an indescribable aura, heavy as a mountain pressing down on everyone's hearts.

Xia Zuo laughed enough: "Alright, I've completely figured out what your omniscience and omnipotence are all about."

"Now, try and see if you can keep up with my speed—"

Before Xia Zuo could finish speaking, he left an afterimage on the spot, spreading to the left and right with the surging wind, and the bladeless blade of his Zanpakuto, Ryotenchi, instantly slashed down in front of Yhwach.

The speed beyond the limit made Yhwach seem several beats slower; before his longbow could even transform into a spirit sword, he was stabbed between the eyebrows.

Fortunately, Yhwach activated the [Quiet Blood Armor] in time, and luckily the Measuring Ruler doesn't rely on sharpness to win, so he wasn't split open in the head, but was instead slammed to the ground by the heavy force.

boom!

In an instant, Yhwach leaped out from underground, one foot landing in mid-air, his figure charging straight towards Shazor who was pursuing him.

The two continuously increased their speed, and the pace of the battle was so fast that it dazzled the Grim Reapers. The sound of clashing blades echoed continuously in the sky.

Soon, the indistinct afterimages merged into one, causing the distorted space to form a silvery-white, folded ring.

At this point, the two figures were completely invisible, and their movement trajectory could only be determined by the spatial folds left by their battle.

From Captain-Commander Yamamoto down, all the Shinigami were drenched in cold sweat, their hands and feet numb as they fought.

Kenpachi Zaraki reluctantly sheathed his Zanpakuto, spat, and said, "This kind of battle is unplayable. I need Shikai—no, I need Bankai—to be qualified to participate in such a battle."

"Damn it, what's the name of my knife?"

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom—!

As the frequency of sword clashes increased during the battle, Yhwach gradually ran out of room to maneuver and fell into a completely passive position.

Despite it being Yhwach launching a quick attack, he was actually completely on the defensive.

Because every defensive block by Shazor had a clear tendency to counterattack, and these counterattacks gave Yhwach a deadly sense of threat.

He was forced to continue his fierce attacks to prevent Xia Zuo's offensive from unfolding in order to avoid being killed by a single blow.

However, each attack would increase Xia Zuo's accumulated power, making the feeling of impending doom even stronger, as if he were walking step by step toward his final death.

Suddenly, Xia Zuo roared, "Slash!"

Without warning, he switched from defense to offense, raising his sword high with both hands and ignoring Yhwach's spirit sword thrust, slashing heavily at the top of his head.

Clang! ! —Snap!

The soft clanging of metal against metal echoed across the sky, followed by a crisp cracking sound.

With a single slash, Xia Zuo cleaved through Yhwach's protective Bloodstained Armor, the blade's momentum continuing as it cut from his shoulder to his abdomen, slicing the Emperor of the Unseen Empire in two.

Blood gushed out like a madman, Yhwach coughed up mouthfuls of blood and slammed into the ground, leaving only a deep crater like a meteorite falling to earth.

The sudden burst of energy swept away the dust that filled the sky, and the sunlight shone down again, clearing the sky.

On the ground, Yhwach's only remaining left hand lay flat on the ground. He completely ignored his missing right arm and lower body, as well as the horrific wounds left after his body was split in two, letting the blood spray onto the ground.

His eyes held an unprecedented sense of confusion.

Yhwach saw the future ahead and instinctively tried to dodge, but—he couldn't avoid it and was simply cut in two.

Yhwach's eyes were filled with deep confusion: "I clearly saw it, I clearly dodged it, so why was I still cut in half? What happened?"

Xia Zuo chuckled and said, "That goes without saying. It's because the future is changeable. As long as my power is strong enough, I can make the future three seconds from now undergo a dramatic reversal!"

Yhwach gasped weakly, "So that's how it is. It's all about power. Just how much worse am I than you?"

"let me see----"

He finally gave up his unrealistic arrogance and pride, raised his head, and looked at Xia Zuo with eyes that could see through time.

Then, Yhwach's mouth gaped open.

Because of his superior foundation and his special eyesight, he saw Xia Zuo much more clearly than Aizen saw; he even saw Xia Zuo's terrifying full appearance.

"Hehehe, so that's how it is. You, you're so powerful that you're restricted by the world. No wonder you've been fighting with me. It turns out you're afraid of destroying the world."

Yhwach muttered to himself, then suddenly opened his left hand, his five fingers loosely clenched, and long, thin lines of Quincy incantation appeared out of thin air from his fingertips.

Holy lances constructed of spiritual particles descended from the sky, forming a huge circular domain, with an inextinguishable spiritual flame burning at the end of each lance.

【Sacred Chanting - Holy Praise】

This is a Quincy defensive spell that combines offense and defense; it is an extremely powerful spell.

Unexpectedly, Yhwach used this technique on all the Shinigami present, including Shazor.

Moreover, he unleashed his full power without reservation, turning external defense into internal restraint and launching a more powerful attack, which can be described as a forbidden technique of ultimate killing.

Xia Zuo scoffed, "You want to trap me with this domain?"

He raised his hand and unleashed a seemingly ordinary sword aura, which easily cleaved the sacred domain in two: "See, it can't stop me at all."

Yhwach sneered, "It doesn't apply to you, but it's different for the other Grim Reapers."

As he spoke, he slammed his remaining left hand onto the ground, which was a signal. The holy domain surrounding the other Death Gods unleashed countless holy arrows of destruction, launching a relentless bombardment against the Death God in the center.

"Heh heh, I don't believe you can't save these Grim Reapers."

Using the force of that strike, Yhwach's body shot straight into the sky like an arrow, dripping blood as he flew upwards.

"As long as you go to save people, you won't be able to pursue me, and that's enough—"

At this moment, the Ice Palace had completely collapsed, and what appeared in the sky was not blue sky and white clouds or an endless starry sky, but the inverted Soul Society.

Directly opposite Karakura Town and the Ice Palace is the Spirit Court, and at the heart of the Spirit Court is Yhwach's target—the Spirit King's Palace!

With his familiarity with the Spirit King's Palace and his bloodline connection with his father, Yhwach didn't need to fly all the way to his destination.

Following his father's aura, he directly collided with a constantly shifting spacetime node. Relying on his own bloodline to connect with the Spirit King's spiritual pressure, he broke through the blocking spatial barrier and vanished instantly.

Xia Zuo watched him disappear, but his hands did not stop moving at all. He continued to unleash a barrage of [Holy Chant - Holy Domain Hymn] on more than a dozen people.

The Death God captains trapped in the Sanctuary were no pushovers either. They launched their own attacks, coordinating with Xia Zuo from within, and withstood the barrage of Holy Annihilation Arrows, breaking through the Sanctuary in the shortest possible time.

Although it only lasted a few seconds, the Grim Reapers still suffered heavy losses.

Apart from a few top-tier Shinigami captains, the other Shinigami were all seriously injured, with Shinji Hirako being the most severely wounded. His body was riddled with holes, and he was on the verge of death.

Fortunately, Retsu Unohana was there. She released her Zanpakuto and transformed it into a giant manta ray, which swallowed Shinji Hirako and administered the most effective treatment.

At that moment, Aizen appeared out of nowhere.

He stood beside Shazor, looking at the spot where Yhwach had disappeared, and asked, "Lord Shazor, aren't you going to pursue him?"

"Yhwach must be the son of the Spirit King. He went to the Spirit King's palace, and perhaps something extraordinary will happen there."

Xia Zuo replied with a smile, "There's no need to hunt him down."

"His going to the Spirit King's Palace is the result I wanted."

"Without Yhwach clearing the way for me, finding the Spirit King's Palace hidden in another dimension won't be an easy task."

Shazo raised his left hand and, with a feint, grabbed Yhwach's severed right hand.

"Now, thanks to the connection of flesh and blood, and the spatial fluctuations from earlier, I can pinpoint the location of the Spirit King Palace."

"With specific coordinates, I don't need to obediently walk in through the main gate anymore."

Xia Zuo used Yhwach's severed hand to smear a bloodstain on his Zanpakuto, then raised the Shikai Megumi high and closed his eyes to begin sensing the space and bloodline.

Aizen quickly stepped forward and persuaded the Shinigami standing in front of Xia Zuo to step aside, lest they be caught in the attack and suffer a miserable end.

Suddenly, Xia Zuo opened his eyes, and the Measuring Ruler slashed down fiercely, its bladeless edge actually cutting into space.

Sizzle—!

A huge crack appeared in space, revealing a floating palace on the other side.

The Spirit King's Palace has appeared.