From the Wandenreich's escape to One Piece

Suddenly, there was hope in my life.

Beltz was in a good mood and even hummed a little tune.

We have a general idea now, but the specific details still need to be refined.

For an ordinary person to gain great power, they must have a meticulous and detailed plan.

After thinking for a while in the Empire, he figured that Shiki should have already left, so he returned to the One Piece world.

Upon returning to the original spot, the golden lion was indeed gone.

He continued flying toward the Sabaody Archipelago.

He needed Vegapunk even more now, and his speed increased even further.

However, it's impossible to get to the Sabaody Archipelago in a short time; it will take at least another day or two.

He could only try to travel as much as possible when the empire was relatively quiet.

After all, the empire has just been attacked, and who knows when he might have to interrogate Pepe himself.

So after flying for a while, he returned to the Empire.

After thinking about it, he left the tower to go see Litoto.

No matter what, Litoto used to be his superior, and now that he's been promoted, he has to go and give his old superior a gift or something.

Actually, it seems that the Invisible Empire doesn't really need this system, but there's no harm in going over to take a look and have a chat.

When they arrived at Litoto's house, she was reading a book.

Beltz glanced at them and found that they were all books related to the history of the empire.

He wasn't surprised, as he had previously told Littor about Yhwach's true nature.

To confirm whether Yhwach was that kind of person, Litoto brought many books home to verify.

Of course, the Book of the Unknown Empire will not record all of Yhwach's actions, but some clues can be found from some subtle details.

When he cut Litoto's memories, he didn't cut off her memories of reading books, so it's not surprising that she still has those books.

"You've arrived?"

Litoto turned around, saw Beltz, and asked, "How does it feel to become a Sternritter?"

Beltz chuckled softly, "It feels...not bad."

He has indeed become much stronger, otherwise he wouldn't have tried to challenge the Golden Lion back then.

Even if the Golden Lion didn't use his full strength, he's still not someone an ordinary person can challenge.

Before becoming a Sternritter, he certainly wouldn't have been able to withstand those few blows from the Golden Lion.

"Don't be complacent."

Litoto said calmly, "Becoming a Sternritter is just the beginning. How far you go from here depends on yourself."

There is indeed a difference in strength among the Sternritter.

Weak Star Crosses are used as speed bumps by Kenpachi and killed one after another, while strong Star Crosses can defeat Kenpachi in just a few moves.

The difference between them is not just a little bit.

"I know."

Beltz humbly accepted the old commander's teachings.

"If Pepe passes away, won't that leave another asterism position vacant?"

Litoto casually said again

"..."

So that's true. Does that mean we need to choose a Sternritter?

The Empire has just gone through the selection process, and two of the eight people chosen are preparing to leave the Empire. Will one of them become the new Sternritter 'L'?

Of course, that depends on the sacred texts within their souls.

Even if you have the qualifications, if you don't meet the requirements of 'L', you won't get the sacred script.

In fact, most of the bosses in Bleach have some degree of obsessive-compulsive disorder. For example, Aizen, is there really no other Hollows of the Espada level among his Arrancar army?

Obviously not. Grimmjow, one of the Espada, is in trouble, and he can find Ruby to replace him in the next second.

Leaving aside the top four Espada, there were at least some alternatives for the lower-ranking Espada under Aizen.

However, Aizen wouldn't have thought of them if the Espada hadn't run into trouble.

Because each of the Espada, established by Aizen, represents a different way of dying.

Ruby and Grimmjow both died in ways that represented "destruction," so only one of them could join the Espada.

Therefore, even if there were powerful Espada who were comparable to the Espada, Aizen chose to abandon them because their manner of death overlapped with that of the Espada.

What a waste!

That's equivalent to losing the combat power of several captains!

Although these captain-level combatants don't really affect Aizen's plan much, since he can easily wipe out the Gotei 13 by himself.

It can only be said that for top-tier powerhouses like Aizen or Yhwach, they really don't care much about the number of ordinary captains.

Losing one or two isn't a big deal.

Perhaps only Quincy at the elite guard level are worthy of Yhwach's attention.

"I just don't know who will get the position."

Litoto murmured, "I always felt there was something strange about those five old men."

"Oh?" Beltz said with interest, "They were personally selected by Haschward; none of us had seen them before."

"Does the Empire have some kind of secret force?"

Litoto tilted her head back and covered her head with the book, saying, "Impossible, those five people..."

She paused for a moment, but did not continue.

Clearly, Litoto had already begun to suspect the identities of the Five Elders, and might even have guessed that they were the five ferocious beasts who had attacked the Empire before.

This is not surprising, after all, the Five Elders' fighting style is somewhat similar to that of the five ferocious beasts.

With a head of bronze and bones of iron, emanating an icy aura, it breathes fire and devours poison.

"What's wrong?"

Beltz pretended not to understand and pressed for an answer.

Litoto kept the book over her face and replied, "No, it's nothing. I just think that if someone can really replace Pepe, then that person should be someone who surprises us."

"oh……?"

Beltz thought for a moment, could the sixth person be another clone?

It seems like it's not impossible.

After all, besides the Five Elders, there's also the Knights of God.

Then something else suddenly occurred to him.

So Yhwach wanted to execute those Sternritters just to make room for the Five Elders?

Although the empire has always punished the defeated severely, it was still somewhat unreasonable to execute several of its generals before fully understanding the situation after just experiencing an invasion.

But if it's to make room for the Star Cross among the Five Elders, then it's understandable.

Yhwach saw through the Holy Inscriptions of the Five Elders from the beginning, then executed the corresponding Sternritter, and then openly bestowed the Holy Inscriptions upon them.

Among the Five Elders, Horse Bone is 'Y', Ox Demon is 'R', Sealed Pig is 'K', Itsumade is 'I', and Sandworm is 'Q'.

Of course, Beltz didn't know exactly what their sacred script was.