Chapter 105: This

When you become a member of the Zero Squad, your power will be blessed by His Majesty the Spirit King, and your strength will increase without limit, reaching a level you could not even imagine back when you were in the Thirteen Squad!

So that members of our Zero Squad, when they go to the Lower Realm on missions, have to be extremely cautious all day, fearing that a single slip could destroy the world in an instant! Gengmu, can you imagine living your whole life in a world made entirely of paper?!

Kirin Temple, with a strand of foxtail grass in his mouth, faced the young Gengmu and spoke calmly.

A world made entirely of paper?

Gengmu, hearing that, recalled his stance after his first awakening, the feeling that as long as he swung his sword with full force, he could cleave the entire Pure Spirit Court.

Exactly, exactly, that feeling that with just a little force, everything around would shatter! But the scale of our Zero Squad isn't the tiny level of the Pure Spirit Court—it's at the 'World' level!

When members of our Zero Squad perform a Zanpakutō's Bankai, it will have a massive impact on the entire Soul Society, and even on the Present World and the Hollow Realm!

Therefore, unless absolutely necessary, our power remains sealed; only when only one member remains in the Zero Squad can we lift the seal and go all out! At least, that's how we originally designed it at the beginning…

At that moment, the Blade God Wang Yue took over Kirin Temple's words and continued speaking.

What do you mean by 'that's how it was originally designed'?

Gengmu heard it in a fog of confusion.

But after Araki arrived, the situation changed dramatically; both the strength of the Spirit King Palace and that of the Soul Society are now incomparable to before!

If it were the old Soul Society, as long as your Zanpakutō's power reached the level of 'Flowing Blade Like Fire', you could not easily perform a Bankai! A slight misstep could cause the Soul Society to face annihilation…

But now, even though Yamamoto Shiguni has performed Bankai many times within the Pure Spirit Court over the years, it still hasn't affected the balance of the Soul Society; the Three Realms have quietly begun to change at this moment…

The Monk's gaze seemed, at that moment, to pierce the barrier and look toward the Three Realms, as if he had taken all worldly phenomena into his eyes.

…

After hearing the others, Gengmu fell silent.

After Gengmu's long silence, he looked at the people before him and asked, "What does this have to do with my cultivation?!"

I heard Araki say that you're afraid of becoming too strong, so that no one in this world could fight you, and therefore you dared not learn Bankai, right?!

We're merely stating a fact: you're weak, even if you master Bankai you're still weak! It's just that an ant, once powerless and trampled upon, has now grown wings and can gain a little more freedom… an ant.

The Monk looked at Gengmu and spoke cheerfully.

Huh?!

Gengmu's eyebrows knit tightly at the words.

Before Gengmu could speak further, the Monk turned to Blade God Wang Yue beside him and said with a smile, "Alright Wang Yue, this guy is yours first~"

Alright~

Wang Yue, hearing that, struck a lewd pose in front of Gengmu.

My name is Ermeiwu Wang Yue…

Remember! It's not Ten, Nine, Eight, Seven… it's Ermeiwu Wang Yue!

As Wang Yue spoke, he pointed his finger to the sky, and instantly a box filled with liquid silicone fell behind him.

Hey! Gengmu, I'm waiting for my sword to be delivered, what are you saying?!

Wang Yue walked to the silicone box, drew the sword inside in one motion, and asked Gengmu.

Huh?

Gengmu was stunned for a moment, but before he could react, Wang Yue's sword had already landed in front of him.

Swoosh!

Gengmu didn't know exactly what happened; he only felt a bright silver blade flash across his body, and immediately his neck was sliced open, spewing a flood of fresh blood.

I'm going to die like this?!

Gengmu reached to cover his gaping neck; for the first time he felt the enemy's power—a gap so distant it was utterly crushing.

Little Gengmu, what are you going to do? You're about to die here~

Wang Yue held his newly forged Zanpakutō 'Sheathfall', a blade so sharp it has no sheath to hold it, so it can only stay in the Spirit King Palace, accompanying him~

Although Sheathfall seems a failure for Wang Yue, it's especially useful against the invading Little Karami in the palace…

'Death'?! What a joke…

How could I possibly just die here?!

I'm going to become the man who surpasses Araki, the strongest of the Three Realms!

In a brief instant, a 'Carousel Lantern' seemed to flash before Gengmu's eyes; after recalling his short life, he finally seemed to find his purpose! Yes, he cannot die yet; he must keep fighting, he must surpass Araki!!

Roar!!

As this belief fermented in Gengmu's chest, a supremely cute pink‑haired girl seemed to appear before him, cradling his fierce cheek and quietly saying, "Since that's the case, I'll give you the power that was originally yours! Now you should be able to call out my full name~"

Roar!!

The response to the girl was a howl like that of a demon.

At this moment, the members of the Zero Squad could no longer make out what Gengmu was saying; they only saw him open his mouth and emit a roar unlike any human voice!

Immediately, Gengmu's body underwent a violent transformation: the skin already stained red by the blood gushing from his neck swelled even more, as if one vein after another inside his body expanded at that moment, stretching his skin to the limit! His once‑pale forehead bulged slightly, sprouting demonic ridges, and his fierce eyes bore black markings that spread from the corners down across half his face…

At this point, Gengmu could no longer be called a 'human'; it is more fitting to call him a hell‑born 'demon', a blood‑thirsty 'Asura'!

'Little Gengmu, you've become so terrifying now~'

Wang Yue looked at the Asura‑like Gengmu and teased cheerfully, clearly not taking the Gengmu before him seriously.

'Kirin Temple, quickly treat Gengmu! Otherwise, little Gengmu might be killed by his own flowing blood~'

Then, Wang Yue turned to Kirin Temple and spoke.

Got it~

Kirin Temple, hearing that, brandished his wooden sword that resembled a paddle and struck forcefully toward Gengmu's direction.

Boom!

In the next second, an endless sea of blood rained down from the sky, completely engulfing the transformed Gengmu. That blood sea was Kirin Temple's 'Blood Pool Hell', and its spring water replaced the blood flowing from Gengmu's neck. Moreover, the Blood Pool Hell not only supplied Gengmu with fresh blood but also healed his hidden wounds, strengthening his constitution.

Boom!

Just as Geng Mu's body was healed by this 'blood pool', he split the whole sea of blood with a single slash, like an evil ghost, and rushed toward everyone.

"Roar!!"

At this moment, Geng Mu was howling; his Soul-Cutting Sword 'Wild Exposure' had at some point broken, leaving only half, yet the power of 'Wild Exposure' had increased more than double, utterly incomparable to its power when Geng Mu first released it.

"Then from now on, our work is finished; 'Monk', you make a move!"

Wang Yue and Qilin Temple watched as Geng Mu rushed at them like an evil ghost, merely gave a light smile, then softly spoke to the 'Monk' beside them.

"Looks like it's really my turn to make a move!"

The Monk said, waving the Soul-Cutting Sword behind him; rather than saying it was a Soul-Cutting Sword, it was more like a huge brush!

"Swish!"

At this moment, the Monk forcefully swung down the sword, and an endless blackness instantly fell upon Geng Mu's body.

"Huh?!"

Geng Mu, who had been continuously moving forward, froze in an instant, a flash of surprise flickering in his eyes.

"What was my name again?!"

Geng Mu couldn't remember; at this moment he seemed to have forgotten his own name, he even forgot his own name, naturally he also forgot the name of his Soul-Cutting Sword.

"Well, the boy who forgot his own name~"

"You see, I told you before! For our Zero Division, you're really weak~"

Just as Geng Mu stood motionless in place, the Monk, Wang Yue, and Qilin Temple walked up to him and spoke with a cheerful smile.

"……"

Geng Mu looked at the three members of the Zero Division standing before him; for the first time he felt the gap in strength, the three before him were no longer ordinary Soul Reapers, but beings of a higher order.

"All right! All right……"

"Boy, you will soon go to Huang Mu's detached palace, wash off this ink on your body, and you will naturally remember your name; then from now on, you will be in the Spirit King Palace under our three's supervision, completely mastering your Bankai!"

"Of course, when I say completely mastering Bankai, I don't mean like just now, turning into a wild beast, letting out roars, and wildly slashing at enemies; what I mean by complete mastery is being able to retain your sanity while in Bankai—do you understand?"

At this moment, the Monk walked up to Geng Mu, patting his shoulder on one hand and speaking to Geng Mu on the other.

"I understand."

Although Geng Mu had forgotten his name, he still retained his basic common sense; he could understand every word the Monk said, but whenever he tried to recall the name of his Soul-Cutting Sword or his own name, his mind went blank.

"Go on~"

Seeing this, the Monk laughed and patted Geng Mu's shoulder.

"Boom!"

However, just as the Monk was still smiling at Geng Mu a second ago, the next second he suddenly waved his Soul-Cutting Sword, swinging it toward Huang Mu's detached palace in the sky, and for a moment endless ink seemed to cover the entire sky.

"Dong~"

Unfortunately, before that ink could even approach the detached palace, accompanied by a distant echoing 'bell chime', the Monk's ink vanished on its own in the sky.

"Homage to the Medicine Buddha, Lapis Lazuli Light Tathagata——body like lapis lazuli, pure inside and out!"

The Monk gazed at the sky, at the detached palace whose body was like lapis lazuli, completely unstained by the ink, and sighed helplessly.

"As expected, my ability has no effect on him at all~"

The Monk looked at Wang Yue and Qilin Temple beside him and said.

"Not only that, even my ability to erase someone's name and grant them a new name has been learned by it; that's really deadly."

The monk recalled Araki's Zanpakuto erasing Kiba's name and granting Kiba a new name, and was instantly plagued by a throbbing headache.

"Look at what you're saying—so my ability hasn't been 'stolen' by it, has it?"

The Sword God Wang Yue sighed after hearing the monk's words.

"Heh, you should know that the hot spring in Araki's Li Hall was built before the hot spring in my Li Hall, and its effect is even stronger! Whenever my hot spring makes a new breakthrough, the hot spring in Araki's Li Hall follows suit…"

"Can the two of you be any worse off than me? Look at what I'm saying again?"

In response, Kirin Temple just gave a lazy shrug.

"Ever since this rune was etched onto me, I'm afraid we have no way out any more…"

The monk let out a helpless sigh; a bold "Om" character was conspicuously etched on his wrist.

Tch~

Wang Yue and Kirin Temple rolled their eyes at the monk's pretended sigh—it's just the 'Six-Word Mantra', isn't it?! As if they hadn't been marked themselves?

Indeed, golden markings also adorn Wang Yue's and Kirin Temple's wrists, but unlike the monk, the characters etched on their wrists are "Ma" and "Ne", respectively.

Both are Royal Family agents, both members of the Zero Squad, and both are wanderers of the world, huh~

"This 'Spirit King Palace' will eventually bear Araki's name!"

The monk looked at the golden, shimmering marks on the three of their arms and gave a helpless, bitter smile.

"One mustn't speak carelessly; the 'Spirit King Palace' still belongs to His Majesty the Spirit King. As for anything beyond the Spirit King Palace, whether it will still belong to His Majesty in the future, that's hard to say~"

Kirin Temple, after hearing the monk's words, quickly shook his head; he's truly sincere, and who knows whether Araki has installed some eavesdropping device on this 'Spirit King Front Avenue' specifically to listen in on the three of them.

"Don't overthink; if you don't think about it, there's no trouble~"

Wang Yue no longer spoke much with Kirin Temple and the others; the little 'Zanpakuto' darlings in his 'Bedchamber' are still waiting for him~

The most carefree person in the Zero Squad is probably the Sword God Wang Yue.

Meanwhile, down in the lower world, Araki is far from as bored as the Zero Squad.

After Araki sent the boy Kogane to the Zero Squad to train the Bankai, he hurriedly used 'Black Resonance' from the Soul Society to go to the Xu Circle!

Indeed, Araki went straight to the outskirts of the Soul Society, then used his Zanpakuto to cut open a space‑traversal ability that only the Great Void can employ... 'Black Resonance'! This is the brand‑new ability Araki obtained after subduing Kiba and Bailer Gang.

Not long after...

Araki has already arrived from the Soul Society into the Xu Circle.

Araki looked at the familiar expanse of white sand before him, lingered not, and headed straight toward the Xu ye gong where Bailer Gang resides...

When Huang Mu relied on his memory to arrive at Xu ye gong, he was completely shocked by the sight before him!

One could see that the original Xu ye gong had become a thing of the past; the present Xu ye gong, while not brightly lit, still had a somewhat different flavor……

At this moment, Huang Mu walked through Xu ye gong, and inexplicably a feeling rose in his heart—like walking through his old residential area before crossing over, the street where the midnight streetlights stayed lit—this gave Huang Mu a sense of nostalgia.

"Your Majesty Huang Mu, how do you feel about this Xu ye gong I've renovated for you?!"

Just as Huang Mu stared blankly at those old-fashioned streetlamps, the Hollow King Bailè Gang slowly rose from his throne and walked toward Huang Mu's direction, speaking proudly as he went.

"Not bad! You must have put a lot of thought into making these streetlamps, right?!"

Huang Mu looked at Bailè Gang and praised him softly.

"Hehe, I didn't actually expend much thought……"

Bailè Gang heard this, smiled proudly, and looked at Huang Mu, shaking his head modestly.

In fact, as Bailè Gang said, he truly didn't expend much thought to make these streetlamps; he simply wasted quite a few GrandFisher brains~

Did you see the row of streetlamps I just put up? The brains of eighteen generations of GrandFisher's ancestors are all stuck in there~ Compared to GrandFisher, even Bruce Wayne, who lives in the neighboring universe and is still young, seems not so pitiful~

"Why did you summon me this time?!"

Huang Mu looked at Bailè Gang and asked.

"I've discovered a Vasto Lorde!"

Bailè Gang directly reported their situation to Huang Mu.

"Oh? Do tell……"

Upon hearing Bailè Gang say he'd found a Vasto Lorde-class Grande Hollow, Huang Mu's eyes narrowed instantly. Know that a Vasto Lorde-class Grande Hollow is a treasure of the Three Realms! It is an indispensable pillar for maintaining the stability of the Three Realms!

"This Vasto Lorde is unlike any high-level Hollow I've ever seen! She possesses an almost overwhelming spiritual pressure; in terms of sheer reiatsu, she surpasses both me and Ji Ba! Even an ordinary Hollow, even if it's an Adjuchas-class Menos, just approaching her risks being crushed by her overwhelming spiritual pressure."

"Most importantly, her mask differs from ours—it's shattered! From the cracks in her mask emerges a human-like cheek. Frankly, I've never seen a Hollow so human-like……"

Bailè Gang stood before Huang Mu, his tone extremely solemn; evidently this discovery was also a great challenge for him as the Hollow King.

"Arrancar?!"

Upon hearing Bailè Gang's words, Huang Mu instantly thought of a term.

"Arrancar? That term is quite interesting—it really fits that guy's image!"

"Even without having seen him, you've given that Hollow such a fitting name—truly worthy of you, Lord Huang Mu~"

After hearing Huang Mu's words, Bailè Gang stroked his chin, simultaneously recalling the image of that Vasto Lorde, and for a moment thought Huang Mu was a genius at naming~

"Er……"

Huang Mu's eyelid twitched slightly upon hearing Bailè Gang's words; this term was coined by Lanran and Jiu Bao, he merely borrowed it, no matter! Anyway, Lanran is currently off playing some unknown corner of Soul Society—his very birth is uncertain—so he just went ahead and used it.

"Take me to meet that Arrancar!"

Huang Mu said to Bailè Gang.

"All right, you and I will……"

Bailè Gang, upon hearing this, lightly nodded at Huang Mu, then immediately led Huang Mu toward the depths of the Hollow Realm.

The Hollow Realm is vast, no less than Soul Society; although Bailè Gang claims to be king of the Hollow Realm, in truth he only controls a corner of it……

As for the Hollows within the Hollow Realm, they are like endless white sand, impossible to count; who knows how many Menos there are, and among those Menos how many are Vasto Lorde? If Bailè Gang hadn't received Huang Mu's order to summon all the Vasto Lorde in the Hollow Realm, he wouldn't have bothered sending his subordinates on a massive sweep—yet this sweep actually let him discover a "monster".

Facing that strange Grande Hollow—now properly called an Arrancar—confronted with the Arrancar's immense inner spiritual pressure, Bailè Gang did not choose to attack rashly; after a few probes, he decided to summon Huang Mu for help. As for joining forces with Ji Ba, Bailè Gang had not ruled it out, but the thought of surely being obstructed by Ji Ba made him dismiss the idea immediately.

As for Huang Mu……

Upon hearing that Bailè Gang had encountered an Arrancar, Huang Mu immediately had an answer: at this time, the Arrancar should be only the natural Arrancar Stark and Lilynette……

Moreover, Huang Mu heard Bailè Gang refer to that Arrancar as "one", meaning Stark and Lilynette likely haven't split yet in this period; following the logic that the stronger side is the main body, Stark is evidently the true self!

However, according to the original manga, in the dialogue between Stark and Lilynette, Lilynette says to Stark: "You're still split off from me……"

Furthermore, since Stark and Lilynette's spiritual pressure is too strong, preventing them from communicating with others and making them extremely lonely, if we reason that weakening indicates the main body, then Lilynette is more likely to be the true self……

In that moment, Huang Mu's mind braced itself to face either a fiery loli or a listless, disinterested MADAO-style uncle~

However, when Huang Mu and Bailè Gang arrived at the destination, he gazed upon the woman with a head of green long hair, wearing a gray coat, an eyepatch over her left eye, and a buxom figure, and couldn't help but ask: "Who are you?!"

"Me? Lilynette Stark!"

The woman said, picking up two pistols and aiming them at Huang Mu and Bailè Gang at his side.

The moment the woman's words fell, a sky‑covering Hollow Flash surged toward Huang Mu.

Two more chapters, twelve thousand words~ The third Vasto Lorde has been subdued; from now on the plot will advance greatly, and familiar faces will appear one after another~

Two more updates, twelve thousand characters~ The third head of Tile Void has been subdued; going forward, the story will advance significantly, and all the familiar faces you know will appear one after another~

By the way, please vote for me~