https://novelcool.info/chapter/Chapter-575-For-the-Sake-of-Father-s-Use/12559963/
https://novelcool.info/chapter/Chapter-577-If-Being-Handsome-Means-Shouldering-Blame/12559965/
Chapter 576: A Conspiracy Unveiled
Chapter 576: A Conspiracy Unveiled
In the 7th district of South Rukongai, there lay a desolate wilderness on the eastern outskirts of the area. The entire region was vast, with lush green grasslands stretching as far as the eye could see to the horizon.
It was night, and the sky was adorned with twinkling stars. The wind rustled through the grass, carrying with it an unusual scent.
It was the scent of—
Blood!
"Lieutenant, watch out!"
A member of the Stealth Force called out to Soi Fon in warning.
Soi Fon's pupils narrowed as she rolled forward without hesitation, dodging a sharp, wide blade that had suddenly appeared from behind, aimed at her back.
Following the trajectory of the blade, one could see that it was connected to a massive arm, eerily white and devoid of any hair or skin, resembling pure white bones. The rest of the body seemed to merge with the space, appearing half-real and half-illusory.
The ground was littered with corpses. Some were members of the Stealth Force, but most wore different attire, suggesting they belonged to a different faction, perhaps a noble family, and not the standard shihakusho of the Gotei 13.
Whoosh!
As Soi Fon evaded the surprise attack from behind, two bizarre-looking Hollows appeared in front of her. One resembled a gigantic mantis, towering at over three meters tall, while the other had a massive face and two slightly comical bone claws.
The two Hollows attacked from either side.
Clang! Clang!!
Soi Fon blocked the attack from the left while dodging the one from the right, flipping herself into the air.
The Hollow with just a giant face tilted its head back to look at Soi Fon, then opened its mouth wide. Another face appeared inside its mouth, and the second face also opened its mouth.
Buzz!
A pitch-black beam of light pierced the sky, aiming straight for Soi Fon's body.
—Cero!
The speed of the Cero was incredible, leaving little room for evasion. Soi Fon, suspended in mid-air, displayed astonishing flexibility and resilience as she contorted her petite frame to avoid the deadly blast.
However, having just dodged the Cero, she had already pushed her agility to the limit. A giant blade emerged from the void behind her, leaving her with little room for another perfect evasion.
For a Shinigami, it was not impossible to move in mid-air, but using one's Reiryoku for propulsion resulted in slower speed and less agility compared to standing on solid ground. Evading the blade from behind seemed impossible.
Her Zanpakuto, Jakuho Raikoben, had already been released into its hornet-like form—a sharp finger ring-type weapon ideal for assassination. In this situation, where she was surrounded by numerous Hollows, it was clearly ineffective and unable to block their attacks.
Szzz!
Soi Fon managed to sidestep slightly, but the blade grazed the edge of her spine. She clenched her jaw as her gaze intensified, kicking out with one foot to strike the side of the blade. Her body arced through the air, falling dozens of meters away.
Upon landing, she broke into a cold sweat, breathing heavily. She clutched her left hand over her right shoulder, where her uniform was torn from top to bottom, revealing a long gash from which blood quickly seeped out.
Although the wound was not deep, it was long, and while it wouldn't affect her much in the short term, continued blood loss would undoubtedly have adverse effects if the battle dragged on.
"Damn it..."
Soi Fon gritted her teeth as she faced the approaching mantis Hollow, the two-faced Hollow, and the invisible Hollow hiding in the void, all of which had surrounded her once again.
She had led her team on an assassination mission to eradicate the Akeboshi clan, a lower-level noble family in Soul Society who had violated the prohibitions of the Central 46 Chambers by conducting forbidden experiments.
The assassination had gone smoothly. With sufficient intelligence, Soi Fon and her Stealth Force had easily eliminated most of the Akeboshi clan members, and the clan head had fallen to her Jakuho Raikoben.
However, as she prepared to leave the area after their success, an unexpected event occurred. The dense concentration of Reishi from the deaths of so many Shinigami seemed to have attracted a swarm of Hollows!
While she wasn't afraid of ordinary Hollows, even a Menos-class Gillians, with their clumsy movements, would struggle to pose a threat to her in groups of two or three, or even three or four.
But the Hollows that had arrived this time were almost entirely unfamiliar to her. Their Reiryoku intensity rivaled that of a Gillian, yet their combat style was entirely different, and they possessed a variety of abilities!
Of the three Hollows besieging her, one was a mantis Hollow with incredible speed and agility, another was a two-faced Hollow whose movements were slow but could fire Ceros indiscriminately, and these two alone were troublesome and formidable opponents. But the most critical threat was the third Hollow—the invisible one!
In its concealed state, even Soi Fon struggled to detect its Reiryoku!
"How could this be..."
Soi Fon brought her left hand to her eyes, seeing it stained with the blood that had dripped from her palm. She clenched her teeth and glared at the three approaching Hollows.
As a Shinigami, she had faced Hollows countless times, but never had she encountered such troublesome and formidable ones. These Hollows seemed anything but normal!
The most challenging aspect was the mantis Hollow's speed, which exceeded her own, preventing her from escaping. She had no choice but to engage in battle, for if she were caught from behind and knocked down, she would have no way to detect the invisible Hollow's position, and the situation would become even more dire.
Whoosh!!
The mantis Hollow flickered and, in an instant, appeared before Soi Fon, its massive scythes slicing down at her with tremendous force and speed.
Faced with such an attack that combined both power and speed, Soi Fon had no choice but to evade.
If one could block such violent attacks from a Hollow with just their index finger, even Yoruichi Shihouin would be poked into a state of incapacitation by Soi Fon and would not stand a chance against her.
Furthermore, as each of the three Hollows possessed unique abilities, Soi Fon found it nearly impossible to seize an opening to counter-attack, leaving her constantly on the defensive and unable to exploit her strengths.
"Ugh!"
Just as Soi Fon struggled to fend off the siege of the three Hollows, another one of her subordinates fell, pierced through by a Hollow.
This was the fourth Hollow to appear in the grassland, a monstrous creature with eight massive bone claws, exuding spiritual pressure comparable to that of a Gillian-class Menos. Soi Fon's remaining subordinates were joining forces to resist this new threat, but they were clearly overwhelmed.
The gap was just too vast!
While the subordinates Soi Fon had brought along were not weak, they were still only ordinary Shinigami and far from the level of a vice-captain. Even with their combined efforts, they were unable to inflict any fatal damage on the eight-armed Hollow.
There were over a dozen of them, yet their attacks seemed to have little effect, merely scratching the surface.
On the other hand, a single attack from the Hollow could result in serious injuries or even instant death.
However, they had no choice but to hold their ground against this fourth Hollow. If they didn't, and it joined the other three in besieging Soi Fon, she feared she wouldn't last even half a minute. Four opponents were simply beyond what Soi Fon, who had not yet grown to captain-level strength and was merely a young girl at the vice-captain level, could handle.
"Hold on!" Soi Fon shouted as she dodged attacks from the three Hollows. She had also noticed the dire situation on the other side of the battlefield, but she gritted her teeth and continued.
They had to endure until reinforcements arrived, and both sides had to hold their ground.
It wasn't enough to just hold off one side; if either she or the other group faltered, the situation would collapse entirely, and everyone would perish here.
Although everyone was aware of this, the gap in raw strength couldn't be bridged by mere shouting. Perhaps some people could have a breakthrough in a desperate situation and ascend to the next level, but they were clearly not capable of that, including Soi Fon.
Soi Fon did not possess such fortune in terms of spiritual energy.
Spiritual energy was a tangible entity.
Feng Ye could clearly see its existence; its essence was the future development of an individual. Those with strong spiritual energy would find their future development forever tilting in their favor, while those with weak spiritual energy would perpetually be at a disadvantage.
Take Ichigo Kurosaki, for example. If one were to peer into his future, they would find that almost all possibilities were in his favor. It would be incredibly difficult to alter his future to an absolutely unfavorable outcome.
This was also the reason why Yhwach ultimately lost to Ichigo.
If Ichigo's future was ninety-nine-point-nine percent in his favor, Soi Fon's would be a mere five percent at best, as she was relatively less significant.
If no one had interfered, the outcome of this battlefield would have had only a five percent probability of Soi Fon breaking through her limits and turning the tide with a sudden increase in power. The remaining ninety-five percent would have ended with her death.
However.
None of that mattered now.
From the very beginning, this battle was destined to be interrupted by others.
Amidst the relentless siege of the three Hollows, Soi Fon pushed herself to the limits, flawlessly executing Kido, hand-to-hand combat, and flash steps, maneuvering through the onslaught of attacks.
This intense battle lasted for nearly thirteen minutes before she was once again forced into a desperate situation with little room for evasion, much like before. She leaped into the air and exerted all her effort to dodge a Cero.
At this moment, she had a clear premonition.
Indeed, just as before, the invisible Hollow's wide, white blade emerged from nothingness, mercilessly slicing towards her back, aiming for nearly the same spot as last time!
Unlike the previous encounter, where she had managed to avoid a fatal wound, Soi Fon was now already injured and exhausted. Her body had reached its limit, and her stamina and endurance were not what they used to be. The wound on her back further hindered her, making it nearly impossible to evade this strike, similar to the last one.
Was this the end...?
Master Yoruichi...
In the end, I couldn't...
Soi Fon struggled to glance sideways at the incoming attack from behind. She knew she couldn't avoid it, and her mind flashed with scenes of Yoruichi.
But in the next moment, all those scenes shattered.
A figure clad in a black shihakusho with silver, shattered hair appeared before her, shattering the visions she had seen at the brink of death and forcibly pulling her consciousness back to reality.
Soi Fon's gaze froze.
She saw the man, taller than her, casually lift his right hand and push upward to meet the invisible Hollow's descending wide blade.
Boom!!!
The flesh-and-blood palm made contact with the massive blade, causing it and the arm behind it to explode into pieces.
This was an absolute difference in spiritual pressure. A captain-level spiritual pressure could easily overpower that of a vice-captain, like sand against steel, crumbling upon impact.
Swish! Feng Ye casually drew his Zanpakuto with his left hand and swung it forward nonchalantly.
The Hollow, which had seemed impenetrably hard under the onslaught of the Stealth Force members and had no visible wounds, was now like tofu under Feng Ye's Zanpakuto. It was pierced from the top of its head all the way through to the bottom before it completely exploded into countless spirit particles and disappeared.
Only a sword embedded in the ground remained.
"Are you alright?"
After slaying the four Hollows, Feng Ye turned around and looked at Soi Fon, who was behind him.
Hearing Feng Ye's voice, Soi Fon snapped out of her daze. She looked at him with a complicated expression and bit her lip, intending to answer, but her vision darkened, and she felt herself losing her balance. She staggered and fell forward.
Having fought three mutated Hollows with spiritual pressures similar to hers for over half an hour, and with her injuries left untreated due to the ongoing battle, the continuous blood loss had taken its toll.
"Hmm... The wound isn't deep, but the blood loss is severe."
Feng Ye reached out and caught Soi Fon as she fell. His gaze swept over her, taking in her condition. Aside from the long gash on her back and excessive blood loss, there didn't seem to be any other internal injuries.
After a moment's thought, Feng Ye grabbed Soi Fon's shoulder with one hand while bringing his index and middle fingers together on the other. A faint green glow appeared at his fingertips, and he pressed his fingers onto Soi Fon's back wound, tracing a line from the starting point at her shoulder down to her waist.
"Ugh... Mmm..."
Soi Fon stirred, waking from the brief unconsciousness induced by the sudden release of tension. She felt the pain from her back wound, but she gritted her teeth and refrained from making a sound.
As Feng Ye's fingers passed over her wound, stemming the flow of blood, he withdrew his hand and said, "I've stopped the bleeding for you."
"......Thank you."
Soi Fon, with her back still turned to Feng Ye, replied softly.
Before Feng Ye could make any other move, she freed herself from his grasp and dropped to the ground below.
Although her back was turned to him, Feng Ye's vision reflected her expression, and he couldn't help but smile inwardly.
This girl...
Is there still a chance to straighten her out?!
"Are you forcing me to add a plotline about conquering this girl, Aizen...? But I've always been the one pursued by their efforts, doing useless things, hmph. However, this time, it might actually be useful."
Feng Ye's expression was calm as he chuckled softly. Without needing to look, he knew these Hollows must be related to Aizen; it was obvious they weren't your typical Hollows.
Weaker Hollows could take on various forms, but once they reached the level of a Gillian, their forms became more consistent and similar, and they wouldn't exhibit such bizarre shapes and abilities unless they ascended to the next level and became an intermediate Hollow, an Adjuchas.
But an Adjuchas' spiritual pressure was comparable to that of a captain, and these Hollows were far weaker.
So, it was clear that these contradictory beings, which just so happened to attack Soi Fon at this particular time, had something to do with Aizen. As for his purpose in doing so, Feng Ye could probably guess.
...
At the same time,
About several thousand meters away from where Soi Fon and the Hollows had fought, the area seemed empty, but hidden within the void were two figures.
Aizen stood concealed, observing the battlefield where Soi Fon and Feng Ye were through the veil of nothingness. He calmly adjusted his glasses and said, "Just as I expected."
"He's immune to my Kyoka Suigetsu... No, he's interfering with it using his ability."
Not long ago, when Feng Ye had revealed his Shikai ability to steal time within the Seireitei, Aizen had surmised that his Kyoka Suigetsu might not work on Feng Ye.
There were two reasons for this. First, it had been too easy for Feng Ye to fall under the influence of Kyoka Suigetsu; it seemed almost too normal, and Feng Ye didn't strike him as someone who would be that easily affected. So, the fact that it seemed normal was, in itself, abnormal.
Second, since Feng Ye's Shikai could steal time, his Bankai might also be a time-related ability. And time-related abilities often conflicted with the power of Kyoka Suigetsu. For instance, time reversal or time deletion could potentially render Kyoka Suigetsu ineffective.
Hmm.
This was a problem... That was obviously not going to happen.
The plan he had been orchestrating was crucial, and it required controlling almost all the captains, vice-captains, seated officers, and Shinigami with his Kyoka Suigetsu to have a higher probability of success.
If there was a vice-captain or a captain who fell outside the influence of his Kyoka Suigetsu, it would significantly increase the risk of exposure.
So, upon suspecting that Feng Ye might not be under Kyoka Suigetsu's control, he decided to test his theory and, at the same time, take the opportunity to observe the results of his research.
However, the outcome was a failure.
The Hollows he had created were defective, and indeed, Feng Ye was immune to Kyoka Suigetsu.
"It seems that guy is quite dangerous."
The boy standing next to Aizen narrowed his eyes and spoke.
Aizen calmly turned and began walking away, heading in the direction of Feng Ye and Soi Fon. "Let's go, Gin. I need to rearrange my plan."
"..."
Gin glanced in the direction of Feng Ye and Soi Fon before quickly averting his gaze and following Aizen.
(End of Chapter)
Chapter end
Report
