Ulquiorra and Orihime officially confirmed their relationship, a move that left Uryū completely bewildered and mentally devastated. However, Uryū recovered within a few days.
If you can't win her over, you can't win her over. It was just a student romance anyway, and Uryū is capable of handling these kinds of situations with composure. Besides, Uryū is much better than his father. Ryūken was already engaged when his girlfriend was snatched away halfway through. The fact that Ryūken didn't kill Isshin and Mei back then shows true love.
The vacation is over, and Chun has found Ulquiorra in a state of blissful turmoil.
How are you feeling?
"This must be happiness," Ulquiorra said, placing his hand on his chest and feeling his heartbeat.
"What if we leave the Gigai?"
Ulquiorra leaving the Gigai, Ulquiorra stared silently at the Hollow Hole in his chest.
"What's wrong?"
"Is my heart a lie?"
"The heart isn't a physical organ. You're too concerned with practical matters. However, the reason I sent you to the World of the Living to help you pursue Orihime was to test whether the Hollow Hole could be repaired. How do you feel about that?"
Ulquiorra placed his hand on the Hollow Hole, closed his eyes, and after a moment whispered, "Father, I think I can feel my heartbeat."
"This is a good thing. Just stay in this World of the Living. Don't overthink what I'm saying. What you can't have by asking for is what you get by not asking for. It's all about fate. Follow your heart, understand?"
"Yes! I understand, Father."
"Okay, I'll be going now, no need to see me off."
With large numbers of teams returning to Hueco Mundo, no one would actually stay in the Bottomless Abyss, a place where there's no sunlight, and work diligently. If Ulquiorra weren't in the World of the Living, he might have done so.
The last exploration revealed a new 3D map. Fortunately, we had Dolfen and Oka, two dolphin species with exceptional abilities in ultrasonic waves. Strong ultrasonic waves translate to strong Radar capabilities, enabling them to construct 3D maps.
The explored areas of the Bottomless Abyss are truly interconnected; groups will encounter each other along the way, and then every few kilometers there will be forks in the road where they can separate, giving them another chance to meet other groups.
After more than three months of exploration by twenty-three teams, and with their exploration routes mapped out, it was discovered that the area explored by the group in the Bottomless Abyss, if centered on the initial point of entry into the abyss and with the exploration distance as the radius, now appears to be larger than the Forest of Menos.
Now let's talk about the issue of altitude. Remember what Jun did underground in Soul Society back then? Jun dug a research institute, and then he found a place to continue digging downwards. Jun wanted to dig through Soul Society.
Jun had already done it; he had truly dug through the Soul Society, and the answer he received was exactly as he had predicted: the Soul Society's underground and sky were connected, forming a permeable, closed space.
Those who have played the old Snake game might understand this better. It means that if you go out from the edge of the map, it's equivalent to coming back in from the opposite edge. Going out from the left is equivalent to coming in from the right, and going out from the top is equivalent to coming in from the bottom.
This is the situation, and many similar examples have been tried. All maps in the Hueco Mundo are like this: except for the spatial connections between different Planes, if you leave from any map boundary, you will enter from the other side of the map.
Since not every world is necessarily a sphere, and it's uncertain whether the shape of this world is three-dimensional or four-dimensional, the general idea is that leaving the map from a non-spatially linked boundary will result in re-entering from the opposite side of the map.
"Is it possible that the Bottomless Abyss are connected?" Chun asked, looking at the map. "Is it possible that the passage crosses the map boundary?"
"It's possible. We Arrancar have a strong ability to perceive spatial connection points, but we have no concept or perception of things like map boundaries," Oka was also curious about this.
"So, this time we'll go straight down to the bottom of the abyss and then explore further. I'm really curious to see what's at the bottom of the abyss. Do we just fall down from the top again?"
"Haha, that's absolutely impossible, because the top of the abyss is a spatial connection point."
"Never mind, let's go!"
More than 150 people jumped into the abyss together. Everyone here was highly skilled, daring, and powerful, unafraid of Vasto Lorde. Moreover, for safety, the Arrancar activated their aura domains, which would usually cause Menos Grande to leave upon sensing such auras.
The descent was swift, and soon the group had surpassed the previously explored depth of one hundred kilometers. From here on, Oka and Dolfen would calculate distances; their ability to do so was second to none.
The others also used their own unique methods. Starrk and his group chose to leave their presence behind, while the Soul Reaper left some kind of mark. One of the Undead was particularly ingenious; he carried a cell phone with altitude recording capabilities.
Where did this thing come from?
I asked Aijima to do it for me.
Wow! You're amazing!
They quickly descended to a depth of 200 kilometers, yet the abyss remained unfathomably deep. They continued, reaching a depth of 300, 500, 1000, 1500, 2000, and 3000. At the 3000-kilometer mark, it was confirmed that the Bottomless Abyss was the largest Hueco Mundo world ever explored; the Endless Sea was only about 2700 kilometers deep.
But they hadn't reached the bottom yet, so they continued downhill. When they reached 3779 kilometers, they finally touched the ground.
"So big!!"
"And it's not over yet; there's still a distance underground."
"Mamma Mia!"
Everyone was shocked. A world even larger than the Endless Sea! Earth's diameter is only about 12,000 kilometers, while this place is over 3,000 kilometers in diameter—one-thirtieth the size of Earth. And it's entirely underground, not just a single surface level to explore. With such a massive volume, it would take even 2,300 teams three to five years to explore, let alone 23 teams.
"How big is the Soul Society?" Yoruichi asked curiously.
"I haven't measured it precisely, but it's at most less than 500 kilometers, with an area of over 40,000 square kilometers. That's actually quite large, bigger than a city in the World of the Living."
The Soul Society is actually quite small. The Seireitei covers about 200 square kilometers, 10,000 meters wide and 20,000 meters long. It's not small; its overall area is roughly the size of three to five prefecture-level cities.
Seriously, this area isn't small, but the Soul Society doesn't utilize much of it, and the population is similarly limited. In terms of population density, the Soul Society's population density is comparable to that of the World of the Living eight hundred years ago—incredibly backward.
Everyone here is a worldly person; a moment of amazement is enough. Chun then ordered a regrouping, this time to explore in all directions from this plane. The twenty-three teams were divided into six groups, with members looking out for each other.
As the exploration area expands, the groups will eventually be separated, but the teams within a group must maintain contact and not lose communication.
Chun's group had to consist of four teams. They randomly chose a cave entrance that was close in direction, and all four teams entered together. As Chun walked, she discovered a downward passage.
"Downward passage detected, one team moving downwards."
"The second team's channel trend is upward."
"The trend in the three channels is stable."
"The trend in the four channels is stable."
"Team One has a safe passage; Team Two can move."
"Second team received, move out immediately."
The second team quickly broke through the wall and reached Chun's side. They headed towards the fork in the road, where Chun and her team had already entered a downward passage, a slope. As they walked, they noticed they were veering to the left.
"One team descends the passage at a 27-degree angle, 19 degrees south."
"Team Two, the passage is straight ahead. Requesting Team One to suspend exploration."
"The three teams are trending upwards through the passage; requesting Team One to suspend exploration."
"The passage for Team Four remains stable. A southward passage has been discovered, trending downwards. Team Four enters the southward passage, which is inclined at 14 degrees and is straight."
The group didn't completely stop; Oka and Yoruichi broke away from the group to continue exploring. After a while...
"Team Two has discovered a downward passage, tilted at 47 degrees and 12 degrees north of north; they have entered the passage."
"Team 3 has no downward passage within 100 kilometers. Move to Team 1's passage. Team 1, please continue forward."
This allowed Chun and the others to continue. Soon, the third team of Dolfen arrived, and the two teams together sped up their exploration. As they walked, the fourth team reached the end of the passage, broke through the ground, and entered a new passage, continuing their journey.
All four teams were descending, but as they walked, they discovered that Team Two had already completed a full circle, and their steeper angle allowed them to descend faster than the other three teams. The passage was simply too steep for the other teams to catch up with; there was nothing they could do.
However, as they walked, they sensed Team Twenty. It turned out that Group Six of Teams 20-23 had also chosen to explore downwards, also at a southerly angle, and had entered the sensing range.
Then, the amazing second and twenty-third teams collided. Their passages were connected, and the seven teams continued their exploration downwards. The Arrancar all activated their own domains, driving away the Menos Grande.
The domain is only shut down near the end of the workday, and then each team captures one Vasto Lorde to take back. Of course, occasionally some foolish Vasto Lorde will stubbornly charge through the domain and ask for a beating; these are usually the ones with some brains, and they are captured to serve as Linglu and mounts.
And so, the two groups of seven teams explored downwards together for three days, covering a distance of nearly 800 kilometers. The fourth team discovered a spatial link, revealing a new Hueco Mundo world.
Furthermore, they could declare that they had reached the boundary, as all the spatial links were located at the boundary. The seven teams went to explore the new world together, naming it Skyline Cloud Sea. This world was quite magical; there was very little gravity, so they could fly freely, and the land was covered in clouds.
The group didn't linger there but continued exploring the Bottomless Abyss. Upon reaching the boundary, they split again: the first group headed south, and the second group headed north, hoping to find a new spatial connection point by exploring along the boundary.
And so another three months passed.