After settling down in their small courtyard, Chun led his family over mountains and valleys to the edge of a cave. It wasn't far, just one peak, but the path was treacherous—the kind of route where an ordinary person could easily die several times over.
But it's different for Soul Reaper and Arrancar, whose true forms are their physical bodies. Even if their Gigai are damaged, there are always ways to repair them, so they don't care about this at all.
"Wow! Master, you've made all the preparations already!" Aozumi asked as he carefully climbed down into the cave.
This cave entrance leads to the underground river, and it's one of the entrances that the Undead led Chun to before. Chun considered this when choosing a location for his small courtyard.
"Yes, this distance is perfect, not too far and not too close. For living people, this distance would be really inefficient and dangerous, but for us, it isolates us from the living, and we can treat the journey as entertainment."
"Haha, it's quite a fun game," Oka, tall and strong, was perfect for climbing, while Dolfen and Lilynette were having a tough time.
However, no matter how tough it gets, he's no ordinary person. The Gigai's maximum strength output is extremely high, allowing him to easily support his entire body weight with one hand. With that arm strength, plus the fact that he's not afraid of falling to his death, what kind of rock climbing can't he do?
Reaching a height of several hundred meters was only a matter of time. During this time, due to Oka's enormous size, there was a crevice he couldn't pass through. Having no other option, he used his Spiritual Power to smash a hole in the crevice, which made him yell in anger.
Upon arriving at the Dark River area Oka was quite frustrated. Many places that others could easily traverse resulted in him getting covered in wounds; it was truly frustrating.
For reference, you can think of Oka's physique as that of basketball star Shaquille O'Neal. "Big" doesn't mean simply fat; it means incredibly strong, even stronger than O'Neal. He has the kind of physique you'd only see in a comic book. His weight alone is probably around 180kg, since there are no scales these days.
However, the underground river couldn't be damaged carelessly. If the support structure was accidentally destroyed, a water source would immediately have to be rerouted, causing a huge problem. So, in the end, with no other option, they had Oka detach from the Gigai and use his soul form to pull Gigai forward. The Gigai body was only the size of a normal person, so it could get through almost anywhere.
After a tremendous amount of effort, the group finally arrived at the settlement of the Undead, having traversed nearly a hundred kilometers along the underground river alone.
Let's fly back when we go.
Even someone like Oka, who loves adventure, couldn't bear to go through this again. Everyone was only having this experience once, so it was a success and everyone approved. Chun didn't want to go through it again either.
Upon arriving at the Undead settlement, they were quickly surrounded by the Undead and given the usual warm welcome. Even the newcomers they hadn't met before were accepted; anyone they had brought along was acknowledged.
In the eyes of the Undead, Chun's image was practically that of a god, especially after helping Undead reproduce; he was a true god. Therefore, although Oka, Dolfen, Tier Harribel were newcomers, since they were brought by Chun, they were undoubtedly his friends.
After introductions were completed, the three newcomers, who had already been briefed by Starrk on their way here, were now observing each other with curiosity.
On the other hand, Isuzu had long ago found someone to take her to see the newborn Undead; more than twenty years had passed, and the number of newborns had reached three.
Undead newborns, like Soul Society newborns, are entirely soul beings, so their development speed is the same. Even after more than twenty years, the oldest is only equivalent to a two-year-old in the human world, just learning to walk and only able to call out names like "Dad," "Mom," "Uncle," and "Aunt." As for who is who... well, sorry.
However, a two-year-old can already run around everywhere, so as soon as Isuzu arrived outside the nursery, she heard someone inside calling, "Tarō ~ Tarō, don't run around~"
Upon entering the nursery, Isuzu immediately noticed the difference between this place and the outside world. The density and activity of Reishi here were different from those outside, making it more similar to Soul Society and Hueco Mundo, or even higher.
Isuzu was surprised. Yoshino, who led Isuzu here, was Yoshino Sōma from the Bount Arc in the original work. She explained with a smile, "This was made by Kariya Jin. In essence, it's the Seventy-Three Paths of Bakudō, the Tōzanshō, but he modified it. Speaking of which, Kariya Jin is truly a genius."
Kariya Jin is a true genius. In the original work, he developed the ability to Bount Dolls. In Jun's timeline, after Jun taught the Undead Kidō, Kariya Jin was one of the best at it, and he also had an innate talent for improving Kidō.
For example, this nursery, Kariya Jin a modified Tōzanshō, has had its shape altered to fit snugly into the mountainside, thus reducing the Spiritual Power required to maintain it. Because the Reishi of objects in the World of the Living is stable and rarely circulates, it is inherently a very good material for isolating Spiritual Power.
In this situation, as long as the protruding mountain wall is connected with a Spiritual Power wall, the area of Spiritual Power wall is reduced, and the Spiritual Power will not dissipate.
Then, the Spiritual Power input to the Tōzanshō was improved, allowing it to accept Spiritual Power input from multiple people. This improvement benefits the nursery itself; if only the Spiritual Power of the one who releases it could be replenished, it would be impossible to create Reishi density comparable to that of Soul Society on a large scale.
Therefore, more people are needed to release Reishi together, including maintaining the Spiritual Power wall, etc. Everything is done by everyone. It's not difficult for more than three hundred Undead to raise a few cubs, and they can also help a few mothers recover.
Undead mother's body is consumed during pregnancy, but the Undead themselves use human bodies as Spiritual Power storage devices, so this thing is like bound equipment; pregnancy won't damage the equipment, and it can slowly regenerate in areas with high Reishi density.
So when Isuzu entered, she saw three mothers with varying degrees of transparency, and three children with varying degrees of transparency. Although the children of the Undead were spirit beings, they also inherited the characteristics of the Undead, possessing their own Spiritual Power storage device, which was essentially a human body.
Isuzu screamed and rushed over to hug one of the children. She adored children, but accidentally made all three kids wail, leaving Isuzu awkwardly standing to the side.
Returning to the topic of the Undead child's Spiritual Power body, after learning this, Chun couldn't help but wonder: was the research back then truly successful? Did the Undead achieve a higher level of spiritual immortality than the Soul Reaper?
However, there is no definitive proof yet, because the number of Undead is too small, and they only reproduce three offspring at a time. Further research would be needed if the number were on par with the souls of the Soul Society.
For example, can Undead get sick? Even Soul Reaper can get sick, right? Do newborns sometimes become weak and sickly? Soul Reaper can experience this too, like Byakuya's father, Sōjun Kuchiki.
However, judging from the current situation of the three Undead children, this is not the case. It is purely believed that the Spiritual Power storage device that the Undead possess is likely one of the necessary means to maintain the longevity of their souls.
Beyond this conjecture, Chun also attempted to research how to create this Spiritual Power storage device—that is, to attach this object to the soul of an existing Soul Reaper. It could be in human form, thus becoming Undead, or it could be other things, such as a piece of clothing, a knife, or a piece of jewelry.
With this, we can explore whether it can help weak Soul Reaper become stronger, or help Soul Reaper or souls who are already ill to prolong their lives. This is currently just an idea. After further research and achieving results, we can try it out in the Soul Society.
If this succeeds, countless lives will be saved. I can guarantee it. Once my research is successful, the Zero Division will send me an invitation. If I refuse then, the loss of face and reputation will be no joke.
As for the exchange between the Undead and the Arrancar, neither Undead truly understood its significance. However, it was purely facilitated, so although they didn't comprehend it, they still participated.
Because of Jun's identity, we won't discuss the Undead' side much. As for the Arrancar, Jun wasn't the first Arrancar creator, but he was the one who inspired the expansion of the Arrancar race.
Pure provided clues for the development of the Arrancar, and due to Starrk's specific needs, this ultimately led to the current Arrancar population. To be honest, any Arrancar with even a shred of humanity would be grateful for Pure's existence.
Furthermore, on the other hand, it was Jun who taught these subsequent Arrancar what humanity truly meant. Jun was not only an enlightener for the development of their race, but also an enlightener for the education of humanity. If there were any mythology, then for the Arrancar race, Jun would be like Jesus, Buddha, or Lao Tzu.
At the end of their conversation, Jun called Kariya Jin and the other Undead out and brought them back to the courtyard to begin living ordinary lives. Kariya Jin didn't particularly like this kind of thing, but the other Undead he had invited loved it. Sometimes they would be moved to tears, and other times they would feel nostalgic and saddened by the memories.
This life of disguise as an ordinary human was indeed very interesting, and Starrk enjoyed it immensely. Surprisingly, this symbol of the Wolf Pack was fond of raising animals, and he handled all the details of animal husbandry perfectly, requiring no one else to worry about it.
For every person who likes something, there's someone who doesn't. Lilynette and Dolfen were the first to tire of it, and Tier Harribel wasn't too keen on this lifestyle either. So, Tier Harribel took the two girls out to play, and the Starrk were relieved because Tier Harribel was very strong.
After a long career as a hunter, hunting a great many rare species for the noble lords, Oka grew tired of it. Fortunately, several decades later, the son of Oka, who was actually alive, went to the noble lords with a heavy heart to inform them that Oka was dead and there was no way to continue the hunt.
The nobles were also very disappointed; such a useful and powerful warrior was gone just like that. They gave Junichi a sum of money. In fact, Oka had accumulated a large sum of money over decades of hard work, enough for Chun and the others to live very comfortably, but they had hardly ever used it.
Most of the Undead were originally farmers, with some merchants, soldiers, or sailors. Not to mention that the Undead leader Miki Ichirin, was once a merchant, but after three or four hundred years, returning to ordinary life, he had almost forgotten how to do it. However, once he took over, the Undead still managed to take over the agricultural aspects as well.
Jun and his group had encountered harassment over the decades, including from homeless people. If these people were kind-hearted, Jun would teach them how to raise bamboo rats, as they were really easy to raise. Incidentally, eating bamboo rats had become a custom in Edo Castle, a practice that had gradually changed over the decades.
If bad guys come to harass them, they'll just become fertilizer. If this is the case for refugees, imagine what happens to bandits and robbers. Once caught, they either have to start a new life or become fertilizer themselves.
The small courtyard has also been expanded with several more plots of land, mainly because it needs more space for raising deer. The spicy rabbit head and dog meat hot pot are purely secret recipes, and everyone who comes raves about them, but the recipe has never been shared.
I thought I could continue living this leisurely life, but suddenly, the Baraggan Empire intensified its invasion of the World of the Living and the Soul Society.