Sin and Punishment

On the ancient Scroll, elegant and beautiful ink-black words floated:

"Host: Asano Kiyoshi

Zanjutsu: 36 (Swordsmanship is the art of killing. No matter how beautifully it is embellished with words, that will always remain true. Amid life-and-death battles, your swordsmanship has progressed rapidly.)

Hakuda: 38 (Having absorbed fragments of Hierro, your skin was now comparable to leather. Even a cleaver could only leave faint white marks when swung at you.)

Kido: 40 (Perfect Kido control ability, perfect Reishi Control Ability—you have already reached the current peak of a Soul Body! Cannot be improved!)

Shunpo: 40 (Having absorbed Hierro, your physical strength has greatly increased, while your control over Reishi has become like a tiger with wings. Among Fourth-Seat Reiatsu, your Shunpo is already unrivaled in the world! Cannot be improved!)

Reiatsu: Fourth-Seat Reiatsu 23% (The blood of sinners gathers into your throne. Their corpses pile into mountains, nourishing the fertile earth. Their filthy souls find redemption here!)

Overall Rating: 154 (You possess the base stats of an ordinary Squad Fourteen Seat, but your combat power is far stronger—an almost perfect Fourteenth Seat!)

Zanpakuto: Underworld

Shikai: ...(No further updates will be written to avoid padding the word count.)"

Asano Kiyoshi finally smiled when he saw his evaluation on the Scroll. Sure enough, coming here had truly been the right choice!

Only through battles between life and death could his strength improve to the greatest extent. It was not merely because of the Road to the Underworld's absorption, but more because of his understanding of battle and the tempering of his state of mind.

He looked at his bloodstained hands, his heart somewhat conflicted. He was not truly that cold-blooded. Even now, when he killed someone, his heart still trembled, and he still shook a little.

Asano Kiyoshi could not change so quickly. He needed time. At the same time, he did not want to become a cold-blooded beast that only knew slaughter. He was a human being. He needed to distinguish good from evil. Even while killing decisively, he wanted to retain a compassionate heart.

Knowing how vast heaven and earth were, he still pitied the green grass and trees.

An increase in power had to be matched by an equally strong state of mind. Otherwise, one was merely a useless person with power.

What measured a strong person had never been strength alone! Nor should it ever be strength alone!

Wiping the mud from his face that hindered his breathing, Asano Kiyoshi struggled to prop himself up. He made his way to a relatively intact tree, sat down beside it, and used Kaido on himself.

As his Reishi was reconstructed, his stamina steadily recovered, and his state of mind slowly calmed.

Somewhere Asano Kiyoshi did not notice, Gin was currently hiding in the tree canopy. Watching Asano Kiyoshi rest beneath the tree, his starry eyes opened slightly, carrying a trace of curiosity and confusion. His thin lips moved faintly.

"Such a strange power. It can directly destroy the Reishi structure of a Cero? No, no, it doesn't seem like destruction. It's more like... erasure? He doesn't need to touch it? What exactly are that sea of crimson flowers and pavilion of his? Is his ability related to those things? If the building is destroyed and the sea of flowers uprooted, can the continuation of that power be cut off?"

As he thought, Gin Ichimaru scratched his smooth silver-white hair, closed his opened eyes, and resumed his trademark foxlike smile. He muttered to himself, "Well~ what an interesting child. It would be better not to tell Lord Aizen about you like this. But how am I supposed to fabricate the way you killed that guy? Ahh~ what a pain..."

With that, a breeze swept past, and Gin vanished from the tree canopy. Only several fallen dead leaves marked someone's recent arrival.

Kaido was highly effective. No, rather, Asano Kiyoshi's Kaido was highly effective. In only a short while, he had already recovered more than half of his strength.

After all, his injuries had not been particularly serious to begin with. They were mainly superficial injuries caused by impact and Reishi collisions. With the boost from 10% of his maximum life force, it was all rather easy.

What was more, Enkōsen's defense had kept Asano Kiyoshi away from the center of the explosion, while Tsuriboshi had blocked and dispersed most of the impact. Finally, the muddy ground weakened the shock once more.

It was the combination of all these factors that allowed Asano Kiyoshi to recover so quickly.

In the underground passage, he found Yamano Mirō curled up in a corner, trembling. This fellow had been lucky. Even though the entire tunnel had collapsed, only a few rocks had fallen on him, and his life was not in danger.

The instant he saw Asano Kiyoshi, Yamano Mirō looked as though he had seen a ghost. He stammered instinctively, "Y-you, you're still alive?!"

Asano Kiyoshi grabbed him and said flatly, "Were you hoping I was dead?"

At that, Yamano Mirō immediately gave an awkward laugh. "No, no, I didn't see anything. Right, sir, if you go forward about five li from here, you'll reach the Yingkou Group's hideout. Without Yingkou Hui, once you get there, it'll basically be a massacre. I'll lead the way and make sure you wipe them all out without leaving a single one behind!"

Seeing Yamano Mirō's eager expression, Asano Kiyoshi merely shook his head before saying, "You really have a talent for killing your own people."

Yamano Mirō only gave a foolish grin and said nothing.

Under Yamano Mirō's guidance, in less than half a day, Asano Kiyoshi had almost completely wiped out all eighty-six members of the Yingkou Group!

Of those eighty-six people, thirty-four had more than fifty lives on their hands, while three had more than a hundred. The rest had, to varying degrees, taken several lives as well.

At the Yingkou Group's base, Asano Kiyoshi saw women penned up like livestock. They were barely clothed and lived in dilapidated, foul-smelling straw sheds. Every woman had iron shackles around her neck and ankles. The bones of some dead women still lay in corners, left to rot.

Every woman's face was filled with numbness and pain. When they saw Asano Kiyoshi arrive, some even voluntarily took off their clothes.

Asano Kiyoshi saved them. He severed the limbs of the people who had abused them and threw those men before them.

Only when the blood of those evildoers splashed across their faces did some emotion finally appear on the women's faces. Looking at those sinners with their limbs severed, confusion first appeared in their eyes, followed by overwhelming hatred!

They used everything around them to kill those people!

Teeth bit through throats, rank blood filled mouths, fingernails dug into flesh, soft organs were torn out...

It was a living hell, but also a place of cathartic release.

Asano Kiyoshi silently watched it all. His body trembled slightly, and a numbness he could not suppress rose from deep within his heart. He wanted to leave, but he knew that what he would encounter in the future would be far more terrifying than this. He had to grow stronger—strong enough to protect those he cared about!