Chapter Summaries

Ronglin drew an Asauchi and named the Zanpakuto that resonated with him Silence. In the Soul King Palace, Hyōsube Ichibē sensed the blade but could neither identify it nor give it a name.

• Kyoraku Shunsui, Kuchiki Haru, and Jushiro Ukitake explained how Asauchi usually formed a bond with their wielder after being grasped.
• The Captain-General described exceptional Zanpakuto that could resonate with their masters before being drawn, including Ryujin Jakka and Hyōrinmaru.
• Ronglin chose the first Asauchi on the rack and immediately entered a deep state of connection with it.
• The Captain-General asked Ronglin to name the blade, and Ronglin called it Silence.
• Hyōsube Ichibē sensed a new Zanpakuto awakening but found that he could not learn or bestow its name.

Ronglin received his awakened Zanpakuto, Silence, and joined a large expedition to the World of the Living as Squad Five’s acting Vice-Captain. At the departure point, he kept Kuchiki Byakuya and Shiba Zhu in his team after rejecting Unohana Yachiru’s offer to swap them for four intimidating men.

• Ronglin sensed a fierce aura trying to invade his Asauchi, but it disappeared after he named the blade Silence, leading him to suspect Hyōsube Ichibē had tried and failed to name it.
• Ronglin arrived at the gathering point with his newly awakened Zanpakuto, while Shiba Zhu mocked him for lacking Shikai and Kuchiki Byakuya pointed out that Shiba Zhu lacked it too.
• Kyoraku Shunsui, Jushiro Ukitake, Kuchiki Haru, Shiba Kaien, and Unohana Yachiru vouched for Ronglin, earning him an acting Vice-Captain appointment in Squad Five pending the mission’s completion.
• More than seventy teams gathered at the Gate of the Worlds to sweep Hollows from towns in the World of the Living, and Kuchiki Byakuya and Shiba Zhu were assigned to Ronglin’s four-person team.
• Ronglin complained that his teammates were deadweight, but when Unohana Yachiru offered to exchange them for four burly men, he rejected the swap and retreated with his team.

Ronglin led his team through the Kuchiki Family's private Gate of the Worlds to join the Hollow-hunting mission. He warned his inexperienced teammates to prioritize survival and forced Shiba Zhu to agree to follow his commands.

• Ronglin assigned his teammates battlefield code names and told them to share their real names only if they returned alive.
• As Unohana Yachiru led the Shinigami through the main gate, Ronglin's group used the Kuchiki Family's private passage to enter the World of the Living.
• Ronglin warned the team that unusual Hollows could be dangerous and ordered them to focus on staying alive rather than winning glory.
• Shiba Zhu claimed she could handle the danger because she had seen a Vasto Lorde, and Ronglin threatened to remove her from the team if she disregarded his orders.
• Shiba Zhu saw Kuchiki Byakuya's subtle signal and agreed to follow Ronglin's command.

Ronglin briefed his team on a cautious plan for hunting Hollows and led them toward a town, relying on his Spiritual Pressure senses instead of Hell Butterflies. The chapter then shifted to Zhuo Yun’s expedition in Hueco Mundo, where his force struggled to survive a massive Hollow assault and continued onward after losing half its members.

• Ronglin told Kuchiki Byakuya, Shiba Zhu, and the other two members to fight ordinary Hollows while he watched over them and intervened against special threats.
• Ronglin’s team teleported to a town’s outskirts, where Number One explained that Hell Butterflies would report Hollow locations.
• Ronglin said the team did not need Hell Butterflies and led them toward the town using his Spiritual Pressure senses.
• Zhuo Yun’s expeditionary force was overwhelmed by tens of thousands of Hollows soon after arriving in Hueco Mundo, and the battle lasted five days and five nights.
• The Shinigami fought alongside Zhuo Yun until the Hollow tide ended, suffering heavy losses and emerging more resolute.

Zhuo Yun’s expedition in Hueco Mundo uncovered something beneath the sand and began a battle that sent waves of Hollows fleeing toward the World of the Living. Ronglin noticed that the Hollows appearing there seemed to have arrived from Hueco Mundo in organized groups, while Kuchiki Byakuya and Shiba Zhu restrained two of them.

• Zhuo Yun rebuked her team for boasting about the number of Hollows they had killed and told them about the threat of Vasto Lordes.
• Zhuo Yun sensed something beneath the ground, ordered her team to retreat, and blasted open a massive hole in the quicksand.
• Zhuo Yun and her expedition descended into the hole, triggering a bloody battle in the Forest of Menos that drove countless Hollows toward the World of the Living.
• Ronglin wondered why large groups of Hollows had suddenly appeared in the World of the Living after several quiet days.
• Kuchiki Byakuya and Shiba Zhu held two fleeing Hollows in place as Ronglin watched.

Ronglin’s team fought increasingly strange Hollow attacks, then faced a Garganta disgorging Menos Grande and Adjuchas. Ronglin blasted the opening to destroy several Hollows, but the larger battle remained underway.

• Kuchiki Byakuya and Shiba Zhu bound two Hollows, allowing Number One and Number Two to kill them as Ronglin’s team cleared the other ordinary Hollows.
• Kuchiki Byakuya and Ronglin wondered why the Hollows seemed frightened and whether other Shinigami teams were facing the same dangerous attacks.
• Ronglin sensed a fourth wave of Hollows near town, then caught a Gillian’s foot and hurled it away before killing it with Hadō #63: Raikōhō.
• A Garganta opened above them, releasing six Menos Grande and a mass of smaller Hollows, while Ronglin warned that Adjuchas were among them.
• Ronglin fired Finger Pistol Secret Art: Rokugan - Kyōjinshinhō into the Garganta, cutting several Menos Grande apart and burning ordinary Hollows to ash.

Ronglin sealed the Garganta and helped Kuchiki Byakuya and the others fight the Hollows that had already escaped. In Hueco Mundo, the Skeleton Emperor sensed Ronglin’s Spiritual Pressure and ordered twenty Adjuchas to capture the strongest soul in the World of the Living.

• Ronglin’s attack sent Hollows scrambling back into Hueco Mundo and sealed the Garganta, while the Skeleton Emperor sensed his Spiritual Pressure from afar.
• The Skeleton Emperor dismissed Szayelaporro and ordered twenty Adjuchas to enter the World of the Living, find the strongest soul, and bring it back.
• Ronglin and the others continued fighting the Hollows left behind after the Garganta closed.
• Kuchiki Byakuya released Cold Sparrow, whose blue flames continued burning the Hollows he wounded.
• Ronglin killed a Gillian and recognized that Byakuya’s flames persisted as long as his Spiritual Pressure lasted.

Ronglin protected Shiba Zhu and Number One from a Hollow ambush while his team fought to regain control of the battlefield. He continued crushing the remaining Hollows, leaving the surviving Adjuchas surrounded by their own failing forces.

• Number One threw herself in front of Shiba Zhu to shield her from a Hollow, and Ronglin bound the attacker with Kidō before it could strike.
• Ronglin urged Shiba Zhu and Number One to stay alert and return alive together, while Kuchiki Byakuya helped defend their group.
• Ronglin defeated one Adjuchas with a punch and Hadō, reducing the remaining enemy force to two Adjuchas and their Hollow followers.
• The two Adjuchas sent more than forty Hollows to overwhelm Ronglin, but he cut them all in half with Moonlit Gale Step.

Ronglin captured an Adjuchas and learned that Shinigami forces in Hueco Mundo were driving Hollows into the World of the Living. He feared the conflict could endanger the weakened Shinigami and the expeditionary force, though Shiba Zhu argued that Soul Society had enough strength to cope.

• Ronglin pinned the fleeing Adjuchas with Kidō and blocked its Cero with his bare hand.
• The Adjuchas told Ronglin that Shinigami were slaughtering Hollows in the Forest of Menos, while Szayelaporro, the Skeleton Emperor, and the Shadow of Death made other escape routes deadly.
• Ronglin deduced that Stark might encounter the Shinigami Expeditionary Force and that the conflict could cause heavy casualties while Soul Society remained weakened.
• Ronglin explained his concerns to Kuchiki Byakuya and the others, but Shiba Zhu argued that the Captain-General, the captains, and hundreds of Shinigami could handle a local disturbance.

Ronglin led his team in clearing Hollows from a town, then decided they should leave at dawn to reinforce other Shinigami teams as Hueco Mundo’s turmoil sent more Hollows into the World of the Living. Across the World of the Living, Shinigami teams were suddenly overwhelmed by Hollow incursions.

• Ronglin led Kuchiki Byakuya, Shiba Zhu, and the other two team members in clearing the town of Hollows after defeating a powerful group led by Adjuchas.
• After a full day of fighting, Ronglin considered the danger facing other Shinigami and decided to crush the threat at its source before it disrupted his plans in Soul Society.
• Ronglin announced that his team would leave at dawn to support Shinigami in other cities, and Kuchiki Byakuya questioned who would protect their current town.
• Ronglin explained that destroying the Garganta had stopped Hollows from entering their area, and the team agreed to follow his plan.
• Countless Hollows opened black passages into the World of the Living, catching Shinigami teams off guard and overwhelming many ordinary Shinigami.

A Shinigami squad faced overwhelming waves of Hollows and Menos Grandes, and the Sixth Seat rallied his exhausted comrades to keep fighting. An Adjuchas then attacked, leaving the Sixth Seat gravely wounded and killing a squad member as it began to feast.

• A battered Sixth Seat ordered his squad to request reinforcements, but the Hell Butterflies had been destroyed and they had lost contact with other squads.
• More than ten Gillians emerged from unusual Gargantas, and the Sixth Seat inspired his depleted squad to stand their ground.
• A crimson beam blasted away the Sixth Seat’s right arm, right leg, and most of the right side of his body.
• An Adjuchas appeared, mocked the Shinigami, and claimed they would become its food.
• A squad member charged the Adjuchas, which struck him down and bit a huge chunk from his abdomen.

Adjuchas tortured and killed several Shinigami before an unknown figure suddenly attacked and severed its arms. The Shinigami were left bewildered as the figure arrived before them.

• Adjuchas crushed a Shinigami's arm and chest while taunting him, then cut down three comrades who rushed to help.
• Adjuchas killed the pinned Shinigami and mocked the remaining injured Shinigami.
• A streak of white light severed Adjuchas's arm, and more air blades shattered and cut off its remaining arms.
• The Shinigami watched in confusion as a figure sped in from the sky and landed before them.

Ronglin arrived at the Shinigami battlefield, broke the Adjuchas’s leg, and routed the nearby Hollows while reinforcements fought the main force. He questioned the Adjuchas about the remaining breaches, but it escaped using a spatial ability that disrupted his Spiritual Pressure senses.

• Ronglin found four slain Shinigami and demanded that the wounded Adjuchas explain its claim that their deaths were an honor.
• Ronglin snapped the Adjuchas’s leg and frightened the surrounding Hollows into fleeing without rescuing it.
• Ronglin’s reinforcements led by Shinigami officers attacked the Hollow force, while Ronglin interrupted the remaining Gillians’ Ceros with Finger Pistol.
• Ronglin asked the Adjuchas how many breaches and Gargantas remained for Hollows entering the World of the Living.
• The Adjuchas created a Spiritual Pressure-disrupting field, escaped with a spatial ability, and vanished as Ronglin searched for it from the air.

Ronglin overwhelmed an Adjuchas and gathered the Shinigami he had rescued into a force supporting towns besieged by the Hollow tide. After three days of fighting, casualties continued to mount, and the chapter left Ronglin approaching the barely living Adjuchas.

• Ronglin used his Spiritual Pressure to force the Adjuchas out of its strange movement technique, injuring it, while the other Shinigami eliminated the remaining Gillians.
• Ronglin told the wounded Sixth Seat Officer that his group had come to the World of the Living for the extermination mission, not as reinforcements sent by Soul Society.
• Ronglin explained that Hollow numbers had grown across the towns, and Shinigami squads without his support were suffering heavy casualties as Gillians and Adjuchas appeared.
• Ronglin led rescued Shinigami from town to town, drawing more squads to his group and organizing them into a stronger force.
• On the third day of the operation, Ronglin approached the barely living Adjuchas as the Shinigami death toll continued to rise.

Ronglin interrogated an Adjuchas and learned why Hollows were entering the World of the Living. The danger from Stark’s battle had subsided, but Barragan and Szayelaporro had both sent forces there, threatening to draw the World of the Living into their conflict.

• Shiba Zhu blinded the Adjuchas with her Zanpakuto, and it revealed that powerful Menos Grande could open Gargantas between Hueco Mundo and the World of the Living.
• The Adjuchas said most Hollows had fled or died after the Shadow of Death appeared, and Stark had already clashed with the Shinigami expeditionary force.
• Ronglin pressed the Adjuchas about why Hollows were still arriving, and it revealed that Barragan had sent an Adjuchas combat unit to the World of the Living.
• The Adjuchas explained that its king, Szayelaporro, had sent teams to investigate and interfere with Barragan’s forces.
• Ronglin concluded that the Hollow influx from the Forest of Menos would ease, but Barragan’s and Szayelaporro’s forces posed a new threat.

Ronglin learned that Stark was luring the Shinigami Expeditionary Force toward Void Land to help powerful Adjuchas evolve, then killed an Adjuchas that had pleaded to join Soul Society. Its redirected Cero exploded, and Ronglin unleashed Kurohitsugi as the blast scattered the nearby Shinigami.

• Ronglin heard that Stark and the Shinigami Expeditionary Force were heading toward Void Land, where powerful Adjuchas might devour Shinigami and evolve into Vasto Lordes.
• Ronglin grew furious at the possibility that Stark would create more Vasto Lordes while seeking a companion.
• When the Adjuchas begged for its life and offered to join Soul Society, Ronglin crushed and seized it, then refused to spare it.
• The Adjuchas fired a point-blank Cero at Ronglin, who blocked it and forced the beam back into its mouth, making the Adjuchas explode.
• Ronglin unleashed Kidō #90: Kurohitsugi to contain the blast, but its Spiritual Pressure threw more than a hundred Shinigami into disarray.

Ronglin used a fully incanted level ninety Black Coffin to contain an Adjuchas’s explosive Cero, but its immense power injured the nearby Shinigami and left him battered. After organizing aid for the wounded, he claimed his Bankai would reveal his true strength, while privately lamenting that he still had not achieved Shikai.

• Ronglin enclosed himself and the Adjuchas in Black Coffin, whose blast of Spiritual Pressure sent the nearby Shinigami flying and injured many of them.
• Ronglin emerged from the dissipated smoke with his uniform in tatters after enduring the force of his own Hado.
• Shiba Zhu confronted Ronglin for nearly killing everyone, and he insulted her strength before directing the Shinigami to treat the wounded and resume their mission.
• Ronglin arranged for seriously injured Shinigami to be sent back to the Seireitei through the Kuchiki Family’s four Gates of the Worlds.
• Kuchiki Byakuya asked whether the Black Coffin had been Ronglin’s limit, and Ronglin said his true strength would emerge with Bankai.
• Ronglin privately despaired that, despite two months with his Asauchi, he still had not received a response from his Zanpakuto or mastered Shikai.

Zhuo Yun and the Shinigami Expeditionary Force encountered an extraordinarily powerful Vasto Lorde in Hueco Mundo, whose Spiritual Pressure devastated the Hollow tide and gradually killed her companions during an eighty-day pursuit. The Vasto Lorde finally stopped before a mountain range and told Zhuo Yun that his overwhelming power had left him alone since he gained consciousness.

• Ronglin continued to hide his frustration that his Zanpakuto had not awakened, fighting with Kido, Hakuda, and ninjutsu instead.
• Zhuo Yun charged the melancholy Vasto Lorde when he appeared, but his Spiritual Pressure sent nearby Hollows fleeing and killed injured Shinigami.
• Zhuo Yun pursued the retreating Vasto Lorde for six days, while the surviving Shinigami struggled to withstand his Spiritual Pressure.
• By the eightieth day of the expedition, everyone except Zhuo Yun had died, but she continued pursuing the Vasto Lorde for revenge.
• The Vasto Lorde stopped before a desolate mountain range and told Zhuo Yun that every Hollow who had approached him since he gained consciousness had died beneath his Spiritual Pressure.

Zhuo Yun confronted Coyote Stark, Hueco Mundo’s uncrowned king, and unleashed her Bankai, Burning Cloud. Their battle escalated across the desert, with Stark resisting her flames and Zhuo Yun’s attacks draining his Spiritual Pressure as she launched another assault.

• Coyote Stark told Zhuo Yun that he regretted they had to fight, but they agreed they were enemies and exchanged names.
• Zhuo Yun activated Bankai: Burning Cloud and surrounded herself with flame armor and twelve blazing chains.
• Stark attacked from behind, but Zhuo Yun countered with a sweeping kick and chains before his Cero blasted her away.
• Zhuo Yun struck back with Hiryū Gekizoku Shinten Raihō, and the two exchanged blows that raised enormous mushroom clouds.
• Stark emerged from the smoke and slashed away Zhuo Yun’s chains with Spiritual Pressure Light Swords, which shrank as he used them.
• Zhuo Yun charged through the heat with Nine Nether Extremes as Stark’s hair and clothes began to burn.

Zhuo Yun and Stark unleashed their strongest attacks, leaving both injured as Zhuo Yun revealed that her Bankai absorbed Spiritual Pressure and turned it into power. Stark countered with Soul Fang: Wolf Pack, and Zhuo Yun’s attempt to bind and absorb the wolves failed, leaving her unable to defend herself from the remaining three.

• Stark’s King’s Hollow Flash collided with Zhuo Yun’s Bankai, and both fighters were blasted away by the explosion.
• Zhuo Yun rose badly injured and explained that her flames absorbed Spiritual Pressure and strengthened her attacks.
• Stark summoned a pack of blue wolves with Soul Fang: Wolf Pack, while Zhuo Yun unleashed Backlash Netherflame through twelve flaming chains.
• Zhuo Yun bound the wolves with her chains, but they self-destructed, and her Bankai could not absorb their power.
• The wolves’ explosions shattered Zhuo Yun’s chains, and her chest wounds worsened as the remaining three wolves pounced at her.