The System's Strongest Point

The roads in District 43 were incredibly difficult to navigate, with virtually no flat stretches. One moment you'd be climbing a mountain, and the next, you might be descending.

This kind of terrain would only begin to ease up once they reached District 41.

"Haaah, no matter how many times I travel it, this is still exhausting," a young man beside Duan Mu complained. "Why can't there just be a tunnel that goes straight through the mountain? Soul Reapers are so powerful; creating a tunnel shouldn't be that difficult for them, right?"

"Stop dreaming. Instead of hoping for those high-and-mighty Soul Reapers, you'd be better off earning more money and hiring Boss Duan Mu to try it. After all, his Yorozuya takes on any job," President Shinno said with a laugh. "Didn't you hear him just say he's even started opening a bar now?"

"Hahaha~~"

Shinno's words immediately drew a round of laughter, though it wasn't mocking.

"Sure, I can do it," Duan Mu mused for a moment before nodding. "As long as you can afford it, I can get it done. It would probably take... hmm, about 4 or 5 days."

For Duan Mu now, carving out a tunnel within a mountain wasn't difficult at all. He could even blast through it using Kido. However, if he actually received such a commission, Duan Mu wouldn't do it that way, as he'd also need to consider safety.

Brother Iwao's signature secret technique, Stone Wave, was clearly more suited for this kind of work. Not only was it precise, but it was also extremely safe!

"Haha, I knew he'd take it!"

President Shinno burst into laughter, not believing Duan Mu's words. In fact, everyone present thought Duan Mu was just joking.

Duan Mu didn't offer any defense, instead joining the laughter with the others.

If they don't believe me, so be it.

If people commissioned him, he wouldn't refuse. But if they didn't, he wouldn't pester them to hire him.

Amidst this cheerful banter, the convoy finally arrived at the foot of the mountain. As soon as they descended, the atmosphere in the convoy, which had been filled with laughter and conversation moments before, suddenly became tense. Everyone scanned their surroundings with vigilant eyes.

This was the area bordering the southern Rukongai's District 55, the region most prone to bandit attacks.

Over a dozen burly men were positioned around the convoy, shielding it from all sides.

"Everyone, stay alert! If you spot anyone, shout it out immediately!"

Although Duan Mu wasn't as outwardly anxious as the others, he had also extended his senses, constantly monitoring their surroundings.

However, his mind was completely immersed in the system interface in his mind.

His current strength was still too weak. After winter arrived, Duan Mu planned to carefully map out his cultivation path for the next few years.

Based on Duan Mu's own assessment, his combat prowess in a fight was roughly at the mid-tier among the High-ranking Officers of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads. While he wasn't as strong as some of the exceptionally powerful officers, he was still much stronger than most.

His Spiritual Pressure had only increased by a few points in the past month. Although his other skills had seen some progress, the advancements weren't significant.

Furthermore, his last two battles had made Duan Mu realize that fighting unarmed against opponents wielding blades put him at a fundamental disadvantage. This was even the case when the opponent was only using ordinary blades, not Zanpakuto.

If the enemy were a High-ranking Officer from the Thirteen Court Guard Squads, his current fighting style would need considerable adjustment. It wasn't about abandoning Hakuda, but about further integrating Hakuda with Shunpo to minimize the chances of being hit by the opponent's Zanpakuto.

After all, Zanpakuto were different from ordinary blades; their myriad abilities could often allow the weaker to defeat the stronger. When their strength was comparable, directly clashing with an opponent's Zanpakuto was practically suicidal.

Besides the integration of Shunpo and Hakuda, Duan Mu had another option: incorporating Kido into Hakuda, known as 'Shunko'. But Shunko was not something easily learned.

In the entire Soul Society, only two people could achieve this: Shihoin Yoruichi, who was the first to attempt it, and Soi Fon, the current captain of the 2nd Division.

Although Soi Fon claimed to have created the technique herself, having trained alongside Yoruichi as her sparring partner for a long time, her 'self-creation' was inevitably influenced by Yoruichi.

Yet, even so, it took Soi Fon nearly a hundred years to master 'Shunko', and she only managed to achieve a preliminary mastery after becoming a captain.

Duan Mu's desire to 'create' Shunko in a short period...

The difficulty was no less than kidnapping Soi Fon and forcing her to reveal the cultivation method for 'Shunko'.

In comparison, refining the synergy between Hakuda and Shunpo was clearly easier. After all, to put it simply, it involved utilizing Shunpo, a technique for long-range surprise attacks, in close-quarters combat. This could also be seen in Yoruichi's techniques; Utsusemi was a similar skill.

It had to be said...

In the pursuit of Hakuda, Yoruichi was practically a 'Soul Reaper ceiling'—an unparalleled existence.

In fact, besides these two points, Duan Mu had another idea: combining Healing Kido with Hakuda. The principle of Healing Kido was to first use one's own Spiritual Pressure to activate the target's internal spiritual power, combined with the external Spiritual Pressure applied by the caster, to achieve the goal of healing injuries and restoring Spiritual Power.

If Healing Kido and Hakuda could be merged, it would not only grant abilities similar to 'super-regeneration' but also compress the density of spiritual power within the body, thereby increasing one's own Spiritual Pressure.

Before activating his Zanpakuto, these three paths were Duan Mu's plans for the future.

Although it might seem arrogant to others, if these three techniques were easily creatable, they would have long been circulated among Soul Reapers. However, for Duan Mu, the hardest part was the initial stage.

He only needed a prototype. It didn't matter if he couldn't even use it. As long as the system acknowledged it and it appeared on the system interface, he could then simply invest experience points when encountering insurmountable difficulties.

This was something Duan Mu had discovered accidentally not long ago while cultivating, thanks to his research on 'White Thunder'.

Although Duan Mu had learned many Kido more powerful than 'White Thunder', he had never given up on researching his 'first Kido'.

The number of Kido wasn't fixed. In fact, new Kido could potentially be born in the entire Soul Society every moment.

Those familiar Kido were simply those without specific release conditions, making them learnable and usable by everyone. Many people would modify or create their own unique Kido based on their personal circumstances or Zanpakuto abilities.

For example:

Urahara Kisuke's 'Heavy Strike White Thunder';

Hinamori Momo's Kido, cast in conjunction with her Zanpakuto;

Captain Commander Yamamoto's 'Destruction Kido #96: Ichigo Kasō', created based on his Zanpakuto's abilities and made usable by others.

There were many such examples, which was why Duan Mu had never stopped his research.

The vast and comprehensive, even somewhat unwieldy, knowledge in his mind not only made it easier for him to teach others how to use Kido but also provided Duan Mu with the foundational conditions to study Kido.

His first target for study was White Thunder, the easiest to get started with.

He attempted to make some minor adjustments to White Thunder using the knowledge in his mind. Some of these adjustments would enhance White Thunder's power, while others would weaken it. However, no new Kido appeared on the system interface, until...

Duan Mu tried to fuse Binding Kido #4: Seikaku with White Thunder, similar to Hinamori Momo's White Trap, wanting the ropes created by Seikaku to possess not only binding power but also the destructive power of White Thunder.

The fusion naturally failed, as the two could not be performed simultaneously. However, the system interface changed, and an 'Unnamed' special technique appeared, which Duan Mu eventually named 'Lightning Rope'.

When Duan Mu began investing experience points into it, his mind was instantly filled with more related knowledge, guiding him from the wrong path of failed fusion onto the right one. Finally, with the help of the system's deduced knowledge, he successfully created a completely new Kido!!

Upon discovering this, Duan Mu was overjoyed and conducted many more experiments. However, every single one ended in complete failure, not even creating a rudimentary form that the system would recognize.

This was why Duan Mu said...

For him, the hardest part was just the initial stage. As long as he could create a new technique's basic form and have it recognized by the system.

Then, under the system's deduction, he could gradually perfect this entirely new technique, ultimately obtaining a new technique just like 'Lightning Rope'!!

It's not that having a deep knowledge base is enough to create a new Kido; the birth of new Kido often involves all sorts of coincidences.

The ability to deduce from '1' to the extreme – that is the system's most powerful aspect.