The Temple's Future Zanpakuto True Name

The Ninth Division barracks, late at night.

Yenji Mirai firmly locked the door with a "click." He listened intently for any strange movements outside to ensure nothing was sneaking in before he tiptoed to the bedside.

He didn't lie down. Instead, he gripped the heavy, solid wood bed frame with both hands, exerted force with his waist, and lifted the entire bed.

Then, he fumbled around an inner, hidden corner of the bed. His fingers gently twisted a nondescript wood grain.

"Click."

With a faint mechanical sound, the corner of the bed detached, revealing a hollow hidden compartment.

Yenji carefully took out a thread-bound booklet from inside.

On the cover, The Arrogance and Loneliness of a Genius Boy seemed to possess a life of its own. The ink on it flowed like living water, constantly shifting and changing, emitting a faint spiritual particle halo.

This was one of the sources of his power, personally written by his Zanpakuto, "Tapestry of All Things," and carrying the "resonance" of its readers.

He sat down cross-legged and solemnly opened the first page.

On the pages, the familiar characters emitted light of varying intensity, like sparse and dense stars in the night sky.

He could "hear" the faint "emotional echoes" produced by readers as they read, reverberating between the lines.

There was resonance with Aizen's loneliness, longing for the path of a genius, and debates about the plot's progression...

He slowly placed his palm on the page, closed his eyes.

The next moment, the flowing light on the page and the various emotional fluctuations within it converged like a hundred rivers flowing into the sea, transforming into a warm and pure stream of spiritual particles. It flowed smoothly along his arm and into his body.

As the last wisp of light was absorbed by him, the booklet returned to its calm state, becoming an ordinary book that simply had rather beautiful handwriting.

Yenji hid it back in the hidden compartment in the bed's corner, restored the bed to its original position, and then walked to the desk to sit down, carefully sensing his "harvest" this time.

"Sigh..." He spread his palms, looked at his own hands, and sighed helplessly.

Two weeks had passed, yet the total amount of spiritual power gathered from the numerous readers remained pitifully small, almost negligible.

His current true spiritual pressure was roughly stable at Rank Six.

This level was still far from many genius vice-captains, such as Vice-Captain Kunan Byakuya from his own division, who had entered the academy with Rank Four spiritual pressure.

"Spiritual pressure" referred to the total amount of spiritual power a soul could contain and manipulate, and it was the core indicator for judging a Shinigami's talent ceiling.

Almost all souls, upon arriving in the Soul Society, had their spiritual pressure rank fixed.

Although there were historical examples of individuals breaking through their limits, the probability, compared to the hundreds of millions of souls in the Soul Society, was lower than being struck by gold while walking in the Rukongai.

Yenji himself had only been a mediocre Rank Nine spiritual pressure during his time at the Shin'ō Academy. By all accounts, his limit would have been to barely scrape by as a seated officer.

This was precisely why he had previously adopted a mindset of just going through the motions.

Until he joined the Ninth Division and successfully nurtured his own Zanpakuto—"Tapestry of All Things."

This was the true name and power core of his Zanpakuto!

Its ability was not ice and snow; that was merely a misdirection for its initial release.

When someone read a work personally written by Yenji using the power of "Tapestry of All Things" and experienced strong emotional resonance from it.

Whether it was sadness, agreement, anger, or joy, a wisp of spiritual power would involuntarily leak out.

This leakage of spiritual power was a natural phenomenon when Shinigami experienced emotional fluctuations.

The ability of "Tapestry of All Things" was to gather these masterless "resonant spiritual powers," born from his stories, across space and quietly collect them into the manuscript he personally wrote, forming a "spiritual power pool."

By absorbing this spiritual power, Yenji could break through his innate spiritual pressure limitations and continuously increase his strength!

Therefore, he wrote novels not only to earn money for alcohol but also to continue strengthening himself. Otherwise, he could easily end up as a stray dog dying on the roadside after enemy invasion in the future.

Yenji looked at his palm and sighed again.

It's not that I don't want to write the sequel to Genius Boy... I just can't anymore.

This was not only because the story involved sensitive topics like nobles and the Soul King.

The deeper reason was that when he used "Tapestry of All Things" to write, he was essentially interfering with "narration."

Writing about past historical events and character experiences consumed very little spiritual power and had almost no side effects because they were established facts.

He could package them, for example, by writing the Rukongai as the Meteor City, and Aizen as Aikawa, but he couldn't change their essence.

When he tried to write "Aikawa's" future, just writing a few words almost drained all his spiritual power!

He had also considered altering the plot. After all, future events hadn't happened yet, so why not write whatever he wanted?

But the moment his pen tip touched the paper, all his spiritual power instantly evaporated, leaving not a single drop, causing him to collapse for an entire day.

To continue writing Aikawa's future, he would need to reach at least Rank Three, or even Rank Two spiritual pressure.

If he wanted to alter the future... he would need at least Rank One spiritual pressure, and perhaps even touch the limits of a Shinigami's spiritual body, or break through the boundaries of a Shinigami.

Yenji clenched his fist.

Now that the story of Genius Boy had reached its conclusion, the "reader tips" it could provide were limited, and he had to start a new project.

Who should he write about next?

"Creak--!"

Just then, a sharp sound like fingernails scraping against wood suddenly echoed from outside the door.

Yan Si's brow twitched. He got up and walked over, pulling the door open with a "swish."

At the doorstep sat a cat, entirely black except for its molten-gold eyes, its tail tip swaying gently.

Yan Si's face instantly broke into a smile of "surprise":

"Oh my! It's you! Little black kitty! Are you here to play with Vice-Captain Kyōraku Shunsui again today?"

Upon hearing "Kyōraku Shunsui's" name, the black cat's body stiffened for a moment, then it pretended as if nothing had happened, stretching languidly with a captivating, lazy posture.

Yan Si knew perfectly well that the being before him was no ordinary cat, but rather the eldest daughter of the Shihoin family, one of the Five Great Noble Clans, and the captain of the Second Division of the Gotei 13, Shihoin Yoruichi!

This woman was a huge pain. He'd experienced it firsthand back in the academy, which was why he'd been avoiding her all this time.

He hadn't expected her to come looking for him again…

However, it probably wasn't anything serious, or she wouldn't have come in her black cat form.

He figured she just wanted to tease him, perhaps by suddenly transforming into her human form to startle him at some point.

Hiss! If Yoruichi actually transformed into her human form, it wouldn't be a disadvantage, would it?

No, he couldn't have such thoughts.

This woman was a little devil. His brother Byakuya was almost driven mad by her torment.

It was better to be cautious.