Artificial Spirit Land

With the help of the "native" Ashido, Tsuna and his group successfully captured two Gillian and returned to the relatively safe edge of the Forest of the Hollows.

In the Forest of the Hollows, Ashido's role was far greater than Grimmjow's role as a "traitor," and since Ashido didn't have a good impression of Adjuchas, Grimmjow remained silent throughout.

Upon returning to the edge of the Forest of the Hollows, Tsuna immediately switched to his Earth and Flame form, delivering a powerful punch that crushed one of the Gillian into dust.

After throwing the punch, Tsuna didn't wait in place. Instead, he condensed a small black hole at his fingertips. Under the influence of the black hole, one could clearly sense the Reishi formed by the Gillian gathering around it.

Urahara Kisuke was tapping on the portable device he had brought, while Kurotsuchi Mayuri stood behind Urahara watching.

Despite his displeasure with Urahara Kisuke, Kurotsuchi Mayuri was quite interested in Urahara's research. After observing for a while, he discovered the purpose of Urahara Kisuke's experiment.

"Are you collecting Reishi?" Kurotsuchi Mayuri asked Tsuna.

"To be precise, it's the collection of Reishi shattered by Quincy power," Tsuna corrected.

"What does this mean?" Ichigo asked, carrying Nel who looked on with curiosity.

"There is a fundamental difference between Bleach and Quincy in how they eliminate enemies. It is precisely because of this difference that Bleach have always rejected the Quincy's actions of eliminating Hollows."

Surprisingly, Kurotsuchi Mayuri was in such a good mood that he volunteered to provide commentary.

"What's the difference?" This involved some rather profound theories, Ichigo couldn't understand.

"You mean that theory of soul circulation?" Uryū asked curiously. When studying Sōken's notes, he had also read that the Soul Society had once waged war against the Quincy in the World of the Living, using this very reason.

"That's right. Under normal circumstances, the battle between Bleach and Hollows is about purifying Hollows. Hollows killed by the power of Bleach will have their souls enter the cycle of the Three Worlds normally to maintain the balance of souls in each world."

"But the Quincy are different. You are more inclined to destroy Hollows. Hollows destroyed by the Quincy cannot enter the normal soul cycle, which leads to an imbalance of souls in various worlds."

"A small number isn't a problem, but Quincy eliminate Hollows in large numbers, it will definitely cause the world to become unbalanced, followed by a catastrophe that destroys the world."

"Therefore, the Soul Society cleansed the Quincy in the World of the Living world in the past in order to maintain the balance of souls in the Three Worlds."

Kurotsuchi Mayuri told him everything he knew.

"But this argument isn't entirely tenable, is it?" Uryū adjusted his glasses, staring at Kurotsuchi Mayuri he asked, "The Wandenreich!"

Hearing Uryū's question, Kurotsuchi Mayuri rarely showed a wry smile. "Indeed, the information from Sawada Tsunayoshi and Captain-Commander Yamamoto proves that a thousand years ago, the Bleach and the Quincy had a great battle."

"As for those remarks about launching a war against your Quincy in the World of the Living, it's hard to say whether they were adapted to start a war. The original Central 46 no longer exists. I guess only the Captain-Commander would know the answer to that question," Kurotsuchi Mayuri said.

Given Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto's hostility towards the Quincy, it's not impossible that the Central 46 would find a pretext to launch a war against the Quincy families that have gained some influence in the World of the Living.

Uryū wasn't involved in the past events, and he didn't harbor any hatred. The only hatred he had for Sōken was something he had already taken revenge on when he first met Kurotsuchi Mayuri.

"So the theory of soul circulation is fabricated?" Uryū asked.

"No, everything in it is true. Hollows killed by Quincy do not enter the normal cycle of soul reincarnation," Kurotsuchi Mayuri said. In his years of research on Quincy, he had already investigated this theory thoroughly.

Listening to these people openly discussing how to kill Hollows, Nel unconsciously shrank back against Ichigo's neck.

Noticing Nel's somewhat fearful state, Ichigo decided to stop listening and took Ashido a little further away to chat with him about interesting stories from Soul Society.

"The Hollows destroyed by the Quincy don't simply disappear; they transform into Reishi," Tsuna explained. This is what he's doing: collecting the Reishi Hollowfication.

"Because Quincy control Reishi in battle, Hollows Quincy will also turn into Reishi and accumulate in the battle area."

"These pulverized Reishi are unable to enter the normal soul cycle, which is why the so-called soul imbalance occurs."

"Is that so? I haven't looked into this situation," Kurotsuchi Mayuri said.

"That's normal. In most cases, Bleach use spiritual pressure to fight, and they subconsciously ignore the more microscopic Reishi. In addition, when you studied Quincy, you looked down on the power of Quincy. Your arrogance made you ignore more subtle conclusions."

Kurotsuchi Mayuri's face was unusually sour, and he looked away. He didn't care who criticized him, but he had to be scolded by Urahara Kisuke.

Unfortunately, Kurotsuchi Mayuri had no way to refute this. He hadn't fully understood the Quincy back then, which was why he failed against Uryū.

More than his own pride, curiosity about his location drove Kurotsuchi Mayuri to turn his head back towards Urahara Kisuke.

"So what? What are you planning to do with all this Reishi you've collected?"

"To artificially create a Seireitei in Hueco Mundo," Tsuna replied.

"Seireitei? Isn't Karakura Town where you live one? You think the spiritual pressure concentration isn't high enough?"

"Aizen's goal is upwards." Tsuna pointed. "To cross the Seireitei and the numerous obstacles above, armor or battle suits made from the Royal Keys are essential."

"Creating the King's Key consumes a large amount of spiritual pressure, so Aizen's initial target was Karakura Town, known as the Land of Seireitei."

"As you know, I can't let Aizen run rampant in Karakura Town, and I also want to see how Aizen fights for that throne."

"So I'm going to give him a push and have him create a Seireitei in Hueco Mundo."

"Spiritual pressure is composed of countless Reishi, and this vast Forest of the Hollows contains countless Gillian. From another perspective, it also possesses a massive amount of Reishi."

"Using my Quincy power, I forcibly destroyed the Gillian of the Forest of the Hollows into Reishi, then collected them using the power of the Ground Flame, and finally transformed them with the power of the shopkeeper. This Forest of the Hollows will then become a new artificial spiritual land."

"Hey, hey, don't say such terrifying things in such a calm tone!" Grimmjow couldn't help but complain after hearing this.

Although Grimmjow himself didn't care about the life or death of those Hollows he didn't recognize, those creatures were, after all, his kind. Tsuna's casual decision about their fate made him feel inexplicably terrified.

"What are you afraid of? The vast majority of them are irrational Gillians. You Adjuchas who casually use Gillians as cannon fodder, do you really think they are the same kind?" Tsuna retorted.

As a higher-level Gillian, Adjuchas can summon Gillians to assist in battle. Under normal circumstances, these Adjuchas don't consider Gillians to be their own kind.

"Won't..."

"That's it, why are you so excited? At worst, you can just drive all the Adjuchas out of there first," Tsuna, rolling his eyes at Grimmjow.

"What a joke! Why should I care whether they live or die?" Grimmjow was furious; he wasn't the kind of person who liked to meddle in other people's business.

"That's settled then, Manager. How's the situation?" Tsuna ignored Grimmjow and continued discussing business with Urahara Kisuke.

"Yes, I'm trying to see if I can create a substance that can aggregate Gillian Reishi," Urahara said while tapping the device.

"Urahara Kisuke, have you forgotten where you are?" Kurotsuchi Mayuri stomped his feet twice in annoyance. "Aren't these branches the perfect research material?"

The reason why the Gillian in the Forest of the Hollows gather here is closely related to the branches of the Forest of the Hollows beneath their feet. It seems that these unconscious Gillian have a natural affinity for the Forest of the Hollows.

"Oh, right~" Urahara slapped his forehead and said, "Preconceived notions have led to this mess. Red Princess, come out and lend a hand."

Under Urahara's command, Red Princess, dressed in a red kimono, attempts to use her modification abilities to alter a piece of chopped-off branch.

What limits Urahara's ideas is precisely his extraordinary creative ability. Red Princess's Bankai can modify any object, which makes him often like to start by looking at himself when solving problems, and see if he can solve the problem by modifying the things at hand.

Kurotsuchi Mayuri, also a researcher, Urahara. As an observer, he doesn't need to expend energy on data processing. Upon hearing Urahara's purpose, he immediately thought of utilizing the environment of the Forest of the Hollows.

After a period of waiting, Urahara Kisuke, "Beautiful! Done!"

The object in Red Princess's hand did not look like a fragment of a branch at all, but rather a small piece of mud, on which a dense spiritual pressure was attached.

The man-made sacred site is complete!

Urahara Kisuke placed the small piece of mud into a transparent, airtight jar, which was their tool for negotiating with Aizen.

"It turns out that the Reishi transformed from Tsuna's power can completely create an artificial spiritual land. Next, we'll try to see if other Quincy powers besides yours can do the same."

Urahara Kisuke put away the jar and said to Uryū, "Uryū, you go first. You have the most authentic Quincy lineage. If you can do it, Ichigo should be pretty much on par."

"No problem."

Just as Uryū was about to condense his Spirit Bow to kill the lying Gillian, Urahara Kisuke urgently stopped him.

"Don't use your own power, use the most traditional abilities of you Quincy."

"You mean the Hirenkyaku? No problem."

Uryū readily agreed. This was a fundamental skill for him, Quincy he had mastered to perfection. The Hirenkyaku was something he could do with ease.

Despite this traditional skill, neither of Uryū's two unconventional Quincy possessed it...

(PS: There are alternative interpretations regarding the Quincy part.)