First, Let Me Make It Clear: This Isn't Personal (4.5K)

Kurotsuchi Mayuri shouted a reprimand, and everyone deflated in fear of the Vice-Captain's power.

Frankenstein said unhappily, "I've already sent out a distress signal, and reinforcements will arrive soon. Now just wait patiently. With the spiritual pressure shielding device I invented, those Quincy won't be able to find us so easily."

"You'll live if you listen to me. If you don't want to stay here with these corpses, shut your mouth, understand?"

"...yes."

The team members were obsequious and dared not Kurotsuchi Mayuri, whether out of their strength or status.

But when they looked at each other in private, they could see deep resentment and sorrow in each other's eyes.

'If it weren't for him, we wouldn't have ended up like this... If we die here today, there wouldn't even be any honor to speak of!'

All these complaints stemmed from some of the "local specialties" in the room.

Those were corpses tightly wrapped in old, yellowed white cloth, about a dozen in total. They were all Quincy remains that Kurotsuchi Mayuri and his men had brought out from the cemetery...

However, they were not entirely honest and triggered the alarm while doing their work, which resulted in the Quincy's angry pursuit.

Grave robbing is an extremely immoral act in both the East and the West, let alone dragging out a corpse. This is even more despicable than that of a certain Emperor Wu of Wei who simply wanted to make money.

Even though they are the Grim Reapers and don't shy away from matters of life and death, if word got out, it would definitely attract strange looks from others... So the soldiers present were all furious, but this was their superior's order, and they had nowhere to vent their anger.

Another thing that puzzled them was that if they just wanted to study Quincy, they didn't need to rob graves at all... Quincy were also human, and their souls would go to Soul Society after they died.

But this Vice-Captain Kurotsuchi doesn't know what's gotten into him. Not content with just Spirit Body, he insists on researching the Quincy's physical body. It's truly speechless... Even if he manages to research something, it won't be of any use to Shinigami who are spirits!

A bunch of idiots— Kurotsuchi Mayuri certainly noticed the hidden meaning in their eyes, but he had no desire to argue; instead, he showed an expression of disgust.

He didn't feel he had done anything wrong, nor did he feel guilty towards the soldiers. After all, they were just ordinary soldiers, subordinate to him as the Vice-Captain.

To put it bluntly, people have different values.

As for why they dug up the bodies... there's no need to explain that to them.

Scientific research often involves a lot of luck; you use various materials and methods to test your ideas, and no one can predict the outcome. His reason for Quincy's physical body was simply to verify or refute a possibility.

Science is neither worthwhile nor not worthwhile.

"Hmm... um?"

Kurotsuchi Mayuri looked down at her left wrist. Something was buried under her pale skin, glowing with a faint red light that flickered and changed constantly, like a timer.

"We're very close... The rescue team is almost here. We need to send out the signal again to help us locate them. Let me see..."

"Um... Vice-Captain Nie?"

"Huh? What?" Annoyed at being disturbed, Nie turned his head around. "Is there something you need?"

"Your Excellency... this seems to be moving."

One of the squad members pointed with suspicion at a corpse on the ground. Kurotsuchi Mayuri frowned slightly, feeling a sense of absurdity.

These guys are supposed to be the Grim Reapers, are they afraid of ghosts?

However, he quickly noticed something was wrong and immediately became serious.

He knelt down beside the corpse, reached out and pulled back the shroud covering the chest, and immediately felt a hard, wriggling sensation.

An ordinary person might instinctively pull their hand away, but Kurotsuchi Mayuri recklessly inserted his fingers, easily breaking through the rotten surface of the object to reach the inside. After groping around for a bit, he found a hard, still-moving little thing.

Laugh!

Two fingers, smeared with an unknown liquid, pulled a hard object from the corpse. After wiping the blood off the shroud, they examined it closely in the sunlight streaming in from the window and discovered it was a small, exquisite beetle sculpture.

It has horns, body, and feet, and the workmanship is excellent. The details are clearly visible, as if a living beetle has been painted with a layer of silver paint.

Holding it in my hand, I can clearly feel a force trying to move it every few seconds, as if it were an iron object being attracted by a magnet...

"I can feel that Reishi have been injected into it... It must be a talisman made by the Quincy."

Kurotsuchi Mayuri observed the situation coldly for a moment, understanding what had happened. He casually tossed aside the beetle amulet, then stood up and said coldly, "Take the corpses and prepare to escape. We've been exposed."

"Varied--"

"I won't explain it a second time: This is Saint Silver tool made by the Quincy, and it's possible that someone, like a blood relative of the deceased, is trying to sense it."

Kurotsuchi Mayuri stated. "If you don't want to die, get moving!"

"Yes... yes!"

At this point, no one had time to complain. In their panic, they actually obeyed and took the corpse with them, searching for the next hiding place under Kurotsuchi Mayuri's guidance.

However, according to the World of the Living calendar, it is the early 19th century. Even in a large city like Edo in Japan, there were no tall buildings to hide in. Moreover, this was just a small village on the outskirts of a city, with most of the houses being low wooden houses scattered sparsely.

Although ordinary people cannot see the Grim Reaper, they know that the "exorcists" have been on high alert recently, seemingly carrying out a large-scale exorcism of demons. The area is already very unsafe, so the villagers who are able have already moved away.

Only a few elderly, weak, sick, and disabled people with limited mobility remain in the entire village. They generally do not wander around, so it looks like a ghost village with no inhabitants.

In a place like this, walking outside would expose you to the light of day. If the Quincy had already arrived, this action would be no different from actively seeking death.

However, Kurotsuchi Mayuri was very confident in his invention, and it was indeed very effective. Wearing these somewhat comical cloaks, the group walked through the village unnoticed. It was unclear whether the Quincy hadn't found them, or if the cloaks' ability to conceal Reiatsu fluctuation allowed them to successfully play a trick on their own.

In short, this small group of Grim Reapers successfully escaped the village, concealing their tracks and carrying the corpses to the forest at the foot of the mountain, intending to hide Yamanaka.

"Phew... I can relax now."

Death can fly in the atmosphere in the World of the Living where the Reishi concentration is low (strictly speaking, it condenses Reishi under its feet to achieve a levitation effect), but the group is being hunted and obviously wouldn't be foolish enough to fly up and become a target. They have been walking here with trepidation all the way, and are somewhat tired in body and mind.

One of the Grim Reapers let out a long sigh of relief, placed the corpses he had been carrying beside a tree, and remarked, "If the Quincy had found out, I don't know how many I could have handled... But now it's all good, we've hidden ourselves in a place like this, how could they possibly chase us all the way here?"

"..."

Kurotsuchi Mayuri turned her head and gave the man a deep look: for some reason, she suddenly felt like hitting him.

However, he didn't have time to make a move, because a sudden killing intent made everyone present's hair stand on end!

"Finally... we caught up..."

A middle-aged Quincy dressed in a white hunter's uniform and wearing a short knight's cloak slowly descended from the sky. Reishi cluster, flickering with light, condensed on his left wrist, and his eyes were cold and sharp.

"Not only do you kill people, you even desecrate corpses? Just how low have you stooped, you shameless scoundrels!"

Chapter 177: Let me make this clear first, this isn't a personal grudge (4.5K)

A single Quincy does not pose much of a threat. Although they are not combat units and he is not a militant, Kurotsuchi Mayuri is still a Vice-Captain and could easily deal with Quincy of average strength.

What's truly terrifying is the very fact that you've been discovered, which means that if you can't quickly disengage and relocate, you'll be overtaken by the main force.

Kurotsuchi Mayuri was well aware of his own limitations. He knew that the despicable thing he had done would definitely attract a large number of furious Quincy. If there were even a few pure-blooded elites among them, he might very well be killed here.

Therefore, the Vice-Captain of the 12th Division did not hesitate and immediately Shikai to try to kill the enemy quickly!

However, like the Quincy clan, the Quincy possess high-speed movement skills. Their "Flying Swallow Legs" is even more efficient than Shunpo. In addition, the Quincy's main means of attack is Reishi Bow and Arrow, so they are generally agile archers. Even if they can't beat Kurotsuchi Mayuri, they can still create distance and maneuver around him.

After failing to end the battle quickly, Kurotsuchi Mayuri did not continue the fight but chose to retreat immediately.

Faced with arrows shot by the enemy, he kicked a corpse away to use as a shield.

"Hateful!"

The middle-aged Quincy's eyes widened as he caught the corpse in mid-air with his Flying Swallow Legs, his hatred for death reaching its peak.

But at that very moment, Kurotsuchi Mayuri, who had been fleeing, suddenly turned around, pulled something resembling a handle from his wide sleeve, and decisively pulled the trigger—

Bang!

The corpse, tightly wrapped in a shroud, suddenly swelled up and exploded into a cloud of filthy blood mist!

--call!

A middle-aged man covered in filth appeared ten meters away, his pent-up anger almost making him grind his teeth to dust.

Seeing Kurotsuchi Mayuri turn around and charge at him, he unusually dispelled his Spirit Bow and instead conjured a blue Reishi Light Sword in his hand, ready to fight his opponent in close combat.

——!

Within three steps, just as the Quincy about to swing his lightsaber, his body suddenly stiffened. Although he was still conscious, it felt as if his hands and feet no longer belonged to him.

Poison?

The Quincy realized something, but it was too late. With Zanpakuto, Kurotsuchi Mayuri slit the middle-aged man's throat.

As a large amount of blood gushed out, the man's eyes glazed over, and he collapsed to the ground.

"Snort!"

Kurotsuchi Mayuri didn't even have time to make a Declaration of Victory before calling on the other team members to run away, because they needed to abandon these "experimental subjects," so he was still very saddened.

"What are you all standing there for?!"

Seeing his men standing there the Unassailable, Kurotsuchi Mayuri was furious, but he soon realized something was wrong.

"Was it too late?"

The cold voice rang out, Kurotsuchi Mayuri's expression immediately darkened.

Turning around, a tall, blond Quincy appeared beside the middle-aged man who had just died in battle. A hideous scar ran down his face from his left eye, making his otherwise handsome face look extremely intimidating.

This guy is strong— Kurotsuchi Mayuri narrowed his eyes and began to plan his escape route.

Whoosh!

Whoosh!

Whoosh!

White figures appeared on the treetops, and within seconds dozens of Quincy arrived and surrounded the Shinigami.

They were uniformly dressed in white clothing and cloaks, the opposite of the color of death, and adorned with crosses or six-pointed stars. In contrast to Kurotsuchi Mayuri's forces, the black and white immediately created a clear distinction.

"Vice-Captain... what should we do next?"

When will the reinforcements arrive?

"They won't let this go after they've done something like this!"

Despite their dissatisfaction with Kurotsuchi Mayuri, all they could do at this moment was gather around their commander, forming a circle back to back, and watching the Quincy's movements with extreme tension.

This was no ordinary war where surrender was an option; they had no other choice.

Kurotsuchi Mayuri did not answer their questions, but stared intently at the Scarecrow Quincy.

Without even glancing at Death, the man knelt down beside the middle-aged Quincy's corpse and gently closed his eyes.

"My compatriots, may you sleep forever..."

Buzz!

A blue aura bloomed in his palm, lasting for three seconds before extinguishing. When he stood up, he found a round cross badge the size of a baby's fist in his hand.

—A Reishi aggregation.

That is the most basic ability of the Quincy. Whether it is the "Flying Swallow Legs" or the Reishi weapon, it is a practical application of Reishi aggregation.

Its essence is to concentrate the Reishi in the atmosphere and fix them into a certain shape through the packaging of its own spiritual pressure.

It is also possible to destroy something made of Reishi, gradually decompose it into Reishi, and then gather it onto the weapon (the more stable the structure of the Reishi component, the longer it takes for the Reishi aggregation).

Compared to Shinigami, who can only fight by consuming their own spiritual pressure, Quincy are actually more powerful. This is why they can fight against Shinigami, who have almost infinite lifespans and have accumulated countless powerful individuals over a long period of time.

What the Scarecrow just did was extract the soul of the deceased and store it in the badge in the form of Reishi.

Would you rather let your soul be scattered and destroyed than let your compatriots' souls fall into the hands of death?

"That's an extreme approach," Kurotsuchi Mayuri thought.

However, considering the existence of people like him, the Quincy's actions are not actually that extreme...

"Death, your evil deeds... never mind."

Seemingly devoid of even the will to hurl insults, the Scarecrow Quincy waved his hand, and the white-robed Quincy all raised their hands, unleashing thousands of Reishi arrows like Light Rain.

"Bakudō #21: Crimson Smoke Escape!"

While surrounded by Quincy, Kurotsuchi Mayuri was silently preparing. In the face of the urgency, he quickly released a simplified Kido, and thick smoke burst out from under his robes, instantly engulfing an open area of tens of meters in radius.

And in the next instant, the huge smoke screen was pierced by countless arrows!

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

The Quincy did not stop their attack. Waves of arrows rained down, and each of them became a moving firing point. The surging spiritual pressure dispelled the smoke screen like a whirlwind.

By the time the dust settled, those Shinigami had long since become piles of mangled limbs and rotten flesh. They seemed to have tried to resist, but neither the Zanpakutō release nor their Kido could compare to the sheer sheer numbers.

Scarecrow at the chaotic battlefield. Although everything was shattered and mixed together, one could still find parts belonging to that strange man if one looked closely, given his distinctive skin color and clothing.

From this perspective, it seems that none of the tomb raiders escaped, and all of them have been executed.