A Worthy Minister Chooses a Lord to Serve! (Continued)

With One Blade Cityfall, the entire Soul King Palace began to crumble and collapse. However, under the pull of some force, the fragments, large and small, floated and faced each other as if attracted by a magnet, barely managing to stay together and not completely disperse.

Iori didn't even change his stance; he simply swung his sword once, without even revealing the true name of his divine sword.

"After all, he was a figure from the same era as the Soul King; he couldn't have died so easily, could he?"

Sure enough, as soon as Iori finished speaking, a burst of black light shot out from a fragment, as if ink had been fixed in the air, forcefully separating the hard rock, and revealing Hyōsube was covered in damage and bloodstains.

"Huff... huff..."

The Great Monk took a few breaths, still shaken, and looked at Iori in shock. He couldn't even see the true name of that weapon, which was completely different from Zanpakuto!

Even though [Mirror Water] was forged using a technique he was unaware of, it was still classified as a Zanpakuto. But the Platinum Long Saber...

Iori's target wasn't him; otherwise, his body might have been split in two by now!

"What kind of weapon is this?!"

"Didn't you claim to know everything about Soul Society?"

Iori looked at him with a teasing gaze. "Of course you can't know its real name, because that's not within your privileged scope. Let alone see through its essence, you can't even know what it is."

"..."

The Great Monk fell silent, unable to refute Iori's mockery.

Hyōsube Ichibē considered himself to be able to see through everything, but he could not see through the person in front of him at all.

Not only that, he couldn't even do anything that Iori casually took out...

However!

There is still hope!

"You're right, I can't see where your power comes from, but it's no longer meaningful to know what kind of being you are."

The pupils in the Great Monk's eyes gradually disappeared, turning into pure white.

"Because I've decided to completely erase you, this uncertain factor, from history!"

"Having realized they couldn't control me, they gave up on making me Spirit King Candidate?"

Iori chuckled, "But I'm also curious where you get your confidence from, still believing you can beat me."

Why don't you try it yourself and see?

"Good!"

Without hesitation, Iori lunged forward, wielding her long sword as it fell.

"End!"

With a loud shout, Hyōsube reached into his left sleeve with his right hand and grasped a shadowy object, then solidified it and pulled it out—

That was clearly a calligraphy brush!

It's just much larger than a regular calligraphy brush, more like a prop used for naming plaques—frankly, it looks like a thinner mop.

The moment he drew the pen, he revealed its true name. "Ink Black, Ichimonji!"

After liberation, the tip of the brush changed into a blade, but no spiritual pressure could be felt from the blade, making it impossible to distinguish whether it was a weapon or just a brush.

Clang!

The Platinum Long Saber and the Ichimonji clashed together, but neither weapon emitted a strong power fluctuation. Even their spiritual pressure was very subtle, as if they had been swallowed up by something.

"Um?!"

The Great Monk squinted, then was surprised to see the blade of the Ichimonji in his hand crack, the fissure slowly spreading across the blade.

... The Zanpakuto is one with the Shinigami, and the strength of its blade is equal to the strength of its soul. Not to mention that it is a "Shikai," which does not rely on the container of Asauchi but directly manifests the essence of the soul.

It could be said that as long as he was alive, this Ichimonji would be an indestructible existence—but now it has cracked!

"You can't even touch it?!"

The Great Monk took the opportunity to step back and swung his sword again, but Iori's reaction speed was extraordinary, and he easily dodged it. At this moment, a fragment flew over and landed silently in Iori's tiger's mouth, then disappeared like ice melting, leaving only a drop of ink.

"Um?"

Iori glanced at the ink stain on her hand with disdain. "You sprayed ink while running away. Are you an octopus?"

"Maybe I'm an ancestor of octopuses~"

Hyōsube grinned. In reality, he was a life form born from chaos and had no blood relation to any creature on Earth.

He took a word and drew it on the ground, just like dipping a brush in ink to draw a rough period. Then he raised the pen and wrote the word "sealed" directly in mid-air facing the invisible face.

Clang!

A slash composed of ink, like a wild stroke on a painting, hurtled towards Iori with tremendous force.

With a thought, Iori didn't utter a single word, but the [Splitting Void] skill automatically formed, blocking the strange slash.

Surprisingly, the ink stains passed directly through the [Splitting Void] and landed on Iori, turning his entire body black.

"It seems the outcome is already decided."

Upon seeing this, the monk couldn't help but laugh happily.

Iori suddenly felt a wave of weakness within her body, and her five senses became dulled, as if she were sealed inside a box made of cement and lead tens of meters thick, making her connection with the outside world extremely weak.

"So dirty..."

"Isn't it very uncomfortable? A strong person suddenly becoming powerless is probably the most uncomfortable thing in the world."

The Great Monk's knife dripped ink continuously, and his pupil-less eyes stared intently at Iori, as if guarding against any tricks he might be up to.

"This knife can weaken my strength, and the words I write will have a corresponding effect..."

So that's how it is. You know the true names of everything in the Three Worlds, but your ability is not to rewrite the true names themselves, but to cover them with 'new names'. The manifestation of this is these inks, which are essentially a manifestation of the power of words.

Language is power... a strange ability, but it's just a trick to us. You wouldn't want to use such methods to decide a victory, would you?

"This is tricky. We've only exchanged one blow and we've already seen so much."

Hyōsube was not disappointed and remained optimistic.

"But how do you know that my Zanpakuto only has one way of being used?"

"Um?"

"I've long considered the possibility that I can't win in a head-on battle."

Hyōsube calmly said, "So from the very beginning, I entrusted the chance of victory to someone else."

"Others? Apart from you, it seems that no one in Zero Division can stand up anymore."

"That's not necessarily true. You just said it yourself: words are power."

Beneath the Great Monk's loose haori, ink spread out as if dripping into water, turning the entire ground into a pure white canvas, and the flowing trails resembled a calligrapher freely splashing ink.

"My Zanpakuto, 'Ichimonji,' has the ability to 'cut the name but not the flesh.' When it attacks an opponent, it reduces their power by half and cuts their name in half."

After the Shikai, everything black touched by the blade will 'lose its name,' just like removing the name from an opponent's weapon, thus preventing it from unleashing its true power at the start of the release.

Hyōsube explained his abilities without any hesitation, while Iori coldly observed the ever-changing "ink marks" around him, without immediately stopping him.

Of course, this is not to belittle the Great Monk. You should know that in the world of "Bleach," which places great emphasis on true names (and prestige), the Zanpakuto 'Ichimonji abilities are naturally bug-level.

However, this power is not without its limitations. The sword's ability is ultimately based on its own capabilities. It is because it can see through the essence of all things and its eyes can see the true name of all things that the weapon "Ichimonji" came into being.

Iori doesn't realize that her many secrets will also be affected by "Ichimonji".

"O darkness, oh eternal darkness, come here~"

Let me meet everyone and drink it~

Drinking it will cause your life to vanish!

[Futarishirazunotaisairyo!]!

The monk waved Ichimonji, and the space completely transformed into the domain he controlled, with everything within its reach and the sky extending outwards being stained black.

At the same time, he opened his mouth wide, pointed the Ichimonji at his throat, and drank some black ink, staining his snow-white teeth black as well.

"Yo~"

He continued chanting incantations and drawing arrays on the ground, which turned the earth pure black, from which black mausoleums and tombstones emerged.

Iori narrowed her eyes and with a wave of her hand, countless divine artifacts fell from the sky, emitting terrifying roars that pierced the atmosphere.

With a flourish of his brush, Hyōsube lifted the thick black ink from the ground, instantly turning all the weapons that struck the black barrier black, and then merging them into the pure black painting.

"I rule over all the darkness in this world!"

Hyōsube's tone was somewhat manic. "You too, become the 'Black' in my writing!"

With another sweep Ichimonji, a black tidal wave swept towards Iori, engulfing everything in its path!

"Black? Then I'll just become 'white'."

Iori smiled slightly, and the divine sword in his hand immediately released a strong white light, dispelling the ink stains attached to his body. Then, a huge Platinum sphere appeared in the sky and smashed down on the Black Tide with endless pressure and mass!

--boom!!!

A pale beam of light, like a supernova explosion, pierced the sky above the Soul King Palace...

A moment later, Iori, who had teleported into mid-air, looked at the dilapidated Soul King Palace, which was full of rubble, and shook her head slightly. Then she turned to the Hyōsube, who had "penetrated" out of a void and was struggling to take shape from the shadows and stumbling out.

The monk had integrated it into his "blackness," which was close to the limit he could bear. However, it was useless for Iori to fight desperately. The Platinum Divine Blade could easily cut through the continent in Rama's hands, but in Iori's hands, the entire Soul Society seemed extremely fragile.

He cannot yet "create the World Creation," but if he were to "destroy the world," the power he unleashes could even extend beyond the Earth's boundaries.

The sword light, concentrated within the small Soul King Palace, possessed immense power; its sheer energy level alone was enough to overcome any skillful maneuver. It proved that the Hyōsube no Tsurugi was simply unable to transform such terrifying sword light. If Iori hadn't restrained himself to avoid impacting the Soul Society, he would likely have been instantly killed...

"Hehe..."

The Hyōsube subconsciously glanced around and found that apart from the central hall, there were no intact buildings in the Soul King Palace, and the bodies of the three Divine General had long since turned to ashes.

"Shikai (Bankai)!"

The Great Monk gripped the large brush tightly, and the ink-stained blade quickly turned pure white. Then, he swung it around, unleashing a circle of blade light that rapidly dispersed in all directions.

"White Brush First Character!"

The Great Monk waved his brush in both hands, as if trying to write something in the air.

"You still want to continue fighting?"

Iori felt a slight displeasure; even if the fight continued, Hyōsube Ichibē could no longer bring him any more pleasure. In other words, he felt no enjoyment from this battle; his opponent possessed neither the character and will he admired, nor the strength and skill he anticipated.

"Boring!"

Iori raised the Platinum Blade again, releasing an even sharper aura than before, causing the Great Monk's haori to inexplicably crack from a distance.

It was at this moment that a sense of threat inexplicably arose in his heart, and he seemed to be deep in thought.

"Deprivation!"

The Great Monk rushed forward, risking being killed by Iori, intending to draw lines on Iori's body with the white pen.

His Bankai has the ability to "carve a new name" on things. For example, if he carves "Black Ant" on the target, the target will become as fragile and powerless as an ant.

If he could just draw a mark on Iori, he could create an opportunity to turn the tide of battle, but how could Iori possibly let him have his way?

The Great Monk's lips moved silently twice:

[...]

Pfft!

Iori's body suddenly stiffened, and he turned around in disbelief to find a figure emerging from the ink stain, holding a very simple Asauchi that pierced his body from behind.

It turns out that it was Nimaiya Ōetsu who left the show from the very beginning!

"This knife belongs to... you bastard—"

"You didn't expect that, did you? Even someone as powerful as you still has a weapon in this world that can kill you!"

Wang Yue gritted his teeth and Asauchi forward. Amidst Iori's painful groan, the long sword pierced through his chest, Iori's tough body, which was as strong as refined steel, was stabbed through!

"Because I am the 'Sword God'! There is nothing I cannot cut!"

"Here you go!"

At this moment, the white pen was painted on Iori's body, and the word "whole" was written down in the blink of an eye.

In an instant, Iori's spiritual pressure plummeted, and she even felt a sense of suffocation—unable to adapt to the extremely high Reishi concentration in the Soul King Palace.