Beneath Las Noches

Bound in an instant, Shiro's entire body was twisted, preventing him from exerting force normally.

The rope, composed of spirit particles, even coiled around Shiro's wrists, forcing him to drop Hyōrinmaru.

Yet, Shiro did not concede.

The chain at the hilt of Hyōrinmaru moved as if it were a living thing, winding itself around Shiro's arm.

The crescent blade at the end of the chain pressed directly against the rope.

An intense, frigid spiritual pressure invaded the rope, and the once-active binding instantly began to freeze in reverse.

The freezing effect traveled instantly through the rope covering his entire body, shattering it as Shiro moved.

The freezing effect even surged toward the hand of Aoto, who was resting on Shiro's shoulder.

However, Aoto tapped Shiro's shoulder again with a palm imbued with powerful spiritual pressure, not only scattering Shiro's own pressure but striking him as if hit by a heavy hammer, causing all the strength in his body to slacken... The Hyōrinmaru in his hand could no longer be held, falling to the ground and reverting to an Asauchi.

Rangiku Matsumoto watched from the sidelines. Although she had seen the abilities of Aoto's Zanpakuto before, this sparring session between master and student made her understand the balance of Aoto's strength even more clearly.

Zan, Zensen, Kido, and Hoho—these are the four fundamental combat skills of a Soul Reaper.

Zanpakuto, Hakuda, Kido, and Shunpo.

Given equal spiritual pressure, the stronger these four skills are, the stronger the Soul Reaper.

If one possesses only spiritual pressure without the corresponding level of skill, they cannot fully utilize the advantage of that pressure.

In the battle just now, Aoto had utilized three of these skills, excluding only his Zanpakuto.

He used high-speed Shunpo and powerful spiritual pressure to create an afterimage, deceiving Shiro's eyes and spiritual perception into believing he was still in place, before appearing directly at Shiro's side.

The incantation-less Binding Kido, while seemingly the least effective, would have required Shiro to double his spiritual pressure to break free had he not been able to freeze it with Hyōrinmaru.

And that final tap that rendered Shiro unable to fight was a special technique of Hakuda.

4th Seat Hyakume did not seem very similar to the 11th Division in Rangiku Matsumoto's memory.

His abilities were truly balanced!

At this moment, Aoto was gloating over the limp and dejected Shiro, "Don't think you're something special just because you can achieve Shikai! There is still so much to learn on the path of a Soul Reaper! You little brat, you're still too young!"

Shiro didn't even have the strength to speak now, otherwise, he definitely would have retorted.

He was already over eighty years old; how could he be a little brat!

He was just short!

Hueco Mundo, a special underground facility.

A Garganta opened here, and an Adjuchas in the form of a giant wolf, having lost its two hind legs, sprinted out.

Yet, even in his terror, he did not forget to close the Garganta completely... even if there were pursuers, they would be lost within the Garganta.

Only after doing all this did the giant wolf finally heave a sigh of relief.

He had finally escaped.

Although it seemed that the Soul Reaper had no intention of hunting him down, the giant wolf dared not gamble.

Moreover, looking at the wounds on his two hind legs, he had no idea how to treat them.

The spiritual pressure lingering at the incisions prevented his High-Speed Regeneration from showing any signs of activating.

It was as if his body had already surrendered, not daring to attempt recovery.

This left the giant wolf not only enraged but also extremely terrified.

Were Soul Reapers truly this terrifying?

Turning around, the giant wolf prepared to devour some Gillian to restore his strength.

Above this place was a small Forest of Menos, and the mindless Gillian born nearby would be attracted here.

These Gillian were both the giant wolf's subordinates and his food.

However, just as the giant wolf opened the door connecting to the Forest of Menos, a massive hand reached in and dragged the giant wolf out.

Crunch. With one bite, one of the giant wolf's front paws was bitten off.

An Adjuchas resembling a gorilla tasted the wolf's paw and, ignoring the giant wolf's wails, said joyfully, "That's right, this is the taste of a Hollow modified by Szayelaporro. Found it!"

Another Adjuchas, resembling a dinosaur, couldn't help but lean in and gnaw off the giant wolf's other paw, "Confirmed, it's a remnant of Szayelaporro. Tch, I really don't know how many such small outposts that guy left behind. Hueco Mundo is so big; searching for them one by one is too troublesome!"

"Regardless of how many such rat nests there are, those who oppose the great King of Hueco Mundo will not meet a good end."

The gorilla threw the giant wolf, which was now barely breathing, into the air, and a massive whale flew past, swallowing the giant wolf whole.

This outpost was soon completely destroyed under the Cero blasts of the three formidable Adjuchas!

Even the mindless Gillian were frightened by such an attack and fled far away.

At almost the same time, beneath Las Noches, the King of Hueco Mundo arrived beside an artificial river of magma.

As the King of Hueco Mundo tapped with one of his finger bones, a Bone Fish living in the magma swam out.

There was absolutely no flesh on this Bone Fish; it was nothing but clean fish bones, yet it was able to move freely within this peculiar magma of several tens of thousands of degrees.

At the position of the Bone Fish's brain, a Hollow was currently being held fast.

This Hollow was only the size of a human, and its upper body was entirely human in appearance.

From this, one could tell that this was a Vasto Lorde.

However, ultra-high-temperature magma was continuously incinerating his flesh and blood, only for his High-Speed Regeneration to restore it, before it was burned away once more... repeating the cycle endlessly, forcing him to constantly expend his spiritual pressure.

Leaving the magma now felt like arriving in heaven to him.

"Yo, Szayelaporro! It's been a hundred years, how does it feel?"

The King of Hueco Mundo greeted him with a smile, "This is the taste of hell you love so much. How about it? You don't even have to defect to hell to enjoy this; aren't I merciful?"

Szayelaporro, a Vasto Lorde-level Menos.

A hundred years ago, unwilling to endure the rule of the King of Hueco Mundo, he had colluded with entities from within hell to attack the King when he personally visited the hellish battlefield, intending to drag the King of Hueco Mundo down into hell.

But the result, naturally, was that this conspiracy failed, and Szayelaporro could not escape either; he was captured by the King of Hueco Mundo to taste the true flavor of hell.

After a hundred years of this, even the brain that Szayelaporro had self-proclaimed to be the smartest in all of Hueco Mundo was now left with nothing but chaos.

"Why won't you kill me!!!"

Szayelaporro truly felt that life was worse than death—though he had already died once to become a Hollow—but he now longed for a second, true death.

"Kill you? That won't do! You are a Vasto Lorde, and the sins you carry would certainly cause you to fall into hell after death."

"Although your spiritual pressure wouldn't even rank among the top in hell, why would I send a Vasto Lorde-level enemy there?"

"Wouldn't killing you just be providing resources to the enemy?"