Soul King

Several days later.

When Liu Chuan woke up, his exhaustion had long since vanished. His mind was clear and serene, as though washed by the purest spring water.

Within him, the power that had broken past its limits in the Path of No Entry had completely settled, like a vast, unfathomable sea—calm and still, yet containing boundless potential to stir towering waves at any moment.

He slowly opened his eyes to find himself in a guest room within the Reclining Boar Palace, a place filled with the warmth of everyday life.

Beneath him lay soft, comfortable bedding, while the air carried a blend of calming incense and the faint sweetness of food.

Liu Chuan didn't rush to get up. He first lay quietly on the bed and examined himself inwardly, confirming that he had never felt better—he was even more balanced and at ease than immediately after his breakthrough.

Only then did he sit up and stretch his limbs.

Just then, the room's sliding door was gently pulled open a crack, and Kirio Hikifune's warmly smiling face peeked in.

"Oh my, Liu Chuan, you're awake? How do you feel? Tenjirō's medicine worked pretty well, didn't it?" Her voice was light, as though afraid of disturbing him.

"Thank you for your care, Senior Kirio. I've fully recovered, and I'm in excellent condition."

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"That's good! That's good!" Kirio Hikifune patted her chest, looking visibly relieved.

"Monk Hyōsube said that once you woke up and recovered, you should go to Eye Monk Hall and see him. He has something important to tell you. Wash up and change your clothes first. Breakfast will be ready soon!"

Liu Chuan nodded. After washing up, he changed into a pure white Zero Division haori.

After enjoying the breakfast Kirio Hikifune had carefully prepared in the Reclining Boar Palace—delicious as always and brimming with Spiritual Power—Liu Chuan bid her farewell and headed toward Eye Monk Hall along the familiar corridors.

Inside Eye Monk Hall, Ichibē Hyōsube stood with his hands behind his back before an enormous window, gazing outside as if deep in thought.

Hearing Liu Chuan's footsteps, he slowly turned around.

"Liu Chuan, how's your recovery?" Ichibē Hyōsube wore a gentle smile, his tone more casual than before, carrying the ease of someone addressing a true colleague.

"I'm fully recovered," Liu Chuan replied.

"Mm. It seems you've completely absorbed the gift of the Path of No Entry. Very good."

Ichibē Hyōsube nodded in satisfaction, his eyes sweeping over Liu Chuan.

"Since that's the case, it's time. Come with me. We're going to pay our respects to the Soul King."

Pay respects to the Soul King.

Those words stirred Liu Chuan's thoughts slightly.

Since arriving at the Soul King Palace, he had experienced many things. Yet he had never met the supreme existence at the source of it all.

He was indeed deeply curious about this Soul King. If he hadn't been "chosen" by that being, he might still be living his quiet, comfortable, obscure life in that small Kido Corps courtyard.

He even suspected that the Soul King truly possessed some ability to foresee the future and perceive causality. Otherwise, why would he have noticed Liu Chuan among countless Soul Reapers?

"Yes." Liu Chuan suppressed the surging thoughts in his heart and nodded.

It was time to meet the "beginning" of everything.

The Soul King's Hall floated at the very center of the various palaces.

A short while later, Liu Chuan followed Ichibē Hyōsube inside.

Liu Chuan noticed an object floating in the very center of the hall.

It was a pure blue crystal, as though it could absorb all light while also emitting a faint glow from within.

The crystal was an irregular oval, its surface as smooth as a mirror.

It hovered there silently, like the central anchor of this sea of order, the pivot around which all things turned.

But what truly shocked Liu Chuan was what lay within the blue crystal.

There was a person floating inside.

No—perhaps "person" was no longer an appropriate description.

It had the form of an adult man, but... he had neither hands nor feet.

The ends of his limbs were smooth cross-sections, as though some absolute power had "erased" them from their very roots.

His eyes were closed, his expression calm and peaceful, even carrying a godlike indifference that transcended sorrow and joy.

He was like a carefully preserved "specimen" displayed at the core, yet also like a "saint" who had willingly sacrificed his limbs to preserve some vast balance.

No earth-shaking pressure radiated from him, but merely seeing his existence allowed Liu Chuan to sense the immense power within him.

This was... the Soul King?

The "wedge" that maintained the balance between Soul Society, the Living World, and Hueco Mundo? The supreme being served by Zero Division?

The sight before him far exceeded all of Liu Chuan's previous imaginings.

He had imagined that the Soul King might be an incomparably imposing giant, a god shining with boundless light, or an unfathomable sage...

But he had never imagined this—a mutilated body confined within crystal, stripped of its limbs, as though fallen into eternal Stagnation...

The enormous contrast and shock left even the normally composed Liu Chuan rooted to the spot, countless guesses and questions flashing through his mind.

Ichibē Hyōsube stood quietly beside him, seemingly having expected Liu Chuan's shock.

The truth of the world appeared to be more complicated—and more... burdensome—than imagined.

Ichibē Hyōsube's grand voice slowly rang out, unhurried, as though recounting an ancient epic nearly erased by time, yet still immensely weighty.

"This is the Soul King. His true name is Adnyeus."

"Countless ages ago, this world was not as it is now. There was no life, no death, no advance, no retreat. Souls drifted in a daze, Spirit Particles circulated, and that was all.

"Even when souls lost balance and became Hollows, they were merely insignificant links in that eternal cycle of chaos.

"Until... Hollows were no longer content to wander. They began actively devouring living souls, and the cycle was severed."

Ichibē Hyōsube paused, as if recalling that despairing scene in which all things had fallen silent.

"If things had been allowed to continue, then one day all souls would have been devoured by Hollows, or fused with one another to become a single Menos Grande.

"The world would have fallen into complete Stagnation and nothingness. At that moment, the Soul King... was born. Or rather, awakened."

"He possessed a power completely opposite to, yet mutually restraining with, this world's Spirit Particle cycle—the power of annihilation.

"With that power, he caused those Hollows that had broken the cycle and devoured souls to completely disperse, returning to their most basic Spirit Particles. He forcibly restarted the world's cycle, and the chaos was temporarily halted."

Liu Chuan listened in silence. Quincy Power? So the source of the Soul King's strength shared the same origin as the Quincy, perhaps one even more fundamental.

"However, new order often brings new desires and conflicts."

Ichibē Hyōsube's tone grew more complicated.

"At that time, there were five beings whose strength and wisdom far surpassed ordinary people. Later generations called them the Progenitors of the Five Great Noble Houses.

"They witnessed the Soul King restore order, yet they were dissatisfied with this world that remained chaotic, where life and death were blurred, and advance and retreat indistinct.

"Their motives differed. Some sought a clearer order, some craved more absolute control, some feared the return of the Hollow threat, while some pursued a more distant future...

"But incredibly, their goals eventually converged on one point—to completely separate the chaotic world."

"They conceived of the Three Worlds—the world of Spirit Particles, Soul Society; the world of matter, the Living World; and the wasteland where Hollows belonged, Hueco Mundo.

"If the three stood apart, each fulfilling its role and cycling in order, eternal stability and development could be achieved.

"But such a great undertaking was beyond mortal capability.

"They needed... the Soul King's power. The primordial might of creation and annihilation would serve as the 'wedge' to separate the worlds."

Liu Chuan's heart stirred. The Progenitors of the Five Great Noble Houses... the separation of the Three Worlds... the wedge.

So the structure of Soul Society, the Living World, and Hueco Mundo had been artificially created. And the Soul King had become the most crucial tool.

"The ancestor of the Shiba Clan was compassionate and intended to persuade the Soul King to lend his aid willingly, so the separation could be carried out in a relatively peaceful manner."

Ichibē Hyōsube's voice lowered slightly.

"However, the ancestor of the Tsunayashiro Clan... took advantage of the moment when the Soul King was listening to the Shiba ancestor's persuasion and launched a secret attack, using a hidden technique to seal the Soul King within this specially made crystal."

Sealed! Liu Chuan's gaze snapped toward the blue crystal.

So that wasn't the Soul King's residence or throne, but... a prison! A prison personally created by the progenitors of the Five Great Noble Houses!

"The Soul King... saw it." Ichibē Hyōsube's voice carried an indescribable tremor, not fear, but a profound pity and reverence.

"At that moment—or perhaps even earlier—he had already 'seen' certain futures. He saw the world after the Three Worlds were divided, the sacrifices and chaos that separation would inevitably bring, and he also saw...

"The even more unpredictable abyss into which the world might fall if he refused. He... chose to accept."

He chose to accept the fate of being sealed and becoming the "wedge."

A chill crept up Liu Chuan's spine. What kind of immense vision and spirit of sacrifice was that?

For the sake of some "possibly better" future, he had willingly accepted imprisonment?

"The five progenitors used the sealed Soul King and The Almighty as the 'wedge.' They forcibly tore apart the chaos, shaped the boundaries, and ultimately created the Three Worlds of today. Soul Society, the Living World, and Hueco Mundo were thus born."

Ichibē Hyōsube narrated that world-creating feat, yet there was little joy in his tone. There was only heaviness.

"Yet the human heart is unfathomable." His voice suddenly turned cold, carrying a trace of icy mockery and anger.

"Even though the Soul King willingly became the 'wedge' and maintained the Three Worlds, those progenitors still deeply feared him.

"They feared that one day, the Soul King would break free of his seal and use The Almighty to settle old scores."

"So they made a decision... vile beyond measure."

Ichibē Hyōsube's gaze slowly swept over the smooth stumps of the Soul King's limbs within the crystal.

"They cast the Soul King into a contradictory spiral known as 'dying while alive.' They... severed the Soul King's arms, which governed the concepts of 'advance' and 'Stagnation.'"

Liu Chuan's breathing caught. They severed his arms? It wasn't merely to weaken him—they wanted to strip away his authority over "advance" and "Stagnation"? What cruel and meticulous calculation!

"But that wasn't enough." Ichibē Hyōsube continued recounting the bloody truth, every word seeming to reek of blood.

"Led by the Tsunayashiro progenitor, several ancestors spent countless years continuously studying how to weaken the Soul King's existence.

"They... dug out the Soul King's heart, cut off his feet, opened his abdomen and removed his internal organs, separating them one by one from his body. After stripping away the corresponding authorities and power contained within them... they cast them down into the lower world."

His heart torn out, his feet cut off, his abdomen opened and organs removed... Liu Chuan felt a wave of nausea.

This was no longer merely sealing or weakening him. This was the most extreme form of torture and dismemberment!

They had dissected, stripped apart, and discarded a being on the level of a creator as though he were the lowest kind of experimental material!

All to create a pure "tool" and "symbol" incapable of resistance, convenient for them to control and exploit—a "king" they could manipulate.

Ichibē Hyōsube finally concluded, his voice returning to calm. "This is the truth of the Soul King."

The truth was so cruel, so dark, so... revolting.

Liu Chuan stood where he was, his gaze fixed on the mutilated figure within the crystal.

His earlier speculation about the Soul King's ability to foresee the future, and his curiosity about why he had been "chosen," were all shattered by this horrifying truth.

What replaced them was an indescribably complicated emotion.

The Soul King, Adnyeus. Savior of the world, the creative wedge of the Three Worlds, and also the victim of the most brutal betrayal and torture in history.

And he, Liu Chuan, a visitor from another world, had been drawn into all this because of that tragic being's "gaze."

Zero Division's duty was to protect the Soul King Palace and maintain the balance of the Three Worlds... yet beneath that glorious facade lay such a bloody original sin and shackle.

After Ichibē Hyōsube finished speaking, he fell silent, seemingly giving Liu Chuan time to absorb this earth-shattering truth.

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