Witnessing the Birth of Arrancar

Lu Ming walked up to the two Soul Beast lords and stopped.

Transforming two Soul Beasts over two thousand years old at the same time would consume an unprecedented amount of his spiritual power.

More importantly, the souls of these two Soul Beasts were filled with brutality and savagery, making them far harder to tame than the Wind Spirit Leopard from before...

Relying on Formless Transformation alone was too risky.

To ensure nothing could go wrong, he had to draw upon the power of his domain!

"Domain Expansion: Self-Contained Perfect Enclosure!"

Lu Ming shouted softly.

In an instant, countless pale hands reached out from the void, engulfing Lu Ming, the two massive Soul Beasts, Zhu Mao, Feng Qie, and Yue Xi beside them like a tidal wave!

A huge white sphere made of arms appeared out of thin air within the Blackwood Forest.

Xiao Wu stood outside the domain and felt a chill rise from the depths of her soul, making her shudder uncontrollably.

[Th-This... what is this?!]

She stared at the enormous white sphere in shock.

That utterly restrained, sealed aura, as though it could cut off everything, made her feel suffocated.

[Lu Ming... he actually has another domain?!]

Moreover, this Self-Contained Perfect Enclosure displayed ultimate contraction and confinement, brimming with the aura of death!

It was the complete opposite of his previous domain?

How could a Soul Master possess two utterly opposing domains at once?

This completely overturned Xiao Wu's understanding!

She recalled her own experience of undergoing Beast Transformation.

It had been a long and agonizing process. She had endured the excruciating pain of remaking her body alone, exhausting one hundred thousand years of cultivation to obtain this human form.

That process had been natural, something that had happened in due course.

But what Lu Ming was doing now was... an artificial, forced transformation!

How had he done it?

Just as Xiao Wu's thoughts ran wild, she suddenly sensed something strange.

Within that domain made of pale arms, aside from the auras of Lu Ming, Zhu Mao, the others, and the two Soul Beasts...

There seemed to be another aura hidden there—an aura that felt incomparably familiar to her, belonging to a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast!

That aura was pure and vast, filled with the majesty of nature and the vitality of life...

[Th-This is...]

Xiao Wu's pupils suddenly shrank to pinpoints!

[The Blue Silver Emperor?!]

How could there be an aura of the Blue Silver Emperor?!

Xiao Wu's mind buzzed!

The Blue Silver Emperor had been a plant-type Soul Beast sovereign from the same era as her mother. Hadn't it sacrificed itself years ago to protect a human, vanishing from this continent?

Why was the Blue Silver Emperor's aura present within Lu Ming?

And though this aura was faint, it was tightly entwined with Lu Ming's soul, as if... they had always been one!

[Could it be...]

An utterly absurd yet seemingly only reasonable guess surfaced in Xiao Wu's mind.

[Lu Ming... devoured the Blue Silver Emperor?!]

The very thought made her entire body go cold.

Devouring the origin of a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast and turning it into one's own power?

What a mad, heaven-defying method!

Xiao Wu felt that the shock she had suffered today exceeded everything she had experienced over the past hundred thousand years combined.

She looked at the enormous white sphere, her gaze becoming incomparably complicated.

She had thought she had already glimpsed Lu Ming's secrets, but now she realized that perhaps she had only seen the tip of the iceberg.

The secrets hidden within this young man ran far deeper—and were far more terrifying—than she had imagined!

Inside the domain, Self-Contained Perfect Enclosure.

The Black-Armored Troll and the Clawed Terror Demon lay silently on the ground. Their souls were firmly suppressed by an invisible force within Lu Ming's domain, unable to move.

"It's time to begin."

Lu Ming's expression was more solemn than ever.

Transforming two two-thousand-year-level ferocious beasts at once was an immense challenge even for him.

"Formless Transformation."

He placed his hands upon the heads of the two Soul Beasts.

A vast tide of spiritual power surged into the seas of their souls in an instant!

"Roar—!"

"Hiss—!"

The souls of the two Soul Beasts awakened in an instant and let out furious, savage roars!

They sensed an unprecedented danger and began resisting madly!

Waves of chaotic, bloodthirsty primal will, filled with the desire to slaughter, crashed back toward Lu Ming's spiritual power like raging seas!

"Hmph!"

Lu Ming groaned, his face immediately turning pale.

The soul wills of these two ferocious beasts were even more tenacious than he had expected!

Especially the Black-Armored Troll. Its soul was as hard as its body, filled with a brutish, unreasonable force of impact.

The Clawed Terror Demon's soul, meanwhile, was like a cunning venomous serpent—cold and treacherous, constantly seeking cracks in Lu Ming's spiritual power in an attempt to erode him from within!

[Just as expected, it won't be that easy!]

Lu Ming gritted his teeth and poured in even more spiritual power.

Suppressing two violent soul wills at once by himself was an incomparably dangerous process.

One mistake, and his mind would suffer backlash!

Feng Qie and Yue Xi watched this scene anxiously from the side.

They could sense Lu Ming's aura fluctuating violently. They wanted to help, yet had no idea where to begin.

This was a battle on the level of souls. They could not interfere at all...

Only Zhu Mao remained silently at the side, his eight dark-green compound eyes calmly watching everything.

Unlike Feng Qie and Yue Xi, he had personally gone through this process!

He knew that this was the pain and transformation a Soul Beast burdened with excessive killing intent had to undergo to become an Arrancar.

And he believed that his master would surely succeed!

Time passed second by second.

Fine beads of sweat covered Lu Ming's forehead, and his body began to tremble faintly.

Suppressing the souls of two thousand-year ferocious beasts at once was simply too draining. His spiritual power was being consumed at an astonishing rate.

[No, if this continues, I'll be drained to death!]

Lu Ming's heart tightened. He had to change his strategy!

Since he could not crush them with pure spiritual power in a short time, then...

He would use what they craved most to lure them in!

"Do you crave power?"

"Do you crave stronger bodies?"

"Do you crave... casting off these beastly shells and gaining true intelligence?"

Lu Ming's voice, like a demon's whisper, rang directly within the depths of the two Soul Beasts' souls.

The souls that had been resisting madly suddenly froze.

Power?

Intelligence?

A trace of confusion flashed through their chaotic wills.

"Submit to me."

"Take me as your master."

"And I shall grant you... rebirth!"

Seizing that fleeting opportunity, Lu Ming no longer used his spiritual power for forceful suppression!

His voice turned into countless gentle tendrils, beginning to guide, soothe, and reshape their souls...

At the same time, Formless Transformation completely invaded the souls of the two Soul Beasts!

"Creak... creak..."

The bodies of the two Soul Beasts began to undergo violent changes.

The Black-Armored Troll's hard bony armor began to soften and merge into its flesh.

Its enormous body began to shrink and lengthen...

The scale-covered skin of the Clawed Terror Demon began to peel away, revealing fresh, fair skin beneath.

Its limbs also began changing toward human forms...

The process was bloody and bizarre...

Though Xiao Wu could not see what was happening inside the domain, she could clearly sense the two brutal auras belonging to the Soul Beasts rapidly weakening.

In their place were two entirely new, unfamiliar, yet faintly familiar...

Arrancar auras!

[Did he succeed?]

Xiao Wu's heart rose to her throat.

She stared fixedly at the huge white sphere, waiting for the moment the mystery would be revealed.

Finally.

The sphere formed from countless pale arms slowly and silently dissipated.

The scene within was once more exposed before Xiao Wu's eyes...