I Shall Stand Atop the Heavens / Aizen's Plan Backfires-He Almost...

Yamabuki Chidori nodded slightly. "I'll go in and take a look. You all stay outside and guard the area. Don't let anyone in."

The Guard nodded in agreement and dispersed. Yamabuki Chidori took a deep breath, her eyes filled with excitement, and finally entered the Forbidden Books Section.

Once inside the Forbidden Books Section and confirming that no one was watching, the Kyōka Suigetsu was dispelled, and Yamabuki Chidori's figure transformed into Aizen.

"The truth of everything is recorded here!" Aizen was incredibly excited and strode to the bookshelf.

It contains a secret that the Soul Society has kept hidden for millions of years.

Aizen's goal was very clear: to defeat the Soul King.

He quickly found the records about the Soul King, but next to it was another book. Unlike the other books, this one was a White Paper with no content on the cover, which looked rather strange. Out of curiosity, Aizen opened the first page of the book and discovered that the White Paper was actually handwritten.

Moreover, the handwriting on it is very bad; the first page looks quite old, and the handwriting is a bit blurry.

Upon seeing the first line, Aizen felt his scalp tingle; the notes in this book were actually those of his Teacher, Yamabuki Chidori Kerato.

What exactly is going on? How many secrets did the Teacher record here?

Aizen's curiosity had reached its limit. He didn't want to wait another minute and immediately checked the contents of the book, but the first sentence was absolutely shocking.

"In the year XXX of Soul Society, the Soul King invited Yamabuki Chidori to the Soul King Palace, intending to pass on the Soul King to him, but Yamabuki Chidori refused."

Holy crap! Holy crap!

Aizen felt his brain was going blank. What was going on? If you count the time, this should have happened more than 500 years ago. His Teacher did say that he had contact with the Zero Division more than 500 years ago, but his Teacher didn't say that the contact was because the Soul King wanted to give him his position!

In other words, he was always just a little short of becoming the Soul King.

This Old Man had actually kept such an important matter from me. This wasn't just about getting to the truth; the Old Man was the truth.

Aizen's heart was in turmoil. He closed his eyes to calm himself down, and after a long while, he opened the White Paper again.

"In January of the following year, the Wandenreich led by Yhwach invaded, and the great war began."

The following passage describes the course of the war in great detail. Although it is called a war, the high-end combat forces presented a one-sided and overwhelming advantage.

The Sternritter, Quincy most powerful of the Quincy, consisting of twenty-six Knight, was wiped out in a single day; the dead, the fleeing, and the wounded were all killed!

Finally, on the west side of Seireitei, Yamabuki Chidori and Yhwach engaged in an earth-shattering duel.

The next image shattered Aizen's current understanding once again.

The painting depicts a monster wielding two swords, wearing a mask, with six pairs of blue and white wings on its back and a pentagram halo above its head.

"A Shinigami's Zanpakuto, a Hollow's mask, and the power of Quincy!" Aizen muttered to himself. How could these three completely conflicting powers coexist in one person? According to the later description, this monster was none other than Yamabuki Chidori herself.

The battle was evenly matched. The book records that Yhwach, the Quincy King, possessed a power called "All-Knowing All-Powerful." Even when fighting against Yamabuki Chidori, he was not at a disadvantage. Finally, when both sides were exhausted, the Captain Commander arrived.

Upon seeing the art style on the next page, Aizen was once again shocked. He had always believed that the difference in strength between the Shinigami Captain was not that great, but when he saw the Captain Commander's Bankai, he realized that the difference between people was actually so great.

With a single strike, the earth was reduced to wasteland. More than five hundred years have passed, yet the place where the three fought remains barren.

It's difficult to recreate that scene using only imagination.

These are the two people widely recognized as the strongest in Soul Society.

Aizen overwhelmed with emotion; this Old Man, who usually loved to slack off, was actually this strong.

Aizen continued flipping through the pages, and the story quickly progressed to the night of the massacre of the Tsunayashiro Clan.

Everyone knew that the Tsunayashiro Clan was guilty; they were convicted of attempting to overthrow Soul Society, but few knew exactly how they intended to do so.

In this White Paper, Aizen saw the true crimes of the Tsunayashiro Clan.

"Creating... the Soul King!" The word "shock" was no longer sufficient to describe Aizen's reaction.

The Soul King can actually be created? Are you sure you're not joking? What kind of thing is the Soul King anyway?

Why did the Teacher refuse to become the Soul King back then? What's the story behind it?

Aizen excitedly continued reading. Below was a drawing by Yamabuki Chidori herself. To be honest, it was a bit abstract, but Aizen could still make it out with some difficulty.

It was an embryo being cultured in a glass bottle, with three conditions written below it.

Shinigami, Hollows, Quincy.

But in the end, the "Hollow" was crossed out, leaving only Shinigami and Quincy as the remaining conditions.

Chapter Twenty-Eight: I Will Stand at the Summit

The Soul King is the pioneer of this world, the creator of this world, and everyone should unconditionally respect the Soul King.

Everyone born in Soul Society is told this "common sense," so in everyone's mind, the Soul King should be a supreme king.

But now, as Aizen gets closer to the truth, he discovers that the situation seems to differ from "common sense."

According to the White Paper written by his Teacher, the "Soul King" is more like an object than a living person.

Looking at the record about the Soul King, Aizen knew that once he opened this book, his worldview might be reconstructed.

This is undoubtedly extremely painful. It's like in feudal times, when everyone believed that His Majesty the Emperor was supreme, but one day a lowly eunuch saw that the so-called "Emperor" was actually just a stone. The shock and disbelief of that experience could completely destroy a person.

"But now, do I have any way out?" Aizen muttered to himself. Why were the words "Shinigami" and "Quincy" written on the conditions for creating the Soul King? Did this mean that anyone who possessed both of these powers could be called a "Soul King"?

Moreover, these two forces are in conflict, like water and fire; logically speaking, these two things should never be able to be combined.

Aizen took a deep breath and resolutely opened the book containing information about the Soul King.

A terrifying scene appeared in the book; it was a... person?

It at least resembles a human, but it lacks limbs, and there are obvious wounds on its chest, suggesting that its internal organs have been removed.

The humanoid object's eyes were half-open, half-closed, seemingly asleep yet awake, sealed within a yellow, amber-like cocoon.

"This is... the Soul King? This is what everyone in Soul Society worships? This is what controls all destinies?" Aizen couldn't believe that the Soul King was in such a state. No wonder his Teacher said that the Soul King's state was a top secret, and that if others knew what the Soul King looked like, many people would suffer a mental breakdown.

Aizen closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, there was no longer any confusion in his eyes.

"Why did the Soul King become like this? Judging from his appearance, the Soul King should have been a human once, right?" Aizen said in a low voice.

There must be a reason.

He continued to peruse the documents recording the Soul King, and sure enough, the original Soul King was just a human, but he was a genius with many powerful abilities, including the ability to save souls. Later, he gathered five servants around him, and these five servants were the ancestors of the Five Noble Clans.

The Soul King realized that the world would collapse as the Void continued to devour souls, so he divided the world into Three Realms to slow down the process of destruction.

Everything was normal up to this point, but then something very abnormal happened. The Tsunayashiro Clan, one of the Five Noble Clans, was so afraid of the Soul King Soul King's power that they dismembered him, weakened his power, stripped him of his internal organs, and threw him into the lower realm, turning Soul King into a "Human Pillar."

"In other words, the world we live in was built on evil from the very beginning." Aizen finally understood something.

What does Yamabuki Chidori pursue? It's definitely not being bound to the throne. His favorite thing is probably slacking off at work.

After he learned the truth about this world, he resolutely refused to become the Soul King, because even becoming the Soul King did not guarantee his absolute safety.

This is probably the biggest reason for the downfall of the Tsunayashiro Clan.

I already know all of this, but what can I do? I'm so weak right now. If people find out I was secretly reading forbidden books, I probably won't survive tonight. But I have no regrets.

"The only one who can control my destiny is myself. I don't want my future to be dominated by a Human Pillar." Aizen's eyes lit up.

The Teacher had seen the truth, but he did not resist. Otherwise, Aizen believed that with the power of Yamabuki Chidori, it would have been easy to overthrow that Human Pillar.

Aizen could roughly guess what his Teacher was thinking: in order to maintain the balance and stability of the world.

But can such a thing truly be called a "king"? It is merely a "Linchpin" supporting the Three Realms. The throne in the sky was already vacant the moment the Soul King was dismembered millions of years ago.

The Teacher is already trying to change this world. The reform of the Central 46, the weakening of the power of the nobility, and the establishment of the Gotei 13 are all iron Iron Fist that the Teacher has thrown at this corrupt world, but it is far from enough.

The throne in the sky should be filled by someone; if no one else is qualified, then I shall stand at the top.

After calming himself down, Aizen turned his gaze back to the White Paper, Yamabuki Chidori's notebook, which contained many things that could not be known to outsiders.

As Aizen flipped through the pages, he discovered something new.

"The Soul Reaper Limit? Currently, it's considered to be Captain Commander Yamamoto. In hundreds of years, no Shinigami has been stronger than Yamamoto. But how can this limit be broken?"

Breaking the Soul Reaper Limit? Aizen swallowed hard and continued reading.

The next sheet of paper contained only two items: a knife and a mask.

"The Hollowfication of the Shinigami? The Soul Reaper Hollowfication?"

"Hypothesis 1: Infusing the power of the Shinigami into the Hollow's body. Note: Failed; the two powers cannot coexist."

Hypothesis 2: Infuse the Hollow Power into the body of a Shinigami. Note: Failure will result in the Shinigami losing their sanity.

"Then what exactly am I?"

Yamabuki Chidori simultaneously controls three powerful forces: Shinigami, Hollow, Quincy. These three forces are not only perfectly integrated, but each has also been cultivated to its limit.

Following this part of the notes, there are some strange things that Aizen, with his current level of knowledge, simply cannot understand.

"Practical applications of Wormhole. Note: They've been researching this for five hundred years and still haven't figured it out."

Seeing this, Aizen couldn't help but chuckle. It seemed even his Teacher had moments of exasperation.

Aizen now has a goal: first, to reach the "limit" of a Shinigami, and then to use the Hollow Power to break that limit.

Teacher are not professional scientists, after all; they inevitably make mistakes when researching things.

What my Teacher can't do, I might be able to do too. What is the purpose of a student's existence? Isn't it to surpass their Teacher?

If each generation is worse than the last, what is the point of passing on knowledge?

The idea that ancient martial arts techniques are invincible only exists in novels; in reality, the newest things are often the best.

"Now we're back to square one." Aizen rubbed his temples, realizing that in the end, he still needed to improve his strength.

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Aizen's Aizen - Almost...

Just as Aizen was pondering how to improve his strength, he heard the Guard outside suddenly say, "Captain Commander, you've arrived."

Aizen's expression changed. Why was the Captain Commander here?

This unexpected situation caught him off guard. Kyōka Suigetsu was indeed very strong, but his Reiatsu was far inferior to that of the Captain Commander. In the current state, Kyōka Suigetsu could not possibly have any effect on the Captain Commander.

Should we try to hide? But there's nowhere to hide here! If we use the Kidō to hide...

Dream on! How could the Captain Commander not see through such a simple trick?

If the Captain Commander sees through my disguise... I'll surely die today.

After all, he was in contact with a secret that absolutely could not be known by anyone else.

It's lucky if you can leave behind a complete corpse.

Furthermore, the Captain Commander has never seen the Shikai of Kyōka Suigetsu. What should they do?

Aizen was never one to sit idly by and wait for death; the more critical the situation, the more calmly he could think about the problem.

Judging from the footsteps, the Captain Commander will be in five or six seconds at most! Damn it! It's too late!

The footsteps grew closer.

"Creak!" The Captain Commander pushed open the door and slowly walked in.

However, when he looked around, he didn't see anyone.

The White Paper on the bookshelf was pulled out and placed on the table. The Captain Commander muttered to himself, "Honestly, that kid Yamabuki doesn't even bother to put the book away properly after reading it."

The Captain Commander casually put the book back in its original place.

At this moment, Aizen was hiding on the rooftop, doing his best to conceal his aura. He knew that if even the slightest leak of his presence occurred, he would surely die today.

Just then, Aizen saw the Captain Commander look up.

My life is over!

Aizen was even thinking of jumping down to confess, but the Captain Commander gave an order to yawn, seemingly not seeing the person hiding on the roof.

Aizen's heart pounded wildly; this was too exciting! Does anyone understand?!

No, we won't be able to hold on much longer if this continues.

Or perhaps we could try using the Kyōka Suigetsu" technique to distract the Captain Commander?

One minute! No, just half a minute will do.

I can escape this place on my own. I've already obtained the information I wanted, so there's no need for me to stay here and fight on.

"Shatter! Kyōka Suigetsu!" Aizen secretly released Kyōka Suigetsu, instantly hypnotizing the Captain Commander's five senses. Kyōka Suigetsu, my life is entirely in your hands.

Aizen landed silently on the Captain Commander's back.