I'm really not the number one slacker in Soul Society.

"Specifically?"

“After the fusion, my Bankai ability can be maintained normally, and the release time becomes zero—so I set up a ‘contingency plan’ in my mind.” She pointed to her temple and said with a smile, “If I die, fall into a long coma, or suffer some incurable serious injury, an area about two Seireitei-sized will pay an ‘unprecedented natural disaster’ as ‘penalty’.”

"Wow."

Mima uttered a rather pointless sigh.

Now he understands why the 46th Chamber said, "Killing them might cause a huge upheaval."

Who can withstand such a death sentence?

Although those at the vice-captain level and above are basically not afraid of most forms of natural disasters—if you can't beat them, you can at least avoid them; just fly up and put on a shield and you're done.

But how many experts are there? Most people, whether nobles or commoners, are not very strong. Let alone the "unprecedented natural disaster" that sounds impressive, even a magnitude 9 earthquake could wipe out several people.

No wonder she was only imprisoned in the Abyss even though she killed more than twenty members of the 46th Chamber; it turns out those old bastards didn't dare to kill her.

However, after this escape, the situation changed. Cell 46 knew that once the woman escaped, she would definitely try to send them all away, so they didn't care about the cost and even gave Old Man Shan the order to "kill them all without mercy".

After all, Seireitei can be rebuilt, but once a life is gone, it's truly gone.

"I admire you."

Mima cupped his hands in admiration: "As expected of the strongest captain in history, even his use of deterrence theory is a little more sophisticated than people's nowadays."

“It’s about finding a way to survive in the face of death.” Lu Qubaiyunzhai spread his hands. “Back then, Yuanliuzhai and the Forty-Six Chambers even secretly planned to kill me if they couldn’t defeat the Quincy, so that everyone would go to hell together… It was Immortal who couldn’t stand me being kept in the dark that revealed this to me. You see, everyone is always equally ruthless.”

Mima: "..."

Aside from marveling at the wild style of his predecessors, what interested him most was naturally the experiment of "fusion with Zanpakuto".

Literally speaking, this thing sounds like a low-budget version of Wuyue.

However, after watching the entire experiment, Mizhen completely gave up the idea of ​​finding a place to try it out.

This experiment is actually not very technical—to use an analogy, it's like breaking two eggs, then scrambling them into a bowl of egg liquid, rounding it off to be considered merged. It's so simple that anyone with a little education can learn it after watching it once.

However, Shinigami and Zanpakuto are not eggs. To break through their eggshells—that is, the soul barrier—an extremely powerful external force is needed to act as a "stone." Furthermore, even if the barrier is broken, simply stirring up the contents of the soul haphazardly is ridiculously crude. Although it won't kill you on the spot, it will almost certainly cut off your path to becoming stronger, and your lifespan will be greatly reduced.

Shikatori Hakunsai succeeded because her Zanpakuto had almost no self-awareness. It was like an egg without a yolk, and you couldn't tell the difference between it and another opened egg (Shikatori Hakunsai). So she didn't have to go through the "stirring" step and smoothly merged with the Zanpakuto.

As for the other two team leaders who participated in the experiment... they didn't even succeed in "breaking the soul barrier".

In general, this is an extremely low-cost-effective surgery for the vast majority of people. Even Lady Zenjoji herself has abandoned it, so there is no need to reproduce it.

—Even if the Bankai ability can be permanently maintained after fusion, so what? Shikatori Hakunsai became stronger because her ability is half rule-based. Expanding the casting range is the biggest improvement. But for those elemental, hand-to-hand combat, or even Kido-based Zanpakuto, doing so is just asking for trouble.

It's really disappointing...

However, I should still write down the experimental steps, just in case this thing comes in handy in an unexpected way in the future?

At the same time, Shikatori Hakunsai chuckled with interest and said, "Look, the Quincy are about to attack."

"Oh?"

Mima focused her attention on the screen.

This is firsthand information from the First Quincy War.

Although he had also reviewed the histories of several Quincy war veterans through historical retrospection, those guys basically went to the battlefield and were sniped to death by a single arrow without getting any kills. Their reference value was so low that it could only be described as tragic. Obviously, they were far inferior to Shikatori Hakunsai, who participated in the entire war and played the main role of damage dealer.

"Actually, this war was foreshadowed long ago," said Shikaku Hakunsai. "At that time, the Quincy were already acting quite extremely, often massacring Hollows in units of thousands, which caused several imbalances in the three realms. The cleanup work was all done by the Shinigami. In this way, discontent gradually accumulated. First, there were some small-scale conflicts, and soon people died. The contradictions deepened and finally reached the point where war had to be fought."

As Ba Yunzhai said, the Shinigami and the Quincy are destined to fight. This is purely due to the sharp and irreconcilable conflict caused by the huge differences in their ways of life.

Even setting aside Yhwach's policies, Hollows are the Quincy's natural enemy. If the Quincy want to develop properly, they must eliminate all Hollows, which would cause an imbalance in the three realms. How could the Shinigami tolerate that?

Add to that what Death did to the Soul King, and with all the old and new grudges piling up, how could there not be a war?

On screen, Shikatori Hakunsai was constantly in meetings, listening to battle damage reports from all sides, and feeling the increasingly heavy atmosphere in Seireitei. She herself didn't really care; after all, killing someone was the same as killing someone else. There wasn't much difference between traitors and Quincy; at most, the latter were just a bit stronger.

But so what?

Which of the original thirteen didn't experience dozens or even hundreds of life-or-death crises?

What more do you have than the Quincy? Why should we be afraid?

"At first, the Quincy simply killed all the Shinigami we sent to the Human World—such an act naturally warranted retaliation, so Yachiru led a team to the Human World to settle scores." Shikatori Hakunsai suddenly laughed. "Back then, Yachiru wasn't 'Retsu' yet. Her so-called settling scores meant killing every Quincy she encountered and then returning to Soul Society with a bunch of heads—if Danjiro and Chigiri hadn't stopped her, she even planned to build a Quincy head tower."

Looking at the hundred or so heads hung on the city wall by Unohana, Mima thought that this behavior didn't seem much better than building a mound of heads...

"After that, as more and more people died, the Quincy began to directly enter the Soul Society and kill any Shinigami they found without mercy—and the Shinigami did the same," she continued. "I was also sent out to wipe out the invaders, and the situation quickly escalated to the point where we were only one step away from a full-scale war."

Through the images on the screen, Mima was finally able to glimpse the fighting style of the early Quincy.

Unlike the diverse group of knights in the manga, the Quincy of nine hundred years ago did not have as many hero units, but their average abilities were quite strong. Their blood armor switching was as smooth as flowing water, their flying kicks were as swift as bees, and their various holy chants (equivalent to the Quincy's Kido) were eye-opening. In terms of endurance, they had Saints, and when they were about to die, they could use the Chaotic Armor Puppet to forcibly prolong their lives. In addition, their attack range was much larger than that of the Death God (the advantage of using a bow). At the beginning of the war, the Quincy even had the upper hand for a time.

Of course, if we have to rank them, the Sternritter is definitely stronger. After all, Holy Script and Perfect Holy Body are really powerful, with a much higher potential than Blood Armor and Holy Chant. It's only natural that the latter would be abandoned. Apart from Cheruje, we haven't seen any member of the Sternritter who was beaten to the point of death and then used a Chaotic Armor Puppet to continue fighting desperately. It's clear that the basic skills of those abstract people are so bad that it's hard to look at them.

However, Shinigami have no right to say this... Nowadays, Shinigami are all obsessed with developing Zanpakuto, while neglecting other basic skills, which has become a fairly common phenomenon, and Yama is no exception.

If you could achieve instant success, who would want to work hard all day long?

After dozens of localized conflicts that lasted for several months, the Quincy finally decided to launch a full-scale war!

So Yhwach led a large group of people to attack.

This kind of behavior of directly rushing into someone's hometown... it's hard to say. After all, Mima doesn't know Yhwach from that period. Maybe he made the decision after a rigorous evaluation. But judging from the behavior alone... Mima thinks this guy probably has some problems with his brain.

What kind of logic is there in fighting on the enemy's home turf? Isn't that just asking for a beating?

A thousand years ago, Quincy didn't have such convenient skills as Shadow Domain. So, if they were to enter Seireitei, they would have to go through the main gate—meaning Hirako was born a few hundred years later. Otherwise, if they stood at the city gate and opened the Reverse Eight Treasures Gate, the Quincy could have wiped out their own people first.

I can't figure it out, I really can't figure it out!

As expected, the Quincy were immediately mired in a huge quagmire as soon as they stormed into Seireitei.

Because they are the attackers, they can't bring all their people, and supplies won't be very convenient. But the Shinigami are all in Seireitei, with complete logistical support. There's no need for reserves to come to their aid. They can just bring their families and gank in one wave and be done with it.

However, to be fair, neither side really had any tactics or strategies; they mainly relied on recklessness.

Needless to say, the Quincy fought individually, and the Shinigami also fought their own battles. Thirteen old killers, along with their gang of younger killers, retaliated against the invading enemies with merciless iron fists. In an instant, corpses littered the fields, blood flowed like rivers, and the entire Seireitei was on the verge of being destroyed.

Then, just as Shikato Hakuunzai had said, by the time she led her men to clear out several Quincy units that were besieging the medical unit and rushed to the battlefield, the Sixth Division Captain Saito Immortal and the Thirteenth Division Captain Saizo Gakuen had already died at Yhwach's hands, without even leaving behind complete corpses.

"..."

Shiroku Hakunsai remained silent for a moment, then his tone turned cold.

Mi Zhen wasn't sure whether he should speak up to comfort her or remain silent. After weighing the options, he chose the latter.

"Although she wasn't kind in expression or demeanor, compared to me, she was already considered to treat her subordinates very well." She took a deep breath and then continued calmly, "The strategy at the time was to have the main force risk their lives to test Yhwach's abilities, and after confirming how to deal with him, then have Genryusai make the final decision... Although I didn't see it, according to Yantetsu's recollection, she saw her vice-captain and several officers die as a result, and that's how it was. She lost her life in vain and didn't save anyone."

Although her tone seemed calm, anyone could hear the deep resentment hidden within—she wasn't blaming the old man's strategy or Saito's impulse to live forever, or even Yhwach's killings, but simply hating herself for being powerless to stop her friend's death.

That's it.

"At least... she stuck to her beliefs."

Mima sighed, conjured two cups of ginjo sake in his hand, and handed one of them to Shikatori Hakunsai, saying softly, "A toast to Saito-senpai?"

"Although she has a short temper, she is not the type to be so arrogant as to be unable to see the difference in strength."

Lu Qubaiyunzhai took the wine cup, remained silent for a moment, and sighed in an almost inaudible voice:

"Knowing he'd die... Fine, let's toast to this idiot."

She and Mijin lightly clinked their glasses, and then she drank them down in one gulp.

Soon, the deep gloom hidden in her expression disappeared without a trace—whether she had temporarily come to her senses or buried it deeper in her heart, only she herself knew.

At this moment, the final scene of the Quincy's decisive battle was already playing on the screen.

Yhwach's men have been almost completely wiped out, and the Grim Reaper's side is left with only six captains, not to mention the countless casualties among the lower-ranking soldiers.

The old man and Yhwach confronted each other.

—As an aside, because Yhwach didn't have such a thick beard back then, he looked exactly like Zangetsu, which made Mima quite distracted. He even thought of recording a video and sending it to Ichigo Kurosaki when he embarked on the path of a Shinigami.

The Shinigami had already confirmed through the previous battle that only Yamamoto Shigekuni's firepower could kill this Quincy King. If the former were to be defeated, the Soul Society would be overthrown in an instant. Therefore, the five captains who were watching the battle were all seriously injured, but they still insisted on looking for an opportunity to disturb the latter's mind even for a moment.

For Yhwach, the current situation is also a dead end - he has no soldiers left to use, while the enemy still maintains a large number of troops. This is undoubtedly a disadvantage. If he wants to survive, he has no choice but to fight with his back to the wall!

Defense is no longer necessary. The Static Blood Armor is nothing more than a tortoise shell, meaningless against Yamamoto Shigekuni. In that case, switch to the Dynamic Blood Armor to maximize attack power!

With a flick of his robe, he resolved to do his utmost.

And at that very moment...

"Oh, that's coming."

Shikato Hakuryuu looked at the pile of dead bodies behind Yhwach and sighed.

Right there, a figure quietly crawled out, without any breath or sound, and even the fluctuations of spiritual pressure were suppressed to zero. He silently came to Yhwach's back.

Without hesitation, he plunged the rapier in his hand into the back of the Quincy King!

The one who made the contribution is none other than Sasakibe Jōjirō, the vice-captain of the First Division!

Look! People from the Covert Force, come and see this! This is what a real assassination looks like!

After lying in wait for a long time, launching an attack to achieve the greatest results, and then withdrawing without hesitation, that's the style of a true assassin.

What about you? You just keep throwing missiles at people's heads, is that even acceptable?

The captain and vice-captain of the First Division fought with perfect teamwork. As soon as the backstab ended, Chojiro withdrew without hesitation, while the old man of the mountain rushed up and fired a Rising Sun Blade at Yhwach's head.

Amidst the deafening roar of flames, the Quincy King met his end, waiting for his resurrection cooldown, leaving behind a crater hundreds of meters deep in the center of Seireitei.

Who would have guessed that Chojiro Sasaki, who usually exudes the air of an English gentleman, is actually the sixth of the top echelons of Seireitei?

With Yhwach's death, the first war between the Shinigami and the Quincy finally came to an end.

Although there was still a long cleanup of the remaining enemies afterward, that was no longer important. What was so interesting about a game where you crush noobs? So we fast-forwarded through it all.

The reconstruction of Seireitei, replenishing the lost captains, retraining the Shinigami team... a whole host of things piled up on the survivors' shoulders. There were even rebel groups trying to start an uprising, but they were all wiped out, leaving no survivors.

In the rapidly flashing images, Yama saw Shikato Hakuryuu, who had become increasingly silent since the end of the war, the old man who had lost his sword demon status as he trained new people, and Unohana, whose number of kills gradually decreased—the Gotei 13, rebuilt from the predicament of being almost wiped out, was thus full of vitality.

More than a decade has passed in the blink of an eye, and the huge gap in the Quincy War has been gradually filled, but this... absolutely does not include Shikatori Hakunsai!

Chapter 179: Distant Past Events (The Truth Behind the Rebellion)

"For 803 years in the Avici Hell, I have been thinking."

She said softly, "Was my thinking too extreme? Couldn't there be a better way? What's the point of fighting when you could live a peaceful life... And guess what my answer was?"