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

Immediately afterwards, Xu Lan... appeared behind him in an instant!

Chapter 186: On How to Graduate from Middle School

After getting behind Mi Zhen in an incomprehensible way, Xu Lan stabbed him in the back with her finger.

Any officer or deputy captain would likely be killed instantly by that move, because her movement was too outrageous, faster than a spinning top, leaving almost only microseconds of reaction time. Moreover, the strength in her hand was not weak; she could easily pierce through a steel plate.

But Mi Zhen was a master of high-speed combat, so dealing with this situation was no problem for him. He casually reached back and grabbed Xu Lan's hand, then pulled her directly in front of him.

But that's not necessarily true... Why would they still hit me even though I was born prematurely?

Is the difference that if someone is born normally, they will be beaten more severely?

"Let me ask for your reason."

Mima sighed: "Did I do something wrong?"

Xu Lan didn't answer, but just stared intently at him—his eyes didn't reveal any particularly obvious emotions, as if he was acting on instinct.

"So, your brain hasn't fully developed yet?"

Mizhen shrugged, ignoring the little one's frantic resistance, and lifted her up by the back of her collar.

If she were really just a child, it wouldn't be a problem to let her roam freely, but she's quite a troublesome one after all. If she runs around casting Cero and destroying things, it would be a real hassle.

Let's take it back first.

But then again... since this little thing represents a part of my own ethereal being, will having a less-than-pleasant argument with her affect my ability to use the etherealization ability?

Sandy, who was idling in the real world, tried using the ethereal transformation and didn't notice any problems.

"Let...me go, you...despicable bastard."

Xu Lan struggled violently like a kitten being grabbed by the scruff of its neck by a stranger. Blue light gathered in her left eye once again—just like last time, its power was very weak, not even comparable to the average level of a Kylian. At most, it just charged up a little faster.

He raised his hand, preparing to receive the blow in a slightly more dignified manner—

But just as he raised his hand halfway, a stream of blue light slammed directly into Mi Zhen's face.

...It's not a matter of speed. It's as if the process of "launching and then hitting" was skipped, and the process was fast-forwarded to the final stage, which is to use Cero to wash Mima's face.

Of course, a Cero of this level could not possibly penetrate his spiritual pressure defense; even if he took it head-on, he would only feel a little heat.

But how did she do it?

Could it be a time deletion technique that can be applied to external systems?

But I didn't feel any abnormal fluctuations in the timeline.

After casually crushing the faint Cero, Mima frowned, absorbed the remaining trace of spiritual pressure into his body, and tried to sense it.

Time deletion or time stop could both be used to explain what just happened, but there was no element of time power in her spiritual pressure; it was more like... paralysis or freezing?

The next instant, he vaguely felt that his reaction seemed to be a beat too slow.

Turning around again, Xu Lan was already standing by a small tree not far away.

"..."

Now, Mima finally understood.

The spiritual pressure of the ethereal blue possesses a characteristic similar to "stagnation." When using attacks that release spiritual pressure, such as Cero, this quality contained within the spiritual pressure will cause the opponent's reaction to slow down for a moment—no, the timing of the slowdown should be something she can judge for herself.

Normally, given Mima's spiritual pressure, this level of debuff should have been ineffective against him. However, he took her Cero head-on just to show off and didn't bother to remove her spiritual pressure, which gave her several opportunities to use her ability.

But he's gradually getting used to it now, and even if he gets hit again, he won't just stand there dumbfounded and unable to react.

...Well, while this ability is strong, it's also somewhat awkward.

On the one hand, it should be very effective for killing someone on the first encounter. In battle, even a moment of daze can be fatal.

On the other hand, its mechanism of action is really weak... If it only works by infiltrating the enemy's body with spiritual pressure, it is destined to only be able to bully weaklings or fight those with low intelligence - who would let the enemy's spiritual pressure infiltrate their body?

As for dealing with those kinds of guys... it seems that having this ability makes little difference.

This is a new trick specifically for "smashing noobs".

To test whether she could do this, Sashio immediately jumped into Hueco Mundo, quickly found a lucky bystander, and fired a Cero shot at its forehead with a power so weak it wasn't even good enough for a massage, then carefully sensed it.

Sure enough, there seemed to be a permanent "switch" in his body that could be used to activate this... The mechanism seemed to be the "freezing nerves" power.

After trying to activate it, the small fry froze on the spot like a puppet, and only returned to normal after a few seconds.

After casually flicking the forehead and killing the small fry, he quickly found a few more test subjects and drew preliminary conclusions.

The power of "freezing nerves" does exist. It needs to be released by infiltrating spiritual pressure into the opponent's body. The effect is more obvious on the target with lower spiritual pressure. If the opponent's spiritual pressure has no flaws, it will have no effect.

Is spiritual pressure inherently poisonous...? That sounds like Mayuri Kurotsuchi's technique.

However, it's not really that useful... He doesn't need to play too many easy games, so this kind of thing is just icing on the cake. Maybe he can use it on some special occasion in the future.

After casually giving it the name "Marrow Knot," Mizhen turned her attention back to the world of mental images.

"I'm considered quite easy to talk to."

He casually shrugged: "If you can understand, come back with me. Why resort to violence when things can be resolved with words?"

At that moment, two faint footsteps came from behind him; it was Ryugetsu and Nigetsu Shigure arriving.

However, instead of speaking out openly, they chose to observe from the shadows.

"I...cannot tolerate it."

Compared to his initial purely beastly behavior, Xu Lan has made significant progress in the last few minutes, at least now he can speak in complete sentences.

Her spiritual pressure has also increased considerably... It seems she is growing rapidly in some way.

"I cannot tolerate your behavior... You're too cowardly..."

Xu Lan straightened up, and azure light gradually gathered in front of her, with a slightly crystalline and lustrous texture, adding a touch of magnificence to this dangerous scene.

"Really? Then you can elaborate."

In an instant, Mizhen moved in front of him, easily grasped the gathering blue light with her prepared hand, and then crushed it.

This Cero was much stronger than the previous two. It was a bit too much to just crush it with my bare hands, and my palms were even burned quite a bit.

"Where exactly did I go wrong?"

Mima looked at her calmly: "To be honest, this is a very fresh idea."

He was indeed very curious as to why the Hollow born within him harbored such strange hostility towards him—it didn't seem like a pure violent maniac, but rather that there was something about him that she found extremely displeasing.

This is strange—although it sounds a bit boastful, he is quite confident in his character, otherwise he wouldn't have gained considerable popularity in Seireitei as a master of slacking off, yet someone who can be considered part of him has a problem with it.

why?

To figure out the reason, verbal communication might be difficult; we'll have to use some... slightly extreme methods.

Tiny specks of light, like fireflies, danced in the shade of the trees. A slight stiffness lingered on Mi Zhen for a moment before disappearing without a trace.

He sensed something else from it...

Emotions, specifically anger.

In essence, the world of mental images is a rather idealistic place.

Here, Mi Zhen can create matter out of thin air, turn the world upside down with a flick of his hand, or create beings formed from some kind of power—because he is the master of this world, and in theory, he can even control everything in this world.

Of course, in practice it's not like that. After all, at least 80% of the credit for building this world goes to his subconscious. Before he "fully controls himself," all he can do is to the extent of Nizuki Shigure, shaping the environment and changing the terrain.

And...reading minds.

Just as Ryugetsu can sense what he perceives in real time, Mima could do the opposite. However, as Shigure Gyou said, there are huge differences in the physiological structure of Zanpakuto and Shinigami. What is very easy for them is very difficult for Shinigami to do, and vice versa.

Note that it is "difficult to do", not "impossible to do".

At his request, Nizuki Shigure taught him the ability to read the minds of others in the world of mental images... but they can't really be considered "others," since Ryuzuki, Nizuki Shigure, and Xulan are essentially a part of him, and reading their minds is no different from self-reflection, so it's not a difficult thing.

This was, in fact, the first time he had actually used this ability.

What I gleaned was quite simple: anger.

Or rather, a violent impulse.

If anything stands in your way, destroy it; if anyone offends you, kill them!

Xu Lan's thoughts can be described as simple, even naive, but that does explain why she dislikes me.

That is the difference in action strategies.

Perhaps it's her nature, but the newly born Xu Lan possesses a thought process that's completely inflexible. She's kind to whoever treats her well, and she'll kill anyone she dislikes. Her logic is entirely based on a simplistic and brutal binary, so her conclusions are exceptionally simple: "You, Watanabe Yama, have clearly disliked those old fogies for years, so why are you just sitting there doing nothing? Isn't the right thing to do to just rush up and stab them all? What's the difference between enduring it and being a coward?"

"?"

Mizhen slowly typed out a question mark.

You're so high and mighty, so amazing. If you're so brave, why don't you go and challenge that old man in the mountain to a duel? And add a dozen or twenty captains and vice-captains, plus that bunch of unknown trump cards from the noble family.

I'm not rebelling because I'm tired of living and want to die, but because I plan to improve the environment and then comfortably let things fall apart. What good would it do me to rush in now?

Wait a minute... For her, rushing forward seemed to represent a benefit in itself—because it felt so good.

That's why chuunibyou kids are so annoying...

Mi Zhen wanted to laugh, but as he delved deeper into the mind reading, he quickly lost his ability to laugh.

This kind of immature thinking... seems to originate from himself.

As mentioned before, he lost his direct guardian in a car accident when he was five years old (in his previous life), and grew up in an orphanage after that. A five-year-old child can already distinguish right from wrong. He knows what caused him to end up in this situation, and naturally, he feels great resentment towards the murderer.

But obviously, a five-year-old child can't do anything. Besides, the traffic accident was just a pure accident, and the person he thought was his enemy was sincerely trying to make amends. In the end, he couldn't blame anyone and could only force himself to forget about it.

Perhaps because he was brought into this world halfway through his development, and because Xu Lan's thought process is strikingly similar to his own when he was five or six years old, coupled with the emotional baggage he has accumulated over the years and Xu Lan's innate violent tendencies, the situation suddenly became strange.

So this little girl represents my negative emotions...

It's understandable that he doesn't like me... After all, such childish negative emotions only lead to thoughts of killing when faced with problems. But as an adult who needs to consider many things, Mima must act appropriately at the right time in order to gain greater benefits.

The conclusion is simple: in Xu Lan's opinion, Mi Zhen's purity is far too low.

"..."

He hissed, feeling several veins bulge on his head.

After reading his mind, Xu Lan was like a walking encyclopedia of his dark history to him. Just its existence reminded him of what he was like during his chuunibyou (adolescent delusions of grandeur) period. Like most people, he would unconsciously have the thought of humanely destroying his dark history.