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

The reason is simple: to give the students something to do.

The management system of the Shinigami Academy is basically laissez-faire. It only teaches students knowledge and assigns tasks, while the students handle all the practical work themselves. In order to make a good impression on the teachers or the Gotei 13 members, the students will naturally try their best to perform. Some of them fight against Hollows, while others wander around the Seireitei all day trying to participate in the daily affairs of the Gotei 13. In short, they are known for their boundless energy.

Normally, this would certainly help cultivate students' abilities, but it doesn't work now.

There is likely a great danger lurking in the Seireitei now, and the Shinigami are too busy with their duties to protect the students. Under these circumstances, it is definitely not acceptable to let the students run around freely. They must be brought together and managed in a unified manner until the crisis is resolved.

If I'm not mistaken, this matter should be handled by Isshin.

Unlike the naive students in the real world who would rather starve to death under the covers than go out if they heard it was dangerous outside, the prospective Grim Reapers at the True Spirit Arts Academy are incredibly brave. Explaining the truth to them might have the opposite effect—for example, a few reckless friends might make a plan to go out in the middle of the night to try and make a great contribution.

But in reality, they can probably only erect a memorial tablet for themselves...

So, the plan was to strike first before the news spread, grabbing the students' attention with this exciting event, and then instructing the teachers to assign a dozen or twenty assignments, the kind that wouldn't let students leave until they wrote some reflections on the martial arts arena duel.

After all that trouble, the matter with the Gotei 13 was basically over.

Although Mi Zhen has not actually confirmed it, based on his years of experience handling official business, the situation should be pretty much as he guessed.

It seems my previous impression was incorrect. Although Isshin seemed a bit naive, he is, after all, from a noble family and is quite shrewd.

So he put a lot of effort into his performance.

"The Sixty-Two Ways of Binding: Hundred-Step Railings!"

Mima, who was wandering along the edge of the training ground, seized the opportunity that Isshin deliberately created after cutting off a Blue Fire Fall.

He casually unleashed a Binding Spell, and a bright yellow chain of light spun from his palm, shooting into the smoke of the explosion and binding the unsuspecting Isshin.

"See? If you are as skilled as Watanabe Gosei in the technique of abandoning incantation, you can restrict the enemy during the gaps in your attacks."

"I see!"

The teachers in the stands were also giving a very enthusiastic explanation, from the ten ways to communicate with a Zanpakuto to the four ways of writing the Binding Spell, making the students' blood boil with excitement, almost to the point of...

Hey, wait...

When Mima listened distractedly to how others praised her, she suddenly felt a strange sense of unease.

Isn't the total spiritual pressure in the stands a little strange?

There were about 2,300 students who came to watch the battle. If we take a high estimate, their combined spiritual pressure should be equivalent to that of three vice-captains. Add to that the teachers and a few other team members who came to watch the excitement, and at most, they would be equivalent to a captain with a third-level spiritual power.

In layman's terms, it's like the appearance of Wuche Quanxi.

However, he sensed a spiritual pressure roughly equivalent to that of Kensei Shichigurashi.

Strange, where did the two extra cars come from?

Mima frowned, tapped the ground lightly with his heel, and released a Binding Spell No. 58, Slapping Toe to Chase the Sparrow, in a very subtle way to increase his spiritual pressure perception.

What's going on? A few high-ranking officials have sneaked into the audience.

Are they people deliberately planted there? Or...?

After a moment's thought, Mima stopped wandering around and raised his Zanpakuto.

"Oh? What's wrong?"

In the center of the training ground, Isshin emerged from the smoke of the Kido explosion, used his strength to break free from the already weak Hyakubu Langan bit by bit, then raised his sword and shouted to Mima, "Aren't you going to continue using Kido?"

“My spiritual pressure is limited after all.” Yama shrugged and started walking towards Isshin. “The ranged combat is almost over. Next, Captain Shiba, how about we compare our sword techniques?”

"Wow? Interesting!"

Yixin frowned slightly, then smiled and nodded. He stretched his body, gripped the knife horizontally, and charged forward.

The distance is rapidly decreasing.

Two seconds later, Liuyue and Yanyue collided, producing a crisp metallic hum.

Taking this opportunity, Mi Zhen recited in a very low voice: "Binding Path No. 77: Heavenly Void Net".

This thing is not only useful for searching, capturing, and sending messages to multiple targets using spiritual pressure, but it can also be transformed into a private chat mode with a slight modification to the spell's structure.

Since it was a spur-of-the-moment decision, the casting distance needed to be shortened to conceal the spiritual pressure fluctuations.

Shiba, who was connected, was startled at first, and then heard Mima say something softly without moving her lips.

"Captain Shiba, have you arranged for several officers-level bodyguards in the stands?"

"What?" After exchanging two blows with Mima, Isshin, mimicking Mima's manner, shut his mouth and whispered, "The search has just begun, no one has the time for that. Watanabe, Fifth Seat, have you found anything?"

Unlike his son, Isshin was indeed much more cunning, able to remain completely calm and collected even in such a secret conversation.

"There are several unusual spiritual pressure fluctuations in the audience. Can you track them down?"

"No... I'm not very good at this."

"Then leave it to me. I can try to find their whereabouts using the 'Toe-Striking Sparrow' technique."

"I'm counting on you, Watanabe, the fifth seat."

As they spoke, the two had already exchanged blows several times. In order to perform in a manner consistent with his role, Mima was repeatedly defeated by Isshin and was soon forced to the edge of the training ground, but he managed to hold on with a kind of "tenacity".

Both sides displayed superb movements and vivid expressions, showcasing acting skills worthy of award-winning actors, leaving no room for the students to detect their flaws.

The performance lasted for about twenty seconds before Mima finally managed to identify the uninvited guests who had sneaked into the training ground.

If they had all been watching the show properly, Mima wouldn't have been able to do it so easily. But the fact that these people were all looking around furtively in the audience, their actions completely different from those of the academy students, made it easy for Mima to complete the search.

So he immediately whispered to Isshin, "Alright—Captain Shiba, please give me a swipe on the back of the neck."

Yixin immediately shouted.

The heavy spiritual pressure slammed into Mima's face like a wall of wind, distorting his movements. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Isshin immediately sent Ryugetsu flying, then spun around behind him and struck Mima on the back of the neck with the back of his sword.

Mi Zhen obediently fell to the ground.

The crowd erupted in cheers!

Lying on the ground, Mima ignored the swarm of compliments (to Isshin) and focused on tracking the movements of the uninvited guests with her toe-swatting bird-chasing technique. Then she discovered a puzzling phenomenon.

After the competition ended, they all began to retreat outside without prior arrangement.

"Captain Shiba, they're trying to escape!"

"What?" Isshin frowned, immediately shortened his victory speech to the shortest length, and after giving the students a few general admonitions such as "Everyone must study hard," he picked up Yama and ran away under the pretext that "I should take Watanabe, the fifth seat, to check on his injuries."

After quickly leaving the Shinigami Academy, Mima flipped over and jumped off Isshin's shoulder.

Then they followed the person closest to them and ran as fast as they could.

"Captain Shiba, over here!"

Before they could exchange anything, Mima and Isshin began to wander through the alleyways—this was no longer the childish performance they had just had. The two of them kept using Shunpo and soon ran to an abandoned street with no one around.

The ancient stone path was overgrown with weeds and willow branches swayed in the wind; not a single person could be seen in sight.

But in my spiritual pressure perception, there's a guy huddled under a willow tree, I wonder what he's planning to do.

Mima clicked her tongue and turned to Isshin: "Captain Shiba, please..."

Before he could finish speaking, Yixin turned his gaze to the willow tree not far away and raised his hand to flick his forehead with his middle finger.

Chapter 89: Tsunayoshiro is really brave!

An invisible shockwave struck the willow tree with lightning speed, and the slender willow branches were all stretched straight back as if blown by a strong wind. Half a second later, a large crater appeared out of nowhere in the courtyard wall behind the willow tree, followed by the sound of something falling to the ground.

This is probably a super-weakened version of the "Demon Bullet" that would later knock Aizen away.

Yixin stepped forward first and kicked the spot where the sound came from.

His steps stopped in the empty space, so he frowned, reached down and pulled.

With the sound of the fabric rustling, a middle-aged man dressed as a commoner appeared on the ground, while Yixin's half-hand "disappeared".

What is that? An invisibility cloak?

Isshin and Mima exchanged a glance and shook their heads simultaneously.

They had no recollection of this man.

So he grabbed the middle-aged man, whose mouth was bleeding, by the collar, pulled him up, shook him a few times, and asked in a deep voice with a frown, "Who are you? Who sent you? What are you doing here?"

"Cough...cough..."

Having been seriously injured by the demon bullet earlier, the middle-aged man vomited several mouthfuls of blood, then glanced back and forth between Isshin and Mima with somewhat unfocused eyes.

"So you... had already noticed all along..."

"Stop talking nonsense, answer my questions!" Yixin raised his fist and said, "You'd better tell the truth, or I'll hand you over to the criminal police for interrogation."

"Heh...heh, Xing Jun?"

The middle-aged man laughed twice in a voice as weak as a leaky bellows, and a hint of pity appeared in his eyes as he looked at Mima and Isshin?

"You... cough... hehe, you don't understand anything." He laughed sarcastically, "Do you still think everything you know is reliable? You're so naive it makes me want to vomit."

The riddle-maker's aura made Mima somewhat annoyed.

"Stop spouting this nonsense. Just say what I'm told," Mi Zhen said coldly. "In our hands, you might still have a chance to go to jail, but once you get to the Criminal Investigation Department, you won't even be left with a single piece of your flesh."

"Ha...you think...I'm afraid of something like this?"

The middle-aged man glanced at the two of them with an almost contemptuous look: "Dream on, you lot..."

The sentence was not finished.

The next second, he closed his mouth, and a muffled sound of breaking glass came from it.

"Oh no, it's poison!" Mi Zhen grabbed his jaw and forcefully pried his mouth open.

But it was too late. No one knew what this guy had hidden in his mouth, something even more potent than aqua regia and hydrofluoric acid. As soon as Mi Zhen pried open his mouth, she smelled the stench of burning flesh. The smell traveled down his neck, and within seconds, the middle-aged man burst into flames, radiating heat. A dozen seconds later, he was reduced to a blackened skeleton.

"..."

"..."

Mizhen poked the corpse's chest with the scabbard of the Flowing Moon, and a large section of it immediately collapsed.

Isshin and Mima exchanged a glance, their expressions turning serious.

"Watanabe, can you track down the others who escaped?"

“It is possible, but in this situation…” Mima blew the black ash off the scabbard, “Even if we catch up, it probably won’t be of much use.”