The Supreme Soul, Starting with Death

Could this guy have been pretending to be me all along?

Secretly on high alert, Gu Shi outwardly pretended to be oblivious, letting out bursts of laughter.

"Haha, is that what you think? I thought that as long as I ate people, you could have a legitimate reason to arrest me and lock me up in a lab for research."

Although the Death Girl had never heard of the term "laboratory" before, it wasn't difficult for her to guess its meaning from the literal meaning and Gu Shi's context. She easily understood Gu Shi's meaning and was secretly delighted.

The fact that she could casually mention things she didn't even know further proved that Gu Shi's memories before his demise were well preserved, which matched her guess. The death goddess's desire to have Gu Shi intensified.

However, although she was happy, as a noblewoman, she had long since honed her acting skills to the peak by spending her childhood interacting with her peers and elders from other families. No matter how crazy she secretly was, in the eyes of other nobles, she was still a standard sickly young lady, a harmless Yamato Nadeshiko.

The act of communicating with others while wearing a mask has long been ingrained in our very being.

Therefore, although her heart was filled with intense longing, all that could be seen on the face of the Death Girl was seriousness and worry. She squeezed Gu Shi's big head between her hands and stared into his eyes with utmost seriousness.

"Of course I won't hurt you, but, big guy, other Grim Reapers aren't as easy to talk to as I am. If you can't become stronger soon, and you encounter a Grim Reaper willing to capture you, I can still find a way to get your family to rescue you."

"But what if you encounter an idiot who can't see anything special about you? You know, most of the Grim Reapers are idiots who only have muscles and no brains. Those idiots will definitely kill you without hesitation, and then you'll really be finished."

The Grim Reaper Girl acted seriously, but Gu Shi was no worse. Although he might be at a disadvantage in terms of acting skills, as a Hollow, his face was completely covered by a bone mask, so no one could see any changes in his expression. In terms of acting, this was a natural advantage. As long as his voice and eyes were on point, it didn't matter if his facial expressions were a little off.

"Well... alright, you're right, thank you for thinking of me. However, I still don't want to eat people. Anyway, eating voids can also accumulate spiritual power, so I'll go find a void instead."

Shaking his head vigorously to break free from the clutches of the Death Girl, Gu Shi looked around, randomly chose a direction devoid of human activity, and immediately sprang into action.

"Let's go! Erlang, hurry up and keep up with me, let's see who finds Xu's whereabouts first!"

The death girl, left standing there, narrowed her eyes, her right hand instinctively resting on the Zanpakuto at her waist. She then immediately let go, a strangely cheerful smile appearing on her deathly pale face. She caught up with Gu Shi with Shunpo and playfully tapped him on the head.

"Honestly, big guy, all you know is how to play these little tricks. Don't worry, although I still don't agree with your idea of ​​not eating people, I don't want to force you to do something you hate. Let's go hunt Void. Anyway, the spiritual energy content in a Void's body is higher, and eating one is more profitable than eating several people."

As she spoke, the Death Girl once again naturally sat on Gu Shi's shoulder. Perhaps to fully demonstrate her closeness to Gu Shi, she even turned to the side and leaned against Gu Shi's large head, which was covered in bone armor and was not comfortable at all.

Gu Shi glanced at this combination of madman and liar, said nothing, and continued running casually, neither deliberately running smoothly to make the other person more comfortable, nor intentionally jolting her with the bone armor on her head.

Playing dirty tricks now is pointless except for making the other party feel slightly uncomfortable. It's better to act gently, slowly lower their guard, and then, when you have the strength, bite off their head in one swift motion.

The Death Girl was somewhat surprised to find that Gu Shi's running rhythm had not changed.

When the big guy ran up earlier, he had called out to the dog but deliberately ignored her. She thought the big guy was still hostile towards her, so when she decided to lean on his big head, she was already prepared to be tormented.

If this big guy dares to deliberately jostle and torment her, she will immediately punish him, using force to help him figure out who is in control between them, and to warn him not to act recklessly just because he is favored by her.

Surprisingly, although the experience was still much worse than that of her well-trained mount at home, this big guy didn't specifically target her.

It seems that what I said before was quite effective.

Nodding in satisfaction, the Death Girl continued to sit comfortably on Gu Shi's shoulder, leaning against his rather uncomfortable head, gazing at the lush green mountains in the distance. Her gaze gradually drifted away as she began to consider the matter of hunting the Void.

She was well aware that the spiritual energy content of a Void body was higher than that of a human, making hunting them more profitable. However, in the real world, Voids usually acted alone, making it difficult to find large groups of Voids.

After all, Hollows not only eat people, but also other Hollows. If several Hollows get together, they will probably become an even stronger Hollow in a few days.

Therefore, if you want to find a virtual one in the real world, you're considered lucky if you encounter one every few days.

In comparison, people are much easier to find. You can easily find hundreds or thousands of souls in any village or small town.

As long as she follows the patrol map specially issued to her by Soul Society when she was stationed in the human world, and sweeps through village by village, it won't be long before she can build up the strength of the big guy's spirit body.

Moreover, the downsides of searching for Hollows are not just wasting time. If you're unlucky, you might encounter danger and run into a powerful Hollow.

At that time, she will probably have to personally cover the big guy's escape, risking injury to prevent him from being eaten by other Void creatures.

[It's a pity that if the big guy wasn't so valuable that I had to completely cut off any possibility of my family getting intelligence, I wouldn't have needed to kill the guards so early. If we encountered danger later, I could have thrown the guards out to cover our retreat.]

Chapter Eighteen: I Want to Open a Zoo!

"Wow, wang wang!"

Erlang's barking came from afar, followed by a ferocious howl from the other end of the hill. Gu Shi and the Death Girl's expressions changed, and they both became alert.

The Hollow's howl is so distinctive; that hollow sound, seemingly with its own reverberation, is so unique that once you hear it, you'll never mistake it again.

Sure enough, after the howl, a chaotic and frenzied spiritual pressure rose up. Without thinking, Gu Shi immediately rushed towards the direction from which the spiritual pressure was coming from.

Erlang had clearly spotted the monstrous creature; if he didn't hurry over, Erlang would probably be eaten.

The Shinigami girl, still sitting on Gu Shi's shoulder, relaxed again after feeling the spiritual pressure. She could easily deal with this kind of power even without her Zanpakuto, so there was no need to be nervous.

Soon, in the blink of an eye, Gu Shi had already rushed over the hill and seen the howling figure.

It must be said that Hollows are indeed a very magical life form. Although all Hollows are transformed from humans, almost none of them grow into human form; they are all various kinds of birds and beasts.

The illusion that appeared before Gu Shi at this moment was no exception.

It stands on all fours with its back bulging high. Its entire body is covered by a single, huge white bony shell. Although its head looks like a hairy turtle's head, it also has a small plate of shell covering its forehead. The small tail that trails behind it has more than a dozen sharp spikes.

Upon seeing the illusory honor, Gu Shi was momentarily stunned before quickly continuing his charge. He managed to pull Erlang, who had been overwhelmed by spiritual pressure, back to safety. Only after confirming that Erlang was unharmed did he finally voice the complaint he had been holding back.

"What the heck? It's a glyptodon? Will I run into a Tyrannosaurus Rex next time?"

It's no wonder Gu Shi couldn't help but complain. This Hollow's appearance, apart from its pure white bone armor and the mask that all Hollows have, was exactly like the long-extinct ancient mammal, the Glyptodon.

Although armadillos also have carapaces on their backs, the carapaces on their backs are segmented, and their tails do not have spikes. This one-piece carapace and long spiked tail make them look exactly like glyptodonts.

The problem is that glyptodonts have been extinct for almost 10,000 years, and they lived in South America before they went extinct. So why did the humans who transformed into humans look like glyptodonts?

"A glyptodon? What's that? Isn't that a tortoise?"

The Death Girl also heard Gu Shi's complaint, glanced at the Hollow, and raised her eyebrows in confusion.

"What nonsense are you talking about! It may look a lot like a turtle, but have you ever seen a turtle with a shell on its head and spikes on its tail? This is clearly a glyptodon!"

Gu Shi casually retorted to the Death Girl, but his mood unconsciously rose.

Although the reason is still unknown, if the forms a person takes after becoming Hollow include those of extinct life forms, could he expect to encounter Tyrannosaurus Rex Hollow, Sabertooth Hollow, Megalodon Hollow, and Purussaurus Hollow in the future?

By the way, it would be even better if we could see Deng's Fish!

What should I do? I suddenly have the urge to open a zoo in Hueco Mundo!

The Death Girl couldn't understand Gu Shi's excitement at all. She glanced at Gu Shi, who was breathing heavily with excitement, and then stood up. She used Shunpo to lightly retreat to the side. As she left, she also grabbed Jiro by the neck and took the big black dog with her.

The next second, the frenzied Glyptodon charged in front of Gu Shi, its sharp claws leaving four huge wounds on his chest, while its gaping maw snapped straight at his neck.

Gu Shi instinctively dodged, and although he luckily avoided the attack on his neck, a chunk of flesh was bitten off his right shoulder by the large mouth of the Glyptodont.

The Death Girl, who had already settled down on a treetop, then released the binding spell she was about to unleash and replaced it with a healing spell to stop the bleeding from Gu Shi's wound.

"Big guy, it's a good thing that you can retain your memories from your previous life after you become ethereal. But correspondingly, this also means that your behavior patterns still retain a lot of habits from when you were human, such as walking upright."

"In close-quarters combat without using weapons to extend the attack range, standing upright and exposing your vulnerable chest and abdomen is actually an extremely dangerous act. If that monstrous claw had moved down a little more, your intestines would definitely have spilled out by now."

"Furthermore, while you suppressed your cannibalistic impulses and prevented your rationality from being influenced by the Hollow's instincts, you probably also suppressed the Hollow's innate fighting instincts."

"This means that when others become Hollowfied, they immediately possess considerable combat power. Although they may not have combat skills, they at least know how to fight under the guidance of instinct. But you, you probably didn't experience many battles in your previous life, right? Without the combat instinct of a Hollow, do you even know how to kill your opponent?"

While awkwardly dodging the frenzied attacks of the Geartooth Beast Void, Gu Shi listened to the Death Girl's long-winded speech. He couldn't help but smile bitterly to himself. Let alone combat experience, his fighting experience was limited to what he had experienced before the second year of elementary school, when he swung his fists wildly at other children.

Ever since he broke the neighbor's kid's head in second grade, whenever he got into a fight, no matter who started it, his dad would beat him up severely. In less than a year, his dad helped him completely kick his fighting addiction. From third grade until he graduated from university, the number of fights he had was less than five fingers' worth.

Just as he was bitterly smiling to himself, Gu Shi felt a sharp pain in his left arm as the eagle-toothed beast had clawed out four more bloody wounds.

[Tsk, at this rate, forget about hunting Void Spirits, I'm afraid I'll be hunted by them first.]

After the Death Girl pointed out his problem and then fell silent, Gu Shi knew what she was waiting for. He hesitated for a moment, but after the Carved Tooth Beast roared again, he decisively shouted.

"I really don't know how to fight! Please help me! Teach me fighting techniques!"

As he shouted, Gu Shi silently comforted himself, thinking, "There's no shame in asking the enemy for help. Using the combat techniques they taught me to kill them would definitely be quite interesting!"

The death girl sitting on the treetop nodded in satisfaction, gave Jiro's fluffy head a good rub, and then raised her voice with a smile.

"You asked me to instruct you on combat techniques, not to help you kill that Hollow. At least in terms of fighting spirit, you've already met the standard! Now! Get down! I've already told you the chest and abdomen are weak points, what are you still standing there for!?"

"Teacher! I'm not used to walking on all fours. I'm afraid that if I lie down, my front foot will trip over my back foot and give me away!"

"Stop nagging! Just lie down when I tell you to. I'll tell you what to do next!"

"Yes, sir! Teacher, I'm lying down!"

"Don't hold your head up so high after you lie down. Are you craning your neck to let your opponent bite your throat?! Lower your head!"

"Teacher! My field of vision is so low after I lie down! The area I can see is so much smaller! I feel anxious if I don't look up!"

"Stop talking nonsense! Get used to this view. With me here to treat you, you're not going to die, are you?! What's the panic! Bite its belly boldly! This turtle's shell is so thick, it has no other weak points except its belly!"

"Yes, sir! But teacher isn't a tortoise! ​​He's a glyptodon!"

"Alright, alright! A glyptodon is fine! Now bite him!"

Chapter Nineteen: From Today Onwards, I'm a Comedian

"Haha, I'm exhausted, but this feeling is really exhilarating, I feel like I'm getting addicted!"

Gu Shi was completely unrefined, lying sprawled on the ground with the carousel beast's corpse lying around him, its body torn to pieces, yet he couldn't help but let out intermittent, hearty laughter.

Although the battle was arduous, and I almost lost my life several times if it weren't for the Grim Reaper girl's healing, it must be said that this close-quarters combat really stimulated my primal instinct for violence.

The experience of being able to clearly feel the opponent's roar and the scorching air from their breath hitting your body was more mesmerizing than the most thrilling roller coaster. The intense sense of "being alive" made Gu Shi savor the moment the battle ended and secretly look forward to the next one.

The Death Girl sat on the treetop, looking at Gu Shi, who, despite her guidance, still ended up injured, with a hint of disdain on her face.

"Feeling good? Big guy, let me remind you, the Void's instinct isn't just about cannibalism; its endless pursuit of violence is also part of it."

Gu Shi was startled upon hearing this. He quickly checked his mental state and confirmed that his enjoyment of the battle was indeed from his own heart, rather than being influenced by some illusory instinct. Only then did he relax and enjoy the brief moment of tranquility.

A moment later, without anyone urging him, Gu Shi felt that his strength had almost recovered, so he sat up on his own, grabbed one of the thighs of the eagle-toothed beast Xu beside him, hesitated for a moment, and then put it directly into his mouth.

Although he felt it would be better to roast it over a fire and cook it before eating, Gu Shi knew in his heart that his refusal to eat people had already greatly slowed down his growth. If he were to have a lot of rules when eating people, then he would really be underestimating this dangerous world.

In Gu Shi's self-made plan, he will definitely go to Hueco Mundo in the future, because only there are enough Hollows for him to devour and become stronger.

Hueco Mundo, a dangerous environment teeming with Hollows, might be a backyard for powerful Arrancar in the manga, where they could wander around for days without encountering a single threatening opponent. However, for a Hollow of his strength, there are countless opponents of equal or even superior strength. The end of one battle could mean the immediate beginning of another.

After a fierce battle, getting enough rest is a luxury. You must devour your prey as soon as possible to quickly replenish your spiritual energy and recover your condition in order to avoid being hunted down by your opponent due to lack of stamina in the next battle. There is no time to roast meat.

Therefore, before heading to Hueco Mundo, you must fully adapt to the eating habits of lower-level Hollows. For example, eat your prey as quickly as possible, or even go further and find opportunities to devour your opponent's body while fighting, so that you can finish eating by the end of the battle and minimize the post-battle recovery time.

Having come up with a whole bunch of reasons to convince himself, Gu Shi chewed up the thigh of the eagle-toothed beast and swallowed the "flesh and bone fragments" full of spiritual power.

It must be said that during the battle, although Gu Shi was limited by his physical structure and could only use his claws and teeth as weapons, and he tore and bit his opponents quite a few times, the process of eating after the battle was quite different from the feeling of tearing and biting during the battle.

Gu Shi tried to ignore the psychological gap and forced herself to eat faster.