Death God: Starting from Refining Essence into Qi

Before the morning mist had dissipated, the martial arts training ground of Yuanzi Academy was already packed with people.

The 32 freshmen of the 1034th class stood in a line, with Gen in the front row, a dagger slung at his waist. Saito, who was neither old nor dead, was winking at him, as if to say, "You have to fight this time, whether you like it or not."

Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni stood at the front of the procession, with Chojiro Sasaki behind him. He looked at the crowd and said:

"Congratulations on spending a year at the Yuanzi Academy. I hope you have gained a lot. Students who are not yet proficient in asana, please come forward to collect your work. This is temporarily lent out by the Yuanzi Academy. If you fail to master the initial interpretation before graduation, you will need to return it."

Today's live-fire exercise: all participants will be wearing asanas. The location is Mount Koibushi in the northern part of the West Third District of Rukongai. The thirty participants will be divided into two groups; the first group to destroy the opposing team's flag will win.

His gaze shifted to Genwa and Saito.

"Shihouin Gen, Saito Immortal."

The two looked up at the same time.

"Your strength far surpasses that of your peers. As the leaders of your respective groups, stay by your respective flags and do not take the initiative to attack."

Saito grinned: "Chief Instructor, if everyone else fails, can we take the initiative?"

Yamamoto said coldly, "Make your own judgment. Once you're ready, lead your team out and arrive at the designated location before noon to begin the exercise."

There were still several hours left, plenty of time. Xuan thought that this arrangement was probably to simulate a situation where they were attacked after a long journey and their physical strength was somewhat depleted.

Along the way, the other trainees were relatively relaxed. Some were excitedly stroking the light weapons they had just received, while others were discussing their combat strategies for the upcoming exercise. However, Xuan remained vigilant.

There are also exceptionally powerful thugs in Rukongai. They may possess strength surpassing that of ordinary Shinigami, but they prefer to rely on force to commit evil or simply do not want to be supervised.

Fortunately, no accidents occurred along the way. After everyone arrived at Mount Koibukuro, the two groups of trainees separated by about twenty feet for a short rest before officially beginning their combat exercise.

Xuan guarded his own flag, watching as the students in the distance finally began to fight.

Just then—

Several violent spiritual pressures suddenly appeared in the forest, which had been peaceful in terms of spiritual pressure perception.

Xuan shouted in a stern voice:

"Everyone stop! Be on alert!"

Before the words were finished, a low roar came from the depths of the woods.

Three phantoms charged out from different directions!

Shaped like jackals, nearly five meters long, their scarlet eyes beneath bone masks gleamed with bloodlust. They pounced on the nearest trainees, their claws kicking up clouds of dust.

"It's all an illusion! It's all an illusion!"

"How did Hollow end up here?!"

The trainees instantly erupted in chaos, with several timid ones turning tail and running away. The other trainees trembled as they faced the two monstrous claws, their raised swords barely managing to block the incoming claws before being slammed away by the immense force and crashing into a tree trunk not far away.

It wasn't because the students of the Yuanzi Academy were too weak, but because these were medium-sized Void beings. Their size and spiritual pressure created an overwhelming sense of oppression that these ordinary students, whose spiritual power was barely at the twentieth level, were indeed unable to withstand.

But Saito had already made her move; in a flash of light, she severed the forepaw of one of the Hollows. The other two Hollows immediately abandoned the ordinary students and surrounded Saito, attacking her from both sides.

Although Saito's spiritual pressure was clearly higher than that of the Hollow, he was unable to escape quickly under the combined attack of two and a half medium-sized Hollows.

Gen had just gathered everyone together to prevent the students from being attacked by Hollows if they became separated. At this moment, seeing the Hollows shift their target to attack Saito, he drew his Zanpakuto, preparing to join the fight.

Just then, Xuan's head suddenly went dark.

He suddenly looked up—

A gigantic spider-shaped Hollow fell from the treetop!

Standing over five meters tall, its eight long legs pierced the ground like spears, and its torso was covered by a grayish-white bony carapace.

At this moment, it no longer concealed its aura, and the spiritual pressure unique to large Hollows pressed down as if it were a physical entity!

If he were facing a Great Hollow, he would have to temporarily avoid the fray, as that was beyond the capabilities of an ordinary officer-level expert; but dealing with a Large Hollow, which was one level below a Great Hollow, was more than enough.

In contrast, the other trainees are relatively weak. If the Spider Void is allowed to charge in and fight in the crowd, the aftershocks could cause casualties.

Xuan made a decisive move and instantly rushed towards the Spider Void.

But his Instant Step was abruptly halted—Xuan seemed to have stumbled into a giant web, a sticky sensation washing over him. He immediately channeled his spiritual energy to try and shake it off, but the spiderweb was extremely resilient, seemingly able to absorb the surrounding spiritual energy. Perhaps it was this ability that prevented the transparent spiderweb from being detected by spiritual energy.

"Damn it, Adjuchas's Hollows can even set traps."

The spider's abdomen suddenly contracted, creating a transparent ripple in the air before falling towards the crowd.

Several trainees were immediately stuck to the ground by the spider silk, unable to exert any strength or move. They struggled in terror, but were only entangled tighter.

The spider bypassed Xuan and crawled toward the bound students. Saliva dripped from its mouthparts and fell to the ground, clearly indicating its intention to deal with the other students first and save Xuan, who had the best spiritual energy, for last.

"Help! Help me!"

As the spider approached, a heart-wrenching scream ripped out.

Xuan tried to push aside the spider web through a layer of spiritual energy, but after pushing aside one layer, he found there were still several layers left. The progress was too slow and there was no time to spare.

Instant Step? With his feet entangled in spider silk, he had no foothold and couldn't use it.

Transform into a beast? With reduced power, it becomes even harder to break free of the restraints.

Zanpakuto? Gen tried to thrust out his Zanpakuto. Although the blade pierced through the spider web, it lacked a foothold, and Gen still couldn't escape.

To save lives, there is only one option left—

The Way of the Ghosts.

It can hit the Spider Void remotely, briefly bind it, and then take the opportunity to kill it.

However, the Ghost Path has not yet been revealed. Once used, it will inevitably be exposed and may affect the user in the future.

Genben intended to conceal the power and value of the Demonic Path as much as possible until he possessed sufficient strength to protect himself, but now—

Those two trainees are about to die.

Saito was entangled by the three-headed gnome and, although he had the upper hand, he was unable to come to his aid in the short term.

The spiritual pressure fluctuations of the Hollows on the battlefield were significant, but it was difficult to expect any Shinigami to arrive from nearby. After all, there were three medium-sized Hollows and one large Hollow; for an ordinary Shinigami to come alone would be suicide.

Xuan closed his eyes.

The voice of my master from my past life echoed in my heart: "The Way is simply following one's heart."

A heart that is closer to universal morality is cultivating immortality; the opposite is cultivating demonic power.

Xuan didn't consider himself a good person, but he didn't want to be able to take action but instead watch helplessly as his fellow human beings were slaughtered.

If one stands by and does not help those in distress, what is the point of cultivating this path?

When I opened my eyes again, there was no more hesitation in my eyes or in my heart.

An idea took shape in my mind—

Let’s start with the solution.

Then use the Ghost Path.

This led everyone to believe that the Kido technique was the power of Shikai.

Kido had not yet appeared in this era, and any unconventional abilities would be categorized as the release of Zanpakuto.

As for Shikai, Gen had already mastered it. After all, he had long since acquired Asauchi, which he used daily, nurturing it with Daoist secret techniques during training. There was no reason why others could learn Bankai in three months while he couldn't achieve Shikai even after several years.

He had only performed Shikai once in private before, and it was because of that one time that he knew that Shikai would intensify the tearing sensation deep within his soul.

However, as long as he strictly controls the duration, he can maintain the Shikai state for a short time and use the name of Zanpakuto release to cover up the power of Kido. Others will only attribute this extraordinary power to the ability brought by his Shikai.

Xuan took a deep breath, channeling his spiritual energy into the shallow sword at his waist.

The intense fluctuations in spiritual energy suddenly drew everyone's attention to Xuan's location.

"Suppress and refine the universe, Zhenyuan!"