Death God: Starting from Refining Essence into Qi

Even though Chamber 46 had Death acting as its messenger, its efficiency was still quite low. A full month had passed by the time Xuan received the reply.

Xuan sat alone in the office, looking at the document bearing the sealing wax seal of the 46th Chamber three times over.

He agreed that the Ghost Path Clan would be directly under the Forty-Sixth Chamber, maintaining its independent organizational structure and being on par with the Security Team. These were almost all the conditions he had mentioned in his previous letter. The Forty-Sixth Chamber answered readily, so readily that it aroused some suspicion.

Until my gaze fell upon the attached document at the end of the letter.

"Saito Hōsō, the deputy of the Great Kidō Master Shihōin Genji and a graduate of the 1034th class of the Genji Academy, is hereby assigned to the Security Brigade and appointed as the captain representing the five noble families."

Xuan stared at that line of text for a long time.

"Saito is immortal...representing the five noble families"?

His fingertips unconsciously traced the rough texture of the paper at the edge of the document, and all the fragmented clues suddenly pieced together in his mind—the flamboyant and unrestrained purple-haired girl he met for the first time, the companion who complained about the cumbersome and rigid rules of the nobility, and the comrade-in-arms who was full of resentment and wanted to stand up for him when he returned seriously injured.

Saito is immortal.

The vine is a type of tree. It is immortal and does not age or die, thus it is considered immortal.

Immortal wood, rebellious rotten wood.

The two characters “朽木” can be broken down and rearranged to form a defiant self-introduction.

He put down the documents, pushed open the door, and went out.

Saito was squatting on the plum blossom stakes in the training ground, practicing footwork according to the method Xuan had given her. Seeing Xuan approaching, she jumped down from the stakes and raised her chin: "What, you're not practicing at a time like this?"

"The reply from Room 46 has arrived." Xuan handed her the document.

Saito took the book and skimmed through the first half, reading ten lines at a glance, until she reached the end. She closed the book and casually placed it on a nearby wooden post.

"You belong to the Kuchiki family." Gen's tone was not questioning, but simply stating a fact.

"Yeah. It's just that I don't like that style." Saito reached out and tugged at the eyepatch over his left eye. "To me, Kuchiki is like layers upon layers of cloth wrapped around my body. You have to pick up your chopsticks before your bowl, speak softly, and walk without making a sound. Even drawing your sword has to be done with a specific stance—you have to get into position before you can even slash a Hollow. Do you think a Hollow will wait for you to get into position before it eats you?"

As she spoke, her voice unconsciously rose, then suddenly fell back as if she had remembered something.

"So I simply changed my name. Saito—vine is wood, and immortality is eternal. I am the 'immortal wood,' not the 'rotten wood' of their outdated rules."

Xuan paused for a moment, then said, "You said before that you ran away from your wedding."

"Yes." Saito readily admitted, kicking at the pebbles at his feet. "My father arranged a marriage for me when I was twelve. I really don't know what he was thinking. He didn't dare tell me which family's young master the other party was—he was afraid that if I found out, he would sneak off and kill him in the middle of the night."

Xuan's eye twitched slightly.

"He said, 'This is for the family,' and I said, 'Then you should marry him yourself and exceed the quota.'" Saito shrugged. "The next day I packed my things and went to Genji Juku."

She suddenly turned around, facing Xuan directly. The two were less than three steps apart. Spring sunlight filtered through the canopy of trees beside the training ground, casting dappled patterns of light on her face. Her one exposed purple eye suddenly narrowed.

"Wait a minute," she said.

Xuan remained silent.

"You said before that you also ran away from your arranged marriage. You were originally a member of a branch family of the Shihouin family, but your fiancé wasn't some minor nobleman; your fiancé was—"

Her speech slowed down, and each word seemed to be squeezed out from between her teeth.

"I?"

A gust of wind blew by the training field, and a few leaves swirled and fell to the ground between the two men.

Xuan did not answer. However, now that their relationship had been made clear, Xuan, who had devoted himself to cultivation in his previous life, still couldn't help but blush slightly at the tips of his ears.

This absurd feeling of being forcibly bound together by fate left him even more helpless than facing Unohana's cold blade. His silence itself was the clearest answer.

Saito opened his mouth, then closed it again. He raised his hand as if to point at him, paused for two seconds in mid-air, and then slapped his forehead hard, making a crisp sound.

"Damn it," she muttered under her breath, looking up at the sky and taking a deep breath. "What kind of third-rate story is this? Even picture books wouldn't dare to write something like this! Two engaged people get together and then run away from their wedding?"

After saying that, she suddenly bent over and burst into laughter. The laughter was so unrestrained that it startled several crows in the distant treetops, which then scattered in a flurry.

She straightened up, lifted the samurai hakama under her shihaka, and patted her fair thighs: "You're something else! Your fiancé is the heiress of the Kuchiki family, yet you're even more eager than me! It's not too late to come and cling to her coattails."

"My reason for running away has nothing to do with the difference in status," Xuan said, waving his hand dismissively. "I ran away because I didn't want my fate to be arranged by others, to face a future where I could see the end from the beginning."

"I know, I know." Saito put down his samurai hakama and laughed so hard he could barely breathe. "What does this mean? It means we're kindred spirits at heart—we both can't stand being led by the nose, and we both despise those outdated rules of the aristocracy."

She reached out and hooked her arm around Xuan's neck, pulling him half a step closer to her. Her purple twin ponytails swayed and brushed against his shoulder. She brought her face closer, her tongue darting out from the corner of her mouth, her teeth gently biting down.

"Oh dear, so I almost married you? Creditor? Since we're so destined to meet, why don't you forgive the debt?"

Her voice was filled with barely suppressed laughter, and her warm breath brushed against his ear.

"How about we celebrate—celebrate our successful escape from the shackles of fate?"

Xuan tilted his head to avoid the hot breath that was hitting his ears, and picked up the letter that was placed on the plum blossom stake: "Did you read it carefully? The letter said that the condition is that you join the security team as the captain."

"Huh?" Saito's smile faltered for a moment.

Xuan picked up the document tucked between the letters from the wooden stake and pointed to the line of text, saying, "The conditions proposed by the Kuchiki family. They want you to join the security force on behalf of the five great noble families."

Saito released his arm from around Saito's neck, took the document, and read it again. The smile was still on his lips, but his eyes held a hint of amusement and cynicism.

"Those old guys are shrewd enough to calculate anything." She scoffed, tapping her eye patch with the document tube. "To put it bluntly, the current security team is just a bunch of killing laborers. Yamamoto's men are all ruthless and desperate criminals. The Kuchiki family doesn't want to be too close to this bloodthirsty group openly, so they pushed me out."

She paused, her tone tinged with sarcasm: "Besides, they've calculated everything perfectly. Of the five noble families, only I, the runaway heiress of Kuchiki, am the most suitable—I have the title of a noble, which gives me the right to represent all the nobles in checking and balancing Yamamoto; and I'm completely estranged from the main family, so I would never favor the Kuchiki clan. Throwing me in as a laborer is a win-win situation—I can get things done, and they can keep it out of sight of me."

"What are your thoughts? We chose to leave back then, so we can refuse this document now."

"Refuse to do what?" Saito rolled the document into a tube and put it away. "The most troublesome and murderous person in the security team is Unohana Yachiru. I still remember how she seriously injured you last time."

Before Xuan could say anything, Saito reached out and lightly touched his lips with his finger, silencing him before he could speak.

"Don't try to persuade me. I know I can't beat her now, but at least I'm already at the third level of spiritual power." She withdrew her hand. "Once I'm in the security team, at least I can openly keep an eye on her. Let's see just how strong that madwoman who killed tens of thousands of people really is."

When she spoke, her tone was no longer as casual and arrogant as usual. The light in her purple eyes darkened, like a bottomless pool of water, concealing an unquenchable fighting spirit and anger.

Gen looked at her and recalled the time four years ago when he was covered in blood and brought back to the Yorozuya by Namizuki. Saito rushed into the yard, clenched her fists, and gritted her teeth as she said, "The family is really useless. They can't even control this kind of madman who kills people everywhere."

At that time, she was angry not only at Unohana for indiscriminately killing innocent people, but also at her own powerlessness, which stemmed from being bound by her family from birth.

"If you've made up your mind, then go." Xuan said in a deep voice.

Saito blinked, the murderous aura that had just subsided instantly vanishing, replaced by her usual nonchalant and carefree expression. She reached out and patted Gen's shoulder twice, the force direct and frank.

"That's more like it. Our relationship—we're still best of friends. As for the engagement, let's just pretend it never happened."

She stuck out her tongue and smiled, her eyes crinkling. Sunlight streamed down from behind her, casting a pale golden halo over her purple hair, bright and dazzling.

Xuan suddenly remembered the day of the thousand-day wedding.

As Gen and Saito walked through the corridors of the Shihōin clan compound, Senji saw the two walking side by side from afar, and an inscrutable smile appeared on his face—it seemed that it wasn't just because it was his wedding day.

The two countries may never have sent anyone to hunt them down.

Because of the significant gap in skill between the two students at Yuanzi Academy and others, they frequently competed in various aspects, gradually becoming more familiar with each other than with others.

Perhaps the two chose to flee the Seireitei together in order to escape their arranged marriage. In the eyes of the Kuchiki and Shihouin families, this move was simply two people who resisted the complicated marriage procedures of the nobility and decided to elope together.

Whatever their reasons for leaving, their departure is a fact. The two families, who had already reached a cooperation agreement, have already achieved their stated goals. There's no need to make a big fuss; let's just pretend nothing happened.

Most members of the Kuchiki family disliked the unruly Saito, and the Shihouin family didn't care about an insignificant branch family member. The departure of a branch family member wouldn't shake the family's foundation, and it would even do the Kuchiki family a favor.

Ostensibly stripping Gen of his surname and having Saito use an alias, perhaps it was also a convenient arrangement by the Shihōin family.

"That's really hasty," Xuan said softly.

"What?" Saito didn't hear Gen's sudden words clearly and turned his head with a look of confusion in his eyes.

"Brother Qianri should have known all along that you are the daughter of the Kuchiki family. During the days of the wedding, the expression on his face when he saw the two of us standing together—" Xuan paused, still finding it difficult to say the word "elope" directly, "He probably thought that the two of us ran away from the wedding together."

Saito paused for a moment, then laughed even more unrestrainedly, her eyes glistening with tiny tears. As she wiped her eyes, she complained, "No wonder you kept staring at us the other day. I thought it was because I had some rice on my face or something."

She suppressed her smile, her expression unusually serious: "Speaking of which—with this incident, the engagement is completely null and void."

Xuan nodded. With both families' children having defected, the families tacitly handled the situation by keeping quiet. Now, the Kuchiki family has sent Saito into the security team, and the Shihōin family has already expelled him. This absurd and childish marriage has completely vanished without a trace.

"Alright." Saito stretched lazily, put his hands behind his head, and said in a relaxed and casual tone, "If I really got married under the supervision of my family, I would have to go through all those formalities every day. Just thinking about it makes me itchy and uncomfortable."

She took two steps forward, then suddenly turned around, raising the corners of her mouth against the dazzling sunlight.

"Isn't it pretty exciting as it is now? When we fight, we have a partner with our backs to the other person, and we can also spar freely in our daily lives."

The wind rustled through the treetops by the training field, blowing her loose purple hair.

Xuan watched her retreating figure, a warmth rising in his eyes. Their relationship was more like that of close friends, a simple bond of friendship. The marriage arrangement, entangled with family interests and unknown to either of them, was merely a joke they used to tease each other.

It was just a clumsy joke played by fate, bringing together two souls who both yearned for freedom and loathed constraints at the Yuanzi Academy, where they became companions.

But... some things can't just be left like that.

Xuan reached into his sleeve and pulled out a palm-sized leather notebook.

He opened the notebook and said, "Since the establishment of the Odd Jobs Shop in the 20th District of the West, you have taken 372 medicinal baths, each worth 50 points; consumed 1,146 servings of high-concentration special spiritual food, each worth 20 points; and damaged 17 wooden dummy dummies and 12 training wooden swords, with repair costs totaling 2,300 points..."

Saito's steps abruptly halted, frozen in place as if struck by lightning. She slowly turned around, her bright smile gradually freezing, her purple eyes widening in disbelief: "You—you actually kept accounts?!"

"Even close brothers should keep clear accounts." Xuan closed the notebook and prepared to put it back in his sleeve.

Actually, that notebook was used to record cultivation inspirations, but it had been tricked by Saito before, and the petty Gen was looking for an opportunity to get revenge, otherwise his Dao heart would not be clear.

Xuan continued, "Now that you're going to be the captain of the security team, you should start paying back the loan when you get your salary. Don't worry, you can pay it back in installments, and there's no interest."

"Damn it!" Saito rushed over, snatched the notebook, and flipped through a couple of pages. He found it filled with densely packed deductions and inspirations about the Kido, which he couldn't understand at all.

She immediately realized she had been tricked by the usually meticulous and serious Xuan, and her cheeks puffed out in anger. She gripped the hilt of her sword and lunged at Xuan, shouting, "How dare you trick me!"

Gen watched Saito's boisterous behavior, as if he was trying to alleviate the somewhat awkward atmosphere.

For a moment, Xuan's tension and anxiety about the current situation and the future war were somewhat alleviated.