Bleach: From the moment I was invited by Squad Zero

The land was desolate after the war.

The cold wind was still howling, but it carried a sense of desolation, as if the survivors had escaped a catastrophe.

Within a radius of several miles, the earth resembled a chessboard trampled by a giant god, covered with crisscrossing, enormous cracks and bottomless, frozen pits.

And large areas of smooth, mirror-like glass-like ground formed by being melted by high temperatures and then instantly frozen.

The air still held the turbulent flow of spiritual particles, a mixture of the embers of ice and fire, telling the story of the breathtaking battle that had just taken place.

Zhibo used the Yanyue sword to support his body and struggled to stand up, the frost covering his body falling off in a flurry.

He looked around at the apocalyptic scene with lingering fear, then glanced at the silent, fallen figure of ice in the distance, and couldn't help but exhale a long breath of white air, sighing:

"Ha...that was close! That Hyōrinmaru, as expected of someone on par with Ryūjin Jakka, almost really got himself killed."

Liu Chuan slowly sheathed Tianzhen at his waist, shook his head slightly upon hearing this, his gaze still fixed on the fallen Hyōrinmaru.

"Hyōrinmaru's power is indeed terrifyingly strong." Yanagawa's voice carried a hint of barely perceptible fatigue, but more so, the calm of an analyst.

"But the battle just now, especially the final Four Realms Freeze, its power and degree of loss of control, were probably not just a manifestation of Hyōrinmaru's own will."

"That golden energy played a key role in it, making Hyōrinmaru's power more volatile, aggressive, and unstable."

He paused, then added, "Moreover, judging from its ability to affect Hyōrinmaru's true form, it's definitely not simple."

After a brief moment of rest and once the chaotic spiritual pressure within them had subsided somewhat, the two of them stepped together, treading on the cracked frozen earth and ice crystals, toward the spot where Hyōrinmaru had fallen.

Hyōrinmaru lay there quietly, his tall body curled up, the two intersecting sword scars on his face still conspicuous, but he had lost some of his cold and majestic air and gained more weakness.

His pale purple kimono was torn in several places and stained with ice dust and dirt.

Most notably, the golden mark on his forehead had completely disappeared, leaving only a faint, light-colored mark that looked as if it had been burned by a high temperature. This mark was also slowly fading and dissipating.

As Yanagawa and Shiba Isshin approached, Hyorinmaru's tightly closed eyelids trembled slightly before slowly opening.

The violet eyes no longer held the chaos and rage they once possessed.

At this moment, although those eyes still carried the inhuman feeling unique to the manifestation of a Zanpakuto, they had regained their clarity and a deep weariness, as well as a trace of barely perceptible confusion.

He watched the two approaching silently, without speaking immediately or showing any intention to attack.

"Hyōrinmaru?" Yanagawa spoke first, his voice calm but with a hint of confirmation.

"...Hmm." Hyōrinmaru's response was very light, with a metallic, friction-like quality, but it was clearly audible.

He struggled for a moment, seemingly trying to sit up, but his body swayed and he eventually lay back down helplessly, only casting his gaze towards Liuchuan.

"Was it you... who dispelled that... power?"

"I guess so." Yanagawa crouched down to be at eye level with Hyōrinmaru. "How are you feeling now? Has that golden power completely disappeared?"

"Disappeared...or rather, completely exhausted." Hyōrinmaru closed his eyes, seemingly carefully sensing his own condition, before opening them again after a moment.

"Thanks to you all, otherwise, I'm afraid my consciousness wouldn't have been restored so quickly."

His tone carried a hint of lingering fear, as well as a touch of gratitude.

"What exactly happened?" Shiba Isshin couldn't help but interject, asking the most crucial question.

"Why did you lose control? And why are there two of you, Hitsugaya Toshiro and Kusakabe Soujiro, who awakened your powers at the same time? This completely violates the rules of Zanpakuto!"

Mentioning those two names, a complex light flashed in Hyōrinmaru's violet eyes, a mixture of approval and apology.

He was silent for a few seconds, seemingly organizing his thoughts, recalling that memory shrouded in chaos and golden light.

"The root of this matter... lies in the moment when I first awakened and responded to the call of that white-haired boy."

"A strange golden energy, as if falling from the extremely high sky, ignored all obstacles and poured directly into my body."

A look of pain crossed his face:

"That power... was incredibly domineering, carrying a higher level of rule interference force; it forcibly distorted my will."

"I see!" A look of realization flashed across Liu Chuan's eyes. It basically matched his previous guess.

The fact that Kusakabe Sojiro's "Hyorinmaru" is not the true form of his Zanpakuto, and the "twin" phenomenon, all point to the mysterious golden energy that descended from the sky!

"It really was caused by that mysterious golden power," Liu Chuan said in a deep voice, his brows slightly furrowed.

"But where does this power come from? The sky? From the highest reaches of the heavens..."

He suddenly turned to Shiba Isshin and asked:

"Captain Isshin, given the Shiba family's information channels, has anything unusual or significant happened in Soul Society recently?"

Shiba Isshin was listening intently when Yanagawa asked him a question. He paused for a moment, then stroked his chin, looking thoughtful.

As the head of a branch family of the Shiba clan, one of the five great noble families, and the captain of the 10th Division, he does indeed have access to a lot of confidential information that ordinary Shinigami and even ordinary seated officers cannot know.

"Something unusual..." he repeated to himself, his mind rapidly filtering through the various pieces of information he had recently received.

Suddenly, he seemed to remember something, his eyes widened, and he slapped his thigh.

"I remember now! A few days ago! It was the day Wang Yin was transferred!"

"The royal seal?" Liu Chuan's gaze sharpened.

"Yes! The Imperial Seal!" Shiba Isshin's expression turned serious, and he began to quickly explain the facts.

"The King's Seal is one of the oldest and most powerful divine artifacts in Soul Society, containing unimaginable power capable of rewriting local rules!"

"Its existence and location are top secret. For security reasons, the location of the royal seal is moved under strict confidentiality every few decades."

"The entire transfer process was conducted under the highest level of spiritual energy shielding and spatial containment."

He paused, looked at Yanagawa, then at the weakened Hyōrinmaru on the ground, his voice tinged with disbelief and speculation:

"A few days ago... it just so happened to be the day of the new round of royal seal transfer! Although the specific time and route are top secret, the news of the transfer itself is not completely unknown among the nobles and captains."

"If... I mean if, during the transfer, the power of the Royal Seal leaked out for some unknown reason."

"And this leaked power just happens to..." Yanagawa interjected, his gaze sharp as a knife as he looked at Hyōrinmaru.

"Having passed through layers of blockades, at an extremely coincidental point in time and space, it fell into Hyōrinmaru, the strongest ice-type Zanpakutō, which was in the critical period of awakening."

Shiba nodded vigorously, his expression extremely solemn:

"Yes! That's the only explanation! The source of that golden power is very likely the Royal Seal!"

"During the transfer of the royal seal, its power was inexplicably leaked, and Hyōrinmaru unfortunately became the recipient of this leaked power!"

At this point, all the clues were pieced together perfectly, like jigsaw puzzle pieces.

The source of the mysterious golden power was accidentally leaked during the transfer of the royal seal.

The reason Hyōrinmaru lost control was that his will was invaded and distorted by the power of the Royal Seal.

The truth about the "Twin Hyōrinmaru" has come to light.