Both start in hell: but their talents are multiplied a hundredfold.

The five of them passed through the last corridor, and the view suddenly opened up before them.

It was a nearly endless white space, with a dome so high that its boundaries were invisible, and a smooth, mirror-like ground that reflected the pale emptiness above.

In the very center of the space, a white throne rose from the ground, pure white in color, yet exuding a suffocating sense of oppression.

Yhwach sat upright on it.

His body was emaciated, and his white robe hung loosely on his body, as if a dried corpse had been forcibly dressed in fine clothes.

Yhwach rested his hands on the armrests, his knuckles protruding, his skin grayish-white, with faintly visible spiritual veins surging beneath.

But what was most unsettling was his head, a thick black mist shrouding his face, the mist churning slowly like a living thing, occasionally flashing with a few streaks of dark red light.

"You've arrived."

Yhwach's voice emerged from the mist, deep and calm, as if he had been waiting for a long time.

Shen Jue stopped and looked up at the throne. His expression changed from indifference to slight surprise, and then to a complex sense of pity.

"Yohabach," Shen Jue said, his voice not loud, but clearly echoing throughout the space.

"What have you seen, given your omniscience and omnipotence?"

The mist trembled slightly.

"I cannot see the future." Yhwach slowly raised his right hand and gently touched the air with his fingertips.

"I understand now that the power of the Spirit King has its limits."

"I'm giving up being a Quincy, Shen Jue!"

"So, you betrayed your father?" Shen Jue looked indifferent, a smile appearing on his face as he looked at the fog above Yhwach's head.

"The power of the Spirit King—omniscience and omnipotence—is the limit that this world has given you. You can see all branches of the future and rewrite all predetermined destinies."

"Omniscient and omnipotent can force the path they choose to inevitably occur from among billions of possible future paths."

"But you chose to abandon that path."

"You have chosen a power other than Shinigami, Hollows, and Quincy."

Shen Jue's voice became very strange.

"The power of hell..."

An intrigued expression appeared on Aizen's face as he looked at Yhwach as if he were examining a somewhat interesting research subject.

Yamamoto frowned, realizing for the first time how unwise his old rival had been.

Yoruichi and Halibel tilted their heads almost simultaneously, looking at Yhwach, whose head was shrouded in mist.

Yhwach let out a low laugh, a laugh that came from the depths of the mist, tinged with a hint of self-mockery and a hint of madness.

"Omniscience and omnipotence have limitations," he said quickly and urgently.

"I have glimpsed countless futures, and have explored every future path in the Three Realms, but I cannot see the truth in the depths of hell."

"That place is a blind spot that even the power of the Spirit King, Omniscience and Omnipotence, cannot reach."

He stood up.

His emaciated body stood upright before the white throne, and at that moment, the spiritual particles throughout the entire white space began to tremble.

Yhwach raised his hands, grabbed the cloud of mist above his head, and ripped it off!

"I'm quitting being a Quincy! Shen Jue!"

The fog has lifted.

His head was exposed in front of the five men.

That was no longer a complete head.

Yhwach's face was reduced to the left half; the flesh and blood of the right half had been completely eroded by some dark yellow energy, revealing a stark white skull.

The dark yellow energy was slowly seeping out from the cracks in his skull, flowing down his cheeks and dripping onto the white throne, making a hissing, corrosive sound.

"Hell Power".

Shen Jue's pupils reflected that dark yellow hue as he spoke softly.

"Yhwabach, you have sacrificed your soul to hell."

"Sacrifice?!" Yhwach laughed, his laughter echoing in the white space, carrying a kind of chilling fervor.

"No, I have made a pact with Hell. An enemy that the Omniscient and Omnipotent cannot defeat, Hell can. Power that the Spirit King cannot bear, Hell can also bear!"

He raised his right hand, and dark yellow energy condensed in his palm into a twisted longsword.

"If this continues, you'll drag yourself into hell and suffer eternal torment," Shen Jue said helplessly. "Hell is on par with the Spirit King."

"But is it really a good idea to give up being a Quincy?"

"And the sense of déjà vu is just too strong."

Yhwach is laughing hysterically!

"Shen Jue, you're right!"

"My body is being eroded by hell, my soul is being devoured by hell."

"But so what? Before I completely vanish! The power of hell is enough to drag the three realms into the abyss of hell!"

Yamamoto leaned on his sword and stepped forward, his aged face filled with solemnity.

"Yhwabach, you've gone mad."

"Crazy?" Yhwach tilted his head, a strange smile appearing on his half-undamaged face.

"Yamamoto Shigekuni, you failed to kill me a thousand years ago. A thousand years later, you still cannot."

Dark yellow energy exploded from the throne, surging towards the five like a tidal wave.

The power of this energy was not exaggerated, but it possessed a terrifying strength comparable to that of the Spirit King.

Aizen then drew his Zanpakuto, Kyoka Suigetsu, pointing it diagonally at the ground, a faint smile playing on his lips: "Hell."

He spoke eloquently, as if explaining an interesting topic in class.

"That's a place older than Soul Society, Hueco Mundo, and the Human World."

"Hell already existed before the Spirit King created balance in the three realms."

"It is the primordial chaos, one of the final destinations of the soul after the end of all things."

"The Grim Reapers send the souls of those who have committed grave sins to Hell, but that is a rule that was established later."

Aizen tilted his head slightly, his brown pupils reflecting the dark yellow light.

"The real hell is the primordial abyss that devours and assimilates everything."

"Its essence is indeed on par with that of the Spirit King."

"It could even be said that half of the Spirit King's power originated from Hell."

Yamamoto's grip on the sword tightened slightly, and a barely perceptible wavering crossed his aged face.

Aizen noticed this, and his smile deepened.

"Mr. Yamamoto, you knew all along, didn't you?"

"After all, those former Shinigami and powerful figures of Soul Society, with their high-density spiritual pressure, were all dragged into Hell and slowly decomposed..."

He didn't finish speaking, but simply raised the Mirror Flower Water Moon blade, which reflected a dark yellow light.

"Yhwach, you have made a pact with Hell and have been fully infused with its power, seemingly gaining power surpassing that of the Soul King."

"But you forgot one thing."

Aizen's tone suddenly became playful.

"Then surely the omniscient and omnipotent can see it?"

"My research on hell with Captain Shen Jue."

Dark yellow energy surged in the white space, but strangely stopped in front of the five people.

Yhwach stood motionless before the throne.

He remained in the same position as when he was laughing wildly, that eerie smile frozen on his half-undamaged face.

But his body was stiffening inch by inch.

Aizen withdrew his gaze and continued speaking.

"The reason why the power of hell cannot be perceived by the omniscient and omnipotent is that it is itself outside the causal chain of the omniscient and omnipotent."

"It is the 'end'."

"No matter what the future holds, what choices we make, or what power we wield, it will all ultimately lead to hell."

"Whether it's the Soul King, the Quincy, the Shinigami, or the Hollow."

"That's the final destination for all souls."

He paused, looking at Yhwach's half-eroded face.

"The power of hell is indeed strong, but for Captain Shen Jue..."

That's all there is to it.

"How pathetic, son of the Spirit King, progenitor of the Quincy."

Yoruichi stood with her arms crossed, her brows slightly furrowed, watching Yhwach gradually stiffen, even his dark yellow hellish power frozen in place, and asked, "So what's his condition now?"

"He's resisting," Aizen said calmly. "He heard it, and he understood it."

"But he can't move anymore."

"He is waiting."

Halibel was utterly bewildered. She had expected a fierce battle, but seeing Yhwach's stiff body reflected in her eyes, she said, "Waiting for what?"

Aizen smiled slightly.

"Wait until he gives up."

In the white space, the dark yellow energy solidified in place.

Yhwach remained motionless.

The smile on half of his face began to contort, cold sweat beaded on his forehead, and the pupil of his intact eye was contracting violently.

He was struggling.

But he couldn't even lift a single finger.

Shen Jue's boot heels tapped on the white ground, the crisp sound echoing in the silent space.

His smile remained unchanged as he quietly enjoyed Yhwach's grotesque behavior.

With his right hand raised, Shen Jue drew his rusty red Zanpakuto, Human Game.

The Human Game was radiating a gentle spiritual light, with fine patterns flowing along its blade, like countless tiny rules operating simultaneously.

"Yhwabach, the progenitor of the Quincy."

Shen Jue's voice was calm, yet carried an undeniable certainty.

"Can you see it?"

"The end of your journey through thousands of years of life?"

Yhwach's intact eye suddenly widened, and Shen Jue's slowly approaching figure was reflected in the pupil.

"Gurgle..."

"Signing a pact with Hell and letting the dark yellow power of Hell fill your body has indeed given you, as the son of the Spirit King, power that is almost comparable to that of the Spirit King," Shen Jue said as he walked.

"Out of fear, you allowed your men to be killed at will by us, and you allowed us to storm your throne."

"But have you ever wondered why, despite possessing omniscience and omnipotence, you can't see the power of my Zanpakuto?"

Yhwach's lips trembled slightly, but no sound came out.

Shen Jue stopped three steps in front of him, his Zanpakuto pointing diagonally at the ground, the spiritual light illuminating the invisible boundary between them.

"This is one of the abilities of my Zanpakuto, Human Game."

Aizen stood behind, his Kyoka Suigetsu already sheathed.

He tilted his head slightly and whispered to Yamamoto beside him, "Captain-Commander, please look carefully."

"You fought Shen Jue before and experienced the power of his Zanpakuto, didn't you?"

"In fact, even I am amazed by his current ability to play the game of life."

Yamamoto leaned on Ryujin Jakka, his aged eyes reflecting Shen Jue's back, his expression complex.

Shen Jue raised his Zanpakuto, the tip pointing at Yhwach's brow.

"Human Game, as the name suggests, is a Zanpakuto that transforms the battle itself into a game."

"After my Shikai, all life forms covered by my spiritual pressure will be forced to join this game."

He paused, then his smile deepened.

"And games have rules."

"Within my domain, the rules of the human game will be applied to both of us."

"Even I, who drew a card from the Human Game, have to abide by its rules."

Everyone naturally knew the effects of Shen Jue's initial release.

The initial release of the Human Game can expand the domain, and then draw cards to give Shen Jue and his enemies various different effects.

But Shen Jue's Bankai is simply one of the unsolved mysteries of Soul Society.

Countless Grim Reapers were extremely curious about Shen Jue's Bankai, but Shen Jue never revealed a single detail.

Even Shen Jue's closest confidants did not reveal a single detail.

"Actually, I lied," Shen Jue said with a light laugh.

"Those cards floating above the enemies' heads and mine were just illusions I created myself using spiritual particles."

"Huh?!" Yoruichi and Halibel exclaimed in surprise at the same time.

Even Yamamoto's lips twitched.

Aizen, however, showed no surprise whatsoever.

"The effects that the Human Game imparts to both ourselves and the enemy are actually something I can control freely."

Shen Jue smiled again and said, "Yhwach, as the progenitor of the Quincy, come and experience my Bankai, which I have rarely used in the past few centuries."

Shen Jue held the Human Game horizontally in front of him, the rusty red blade reflecting his calm face.

He took a deep breath, and the spiritual particles surging in the white space seemed to freeze at that moment.

"Laughing at three thousand guests in heaven, drunk and asleep on earth, he is the best of the best."

The entire white space trembled, and hollow echoes came from the depths of the dome.

"Bankai: Heaven and Earth".

The spiritual torrent exploded.

The blade of the human game shattered inch by inch, turning into thousands of rusty red light spots, shooting out in all directions like a meteor shower flying backwards.

Those points of light drew countless arcs in the white space, each arc like a destiny being written.

The white ground beneath Shen Jue's feet began to crack.

Cracks spread like a spider web, extending from Shen Jue's feet all the way to the throne.

A warm golden light shone through the crack, as if another world was rising from below.

"Heaven and Earth?" Aizen repeated the name in a low voice, rubbing the hilt of the Kyoka Suigetsu sword in his palm.

His brown pupils reflected the space that was collapsing and reforming, and he said, "I see!"

The originally monolithic white space was divided in two, with a very clear boundary between the top and bottom.

Above the boundary lies a spiritual particle sky so clear it's almost transparent, like the purest ice crystal dome, refracting soft light. Below the boundary lies a slowly floating dark earth, the outlines of mountains and rivers faintly visible, yet all composed of pure spiritual particles.

Shen Jue stood on that dividing line.

His figure was half bathed in the clear light above, and half shrouded in the heavy darkness below.

The shattered Human Game re-formed in his palm, now transformed into a semi-transparent spear.

The gun is half light and half shadow, with the dividing line in the middle like a sharp blade.

"Yohabach".

Shen Jue's voice grew louder, and his eyes reflected the Quincy progenitor frozen in dark yellow hellish energy, his gaze calm to the point of indifference.

"My Bankai, Heaven and Earth, has only one power."

He raised his spear, the tip pointing at Yhwach's brow.

"I am heaven and earth."