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

Yamamoto's aged eyes suddenly narrowed, and he tightened his grip on Ryujin Jakka's hand.

"Shen Jue, what did you say?"

His voice was deep, yet carried an undeniable pressure, like a volcano about to erupt.

"Go to the Spirit King's Palace?! What are you going to do?"

Shen Jue did not answer.

He simply turned his head to look at Yamamoto, and that ambiguous smile reappeared at the corner of his mouth.

Yamamoto took a step forward, and a trace of spiritual pressure unconsciously leaked out, causing the white ground beneath his feet to make a slight cracking sound.

Answer me, Shen Jue.

"The Spirit King's Palace is not a place to go casually. After killing Yhwach, we are now going to the Spirit King's Palace."

"What exactly is your purpose?!"

Shen Jue remained silent. He simply raised his right hand and gently placed his index finger on his lips, making a shushing gesture.

A glint of light, unreadable to anyone, flashed in those calm eyes.

Then he smiled.

That smile carried the kind of "guess what I'm looking for" meaning that Yamamoto hated most.

"Shhh."

He uttered a single word softly.

The next moment, his body began to turn into points of light.

Starting from the toes, little by little, like stars slowly melting in the night sky, turning into thousands of firefly-like particles of light, drifting in all directions.

The particles of light rose lightly, swirled, intertwined, and finally merged into the sky beyond the shattered dome of the invisible empire.

Shen Jue disappeared from the throne room.

No explanation was left.

Yamamoto stood still, his aged face frozen for a moment, then a surge of anger erupted from the depths of his eyes.

"Shen Jue!"

His roar exploded in the white space, and his spiritual pressure erupted uncontrollably.

The scabbard of Ryujin Jakka hummed, as if even the Zanpakuto was responding to its master's anger.

Yoruichi was so shocked by the sudden spiritual pressure that she took a half step back. Harribel also frowned slightly. The two exchanged a glance and wisely chose to keep quiet.

Yamamoto suddenly turned his head, his gaze piercing Aizen in the corner like a knife.

"Inize!"

Aizen raised an eyebrow slightly, his brown pupils reflecting Yamamoto's aged face, which was suppressing his anger.

"What exactly is Shen Jue's purpose?"

Yamamoto's voice was extremely deep, each word spoken slowly and deliberately, as if squeezed out from between his teeth.

"His Bankai ability just now was enough to rewrite the rules, and now he's going to the Spirit King's Palace."

"Is he plotting against the Spirit King?!"

Aizen was silent for a moment, then lowered his head and pressed his hand to his forehead.

That gesture seemed to be trying to hide a smile that couldn't help but surface.

"oops."

He finally burst out laughing.

"Captain-Commander Yamamoto."

Aizen raised his head, and a rare, almost headache-like expression appeared on his usually calm and composed face.

"You're asking about Shen Jue's purpose?"

He tilted his head, his tone full of helplessness.

"Captain Shen Jue didn't tell me."

Aizen shrugged, and the hilt of the Kyoka Suigetsu sword trembled slightly between his fingers.

"You should know better than I how willful Captain Shen Jue is."

He looked in the direction where Shen Jue had disappeared, and on the sky outside the shattered dome, there seemed to be a few faint specks of spiritual light remaining.

"He never lies, but he never tells the whole story either."

"He'll hide the truth in a certain sentence and then let you guess it yourself."

Aizen withdrew his gaze and looked at Yamamoto again, a smile on his lips that was half helpless and half admiring.

Please don't worry too much.

"What Captain Shen Jue is doing is actually a good thing."

Yamamoto, leaning on Ryujin Jakka, stood on the cracked ground. His aged face still showed anger, but after Aizen's words, there was an even more complex emotion.

There was resentment and worry in it.

There was also a sliver of hope, one that even he himself was unwilling to admit.

"Shen Jue..."

He murmured the name, his fingers slowly tightening around the knife.

"You'd better not do anything that can't be undone."

Yoruichi and Harribel, standing to the side, looked completely bewildered.

Deep within the Spirit King's Palace.

That space was like a fragment peeled from the world, suspended in the gap between existence and nothingness, so much so that even spiritual particles were too lazy to linger there.

Shen Jue naturally stood at the edge of this space.

Before him was a massive cocoon-like structure woven from countless crystal branches, the crystals possessing an unsettling translucent quality, with something pulsating slowly and evenly within them.

That was a wedge, a fulcrum that held the three realms together from collapsing.

It is also the only part of the Spirit King that remains after everything was stripped away.

Shen Jue raised his head, his gaze falling on the head encased within an amber-like crystal.

The head still retained a human shape, its face blurred, yet one could vaguely discern a kind of tranquility that transcended gender and age.

There was no anger, no pain, not even sorrow, only an emptiness that time had smoothed out.

Its limbs were long gone, its heart had been removed, and its internal organs had been dismantled and scattered throughout the spiritual energy circulation of the lower realm.

And those arms that controlled forward movement and stillness had long since transformed into other entities.

This is the Soul King, the world's first physical entity, the source of all power for Quincy, Shinigami, and Fullbringers, but now he is just a mass of remains sealed in crystal.

In front of that crystal cocoon, a figure sat cross-legged with his back to Shen Jue.

It was a bald man, tall and strong, with a white haori with wide sleeves casually draped over his body, a string of large, dark red prayer beads hanging around his neck, and a pair of high-heeled wooden clogs on his feet.

His eyebrows and beard were excessively thick, with black hair hanging down from both sides of his face, almost covering most of it.

But what's most eye-catching is the huge calligraphy brush he carries on his back.

That was Hyosube Ichibei.

The leader of the Zero Division, the head of the royal agents, given the name "Eye Monk" by the Soul King, and also known as "True Name Monk".

He knows the true names of all Zanpakuto in the world, from Ryujin Jakka to Kyoka Suigetsu, from Hyōrinmaru to Senbonzakura; no sword's name can escape his perception.

"You arrived sooner than I expected."

His voice was hoarse but composed.

Ichibei slowly stood up, his wooden clogs making a crisp sound on the spiritual ground. Then he turned around, revealing a pair of extremely bright eyes on his face, which was covered by thick hair.

Those eyes had no pupils.

"Captain Shen Jue," Ichibei Hyobu said, his tone respectful yet distant.

"What exactly is your purpose?"

"The name of that Zanpakuto..."

"Even I couldn't have predicted it."

"Heaven on Earth...what a dramatic name."

Shen Jue did not respond immediately. His gaze passed over Hyōjue Ichibei's shoulder and landed on the quiet head inside the crystal cocoon.

Hyōsuke Ichibei noticed his gaze. He turned slightly to the side, as if to block Shen Jue's view, or perhaps he was simply moving his shoulders.

"Please do not harbor any disrespectful thoughts toward the Spirit King," Ichibei said in a low voice. "The existence of Lord Spirit King is the cornerstone of stability in the Three Realms."

"If Lord Spirit King is harmed, the Three Realms will cease to exist."

"All living beings and things in Soul Society, the present world, and Hueco Mundo will return to chaos."

"Hell is still there, but there won't be anything interesting left in it."

He paused, his eyes fixed on Shen Jue.

"So, Captain Shen Jue."

His voice suddenly lowered.

"What do you wish to do to the Spirit King?"

Shen Jue looked at the head inside the crystal, at the face that had long since lost all expression, and then slowly raised a hand.

The rusty red blade of the Human Game silently appeared in his palm.

Shen Jue looked at the head inside the crystal, his gaze calm, yet carrying an unprecedented heaviness.

"He loves this world."

Shen Jue's voice was exceptionally clear in this silent space.

"The Soul King created the three realms, created the Shinigami, Hollows, Quincy, and humans, and created countless possibilities."

"He loved all of this, so when the Three Realms faced collapse, he chose to sacrifice himself."

"His limbs were dismembered, his heart was gouged out, his power was stripped away, and his eyes were sealed. In the end, he even lost his own name, leaving only the title of 'Spirit King' and a head imprisoned in crystal."

Hyosube Ichibei remained silent, his dark eyes slightly narrowed, and the rosary beads swayed gently in front of his chest.

"Pathetic," Shen Jue uttered.

"A person who loves the world has had their last bit of value squeezed out by the world, and then is imprisoned forever in a void of tranquility like a wooden stake."

"Captain Shen Jue..."

Hyosube Ichibei spoke, his voice carrying a barely perceptible hint of wariness.

"He is too weak." Shen Jue turned around and looked directly at Hyosube Ichibei.

"The power of the Spirit King has had its limits from the very beginning, as has the power of omniscience and omnipotence."

"The power of the Spirit King cannot cover all dimensions. He was made into a wedge simply because he was powerful enough to support the weight of the three realms."

"But the Three Realms have never truly been at peace."

"The rise of Yhwach, the corruption of Hell, the turmoil of Hueco Mundo, and the chaos of the present world."

"The wedge itself is being worn down."

"And even someone like Yhwach can shake the very foundations of the world."

"I do not approve of this kind of Three Realms."

"If another ambitious person were to emerge one day, the probability of the Three Realms collapsing would not be zero."

I really don't like it.

"Even if there's only a one in a billion chance that something like this will happen, I still hate it."

"Therefore, I will use my will to change this world."

Shen Jue raised the Human Game, the rusty red blade trembling in his palm, the patterns on the blade writhing like living things.

"The existence of the wedge makes the Three Realms dependent on a flawed, dying core."

"This is not stability, this is slow death."

Hyobu Ichibei frowned, and his thick beard trembled slightly.

"What exactly are you trying to say?"

Shen Jue held the Human Game horizontally in front of him, the blade slowly glowing, the light changing from rusty red to silver-white, transforming into a spear, and then into Bankai: Heaven and Earth.

"I want to change all of this."

"With my Bankai: Heaven and Earth, I will directly inscribe the stability of the three realms upon my existence."

The eyes of Ichibei, the commander of the army, trembled.

He didn't understand why anyone would rush to become the wedge to replace the Spirit King.

Shen Jue's voice was calm, but every word carried an undeniable power.

"From now on, the bond between the three realms will no longer depend on a captive head."

"They depend on me."

"The Spirit King is too weak."

"Let me bear this."

The Human Game was completely unleashed in Shen Jue's palm, and its light spread outwards, illuminating the space.

The head of the Spirit King inside the crystal cocoon seemed to tremble slightly, and a faint, indescribable ripple seemed to pass across his expressionless face.

Hyobu Ichibei could no longer contain himself and moved forward, his wooden clogs making a heavy thud on the ground.

The giant pen on his back trembled slightly, and spiritual pressure surged from his body, forming an invisible wall between Shen Jue and the crystal cocoon.

"Captain Shen Jue, do you know what you're saying?" His voice was hoarse and deep.

"You intend to replace the Spirit King and become the new wedge?"

"Yes."

"The immense pressure and power of the Spirit King that must be borne to stabilize the Three Realms is extremely terrifying," Hyosube Ichibei said, his voice filled with doubt.

"The existence of the Spirit King is even older than the Three Realms themselves. His power began to accumulate at the beginning of chaos. Even so, he can only barely maintain the balance of the Three Realms."

"What gives you the right?"

Shen Jue raised her head and met Ichibei's eyes.

"Want to give it a try?"

A familiar, nonchalant smile curled at the corners of his lips.

"Since we're already here..."

"Wouldn't it be a waste not to give it a try?"

The light of the human game suddenly burst forth, causing the entire depths of the Spirit King Palace to tremble. The crystal branches emitted a piercing buzz, and countless dust particles fell from the dome.

Shen Jue smiled slightly.

"If we fail, the worst that can happen is that the Three Realms will return to chaos."