Starting as a pirate, he rose to become the strongest Shinigami in Soul Society.

Chapter 463 Aizen: Longing is the emotion furthest from understanding.

Zhenyang Spiritual Arts Academy.

In a large classroom, a teacher is explaining some key points about freestyle fighting.

Among the students, in the middle of the classroom, Aizen Sousuke was staring blankly at his empty notebook, his fingers unconsciously twirling the pen.

As mentioned before, Aizen Sousuke is a rare talent in Soul Society, and he is not outstanding in just one aspect, but excels in all aspects.

By this time, he had already learned everything taught in class, and he wouldn't make any mistakes even if he were to go up and teach.

However, Aizen was good at hiding his true abilities. He only revealed his true self to Bane and Orochimaru. After showing his prowess for a while, he began to conceal his true nature from the others.

The real academic high achievers master the skill of controlling their scores.

Aizen Sousuke could always accurately analyze the learning progress of the other students, and then in each assessment, he would only be slightly better than them, occupying the top position, without making it seem so unbelievable.

This year marks Aizen Souichi's second academic year at the Shinigami Academy, and he is about to enter his third.

Having already fully mastered the knowledge of the True Spiritual Arts Academy by the beginning of his first academic year, he had diligently studied for almost two years.

"Shiba Kaien, graduated first in his class after completing all credits in one year; Kuchiki Byakuya, graduated first in his class after completing all credits in three years; Hachizusa Aya, graduated first in his class after completing all credits in three years." Names flashed through Aizen Sousuke's mind.

These are all outstanding talents who have been widely remembered in the academy over the years.

He was wondering if it would be too dazzling for him to choose to complete all his credits and graduate now.

After a series of memories flashed through his mind, one name after another, Aizen Sousuke felt that there was no problem and that it wouldn't be too dazzling.

The training at the Shinigami Academy is not particularly high-level; it's considered basic education. The top student might attract attention, but they aren't highly regarded. Every year, there are outstanding top students who graduate, but over the past few decades or even centuries, only a handful have truly established themselves within the Gotei 13 and shone brightly.

The most formidable of them all should be the Rokuki-no-Kawa, at least on the surface.

He studied for six years before graduating, and in that respect, he was no match for someone like Shiba Kaien who graduated in just one year.

But what is the reality? In fact, within a few decades of graduating, Kuchiki Kyouga immediately mastered the power of Bankai. In contrast, many chief students who graduate in two or three years cannot master the power of Bankai even after decades, hundreds of years, or even a lifetime.

He gradually faded into obscurity.

Thinking this through, Aizen Sousuke felt that graduating from the Shinigami Academy after three years shouldn't cause too much of a stir, so he ticked a box on the blank notebook.

Then, he turned to the next blank page.

"Once you've calmed down and are ready to leave the academy, I'll recruit you into the Ninth Division. I've reserved four seats for you."

The voice of the Spirit Lord echoed in his mind.

If I don't make any special choices or changes, my future after graduating from the academy will be very bright. I can immediately become the fourth seat of the Ninth Division, which is a pretty high starting point.

However, Aizen Sousuke's expression was somewhat hesitant at this moment.

Going to the Ninth Division and serving under the Spirit Lord to fulfill his duties as a disciple was certainly a good choice. Before becoming the Spirit Lord's personal disciple, Aizen Sousuke had actually planned to do just that. Even if the Spirit Lord hadn't opened this back door, Aizen Sousuke had still thought of joining the Ninth Division after graduation.

After all, among all the people he has come into contact with so far, the only one he truly respects and acknowledges is the Spirit Lord.

Perhaps in many aspects, even in terms of strength, Aizen is still somewhat immature at this moment and cannot be compared with those captains who have been famous for many years.

But Aizen Sousuke had enough confidence in himself to surpass those "mortals"—it was just a natural progression.

Even if he does nothing now, relying solely on his natural growth, he will definitely reach, or even surpass, the level of those captains.

But after becoming the Spirit Lord's personal disciple, Aizen suddenly realized that he had achieved his previous goal of joining the Ninth Division, which was to get closer to his idol.

"Longing is the emotion furthest from understanding," Aizen Sousuke suddenly murmured.

This is the root cause of his hesitation and indecision.

He held a deep longing for the Spirit Lord in his heart, a feeling he was absolutely certain of and saw no problem with. However, after becoming a direct disciple, Aizen Sousuke began to realize a new problem: upon careful reflection, he discovered that he actually knew almost nothing about the Spirit Lord.

How did the Spirit Lord become such a powerful person?

Why did the Spirit Lord remain in the position of captain of the Ninth Division?

What are the Spirit Lord's expectations and goals?

What is he working so hard for?

Is such a powerful and noble person stopping here to look towards a higher and farther goal?

One last question: What can I do for the Spirit Lord?

He could have asked Bane himself for the answers, and Aizen also believed that the Spirit Lord would definitely tell him the answers.

But he felt that this was not good. If he got the answer in this way, he would still be stuck in the realm of "longing". As long as he was in this realm, he would continue to encounter similar problems and would never be able to truly "understand" the Spirit Lord.

"I'm sorry, teacher, the Ninth Division is really not suitable for me. It's too close to you, yet too far from understanding you." Aizen Sousuke finally made up his mind and then crossed it out on the blank page.

Without delaying anything, he turned to a new page.

Now that I've made up my mind to refuse to join the Ninth Division, what should I do next?

Where can we better understand our teachers?

In an instant, the images of each of the Gotei 13 squads flashed through Aizen's mind.

Leaving aside the Ninth Division, the First Division's Captain-Commander, Yamamoto Genryusai, is someone Aizen respects quite a bit at this moment. He has only met Yamamoto Genryusai a few times at the academy and has never spoken to him. This respect actually comes from his teacher, Spirit Lord.

Especially last time, the teacher told him to learn more from the wisdom of the Captain, to observe his words, his actions, and his character.

From this educational perspective, joining the First Division seems like a good idea, as it would allow one to observe and learn from the Captain-Commander up close.

However, Aizen Sousuke quickly dismissed this idea, as it wasn't a priority enough. Compared to Yamamoto Genryusai, he still preferred to 'understand his teacher'.

The Second Division, needless to say, is a direct force of the Shihōin family. In order to maintain the purity of this force, the Shihōin family almost never recruits from outside. They select members from the Execution Army and the Onmitsukidō, as well as from the various nobles who are affiliated with the Shihōin family.

Even if Aizen Sousuke wanted to join the Second Division, he probably wouldn't be qualified, let alone the fact that he had no intention of joining.

The Third Division was an unremarkable division among the Gotei 13; Aizen couldn't even find a reason to join it.

"The Fourth Division is quite meaningful." Aizen Sousuke thought of Retsu Unohana, the head of the Dojo-in department.

In my memory, she was a gentle, virtuous, considerate, generous, and kind person who was well-liked by the students of the Shinigami Academy.

For some reason, I sometimes notice that some senior teachers, like Norabei-sensei, seem to have an instinctive fear of Unohana-sensei.

However, these are not the main points. The main point is that Unohana-sensei and Lord Rei-sama have a very close relationship. Aizen himself has witnessed the two of them going in and out of the Dean's office of the Kido Institute at the academy several times.

They went in late at night and didn't come out until early the next morning.

If you were to say that this was some kind of official business, like a department head reporting to the dean, Aizen would never believe it, not even if you beat him to death.

Moreover, these two almost never concealed their special relationship. Which student in the academy didn't know about the complicated love triangle between Dean Ban, Section Chief Unohana, and Professor Shutaro?

But perhaps because the atmosphere in Soul Society is relatively open, and the practice of multiple marriages is common knowledge, everyone treats it as gossip and entertainment, but no one feels that there is anything wrong with it.

As long as the person involved can accept it, then it's none of their business to criticize.

As a versatile talent, Aizen could easily join the Fourth Division if he really wanted to; his reply was quite good.

"Tentative."

He mentally marked the Fourth Division, then continued thinking down the Fifth Division. Apart from Captain Sujiba Seigen being a veteran Shinigami, there didn't seem to be anything special about it, so he skipped it.

Like the Second Division, he couldn't just join the Sixth Division whenever he wanted. Of course, given the relationship between the Kuchiki family and the Spirit Lord, if he showed his badge, the Sixth Division would probably be very happy to let him join, but it wouldn't have much practical significance, so he rejected it.

The Seventh Division was once a force of the Tenshoin family. Recently, it seems that something has happened to it. Aizen, who is at the academy, does not know the specifics and has no interest in knowing them, so he will skip over it as well.

A hint of interest flashed in the eyes of Aizen Sousuke of the Eighth Division.

The Eighth Division is an intelligence unit, once known as the "most well-informed" division along with the Twelfth Division. Later, the Eighth Division began to take charge of the Great Spirit Book Corridor, thus becoming a unique entity.

The Great Spirit Book Corridor, where the academy naturally taught related common knowledge, is said to be able to forcibly record everything that happens in the Soul Society, regardless of the will of the Shinigami, and is called "Omniscient," making it an absolute treasure!

While normally, ordinary members of the 8th Division would never be qualified to enter the Great Spirit Book Corridor, the captain, vice-captain, and seat officer should still have a chance, right?

The captain and vice-captain positions seem straightforward. Kyoraku Shunsui is the Captain-Commander's personal disciple and has reportedly served as the captain of the 8th Division for nearly two hundred years. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, it's unlikely he'll be replaced. As for the vice-captain, the position has remained unchanged for many years, but we can try to secure the seat of the captain.

If I could join the Eighth Division and get the chance to enter the Great Spirit Book Corridor, wouldn't I be able to learn a lot about the Spirit Lord from there?

Will this help him understand his teacher even better?

Clearly, given Aizen's current living conditions, he is unaware that Bane, due to his status being no less than that of the Soul King, was unable to be recorded in the Great Spirit Book Gallery.

In the Great Spiritual Book corridor, the only way to find information about Bane is to constantly 'fumble' around the edges.

For example, during the Tsunayo family rebellion, the Great Spirit Book Corridor recorded the concept that "the Undying King was sealed in a nameless technique by an unknown and unrecordable being."

Unaware of these things, Aizen was currently very interested in the Eighth Division, so he secretly thought to himself, "Tentatively, and prioritize it as the first option."

(End of this chapter)