The Alchemist in Bleach

In that instant, he was filled with regret and fear. He regretted not trusting Muramasa and feared that Muramasa might die. Therefore, after he calmed down, he realized how much fear and regret he had felt before...

The hatred I feel for Ichiro is now incredibly intense...

With a roar, Kuchiki Kyoga, sword in hand, charged toward Ichiro!

"when!"

Ichiro, holding his sword in one hand, parried Kuchiki Kyoga's attack, raising an eyebrow slightly. Was it just his imagination? He felt that Kuchiki Kyoga seemed to have changed... Could it be that he'd unleashed his full power? Is this guy even considered a protagonist?

While thinking haphazardly, Ichiro drew the Yachiru no Tsurugi from his waist with his other hand to block Barragan's attack from the other side. At the same time, he released the Demon Dragon from his waist to block Muramasa.

"Fight to your heart's content, Demon Dragon!"

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Chapter 241 The Minotaur Attack? No, it's Grandpa Kirito!

"boom!"

Flames erupted from Ichiro's body again, forcing Barragan and Kuchiki Hibiki back.

Kuchiki Kyoga's swordsmanship is not weak, and with Barragan's death power, close combat is very disadvantageous for Ichiro. Although his close combat ability is not bad, it is too dangerous, like dancing on a tightrope. This kind of fighting style is not Ichiro's style. He prefers to fight steadily and surely.

Ichiro glanced at the demonic dragon entangled with Muramasa and nodded slightly. After years of growth, the demonic dragon could finally barely keep up with him in battle.

Turning his gaze away, Ichiro tightened his grip on the Yachiru no Tsurugi with his left hand, a golden flame swirling around it, extinguishing the death energy that was eroding the spiritual pressure covering the sword's surface.

This scene made the soul fire in Barragan's eyes flicker. He was now certain that this guy could indeed ignore his death power!

Ichiro noticed Barragan's confusion and explained with a smile, "Are you curious? Actually, there's nothing special about it. The flames of the Southern Saint Venerable are the flames of life, so they can counteract your aging power."

Seeing the two's surprise, Ichiro raised his right hand, revealing a mark on his wrist that shimmered with golden light.

"The unannounced new type of demonic path, the Oath Path, involves forming a contract with a certain entity. Depending on the content of the contract, different amplifications will be obtained upon fulfilling the conditions. For example, right now, the more information you know about me, the stronger I will become. So, your time is running out~"

As soon as he finished speaking, Ichiro released his suppressed aura, and it was obvious that Ichiro's spiritual pressure had increased slightly, which made Barragan and the others look even more unpleasant.

Will your power increase after your intelligence is revealed?

What kind of hellish path is this? Does this even have any basic principles?

Barragan and Kuchiki Hibiki's expressions were unusually serious. If Ichiro's Kido was real, then they had to finish the battle quickly. Otherwise, as time went on, Ichiro would only get stronger and stronger, and their chances of victory would become smaller and smaller.

"Two Swordsman Style·Death Flame Mad Song!"

However, they weren't the only ones who wanted a quick victory; Ichiro did too. This Oath Path wasn't a method Ichiro relied on. In fact, it was more like a practical test, testing this Kido that was connected to the Moon Spirit.

This is a minor but not insignificant flaw of Ichiro's; he always likes to test things out during battles, and this time was no exception.

The test was naturally not the main focus. Ichiro's main objectives were still twofold: first, to complete the mission assigned by the Captain-Commander and seal Kuchiki Hibiki; and second, to force Barragan to use his full strength and then kill him!

Therefore, Ichiro's offensive will not stop in order to accumulate energy for this Kido; on the contrary, it will only get faster and faster!

For example, just as Barragan and Kuchiki Kyoga finished exchanging glances, Ichiro's attack came one after another, and the huge flame slash forced the two of them to dodge again in a sorry state.

Immediately afterward, before they could even react, Ichiro's barrage of slashes came crashing down on them, giving them no chance to catch their breath!

"Dual Sword Style: Flying Slash!"

"Dual Sword Style: Flame Strike!"

"Dual Sword Style: Twin Flowers!"

"One-Sword Style: Flame Waterfall, One-Sword Style: Blazing Sun!"

.......

Ichiro unleashed countless slashes, some with both swords at once, others with a single sword, at a frequency and in a variety of ways that were simply beyond imagination!

The attack completely stunned the two men, leaving them only able to dodge. While Barragan could neutralize ordinary slashes with his death power, he was helpless against the slashes imbued with golden flames. Although he could counteract them, it would be a waste of time and effort.

The most bewildered of all was Xiu Mu Xiang He.

Ichiro knew some of the sword techniques he was using. It was the Kido Secret Sword, a concept from a small swordsmanship school that combined Kido with swordsmanship to compensate for the swordsmanship's lack of long-range attack capabilities.

The idea is beautiful, but the reality is cruel.

Both swordsmanship and the Kido are extremely profound combat techniques, worthy of a Grim Reaper's lifelong dedication to mastering. If even one is so difficult, it goes without saying that the Kido Secret Sword requires mastering both swordsmanship and the Kido simultaneously, and then skillfully combining them.

This raises the difficulty level even further.

Such great effort only resulted in a tiny improvement.

The effort and reward were disproportionate, which destined this once-popular swordsmanship style to slowly decline. Today, it is a swordsmanship technique that only a few powerful Grim Reapers can master.

The Grim Reaper in his normal form still engages in close combat with a knife.

Fancy and flashy techniques like slashing are generally not studied in much detail, or people might spend their entire lives studying only one move, which is their ultimate technique.

But how many kinds has Ichiro used now?

Damn, there aren't this many sword moves recorded since that sword style was created!

What alarmed the two even more was that Ichiro's aura was growing stronger and stronger; clearly, these sword techniques had also been identified as intelligence...

This is ridiculous...

Just as the two were dodging and looking for an opportunity to attack, Ichiro, who had been frantically unleashing sword moves for four or five minutes, suddenly stopped. He stood in the air, looking down at the panting Barragan and Kuchiki Hibiki below, holding his Zanpakuto upside down with both hands, and slowly sheathed it back into his waistband.

This scene made Bailergang and Kuchiki Hibiki's hearts jump again!

As the saying goes, something unusual must be amiss!

The two firmly believed that there must be a reason why Ichiro suddenly stopped attacking when his physical strength and spiritual pressure were still so abundant, and they had to be on guard!

really......

"Kata~"

As Ichiro sheathed his twin blades back into his waistband, a terrifying spiritual pressure suddenly rose up all around!

"The Secret Technique of the Eight Thousand Streams: The Thousand Blade Stream!"

As Ichiro uttered his demonic whisper, the terrifying spiritual pressure around them suddenly surged, condensing into countless attacks that Ichiro had just unleashed, surrounding Barragan and Kuchiki Kyouga...

Bailergang and Xiumu Xianghe: "..."

A nameless fear rose in their hearts; at that moment, they sensed death once again with crystal clarity...

Someone of this caliber can only serve as a seated officer in the Seireitei? Are the higher-ups really not out of their minds...?

However surprised they were, they could not sit idly by and wait for their doom!

A flicker of hesitation crossed Barragan's eyes, but he quickly suppressed it. Now was not the time to think about such things; survival was the priority!

"Rot away, Skull Emperor!"

As Barragán whispered, all the death energy within him flowed out, and then an even thicker and more intense aura of death permeated his surroundings, eroding everything around him and turning it to ashes!

Including the slash that initiated contact with him!

Even those slashes wrapped in golden flames were completely corroded!

They had absolutely no ability to resist!

It should be noted that the power and characteristics of these slashes copied from Ichiro's Yachiryu Secret Technique are comparable to the original.

This means that Ichiro's flames can no longer counteract these deathly forces.

This is Barragan's true Resurrection Blade. The one he just used was merely a weakened version he developed to control the power of death. At his full power, there is currently no one in the world who can withstand his power of death!

He was very confident about this!

Of course, he himself couldn't stop it either...

However, the release of the power of death did relieve Barragan's predicament and alleviate his crisis. The incoming slashes were as if they were stuck in a quagmire, without making a sound.

But on the other side, the situation was much worse in Kuchiki Hibiki...

He kept wielding his Zanpakuto, blocking one attack after another, dodging and weaving, narrowly avoiding each strike with exceptional grace.

Unfortunately, this is what happened in the first two seconds...

There were way too many slashes!

Although the name is the Eight Thousand Style Secret Technique, the number of slashes is far more than eight thousand!

The idea behind this move is the same as the ritualistic Kido: Hundred Coffin Burial. However, Hundred Coffin Burial replicates the black coffins used by everyone within a certain range, while this move, Eight Thousand Streams Secret Technique, only replicates the Kido Secret Sword used by Ichiro within a certain range for a certain period of time.

The difficulty has been greatly reduced, and of course, this has resulted in a leap in quantity!

Hundreds of sword moves were multiplied several times, directly becoming tens of thousands of slashes!

With such a dense barrage of slashes, how could Kuchiki Hibiki possibly block or dodge?

Even if you manage to dodge one or two attacks, those dodged attacks will collide with the attacks from the other side and explode!

Therefore, after only about two seconds of swagger, Kuchiki Hibiki was bombarded with attacks, his head covered in welts and he was coughing up blood repeatedly...

However, since the Captain-Commander's mission was to seal Kuchiki Kyouga rather than kill him, Ichiro deliberately held back. Whenever Kuchiki Kyouga's injuries worsened and he was on the verge of death, the life flame dormant within him would activate and heal his injuries.

Then he continued to get beaten up...

This scene caught the eye of Muramasa, who was being entangled by the demonic dragon not far away. His eyes widened in horror, and he screamed at the top of his lungs, "Xianghe!! Bastard, get out of here!"

Driven by desperation, Muramasa gritted his teeth and risked injury, allowing the dragon's claw to slash a huge gash across his chest. With a flick of his wrist, the blade in his hand pierced the dragon's eye and went straight through its skull!

Then, taking advantage of the fact that he couldn't move during the recovery period, he appeared directly next to Kuchiki Hibiki and used his own blade and body to block the attack for Kuchiki Hibiki.

Ichiro was amazed by this scene; someone who didn't know better would have thought he was the villain!

After confirming that the life flames within the two individuals could sustain their lives, Ichiro took the opportunity to glance at the demonic dragon, whose injuries were slowly healing, and couldn't help but sigh.

This idiot used to be somewhat useful in battle, but now he's falling further and further behind...

Shaking his head, Ichiro beckoned with his right hand, and the demonic dragon transformed into a streak of light, flying back into his hand and reverting to his Zanpakuto, which was then tucked back into his waistband.

Ichiro is well aware of the dragon's current weakness, which is its mental state. The dragon was born too early. At that time, Ichiro had not mastered mature spiritual cultivation techniques. He simply piled up a large amount of information and then catalyzed it through Asauchi's special structure.

Therefore, dragons might have some, well, problems, when it comes to intelligence.

At the time, there were two main reasons: firstly, it was impossible to solve the problem, and secondly, his intelligence was already sufficient to handle the battles he was in, so the problem remained unresolved.

Later, as the technology matured, the dragon's consciousness also fully took shape. Ichiro would not interfere with this self-created, already formed independent consciousness, and thus let it develop to its current state.

Ichiro also had a comprehensive plan to enhance the power of the demonic dragon, but he did not do so.