The Alchemist in Bleach

But that's impossible. Putting aside whether Aizen has the ability to design such a complex illusion, he simply can't solve the problem of the number and location of these surveillance devices, because Ichiro usually just throws them away one by one!

If you throw it all down, who knows how much will come out?

Therefore, Ichiro was not surprised by Aizen's illusion. He ignored the illusion that appeared in "reality" and turned to look at Aizen and the others who were walking towards him.

Ichiro's heart skipped a beat when he saw Kamui, but he had anticipated all the possible scenarios before coming, having spent half a year preparing. So he wasn't surprised, but he looked at the three of them warily, licking his lips and a greedy glint in his eyes, as if he wanted to devour them!

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Chapter 312 vs. Aizen

Aizen saw the look in Ichiro's eyes and smiled. At this moment, he was 80% sure that this guy was not Ichiro. So, Aizen was already thinking about how to recruit him. As long as he had desires, that was fine. The worst thing was if he had no desires.

Ichiro glanced at Aizen, along with Kamui and Stark on either side of him, and said with narrowed eyes, "Shinigami and Hollows... what an interesting combination. Those Arrancar must be your doing, right?"

Aizen smiled calmly: "A petty trick, not worth mentioning. Aizen Sōsekisuke, how shall I address you?"

"A petty trick? Ha~ A name? Nicholas Siri, do you have any abilities that target names? Feel free to use them." Nicholas wore a faint air of arrogance.

'Anyway, it's a pseudonym~'

(Hereafter referred to as Nicholas; Ichiro will revert to his original name when using his original identity.)

'Confidence? Or arrogance?'

Aizen thought this to himself, but he didn't care. Instead, he smiled slightly and bowed, saying, "Your Excellency misunderstands. We are not here to fight. We just wanted to ask if we have disturbed you in any way that you are targeting us like this."

"Disturbing? No, do Hollows need a reason to fight? Does getting stronger count? There are a lot of Hollows here, so I came. But judging from their appearance, they're all pretty weak. That must be your doing, right? Those Vastodes?"

Aizen smiled modestly: "These are just petty tricks, far inferior to yours."

"A little trick? Whatever makes you happy. So, shall we start a war?" As he spoke, a black spiritual pressure surged from Nicholas's body, giving people a very oppressive feeling!

It's as if...

That wasn't spiritual pressure; it was more like an aggregate of a bunch of evil thoughts!

Nicholas's hostile attitude and immense power made Stark and Kamui tense up. They exchanged a glance and prepared for battle!

"As I just said, I didn't come here for the fight." Aizen, however, remained as calm as ever. "I have a suggestion: join us, what do you say?"

"Heh~" Nicholas chuckled dismissively. "Join you? Why? What's in it for me?"

Upon hearing this, Aizen's smile deepened.

"You just said that battles between voids don't need a reason, but I don't think that's true."

Nicholas narrowed his eyes but said nothing, wanting to see what Aizen had to say.

"The early battles and killings of the Hollows were indeed to fill the void in their hearts, but by the time they reached the Adjuchas stage, the Hollows had enough self-awareness to suppress their instincts to a large extent. So, the subsequent absorption was actually just to become stronger. Am I right?"

"Hmm, so what? Since you know that, why should I join you? Where would I find so many high-quality prey if I joined you?" Nicholas licked his lips, seemingly looking forward to it.

Aizen didn't seem angry after being rejected, but continued, "Don't you think your speed is too slow? You've been absorbing for so long, and you haven't even recovered your power yet?"

'Recover? What is he talking about? Does he think I need to replenish my spiritual pressure after breaking through? Does the Hollow have such a fantastical setting?' Nicholas was somewhat puzzled, but he didn't show it on his face, and just quietly looked at Aizen.

"Join us, and I will give you even greater power!"

Nicholas remained silent, still quietly watching Aizen.

Aizen wasn't in a hurry. The longer it dragged on, the better it would be for him. His main force was closing in, and when they did, killing him would be as easy as killing a chicken!

"You don't seem to believe me." With that, Aizen took out a bottle of red potion, filled with a massive amount of spiritual particles!

'This is.......'

"A spiritual pressure drug, the latest drug developed by the Shinigami. It can greatly increase spiritual pressure and has no side effects." After saying this, seemingly trying to gain Nicholas's trust, Aizen opened the lid and drank it in one gulp!

After he drank the potion, it was obvious that his spiritual pressure had increased significantly, which surprised Nicholas.

'This is... uh, could it be that the Quincy I traded with last time was one of his men?'

When Ichiro made that deal, he was careful. It wasn't the spiritual pressure drug he mainly used. It was made using the Quincy technique of condensing spiritual particles. For Quincy, it could not only be used to increase strength, but also as a weapon. But to be honest, the effect of increasing spiritual pressure was generally not significant for people outside of Quincy.

Very average!

Therefore, upon seeing the potion in Aizen's hand, he already had some guesses in mind, but he never expected that Aizen would actually be able to reverse engineer it; it was unbelievable...

"There's such a thing?" Nicholas was somewhat surprised, but he was clearly not tempted yet. Although the effect was real, he didn't know that the production volume and cost of this thing might not be comparable to so many Vastods.

After all, these Vastods are really easy to kill once you know the method!

Yes, a solo kill.

However, Aizen's bait didn't stop there. Seeing that Nicholas had no intention of agreeing, he flipped his right hand, and a beautiful crystal appeared above his palm, radiating endless temptation to him!

Within that tiny crystal, he sensed infinite possibilities!

With this, he can reach new heights!

As expected, this is the real Hogyoku!

The Hogyoku, whose spirituality was not suppressed in any way, grew at an absolutely perfect speed!

The moment the Hogyoku appeared, Nicholas stopped pretending, or rather, he didn't need to pretend anymore; he only needed to follow his heart's desire.

With a slight, manic smile, he said, "Indeed, your offer is very tempting. I've changed my mind."

"Agreed to join?" Aizen narrowed his eyes, put away the Hogyoku with a backhand, and then stared intently at Nicholas. This matter wouldn't be resolved so easily. Even the lazy Stark had to be subdued in a fight.

There's no reason for the highly aggressive Nicholas to compromise so easily.

really.......

"No, I have a better idea: kill you all and take the stuff!"

After he finished speaking, a violent spiritual pressure surged out from his slender body!

A crimson beam of light shot into the sky!

At the same time, a red Cero was rapidly charged up.

"Binding Spell Number Eighty-One: Severing the Void!"

"boom!!!!"

In the blink of an eye, Aizen, who had stopped Stark and Kamui, first used a broken incantation to block Nicholas's Cero, and then slowly drew his Zanpakuto, Kyoka Suigetsu, from his waist.

"Illusory, like a mirage!"

As Aizen uttered the Shikai incantation, wisps of mist emerged from his Zanpakuto, Kyoka Suigetsu, and swirled around him.

Upon seeing this, Nicholas felt a chill. He knew that Aizen was using Kyoka Suigetsu, and as usual, he had disguised it, testing one step after another. He was indeed cunning!

Fortunately, he had prepared for this for a long time.

"If you win, everything is yours; if you lose, you follow me. How about it?"

"Then I'll thank you for your gift! Descend, you god-headed demon!"

Nicholas shouted, and the sword hanging at his waist instantly transformed into a crimson spiritual pressure that wrapped around his right hand. Then, he cupped his cheek with his right hand and pulled it down!

A crimson spiritual pressure emanated from his hands and covered his face, forming a white demon mask!

Below each of the mask's eyes, there was a thin bloodstain, which intensified the eerie feeling!

In addition, what surprised everyone even more was that Nicholas's messy hair also changed. His bangs on his forehead became slightly longer, covering about half of his eyes, while the hair at the back of his head became shoulder-length, just like that of Minotaur Ichigo, except that this mask did not have two horns pointing to the sky.

Furthermore, their hair color changed from black to silver, and at first glance, they actually felt their souls were purified... The thought of resistance in their hearts actually weakened!

This immediately put Aizen and his two companions on their highest alert level!

This ability is too bizarre!

The simultaneous presence of the sacred and the corrupted in a single void is truly bizarre.

More importantly, the sacred is not truly sacred; rather, it is another, more bizarre, evil force. The evil of the mask is so extreme that it attracts almost all of one's own evil thoughts, whether it be anger, fear, or desire—any negative emotion is absorbed by the mask.

But this is not a good thing. While my own emotions have stabilized and calmed down, the other party has clearly amplified these emotional forces!

Furthermore, in this calm state, they are more susceptible to purification by divine power. However, given their strength, they can often quickly detach themselves from this state, then feel a deep sense of dread regarding this ability, their emotions are absorbed, and then...

This process was repeated endlessly; not only was the opponent's strength constantly increasing, but one's own spirit was being tormented to the point of exhaustion...

God-like head and demon-like face...

To win, we must act quickly!

Aizen understood this as well, so his expression was unusually solemn. He also noticed that after Nicholas activated the God-Headed Demon Mask, Kyoka Suigetsu was completely ineffective!

"Sure enough, that feeling of being blinded was caused by your abilities." Nicholas seemed to chuckle as he spoke in an eerie voice that blended both evil and holiness.

"A demonic head and a ghostly face? That's a very powerful ability. How did you break it?"

"Heh~ Guess..."

No sooner had he finished speaking than Nicholas appeared in front of Aizen in an instant and delivered a punch!

"when!"

"Pfft!"

However, Aizen was not to be outdone. He first blocked Nicholas's fist with his sword, and then slashed with his sword, leaving a bloody wound on Nicholas's right arm!

'Hmm? This feel? Did they sacrifice the steel armor? And the recovery is slower! Super regeneration is gone too?'

While Aizen was fighting Nicholas, he carefully observed and summarized the intelligence.

Of course, he never imagined that the God-Headed Ghost Mask didn't sacrifice the steel skin and super-fast regeneration; rather, these things never existed in the first place!

Simply covering the mask with a blurred form will not grant those two abilities. If it were completely blurred, that might be possible, but this level of blurring will not give it those powers.

However, Aizen knew none of this...

On the contrary, he is now certain that Nicholas is not Ichiro...

He figured it out from his fighting habits. First, although Ichiro was Captain Unohana's disciple and had been instructed in swordsmanship by the Captain-Commander many times, it is well known that his swordsmanship is terrible!

Unlike Nicholas, one can tell from his subtle movements that he has a deep foundation in swordsmanship, although it's unclear why a Hollow would possess such excellent swordsmanship...

Secondly, Nicholas's hand-to-hand combat, or close-combat techniques, bears no resemblance to the Shinigami or any other hand-to-hand combat style currently existing in Soul Society. It is a fighting style similar to Kamui, adept at trading blows, and has a distinct Hollow-like style.

Of course, both of them actually made mistakes here. Aizen didn't know that Kamui learned his fighting style from Ichiro, and Ichiro didn't know that Kamui had joined Las Noches, so they didn't make any other preparations beforehand and used the military fighting style from his previous life.

Sometimes, however, things just happen that two negatives can actually make a positive!