Who are you calling a stable boy?!

As for Capri, he was his inseparable old friend before he became famous.

"Hmm, not bad, this is interesting."

Zheng Jing scratched his cheek.

He asked these questions not simply out of curiosity.

"I'm glad that this will satisfy you."

Ramuel cupped his hands in a gesture of respect.

Since he became famous, he has not shown such respect to anyone for more than ten years.

But at this moment, he was respectful without a word of complaint.

He remembered that some martial arts players have the ability to conceal their combat strength.

However, his prosthetic eye, being a military-grade prosthetic body in active service, actually possesses countermeasures against these types of abilities...

Now that he had calmed down, the only explanation Ramuel could think of was that Zheng Jing's ability to conceal his combat power was far beyond what his military-grade prosthetic eye could handle.

...In other words, the person sitting in front of them now is likely a genuine, extraordinary powerhouse who has already reached the legendary level.

Ramuel was not unfamiliar with such extraordinary individuals.

He had even met real legendary experts.

After all, during the annual Ascension Day, people in all material planes under the Federation can watch the emperors from all directions making pilgrimages to the holy sites through live broadcasts.

But in his own life, this was truly the first time in Ramuel's life that he had ever seen a superhuman being who had already touched the legendary barrier at this distance.

It should be noted that in the material plane in which he currently lives, only the Governor and the Marshal are extraordinary powerhouses of this caliber.

Although the material plane he lived in was considered an insignificant one within the Federation, the terrifying pressure that Zheng Jing was exerting on Ramuel at this moment would not lessen in the slightest.

"Don't be afraid. I, Old Zheng, am reasonable. You don't seem to be any vicious criminals. Just answer a few questions honestly, and I'll let you go home."

"Please speak, Your Excellency! I will answer any questions you may have."

"Alright, let me ask you this: who instructed you to infiltrate the Quincy, stir up trouble, and incite a war between the Shinigami and the Quincy?"

"this......"

The first question made Ramuel hesitate.

"Ok?"

"...Your Excellency is wise, this is the third stage of my student Tula's main quest."

Upon hearing this, Zheng Jing looked at the expressionless android girl.

It turns out that during the novice stage, Turachan's projection randomly descended into the mortal world and triggered the first stage of the main quest through contact with a Quincy.

Listening to Ramuel's explanation, Zheng Jing patted his forehead.

He had completely forgotten that the standard player panel issued by the courtyard had a main quest function.

He had done it for Xueqing once before, so it seems that Ramuel wasn't lying.

That makes sense. None of the four of them had the means to transform themselves into spirits. So even if they were truly connected with the pure-blooded Quincy of the Unseen Empire, they could only passively wait for them to contact them.

After asking a few more questions, Zheng Jing learned that the first two stages of Tula's main quest were to prove his strength to the Guinean Empire and to infiltrate the Quincy organization in the real world. As for the current third stage, the objective is to intensify the conflict between the Shinigami and the Quincy in the real world.

More accurately, it intensified the conflict between the Shida clan and the Grim Reaper.

In this era, the number of pure-blooded Quincy who still exist in the world is already small, and the Ishida family is the only one that can maintain a reserve of nearly a hundred pure-blooded individuals in the form of a family.

This is why the Ishida clan enjoys extremely high prestige among Quincy in the modern world.

But the invisible empire seems unwilling to see this situation.

Judging from the mission objectives at least at this stage, these pure-blooded Quincy hiding in the shadows of Seireitei are not merely trying to deplete the Shinigami's fighting strength.

Rather, their main objective was to tear the Ishida clan apart!

"oops......"

Zheng Jing scratched his head in frustration.

He understood when he heard this.

Those brothers, Komagaru Ishida and Seisho Ishida, probably know something.

Chapter Twenty-Three: Every Word is a Testament to Cannibalism

"Now, do you understand?"

Looking at his younger brother on the hospital bed, Ishida Komagaru broke the suffocating silence in the ward.

“From beginning to end, they never regarded us as their compatriots; all they had was a sinister desire to devour us alive.”

"Qingxiang, stop being so obsessed. Think about Zongxian, think about the young people in the family. Do you really want to send them all to their doom?"

"...Wasn't it you, Komagaru, who led them to their doom?"

Turning his face, Ishida Seisho stared intently at Ishida Komagawa.

His tone was cold and stern, completely devoid of his former arrogance.

Why did you refuse back then?

"Qingxiang..."

Komagawa's old face was full of sorrow.

He knew that his younger brother had resented his decision for twenty years.

"Have you ever considered what would happen to your fellow human beings in this world without us—"

"What kind of compatriots are those mixed-race people?!"

Fistfully pounding on the hospital bed, Ishida Seisho grabbed Ishida Komaki's collar: "Just because of those useless half-bloods, you've left us homeless! If it weren't for you, we wouldn't be like stray dogs on the street, being wantonly bullied by those Grim Reapers! If it weren't for you! I—my body—I wouldn't be in this state now!!"

With a roar, Ishida Seisho punched Komagaru in the face.

The old man faced all of this in silence.

Forty years ago, he was in his prime.

It was around that time that a strange fellow countryman found him.

The man demanded that he lead the Ishida family to pledge allegiance to the King of the Quincy.

Komagaru knew of the Quincy King.

But to him, those were just figures from legends and folk songs. Whether they existed or not, Komagaru didn't know, and he never thought they would be related to him or the Ishida family.

However, when that pure-blooded brethren displayed astonishing strength and brought out numerous technological inheritances that even the Ishida family had not possessed, Komagaru could only admit, even though he found it unbelievable from the bottom of his heart, that this brethren might represent the will of that legendary king.

At the very least, it represents the will of a pure-blooded race that is stronger than them.

Komagaru chose to submit.

If the object is that legendary king, it doesn't seem so bad.

—Until twenty years ago, his pure-blooded brother asked him to have the entire Ishida family produce more mixed-race offspring.

Don't misunderstand, Komagaru never felt there should be any difference in status between mixed-bloods and pure-bloods, and he never forbade his people from dating, marrying, or having children with non-Queens humans.

But the way that person proposed it was too awful...

That was practically treating the Ishida family members, and their offspring, like livestock to be raised.

Komagaru would naturally not agree to such a request.

After several failed negotiations, Komagaru broke off relations with him completely.

At that time, he was worried about possible retaliation, but to Koma's surprise, the family lived in peace for more than ten years after that person left.

As he grew older, he had once harbored a侥幸心理 (a sense of wishful thinking), believing that perhaps the matter would simply pass...

Until he discovered the abnormality of his half-brother, Ishida Seisho.

It seems that during those ten-odd years when he thought he was safe and sound, Qingxiang had already become involved with the power that person represented.

"Qingxiang, why have you become like this...?"

"Ha, ha, ha ha ha!"

Hearing Koma's murmur, Aohara seemed to be both crying and laughing.

A moment later, as if he had finally exhausted all his strength, he loosened Komagaru's collar.

The ward fell silent again...

"Well, I guess I've come at the wrong time."

—The sudden appearance of a third voice in the ward made the nerves of the two brothers, Koma and Seishun, tense up.

"But I've waited until now to speak, please don't be offended, sir."

"...You flatter me."

Seeing Zheng Jing, who had appeared in the ward at some point, squatting on a plastic chair and slurping fish skin and peanuts, Ju Xian, who was protecting Qing Xiang behind him, adjusted his breathing and forced a smile.

"What brings you here on this important occasion?"

"Don't be nervous, don't be nervous, I'm just here to ask you something."

Jumping off the chair, Zheng Jing tossed the handful of fish skin peanuts he had already sucked into his mouth and chewed them. Then he clapped his hands, leaned closer to Ju Xian, and asked, "Nothing much, I, Old Zheng, have some wine, and you two brothers have some stories to tell. Reminisce with me about the old days."

Upon hearing this, Koma looked at Zheng Jing, and then at Ishida Seisho, who was trembling behind him.

In a daze, he recalled the various things that happened between the two brothers when they were children.

Back then, Ishida Seisho was just a child who would be so frightened by the sight of a puppy that he would hide behind him, tugging at his arm and sobbing...

"I see."

Koma-gen let out a long sigh.

"As you wish, I will answer any question you may have."

-

"I see."

Inside the Heavenly Palace of Qitian Prefecture, as Zheng Jing recounted this, Aizen poured tea into Zheng Jing's cup and said softly, "That makes sense."

"Oh? Old Lan, how does that make sense?"

He tilted his head back and drank the tea in one gulp. After hearing Aizen's words, Zheng Jing leaned closer, as if he wanted to hear a whisper.

"Stop fooling around, those Quincy can't hear us here."

Smiling, Aizen put his hand on Zheng Jing's shoulder and said, "If the Quincy of the Wandenreich's goal is the new type of Transcendental Gate technology, then if nothing unexpected happens, they have already obtained it."

"Of course, it's the stripped-down version I left in the development bureau."

"If the goal is to weaken the Seireitei's fighting strength, it seems fine at first glance. But upon closer inspection, even if a war were to break out between the Shinigami and the Quincy again, the Shinigami would suffer heavy casualties, but it would only be limited to ordinary soldiers. At most, a few officers would be sacrificed. The captains and vice-captains who truly pose a threat to the Wandenreich would be almost impossible to kill by pure-blooded Quincy of the Ishida family, even if they did not use their Bankai in the human world, let alone those weaker mixed-blood Quincy."

"But if we simply use the Ishida family as cannon fodder without feeling bad, or if we really want to completely destroy the only remaining pure-blooded clan of the Ishida lineage, the methods adopted by the Invisible Empire are too soft."

"Now, all these questions have been answered."

Aizen adjusted his glasses.

"For the Quincy of the Gullible Empire, a pure-blooded clan in the mortal world that is not necessarily obedient is far less useful than a group of mixed-bloods who are like scattered soldiers but are numerous enough."

He suddenly chuckled softly.

"This Quincy nation is truly a cannibalistic society."

"A bunch of demons and monsters in human skin, bah!"

Spitting, Zheng Jing muttered, "If only we could get in right now..."

"Alright, let's not talk about this spoilsport for now."

Aizen patted Zheng Jing on the shoulder: "Pack up, we should head back to Soul Society."

"The captain is waiting to commend you."

He looked at Zheng Jing and smiled.

"Don't keep everyone waiting, my great hero."

Chapter 24: The Soul Society Instrumentality Project