Bleach: No cheat codes, he joined Aizen's side.

Chapter 269, Section 267: Quickly reach the Spirit King's Palace!

Despite the huge commotion that Shuichi Higashino has caused in Soul Society, it's nothing to the Zero Division, whose status is completely above the rest.

As the executors of the Soul King's will, the Zero Division's fundamental purpose is to follow the Soul King's will, maintain the stability of the Three Realms, and prevent the collapse of the Three Realms Reincarnation System that the Soul King painstakingly separated.

Apart from that, the Zero Division will not care about anything that happens in Soul Society, Hueco Mundo, or the human world.

They might have some personal grievances about certain individuals, but they generally won't let those feelings affect their own lives and work.

Therefore, Higashino Shuichi actually lived a very carefree life in the Spirit King Palace.

Aside from the territories of Hyosube Ichibei and Shutara Senjumaru, where Higashino Shuichi basically couldn't get a friendly reception.

Higashino Shuichi and the other three members of the Zero Squad, while not exactly close, at least didn't have much of a distance between them.

For example, the sword god Nimaiya Oetsu did his best to help Higashino Shuichi master the complete Bankai of his Zanpakuto.

This helps Higashino Shuichi overcome the drawback of his Zanpakuto's Bankai ability, which prevents him from unleashing any combat power before fully understanding his opponent's information.

For example, Higashino Shuichi allowed Kiryu Hikifune, the "King of Valleys," to conduct human experiments directly on him, helping him to completely integrate the several completely different powers within him.

During this process, the "hot spring demon" Kirinji Tenjiro also developed a deep "love" for Higashino Shuichi, a new face, and would drag Higashino Shuichi to take a bath together every few days.

If it weren't for knowing that Kirinji Tenjiro didn't actually have any particular fetishes in that area, Higashino Shuichi might have also backed away.

Time flew by in this relaxed atmosphere.

Higashino Shuichi guessed that it would take a long time for his Zanpakuto to fully Bankai, but he had no idea exactly how long.

After all, time is the least valuable thing in the Spirit King's Palace.

Every Grim Reaper here possesses a theoretically long lifespan, comparable to that of heaven and earth.

As long as the Three Realms constructed by the Spirit King have not completely collapsed, as long as there is still one person in this world who can call out the name of Hyosube Ichibei.

Therefore, all members of the Zero Squad are immortal beings.

In fact, Higashino Shuichi wanted to learn some more powerful sword techniques from the Zero Division, or even the Reverse Kido technique mastered by Hyosube Ichibei.

However, after trying out Hyosube Ichibei, he gave up.

Because that's something that normal people really can't learn.

The complexity of the inner demonic path is beyond the comprehension of a modern soul like Shuichi Higashino.

Back in Soul Society, it took him a lot of time to learn even a simplified version of the common Kido. He could only barely master it thanks to Aizen's tireless dissection and hands-on teaching.

This is the original version of the Hidden Kido that Hyosugi Ichibei possessed.

Shuichi Higashino truly had the will but not the power.

As for slashing techniques, let's not even mention them.

Higashino Shuichi even doubted whether Nimaiya Oetsu and his group actually knew the art of slashing.

Of all the sword techniques that Nimaiya Oetsu demonstrated to Higashino Shuichi, only the Moon Picking Technique, which he had already learned, was somewhat impressive.

All the others are far inferior to the slashing techniques that Higashino Shuichi learned from Unohana Retsu.

Those whose majors were even more unrelated, like Kirinji Tenjiro and Hikifune Kiryu, needless to say.

"So the selection of the Zero Division was really based entirely on their contributions to Soul Society and their creativity?"

This kind of hard power is really not within the scope of our evaluation!

After much back and forth, Higashino Shuichi finally came to terms with it. In the entire Zero Squad, there were probably only two people, Hyosube Ichibei and Shutara Senjumaru, who had truly solid combat skills.

The others were all technically skilled, and their combat strength was purely due to the physical strength of the King Keys that propelled them forward.

What's infuriating is that Higashino Shuichi and those two powerful fighters from the Zero Squad have a very ordinary relationship.

But apart from that, there was some other good news for Higashino Shuichi.

That is, without relying on Shutara Senjumaru, Higashino Shuichi, with the help of Hikifune Kiryu, perfectly fused his various powers and still broke the shackles that bound him.

In this instance, all Higashino Shuichi can say is that his efforts to portray himself as the perfect Soul King Jinchūriki have not been in vain.

As expected, one must approach the form of the Spirit King to obtain a pass that allows unimpeded passage in this world.

The current Higashino Shuichi can no longer feel where the boundaries of his own strength lie.

But this is only based on Higashino Shuichi's own perception.

If the Hogyoku grants a Shinigami limited evolution based on that Shinigami's own potential...

So what Higashino Shuichi has obtained now is a limited evolution based on the Spirit King himself.

Without any advanced technology, relying solely on all the resources that this world originally possessed, Higashino Shuichi has rebuilt himself, and his current limit is the Spirit King.

Because all his power, in theory, still comes from the Spirit King.

He cannot surpass the Spirit King using everything the Spirit King "given".

Therefore, Higashino Shuichi speculated that this was the reason why the Soul King, even knowing that he was a troublemaker who was completely outside his original plan, still chose to let him run rampant.

As long as Higashino Shuichi continues to use the power of the Spirit King and continues to evolve towards the form of the Spirit King, he will never be able to transcend the Spirit King and become an existence beyond the Spirit King's control.

This world will eventually return to the Spirit King's control.

To use an example from Higashino Hideichi's previous life in the laboratory, Higashino Hideichi was a non-systematic disturbance within that entire system.

His existence may be accidental, but as long as the structure of the entire system is complete and robust enough, this non-systematic disturbance can be eliminated through various means during the operation of the entire system.

And ultimately, the entire system outputs the predetermined result.

However, the Hogyoku theoretically has the potential to allow a Shinigami to surpass the Soul King's limits.

The prerequisite is that his master possesses the potential to surpass the Spirit King.

Higashino Shuichi was very clear that the potential of his body could not surpass that of the Spirit King.

Therefore, the Hogyoku offers him limited improvement at this point.

Instead of trying to steal the Hogyoku from Aizen, it's better to let Aizen have his way.

At that time, will Aizen, who surpasses the Soul King, have the ability to take Higashino Shuichi with him and escape the Soul King's control?
Higashino Shuichi was looking forward to such a possibility. However, he couldn't put all his eggs in one basket; besides that, Higashino Shuichi had to find another way out for himself.

He turned his gaze toward hell.

That was a place that even a powerful Spirit King at his peak could not touch, and even the existence of Hell could forcibly interfere with the Three Realms System created by the Spirit King.

"Now I should have the ability to protect myself in hell, right?"

Having fully mastered his Zanpakuto's Bankai and obtained the key to the final path, Higashino Shuichi finally had the courage to face hell alone, instead of begging for that elusive aid.

Theoretically speaking, Higashino Shuichi's next destination should be hell.

However, when Higashino Shuichi was about to leave the Soul King Palace and found Hikifune Kiryu to learn about what had happened in the Soul Society during his time in the Soul King Palace, Higashino Shuichi changed his mind.

Even after Higashino Shuichi left, Shiba Kaien, the vice-captain of the 13th Division, was still outmaneuvered and killed by Aizen, which surprised Higashino Shuichi somewhat.

Since the Tsuna Yayo family has been wiped out by Higashino Shuichi, only the four noble families remain in Soul Society, one of which is the Kabuto family, which doesn't care about anything else. Aizen probably has no reason to take action against the Shiba family again.
Then, the captain of the 10th Division, Shiba Isshin, was tricked by Aizen into coming to the human world, where he met Kurosaki Ichigo's mother, Kurosaki Masaki.

At this point, Higashino Shuichi roughly understood Aizen's purpose in wanting to kill Shiba Kaien.

If Shiba Kaien had been in the 13th Division, Shiba Isshin would never have taken such a risky action.

After all, with a member of the main family who is specifically in charge of world affairs serving as the vice-captain, Shiba Isshin could easily find Shiba Kaien to discuss taking action together.

This whole mess is completely undeservedly bad for Kaien Shiba.

However, what surprised Higashino Shuichi even more was that Kurosaki Masaki did not develop feelings for Shiba Isshin at all, as Aizen had envisioned.

Although Aizen did design a scene where Kurosaki Masaki was ambushed by an Arrancar, but...
how to say?

Higashino Shuichi covered his face, looking a little embarrassed.

Who would have thought that the Kurosaki couple he encountered as a Quincy clone were actually Kurosaki Masaki's grandparents!
To repay the couple for their kindness in raising him, Higashino Shuichi secretly taught them some advanced techniques he had smuggled from Yhwach in the future.

Although Mai and her husband didn't have the talent to learn those advanced techniques at the time, Masaki Kurosaki did!

As a result, all the Arrancars that Aizen sent to ambush Masaki were easily dealt with by Masaki.

He didn't give Kurosaki Isshin a chance to be a hero and save the damsel in distress at all!

Higashino Shuichi was a little embarrassed. He swore that he didn't mean to ruin this relationship!
Fortunately, he no longer needs Ichigo Kurosaki's birth as much, otherwise Shuichi Higashino would have felt guilty for a while.

Besides this unexpected incident, there is another plot point that was not forcefully corrected by the Soul King, which is the period during which Higashino Shuichi disappeared.

Kensei Muguruma and Rojuro Otori, two Shinigami who were "abandoned" by Kisuke Urahara, were actually accepted back into the Soul Society when Genryusai Shigekuni Yamamoto was still in power!
Higashino Shuichi strongly suspected that Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni was using this method to express his guilt towards him.

Or to put it bluntly, Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni was worried that another version of himself might emerge between Ootori Ryojuro and Rokusha Kensei.

If it's the latter, then Higashino Shuichi can only say that Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni is overthinking things. Leaving aside Ootori Ryojuro, as for Kensei Rokusha...
A single unit of measurement is enough to threaten any other normal captain, let alone make him do something as devastating as destroying one of the five great noble families.
All I can say is that you're overthinking it.

After Kensei Muguruma and Rojuro Ootori were reinstated in Soul Society, the entire Gotei 13 began a full-scale manhunt for Kisuke Urahara.

Yes, it is a full-scale manhunt in the literal sense.

The reason is that Kisuke Urahara led the remaining Visored members, along with the spirits who possessed the power and soul of the first captain and were not captured by Shuichi Higashino, to launch a guerrilla war against Soul Society.

In the decades-long conflict, Kisuke Urahara's side suffered little loss, but the Soul Society lost a great many Shinigami, including several vice-captains.

It's incredibly unbelievable and baffling!
Why is Kisuke Urahara made the villain on the surface?
Is this world still truly controlled by the Spirit King's will?
The reason why Higashino Shuichi chose not to go to hell first was because the plot development had greatly exceeded his expectations.

Judging from Aizen's actions and Shiba Isshin's current inability to return to Soul Society.

The Soul King is likely still interfering with the progress of Soul Society.

Otherwise, there would be no reason for Aizen to do such a thing.

However, Higashino Shuichi completely couldn't understand Urahara Kisuke's side.

We can't let Higashino Shuichi's intrusion cause Urahara Kisuke to get the wrong script and end up with the same one as Aizen, can we?

He couldn't understand it at all!
At times like this, Higashino Hideaki only believed the words of that great man from his past life.
Real knowledge from practice!
Since he couldn't figure it out, he would go and see for himself what Urahara Kisuke and the Soul King's will had done to the Soul Society!
"It's time for me to leave, Kiryu-san~"

After listening to Kiryu Hikifune about the general events that had happened in Soul Society over the years, Higashino Shuichi bowed to the chubby Kiryu Hikifune and said...

Shuichi Higashino still holds absolute respect for Kiryu Hikifune.

Without her, there would be no near-perfect state of Higashino Shuichi as he is today.

"Are you really not considering joining our Zero Squad?"

"If you join Squad Zero, you won't have to worry about your future~"

Kiryuki offered some words of advice with concern.

After spending so much time together, the members of Squad Zero basically know what kind of situation Higashino Shuichi is in now.

If nothing unexpected happens, in the future, they, the members of the Zero Division, will personally turn him into a human pig to replace the weakened Soul King.

However, this outcome could be avoided if Higashino Shuichi were willing to join the Zero Squad.

It's clear that Kiryuki Hikifune was indeed thinking of Shuichi Higashino's best interests.

This is a kind-hearted Grim Reaper.

"No, Miss Kiryu~"
Everyone has their own path to walk. I've already chosen my path, and no matter what happens in the future, I won't regret it.

However, Higashino Shuichi still had to reject Hikifune Kiryu's goodwill.

After hearing this, Kiryuki no longer offered any further advice.

Since we're not children anymore, one instance of advice is enough.

"Did you say goodbye to Wang Yue and the others?"

"No, Kiryu-san, but I'd like to trouble you to tell them."
Especially for Brother Tenjiro, if I were to go and say goodbye to him, I'd definitely be dragged into another "farewell bath," which is unnecessary.

Higashino Shuichi replied with a smile.

They then walked directly to the edge of the temple.

Coming to the Lingwang Palace is very troublesome, but leaving is very simple.

Just take a leap, and you'll be all better!
(End of this chapter)