I'm really not the number one slacker in Soul Society.

We need to use some other methods.

"Really? That's really an honor."

Mi Zhen's empty left hand lit up: "But unfortunately, I don't understand the romance of you warriors."

Thunder Roar Cannon, Twin Lotus Azure Fire Drop, and Flower-Slaying Wheel—three high-level breakthrough techniques—were launched in succession.

Then, with a change of gesture, taking advantage of the instant the first explosion occurred, Mima jumped back a step, moved his finger downwards, and unleashed the Thousand Hands Kyotentai Cannon No. 91.

The series of violent explosions nearly created a mushroom cloud, but the aftershocks easily leveled the poor forest.

"It's not working..."

The feedback was very clear. Although all the high-level Kido attacks hit, the effect was no different from scratching. Zaraki withstood them all with his spiritual pressure.

In this way, it can be determined that Mizhen's "ordinary methods" are all ineffective.

You have to make a big one.

Sure enough, when the smoke cleared, Zaraki appeared unharmed in the center of the crater created by the blast, with only a few charred spots on his clothes.

...As expected, after all, Kenpachi Zaraki's dozens of "One-Sword Cremation" attacks still couldn't even break his skin. Although Zaraki's strength is far from what it was after the battle of Karakura Town, he still can't be easily defeated in just a few hits.

It's really...enviable.

Unlike Quincy or Hollows, Shinigami have basic defensive skills like Blood Armor and Steel Armor. Although the promotion claims that Shinigami Armor can provide a certain level of defense, it's like the beef in a convenience store seasoning packet—it makes little difference whether you have it or not.

Chapter 85: Showdown with Zaraki

After all, not everyone has a cheat-like weapon like Shihouin Hyakugetsu's "Bone-Eating Demon Armor".

As a result, the only normal defensive method that Shinigami can choose is the "Spiritual Pressure Cloak" - this thing is simple and easy to understand, as long as you release your spiritual pressure, you are successful, but in practice, it is only about the same as the Shinigami Cloak. Only those with particularly deep spiritual pressure accumulation can use this ability to be particularly powerful.

For example, Yamamoto Genryusai, and Kenpachi Zaraki.

Unfortunately, Mima's "spiritual pressure cloak" is one of the less effective ones, not even as good as a single hair on the leg of the Danku Armor!

Amidst the chaotic storm and high temperature, Mima caught a glimpse of the pink head inside Zaraki's clothes, and a strong urge to make sarcastic remarks immediately arose in her heart.

He simply couldn't understand how this guy could have managed to not realize that Yachiru was his Zanpakuto for so many years—even someone with a modicum of common sense should have seen that this situation was absolutely ridiculous, right? How could anyone possibly sit inside such a massive amount of spiritual pressure that would be like scraping a fingernail even if several high-ranking Kido were to strike?

Indeed, it's bad to have muscles growing into your brain...

After quickly stacking over a dozen layers of Void Armor on his entire hand, Mima easily stepped forward, stopping the sudden slash with his bare hand. He then gripped the serrated blade tightly and smiled at Zaraki: "If you're still not awake, I can add a little something extra—"

Then, he swung his sword and slashed!

Accelerated by the "surging" forcefully pierced through Zaraki's spiritual pressure defenses, leaving a huge wound on his chest and abdomen, which were as hard as refined iron. Even his internal organs were seriously injured. If it were an ordinary person, this strike would definitely have knocked them down. However, Zaraki, as expected of a demon who had fought his way out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood, didn't care at all. He pulled the Nono Satsuki out of Mima's hand and then laughed loudly as he unleashed an even more powerful attack.

Mijin easily dodged it by using a "misalignment" technique.

The spiritual pressure reserves are enough for about thirty uses of "Misalignment," which is great; enough to show off for a while.

"How strange..."

Thinking of this, Mima stood still, letting Nohiri's blade pierce through his body several times, then sighed softly, "I really don't understand how you, with your strength, almost killed Unohana—did she hold back?"

The next second, a spiritual pressure storm more powerful than ever before suddenly erupted!

This is a trial.

It wasn't directed at Zaraki, but at Yama.

Zaraki was not afraid of any so-called challenge. He was a demon born for battle, and Mima's provocation could not shake his mindset at all—no, it should be said that it could only make him bring out a stronger fighting spirit, until he died.

The one who truly needs to find something in this battle is Mima himself.

He now possesses combat power that ranks among the top in the Three Realms, and his abilities are unpredictable and unpredictable. Apart from a handful of individuals, he has a chance of winning against anyone who goes all out.

However, he was not clear on how this "possibility" should be expressed.

To date, his fighting career has not involved any "difficult efforts".

He either fries fish or uses clever tricks—of course, he's happy to do that, since who would want to make something easy difficult?

But he can't rely on clever tricks in every battle.

Even with the system's help, he shouldn't be in this awkward state of constantly not knowing his own limits.

For example—how much damage can your ultimate skill actually deal?

A moment later, Zaraki thrust straight at him, his sword moving almost faster than the sound itself.

This guy is like a bottomless pit that never runs dry; no one knows how much power he has hidden.

But that's exactly what's good.

In a fraction of a second, Mizhen unleashed a low-output bolt of lightning upon his own body.

The electric current surges between nerve cells, stimulating muscles to exert far greater force than usual. With the added boost of this "surge," a set of actions that is nearly four times faster than normal is achieved.

The layers of cuts and cuts conform to the blade, creating a sharp edge shape and greatly increasing the weapon's durability.

Then, the light of the spiritual beacon flashed briefly in Mima's eyes.

The target isn't Gengmu, but Liuyue!

The image of the mental landscape appeared on the right side of his field of vision.

"Get ready, I'm going to use that," he said calmly to Liuyue.

"Whatever makes you happy." Liu Yue sighed as she sat behind her computer desk. "If I break down because of this, you'll have to bear the consequences yourself."

Then, the tip of Zaraki's knife was brought close to Mima's eyes.

He withdrew from the mental landscape, and with four times the speed, he deflected Zaraki's sword ahead of him, then spun around and slashed.

The attack failed; Zaraki barely managed to block it with the hilt of his sword.

Immediately afterwards, the two began to fight hand-to-hand with their blades, neither retreating an inch.

There are no elegant elements; Kenjiro's fighting style is all-out and unrestrained.

Like a wild beast fighting on instinct, and with his limited understanding of swordsmanship, Mima was simply relying on his superb reaction speed to tough it out.

However, since both of their power and spiritual pressure are higher than the average for captains, their sheer force creates a miraculous situation, resulting in a sword-pressing hell that is difficult for others to approach.

The land was dug up layer by layer, and the stones were crushed.

The turbulent air currents and residual spiritual pressure further fueled the panic among the residents of Rukongai in the distance, causing them to flee in droves.

A closely contested battle!

As the fight progressed, Zaraki grew increasingly excited, unknowingly increasing his strength. Within just a few minutes of the battle beginning, he was already more than 60% stronger than he had been when he first swung his sword.

But Mima is no less impressive.

As the Zanpakuto clashed, Ryugetsu gradually "lit up".

Like a red-hot iron block, the entire blade of Liuyue began to heat up, glowing red, and the power contained within it grew stronger and stronger.

This is what Mima calls his "ultimate move".

Although Ryugetsu's abilities are powerful, they cannot provide him with direct offensive capabilities. Perhaps Bankai will improve things, but until then, Mima will have to use his own methods.

That is, the demonic path he is good at.

From the very beginning of his training, Mi Zhen was curious about the underlying logic of the Ghost Path.

The answer is actually very simple—the essence of the Ghost Path is a "method of processing spiritual particles." Different Ghost Paths are like different formulas. Users input spiritual power into them, perform calculations according to the formulas, and then output end products with different effects.

In other words, as long as the formula is modified or a new formula is created, the "end product" will naturally become different.

Mi Zhen's modified version of the Void Breaker, the Tunnel Technique, and the muscle-stimulating Lightning Bolt are all similar things.

Now, he is about to use his own "new formula".

It's not anything complicated. He simply borrowed the common principle in the Breaking Dao formula of "processing spiritual energy into an offensive form," and then used Ryugetsu as the output port to infuse the blade with a massive amount of spiritual energy that can be converted into kinetic energy. Once Ryugetsu reached its critical value, it was all released during a certain attack.

Considering its immense power and the fact that it leaves no trace after use, this is essentially a budget version of Mugetsu.

He once tried it on a deserted island in the mortal world, and a single strike infused with all his spiritual power could completely cleave a small mountain in two.

—But that's the result of standing still and casting a spell. If he wants to use it in actual combat, he still needs the assistance of Liuyue herself.

It's like letting Liu Yue hold back, so that the slightest insignificant oversight doesn't cause the entire knife to explode.

The reason he's only using "Surge" for melee combat since the beginning is for a similar reason. Other abilities not only consume mana, but also require him to concentrate on precise control. If he's not careful, he might blow himself up before he can kill the enemy.

And right now he's fighting Zaraki, who's like a Super Saiyan.

They've exchanged over two hundred blows since the start. In the first half, Yama had the upper hand due to his speed advantage, but Zaraki quickly caught up. Now, their strength and speed are completely even... no, the balance of power is tilting towards Zaraki.

If one is not careful, this clone could very well be destroyed on the spot.

"Is there no stronger power?"

Zaraki delivered a powerful downward strike to Ryugetsu, cleaving through five layers of the Sky-Splitting Realm in one go. Mima, who took the hit head-on, was nearly smashed to the ground.

His expression gradually shifted from excitement to calm.

"I've gotten used to your attacks."

There was no falsehood in this declaration.

In his next strike, Zaraki unleashed power far greater than any of his previous attacks, shattering not only the Sky-Splitting Defense but also completely breaking down Mima's stance. As the blades clashed, Nohira slashed diagonally down at Mima's shoulder.

It's like cutting him in two!

This is a bit tricky.

Should we use a misalignment technique to dodge it?

No, the spiritual energy gathering has reached a critical point. If I get distracted and use it incorrectly, something might go wrong.

There's no other way. Although "removal" consumes more mana, it doesn't require much attention; you just need to set the time.

After making up his mind, Mima coldly watched as Noshiro slashed directly at his right shoulder. About 60% of the force was deflected by the air-breaking defense on his body, but the remaining 40% still easily cut through his muscles and bones like a hot knife through butter, and then turned him into Watanabe from right to left (Mima).

If the pain receptors hadn't been paralyzed by lightning a split second earlier, the intense pain would have caused the accumulation of spiritual energy to collapse instantly.

The two halves of the body fell backward, blood splattering everywhere, and fragments of internal organs scattered all over the ground. Anyone who saw it would think that Mi Zhen was dead beyond any doubt.

"Hmph..." Zaraki flicked the blood off the blade. "Is that all?"

Then, without pausing, he prepared to turn and leave.