The Supreme Soul, Starting with Death

The next moment, the emerald green phantom flash, which had been charging up for a long time, descended from the sky, piercing straight through the centipede phantom's huge head, and still maintaining its speed, deeply pierced into the desert beneath the centipede phantom's body.

The centipede let out a defiant roar, and its towering upper body slowly collapsed like a felled giant tree, kicking up a cloud of white dust.

With a wave of its claws, dispelling the dust in front of it, Gu Shi looked at the dead centipede and couldn't help but click his tongue in amazement.

The head of this creature protruded more than 20 meters out of the sand, and the tail end was also visible for five or six meters. Even so, part of its body was still hidden under the sand. If we were to estimate, this centipede was probably at least 35 meters long.

[I never expected there to be something this big on the surface of Hueco Mundo.]

With a sigh in his heart, Gu Shi looked up at the seemingly calm bat, a slight smile playing on his lips, and began to use his claws to help smash the centipede's illusory shell.

The bat had its legs bitten off first, and then it used up almost all of its spiritual power to unleash a Cero after charging up for so long. It was obvious that it must have been extremely weak, but this guy was always calm and collected, so he wouldn't show it even if he was weak.

If we don't break the centipede's shell now, it would be too embarrassing if the bat landed and, wanting to eat something to replenish its energy, found itself too weak to even bite through the shell.

Although Gu Shi had a wicked sense of humor that made him really want to see the bats gnawing on their shells and grinding their teeth, this was Hueco Mundo after all. Who knew if another Hollow would pop up if they were delayed? It was safer to let the bats eat as soon as possible and replenish their energy.

Gu Shi chuckled as he smashed a piece of the carapace. Just as he was about to call the bats over for a meal, a terrifying red beam of light shot out from the ground. The beam, as thick as a water bucket, instantly vaporized most of the centipede corpse beside Gu Shi.

However, this was not the end. Immediately afterwards, countless red beams of light, like a torrential downpour, gushed out from the ground.

A beam of light grazed past Gu Shi's body. Before Gu Shi could even feel the pain, half of his body had already vaporized and disappeared.

Falling onto the sand, Gu Shi stared blankly at the forest of crimson pillars of light before him, a single word sluggishly flashing through his mind—

Phantom flash.

A true, illusory flash!

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Chapter Forty-Five: Annihilation

why?

Why are so many Cero shots coming out of the ground?!

With only half his body remaining, Gu Shi fell onto the sand, feeling more confusion than despair or resentment.

At this moment, the bat, whose body had been completely reduced to ashes by the Hollow Flash, with only its head remaining, fell in front of Gu Shi. Meeting those emerald green eyes, Gu Shi suddenly understood what had happened.

A little-known fact: Hueco Mundo is divided into two layers. The surface layer is a vast desert where few Hollows are active. Beneath the desert lies a vast underground space, known as the Forest of Hollows by Shinigami and rational Hollows, where a large number of Gillian (lower-ranking Hollows) are active.

The word "森" in "大虚之森" describes the sheer number of Great Voids there, as numerous as the trees in a forest.

Although Killian, as Hollows, possess power far exceeding that of ordinary Hollows and can overwhelm most Shinigami, the vast majority of Killian lack any rationality. This lack of rationality is even more absolute than the loss of rationality experienced when a soul undergoes Hollowfication.

By consuming souls, Xiaoxu can gradually develop a new kind of rationality, different from that of humans, and regain the ability to think.

However, if Xiaoxu fails to retain his rationality when he evolves into a Kylian, he will never be able to regenerate new rationality. He will then become a walking corpse, worse than a wild beast, relying solely on instinct to maintain his "living" state.

In the Great Void Forest, such "beasts" are almost endless. They live in groups, shoulder to shoulder, but unlike ordinary social animals, they do not help each other, nor do they have the instinct to unite. They simply gather together.

In a group of Kyrians, if any Kyrian is attacked, it will go berserk and attack everything around it. Naturally, any Kyrian that is attacked will react in the same way, and it will soon develop into a large-scale chaotic battle among the entire group.

As a Hollow, the strongest attack method of the Killian is naturally the Hollow Flash, also known as the "Cero Flash".

Therefore, if any one individual in a group of Kyrians starts spewing Cero, it will immediately trigger a chain reaction, causing all the Hollows in the group to start spewing Cero indiscriminately, attacking everything around them indiscriminately, creating a storm of Cero.

Looking into the eyes of the bat, Gu Shi, recalling these "common sense" facts, understood what the flashing lights and torrential rain in front of him were all about.

Just now, in order to quickly kill the centipede Hollow, the bat charged up a Cero with its maximum power. It is estimated that the surface desert here is relatively thin, and the bat's Cero unfortunately pierced through the surface desert and entered the underground Hollow Forest, and even more unfortunately hit a certain Kyrian.

As a result, the brainless Killian, when attacked, didn't even recognize the direction of the attack and immediately chose to retaliate, spraying a Cero at the Killian next to it. As a result, the entire Killian horde went berserk, with hundreds or even thousands of Killian starting to spray Cero randomly.

Thus, some of the upward-spraying Cero easily pierced through the thin surface desert, forming this torrential downpour of Cero erupting from the ground.

[...This is really bad luck.]

With his doubts answered, Gu Shi finally couldn't help but let out a bitter laugh.

"Bat, this time, we're probably really going to die."

Not to mention that in this storm of Cero, one of them lost half his body and the other was crippled with only his head, so they had no ability to dodge. Any Cero coming from directly below could easily kill them.

Even if they were lucky enough to survive the barrage of Hollow flashes, they would be in no condition to hunt anymore. Without sufficient spiritual energy to replenish themselves, they wouldn't be able to heal their injuries, and they would probably be easily picked up and eaten by other Hollows before long.

The bat, now only its head remaining, was not yet dead, but it had lost the ability to speak. A rare hint of resentment appeared in its emerald eyes.

Gu Shi was too exhausted to speak. He turned his head with difficulty, glanced at Erlang who was not much better off than himself not far away, and closed his eyes helplessly.

After an unknown amount of time, the Kylian swarm below finally stopped their rampage, and the torrential rain of flashes subsided. Gu Shi opened his eyes, and through his blurry vision, the bat's head was still intact, but its emerald green eyes had become cloudy, as if it had died.

Jiro, who only had one right paw and head left, somehow managed to crawl to his side using his remaining paw. As if lost in a sweet dream, he quietly closed his eyes beside him.

Further away, whether it was my imagination or not, I could see shadowy figures appearing. Clearly, many phantoms had been attracted by the commotion and were planning to come and take advantage of the situation.

Gu Shi had already resigned himself to his fate, but looking at Erlang, who hadn't tried to escape during the disaster but instead crawled to his side, and thinking that this stupid dog's body would eventually be eaten by some unknown creature, a strong sense of resentment suddenly welled up again.

His body, which had been numb, seemed to suddenly regain some strength. He moved his paws with difficulty and gently rummaged through the sand around him.

At the very least, Erlang should be buried.

No, let him get eaten.

Gu Shi, whose chest had been vaporized, no longer possessed his former immense strength. Even with all his might, he could only barely dig away a layer of loose sand and couldn't even dig out the shallowest pit.

At this moment, a small red shadow crawled down Gu Shi's arm. The little red lizard tilted its head and looked at Gu Shi in confusion. Its simple intelligence made it completely unaware of what was happening. It simply imitated Gu Shi's actions, waving its little claws and starting to dig a hole quickly.

...Little guy, did you not get hurt because you're small?

Run! A virtual group is coming soon!

Gu Shi wanted to express his feelings and offer advice, but he no longer had the strength to speak and could only continue to frantically shovel at the white sand in front of him.

Suddenly, Gu Shi's battered body was thrown backward. The little lizard looked up in confusion and saw a coyote-like creature that had somehow gotten behind Gu Shi. Its long, thin mouth reached into Gu Shi's wound and bit into the lung that was less than half left, trying its best to tear it off and eat it.

The little lizard stared blankly at Gu Shi. Seeing that he had no reaction and was still moving his claws to try to continue digging the hole, it tilted its head in confusion. So, it ignored the coyote and continued to dig in the white sand beneath its feet.

Although small, the little lizard was in good condition and dug the sand much faster than Gu Shi. It quickly dug a shallow pit and then scooped up a handful of sand from the bottom with its tiny claws. Suddenly, the little lizard was puzzled to find that the bottom was empty and there seemed to be no sand left.

Before the little lizard could figure out what was happening, the sand around the pit suddenly began to flow, rushing towards the hole below. The little lizard cried out in surprise and was swept away by the flowing sand, falling into the hole below.

Then, as the sand flowed, the already thin sand layer, which had been vaporized by a large number of sand grains from the flash rain, finally broke its fragile balance.

The small hole rapidly expanded, turning into a large pit in the blink of an eye. More sand began to pour down, and the coyote, who was enjoying Gu Shi's heart, suddenly lost its footing. Before it could react to what was happening, it plummeted straight down.

Gu Shi blinked blankly. The last thing he saw before losing consciousness was a dense mass of Killian figures below, clad in black robes and resembling walking corpses.

P.S.: The update is a bit late, but I'd still appreciate your votes and favorites!

Chapter 46 The Cycle of Flesh and Spirit

"Waaaaah, it hurts so much! It really hurts!"

What's it to me?

"I'll eat you all up! I'm going to eat you all up!"

It's so noisy.

"How terrifying! Where am I? Let me out!"

[Ugh, can't you just be quiet?]

What is one-third plus nine-sevenths multiplied by 0.23?

So annoying...

Ok?

Gu Shi opened his eyes in a daze, and what he saw was a big butt with only half of it left. Disgusted, he tried to move back a little, only to realize that he seemed to have returned to the time when he was crammed into a train during the Spring Festival travel rush. He was surrounded by densely packed "people" and there was hardly any space to move.

At this moment, Gu Shi's consciousness cleared up a little, and he recalled the reality that he had been hit by a Cero and lost most of his body.

So, I'm dead now and in hell?

[Isn't Hell in the world of Bleach only for the most heinous criminals? When have I ever committed such a heinous crime?]

[No, everything around here is virtual; it should be an virtual circle.]

With great effort, Gu Shi shook his head, banishing the strange thoughts from his mind. He finally regained full consciousness and carefully observed his surroundings, trying to figure out what had happened.

Within his limited field of vision, all Gu Shi could see were one Void after another. These Voids were tearing at and gnawing at other Voids around them like madmen, and his own body was being devoured by other Voids as well.

This seemed to be a frenzied feast of eating and being eaten. All the Voids were desperately devouring other Voids in order to survive, and the injuries they recovered from by eating were always being devoured by other Voids in the next instant. Once any Void dared to stop eating, it would be completely devoured by the surrounding Voids because its injury recovery speed was not fast enough.

These Hollows are clearly all distinct and independent individuals, but now, through this frenzied feeding relationship, a strange cycle has formed among these numerous Hollows. A vast amount of spiritual energy flows and circulates among the hundreds of Hollows, and they seem to have become a unified whole.

Gu Shi even saw that some of the virtual wounds, during their healing process, had grown together with other virtual wounds, becoming conjoined monsters.

[...Is this...the gestation of the Hollow?]

Once Gu Shi was fully conscious, he quickly figured out what was going on with this "grand spectacle".

When these Hollows finally eliminate their competitors in the cycle of devouring each other's spiritual energy, and only one Hollow is left to continue feeding, this mountain of flesh composed of hundreds of Hollows might evolve into a Killian.

Having figured out the current situation, Gu Shi looked down at his body and, sure enough, the wound on his chest had somehow grown together with the thigh of the other Void. Every time the Void connected to him ate, a stream of spiritual energy would flow into his body through the connection.

It was this precious replenishment of spiritual energy that allowed Gu Shi to quickly heal his injuries and avoid death even when he was bitten by other Void creatures while he was unconscious.

He silently thanked the unlucky guy he was connected to, then without further delay, he opened his mouth wide and bit down hard on the neck of a random Void creature next to him, tearing off a large chunk of flesh.

Although doubts still lingered in my mind, it was better to eat and think at the same time for the time being. I would start by eating in one direction to see if I could eat my way through this mountain of meat, and then move to the outermost edge to check out the surrounding area.

[By the way, did I just hear a bat's voice? Even though he only has a head left, he might still have a chance to survive in this kind of environment.]

[I wonder how Jiro is doing. Logically speaking, as a Hollow born of a canine lineage, if he hadn't fainted, he should have had a considerable advantage in this competition of eating speed, and his chances of survival shouldn't be small.]

[As for the little lizard, it's so insignificant; it shouldn't be drawn into this competition that breeds Hollows. Perhaps it's the safest place for it right now?]

However, how did so many Hollows manage to gather together?

[…Wait, so it seems the little lizard dug through the surface desert and we ended up in the Hollow Forest? Could these Hollows be the unlucky ones like me who were caught in the Cero storm, and the others who came later trying to scavenge?]

[Have we, these empty shells, just happened to end up in a pile?]

Well, I feel like that's unlikely.

Perhaps the Forest of Hollows, as the "primary breeding ground" of Hollows, has some special effect on ordinary Hollows, enhancing their desire to devour each other and become Hollows themselves?

[Then, when these Hollows fell, their locations were already quite close. Perhaps, influenced by the special effects of the Great Hollow Forest, they intentionally gathered together and devoured each other?]

As he was pondering, Gu Shi suddenly realized that the roars of the Void around him, which had originally only been heard in his ears, were now emerging from the depths of his heart as he devoured more and more Voids. It seemed that the thoughts of the other Voids had also become his own.