"Crack, crack, crack!"
Sheets of ice crystals rapidly condensed in the air. An ice dragon with piercing icy-blue pupils emerged from the void, circling around Qin Yi.
At this moment, he had completely unleashed the power of Hyōrinmaru's Shikai.
King of Hell… the Great Nether King… initial release!
This special ability allowed him to wield the abilities of most Zanpakutō, controlling them as skills of his own blade. Moreover, when facing other Zanpakutō, it could perfectly suppress them!
"Buzz, buzz, buzz!"
A bone-chilling cold surged outward, forming streaks of icy-blue lines around Qin Yi that shot forward at high speed.
Qin Yi raised his blade and slashed fiercely.
The ice dragon roared, swiftly weaving through the air, carrying waves of freezing energy that blasted forward.
"Puff! Puff! Puff!"
In the blink of an eye, the Hollows standing at the front were frozen into massive ice sculptures. Upon impact, they shattered into countless fragments of ice.
Qin Yi stepped forward, swinging his blade again and again. The biting cold froze everything around him into a crystalline domain.
"Flock of Ice Pillars!"
"Ice Dragon Tail Spin!"
"Vacuum Ice Blade!"
One after another, Hyōrinmaru's techniques were unleashed through the King of Hell. The destructive power they produced was no less than that of the original blade.
"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Explosions rang out continuously as the shadows within the Hollow horde rapidly collapsed, vanishing one by one.
After advancing a hundred meters, Qin Yi's King of Hell trembled in his hand. A grin spread across his face, and his crimson eyes gleamed once more.
"Next up is…"
A fox-like smile appeared at the corner of his lips.
"Shoot to kill, Shinsō!"
The King of Hell buzzed and trembled. In the next instant, it suddenly extended, longer and longer, reaching a hundred meters in a flash. It pierced through the first Hollow in front, then skewered five or six more behind it in succession.
"Excellent!"
Qin Yi laughed. The King of Hell retracted, then he murmured again:
"Scatter, Senbonzakura!"
Pink petals swirled into the air, forming a storm that surged forward. Two breaths later, they rapidly returned, and with a resonant hum, all the engulfed Hollows were ground into dust.
Taking another hundred steps, Qin Yi annihilated another wave of Hollows and continued his chant.
Since he was testing the blade, he intended to fully understand its abilities.
"Forget fear. Face forward with courage. Advance, never stop. Retreat only leads to aging; cowardice invites death. Call my name. I am… Zangetsu!"
This time, the King of Hell began to tremble violently. Qin Yi's crimson eyes narrowed as he realized the issue—his spiritual pressure was still too low to sustain such frequent use of other Zanpakutō abilities.
"So, is this the limit?" He muttered, his scarlet eyes suddenly widening.
"Not even close!"
"Buzz!"
The air shook violently as a vast surge of spiritual pressure erupted from Qin Yi. Black and red light intertwined and danced around him. At the moment he reached his limit, the King of Hell activated, helping him break through that boundary.
"Crack, crack!"
Bone-white fangs spread across his jaw, quickly covering half his face, making him appear ferocious and terrifying.
"Heh!"
With a faint smile, Qin Yi swung the King of Hell.
A pale white light flashed, rapidly forming a crescent shape before him.
"Getsuga Tenshō!"
With a low roar, Qin Yi slashed forward.
"Whoosh!"
The crescent-shaped white shockwave tore through the air, sending ripples through space before crashing into the distant Hollow horde in an instant.
Suddenly, the sky lit up. Blinding white light swallowed everything ahead, devouring all remaining Hollows.
"Rumble…!"
Only after ten seconds did the world slowly dim again. A thunderous explosion echoed as waves of force spread in all directions, sending ripples across the desert.
When everything settled, not a single Hollow remained before Qin Yi.
All of them had been completely annihilated during his series of Zanpakutō tests.
"Crack, crack!"
As his aura gradually calmed, Qin Yi took three steps forward. The bone-white armor covering his jaw shattered and fell away. His blood-red eyes gazed ahead. It was still an endless desert, silent and desolate. Yet at this moment, a strange smile appeared on Qin Yi's face.
"How powerful… can I actually become?" He suddenly asked himself that question.
Yes, even he, at this moment, had no clear idea how strong he could be.
The power of the King of Hell was simply too overwhelming. The fusion of body and spirit had transformed all the forces within him, Shinigami's spiritual pressure, the ominous essence of Hollows, and the power of starlight, into a single, bizarre energy adaptable to any attribute. This made the true extent of his power an unknown.
In battle, combined with the abilities of various Zanpakutō, even Qin Yi himself could no longer determine where his limits lay.
Slowly raising his head, he looked at the Zanpakutō before him… outlined in black, white, and red, radiating an ominous aura. His crimson eyes narrowed slightly.
"How many times can this blade help me break past my limits?"
Before becoming a Shinigami, his strength had only been comparable to a Captain-class fighter who had just mastered Bankai. But now, as the wielder of the King of Hell's body, he had truly stepped into the Captain level.
Even so, that still had its limits.
However, with the King of Hell in his hand, that might no longer be the case.
"Every time I reach my limit, it can push me beyond it, allowing me to witness a broader sky and greater power. What a blade… just thinking about it makes my whole body tremble."
A gleam shone in Qin Yi's crimson eyes, filled with shock and excitement at the weapon's abilities.
It was like a Super Saiyan growing stronger after surviving near death, but this King of Hell was even simpler and more direct. It could push someone who had reached their limit to a higher tier, letting them touch the pinnacle of power.
"And at the same time, what I must bear is…" He paused, the red in his eyes deepening. "The increasingly uncontrollable madness… and beastly instinct!"
Humans were, after all, animals. Whether the King clan's genes carried such savagery, Qin Yi didn't know. But all living beings shared instinct… violence, and the urge for war.
As the power of the King of Hell grew stronger, Qin Yi's self-awareness would weaken. Eventually, he might even be devoured by that primal nature, turning into a brutal monster that knew only battle and consumption.
This blade had come to him by chance, born in alignment with his identity, possessing terrifying power. But at the same time, the difficulty of mastering it was nothing short of hellish.
Even Qin Yi had to remain cautious.
This journey into Hueco Mundo (the Hollow World) was not only to test his blade, but also to understand just how far he could go in wielding this demonic weapon.
Stepping forward, Qin Yi moved swiftly across the desert, heading deeper into its expanse.
His goal in coming here was never the low-level Hollows wandering the outskirts but the highest-tier beings within Las Noches: the Adjuchas and the Vasto Lorde.
(End of Chapter)
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