First Stage?
As Ishikawa looked at the level on the system interface, a hint of surprise flashed in his eyes.
Originally, he had thought that to reach the First Stage, he would need 900,000 proficiency in Reishi, but he hadn't expected that merely his physique breaking through to 900,000 proficiency would already allow him to enter the First Stage in the system's evaluation.
Moreover, the moment his physique reached 900,000, Ishikawa could clearly feel a mysterious change occurring in his body; more precisely, it should be…
Reconstruction!
Ishikawa could clearly feel his body rapidly reconstructing, undergoing earth-shattering changes internally.
And this reconstruction didn't happen just once; with each experience, Ishikawa could feel his body rapidly strengthening.
In silence, Ishikawa lowered his head to look at his body, slowly raising his right hand and clenching it, a sense of power erupting from within him.
It was a very special feeling, one he had never experienced before.
It wasn't just the simple increase in power from before; it seemed to contain some kind of rule that he didn't quite understand, a rule that felt innate, even giving Ishikawa the illusion that he could destroy everything with a single punch.
So...
Ishikawa instinctively swung his clenched fist towards Aizen, who was dozens of meters away.
No sound was heard, nor was there any shockwave.
This punch seemed unremarkable, but the moment it reached its peak, Aizen, who was dozens of meters away from Ishikawa, showed a dramatic change in his expression for the first time!
The faint smile on his face vanished, and the pupil-shaped crystal between Aizen's brows glowed.
Almost simultaneously.
Boom—!
A thunderous roar erupted without warning, and the space in front of Ishikawa's fist seemed to collapse, revealing a faintly visible, distorted indentation in front of his fist.
This is...?
A hint of hesitation flashed in Aizen's eyes, and his brows conveyed a touch of confusion regarding the current situation, but before he could figure out what had happened to Ishikawa, he felt as if the world around his body was reversing at that moment, causing the ultra-Reishi wall in front of him to tremble, and then...
Crack—!
With a crisp sound, the ultra-Reishi wall he had formed in front of him instantly shattered, dissolving into Reishi and scattering.
A dull thud followed, and Aizen, who was in mid-air, was uncontrollably sent flying backward, sliding several meters before stopping.
"So that's it, you've increased the physical strength of your spiritual body?"
Aizen patted the dust off his chest and continued, "Although I don't know what happened to you, your Reishi hasn't significantly increased; you've merely achieved a qualitative leap in your physical strength. I don't believe this is a qualified evolutionary path."
After speaking, Aizen glanced at Ishikawa's empty hand:
"Is this the ability of your Bankai?"
Such a drastic change occurring after a confession could only lead Aizen to one possibility: Ishikawa had secretly activated his Bankai during the confession.
But...
"If your Bankai is merely this, then you've truly disappointed me."
"Bankai?"
Ishikawa said, "What gave you the illusion that I used Bankai?"
Upon hearing this, Aizen's brow immediately furrowed, not because of the meaning conveyed by Ishikawa's words, but because he had said similar words to Commander Yamamoto and the others earlier.
"I don't know whether to call you confident or overly arrogant."
Ishikawa grinned, revealing a strange smile: "But one thing is certain: as a villain, you are far too qualified."
As the saying goes...
Villains die from talking too much!
If one were to select the best villain based on this saying, Aizen would definitely be among the top contenders.
"Or rather..."
Ishikawa raised his hand and clenched it in the void, and Kokumei slowly materialized in his hand:
"Do you secretly yearn for someone to defeat you?"
Not preventing others from using Bankai, nor taking the opportunity to deliver a final blow, Aizen had, from beginning to end, been like a cat playing with a mouse, constantly giving his enemies an advantage.
This made Ishikawa suspect that Aizen harbored some kind of self-destructive desire.
"Someone to defeat me?"
Aizen did not refute but nodded: "The possibility you speak of is not entirely absent, and someone who can defeat me might indeed exist, but it is definitely not you."
Ishikawa paid no attention to Aizen's sarcasm; he merely held his Zanpakuto horizontally in front of him, a hint of purple appearing in his azure blue eyes.
The moment this purple appeared, it spread like a spark, eventually turning Ishikawa's pupils completely purple!
"Bankai..."
Purple Reishi completely enveloped Ishikawa, forming a towering column of Reishi, and an extremely eerie aura instantly covered the entire Karakura Town.
Upon sensing this aura, a strange look flashed in Aizen's eyes.
Because upon feeling this aura, his body actually emitted a signal of rejection, not from his will, but an instinctive biological repulsion and disgust, as if he wished to immediately eradicate the owner of this aura.
"Kokumei Mijaku!"
A voice as cold as ten thousand years of ice entered Aizen's ears, and the purple Reishi column enveloping Ishikawa's body collapsed with a roar.
Then...
Clang—!
The sound of swords clashing echoed.
Without any superfluous words, almost simultaneously with entering Bankai, Ishikawa appeared before Aizen and slashed down with his sword.
Aizen looked at Ishikawa, who was so close, and the strange look in his eyes grew even more intense.
He could clearly feel an incredibly terrifying power constantly being transmitted from the blade.
At this moment, although Ishikawa's appearance hadn't changed, he gave off a completely different impression, exuding an aura of extreme danger, as if warning others to stay away. His purple eyes were incredibly calm, yet being stared at by them gave Aizen the feeling of being watched by a ferocious beast.
However, that was all it was.
Even if pure physical strength was strong, it was still just a minor trick.
Mirror-like wings reappeared behind Aizen, and tiny purple crystals emerged on the surface of the milky-white solid Reishi covering his body.
Boom~!
Almost simultaneously with the change in his body, Aizen's already terrifying Reishi once again received a boost.
The blade that had been pressed down slowly lifted, and Kyōka Suigetsu, which had gradually become illusory after being struck, became even more solidified at this moment, as if it were a real Zanpakuto, and not a creation formed by Kyōka Suigetsu's illusion.
Ishikawa showed no surprise at this; he pressed down on his blade and retreated.
Boom boom~
Almost as he retreated, the torrent of Reishi erupting from Aizen slammed into Ishikawa like a waterfall.
An indescribably deafening sound echoed over Karakura Town, and even cities tens of kilometers away from Karakura Town faintly heard the colossal boom, like a bolt from the blue.
The terrifying impact spread out in a fan shape, and wherever it passed, Karakura Town, which had already been leveled, sank down by several more feet.
"Hmm?"
Aizen looked at Ishikawa, who was engulfed by his torrent of Reishi, and frowned slightly.
Something was wrong.
But he couldn't pinpoint what was wrong!
He just felt that when his attack landed on Ishikawa, there was a clear abnormality.
And at this moment, the terrifying torrent of Reishi suddenly paused; this scene looked extremely bizarre, as if a surging tsunami had suddenly stopped in mid-air.
Hum—
The next second, the void violently shook.
A huge purple slash directly emerged from the center of the Reishi torrent, heading straight for Aizen.
What exactly is going on?
Upon seeing this, the strange look in Aizen's eyes grew even more intense. This attack of his seemed simple, but the use of Reishi within it had almost reached its limit. Let alone a person, even Kogotu in the Dangai would be instantly annihilated in the face of his Reishi torrent.
Yet, his attack was easily split in two.
And...
From his observation, this slash clearly did not possess such formidable power.
Thoughts raced through Aizen's mind, but his hand movements were not slow at all; the condensed Kyōka Suigetsu dissipated, and the mirror-like wings behind him vibrated.
That fearless, dauntless aura once again erupted from his body.
Aizen simply pressed lightly towards the slash that had already arrived before him.
A strange sizzling sound immediately emanated, and the void around the slash suddenly sank, causing the already close slash to tremble, and then instantly vanish into nothingness, as if it had never appeared.
The clash between the two gave off a strange sense of silence.
It seemed to give a deceptive impression of extreme powerlessness, yet once any impact escaped, wherever the impact reached... whether it was mountains or the ground, everything disintegrated into countless dust particles in an instant, leaving not even a hair-sized speck of debris.
The entire area also showed a flickering, dark and light sensation, and even the noon sun became incredibly distorted.
Ishikawa and Aizen's figures completely vanished.
The entire area, at this moment, appeared incredibly silent.
Only occasionally could one see the afterimages left by their brief stops; some were clashing with fists and feet, some were colliding with blades, and some were withstanding Reishi with their bodies... and so on, displaying various forms.
These brief stops became more and more frequent, and eventually, the speed at which the afterimages dissipated could no longer keep up with the speed at which they appeared.
For a time, the entire sky above the ruins of Karakura Town was covered by dense afterimages.
In just a few tens of seconds, the two had already clashed countless times.
But even so, this battlefield still maintained a strange silence, only the flickering distortion becoming increasingly intense.
Nullification!
Both unleashed unimaginable destructive power, but the power each unleashed was nullified by the other, causing no impact or roar whatsoever.
The ground was sinking, the sky seemed to be rising, and the void was collapsing...
Black lightning, like countless giant pythons, writhed wildly, leaving behind black fissures wherever it went—a characteristic of space gradually collapsing.
Compared to the Reishi world, the material world is more prone to collapse, and time and space are more easily distorted and affected.
Just like when the balance of the Three Realms is broken, it is always the Human World that is drawn towards the Soul Society.
However, compared to the Soul Society and Hueco Mundo, the Human World also has other advantages: as a material world, it will not cause 'Reishi storms' or similar effects outside the battlefield due to the two individuals' Reishi.
At this moment, the Human World was like Las Noches during Picaro and Baraggan's battle, unable to withstand the full-power clash between the two.
But unlike the fragile Las Noches, the spiritual energy torrent generated by their clash was still confined to the vicinity of the battlefield.
If this battle had taken place in the Reishi world, the impact caused by this spiritual energy torrent would certainly not have been so simple and quiet.
However, this silence did not last long.
Boom! !
Accompanied by a deafening roar, the myriad afterimages vanished in the blink of an eye, and two figures simultaneously emerged from mid-air, both shooting backward.
Almost as soon as the two appeared, terrifying energy ripples, no longer nullified, spread out, causing the ground to tremble, and the ruins of Karakura Town, already lowered by one layer, sank down by several more feet.
Especially directly beneath the two, a bottomless, gigantic pit appeared.
Dust and smoke billowed up, drifting over Karakura Town like a sandstorm.
Ishikawa stood firm, a trace of blood overflowing from the corner of his mouth, his bare upper body covered with marks from Reishi impacts, and even Kokumei in his hand showed dense, spiderweb-like cracks. However, as he swung his blade, the white ribbon attached to the end fluttered, and the cracks on the blade vanished in an instant, as if erased by an eraser.
On the other side, several areas of the milky-white solid Reishi on Aizen's body had collapsed, but they were similarly refilled and vanished.
"So that's it."
Aizen raised his head, a hint of admiration in his gaze as he looked at Ishikawa, scrutinizing every inch of Ishikawa's upper body with an examining gaze.
He had to admit, the surprise Ishikawa brought him was truly astonishing!
Originally, he had only thought that Ishikawa's strengthening was merely a qualitative leap in physical strength, but in reality, it was more than that.
While his physical strength had undergone a qualitative leap, it also possessed a terrifying rule.
"The rule contained within your physical body, should I call it Reishi weakening, or Reishi resistance?"
Although Ishikawa's performance was outstanding, there was still a gap between him and Aizen, whether in terms of Reishi intensity or the destructive power he could unleash.
But...
He couldn't deliver a fatal blow to him!
It wasn't Reishi defense, nor was it the Arrancar's Hierro; instead, the physical body itself possessed a kind of Reishi resistance. Any attack driven by Reishi, upon landing on Ishikawa's physical body, would be dispersed and weakened by its surface, reducing the damage he sustained.
If that were all, it would be fine.
The most terrifying thing was...
After being attacked by a certain type of Reishi for a long time, the rule possessed by his physical body was like a person taking a certain medicine for a long time and developing drug resistance, making the damage that the same type of Reishi could inflict on him increasingly weaker.
And after layers of weakening, the attacks that finally landed on Ishikawa could be said to be reduced by nearly half, which could no longer cause much damage to Ishikawa's incredibly powerful body. Even these damages would be instantly healed by Ishikawa's own self-healing ability.
This ability of a physical body containing rules was no longer something a Shinigami's spiritual body could possess.
Compared to a Shinigami, the rule displayed by Ishikawa's physical body was more akin to...
A Quincy's rule!
If it were just that, Aizen could still inflict a fatal wound, but strangely...
Under Ishikawa's purple eyes, all of his actions seemed to be seen through; he would choose to endure non-fatal damage, but fatal damage simply could not land on him.
In fact, as the battle continued, he even had the illusion that Ishikawa was constantly getting stronger.
But Aizen knew very well that this was just his own illusion.
Ishikawa himself hadn't become stronger, but he had become increasingly familiar with Aizen, as if, during the battle, everything about Aizen was gradually being understood by him.
Thinking of this, Aizen glanced at the strange Zanpakuto in Ishikawa's hand.
It's not precognition of time, but rather analysis of the opponent?
"Hehe—"
Aizen smiled, his eyes radiating a light of exploration:
"I take back what I said earlier."
"You haven't disappointed me; instead, you've brought me a surprise, even a fright."
"For this, you are fully entitled to be proud!"
Ishikawa heard this and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. Although the impact of his Zanpakuto's Bankai had not been completely eliminated due to only his physique breaking through to the First Stage, this impact was actually no longer particularly significant.
At this moment, although there wasn't much expression on his face, he couldn't help but marvel at Aizen's insight and wisdom in his heart.
Because even he himself had only just gradually realized the rules his qualitatively changed body possessed during the battle, yet Aizen had analyzed them in such a short time and even thought of countermeasures, making Ishikawa feel a fatal threat several times.
After his physique broke through 900,000, the rules that appeared in his physical body were basically consistent with what Aizen said.
To some extent, it was actually very similar to the ability of a certain Quincy in Ishikawa's memory, except that it didn't require preconditions, but was inherent in the physical body itself.
And Aizen's countermeasure could be described as simple and crude: constantly changing the nature of his own Reishi, thereby preventing Ishikawa's physical body's Reishi resistance from further increasing.
It really isn't that easy, is it?