join the Church of MissRaven and become a Sequence 9: Reader p atreon.com/KeyofStars for more chapters
"Hadō No. 4: Byakurai!"
Ishikawa Katori pointed his two fingers like a sword, and immediately, lightning gathered from all directions, heading straight for a large tree several people could embrace in the distance.
Almost as soon as the lightning struck, the tree exploded with a 'bang,' leaving no fragments behind.
Looking at the broken section of the tree, as if it had been bitten off, Ishikawa Katori muttered to himself, "The power is probably only one-fifth of a fully chanted Hado. Is the 'Chantless Kido' level still too Low Level?"
[Hadō No. 4: Byakurai] Intermediate (3213 / 10000)
Ishikawa Katori frowned slightly. He had never stopped practicing Byakurai, but three months of practice had shown no progress, which made Ishikawa Katori hesitate whether to add all the remaining 136 experience points to Byakurai after activating Hakuda.
Although these experience points were like a drop in the bucket for Byakurai, which had already reached the intermediate level, increasing experience not only enhanced power but also provided relevant knowledge about Byakurai.
Perhaps among them, there would be a method to break through the current bottleneck or special usage techniques.
However, Ishikawa Katori ultimately gave up on this idea.
The intermediate Byakurai was already sufficient for Ishikawa Katori at the moment. Leaving aside spiritual pressure, Ishikawa Katori's mastery of Byakurai was already stronger than the Shinigami he had seen.
Instead of adding experience points to Byakurai, it would be better to find a way to learn more Kido.
It's just that…
The system could not directly allow Ishikawa Katori to choose to learn Kido. Only when Ishikawa Katori personally saw someone cast Kido could he see the activation option for the relevant Kido in the system in his mind.
Moreover, it had to be under the condition of a full chant. If the opponent abandoned the chant, no matter how many times Ishikawa Katori watched, he would not be able to activate that Kido.
Ishikawa Katori sat on the ground, his mind immersed in the system interface.
Physique, Spiritual Pressure, Hakuda, Shunpo, Zanjutsu.
If he didn't learn new Kido, he still had many choices.
Spiritual pressure, it could be said, was the most basic and most important, and at the same time, the most difficult and easiest to cultivate.
The most difficult was because no matter how one cultivated, progress was slow unless a large amount of experience points were invested; the easiest was because whether cultivating Kido, or cultivating Shunpo, Zanjutsu, etc… even combat could gradually increase spiritual pressure.
Without a large amount of experience points, there was no need to treat it as the main cultivation target.
As for Zanjutsu…
Ishikawa Katori felt a bit complicated about it. This was the skill he had practiced the most besides Byakurai, but now Ishikawa Katori was planning to temporarily put it aside.
The reason was simple: he didn't have Asauchi.
The so-called Asauchi refers to the nameless Zanpakuto, that is, the name of the Zanpakuto before Shikai. More than six thousand Gotei 13 Squad Members temporarily borrowed them while studying at the Central Spirit Arts Academy and were officially given them upon joining the squad.
When a Shinigami receives his Asauchi and spends time with it, his soul will merge with the Asauchi, and his own Zanpakuto will be born.
It is almost impossible to obtain an 'Asauchi' without joining the Central Spirit Arts Academy.
Unless, like Zaraki Kenpachi, he coincidentally picked up an Asauchi whose Zanpakuto spirit had disappeared after its owner's death.
But generally speaking, after a Shinigami dies, a squad funeral ceremony will be held, and during the ceremony, the 'Asauchi,' which has returned to its factory settings due to the owner's death, will be buried together with the owner's cenotaph.
Without an Asauchi, continuing to practice Zanjutsu would not be applicable in combat. He couldn't possibly fight with a wooden sword, could he?
It's not absolutely impossible to awaken a Zanpakuto without an Asauchi; Kurosaki ichigo is an example. The sword in his hand was always formed by White Hollow. White Hollow has the characteristics of an Asauchi, but it is not an Asauchi.
This, Ishikawa Katori also had no way to learn.
So, after careful consideration, Ishikawa Katori decided to temporarily set aside Zanjutsu.
Setting aside spiritual pressure and Zanjutsu, and without learning new Kido, the only options available to Ishikawa Katori were Hakuda and Shunpo.
As for physique…
To be honest, Ishikawa Katori was a bit unclear about the meaning of this item's existence. He had tried adding some experience to it, and the result was only a slight increase in physical strength. His strength increased without using spiritual pressure, and he didn't gain any new knowledge.
If it was just like this, raising it or not would have no effect. Anyway, spiritual pressure enhancement could achieve the same effect. For example, Zaraki Kenpachi's powerful spiritual pressure already gave him defensive capabilities comparable to an Espada's 'Hierro'.
As long as the spiritual pressure is strong enough, both strength and defense will become extremely powerful, making the role of physique seem somewhat redundant.
In the current situation where experience points are scarce, it is absolutely not worth investing experience points.
As for the remaining Hakuda and Shunpo, Ishikawa Katori planned to cultivate both simultaneously. While constantly practicing, he would equally distribute the acquired experience points to these two items. This was equivalent to having a renowned teacher constantly guiding him while he cultivated.
"That's what I'll do."
Having made up his mind, Ishikawa Katori stood up and patted the dust off his butt, then gritted his teeth and added all his remaining experience points to Hakuda.
Since he decided to proceed with both simultaneously, he had to keep both at a similar pace, because more relevant knowledge would make cultivation smoother.
The familiar pain surged again, and countless new pieces of knowledge instantly flooded Ishikawa Katori's mind.
Originally, Ishikawa Katori had always thought that Hakuda was just simple hand-to-hand combat.
But as various kinds of knowledge integrated, Ishikawa Katori couldn't help but be greatly enlightened, because this knowledge included not only fist and foot stances, attack angles, how to exert force, methods of applying spiritual pressure to the body… but even human weaknesses, acupuncture points, detailed joint explanations, and all sorts of diverse knowledge.
Its complexity was even comparable to Kido.
When everything was received, Ishikawa Katori's expression turned serious. As he stepped forward, his fists continuously swung in front of him.
His fists crossed, forming afterimages, and gusts of strong wind whistled out.
"A-da, da da da da da da da…"
Fist shadows overlapped, incredibly sharp.
Buzz!
The fist shadows disappeared, Ishikawa Katori turned around, and made a gesture of embracing something in front of him with both arms, saying indifferently, "You are already dead."
After a few seconds of silence, Ishikawa Katori retracted his hands, his mouth twitching slightly: "Hmm… sure enough, the old era easily makes people chuunibyou."
Never mind, no one saw it anyway.
After a brief chuunibyou episode, Ishikawa Katori refocused his attention on the system interface.
Name: Ishikawa Katori
Race: Human
Level: Eighth Stage
Physique: Entry (16 / 500)
Spiritual Pressure: Low Level (743 / 1000)
Hakuda: Entry (136 / 500)
Shunpo: Entry (145 / 500)
Zanjutsu: Entry (486 / 500)
Zanpakuto: Not Activated (Activation conditions unknown)
Kido:
[Hadō No. 4: Byakurai] Intermediate (3213 / 10000)
Special Skills:
[Chantless Kido] Low Level (17 / 1000)
Current Experience Points: 0
↓ Expand to view the Favorability interface.
…
Ishikawa Katori clicked on the favorability interface and took a look. There were dozens of people, densely packed. Most of their favorability was around 10-20, a few reached 40, and only a single digit number were above 50.
"Still need to keep working hard."
…
join the Church of MissRaven and become a Sequence 9: Reader p atreon.com/KeyofStars for more chapters