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It was expected that the Hōgyoku would turn into a "coal ball" shape, so Aozaki Reiji was not disappointed, but rather delighted.
This indicates that the experiment is progressing in the right direction!
The crystal gradually calmed down.
There were no shattered or dissipated Souls.
The previous failures did not recur, which made Aozaki Reiji feel both surprised and excited.
"The experiment has achieved initial success, similar to Aizen's Hōgyoku, with an irregular outer shape and increasing volume."
Aozaki Reiji carefully examined the crystal in the vessel.
He finally understood why Aizen Sōsuke called this thing a treasure.
Who would be willing to call their own painstaking effort a coal ball?
Aozaki Reiji took the coal ball... no, it was a treasure!
He held the treasure in his palm, carefully examining this priceless treasure.
This treasure currently had no magical power.
This was something that no one could change through technical means.
It could only rely on quantitative change to bring about qualitative change.
It needed more Reio's fragments, and more Souls!
Time flew by, and seven days passed quickly.
For seven whole days, Aozaki Reiji spent most of his time in the laboratory, except for occasionally checking on Matsumoto Rangiku and others to ensure he wouldn't be considered a missing person.
Fortunately, during this period, Aozaki Reiji became increasingly proficient in operating the instruments.
And with a foundation, he only needed to integrate the remaining Souls into the initial treasure, so the fusion time was greatly accelerated.
Even though his intelligence couldn't compare to geniuses like Urahara Kisuke, Aizen Sōsuke, and Kurotsuchi Mayuri, repetitive mechanical work was as easy as pie for him.
After seven days of effort, Aozaki Reiji's treasure had increased in volume by several circles, with the jade bead reaching a diameter of half a meter.
There was still a gap compared to Aizen Sōsuke's "coal ball," but this was due to the quantity of experimental materials, not the technology.
Through the glass of the large transparent vessel, he gazed at the huge treasure, and his originally calm mind gradually began to stir.
After calming his mind, Aozaki Reiji took the treasure out of the vessel and placed it on the experimental table.
He first used an instrument to check the internal state of the treasure, confirming that the Souls were combined as Aizen Sōsuke had said, then gently placed his hand on it.
Aozaki Reiji's gaze sharpened, and he secretly thought, "It's as expected…"
Adding Kenpachi Kiganjo's Soul was still not enough; it was far from being a true Hōgyoku!
This was also reasonable.
If the Hōgyoku's needs could be met by just a few years of accumulation and one Captain, Aizen Sōsuke wouldn't have needed to search Rukongai for over ten years.
At least a hundred more Souls were needed, and an unknown number of Reio's fragments to satisfy it.
He estimated that the accumulated Reio's fragments needed would at least have to exceed the Reio's fingertip!
Aozaki Reiji calmly made experimental records, with not much disappointment on his face.
For Aizen Sōsuke, this treasure might not be very useful, but for Aozaki Reiji, this seemingly useless treasure held extremely important significance.
He still hadn't used Kurotsuchi Mayuri's Reishi isolation technology. If his guess was correct, this was a crucial step in shaping the Hōgyoku.
During a previous experiment of Soul fusion, Aozaki Reiji accidentally discovered that Reishi isolation did indeed affect the formation of the Hōgyoku.
This discovery made him suddenly realize that a seemingly casual move he had made had played a role!
In his memory, Urahara Kisuke's Hōgyoku did have a layer of isolation similar to a transparent film.
After Aizen Sōsuke combined the two Hōgyoku, it looked almost identical to Urahara Kisuke's Hōgyoku.
This indicated that the small treasure form was the true form of the Hōgyoku.
After recording the state of the treasure, Aozaki Reiji walked to another instrument.
This machine could construct a Reishi membrane that completely isolated Reishi.
After pondering for a moment, Aozaki Reiji placed the treasure inside it.
Immediately after, he sat down at the machine's control panel, took out Kurotsuchi Mayuri's research notes, and operated the control board.
Instantly, the machine began to absorb Reishi from the air, and Reishi rays, like lasers, shot out from the conical instruments distributed within the machine, quickly completing the framework construction.
The treasure floated in mid-air, swaying gently, as if trying to break free.
Aozaki Reiji seemed to hear the wails of the Souls, as if they wanted to escape this cage he had created.
He ignored them, silently pushing the lever to increase the machine's output power.
Reishi continuously gathered around the treasure. The treasure struggled hard, swayed for a moment longer, and finally stopped resisting.
Aozaki Reiji looked through the glass window, clearly seeing the treasure encased in the polygonal barrier.
The surface of the current treasure was still uneven, with strange textures resembling distorted, grotesque faces, which looked awkward and even gave a creepy feeling.
After watching for a while, Aozaki Reiji took off his white robe while muttering:
"Pain and wailing, not many people like them, and neither do I."
"Oh… sorry, I'm not mocking you. If it were me, I might perform even worse."
"It's just that I don't like pain, but no matter how much you wail, I won't stop, nor will I regret it."
"You don't have to worry either; maybe one day, I too will die on this bloody path…"
Dressed in his Shinigami robes, he slowly walked to the glass vessel, opened his eyes wide, and carefully examined the treasure.
Perhaps it was because it heard Aozaki Reiji's self-talk, The treasure began to change, its grotesque faces gradually disappearing, as if it truly believed his nonsense and was waiting for the day he would die.
"Isolating Reishi is indeed useful, but at this speed, it will still take a considerable amount of time to condense and solidify."
With a murmur, Aozaki Reiji's eyes narrowed slightly, and a hint of a smile appeared at the corners of his eyes.
"Solidifying alone is not enough; Reio's fragments and Souls are still indispensable, and there isn't a single Hollow Soul."
"But no matter what, being able to solidify it is good enough. A smaller volume is also more convenient to handle."
To protect this hard-won treasure, Aozaki Reiji walked to the laboratory wall and gently touched the floor, opening a half-human-high secret compartment.
As if still not feeling secure enough, he pressed inside the secret compartment again, and there was another secret compartment behind it!
He carefully picked up the treasure, placed it in the secret compartment behind the secret compartment, closed it, and activated the Kido mechanism within the secret compartment.
If the steps to activate the mechanism were incorrect, the secret compartment's self-destruct device would be triggered.
The treasure at this stage was very fragile; even an ordinary Shinigami could easily destroy it.
Aozaki Reiji had already mastered the technology to create the embryonic form of the Hōgyoku.
Even if this treasure was destroyed, he could reshape it; it would just take more time to collect materials.
He sensed it with his spiritual perception, and only after confirming there were no issues did he leave the laboratory and walk towards Seireitei.
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