In the underground base.
After the dim golden light dissipated, Sora felt an intense feeling of emptiness wash over his spiritual body.
The technique he had just used combined the skills of three extremely explosive sword techniques: Raikiri, Sekichō, and a wind-based one.
Its power was indeed immense; Miyamoto was killed instantly before he had a chance to regenerate.
However, the spiritual pressure consumption was also substantial. Since his own spiritual pressure had reached the captain level, it had been a long time since he had experienced such emptiness from exertion.
The side effect of this technique was not just the consumption of spiritual pressure.
Sora's entire left hand had lost all sensation, not even pain.
He looked at his left hand. The flesh of his index and middle fingers was completely carbonized and had fallen off, exposing the bones of both fingers to the air.
In addition to the two fingers, the rest of his left forearm was also scorched black.
The power of "Wind-Controlling, Thunder-Burning" was too great, and his left hand had been unavoidably injured during the charging phase.
Fortunately, Miyamoto was dead. Otherwise, he would have had to consider hiding in the shadows, relying on a Nōreitan for a protracted battle, and using his shadows to wear Miyamoto down.
Sora took out a Nōreitan and swallowed it, restoring his depleted spiritual body.
After some of his spiritual pressure recovered, his "Kaido Self-Heal" ability also activated. A faint healing glow appeared on his scorched left hand.
The injuries on his arm could be healed with Kaido, but the lost flesh on his fingers could not be restored by that spell alone.
He would need to prepare some restorative salves after returning to make the flesh on his fingers grow back.
Sora noticed that the skill description on his panel had been updated:
Wind-Controlling, Thunder-Burning: Blade Sealing Method (Transcendent level): You have mastered all the sword skills you have learned and forged your own path.
Sora had discovered long ago that the skill points awarded by the system had a limit; the proficiency level would not increase beyond Grandmaster.
Aside from the Transcendent-level cooking skill brought by the "Divine Chef" ability, this was the only skill that had reached the Transcendent level.
"Wind-Controlling, Thunder-Burning: Blade Sealing Method" was not limited to the "Ryūkō" technique. Other drawing techniques like "Senmaioroshi" and "Shunpo Iai" could also be performed with this method.
Swoosh—
Yoruichi appeared with Shunpo. She was about to ask about the stream of light when she saw the gruesome state of Sora's left hand and was horrified. "Professor, your hand?!"
"It's just a minor injury, nothing serious," Sora said gently.
"Let me help you bandage it!" Yoruichi thought he couldn't do it with one hand and quickly took out bandages from her tactical pouch.
"No need. The surface of this hand is carbonized, so it's not bleeding. It doesn't need bandaging," Sora shook his head gently.
Bandages would have no effect on such an injury; it had to be treated with healing Kidō first.
"It's so badly injured..." Yoruichi's eyes were filled with worry as she saw that the bones of two of his fingers were exposed.
"Don't worry. I'm treating it with Kaido. The lost flesh can grow back," Sora said, patting her head with his still-functional right hand to reassure her.
"As long as it can recover." Yoruichi trusted her Professor's healing skills completely and nodded. "Was that Miyamoto so strong that he could injure you this badly?"
"Miyamoto seems to have modified his own body. His regenerative ability was extremely strong. In this environment, ordinary methods would have had difficulty killing him quickly," Sora paused. "The injury to my hand was caused by my own technique."
"The technique you used was that beam of light just now, right? Was that 'Ryūkō'?" Yoruichi asked.
As his disciple, she could recognize some elements of the technique from the dim golden light.
That incredibly powerful beam contained an ultimate sharpness. Among all the Katori Style sword techniques, only Ryūkō had such long range.
"It was indeed 'Ryūkō'. It seems you haven't forgotten what I taught you," Sora chuckled. "It was a Ryūkō that combined the techniques of Raikiri, Sekichō, and a wind-based skill."
"Combining the skills of three sword techniques?!" Yoruichi was amazed. "That's too difficult! I still can't use 'Raikiri: Ryūkō' properly."
Yoruichi's own use of Ryūkō was not as skilled, so she couldn't use the combined technique. However, she could compensate with her Zanpakutō's ability, using it to release lightning when performing Ryūkō to achieve a similar effect.
"That's because you don't practice your swordsmanship properly," Sora said, lightly tapping her on the forehead. "Now you're jealous, aren't you?"
Ever since learning Shunkō, Yoruichi had increasingly preferred to use hand-to-hand combat.
Her fighting style leaned towards close combat, and she didn't much care for long-range attacks like "Ryūkō."
Yoruichi held her head and said aggrievedly, "I didn't know 'Ryūkō' could be so powerful..."
"You may not use long-range attacks often, but you can't be without them," Sora chuckled. "However, it's good enough that you can use Nekonaki to produce a technique with similar power. The Shunkō system also has a lot of potential and is worth developing. You're not wrong to focus on that path."
Yoruichi nodded repeatedly. "I feel like I'll soon be able to combine Nekonaki's lightning with 'Shunkō: Raikiri Form'. My explosive power and speed will increase to another level then!"
The lightning released by Nekonaki was stronger than that created by Kidō. By combining the two, the boost to her explosive power and speed in her Shunkō state would be enormous.
Just then, Yoruichi's Denreishinki buzzed.
She took it out and found it was a message from the two Onmitsukidō members stationed on the surface:
"Vice-Captain, we have an emergency on the surface!"
"A 'Gate of Hell' has appeared!"
The message startled Yoruichi. From the intelligence they had, Miyamoto was definitely connected to Hell. The appearance of a Gate of Hell at this time was not a good sign.
"A Gate of Hell?" Sora immediately checked the status of his 'Voice of Hell' and, as expected, found that it had detected nearby Hell reishi.
"Continue to observe the gate's activity. I'm coming up immediately!" Yoruichi said into the Denreishinki.
"We can get out from here," Sora said, pointing to the hole his attack had made. It led directly to the surface.
The two followed the hole and quickly reached the surface. Sure enough, they saw a door panel with a giant skeleton clinging to each side, floating high in the sky.
The 'Gate of Hell' was already open, emitting an unsettling Hellish miasma.
"The Gate of Hell really opened..." Yoruichi said in shock.
"Professor Katori! Vice-Captain!"
The two guards flew over. When they saw Sora, they remembered the terrifyingly powerful beam of light from before, and their worries about the gate were greatly eased.
"The Gate of Hell is collecting Miyamoto's reishi!" Sora noticed that a stream of reishi was flowing into the gate.
Although Miyamoto had been obliterated by the attack, he was still a captain-class powerhouse.
In this world, captain-class individuals do not truly die.
Whether in the World of the Living, the Soul Society, or Hueco Mundo, after a captain-class being dies, their reishi can be sent to Hell, allowing them to be revived there.
"Miyamoto was indeed connected to Hell. No one performed a Konsō Reisai for him, yet the 'Gate of Hell' still came to collect his reishi," Sora said.
"Can we interrupt this process?" Yoruichi asked.
"Unless we have a means to completely destroy reishi, it's probably impossible to stop," Sora frowned.
His current spiritual pressure was not enough to cast another powerful Kidō or sword technique to destroy the gate.
And even if he did, it would just reform. This wasn't the Soul Society; opening a gate here was much easier.
"It seems the 'Will of Hell' has the ability to forcibly open a 'Gate of Hell' in the World of the Living. However, those who fall into Hell have restrictions on their activity here. Otherwise, the 'Will of Hell' could have directly sent its subordinates to assist Miyamoto," Sora speculated.
He hadn't seen any sinful souls being taken away; the gate had simply appeared out of thin air. This indicated the 'Will of Hell' could force it open.
After collecting the reishi, the Gate of Hell slowly faded away.
"Well, that's a relief. I thought a horde of demons from Hell was about to pour out," Yoruichi said, sighing in relief as the gate vanished.
There were many legends about Hell in the Soul Society. For a spiritual being like Yoruichi who grew up there, stories about the horrors of Hell were something she had heard since childhood.
"It won't be easy for Miyamoto to replicate a research base of this scale in Hell. He probably won't be able to cause any trouble for a short while," Sora said.
Scientific research requires a supportive environment. Conducting it in the desolate landscape of Hell would be much more difficult.
Ultimately, one's own strength was fundamental. Sora was confident he could reach a higher level before Miyamoto could cause trouble again.
"You should have found the place where the data is stored, right?" Sora asked.
"We found it. They should still be collecting the data. I'll take you there, Professor," Yoruichi nodded.
The two returned to the underground base.
Of the Onmitsukidō members left behind, some were still collecting technical data from the lab, while others were guarding the elevator.
The Reigai on the upper level had long since noticed the commotion in the experimental area, but the only way down was through the elevator.
The Reigai who came down the elevator didn't stand a chance against the elite Onmitsukidō members and were all either killed or restrained.
Sora followed Yoruichi to the laboratory's data archive.
"Professor Katori! Vice-Captain!"
The Onmitsukidō members all looked at Sora with reverence.
Originally, they had wondered why he had been brought along on such a secret mission.
A mission like this should have been carried out by professionals skilled in stealth, assassination, and disguise.
Now they knew why—
If you kill all the enemies in your way, that counts as a successful infiltration.
For example, the reason they could now freely search the data archive was because the lab's master, Tetsuya Miyamoto, had been eliminated by Katori Sora.
"These few boxes contain the data we've organized. You can check if anything is missing," an elite member said, eagerly handing over a box of paper documents.
The Onmitsukidō had always held a good attitude towards Sora, as they believed there was a high probability he would become the Shihōin family's son-in-law.
"Thank you for your hard work," Sora said with a smile, accepting the box.
The data collection wasn't finished yet, and they couldn't leave immediately. With nothing else to do, Sora began to flip through the documents.
A moment later, he discovered Miyamoto's true scheme from the files.
Miyamoto had created hundreds of Reigai in this laboratory, developed from an embryonic phase.
These Reigai were very different from the ones they had found in the Soul Society before.
Miyamoto selected souls with potential from the World of the Living, used them as samples, and developed Shinigami Reigai from an embryonic phase.
These Reigai had no reishi data on record!
The 12th Division's reishi detector would be unable to find their data in the database.
In other words, these Reigai could hide perfectly within the Soul Society!
"It's fortunate we learned the location of Miyamoto's base from the Mizutani family... These Reigai haven't yet grown to a usable state. Otherwise, the Seireitei would have been thrown into chaos," Sora sighed internally.
If these hundreds of difficult-to-identify Reigai were to enter the Soul Society, the consequences would be unimaginable!
"It seems Miyamoto hasn't had the technology to accelerate the development of embryonic and infant-phase spiritual bodies for very long," Sora thought, flipping through the documents, looking for that specific technology.
A moment later, he found the data on the accelerated development technology in one of the boxes.
"Spiritual Body Growth Agent... The main ingredient is an extract from a type of Hollow?"
This discovery instantly jolted Sora.
He and Aizen had tried long ago to combine Hollows and Shinigami Reigai, but the Shinigami Reigai had inevitably undergone uncontrollable, monstrous transformations.
Yet Miyamoto's growth agent contained a Hollow component.
"The original Hollow specimen should be in this laboratory," Sora thought. He expanded his spiritual perception, searching for the Hollow's whereabouts.
The next instant, Sora used Shunpo to appear at the far end of the laboratory.
There was a door protected by a reishi barrier.
The shadow space dispersed, and Sora instantly passed through the barrier and entered the room.
Inside was a room of about one hundred square meters. In the center was a glass tank, much larger than the ones holding the Reigai outside.
The tank was filled with a nutrient fluid rich in reishi. Countless tubes passed through the glass, connecting to the soul floating within.
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