Chapter 62: Scouting Investment Projects in the Soul King Palace
Stepping out of the Soul King Palace, Ichibe Hyosube—the Monk of the Eyes—instantly perceived the gaze locked onto him. His expression tightened.
As the one who guarded the Soul King at close range, no one knew better than he whether the Soul King was truly stirring. He had dismissed the rumors of a "Secret Decree" as utter nonsense. However, he had to admit that the blood-red vertical eyes filling the sky possessed real merit. Even with his authority, after observing for so long, he could not fathom where this gaze originated.
But the Monk didn't dwell on it. To an old monster who had survived since the Era of Chaos, what bizarre occurrences hadn't he witnessed in his million-year life? Whether he understood the why was ultimately irrelevant.
A million years later, the Monk was still alive, and the Three Worlds still existed. That was enough!
Moreover, the priority now wasn't this mysterious gaze, but the existence of Ichigo Kurosaki. After careful observation, Ichibe had confirmed that Ichigo was qualified to be a successor to the Soul King. If that were the case, he couldn't let Ichigo and Yamamoto actually kill each other. Furthermore, the Monk felt it necessary to restrain and guide certain "troubling issues" Ichigo had exposed during the fight.
Meanwhile, sitting before his computer, Mo Yu was no longer focused on the figure rushing toward the Seireitei. Instead, he split his perspective to focus on the spot where the Monk had emerged.
Space rippled like water, the waves refusing to dissipate for a long time, vaguely revealing the scenery behind the veil.
To Mo Yu, this was an unexpected windfall.
The Monk had left the Soul King Palace in such a hurry that he hadn't properly "closed the door." Well, one couldn't exactly blame him. As an independent dimension, the entrance to the Soul King Palace was a defense system in itself—like a massive, ancient city gate, it required a certain amount of time to close naturally.
To the Zero Division, this wasn't a security flaw. Even during the closing phase, the defensive barriers were active; there were merely slight fluctuations. But to Mo Yu, it was a wide-open highway.
His gaze and authority were often a one-way interference that didn't interact with things inside the Bleach world. If he couldn't see it, there was nothing to be done. But once he saw it and there was a path, it was a different story.
Many noble houses had defensive systems—Kido seals or lost technologies from eons ago—but to Mo Yu, these were meaningless. His perspective and interference would not be obstructed by them.
As soon as Ichibe left, Mo Yu steered his perspective and burrowed inside. The view shifted instantly: a majestic cluster of floating palaces suspended in the heavens appeared on his screen.
The architectural layout of the Soul King Palace was simple despite its vast size. It looked like a spread-out octopus; several small palace clusters were connected to the center via floating walkways. The center featured a massive plaza and a soaring spire that pierced the clouds. The palace was almost entirely white, appearing exceptionally cold and desolate.
And indeed it was. As the hub of the Three Worlds, aside from some activity in the smaller palace clusters, the Soul King Palace was devoid of life.
The sight made Mo Yu shake his head. If the Soul King was the "God" of the Bleach world, then this was its "Heaven." As a 3D God seeing a fellow professional's Heaven—so vast and unique in design, yet inhabited by only a handful of Zero Division members—he felt it was a tragic waste. It was even more spartan than his own setup.
Once this place is under my control, Mo Yu thought, I must attract massive investment. I won't say how much it'll grow, but at the very least, there must be seventy-two long-legged Soul Reaper waitresses at the gate. I can't let God lose face.
As Mo Yu maneuvered his view to observe the palace, the other members of the Zero Division—whose bones and blood had been rebuilt with the Oken (Royal Key)—sensed his gaze. They shouted in alarm:
"Dammit! How did you get in here?" "Intruder, surrender now!"
Mo Yu spared them a glance but ignored them, driving his perspective toward the central high tower. The Zero Division members rushed over, using various means to obstruct him, but the result was unquestionable.
So far, only Yhwach had managed to resist Mo Yu's interference by accidentally constructing a "World Barrier" through his domain. But even then, he had only blocked the interference; against the gaze falling from the heavens, even with the eyes of The Almighty, Yhwach had been helpless.
After several futile attempts, the Zero Division members watched Mo Yu's gaze enter the tower, but they dared not follow. Although they were few, their internal management was strict. They were mere members; they were not permitted to approach the Soul King. Only that old monster, the Monk of the Eyes, had the right to enter and exit the King's tower. Realizing the Monk was gone, they could only rush to send him a message.
The tower served as the Soul King's residence, but Mo Yu found it surprisingly rudimentary. It was divided into many floors, but each was empty save for a large number of mysterious talismans and mechanisms. It looked like an unfinished "shell" of a house.
Mo Yu shook his head. The Zero Division didn't lack money; why make the Soul King live in a construction site? At least paint the walls.
He moved upward until he finally reached the Linchpin of the Three Worlds: The Soul King.
In a vast, empty hall, a massive crystal, translucent as amber, sat quietly. Within the crystal, the limb-less Soul King was sealed.
In terms of appearance, the Soul King was unremarkable—neither ugly nor handsome, looking somewhere between a youth and a middle-aged man. But his eyes were extraordinary. There were no whites or pupils, only an endless black, deep as the night sky and profound as chaos.
Mo Yu lowered his gaze, coming face-to-face with the Soul King. He was quite interested in this "peer" who only appeared once in the entire series, died upon entry, and never had a single line of dialogue, yet whose existence tied the entire plot together. Mo Yu greeted him according to Eastern tradition:
"Friend, have you eaten?" "..." "Friend, your 'Heaven' has a nice environment. Interested in some investment? I can help you develop this place. I guarantee it'll become the top super-business district in the Bleach world." "..."
The Soul King gave no reaction, looking like a soul-less salted fish, staring blankly ahead.
Mo Yu wasn't surprised. While Bleach was one of the "Big Three" shonen manga, it had flaws—cryptic plotting and missing lore being chief among them. By the end of the first run, most readers had no idea what the Soul King was, why Aizen was obsessed with the Oken, or what Yhwach truly wanted.
It wasn't until the official light novels were released that much of the lore was filled in—such as how Ichigo's birth and destiny were subtly influenced by the Soul King. But for many readers, the initial "background character" impression was already fixed. The World Bubble reflected this: the Soul King here was a "humanoid salted fish" without sentience or will, existing solely for the sake of existing.
However, Mo Yu recalled the new Thousand-Year Blood War anime was currently airing with original scenes added to fill the gaps. In other World Bubbles, the Soul King might be different, but that had nothing to do with this one.
Still, Mo Yu didn't underestimate this "Salted Fish King." Even if his current state fit the audience's stereotype, he was the core of this world. He might be hiding things the World Bubble evolved just to bridge its own logic.
Take the Eternal Progenitor Hollow, for example. It was barely mentioned in the original work; 99.99% of the 3D audience wouldn't even remember it. Yet shortly after Mo Yu arrived, he sensed its presence and influence through Omniscience.
This was the result of the World Bubble's self-evolution. This world didn't treat the existence of Hollows as a "just because" setting; it provided a source. All Hollows were essentially spirits corrupted by the Progenitor, and their evolution was a process of drawing closer to it until they became vessels for its descent.
The World Bubble had evolved a self-consistent logic for the Hollow system. In a sense, this was a reflection of the collective subconscious of the human audience—the tendency to seek a rational explanation for the unknown.
In ancient times, humans explained natural phenomena through gods and demons. Today, fans obsess over the logic of anime power systems. For instance, the debate over a Saiyan getting heart disease led to the conclusion that "Ki" in Dragon Ball is a combat system that doesn't necessarily improve biological health. If you asked the late Akira Toriyama, he'd probably have a question mark over his head—to him, settings served the plot; whether they were "logical" didn't matter as long as the effect was cool.
But what are the benefits of this internal logical evolution? Mo Yu observed (mostly through the Omniscience authority) that it reduced "setting bugs" within the World Bubble. Many works use absolute or conceptual settings for impact. After logical evolution, these become concrete. The root of the Hollows is the Progenitor, not an absolute law of the World Bubble itself. If you kill the Progenitor, the Hollow system disappears, but the World Bubble remains—at most, it would just evolve a new Progenitor.
This was an optimization the World Bubble performed to maintain its own operation. The downside was that these "logical" settings often drifted from the original work, creating unexpected situations—like Ichigo's "Perfect Heavenly Fist," which revealed a meaning that forced the once-complacent Monk to rush down to the Seireitei.
Regardless, Mo Yu continued to stare at the Soul King through the screen, chatting one-sidedly while secretly using Omniscience to scout him out.
The Omniscience authority, knowing Mo Yu valued this, worked tirelessly. It pulled a bizarre set of medical equipment from Mo Yu's mind to perform a check-up, calculated data using metaphysical methods like the Lianshan Yi, and finally, to be safe, outsourced the data to an "Independent Third-Party Inspection Agency" for cross-validation to produce a (conclusive) report.
"Wait... where did a 'Third-Party Inspection Agency' come from!?!?"
Mo Yu slapped his forehead, his face full of bewilderment.
End of Chapter
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