Page 53

Page 53

"Go ahead, Big Claw Crab. We will never lose if we bet on the name of Tianpeng!"

At the other end of the arena, there was also a passionate roar, and a small crab-like virtual creature also fell into the arena in panic, staring at the big hamster opposite.

Soon, under the command of their respective "trainers", the two Hollows started fighting each other.

Gu Shishi was watching this "Pokémon Showdown" from the side, his heart full of speechlessness. In the animations and games, no matter how fiercely the fight between Pokémon was, there would be no scenes of blood spurting out or missing limbs. The visual experience and passion brought by this far outweighed the cruelty of "beast fighting".

But in the real world, the situation was quite different when two manic monsters fought head-on under the command of Lilinette and Tianpeng. No matter how Gu Shi looked at it, he felt that this was just a simple and cruel beast fight, and it had nothing to do with the beauty in his memory.

However, in the entertainment-starved Hueco Mundo, beast fighting is a great way to pass the time for the Hollows who are naturally devoid of compassion.

There is no psychological burden for a big void to kill its own kind, let alone a small void that is so fragile that it will die at the slightest touch and is not even considered a member of the same kind. In the eyes of Tianpeng and other big voids, catching a small void to fight beasts is probably no different from catching a few crickets to fight insects.

Even Gu Shi felt uncomfortable watching it, it was only because Tianpeng and the others insisted on giving those little Hollows Pokémon names, which made him feel like his childhood was dislocated. But if he really wanted to sympathize with those little Hollows... he really didn't have that in mind.

Beside him, Stark was also watching the battle below. Although the battle of these little virtual bullets could not compare to the effect of a virtual bullet fired by him even at the cost of their lives, it was obvious that because Lilinette was very happy, he was in a good mood as well, and even began to take the initiative to chat with Gu Shi.

"If this Pokémon world really exists, it must be a world that is very suitable for the Hollows to live in, right? There are battles all the time, and they fight every minute and every second. They evolve upward through endless battles and become stronger. In addition to the better environment, that world can be said to be a replica of Hueco Mundo."

The corner of his mouth twitched, Gu Shi rolled his eyes, and quickly corrected Stark's misunderstanding.

"No, no, no, there's a huge difference. In the world of Pokémon, duels are seen more as a form of competition and entertainment rather than a fight. Also, all Pokémon have a special energy that protects their bodies. Even though they will be defeated and knocked unconscious before the energy runs out, their arms and legs won't fly everywhere, and they rarely bleed."

"Really? But after hearing what you said, Gu Shi, I feel that the two worlds are more similar. Look at Lilinette and Tianpeng. Don't they both have no intention of fighting? They just treat this as a form of entertainment?"

Stark's personality is easy-going. He didn't get angry when Gu Shi refuted him. He thought about it for a while and continued to discuss with Gu Shi calmly.

"As for the energy you mentioned protecting the body, isn't that 'Steel Skin'? Even when a hollow with the Steel Skin talent fights, there is basically no bleeding. The fight can only end when one side runs out of energy."

After Stark said this, Gu Shi really couldn't find any fault for a moment. Could it be that unlike Xu who was forced to fight, in the Pokémon world, many Pokémon also longed to fight, and would even actively look for trainers for themselves in order to become stronger.

But for beings like Hollows, could it be possible that their desire to fight is lower than that of Pokémon?

So, after thinking about it, Gu Shi could only change the direction of his rebuttal.

"Let's put that aside for now. There are still big differences in other aspects, such as post-battle treatment. The medical capabilities in the Pokémon world are extremely powerful. As long as you are not dead, no matter how serious the injury is, you can be saved. It is precisely because of this medical strength that people dare to initiate duels at will and regard Pokémon duels as a form of entertainment."

Stark raised his eyebrows, and his spiritual power condensed into a sharp blade at his fingertips, leaving a scar on his arm where the bone was visible. However, as Stark pulled out the blade, the wound healed completely without even having time to bleed.

Although Stark didn't say anything, his meaning was very clear, "Let's learn about super-speed regeneration. Why do we need treatment? As long as we are full, can't any injury heal itself?"

"Okay, I don't deny that, but what about Poké Balls? People in the Pokémon world can carry several Pokémon with them for battle because they can put Pokémon into Poké Balls and compress them to the size of a bean so they can carry them around. Hueco Mundo can't do that, right?"

This time, Stark finally did not refute immediately. He thought carefully for a long time, and then clapped his hands as if he suddenly realized something.

"I was just saying that this description sounds familiar. About two hundred years ago, I met a Vastod who had a talent for collecting spiritual energy. He could collect all the spiritual particles of his subordinates into a small ball and carry it with him. When he needed to fight, he would release the collected spiritual particles and command his subordinates to fight."

Stark said, laughing uncertainly.

"Since that Vastod has this ability, it means that this method of collecting Xiao Xu is feasible, but we haven't found a way to collect it yet, right?"

Gu Shi knew that as they evolved, the Hollows would gradually acquire various peculiar abilities. By the time they reached the Vashtod stage, basically each of them would have some unique skills, like Bylergan had the aura of aging, Ulquiorra had the Black Hollow Flash, and Haribel could create and control water flow. However, what Gu Shi did not expect was that in the distant history, there had actually been an ability like the collection of spiritual energy.

Although it sounds a bit outrageous to collect an entire Void into a small ball and then release it to restore it, it seems nothing compared to Bylergan's ability to unconditionally age all living and non-living things, which mostly involves time.

It has to be said that the saying "an old man in the family is like a treasure" is really true. Gu Shi suddenly realized that even if he put aside his strength, Stark's hundreds of years of experience was itself a valuable treasure.

"...That's right. The essence of the Great Hollow's ability should be the control of spiritual energy. Since Vastod has mastered a similar ability, theoretically, we have a chance to replicate this ability."

As he said this, Gu Shi's expression suddenly became a little strange.

[…Now that I mention it, why does it feel like there is really no difference between Hueco Mundo and the Pokémon World? ]

[Then can I organize a Pokémon tournament in Hueco Mundo? ]

For some reason, the idea of ​​building a zoo in Hueco Mundo quietly popped up again.

Chapter 116 Reasons for Rejection

The zoo cannot be built in a short time, but a conversation with Stark made Gu Shi more determined to practice his spiritual power control ability.

All of Daxu's abilities are essentially the control of spiritual power. As long as you master the corresponding spiritual power control methods, you can simulate the opponent's abilities. There is nothing wrong with this statement itself.

However, if you want to control spiritual power to simulate the abilities of other great voids, you definitely need an extremely high ability to micro-manipulate spiritual power. If you don't practice well, with your current level of spiritual power control that makes it difficult to even learn the way of ghosts, it would be a pure pipe dream to want to simulate the abilities of others.

Moreover, as long as the level of micro-manipulation of spiritual power is high enough, even if you don’t imitate others and rely entirely on developing your own abilities, you will definitely be able to come up with a lot of abilities that are useful enough.

For example, the ability "Million Shields" that Aizen displayed in the later period of his life could stack a full one million layers of spiritual shields behind him, allowing him to withstand Ichigo Kurosaki's three Bankai attacks. However, the thickness of those one million layers of spiritual shields seemed to be no different from a thin layer of light film.

This is obviously a small skill specially developed by Aizen based on his extraordinary ability to micro-control spiritual power.

Therefore, you will never suffer any loss by practicing the control of your spiritual power, so just put in the effort and practice it!

Thinking of this, Gu Shi held a piece of bone in his hand and continued to carefully use his spiritual power to try to carve it into the shape of a rabbit.

This bone was taken from a small virtual being. Although it is a "bone", in the eyes of Gu Shi, who is a big virtual being, its hardness is no different from that of a piece of tender tofu. It will break if you apply a little force, so it is perfect for practicing micro-management.

Watching the bone slowly crumbling in Gu Shi's hands, Stark could understand what he was doing, but he could not understand Gu Shi's stubbornness at all.

"Gu Shi, if you want to improve your control over your spiritual energy so much, why do you refuse to become an Arrancar? As long as you complete the Arrancar, your control over your spiritual energy will naturally improve. I am the best example."

Stark is a man who keeps his promises. Since he had promised to help the person who provided the blue crystal formula become a Vastod, he had no intention of breaking the contract.

After all, this is not a difficult task for him. As long as he does not restrain his spiritual pressure and takes a trip to the Great Hollow Forest, he can kill a lot of Yachukas. If he is lucky, he can even get one or two Vastods.

As long as all these corpses are eaten, it will only take a blink of an eye for Killian to evolve into Vastrod. The only limiting condition is probably Gu Shi's stomach capacity and digestion speed.

However, neither Gu Shi, who left the formula, nor Tian Peng, who researched the formula, seemed to intend to quickly become Vastod in this way.

The reason given by Gu Shi is:

"For the Great Hollows who are made entirely of spiritual energy, spiritual energy is both their body and their spirit. If they continuously devour a spiritual body that is much stronger than themselves without sufficient time to digest it, it is easy for their spirit to deviate and eventually turn themselves into a madman who is completely different from the past."

This conclusion was reached by Gu Shi during his previous discussion with Urahara Kisuke.

At that time, they were discussing whether the clone could inherit the memory of the original body, and Gu Shi mentioned a rumor he had heard in his previous life -

After completing an organ transplant, some people will have an inappropriate sense of déjà vu about some things that they have never come into contact with but are familiar to the organ donor, and even to a certain extent, inherit the organ donor's personality.

Urahara Kisuke therefore agreed with the view that "in addition to the soul, the body also stores some memories", and further raised the question: If the soul undergoes an "organ transplant", will the phenomenon of memory and spiritual inheritance become more obvious?

As a man of action, Urahara Kisuke has strong hands-on ability. On the night he raised the question, he conducted an experiment. He first captured a Hollow and tortured and intimidated it repeatedly, causing the Hollow to develop a strong fear of him.

Then, he cut off the limbs of this Hollow and used Kaido to forcibly connect them to another Hollow. The Hollow whose legs were replaced was in a coma throughout the entire process, from capture to leg replacement, and had never seen Urahara Kisuke's face.

When the leg change was completed, the little Hollow was awakened and immediately showed extreme fear towards Urahara Kisuke, whom he had never seen before. However, he did not have a very obvious reaction towards Asido, who was also a god of death. He was just a little wary.

Urahara Kisuke concluded that, although the experiment had not been repeated many times, the result of this experiment was enough to prove that "organ transplantation" at the soul level would indeed lead to a spiritual inheritance relationship. While the Hollow was devouring other souls' spirit particles, it was actually also absorbing the spirits of other souls.

Later, based on this conclusion, Urahara Kisuke speculated that the Hollow, as a "gap in the soul", appeared for this purpose. Not only would it cause the Hollow itself to lose certain emotions, but the external emotions it swallowed would also flow out from this gap to ensure the purity of the Hollow itself.

Gu Shi still agreed with Urahara Kisuke's unfounded guess, because when he heard this guess, he immediately thought of the process of Kyon's evolution into Killian.

It stands to reason that when evolving towards a higher life form, the later the link, the more dangerous it should be. However, in the evolutionary chain of Hollows, it is the most dangerous at the very beginning. After most of the small Hollows evolve into Killian, it is difficult for them to retain their self-awareness. This counter-intuitive phenomenon can be reasonably explained by applying Urahara Kisuke's conjecture.

Hundreds of spirits devour each other in a short period of time, and hundreds of spirits gather in one body. If the strength of these spirits is not much different, they will definitely consume and influence each other, and no one can take the lead.

This will result in all the hollow spirits being identified by the body as "external spirits" that have been swallowed, and thus all flowing out of the hollow hole, ultimately leaving only a large hollow body without any consciousness, becoming the idiot Killian that is everywhere in the Great Hollow Forest.

Only when there is an absolutely powerful spirit among hundreds of hollows that can still exist stably even when the spirits of all other individuals flow out of the hollow and disappear, will Killian with self-awareness be born.

When Gu Shi rejected Stark, he did not try to be mysterious or hide anything. He told Stark all the speculations, and Stark expressed his understanding.

He wanted to help Gu Shi become Vastod in order to repay his kindness. If his kindness would have an adverse effect on Gu Shi, he would certainly not insist on it.

So, after expressing his understanding, Stark proposed to create a few more blue crystals himself to help Gu Shi and the others complete their Hollows.

After all, becoming an Arrancar is also a good way to improve your strength. In terms of combat flexibility, Arrancar has more advantages than simple evolution.

But strangely, Gu Shi did not accept this proposal, and this time, he did not give a reason.

Chapter 117: Four Souls Jade or Philosopher's Stone?

The reason why Gu Shi refused to become an Arrancar immediately was actually very simple. He was just worried. When he was watching Bleach in his previous life, he actually had this thought:

Aizen had been planning in Hueco Mundo for over a hundred years, and it was obvious that he had started researching the Hogyoku very early on. So, excluding those incomplete Arrancar experiments, the earliest batch of mature Arrancar should have been around for at least a few decades by the time the story begins, right?

But why haven't any of those original Arrancar evolved in these decades?

Judging from the memories of the 30th Espada, Harribel, one of Bylergan's subordinates, Achukas, who had not even become a complete Arrancar and could only be considered a half-Arrancar, was able to easily defeat her, Vastod. It is conceivable how much the Arrancarization can improve the strength of the Hollow.

Logically speaking, those first batch of Arrancars with huge first-mover advantage, if they were determined, should be able to eat anyone they wanted, even in the entire Hueco Mundo. They could easily hunt even Vastod. It should not be difficult for them to accumulate the spiritual energy needed for evolution.

But the fact is, none of the Hollows that turned into Arrancars were able to continue evolving, and many of the earliest Espadrilles were eliminated and numbered into the hundredth place. The few who were able to remain among the Espadrilles were there because they were already very powerful, rather than having new breakthroughs and evolving to a higher level after taking the position of the Espadrilles.

Even the ninth seat, the only one who squeezed into the ranks of the Ten Espada as Killian because of his special abilities, remained at the level of Killian until his death.

Then, Gu Shi had to make such a guess——

Becoming an Arrancar will result in the loss of the ability to evolve!

The Arrancars may still be able to accumulate spiritual energy and improve their strength, but the path for the evolution of their life forms is completely cut off the moment they complete the Arrancar.

Gu Shi didn't know if his guess was right or not. Maybe he was just overthinking it, but he was unwilling to gamble with himself or his friends on this possibility.

Anyway, it will probably take another one or two hundred years for Aizen to master his magic and come to Hueco Mundo to cause trouble. Instead of rushing to evolve, it is better to first steadily complete the evolution of the Hollows and evolve steadily to the level of Valstrode or even Stark, and then consider the matter of the Arrancar.

But Gu Shi didn't dare to tell Stark for this reason. After all, as Stark's half, although Lilinette should theoretically be at the same life level as Stark, Vastod, her actual strength was only at Killian's level.

If Stark were told that Lilinette's path was blocked and she could no longer evolve, even if Stark did not take his anger out on others, as long as he lost control of his emotions and his spiritual pressure leaked a little, those around him like Gu Shi would have no chance of survival.

So, for the sake of his own life, Gu Shi decided to be a Riddler for once and not tell Stark the reason for refusing to be an Arrancar.

"Well, Stark, just think of me as being too proud and planning to Arrancar on my own, without the help of others."

He responded perfunctorily, and because of his distraction, the spiritual pressure in Gu Shi's hand became a little chaotic. All of a sudden, the bone, which could barely be seen in the shape of a rabbit, immediately turned into a pile of powder and fell on the white sand dunes below, mixing with the pale gravel, making it impossible to distinguish between them.

After squeezing his palms which were empty except for air, Gu Shi made an unhappy sound, stood up and planned to find another Hollow to take its bones. Stark looked at Lilinette who was still enthusiastically fighting Pokémon over there, hesitated for a moment, then stood up and followed Gu Shi.

"Gu Shi, no matter what, you have to make a few requests of me so that I can have a chance to repay you, otherwise I will always feel that I owe you. Don't you want to be friends with me? This kind of relationship of indebtedness cannot develop into a normal friendship."

Gu Shi has his own reasons, and Stark has his own stubbornness. Although he would definitely not force Gu Shi to break his mask if Gu Shi refused, he also couldn't accept that he would do nothing and let such an important matter as Gu Shi helping him break his mask be easily forgotten.

When Stark mentioned making friends, Gu Shi finally took it seriously. He frowned and thought as he walked. After a long time, he finally made up his mind.

"How about this, although I don't plan to become an Arrancar so soon, I am interested in studying it. Stark, can you help me get a few Arrancars to use as my experimental subjects? Yeah, let's use the Hollows. I don't think I can beat an Arrancar of Killian's level. If you leave by then, we won't know who is studying who."

As he spoke, Gu Shi had a new inspiration and suddenly became excited. He continued speaking with some excitement.

"By the way, if possible, you can send a few more Arrancars to Tianpeng. If you use the Arrancars as materials for alchemy, maybe you can come up with something new. If she can refine a Four Souls Jade or a Philosopher's Stone, that would be interesting."

Stark didn't know what the Four Souls Jade and the Philosopher's Stone were about, but he could tell that Gu Shi was not just trying to fool him and really wanted a few Arrancars, so he nodded with satisfaction.

"Okay, if we're just helping the little Hollow Arrancar, the blue crystals made by Killian should be enough. I'm going to the Great Hollow Forest to collect materials. Please say hello to Lilinette for me. I'll be back soon."