In the underground cave, Yoru Chikao had already devoured the Crocodile that had come to his doorstep. At this moment, he stretched his body completely, his centipede-like tail wrapping around a nearby rock pillar, and dark golden spiritual pressure surged throughout his body.
His aura was rapidly climbing, reaching its peak in an instant. A dark golden light pillar shot up from the underground cave, burst through the sand, and soared into the sky, startling even Haruto, who was waiting in the desert for Yoru Chikao to break through.
"Roar!"
With the eruption of this dark golden light pillar, some of the New Void and powerful Virtual in the vicinity felt a spiritual pressure no less than that of a Gillian, and were so frightened that they scattered and fled!
Not far away, a Giant Hollow, over five meters tall, with a wingspan exceeding thirty meters, and four wings on its back—neither quite a moth nor quite a bird—looked in Yoru Chikao's direction with a hint of joy, then flew directly towards him.
"This is a Giant Hollow ascending to a Gillian! Why would a Gillian appear in the New Territory? Indeed, Heaven helps me! This is the weakest moment for this Gillian. If I can devour it, I will surely become a Gillian!"
Tirus Sandavichi thought of this and couldn't help but speed up his flight.
Apparently, she mistook Yoru Chikao for a Gillian undergoing ascension.
"Woof woof woof!"
At this moment, the dark golden spiritual pressure light pillar began to slowly recede. As Tirus Sandavichi approached, Haruto, who was originally waiting outside the sand layer, felt the immense spiritual pressure nearing, and anxiously called out to Yoru Chikao.
"Chirp chirp!"
In the next instant, the sky seemed to darken instantly. Tirus Sandavichi had already arrived, her wings like clouds covering the sky. Feeling the massive presence above, Haruto barked even more anxiously.
Two iron feathers, like steel blades, sliced down from her wings, intending to kill the troublesome dog-shaped Hollow below. Haruto reacted very nimbly, performing a roll and narrowly dodging the two iron feathers.
"Woof woof woof!"
Even as the iron feathers targeted him, Haruto did not forget to anxiously warn Yoru Chikao.
Seeing how slippery this little dog was, Tirus Sandavichi bothered no longer with the insignificant dog-shaped Hollow.
Instead, she directly swooped down towards the spiritual pressure light pillar that was about to dissipate.
She wanted to devour this newly ascended Gillian at its weakest moment.
"Iron Swallow Feather Kill!"
Tirus Sandavichi flicked her wings again, and dozens of iron feathers, like arrows, shot towards the very center of the light pillar.
Relying on this trump card, she had defeated countless Giant Hollows of the same rank. Now, using this move against a newly ascended Gillian, she was confident it would be no problem, as most Gillians were mindless idiots.
However, the anticipated scene of countless iron feathers piercing flesh and causing that 'Gillian' to let out painful roars did not occur. Instead, there was a clang of metal.
Immediately after, the smoke and dust dispersed, revealing a half-human Hollow with golden tattoos covering its body, over twenty meters long, with a humanoid upper body and a centipede-like lower body.
Tirus Sandavichi's gaze instantly froze.
"It's not a Gillian! It's a Giant Hollow like me? But this spiritual pressure is at the Gillian level!"
Without time to think further, and knowing that the strange Giant Hollow before her was not to be trifled with, she unleashed another Iron Swallow Feather Kill, aiming at the Hollow's most vulnerable eyes.
Seeing dozens of iron feathers approaching again, Yoru Chikao neither dodged nor evaded, seemingly not putting these iron feathers in his eyes at all.
"Clang clang clang!"
With a flick of Yoru Chikao's right arm, the dozens of iron feathers were blocked. Tirus Sandavichi saw that her iron feathers, which she was so proud of among her peers, didn't even leave a single mark on his right arm, and her heart immediately sank.
"Can we reconcile?"
Tirus Sandavichi tentatively spoke. All previous indications showed that this half-human Hollow should possess intelligence, just like her.
"First, you attacked my pet, then you interfered with my advancement. Now you say you want to reconcile? Are you joking?!"
Yoru Chikao looked at the Giant Hollow that spoke human words in the sky and spoke coldly.
"We can go hunt other mindless Hollows together. We can even take down Gillians if we team up!"
Tirus Sandavichi continued to try and tempt him, unwilling to give up.
"More meaningless nonsense. Is it true that the higher the intelligence, the more afraid of death?"
Yoru Chikao, however, shook his head disdainfully. Immediately, his giant tail swung, and a lightning whip shot out from his tail, striking directly at the large bird in the air.
"Chirp!"
Tirus Sandavichi was struck by this extremely fast lightning whip and fell from high in the sky, crashing heavily onto the sand.
Then, Yoru Chikao used Sonido, instantly teleporting in front of Tirus Sandavichi, placing his right hand on her bird head, and unleashing a Cero.
"Bang!"
A massive explosion echoed, accompanied by swirling smoke and dust.
Immediately after, a hurricane rose from the ground, and Tirus Sandavichi, with a bloody hole in her head, rapidly flapped her wings and retreated at high speed, hoping to put distance between herself and Yoru Chikao.
Unfortunately, all was in vain. In front of Yoru Chikao, who had already mastered Sonido, Tirus Sandavichi's proud speed was simply negligible.
"Impossible! You're not even a Gillian, so why do you possess Sonido and Cero?!" Tirus Sandavichi, seeing Yoru Chikao continuously use Cero and Sonido, instantly lost all will to resist.
"Tirus Sandavichi is willing to submit to you and serve you as her master, my powerful master!"
Yoru Chikao, who was about to deliver a killing blow, instantly stopped when he heard the bird-shaped Hollow's words.
"Your name is Tirus Sandavichi?"
"That's right, my future master!"
After receiving the bird-shaped Hollow's affirmative answer, Yoru Chikao could not hide his excitement.
However, he still didn't plan to let the bird-shaped Hollow go. Immediately, his centipede tail flicked, and another thick lightning whip shot out. Seeing this, Tirus Sandavichi's four broad wings on her back detached themselves. She actually chose to permanently abandon her organs to temporarily gain explosive movement speed, hoping to evade Yoru Chikao's lightning whip attack.
Yoru Chikao observed with interest Tirus Sandavichi, who now looked somewhat strange as a wingless bird after shedding her wings.
"She's decisive!"
This act of self-mutilation did allow Tirus Sandavichi to dodge one lightning whip, but what about the second?
Yoru Chikao followed with Sonido and unleashed another lightning whip. Tirus Sandavichi, however, was not afraid. Gritting her teeth, her tail, like a long whip, met the lightning whip.
"Sizzle!"
The lightning whip, like an unparalleled divine blade, directly severed Tirus Sandavichi's cautious tail. Immediately, Yoru Chikao struck decisively, gripping the bird's head with both hands and twisting sharply. Tirus Sandavichi was instantly decapitated.
He then carefully examined the posture of this giant bird, confirming that it matched Tirus Sandavichi's appearance in the original work.
It should be noted that in the original work, Tirus Sandavichi was a former Espada member, NO.105, who became an Arrancar from an Adjuchas.
However, at this time, she was not even a Gillian, clearly indicating that the current timeline Yoru Chikao was in was still a long way from the original story. This meant he had a long period of time to develop.
This way, he would have the capital to gain more advantages in the original story and ultimately achieve his goal of transcendence.
In the original work, Tirus Sandavichi had quite a significant role. She first appeared in the Arrancar arc, was defeated by Ishida Uryū, and then was resurrected as a zombie by Mayuri Kurotsuchi to fight against the Quincy in the Thousand-Year Blood War. However, now she was killed by Yoru Chikao before she even had a chance to grow.
This action would certainly have some impact on the original storyline, but Yoru Chikao couldn't care less about any impact.
It was her fault for provoking Yoru Chikao. Thinking of this, Yoru Chikao directly inserted his centipede tail into Tirus Sandavichi's corpse, and the massive bird corpse instantly vanished into thin air.
This was one of Yoru Chikao's new abilities gained after advancing to a Giant Hollow—Soul Eater. He could directly absorb the opponent's reishi through the mouthparts on his tail. From now on, he wouldn't need to ravenously devour his opponent's corpses every time, which would inevitably cause significant loss of the reishi contained within. Soul Eater, however, could perfectly absorb the opponent's reishi.
Furthermore, Soul Eater could also allow Yoru Chikao to permanently acquire one of the opponent's abilities, but this ability acquisition could only be used once. Therefore, Yoru Chikao had to be extremely cautious in choosing which ability to acquire.
Besides that, he also gained a second new ability—Clone: He could split his own physical body to create a clone that shared the same soul. However, splitting a clone required consuming his own spiritual pressure. Since he had just advanced, reckless use could very likely cause him to drop in rank, so he currently did not plan to use this ability.
Moreover, his old abilities, Concealing Presence and Gran Rey Cero, had both been enhanced to different degrees. Yoru Chikao's Gran Rey Cero could now be transformed into a lightning whip for long-range attacks.
And he had also prematurely mastered Sonido!
In summary, Yoru Chikao's advancement to a Giant Hollow this time resulted in a qualitative improvement in his strength. He estimated that he could now even defeat a Gillian.