Sora's figure swept across the ground, and he pulled out another black blade that was stuck in it.
He swung his sword, and a stream of light sliced Kagehime in two.
After her body was cut, it quickly reformed, and she used the shadows to rapidly close in on him.
After entering his Shunkō state, Sora could quickly create distance from her.
Before Kagehime could even swing her blade, Sora had already left his spot. While moving, he pulled out another black blade from the ground and unleashed another stream of light.
"The number of black blades hasn't decreased at all..." Sora took out a Nōreitan and swallowed it.
He had already been entangled with Kagehime in the Sakketsu training ground for a day. He needed to find the one blade among those stuck in the ground that could defeat her.
He had already pulled out many blades to test, but the number of blades in the ground had barely decreased.
"It won't be easy to find that sword. And it won't stay in the same place forever, you know~" Kagehime said with a playful laugh.
Sora stared at the black blades in the training ground. Every so often, they would turn back into shadows and then reappear on the ground. This included the blades he had already tested.
Kagehime was constantly 'shuffling the deck.'
A stream of light flashed, slicing Kagehime's body in two again.
This time, her body did not rejoin. Instead, each half transformed into a complete Kagehime.
"This is boring. I can't catch up to Master at all. I'm going to increase the difficulty a bit!"
The two Kagehimes each pulled out a black blade and sank into the shadow on the ground.
The next moment, one Kagehime appeared at Sora's side and swung her sword at him.
Whoosh—
Sora used Shunpo to dodge the slash.
But as his figure appeared on the other side, the other Kagehime emerged from the shadow behind him.
She swung her black blade, slashing swiftly at Sora.
In a flash, Sora suddenly raised his hands and, with a clap, caught the incoming blade between them.
At the same time, a slight smile appeared on his face.
"This is the one!" Sora switched to holding the back of the blade with one hand, then used his other hand to grab the hilt.
Kagehime was astonished, watching as Sora held her own hand and turned the black blade around.
Pfft—
The black blade entered her body, and Kagehime's figure trembled slightly.
This was the sword that could defeat her!
"How did Master find it?" Kagehime asked with curiosity.
She had been frequently 'shuffling the deck,' constantly refreshing the positions of the blades on the ground to make Sora's efforts futile.
Yet he had found the correct blade in just one day.
"With this." Sora took out a glass tube and swirled the blackish-red substance inside.
Sora smiled and explained, "Every sword I touched was coated with Hollow reishi."
"You are my Zanpakutō. Our spiritual pressure fluctuations are the same, so I couldn't distinguish them with my spiritual sense."
"But Hollow reishi is different. Once coated with it, they are like shining stars in the night sky, very easy to screen out."
"Right now, all the black blades on the ground are coated with Hollow reishi. Only the one in your hand was the one I missed."
Kagehime had a sudden realization. "So that's how it was. Master is very clever!"
Kagehime's body gradually dissolved into shadow, and the shadow covering the ground rapidly receded.
The Sakketsu training ground quickly returned to its original state.
The Zanpakutō returned to Sora's hand.
At the same time, Sora felt something—
He had learned Bankai!
Sora raised his Zanpakutō, the blade facing down.
"Bankai: Shosō Kaijin!" (Bankai: All Things are Dust and Shadow!)
Sora released the hilt. The Zanpakutō fell to the ground, but instead of stabbing into it, it melted like ink and sank beneath the surface.
The ground was once again dyed black. The shadow spread outwards at a speed imperceptible to the naked eye.
Not only the ground was changing; the entire space was being covered by shadow.
The shadow rapidly passed through the Sakketsu training ground and expanded outwards.
In the adjacent laboratory—
Sōsuke Aizen and Rii Hoshino were still there, needing to write up their experiment reports.
Aizen had long since finished his report. He was still there to use the leftover Reigai remains to verify some of his own ideas.
Rii, on the other hand, was sitting on the other side, racking her brains to flesh out the content of her report.
On the table in front of Aizen was a rabbit. He was injecting it with Hollow reishi extracted from the Reigai remains.
"Hollow reishi seems to be highly aggressive..." Aizen observed the rabbit's changes.
After being injected, the rabbit quickly began to mutate.
Its eyes turned black and red, the reason in them rapidly replaced by ferocity. Its body also expanded quickly, soon growing to the size of a lamb.
Just then, a strange phenomenon occurred in the lab.
The entire laboratory was covered in shadow, replaced by a pitch-black space.
Aizen's reaction was swift. The moment the shadow appeared, he almost subconsciously mobilized the spiritual pressure in his body to resist the change.
But his action was useless. The shadow showed no sign of being hindered and continued to extend outwards.
The walls and floor of the lab had vanished. He was now in a pitch-black space.
He quickly calmed down and began to observe his surroundings. He found that Rii and the mutated rabbit were also here.
Rii was still holding a pen, staring blankly at the changes around her.
However, they soon sensed their professor's spiritual pressure.
Without the Sakketsu ore to block it, Katori Sora's powerful spiritual pressure washed over them.
"This is?!" Aizen was utterly shocked. The professor's spiritual pressure was incredibly powerful, something he had only felt from captain-level Shinigami.
Aizen slowly raised his left hand and pushed up his glasses with a finger, hiding the shock in his eyes.
The professor possessed captain-level spiritual pressure!
Ever since he had learned Shikai, he had often used Kyōka Suigetsu's ability to sneak into the Seireitei.
He had learned a great deal there.
This gave him a clearer understanding of his professor's strength.
Aizen had originally thought his professor was one of the more powerful vice-captains, but still a considerable distance from the captain-level.
But the spiritual pressure the professor was now displaying astonished him.
"You were hiding your strength too? You are truly unfathomable, Professor Katori!" Aizen thought to himself.
He believed his professor, like him, had been hiding his true strength.
Aizen looked down. The lamb-sized mutated rabbit seemed to be able to sense Sora's terrifying spiritual pressure as well.
It was huddled in a ball on the table, trembling.
Its black and red eyes, which had previously only shown ferocity, were now filled with fear.
"It's afraid?" Aizen was slightly taken aback. He had thought that after its mutation, the rabbit was left with only the instinct to devour spiritual bodies.
"Fear is also a biological instinct, Sōsuke."
Katori Sora's voice sounded from beside Aizen.
Aizen's pupils constricted slightly. He hadn't reacted at all, and his professor was already right next to him.
"The professor's spiritual pressure is too powerful. Even this mindless creature is afraid," Aizen said.
"It's only captain-level spiritual pressure," Sora said, retracting his Spiritual Pressure. The pressure on Aizen and Rii eased.
"Phew—such strong spiritual pressure!" Rii wiped her sweat and panted. "Has the professor reached the captain-level!"
Her strength was far inferior to Aizen's. She couldn't perceive what level her professor's spiritual pressure had reached, only that it felt as if someone had been squeezing her heart, making it hard to breathe.
After Sora retracted his spiritual pressure, the mutated rabbit on the ground felt emboldened again. Its gaze quickly turned fierce.
Its intelligence was not high. With its brain capacity, it couldn't comprehend the situation and didn't even know the pressure had come from Sora.
It raised the sharp horn that had grown on its head and charged fiercely at him.
But before it could get close, it was pierced through by a jet-black blade that grew from the ground.
After piercing the rabbit, the blade continued to grow taller.
In a moment, a shadow figure holding a jet-black blade rose from the ground.
"Is this the professor's ability..." Aizen was very surprised. This shadow looked very familiar.
—It was his own shadow!
"Yes. This is a shadow space I created. All shadows can be used by me," Sora nodded lightly.
"The professor's shadows can now attack. The variations in swordsmanship are even greater now..." Aizen remarked.
Sora smiled faintly and didn't explain further. In reality, his Bankai's ability was far more than just this.
He glanced at the Zanpakutō in the hand of his shadow—a jet-black Kyōka Suigetsu.
The power of Sora's Bankai was that it could replicate a portion of the shadow owner's abilities!
In other words, he could use Kyōka Suigetsu through Aizen's shadow!
Although the Kyōka Suigetsu he used through the shadow only had a fraction of the original's power, it still made his abilities extremely versatile.
The power of the replicated ability was about one to five-tenths of the original's, depending on the target.
The stronger the target, the lower the power he could use.
Sora controlled the 'Shadow Aizen' to walk over.
He removed the mutated rabbit from the black blade and asked, "Sōsuke, did you inject it with Hollow reishi?"
"Yes, it was extracted from the Reigai remains," Aizen said, looking at the rabbit that was still struggling despite being pierced. He continued, "Its body didn't break down like the Reigai's. Perhaps the Hollow reishi underwent some change inside the Reigai."
Sora thought for a moment and said, "Perhaps this is no longer pure Hollow reishi."
"That Reigai was, after all, a Shinigami's Reigai. Even if it had no consciousness, it still originated from a Shinigami."
"It's possible that the Shinigami's reishi and the Hollow's reishi combined and underwent some kind of change. This topic is worth further investigation."
"Run more control groups to see if this is an isolated case."
Aizen nodded. "I still have some of the Hollow reishi I collected. I can run three or four more control groups."
Sora nodded. "Next week, I have a mission in Hueco Mundo. I will also collect some materials related to Hollows there. If possible, I will bring back one or two live specimens. Live Hollows and the reishi extracted from the 'Tenzen Heisō' may also be different."
Aizen asked, "The professor is going to Hueco Mundo?"
Sora said, "Yes. The graduation exam mission for Kensei and the others has been decided. The location is in Hueco Mundo."
Rii said worriedly, "The graduation exam is in such a dangerous place as Hueco Mundo?"
Sora said, "The difficulty of the early graduation exam is a bit higher. Don't worry, they won't have to participate in the war there. They're just going to transport supplies for the Hueco Mundo Expeditionary Force."
Sora canceled his Bankai, and the shadow space rapidly dissipated.
After it vanished, the equipment in the lab was completely unaffected.
After learning Bankai, his sense of security about going to Hueco Mundo had increased greatly. Now, even if he encountered one of those powerful 'Adjuchas'-class Menos Grande, he had the strength to fight it.
Sora had originally released his Bankai inside the Sakketsu-sealed training ground, but now he had appeared in the laboratory.
Sora was thoughtful. The shadow space created by his Bankai could cover an area regardless of obstacles. During that time, he could move freely within the space. After canceling the Bankai, his location would match the location of the covered space.
In other words, he could use this characteristic of his shadow space to pass through some obstacles.
"Could the reishi barriers of the Muken and the Wandenreich be bypassed in this way?" Sora couldn't help but wonder.
If his shadow space could pass through the reishi barriers when deployed, then he would have a chance to infiltrate these places without a sound!
Sora felt it was necessary to experiment, but he wasn't prepared yet. He shouldn't go to such dangerous places for now.
There was another place with a reishi barrier, but it was far less dangerous than the Muken or the Wandenreich.
Sora left the lab and headed for the Seireitei.
He put on a hooded cloak.
This cloak was confiscated from the remnants of the Kasumiōji family who had attacked him and his disciples during the summer vacation two years ago.
To test his Bankai's ability, he would have to release his spiritual pressure.
This type of cloak had a spiritual pressure-shielding effect. Wearing it would hide his Spiritual Pressure.
Sora arrived outside the Seireitei and found a deserted place.
He stood before the Shakonmaku and released his Bankai again.
"Bankai: Shosō Kaijin!"
The Zanpakutō melted like ink and spread outwards at an imperceptible speed.
The shadow space rapidly expanded, soon passing over the Shakonmaku and continuing to expand outwards.
Success!
Sora was overjoyed. The shadow space had successfully covered the Shakonmaku!
The shadow space was an independent dimension, actually existing in a different space from the Shakonmaku. Even though it passed through and covered it, it wouldn't cause any damage.
Sora reached his hand to where the Shakonmaku should have been. Nothing happened. As expected, his spiritual body was not burned or disintegrated by the barrier.
He walked forward a short distance, then canceled his Bankai.
The shadow space rapidly collapsed and vanished.
The Shakonmáku reappeared, completely undamaged, but Sora had already passed through it unharmed.
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