As the hollows were being killed by Chōjirō, the distance between him and Yamabuki became increasingly greater, but Chōjirō did not notice this.
After killing a Hollow with one sword, Chōjirō wiped the sweat from his forehead. He didn't expect that he had become so strong without realizing it!
A few months ago, he could only watch helplessly as his sister was kidnapped. But in just two months, he was able to kill Menos!
When Chōjirō turned around, he found that Yamabuki had disappeared somewhere.
"I can't rely on Brother Yamabuki for everything. I also have to become independent." Chōjirō patted his cheek to cheer himself up.
After killing several Hollows, Chōjirō's breath began to dissipate, and he knew that he was reaching his limit.
So he started to retreat slowly to avoid being ambushed.
"Brother Yamabuki, where are you? Brother Yamabuki?" Chōjirō shouted a few times in the Menos Forest, but no one responded. Chōjirō was a little panicked.
"Brother Yamabuki? Brother Yamabuki?" Chōjirō called out a few more times, attracting more attention from Hollows.
Feeling the powerful spiritual pressure from Chōjirō, these Hollows did not dare to approach easily and could only watch from afar.
Suddenly, a loud noise was heard in the distance!
It was like something suddenly exploded.
Chōjirō was startled, and all the attention of the Hollows around him was drawn to him.
Chōjirō didn't know what was happening over there, but the only person who could cause such a big commotion in the Menos Forest was probably Brother Yamabuki.
"Brother Yamabuki, is that you?" Chōjirō asked loudly.
However, no sound of Yamabuki was heard in the darkness, instead the sound of explosions became louder and louder.
After a long time, the echo of the explosion dissipated, and suddenly, the ground began to tremble slightly. Chōjirō vaguely felt that something dangerous was hiding in the darkness, and he hurriedly took two steps back.
At this moment, a series of rustling sounds came from the depths of the darkness, as if countless cockroaches were crawling.
Chōjirō already felt that something was wrong. While these Hollows' attention was not on him, he decided to leave this dangerous place!
Just as Chōjirō took two steps, a black thing flew out from the darkness, flew over his head, and hit the wall behind him. Chōjirō bravely looked and found that it was actually a Hollow's corpse, and it seemed to be an Adjuchas.
Chōjirō swallowed softly. In this ghost place, besides Brother Yamabuki, the only other person who could deal with Adjuchas so easily was Captain Uhin Zenjōji. Could it be that Captain Uhin Zenjōji had also come to the Menos Forest?
Just as Chōjirō was curious, the cockroach-like sound was getting closer and closer and more and more chaotic. Although Chōjirō didn't know what was in the darkness, his survival instinct still drove him to run faster.
The ground began to tremble slightly, and the rustling sound became more obvious, as if there were many things running wildly in the darkness, and their target was in his direction.
Soon, the appearance of the first Hollow confirmed Chōjirō's guess!
A fox was running towards this side desperately.
Chōjirō had no idea what was going on.
More and more Hollows were running towards them. It didn't seem like they were being hunted, but more like something extremely dangerous was chasing them from behind.
Chōjirō was even more certain that it was Yamabuki who caused this scene, because no one else had such great ability.
Just as Chōjirō was dodging the group of Hollows and going up to say hello, an extremely powerful spiritual pressure erupted from the darkness and instantly killed all the Hollows.
Chōjirō's steps froze in an instant, because he clearly felt that this spiritual pressure was not from Brother Yamabuki nor from Captain Uhin Zenjōji, but a completely unfamiliar spiritual pressure.
An ominous premonition grew in his heart. He covered his mouth with his hand and slowly backed away, fearing that he might alarm the monster in the darkness.
What on earth is this thing? Could it be that these Hollows merged into an indescribable monster?
Just as Chōjirō felt the danger slowly retreating, a voice came from the darkness: "Who's there?"
Chōjirō was so frightened that his breathing almost stopped. The thing in the darkness discovered him.
Being able to speak does not mean that the other person is human.
The intelligent Hollows can also speak.
The Hollows also felt the threat from the darkness and gave up on Chōjirō. They moved forward into the darkness one by one, ready to completely devour this threat.
Also included were two Adjuchas.
But at this moment, an extremely powerful sword pressure swept over, splitting all the Menos into two.
Even though Chōjirō's own strength is not up to the top level, he is a kid who has seen the world, and he has basically seen the top combat forces in the entire Soul Society.
He couldn't judge the specific strength of the spiritual pressure that just erupted, but he felt it was no weaker than those captains he had seen.
"Who is there?" A man's voice came again from the darkness, mysterious and gloomy, as if there were two pounds of sand in his throat. It sounded very uncomfortable but also chilling.
Chōjirō held the sword tightly in his hand. After all, he was a vice-captain. If a real fight broke out, he would not be afraid of the opponent.
"Clatter!"
The sound of footsteps in the darkness.
Chōjirō became more and more nervous, staring at the dark passage.
"Da! Da! Da!"
The footsteps were getting closer and closer, and finally, they were less than ten meters away. However, the inside of the Menos Forest was too dark, and one could only vaguely see the other person's appearance with the faint moonlight in the sky.
That was a...human.
That's right.
It can only be described with the two adjectives "human".
He was a middle-aged man over two meters tall, with a thick fur draped around his neck and a thick cloth wrapped around his head to keep warm, leaving only his face and hair exposed. He was wearing black gloves and had scars on his arms.
He is tall but skinny, with a long beard, a thin face, deep eye sockets, and a gloomy expression, and sometimes he bares his teeth and breathes cold air from his mouth, looking very ferocious.
A suffocating feeling of oppression comes over me!
Chōjirō spat nervously. Why did a human appear? This was clearly the Menos Forest. Why was there someone here? This didn't make sense, did it?
But the fact is right in front of us. This monster-like man is holding a long knife in his hand and looking at Chōjirō coldly.
"Kid! Who are you?" the man asked.
*****
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