Several days had passed since Ling Qing's new Shihakushō was made.
Thinking about it carefully, Ling Qing had been in the Soul King Palace for a long time. He himself couldn't remember exactly how long. If it weren't for the fact that he remembered he had come up from below, Ling Qing might have even thought he was a member of the Zero Squad.
From being defeated and severely injured by Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni to waking up in the Soul King Palace, Ling Qing's strength could be said to have taken a qualitative leap.
Of the four basic abilities of a Shinigami, Zanjutsu and Shunpo were almost maxed out, and his Zanpakutō practice was nearly complete. He had even gotten a new set of clothes.
Logically, he should have continued with Hakuda and Kidō training, but neither Nimaiya Ōetsu nor Tenjirō Kirinji had mentioned it.
Tenjirō's Shunpo was exceptional, and Ōetsu had methods to help people practice Zanjutsu. As for his own Zanjutsu, Ling Qing didn't know since he had never seen him fight, but it was certain that neither Tenjirō's nor Ōetsu's Hakuda and Kidō would be bad. They probably didn't teach Ling Qing simply because those were not their areas of expertise.
If so, it was about time for Ling Qing to return to the Seireitei.
After all, since his new Shihakushō was made, Ling Qing had been idle in the Soul King Palace for several days. Every day, he would either go to the Kirinden to fool around with Tenjirō, or to the Hōōden to chat with Ōetsu.
As for Shutara Senjumaru, he hadn't gone to see her again. Although Ling Qing's impression of her was far better than that of Ōetsu and Tenjirō, he had to admit that it was more fun to backstab each other with them.
From this perspective, Ling Qing felt he had found the reason why he had been able to stay in the Soul King Palace for so long. It probably had little to do with his training, and was simply because his presence brought some fun to the otherwise dead-as-a-doornail, boring lives of Ōetsu and Tenjirō in the Soul King Palace.
It was like when an interesting new friend comes to your house, and you want to keep them to play for a few more days, preferably for the whole summer vacation!
Anyway, you're free, and it's the same if you go back to the Seireitei. So why not just stay here and play for a while longer? Look, this is the Soul King Palace! Training here is awesome, I'm telling you.
It was probably something like that ↑
Not to mention, the skilled front-row gossip techniques that Tenjirō and Ōetsu displayed when they were watching Ling Qing get his new clothes made by Shutara Senjumaru were not something they had from the beginning.
While they were influencing Ling Qing, they were also being quietly influenced by him.
But if one had to say... it was probably that Ling Qing learned the good stuff, and they learned the bad stuff.
That's just how fun-seekers are.
But the Soul King Palace was beautiful, and Ling Qing did feel that it was time for him to go back. This trip to the Soul King Palace could be said to be very fulfilling.
Although he hadn't received targeted training in Hakuda and Kidō, it wasn't as if he had gained nothing at all.
Don't forget, when Tenjirō was teaching Ling Qing Shunpo, Ling Qing was in a state of not having a Zanpakutō, and even after he got it back, they wouldn't cross blades.
Competing in Shunpo was one thing, but you had to be able to take down the opponent while competing in Shunpo to win. This was why Ling Qing had concluded that Tenjirō's Hakuda couldn't be bad.
As for Kidō…
Having seen so many strange things in the Soul King Palace, some of which even contradicted the common sense of the Seireitei, Ling Qing already had some inspiration.
Just as he could come up with his own style of Shunpo, he would not be satisfied with just learning the Hadō and Bakudō written in the Kidō encyclopedia.
Just as Ling Qing was thinking about when to find an opportunity to mention to Ōetsu that he should be heading back.
That very night…
Ling Qing was suddenly enveloped in a strange aura.
When he realized this and woke up in a cold sweat, he was shocked to find himself in a place he had never seen before.
The surrounding sensations told Ling Qing that he was still in the Soul King Palace, but he was sure he had never been here before. It was an extremely spacious hall, exuding a unique and grand atmosphere, but apart from that, there was very little in the huge space.
Ling Qing had been moved here without his knowledge. Not only him, but even Tenjirō hadn't noticed anything wrong!
Ling Qing realized that something was wrong and hesitated whether to try to rush out. But an aura emerged from the depths of the hall.
Ling Qing couldn't explain it, but that aura was attracting him.
Reason told Ling Qing that it was best to find a way to leave here at this time.
But Ling Qing's instincts went against his reason. By the time he noticed, he had already walked into the depths of the hall.
As he went deeper, as he got closer, Ling Qing finally came to the thing that was attracting him.
It was…
Something that looked like a stone sculpture or a giant statue…
Ling Qing had misjudged. When he really saw the thing clearly, his pupils suddenly constricted, and he couldn't believe what he was seeing.
Before his eyes…
It was a huge, amber-like object that was suspended in the air, and sealed within this huge amber was… a person!
Ling Qing should have never seen this person, but the moment he saw him, he felt a strange sense of familiarity.
Ling Qing couldn't help but press his head with his hand, his thumb pressing against his throbbing temple. In this instant, he felt countless thoughts swirling in his mind, but there were too many thoughts to distinguish, and he even felt like his brain was about to explode.
Ling Qing stared intently at the huge amber, desperately trying to figure out what this thing was.
And then, he strangely discovered that the person in the amber… seemed not to be dead.
He… was still alive.
Dead, but still alive.
On the borderline between life and death, neither living nor dead.
And he was still quietly watching him from within the huge amber.
Ling Qing's eyes met his. His eyes were different from ordinary people's; each eye had four pupils, a case of polycoria.
The moment their eyes met, Ling Qing's head felt as if it had been struck by a hammer. The chaotic thoughts in his mind were shattered into pieces in an instant.
But soon, those shattered thoughts rapidly reassembled in his mind into images, images that Ling Qing had seen before but had somehow forgotten.
It was a chaotic world of neither life nor death.
It was the scene of the beginning of heaven and earth, the formation of the three realms.
It was the moment that hell was covered with a lid.
And, the being that appeared there as the center of everything.
"You…"
Who on earth are you…
This sentence was not spoken.
Instead.
"Why have you become like this?"
-------
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