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"Roar—"
A deafening shriek echoed as a bipedal, several-meter-tall monster with a bone mask on its face lunged forward, biting down on its prey's neck and instantly twisting its body, flinging the similar-looking Hollow in front of it.
"Awoooawooo"
Painful cries continuously emanated from the bitten Hollow, its massive body thrashing wildly, kicking up a storm of white sand.
But no matter how it struggled, the bipedal Hollow's maw remained unmoving, like an iron clamp.
As time passed, the ambushed Hollow gradually stopped struggling, and finally, even the Reiatsu around its body began to dissipate.
No…
Strictly speaking, it wasn't dissipating, but rather being gradually devoured.
The humanoid Hollow looked at its prey, its bone-masked mouth opening to bite into the prey's bone mask, and a faint emotional ripple appeared in its emotionless pupils.
But the next second…
The world in its eyes suddenly inverted, causing a flicker of confusion in its gaze until it saw the headless corpse on the ground, and only then did it realize what had happened.
Behind the headless corpse, a Hollow, also humanoid but with a pair of forelimbs like mantis scythes, had appeared at some point.
Before it could get a closer look, its head fell into the scythe-forelimbed Hollow's gaping maw.
The mantis Hollow let out a somewhat joyful laugh, but before the laughter could subside, an even larger figure appeared behind it, directly devouring the mantis Hollow's upper body in one bite.
The Hollow that appeared this time was a bipedal… sheep!
Its bipedal posture was human-like, but its physical features were more inclined towards a beast than the previous few Hollows, appearing extremely bizarre.
Moreover, the expression on its bone mask was more human-like than the previous three Hollows.
"Not bad, three at once."
While chewing, its mouth emitted somewhat muffled words, as if it had just learned to speak.
Despite its outward appearance resembling a herbivore, this sheep Hollow consumed the remains of all three Hollows in just a few bites, and its surrounding Reiatsu surged explosively the moment the consumption was complete.
"Tsk, this method of getting stronger truly embodies 'the law of the jungle' to the fullest…"
A light chuckle came from behind the sheep Hollow, causing the mask on its face to tense up. Although it looked and felt like hard bone, the mask revealed an emotion similar to human horror.
"Will I just keep getting stronger if I keep devouring?"
After this question, the bipedal sheep Hollow finally realized what it should do. It spun around abruptly, slamming its foreleg, like a fist, behind it.
Boom!
With a loud bang, its foreleg stopped mid-air, unmoving.
"Im-po-ssible~!"
Broken, unclear words came from the sheep Hollow's mouth.
Looking out, its foreleg was blocked mid-air by a left hand. Compared to the massive foreleg, the palm was less than a fifth of the size of the sheep's hoof, yet it easily withstood its full-power strike.
And most importantly…
It couldn't pull away!!
No matter how hard it tried, its foreleg seemed to be drawn to that hand, unmoving, only able to passively move with the hand.
Fortunately, for some reason, the other party did not continue to attack, but instead moved its foreleg away and began to observe itself, especially its lower body.
After its foreleg was no longer blocking, the sheep Hollow also saw the creature that attacked it. Its pupils constricted when it clearly saw its appearance.
Human~!?
This was a young man with short black hair, dressed in black work clothes, and wearing long boots.
This creature in front of it, no matter how it looked, was a human.
But humans…
How could they appear in Hueco Mundo?
A Shinigami?
Although he carried a long cloth bag that seemed to contain a sword, there was no Reiatsu fluctuation on his body, just like an ordinary human in the Human World.
This young man was none other than Ishikawa.
Ishikawa observed for a long time, and finally gave up on distinguishing the gender of the Hollow in front of him by its appearance, and directly asked: "May I ask, are you male? Or female?"
"???" The sheep Hollow.
Male? Female?
The inexplicable question made the sheep Hollow's eyes fill with confusion, falling into a dazed state.
However, the next second, it awoke from this dazed state.
Because, from the human creature in front of it, who had no Reiatsu fluctuations, an incredibly fierce oppressive force suddenly surged forth, making it feel as if the entire world was swallowed by darkness, and the young man's figure in its eyes rapidly expanded.
"Ma…male…man…"
The young man's question immediately popped into the sheep Hollow's mind. Its already somewhat unskillful words became intermittent due to anxiety, but it still managed to convey its meaning, hoping to exchange it for its safety.
However…
Boom—
With a shift of Reiatsu in his hand, the Hollow, which resembled a mixture of sheep and human, exploded, turning into Reiatsu and gradually dissipating.
Male, then there's no need for further nonsense!!
Ishikawa clapped his hands, looking at the spot where the sheep Hollow disappeared, a hint of exploration flashing in his eyes.
It had been nearly four or five hours since he arrived in Hueco Mundo. During this time, Ishikawa, while searching for the Fujiwara siblings, was also diligently searching for female Hollows. But perhaps because of the extremely low status of females in Hueco Mundo, he searched around and didn't encounter a single female Hollow.
He didn't even remember how many times he had similar conversations.
"How can you distinguish gender with the naked eye?"
Ishikawa sighed slightly, not dwelling on this point, and instead fell into contemplation.
Although his main objective was not achieved, he had gained a certain grasp of information about Hollows. He had even dissected many Hollows alive to study their differences from Shinigami spiritual bodies.
From several hours of observation, Ishikawa found that the evolution of Hollows was like a cycle.
According to Ishikawa, Hollows are human souls who, due to their lingering attachment to the Human World or other obstructive factors, cannot ascend to heaven and wander in places that attract them, eventually, after years of torment from resentment, or being interfered with by external factors, they fall into Hollows.
The initial Hollows varied in skin color and were several meters tall, but they generally possessed a humanoid form. The first two Hollows that were fighting each other were Hollows that had just transformed from souls.
These Hollows acted purely on instinct, with no intelligence to speak of, and their strength was not particularly great, roughly equivalent to Ishikawa's eighth stage when he first arrived in Soul Society, which is the level of a Shin'ō Academy student.
However, if an ordinary student were to fight such a Hollow, the Hollow would almost certainly win.
Because at the same level, compared to Shinigami, Hollows not only had an advantage in size, strength, and defense, but their Reiatsu was even higher than that of Shinigami at the same level.
After the initial Hollows evolved, although they still maintained a humanoid form and walked upright, their bodies would gradually develop beast-like features, such as the Hollow with mantis forelimbs, or the later Hollow that was upright but more closely resembled a sheep in appearance.
Both of these possessed the strength of the seventh stage and had decent intelligence. Although their stage was equivalent to a Gotei 13 Squad Member, their actual strength was far greater than that of a Gotei 13 Squad Member. That sheep Hollow could even rival a Low Level Seated Officer.
"Although still at the seventh stage, they can unleash strength infinitely close to the sixth stage?"
Ishikawa muttered to himself, not knowing why…
He always felt that compared to Shinigami, Hollows were more like the darlings of the world. They didn't need to train; they could just keep devouring to get stronger, and they were far superior to Shinigami at the same level.
Compared to them, the Shinigami's only advantage was their Zanpakuto.
Hollows beyond the sixth stage were called Menos Grande. Although Ishikawa had not seen any, he could vaguely sense the dense aura beneath the white sand, constantly wandering.
—Gillian.
When a seventh-stage Hollow devours hundreds of other Hollows, it will show signs of regression, lose its sanity, and then instinctively head to the Forest of Menos, continuing to devour in a mindless state.
At the Gillian stage, Hollows exhibit the greatest disparity in strength compared to Shinigami of the same level.
Their bodies are as large as buildings, and they can unleash Cero from their mouths. Not to mention Low Level Seated Officers who are also at the sixth stage, even many fifth-stage High Level Seated Officers could accidentally die at their hands.
It can be said that Hollows that become Gillian cross two stages in strength. Depending on the number they devour, weaker ones are equivalent to a sixth-stage Low Level Seated Officer, while stronger ones are equivalent to a fifth-stage High Level Seated Officer.
When a Gillian evolves again, it will transform into the corresponding beast whose features appeared on its body during the seventh stage.
The Gillian stage is like a cocoon. When it breaks out of the cocoon, it will completely shed its humanoid form and become a complete beast, but its intelligence can rival that of a human.
This is what is called…
—Adjuchas.
Ishikawa had seen one from a distance before, but he didn't rashly approach it.
He didn't know if Hollows also had varying aptitudes, but the Adjuchas level had an extremely low lower limit and an extremely high upper limit.
Since Gillian are mindless and can only devour instinctively, those with strong aptitudes may not necessarily survive, and those with poor aptitudes may not necessarily die; the evolution process is full of uncertainties.
This also leads to a vast range of strength among Hollows that become Adjuchas.
Some Adjuchas have strength equivalent only to 'sixth stage' to 'fifth stage' Low-High Level Seated Officers;
While some Adjuchas possess strength far exceeding 'fourth stage' Vice-Captain-level, infinitely close to 'third stage' Captains.
They cannot be solely categorized by the Gotei 13 or the system's levels.
And a further step beyond that is…
—Vasto Lorde.
Although Ishikawa had not yet encountered any, based on his memory, the strength rating of a Vasto Lorde is roughly at the fourth stage, but even the weakest among them are far stronger than a Vice-Captain-level Shinigami of the same 'fourth stage', equivalent to a general 'third stage' Captain-level.
As for the stronger ones, they can easily crush third-stage Captain-level Shinigami.
As for even stronger ones…
Ishikawa couldn't speculate. Strength determines one's vision, and with his current strength, he could only barely grasp the general strength of a third-stage Captain-level. He was still far from having the vision for anything further.
It is worth mentioning that when Hollows reach the Vasto Lorde level, their form will change again, shedding their beastly appearance and becoming more humanoid.
But unlike the humanoid form of Hollows that just transformed from souls, the Vasto Lorde's humanoid form is truly humanoid, with height and limbs extremely similar to humans.
Among the best of them, some parts of their bodies would even expose skin like that of humans, but it only looked like it; this human-like skin had far greater defensive capabilities than a Hollow's skin.
Combined with the further evolution to Arrancar…
The entire process is like a cycle.
From a mindless humanoid like an infant, to a humanoid with some sentience and beastly features;
Then to a Gillian, losing all external perception and sanity, like a cocoon;
The moment it breaks out of the cocoon, its life form completely changes, transforming into a beast, until finally…
It returns to a humanoid form!!
If the Human World and Soul Society are a cycle, then Hueco Mundo itself is a more complete cycle.
If worlds had levels, then this world called 'Hueco Mundo' might be of a higher level than 'Soul Society'.
The Reiatsu concentration far exceeding that of Soul Society, and the innate ability to traverse space and various special abilities, all seem to indicate one thing: that the life form of Hollows is superior to that of Shinigami.
From this perspective, it seems quite normal for Hollows of the same level to be stronger than Shinigami of the same level.
However, unlike Hollows who, even with intelligence not inferior to Shinigami, still act on instinct; Shinigami, from beginning to end, have been progressing along the optimal path, constantly catching up to Hollows.
Records from countless years ago in Seireitei mentioned that in the past, Soul Society needed the Royal Family's Special Forces to deal with Gillian.
But now…
Not to mention the Royal Family's Special Forces, many High Level Seated Officers can independently kill Gillian.
A shinigami uniform with certain defensive capabilities, and a Zanpakuto with abilities similar to the innate abilities of Hollows.
And also Kido, Hakuda, Shunpo, Zanjutsu… and other techniques.
Even the Hollows' ability to traverse space has been mastered by Shinigami.
The combination of various external conditions and techniques allowed Shinigami to catch up from behind, and the top individuals have already touched the same ultimate barrier as the top Hollows in Hueco Mundo.
It can also be said that the birth of these things and techniques allowed Shinigami to evolve to the same level as Hollows!
However…
The original Shinigami were already beings of the same life form as Hollows.
Rather than saying Shinigami evolved, it's more accurate to say that Shinigami who transformed from humans and those who were born later evolved to the same level.
From this, it can be seen that Quincy, being on the same level as the initially born Shinigami and Hollows, their life form might also be higher than Shinigami who evolved from humans.
Of course, these are all conclusions Ishikawa drew from a few hours of research and dissection.
They are entirely his personal opinions.
But…
"If only I could stay here longer."
A bright light shone in Ishikawa's eyes.
He had no intention of integrating Hollow power to become a Visored, because Ishikawa was not confident that he could restrain himself after integrating with Hollows who acted on instinct.
However, by studying the life forms of Hollows, he gained many inspirations.
If his conclusion was correct, and Shinigami evolved from a life form far weaker than Hollows, then could Hollow abilities be achieved through Kido?
Not only the ability to traverse space, but also many innate abilities of Hollows, and even rule-based abilities; if he were to use these as a foundation and then perfect them through the system to create similar Kido, wouldn't that also be a form of life evolution?
Originally, Ishikawa came to Hueco Mundo just to see if gaining Hollow favorability could yield experience, and to find those two noble members.
But now, Ishikawa had a new goal.
Although two days were short, the number of Hollows in Hueco Mundo was countless, and Ishikawa didn't need to research stealthily like in Soul Society.
Beep beep beep—
"Hmm?"
But just as Ishikawa was about to implement his idea, the Denreishinki in his arms suddenly rang.
"What is this?"
Ishikawa pulled out the Denreishinki, tapped the notification, and a dark map appeared, but on the edge of the map, two signal sources were visible.
This was a function added to his Denreishinki by the Technology Development Bureau before he came to Hueco Mundo, allowing him to detect the signal sources of the Fujiwara siblings' Denreishinki within a certain range.
"They're actually still alive?"
A flicker of hesitation crossed Ishikawa's eyes. He somewhat hesitated whether to find the two and keep them with him, as he still had many things to do next.
But if his Denreishinki received the signal source, then the Technology Development Bureau would also receive the same information.
If he tried his best but failed to save them, it would be fine; but if he took the commission, found them, and then remained completely indifferent, it would be easy for him to be suspected of having other motives for coming to Hueco Mundo when he returned.
And most importantly…
Ever since Ishikawa arrived in Hueco Mundo, he had always vaguely felt a sense of being inexplicably watched.
After a moment of hesitation, Ishikawa finally headed in the direction of the signal source.
No matter how high the life form of Hollows was, he had no intention of staying in Hueco Mundo, nor did he want to become one of them.
Ultimately, he had to return to Soul Society.
That place…
That was his world, and the world that belonged to him!
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