Chapter 97 The Dilemma of the Great Nobles
To the god of death, time is actually something that doesn't have much meaning.

If this world were not too dangerous, with the number of Voids far exceeding that of Gods of Death, forcing Gods of Death to fight against Voids, causing their casualty rate to remain high. If it were in a peaceful state, there would be no problem at all living for hundreds or thousands of years, let alone living until the end of time.

It is also for this reason that, as time passed quietly over the past few years, the entire Soul Society did not undergo much change.

Perhaps it was because Natsuki, Unohana Retsu and others had gone to Hueco Mundo before and eliminated a lot of Hollows.

Furthermore, because Bylergan, the self-proclaimed King of Hueco Mundo, was killed by Vastold, the Soul Society currently has no intention of sending an expeditionary force to Hueco Mundo in the short term. However, a new expeditionary force will be born sooner or later.

After all, the expeditionary force is not simply composed of those Shinigami who like to fight and want to fight. A large part of them are Shinigami who have committed crimes. As long as someone commits a crime, there will always be someone who will be punished by being exiled to Hueco Mundo and sent on an expedition.

However, even if a new expeditionary force really came into being, it would have nothing to do with Xia Mu.

After Watanabe Yuji returned from the expeditionary force, there was no one in Hueco Mundo that he cared about.

The 11th Division entered a new era after Watanabe Yuji became the vice-captain and Asido became the third seat. As time passed, more and more new members joined the team, and they gradually replaced the old members.

Kenpachi Kuriyashiki has completely become a thing of the past.

Kenpachi Zaraki, because he served as Kenpachi for such a short time, few Shinigami had a deep impression of him.

After that, Kenpachi Gosuke and Kenpachi Kiganjo were one with mediocre strength and the other extremely tyrannical.

Neither of them has served as Kenpachi for too many years.

Although it is very close to now, Natsuki's years as Kenpachi began to lengthen. After the 11th Division was completely on the right track, the Shinigami in the division gradually forgot about their predecessors.

This is the era of Kenpachi Natsuki!
Maybe, it won’t take many years.

Natsuki can also be called the strongest Kenpachi in history like Kuriyashiki was back then.

No, it should be said that if we follow the rules inherited by Kenpachi.

Each generation of Kenpachi succeeds to the throne by defeating the previous generation Kenpachi, and Natsuki himself is nominally the strongest Kenpachi.

However, even so, Xia Mu had no intention of relaxing.

Still haven't given up practicing.

Under the hill of double killings.

Xia Mu covered his eyes with a black cloth and fought by relying on his hearing, spiritual sense and sense of smell.

Ye Yi used the instant step at an extremely fast speed. She flashed and continuously attacked Xia Mu from all angles. Xia Mu blocked some of the attacks, but even he could not block some of them.

If his eyes were not covered, he could have blocked them all.

But at that moment, because his eyes were covered, even though he relied on his keen spiritual perception to evade some attacks, he was still unable to defend against all of them.

The discussion is over.

Xia Mu removed the black cloth covering his eyes.

Ye Yi looked at Xia Mu, who had become somewhat embarrassed because of sparring with him, and asked in confusion: "I don't understand, what is the meaning of your fighting style?"

"Under normal circumstances, your fighting skills are not inferior to mine, but you deliberately covered your eyes to put yourself at a disadvantage."

"I just use it to deal with some special situations." Xia Mu explained to Yoruichi, "There are too many strange and bizarre abilities in this world. The Zanpakutō of the God of Death, and the Hollows will also have various special abilities after they evolve to a certain level."

"If an enemy appears one day who can make our eyes blind, in this case, if I am used to fighting in the dark, I will not be afraid of his ability."

Xia Mu didn't explain too much.

He couldn't possibly say that he was training just for Aizen.

Although Natsuki's Zanpakutō's Bankai ability is very powerful and can modify part of reality, even so, Natsuki is not sure whether he can rewrite the fact that he was hypnotized by Kyoka Suigetsu.

For some things, you have to try and experience them yourself before you know the results.

So, instead of choosing to gamble.

He would rather make more preparations.

For example, try making yourself blind.

As long as you "can't see" anything, you naturally don't have to worry about illusions. Similarly, if you adapt to the blind man's fighting style, even if you can't see anything with your eyes, it will not affect your performance.

"You think too much!" Ye Yi is not a person who likes to think too much, but he just thinks Xia Mu is doing too much.

Xia Mu smiled and said to Ye Yi, "Actually, I think you can also try this way of fighting."

"When our eyes can no longer see anything, we can only rely on our spiritual sense, hearing, smell, touch and other senses. At this time, these senses will be strengthened like never before, which is very beneficial for our battle."

"Really?" If it was to deal with some imaginary enemies, Ye Yi would not have any interest in it, but if it could improve his own strength, then Ye Yi would be very interested.

"If you don't believe it, you can try it." Xia Mu suggested to Ye Yi.

So, after the previous sparring match, Natsuki and Yoruichi had another sparring match.

During this competition, Ye Yi covered his eyes with a black cloth.

Xia Mu did not hold back at all, and used his flash step to continuously launch fierce attacks on Ye Yi.

Unlike Xia Mu who has gradually gotten used to fighting in the dark, Ye Yi has just started trying and is a little uncomfortable.

Even with his keen sense of perception and hearing, he managed to avoid some attacks.

But some of Xia Mu's attacks were too strange and silent. One could not feel Xia Mu's attacks at all through spiritual perception and hearing, but Xia Mu's attacks still came.

Yoruichi's body flew out. Xia Mu attacked again with the help of flash step.

Another punch came out.

In Ye Yi's perception, Xia Mu's punch was extremely powerful, and she instinctively clenched her fist to meet the attack.

However, when it was about to touch Xia Mu's fist, it found that it fell into nothing.

Xia Mu placed his hand across her throat.

Feeling Xia Mu's palm, Ye Yi immediately gave up any struggle.

Because she knew that if Xia Mu was holding a knife in his hand, she would have died in just a moment.

Raising his hand and pulling off the black cloth covering his eyes, Ye Yi couldn't help but praise: "There really is something."

"How is it? If you adapt to fighting in this kind of environment, your strength will definitely be greatly improved."

"That's what I think anyway."

Natsuki said to Yoruichi.

After that, the two did not continue to compete.

Urahara Kisuke is not here today.

Unlike the noble Yoruichi, although Urahara Kisuke is secretly good friends with Yoruichi, his official identity is just an ordinary officer. He occasionally needs to perform tasks within the squad and cannot come here anytime and anywhere.

Ever since the trip to Hueco Mundo and fighting alongside Yoruichi, the relationship between Natsuki and Yoruichi seemed to have become much closer.

Obviously, there weren't many twists and turns in that trip to Hueco Mundo.

Just go to Xuye Palace and then fight.

But when facing Tsunayashiro Tokinada and Byakugan, the two of them did face life and death together.

After the discussion, the two people exchanged their insights on cultivation.

The life of the god of death is too long. In order to relieve the loneliness and boredom in this long life, he can only find some fun for himself.

Some people like to drink, some people like to read.

For Yoruichi, her only pleasure is to improve her strength and then bear the glory of the Shihouin family.

The Shifengyuan family, passed down to her grandfather, has gone through twenty generations of head.

If she inherits the position of head of the family, she will be the 22nd generation head of the family.

Her status as heir was something that had been decided long ago.

But Ye Yi did not slack off because of this. On the contrary, she worked harder than anyone else.

Just because she is the only female heir of the Shifengyuan family in so many generations.

This shows her extraordinaryness.

It also shows that the Shifengyuan family is actually in some difficulties.

In other words, this is also a dilemma faced by the five great nobles.

In the beginning, the five great nobles were at the top.

There was a deep gap between the nobles and the common people.

But with the establishment of the Gotei 13, Shinigami of commoner origin gradually came onto the stage of history, and three of the five great nobles took the initiative to integrate into the Gotei 13. The main reason for this change was that the power of the great nobles was no longer sufficient to rule the world, and the power possessed by those commoner Shinigami could no longer be ignored.

In order to allow the nobles to continue to be the masters of this world.

They chose to take the initiative to participate in the reform and formulated many rules first. The Kuchiki family became the role model for the nobles, setting an example by abiding by these rules. When the once high and mighty nobles did so, those death gods of commoner origin naturally had to abide by these rules.

This is also the origin of justice.

However, the so-called justice and the so-called rules are actually just a fig leaf used by the nobles to cover up their own weakness and to enslave and bully the weak in disguise.

As the heir of a great noble family, Yoruichi knows very well what the true face of Soul Society is like.

She was even more aware that the situation for the five great nobles today had reached an extremely serious point.

If no truly strong person is born, we may face the situation of no successor at any time.

The current head of the Shifengyuan family is her grandfather, but the next head of the family will be her, a woman, not her father.

This is because her father does not have enough qualifications to become a strong man.

Among the descendants, she is the only one who possesses sufficient qualifications, which is why her grandfather designated her as the heir. Perhaps, in a few years, a new strong person, a more suitable candidate, will be born in the Shifengyuan family.

But her grandfather is old and can't live many more years.

After years of persistence and hard fighting, her grandfather's body was already covered with scars. If it weren't for the Shifengyuan family, he would have retired from the position of captain and head of the family long ago.

The same dilemma exists not only in the Shihouin family, but also in the Kuchiki family and the Shiba family.

The current head of the Kuchiki family is Kuchiki Ginrei, a very powerful god of death, but his son Kuchiki Sojun, like Yoruichi's father, has average qualifications and does not have the potential to become a strong man. What's worse is that the Kuchiki family does not have a successor like Yoruichi who is a woman but has strong qualifications.

(End of this chapter)