Crackling sounds of ice constantly echoed, and everything around was covered in frost.
In the world, all was silent and cold.
Soon, the wind and snow transformed into a giant pillar, enveloping Bai Ye in its center.
Ice flowers bloomed one by one from the bottom, densely and continuously rising, until a pillar formed from myriad ice flowers solidified.
The hundred ice flowers had bloomed.
So...
Would Bai Ye die?
Rumble!
Suddenly, a thunderous roar erupted. Huge cracks appeared on the ice flower pillar, and then, the pillar of ice flowers suddenly collapsed, scattering into countless ice shards.
Then...
Bai Ye reappeared before everyone's eyes.
Like a demon god descending from the heavens.
Rumble!
Bai Ye descended from the sky. The moment he landed, the ground let out a deafening sound, shattering inch by inch. Countless碎石 (suì shí - broken stones) churned up, and purple-black smoke billowed outwards.
Bai Ye raised his Fang Tian Hua Ji and forcefully swept it outwards.
A wave of purple-black radiance spread, and all the nearby Shinigami were sent flying by a single sweep.
In an instant, around Bai Ye...
No one was left standing!
An attack, total annihilation!
Bai Ye lowered his Fang Tian Hua Ji again, dragging it as he walked past the Shinigami.
Suddenly, the young captain lying on the ground opened his eyes. As Bai Ye passed by, their gazes met again.
"If we meet again..." the young captain said, "I will become stronger."
Bai Ye smiled and replied, "Then, I look forward to our next meeting."
Bai Ye raised his head, dragging the Fang Tian Hua Ji, and continued walking forward until his figure disappeared at the end of the long street.
...
"Autumn is arriving, making one melancholic?"
Leaving the Seireitei area, Bai Ye did not stop but continued forward, also breaking free from that low, lonely mood.
Bai Ye felt that the loneliness of a master was somewhat superfluous for him at the moment. If he hadn't drawn the golden gacha and obtained the possession of the God of War Lu Bu, that young captain would have easily defeated him!
Therefore, after recovering from this emotion, the first thing Bai Ye thought of was...
Run quickly!
With such a large commotion, he couldn't possibly stay in Rukongai.
Bai Ye believed that it wouldn't be long before he appeared on the wanted list, and all the Shinigami would start hunting him.
However, since he had already caused trouble...
Bai Ye was straightforward. He directly broke into the home of the profiteer controlling water and food in Rukongai, stole a large amount of water and food, and then left with a pat on his backside.
Too many debts are not a burden; it's all hanging anyway, can they hang him twice?
After stealing the supplies, Bai Ye fled directly. He left Rukongai under the cover of darkness, and the Shinigami could no longer control him.
However, despite causing trouble, Bai Ye was quite satisfied with his gains in Rukongai. He obtained the uniform of the Black Organization, participated in the Twelve Great Battles and gained the Phoenix ability, and the Zanpakuto Zabimaru was also a very good item. Apart from the lack of God Stone fragments, the harvest was practically perfect!
Then...
Bai Ye suddenly had a flash of inspiration. He was still in the state of possession by the God of War Lu Bu, and the gacha items lasted for twenty-four hours...
Since that was the case, he should naturally make good use of it!
Bai Ye quickly found his target!
Walking southwest from Rukongai led to an area called the Tomb of Spirits. Among the three major regions of the World Battlefield, this area was considered a dangerous zone, with many evil spirits and zombies appearing.
Danger was certain, but it was accompanied by many opportunities. According to Bai Ye's memory, one could obtain the art of corpse driving here and also have zombies as mounts. Besides that, there were many exorcists in the Tomb of Spirits, from whom one could obtain Taoist spells and some exorcism artifacts.
However, Bai Ye was not interested in any of these. The only thing Bai Ye was interested in now was...
Kill, kill, kill...
While the possession of the God of War Lu Bu was still active, how could the evil spirits and zombies in the Tomb of Spirits be Bai Ye's match?
Therefore, Bai Ye's strength perfectly demonstrated what it meant to kill from night to day, and then from day to night.
However, the zombies and evil spirits in the Tomb of Spirits had gone mad, as had the Chosen Ones who roamed the Tomb of Spirits. While they were diligently subduing demons and eliminating spirits, a figure suddenly appeared, and an evil spirit was directly dispersed.
Several Chosen Ones exchanged glances, what the heck?
On the other side, a group of people were surrounding a zombie. A deafening roar came from the sky, and Bai Ye descended like a demon god, splitting the besieged zombie in half with a single戟 (jǐ - halberd), then quickly leaped away, disappearing without a trace.
Several Chosen Ones looked at each other. After a while, one of them said, "Is this the legendary flying zombie?"
When hungry, he stuffed anything into his mouth; when thirsty, he gulped down water. Bai Ye was truly in a killing frenzy.
And the benefits that came from this瘋狂殺戮 (fēng kuáng shā lù - crazy slaughter) were...
In less than a day, the spirit gathering of the Five Spirits Plate was full again.
Five Spirits Plate, Spirit Gathering (500/500)
"You have completed Spirit Gathering cultivation. Your Strength, Speed, Stamina, and Spirit stats have increased by 5 points."
"You have completed Spirit Gathering cultivation. Your Five Spirits Curses have been enhanced."
"Due to the enhancement of your Five Spirits Curses, Wind Curse has evolved into Warm Mist."
Bai Ye completed spirit gathering, and his physical attributes increased again, this time by 5 points in all aspects. Simultaneously, the Wind Curse evolved into Warm Mist, but...
Warm Mist: Can restore a certain amount of stamina, heal injuries to a certain extent, and conceal an area with mist.
Bai Ye was a bit dumbfounded. Good heavens, after the Wind Curse was enhanced, it actually lost its offensive effect?
Restoring stamina and healing injuries...
Looking at it, it was quite good, much stronger than pure wind flow offensive effects. However, the Water Curse could also do this. Even if the effect of Warm Mist was stronger, the effects overlapped, making it meaningless. The only useful effect was concealing an area with mist.
This should be considered a negative effect, used to strip away the enemy's vision.
"Better than nothing!"
Bai Ye didn't know if the enhancement of the Wind Curse was good or bad. It seemed he had lost an offensive method but gained a method of negative effect.
But Bai Ye felt he didn't need the vision concealment effect much, and he didn't care about losing the wind flow attack of the Wind Curse. He had so many offensive methods, he didn't lack this one.
However, one thing was certain: the continuous enhancement of the Five Elements Curses definitely required passing through each stage. Even if the effect of Warm Mist made Bai Ye feel somewhat unsatisfactory, it at least represented a step closer to the third stage of Taoist magic.
Correspondingly, the spirit gathering of the Five Spirits Plate increased again, becoming 0/1000.
...