Chapter 233: Recovering the Zanpakutō!
"You all must die!"
With Raen's furious roar, everyone was ruthlessly crushed into a mass of flesh and blood splattered everywhere.
The scene was gruesome, and Raen let out a wicked grin. The deaths of these people brought him immense satisfaction.
Moreover, this somehow miraculously strengthened him.
At that moment, the slain Ghost Slayers transformed into spirits.
Their leader, noticing the change in his body and then glancing at Raen, immediately regained his confidence. However, despite this, he remained extremely cautious.
He roared, "Now that we're spirits too—attack! Kill him!"
His subordinates looked at each other hesitantly before charging at Raen.
But how could newly turned spirits possibly be a match for him?
Raen sent them flying one by one with swift kicks.
Then, tendrils sprouted from his body, piercing through the spirits before beginning to absorb their spiritual energy.
Meanwhile, as soon as the first subordinate was kicked away, the leader took off in a desperate flight.
After dealing with the rest, Raen turned his gaze toward the fleeing leader, a sinister smile curling at his lips.
Did this fool really think he could escape?
Raen had intentionally let him run ahead—just to play a game of cat and mouse.
"Well then, now the game begins. Gahaha."
Tormenting, toying with, and provoking his opponents—all of these were meant to enhance their souls and spiritual energy.
Then, when he finally killed them, he would gain even more power.
Everything was for the sake of becoming stronger.
But this time, Raen particularly relished the idea of tormenting this bandit leader.
He despised bandits. Since the man had chosen this path, he shouldn't expect any mercy.
Thus, the leader fled madly while Raen followed at a leisurely pace, occasionally startling him just for fun.
—
Meanwhile, elsewhere…
After returning to his research facility and confirming that the Ghost King had escaped, Ishihara did not rush to pursue him.
Instead, something else came to mind—the Zanpakutō.
He decided to check on their retrieval progress.
And so, he sought out Orochimaru.
"Ishihara-kun, most of the Zanpakutō have been recovered. But there are still some missing. Either they were lost, or some people simply refuse to exchange them for new ones…"
Orochimaru sighed helplessly, though he had another suspicion in mind.
Someone might be researching the Zanpakutō.
And the likelihood of that was not low.
"I see. I'll personally recover the remaining Zanpakutō," Ishihara said with a nod.
He understood that some of the swords had probably ended up in the hands of researchers—or had been taken by spirits.
Since that was the case, he would retrieve them himself.
With that thought, Ishihara vanished using the Body Flicker Technique.
"Heh, Ishihara-kun's mastery of the Body Flicker is getting sharper. At this rate, I might not even be able to see him move," Orochimaru muttered, shaking his head before returning to his work.
Recently, they had picked up traces of the Two-Tails again.
It was spotted somewhere over the ocean, its location vague and constantly shifting.
Kabuto had already been dispatched to investigate.
—
After leaving Orochimaru, Ishihara first sought out the Zanpakutō that remained completely still.
Such swords were likely either abandoned due to their owners' deaths or left behind by spirits who didn't know how to use them.
As expected, many of the Zanpakutō had been left behind after their owners perished.
Once he recovered those, Ishihara arrived at another location.
"Underground? Looks like someone really is researching Zanpakutō."
He smirked.
But was this something they could truly understand?
If they enjoyed research so much, why not let them experience a real Zanpakutō technique?
Ishihara clenched his right hand, and a Zanpakutō appeared in his grip.
He swung it lightly.
A crescent-shaped energy wave shot downward.
Boom!
The ground erupted, collapsing in on itself—revealing an underground facility.
—
"What's happening? Why is everything shaking?"
"Strange, I thought our research facility was earthquake-resistant up to magnitude eight?"
"Damn it! The whole lab is collapsing! We need to get out of here!"
"Shit! We're under attack! Run!"
"Ahhh! Help! My leg is trapped!"
"Wait! Before we go, grab that sword!"
"Forget it! That damn sword is useless—we've studied it for so long and learned nothing!"
"Yeah, Doctor, let's just get out of here alive!"
"Doctor, stop hesitating! If we don't leave now, we'll all be buried alive!"
—
Outside the facility, Ishihara frowned slightly.
Something felt… off about this place.