"Save that smug look for someone else."
Holding the massive Hōka Metsusen fan in one hand, Bai Chen looked up and remained where he was, calmly watching as Tōsen Kaname continued rising within the pale yellow beam of light.
There was no anxiety on his handsome face.
No urgency.
Instead, the corner of his mouth curled into a mocking smile.
"What do you mean?!"
Tōsen's expression instantly froze.
A moment ago, the ecstasy of surviving certain death had gone straight to his head.
But facing a man like Bai Chen—a monster who had shattered common sense again and again, a man who kept turning the impossible into reality—
even now, with his body only a few hundred meters away from the opening at the source of the Negación, just moments from disappearing into the Garganta—
the instant Bai Chen sneered at him, a nameless dread surged through Tōsen's heart once more.
And he was not the only one.
Whether it was Isshin Shiba on the allied side, or Aizen and Gin still lurking in the shadows—
everyone's gaze sharpened the moment they heard Bai Chen's words.
Could it be…
that Bai Chen was not bluffing?
Did he truly have a way to stop the Negación?
Ignoring the countless eyes fixed on him, Bai Chen calmly raised one hand and entered Sage Mode without weaving a single sign.
At a single thought—
his face changed.
Red markings spread around his eyes in horizontal lines.
More importantly—
his aura surged violently.
In less than a breath, his spiritual pressure multiplied several times over.
Such an outrageous increase, combined with the fact that this was everyone's first time witnessing Sage Mode, sent another wave of shock through the battlefield.
"What… is this power?!"
"Is it Hollowfication? No—that's not what Hollowfication looks like!"
"So besides Hollowfication… there's actually another power in this world that can boost someone this dramatically in an instant?!"
High above, hidden within the darkness of the night, even Aizen's expression lost its usual calm and turned openly stunned.
He had never imagined that even now, Bai Chen still had another trump card hidden away—
and one capable of pushing his power to such terrifying heights in an instant.
At that very moment, based on Aizen's spiritual perception, Bai Chen's pressure had already climbed to the level of the peak of the Shinigami world.
In other words—
even if Aizen revealed himself right now, openly exposed his identity, and stepped out to stop Bai Chen from killing Tōsen—
there was no guarantee he could gain any advantage at all.
Most likely, he would only end up retreating in disgrace.
However—
Gin's next words quickly forced Aizen to calm down again.
Though he was equally shaken, Gin narrowed his eyes and muttered thoughtfully,
"No… the Negación exists because of a problem of space itself."
"And the strength of spiritual pressure alone can't fundamentally alter that property."
"So, Captain Aizen—while I admit Bai Chen's methods are terrifying, and the pressure he's releasing right now is outrageous…"
"If all he has is amplified spiritual pressure and nothing else, then I don't believe he can really stop the Negación."
After that cool-headed analysis, Gin was no longer as frightened as before.
Instead, his eyes filled with suspicion—
and a trace of anticipation.
Because now he was curious.
Aside from raw force and spiritual pressure amplification…
did Bai Chen also possess abilities tied to space itself?
The answer came immediately.
"Space-Time Kidō: Spatial Transfer!"
The instant Bai Chen's aura and strength reached their peak—
before the stunned eyes of everyone present—
before Tōsen's own horrified, disbelieving stare—
Bai Chen once again cast a forbidden spell with no chant whatsoever.
A spell he had copied in the Great Spirit Library with his Three-Tomoe Sharingan—
one of the ancient and forbidden Kidō recorded there.
Among them were the rare space-time techniques once used in the original story by Hachigen Ushōda and Tessai Tsukabishi—
Kidō tied to time, space, and transfer.
The moment Bai Chen's voice rang out—
the black flames, already strengthened by his spiritual power and further intensified in both heat and scale—
changed.
Up until now, those flames had remained blocked outside the Negación, unable to invade the interior.
But now—
it was as though they had been forcibly displaced by an unseen hand.
Infused with the mysteries of Space-Time Kidō, touched by spatial force itself—
those black flames suddenly bypassed the spatial barrier altogether.
And that horrifying, utterly unnatural sight—
struck the battlefield like a nuclear blast.
The flames broke through from the outside—
and directly appeared inside the Negación beam itself.
The moment that scene unfolded, the entire field erupted in shock.
And Tōsen's emotions—
which had only just climbed back up from the depths of despair—
plunged straight back into hell.
Because as the black flames closed in once more—
he felt death breathing down his neck all over again.
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