The Soul King resembled a limbless human vessel.
He had no arms, no legs, and no internal organs. Yet even after Yhwach's Quincy cross pierced through his chest, he still did not die.
His eyes were open.
He wanted to negotiate with Brook, this god from another world.
However, Yhwach, driven into his final struggle, unleashed a terrifying burst of power and shattered the Soul King's sealing crystal in an instant.
The Soul King's body began to collapse.
It broke apart into the purest divine power and was absorbed by Yhwach.
Left with no choice, the Soul King transferred his consciousness into the body of a Fullbringer in the Human World.
He had not even managed to say a single word to Brook before his own son killed him.
Among the three remaining Fullbringers, he slipped into one of them.
Ichigo Kurosaki, Orihime Inoue, or Yasutora Chad.
When necessary, he would seize control of that host body, completely remove himself from all conflict, and wait for time to pass until the arrival of the gods.
Inside the Soul King Palace, Yhwach watched the Soul King turn into pure energy and began absorbing it madly.
But he soon discovered a horrifying truth.
The devouring power of the Lord of Hueco Mundo was even more terrifying than his own.
It was dozens of times faster.
At that moment, Yhwach fell into true despair.
No matter what he did, he could not defeat the Lord of Hueco Mundo.
With the Soul King, the linchpin of the Three Realms, disappearing, the Three Realms began to tremble, as if they were about to return to the chaotic era of one great world.
Brook frantically absorbed and devoured the Soul King's divine power.
Combined with Hyosube Ichibei's power from earlier, his pair of six tomoe white Rinnegan began showing signs of evolution once again.
"You've already lost, Yhwach!"
Brook seized the Soul King's power with excitement.
After taking the Soul King's power, he reached toward Yhwach as well.
He wanted the power of all three of them to push his eyes from six tomoe to nine tomoe.
"Why?! Why?! Who are you?!"
Across the long river of history, Yhwach had seen Brook's appearance only once.
Now, facing him directly, he let out a cry of desperate rage.
"I am a god from another world, an existence on the same level as the Soul King!"
Brook grinned.
A terrifying devouring force swallowed Yhwach.
In Yhwach's despair, Brook's six tomoe white Rinnegan spun wildly.
Then the entire Soul King Palace and Zero Palace were completely broken down into spirit particles and absorbed by Brook.
Below, the Ice Palace and Seireitei also began to collapse, pulled into that terrifying devouring black hole.
At that moment, all of Soul Society seemed to fall into the apocalypse.
Every Shinigami and every soul was swallowed by fear.
The five members of the Zero Division turned deathly pale.
Their resurrection mechanism was gone.
How many years would they have to spend in this weakened state?
Or perhaps, in their current condition, they would simply be killed outright.
"It's over. The Soul King is gone. The Three Realms are about to collapse."
Hyosube Ichibei spoke in despair.
The eyes of every Shinigami lost their light.
The Lord of Hueco Mundo had won.
From this day forward, the world would become a chaotic and illusory realm.
Meanwhile, the Espada and the Six Sins of Hell were already growing excited.
For them, a new world was about to begin.
Brook underwent a terrifying evolution in the sky.
When his pair of nine tomoe white Rinnegan appeared, the entire Three Realms felt his overwhelming pressure.
The Three Realms became extremely unstable.
Soul Society began to collapse.
The barrier between Hell and the Human World began to crack.
Living humans and the souls of Soul Society were all filled with terror.
At that moment, a divine voice resounded throughout the Three Realms and Hueco Mundo.
"From this day forward, I, Brook, am the Lord of the Underworld. I shall govern the Yin and Yang realms, the realm of the dead and the realm of the living."
"Souls in the underworld and living beings in the world shall no longer interfere with one another."
"Soul Society and Hueco Mundo shall merge into Hell. The Six Paths of Reincarnation shall be established, divided into the Deva Path, Hell Path, Human Path, Asura Path, Preta Path, and Animal Path."
"Today, I shall reforge the Six Paths of Reincarnation."
"Arise!"
As Brook's voice thundered, the barrier between the Three Realms shattered.
In its place, an even stronger boundary formed between Yin and Yang.
Soul Society and Hueco Mundo were dragged into silent Hell.
Brook transformed the Gates of Hell into a massive Underworld Gate, making it the only passage between the realms of the living and the dead.
The spirit particles of Soul Society and Hueco Mundo transformed within Hell.
They became the Gates of Hell, the Road to the Underworld, the Bridge of Helplessness, the Eighteen Levels of Hell, the Department of Rewards and Punishments, the Palace of the Six Paths of Reincarnation, the Palace of Yama, the Palace of the Demon Emperor, and many other divine structures.
In Rukongai, countless commoners and refugees had their spiritual energy stripped away, turning them into the purest souls.
All of them were sent into the Human Path and Animal Path for reincarnation.
Brook did not have the time to deal with so many wandering souls one by one.
If they had possessed true talent, they would already have risen to fame and entered Seireitei as Shinigami long ago.
All those spirit particles were used to build Hell, or became Brook's evolutionary energy, preparing him for the evolution of his final eye.
With Brook personally reconstructing the Yin and Yang realms, both the Human World and Hell gradually returned to stability.
Then Brook began assigning roles within the Six Paths of Reincarnation according to the desires of the Zero Division, the Gotei 13, the Visoreds, the Arrancar, the Six Sins of Hell, and the surviving Sternritter.
Those who enjoyed battle would go to the Asura Path.
Those who enjoyed judgment would enter the Department of Rewards and Punishments.
Those who enjoyed torment would go to the Preta Path and the Eighteen Levels of Hell.
The old Three Realms had ended.
A new underworld order had been born.
----------
One month later.
Inside the Emperor's Palace of the Southern Underworld.
From Soul Society, there were Shutara Senjumaru of the Zero Division, Retsu Unohana of the Fourth Division, Soi Fon of the Second Division, Rukia Kuchiki, Yoruichi Shihouin, Rangiku Matsumoto, Momo Hinamori, and others.
From Hueco Mundo, there were Nelliel, who had already recovered, and Tier Harribel.
Among the Quincy were E, Bambietta; G, Liltotto; P, Meninas; T, Candice; and Z, Giselle.
There were also women from the Visoreds and the Fullbringers.
In short, every woman who was both powerful and beautiful had been arranged by Brook to work in the Emperor's Palace. Not only were they capable, they were also pleasing to the eye.
After Brook classified the power of Shinigami, Hollows, and Hell as spiritual power, there was no longer any distinction between Shinigami, Hollows, and Hell sinners.
After undergoing soul transformation through the Six Paths of Reincarnation and the Deva Path, these subordinates were all turned into Underworld Officials, becoming part of the Underworld.
Now that he had taken control of the Southern Underworld, and with the Northern Underworld already in his hands, Brook had become the master of two Underworlds.
Brook touched the six tomoe white Rinnegan on his forehead, but in the end, it still lacked enough power to evolve.
He had not expected that even after absorbing most of the power of two Underworlds, he would still fail to become a high-level Underworld God.
"I wonder if I have a chance against Jin, the Western Underworld God, as I am now."
Brook murmured to himself.
Right now, he needed more information to assess the true strength of gods such as Jin, Yama, and others.
However, even after absorbing so much of the Soul King's power, he had still failed to obtain the Soul King's soul memories.
Had that fellow truly disappeared?
Or had he gone into hiding?
Brook had been searching for the Soul King's memories for a long time, and he did not believe the Soul King was truly dead.
The Northern Underworld God, Hirasaka, had been mostly plundered by Otsutsuki Shibai, leaving Brook with very few memories about the divine realm. Because of that, Brook was currently almost blind when it came to gods and the divine realm.
If he could obtain all of the Soul King's memories, his understanding of the divine realm and Jin would become far more complete.
That would also make dealing with Jin much safer.
"Come to think of it, I seem to have forgotten about this world's main characters!"
Brook suddenly realized that he had not returned to the Human World since separating the Yin and Yang realms.
He did not know how the protagonist, Ichigo Kurosaki, was doing now.
Xcution, the Fullbringer organization, was gone.
The Visoreds were gone.
Shinigami like Kisuke Urahara could no longer return to the Human World.
There was no one left to teach the protagonist, and even Hollows could no longer remain in the Human World. He had no enemies left to cut down.
After enjoying the service of Shutara Senjumaru and Retsu Unohana, Brook went directly to Karakura Town in the Human World.
With his current control over the world, he easily found the school Ichigo Kurosaki attended.
The moment he sensed the immense power within Ichigo, Brook's eyes lit up.
This was not normal.
It was extremely abnormal!
The Soul King's consciousness was instantly filled with terror.
He had sensed that the Yin-Yang barrier had remained undisturbed for a month, so he had only come out for two days to breathe and enjoy life inside Ichigo Kurosaki's body.
He had not expected to be caught red-handed by the new god so quickly.
What outrageous luck!
The Soul King immediately hid himself again, but Brook had already noticed the anomaly.
Seeing the other two students with abilities nearby, Brook instantly transferred Ichigo Kurosaki, Orihime Inoue, and Yasutora Chad into another dimension.
He easily extracted the power of Orihime's shield, Shun Shun Rikka, and Chad's demonic left arm, then released the two of them back.
But when it came to Ichigo Kurosaki, the orange-haired boy's expression changed drastically, and his aura transformed completely.
"Can you let me go? What do you want? I can give you anything!"
The Soul King's consciousness immediately took over Ichigo's body, his voice tense.
He knew Brook had definitely recognized him. There was no point in hiding any longer.
"I'll take what I need myself."
Brook would not leave future trouble for himself.
He had ruined all of the Soul King's plans. Even if the Soul King was a saintly and magnanimous person, he should still harbor some resentment toward Brook.
If the Soul King retaliated later, Brook would be in serious trouble.
It was better to cut the root clean now.
"I absolutely will not…"
Before the Soul King could finish speaking in panic, Brook extracted all of the Soul King's remaining power and memories, then threw the pale-faced Ichigo Kurosaki back to the school.
Brook began absorbing and fusing with the Soul King's power and memories, and his strength rose slightly once more.
"They really are something else. Now I finally know the approximate strength of the other two Underworld Gods."
Brook did not regret killing the Soul King.
In a world like this, only by constantly growing stronger could one continue to survive.
"It's time to go back."
Brook chuckled softly and disappeared from the Human World.
After returning to the Southern Underworld, he gave instructions to the Shinigami.
They were to maintain the Six Paths of Reincarnation and allow the power of souls to flow into the Ghost Emperor's Palace.
After that, Brook left this Underworld and returned to the Northern Underworld through the boundary of the Underworld.
He wondered how Princess Kaguya and his children were doing.
It was time to begin his own grand plan.
.....
[If you don't want to wait for the next update, read 50 chapters ahead on P@treon.]
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