Looking at the fine beads of sweat covering Aizen's forehead and his slightly rapid breathing that he couldn't fully control, Hiroki's tense nerves finally relaxed a bit.
It worked! He shouted silently in his heart, his mouth almost unable to suppress an upward curve. He quickly picked up his teacup, using the curling steam to hide his triumph.
As expected of high-end goods produced by the system, the visual experience of this "Thought Sharing" had an outstanding effect!
The source of fear is always the unknown.
No matter how smart or calculating Aizen was, how could he imagine the magnificent scene of deep space starships bombarding each other? Not to mention those ferocious "Doomsday Beasts" that could tear apart steel giant ships like small celestial bodies?
The technology tree of the Soul Reaper World, at most, stopped at maintaining the operation of the Soul Society and developing some auxiliary tools for Zanpakuto. "Exploring the universe"? This concept was probably as far-fetched as a "fairy tale" to them.
In Aizen's cognitive framework, the top combat power of the entire Soul Reaper World—those Captains—if placed in that universe-level battle just now, probably wouldn't even be able to withstand the core main cannon of a capital ship in the fleet!
That torrent of energy that could evaporate mountains and boil seas with a casual shot, when hitting those thick-skinned Doomsday Beasts, would probably only make a sound and scratch off some dander!
And what undoubtedly shook Aizen's soul the most was "himself"—the figure in the memory standing amidst the ruins of a starship, condensing a sword of stars with a flip of his hand! That Taixu Divine Sword, so massive it was suffocating and composed of the pure laws of "Annihilation," with one strike, wiped out the entire massive fleet along with dozens of Doomsday Beasts... turning them directly into cosmic dust, completely erased from the level of "existence"!
"Phew..." Aizen finally let out a long breath of turbid air, his voice carrying a hint of imperceptible raspiness. He subconsciously wanted to push up his glasses to hide his loss of composure, only to find his fingertips were somewhat stiff.
The cold sweat on his back was indeed just as Hiroki had anticipated, completely soaking the lining of his shinigami uniform and clinging to his skin, bringing a cold, sticky discomfort.
This state of disarray was something he hadn't felt in a long time.
"Lord Hiroki..." Aizen looked up at Hiroki, shock and intense curiosity fiercely intertwining in his eyes behind the broken lenses. He spoke with difficulty, trying to capture and confirm those scenes that transcended his cognition, "Those things just now... were..."
Hiroki lowered his eyes at just the right moment, blowing on the tiny green leaves floating on the tea, his movements leisurely and composed. After taking a sip, he looked up unhurriedly, his tone carrying the indifference and slight regret of a senior looking at a junior:
"That's why I said," he took another sip of tea before saying slowly, "these realms are... still too early for you."
A simple statement carried more weight than any threat. Because it was built upon that shocking "fact" just now.
"Yes, Lord Hiroki." Aizen went silent for a moment and gave a low response. He didn't argue or question; he only accepted with heartfelt submission (at least at his current level of knowledge).
This attitude made Hiroki nod inwardly.
For now, he had managed to suppress him. Taking advantage of the action of putting down the teacup, Hiroki let out a sigh of relief imperceptibly, successfully dispelling the other's idea of asking for the Tai Xu Sword Qi and avoiding the crisis of being exposed.
But he knew it couldn't end here. He had to leave deeper, guided doubts in Aizen's mind to make him shift his target and realize the complexity of his environment.
He changed his tone, becoming meaningful, his gaze piercing Aizen with a bit of playfulness:
"You, think carefully about how to 'survive' in this world first." He used the more colloquial "survive" to deliberately create a sense of crisis.
"?!" Aizen's pupils constricted slightly, catching the strong hint in Hiroki's words. "Lord Hiroki... what does this mean?!" Was it a warning to be careful of the backlash of the Divine Essence? Or... something else? He instinctively thought of his own unexposed plans.
The playful smile on Hiroki's face deepened, and he leaned forward slightly as if sharing a huge secret:
"Oh? You don't naively think..." he deliberately elongated his tone, "that those little tricks of yours, playing with spiritual bodies, Hollowifying Captain-level Soul Reapers, and then framing Urahara Kisuke... that 'absolutely no one' really knows the details of these things?"
Aizen's heart sank abruptly.
Without waiting for him to refute or think, Hiroki directly dropped a bombshell:
"Besides me," he held up one finger, "at least four other factions... are 'aware' of what you've been up to." He deliberately used the word "up to" with a hint of contempt.
"And that's not even counting that 'old man', the Captain Commander. As for him..." Hiroki chuckled and waved his hand, "he probably only has some vague suspicions but is... 'too lazy to care'."
"This..." Aizen's breath hitched slightly. The amount of information Hiroki provided was huge and extremely impactful. He forced himself to stay calm and pressed, "Why would the Captain Commander... be 'too lazy to care'? Captain-level members being Hollowified... this is no ordinary matter!"
Hiroki acted as if he had heard an interesting question, the corners of his mouth curling into a slightly mocking arc:
"Do you think Genryusai Shigekuni Yamamoto... really cares about those few Captain-level Soul Reapers?" Hiroki asked back, then waved his hand again as if dispelling Aizen's possible confusion.
He certainly cares, but... do you dare to go to Old Man Yama and verify it in person?
"..." Aizen fell silent.
Hiroki looked at Aizen's silence with satisfaction and threw out the script he had prepared long ago:
"Hehe, it's simple." He sat up straight, his smile receding, showing the "authoritative sense of knowledge" that only a proxy for an ancient noble family would possess.
"Because your luck is good, you successfully dragged the 'Shihōin Clan' into this. That's why he... chose to wait and see for the time being."
"The Shihōin Clan?" Aizen quickly recalled the "Red-eyed Guard" flanking the figure in the memory Hiroki had shown. Yes, the Shihōin Clan! Hiroki had just shown a tip of the iceberg of its hidden power!
"What does this have to do with the Captain Commander not caring?"
"That's the key." Hiroki lowered his voice, creating an atmosphere of telling a secret. "Many true secrets of the Soul Society are not passed down in historical archives; they are hidden deep within the hands of us... long-standing top noble families." He pointed to himself, emphasizing his status.
"So, do you know how that Captain Commander defeated the legendary enemy—Yhwach—a thousand years ago?"
Aizen's brow furrowed: "I only know it was the Captain Commander who turned the tide. As for the specific details... I've heard some, but as Lord Hiroki said, the records are not exhaustive."
"Oh?" Hiroki looked at him meaningfully. "Since you've heard of this, do you think... the key to his victory was really just relying on a Zanpakuto with the strongest flames, as the popular legends say?"
He shook his head slightly, his smile carrying the clarity of someone who sees through everything: "Then... according to common sense, are the records in history books... necessarily accurate? Since I'm asking this, it's naturally different from the rumors."
Aizen felt a chill in his heart: "What Lord Hiroki means is..."
"Indeed, the version circulating in public is just a heroic epic of a strong man turning the tide." Hiroki's gaze became profound, as if piercing through a thousand years of time.
"But the truth recorded in the Shihōin Clan's secret records is... Old Man Yama utilized his loyal subordinates as pure tactical pawns back then!" He emphasized the words "utilized" and "pawns."
"Through precise calculation and cold sacrifice, he deliberately sacrificed a large number of powerful subordinates, even including several Captain-level existences at that time... using their lives and the final eruption of their Spiritual Pressure as the price, he barely managed to create a slight combat advantage over Yhwach at a critical juncture."
Hiroki's tone was like cold spring water, each word striking Aizen's heart: "This was the ultimate tactical core that allowed him to finally achieve a 'narrow victory' over Yhwach. So, subordinates? Captain? When needed... in his eyes, they are nothing more than consumables carrying out a mission. Their value? It can be calculated."
This was Old Man Yama's true personality a thousand years ago. Even if Aizen wanted to see evidence, he could provide it. And with Aizen's personality, he would definitely sneak into other noble houses to flip through the history recorded by those nobles.
Unfortunately, Old Man Yama is old now and has long since lost the ruthlessness of his youth.
"This!"
Aizen's pupils contracted again, and the waves in his heart were already overwhelming! This image of Genryusai Shigekuni Yamamoto as cold and calculating to the extreme was such a stark contrast to the "strongest Soul Reaper" and "symbol of the Gotei" recognized by the outside world that it completely overturned his predictions!
Hiroki didn't give Aizen time to digest it and continued to weave his logic:
"On the contrary, what he wants now is 'stability.' Absolute, lasting stability!" Hiroki said decisively. "Or rather, having experienced that war a thousand years ago that almost exhausted the Soul Society's vitality, he knows full well that the Soul Society... can no longer afford another similar, world-destroying war!"
He brought the topic back to reality:
"So, when he learned that at the final critical juncture, the former head of our Shihōin Clan—Yoruichi Shihōin—directly intervened and could even be said to have led the rescue operation..." Hiroki spread his hands, "he could only give up on investigating the truth of the incident. Once a deep investigation begins, if... and I mean if, the truth of all this eventually points to the Shihōin Clan, what if it really was the Shihōin Clan's doing?"
Hiroki looked straight into Aizen's eyes, his tone full of helpless "big-picture considerations":
"Do we really want another war between the nobles and the Thirteen Court Guard Squads on a scale comparable to the one a thousand years ago? Old Man Yama choosing to 'not care' is using the smallest price to exchange for the greatest temporary stability."
Countless thoughts flashed through Aizen's mind like lightning. Hiroki's logic was interlinked, and combined with the terrifying strength shown and the "shocking revelation" of Yamamoto's temperament, it had extremely high credibility.
"Given that Lord Hiroki is hiding his true strength," Aizen keenly caught a "loophole" in Hiroki's words and tested, "the Captain Commander's strength already surpasses us Captain-levels. According to Lord Hiroki's description, he doesn't seem to fear sacrifice... Why would he 'fear' the Shihōin Clan? Or rather... does the Captain Commander know about your... true strength, Lord Hiroki?"
In Aizen's view, Hiroki must be an old schemer who has lived for who knows how long and is hiding behind the scenes.
Hiroki seemed to have anticipated Aizen's sharp intuition and smiled slightly, a hint of imperceptible triumph in his smile because he was finally about to drop the second heavy piece of data:
"Well, of course he doesn't know about 'me'," Hiroki said frankly, then changed his tone, "But as the Captain Commander, he has his own way of assessing the strength of the nobles. He would estimate the 'surface' combat power of the Shihōin Clan. Even without me, Hiroki..."
Hiroki lightly tapped his finger on the table, putting on a posture of "let me do the math for you":
"The Shihōin Clan, as the strongest family among the Four Great Noble Clans, has deep foundations. Even if we don't count this 'insignificant' proxy head like me..." He paused slightly, quickly running through the numbers he had just calculated in his head, his tone becoming more certain and confident: "The family's hidden strength can at least pull out ten experts with Captain-level Spiritual Pressure!"
"Ten Captain-levels?!" Aizen almost couldn't hide his loss of voice; this number far exceeded his boldest estimate! Even Aizen, who had some knowledge of the Gotei 13's foundations, was shocked! The Gotei 13 only has thirteen Captains in total!
"What, are you surprised?" Hiroki asked back casually, as if stating something obvious. "Yeah, besides the Shiba Clan, which has slightly declined and isolated itself from the Seireitei, which of the other three existing Great Noble Clans—including Shihōin, Kucihki, and Tsunayashiro—can't produce five or six Captain-levels?"
Hiroki's inner monologue: An old man hanging on by a thread is still Captain-level! I'm not lying!
Never mind the Four Great Noble Clans; even high-ranking noble houses with a bit of foundation might have one or two 'old fogies' who are about to enter their coffins but can still erupt with Captain-level power once."
Hiroki urgently re-checked his calculation logic: Uchiha Fugaku, Shisui, Itachi, and Izuna, the four Mangekyo on the surface, are Captain-level; those three old guys in the Shihōin Clan's ancestral hall who can probably still breathe and erupt once count as three; counting the defected Yoruichi and the current Suì-Fēng, that's nine.
Plus me, who although "weak," can barely be counted as Captain-level based on Spiritual Pressure... exactly ten! Perfect, it all adds up! Rigorous logic!
Well... maybe my and the three old men's actual combat power is a bit inflated... but the Spiritual Pressure level is real! No problem!
"Besides," Hiroki casually threw out another bombshell, further emphasizing the Shihōin Clan's foundation, "did you forget the 'Heavenly Gift Armaments'? Those artifacts passed down from ancient times. The Shihōin Clan has several true heirloom treasures.
So what if the number of Captain-levels under your command is enough? If each of our family's Captain-levels is equipped with a divine weapon, our overall combat power would be enough to go toe-to-toe with his two good disciples plus some of the Thirteenth Division's Captains."
This was adding another heavy weight to the combat power of his family's ten Captain-levels.
In reality, Hiroki had seen them; there were really not many usable ones left. However, outsiders wouldn't know, and they couldn't even investigate if they wanted to. The place where the Shihōin Clan stored the 'Heavenly Gift Armaments' used a sealing method.
Only those with the direct bloodline of the Shihōin Clan could break the seal.
In other words, only Yoruichi and Yushiro can currently use them at will. As a matrilocal son-in-law, if he wanted to use them, he would have to apply to his wife or brother-in-law.
Without a way to break the seal, one could only resort to a direct assault, which would be equivalent to directly declaring war on the Shihōin Clan. Trying to investigate or steal them without causing a stir was simply impossible.