Omniverse: The Martial Artist

Unohana swiftly healed her own injuries, though she didn't fully remove the scars. "You've passed the exam. You may now graduate from the Shin'ō Spiritual Arts Academy."

She walked toward Hao, picking up the severed arm she had cut off earlier. "I'll handle it. Your Kaidō skills aren't quite there yet."

As she spoke, she reattached Hao's arm and began healing him using Kaidō.

Hao had to admit—Unohana was indeed far beyond him in the field of healing techniques. In just a few moments, his arm had completely regenerated. He flexed it slightly and felt no lingering side effects.

"Thank you for going easy on me, Professor Unohana," Hao said.

"Oh?" Unohana replied with a faint smile. "I didn't go easy at all. That final strike—you truly won."

She tied her hair back into its original style, glancing around the now-ruined tatami room with a headache. She'd thought the fight would be brief, not expecting things to end up such a mess. Looks like the old man would definitely scold her later.

"There were times during the fight when I was injured, but you didn't push the attack, did you?"

Hao grinned. "If you had pressed forward in those moments, I might not have lasted long enough to reach Shikai."

Though he'd told Aizen before that he had grasped some of the key to releasing his Zanpakutō, in truth, he hadn't been fully confident. That final attempt had been a leap of faith—a desperate gamble that barely succeeded.

It wasn't that he enjoyed fighting while on the brink of death, but rather, he feared that if he entered that strange resonance state again and lost consciousness like before… he really would die.

That's why he had initially chosen not to use Shikai against Unohana. But after the brutal fight, one conclusion became clear: if he couldn't release Shikai, the odds of defeating Unohana were far too slim.

"A win is still a win. But aren't you forgetting something?"

Unohana adjusted her clothing, once again resembling the gentle, elegant Captain of Squad Four.

"This was my testing ground, not a hunting ground."

Hao paused. "Wait… Professor Unohana, what was the passing requirement for this test again?"

With her usual soft smile, Unohana replied, "Didn't I say? You just had to survive under my assault for ten minutes. That's a passing grade."

Hao: ???

You never said that!

Thinking back carefully, before he had even released his Zanpakutō, Unohana had already stopped attacking.

At the time, he thought she had simply become excited and wanted to observe his transformation. But doing the math now… maybe he had already passed the exam by then, and that's why she stopped fighting?

Yet he went ahead and released Shikai, got hyped, and kept fighting until they actually determined a victor…

"Now you're not just qualified," Unohana said with a gentle laugh, walking to the sliding door. "Personally, I'm giving you full marks. Congratulations—tomorrow, you'll officially be a member of the Gotei 13."

She slid the door open and stepped out, leaving Hao staring blankly at the aftermath of the battle.

The official standard, as given by the Head Captain, was to survive for ten minutes under a captain-level assault. But Unohana had to admit—she did get carried away.

If Hao hadn't awakened his Shikai and revealed new power, she very well might have "accidentally" killed him during their extended fight.

Seeing that Unohana had already left, Hao lowered his head to glance at the only piece of clothing still decently covering him and let out a long sigh of relief.

The moment Unohana vanished, he heard the familiar notification sound from the Terminal Space, informing him that the main mission had been completed.

He had now qualified to return. Since this mission's designated duration was only three months, he could remain in the Bleach world for a maximum of two more days. If he overstayed, the Terminal Space would forcibly pull him back.

Hao looked down at Shuma. Although the Shikai state had been released, due to its transformation from a template Asauchi into his personal Zanpakutō, its appearance had changed.

The previously silver-white blade now had vine-like etchings along its body, and the plain white hilt had turned a dark purple-black, giving off an aura that felt both mysterious and dangerous.

Using the Space's appraisal function again, the details had already changed:

---

[Demonbound]

Origin: Bleach (Derivative World No. 401118)

Rarity: Rare

Primary Weapon Type: Sword

Durability: 60/60

Sharpness: 20

Toughness: 20

Description:

A Zanpakutō forged when Explorer No. 40440404 infused their soul into a template Asauchi. This weapon is soul-bound, cannot be sold or traded, and cannot be activated by any other user.

---

Weapon Skill 1 (Passive): Soul Nourishment

Effect: When the user kills enemies using Demonbound, it absorbs a portion of their soul energy to nourish itself and grow.

The user may also feed it with their own soul energy, greatly increasing growth rate.

(Warning: This method is extremely dangerous.)

Current Growth Progress: 0%

---

Weapon Skill 2 (Active): Shikai

Effect: Upon Shikai release, continuously consumes the user's Soul Core Energy.

Demonbound reveals its awakened form, increasing all of the user's combat attributes by +2, enhances neural reflex speed, and boosts the sword's Sharpness and Toughness.

When Demonbound deals damage, it applies a Corrosion Effect:

Reduces target's natural regeneration speed by 10%.

Deals additional damage per second equal to 10% of the max damage dealt by that hit.

Duration: 5 seconds.

Multiple strikes on the same wound stack the corrosion effect.

Cooldown: None

Rating: 100+ (Range: 30–100)

Evaluation: "Within your heart, a demon god is imprisoned."

---

Now that his Zanpakutō had awakened, it had become his exclusive growing-type main weapon, and its attributes had seen a dramatic boost. The Shikai effects were straightforward but brutal—an attribute increase essentially equated to a Reiatsu boost in this world.

The 10% healing suppression might not sound like much, but against enemies with strong regeneration, it could be a game-changer. Even when fighting Unohana earlier, he noticed that her Kaidō healing speed was clearly affected. The corrosion damage was fierce too, effectively adding a 50% delayed damage boost to each of his strikes.

Most important of all: this effect had no cooldown.

In a prolonged fight, the cumulative damage would keep escalating, until it reached a critical point where the enemy would suffer a total collapse.

In the fight against Unohana, he hadn't gained the full +2 boost to attributes, primarily because the suppressive force field here limited him from breaking through to Level 16 Reiatsu. In a non-restricted environment, he could've unleashed even stronger power.

As for the Space's rating system, Hao had managed to gather some information over the past few months:

Within his current permissions, the known item quality tiers were:

Dilapidated, White, Refined, Rare — beyond that, he had no intel.

Dilapidated: basically trash, rating = 0

White: 1–10

Refined: 11–30

Rare: wide rating range, up to 100+

His Demonbound had been rated at the upper cap of the Rare tier, making it top-grade among new explorers.

After reviewing Demonbound's updated properties, Hao stepped out of the exam chamber—only to see someone already waiting for him outside.

It was Aizen, holding a fresh set of clothing.

°°°

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