The Aberrant Mercenary Tao

Bai Cangshu was not deliberately mocking him. He truly could sense the might of the Fullbring wielded by Soul Mage Shiro.

This Fullbring, which drew upon surging emotions to manipulate Reishi, was terrifyingly vast. Sword light illuminated a thousand meters, and the strike could not be avoided. There was no way to see the sword being drawn; he was simply cut.

Yet Bai Cangshu frowned. Other than a few "superficial wounds," he truly could not feel any other effects.

Whether it was his body, mind, or anything else, he could detect no changes whatsoever.

Thus, he calmly asked what Shiloh’s Fullbring was capable of.

Shiloh slowly lowered the right hand holding the Heart Sword high overhead, his expression equally startled and uncertain.

His Heart Sword was a karmic sword that always struck its target, a sword that directly slew the opponent’s heart and spirit.

It would inflict every bit of pain, torment, and even that sense of "loss" he had suffered upon the other person twofold.

Before entering this space, Shiloh had already been regarded by many as twisted and mentally ill. Deprived of love since childhood, he held immense affection for anyone who approached him.

Like a pitiful dog, he would wag his tail in delight whenever anyone came near him.

After entering this Infinite Dimensional Space, that trait had gradually revealed itself completely, transforming into a special talent before ultimately taking tangible form through Fullbring, this "power of love."

Shiloh had not lied. He loved every one of his teammates dearly. But precisely because the emotion called "love" came so frequently to him, he wanted to confirm it through the pain of losing them.

And every loss made the Heart Sword stronger. With his next slash, he could impose all his pain upon the opponent, causing their mind to collapse and their soul to be wounded.

Furthermore, the Heart Sword was a sword of karma. Those who killed someone Shiloh cherished could not escape it. They would certainly be struck, and within their perception, they would watch the person they cherished be killed in the same manner.

Melisandre was Shiloh’s lover, the one he clung to, the person in whose body he sought the warped maternal love he lacked.

Theoretically, when Mercenary Tao, who had killed Melisandre, was struck by the Heart Sword, he too would see his lover being torn apart within his perception.

"You have no lover. You have no one you cling to…"

Shiloh could only arrive at that explanation. He raised his blade again, and with a flash of Spiritual Pressure, the blade light had already passed through Bai Cangshu’s body.

Bai Cangshu had no intention of dodging and remained where he stood.

Splurt! Splurt!

Cross-shaped sword wounds appeared. This time, the wounds were shallower and had not cut through Bai Cangshu’s bones.

Bai Cangshu now realized that the opponent’s Fullbring was likely closer to a rule-based ability. Since he had killed that woman, he could not evade the sword meant to avenge her. Its power had even seemed impossible to resist, instantly slicing through his Armament Haki.

But the effects of those two strikes were vastly different.

Bai Cangshu still felt no changes whatsoever.

Shiloh had never imagined something like this could happen.

Those two strikes just now corresponded to the pain of losing his father and mother in childhood. Those events had affected him the most, so they also had the greatest impact on the mind and soul.

Yet when those two strikes landed on Mercenary Tao, the other man still showed no reaction.

"Mercenary Tao, you bastard… do you seriously have no feelings for even your parents?!"

Shiloh raised his sword and slashed again. The katana looked heavy, but once Fullbring was activated, it had no weight at all. Its slashing speed far exceeded imagination.

Yet Bai Cangshu merely took a step to the left and avoided the strike.

Shiloh raised his hand again, and Bai Cangshu pushed off with the tips of his feet as the ground exploded beneath him.

Smack!

Before the sword could fall, a hand seized Shiloh’s arm.

"What a weak Fullbring."

Shiloh tried to exert force, but he was not a Reincarnator whose strength had broken past its limit. With a base Strength of 25 and no ability conversion, he was completely overpowered by Mercenary Tao.

His thoughts shifted, and light lit up along the blade. In the next moment, the Heart Sword no longer needed to slash; sword light directly appeared before Bai Cangshu.

Bai Cangshu gripped Shiloh’s right arm with his left hand, while a massive black sword suddenly appeared in his right. Seeing the sword light descend, he neither dodged nor evaded. Instead, he grabbed Black Sword: Dragon Slayer with one hand and swung it upward in a reverse slash.

Splurt!

The instant Bai Cangshu’s Armament Haki across his chest was cut open again, Shiloh’s right arm was severed as well.

Black Sword: Dragon Slayer had a special effect that gave it a high chance of severing an opponent’s limb, but the sword’s consumption of Armament Haki was astonishing.

After cutting off the other man’s arm, Bai Cangshu gripped the black sword with both hands, turned, and smashed the pitch-black greatsword down with all his strength upon the black katana falling from the air.

Bang!

Blue-white Reishi exploded, and fragments of the blade scattered in every direction.

Shiloh had no time to grieve over it. He had already flashed a hundred meters away.

He raised his left palm, his figure flickering continuously as powerful Reishi gathered in his palm. He began chanting loudly.

Ruler! Mask of flesh and blood, all creation, fluttering wings, you who bear the name of man! Truth and temperance, upon the wall of dreams without sin, stand with only your claws!

Hadō #33: Sōkatsui!

Blue-white Reishi swiftly transformed into azure flames and erupted from Shiloh’s palm. In an instant, it exploded like a massive torrent.

As the smoke dispersed, the smile at the corner of Bai Cangshu’s mouth became more pronounced. He had already noticed something.

Seeing that Mercenary Tao had suffered barely any injuries, Shiloh also realized that although the previous Heart Sword strikes had failed to inflict mental damage, they should still have subjected him to soul pain.

Yet Mercenary Tao had not been affected in the slightest.

Combined with the fact that the fully incanted Hadō #33 had now struck him without effect, there was only one possibility—Mercenary Tao’s Spiritual Pressure surpassed his own!

As the foundation of an incredibly versatile and powerful system, Reishi possessed one most crucial trait: no matter how wondrous an ability created from Reishi and Spiritual Pressure might be, it would ultimately return to its absolute essence—the essence of the spirit, the essence of Spiritual Pressure.

No matter how exquisite or mysterious an ability was, when facing someone whose Spiritual Pressure completely crushed yours, someone who merely had to stand there for their soul to press upon yours until it could barely continue, abilities born from your soul could not affect them either.

Once Shiloh understood this, he kept widening the distance. He had realized that he could not defeat Mercenary Tao. Even if Hirano were killed and the unavoidable sword struck once more, it would be useless.

Bai Cangshu raised his hand and aimed it at Shiloh from afar. He began chanting as well, even using the exact same cadence Shiloh had used before.

Ruler! Mask of flesh and blood, all creation, fluttering wings, you who bear the name of man! Truth and temperance, upon the wall of dreams without sin, stand with only your claws!

Bai Cangshu suddenly felt an incomparably surging power within him. Its scale was something even Lv. 4 Satsui no Hado could not compare to.

Within Bai Cangshu’s Consciousness Sea, Satoru Gojo and Uchiha Madara stood around a man wearing a black mask. After this fellow calling himself Millennium Worm had been killed by that Host with a special ability, he had somehow entered this Consciousness Sea as a spirit shade as well.

They had been trying to obtain some information.

But now, the Consciousness Sea shook violently. The pure white space began to destabilize, and numerous spirit shades sensed some terrifying power, their forms becoming unstable.

Shiloh watched as black Soul Power truly appeared before Mercenary Tao’s palm. Though it felt completely different from Sōkatsui, it was colder and more sinister.

How could that be… Someone could learn Kidō after seeing it only once?!

Could Reincarnators learn abilities like this?!

What kind of joke was this?!

Shiloh’s face twisted. What Mercenary Tao had done began to shatter his already unstable nerves.

He suddenly shouted,

"Lord Sage, there’s something wrong with Mercenary Tao! Mercenary Tao has—"

Splurt!

Shiloh was still flashing backward, but his body was suddenly severed out of nowhere. His upper body flashed a hundred meters away, while his lower body remained where it was.

Before the black Soul Power in Bai Cangshu’s palm could erupt, five figures had appeared around him. The five varied in height, but all wore half-black, half-white uniforms.

The blade of the leader still bore Shiloh’s blood. He stood at the very back, yet the Naginata in his hand, over three meters long, was held directly before Bai Cangshu’s neck.

"Don’t move, Mercenary Tao. I know you possess immortality, but I can already see the miserable sight of you being cut into thousands of pieces…"