54 The Reason Why the Quincies Were Surrounded and Suppressed  

As long as he escaped, the Shinigami would not make a move on the villagers. No, he should say, whether or not he could successfully escape, this person would not make a move on the villagers!

"Hey, since I haven't finished speaking, isn't it a bit rude for you to leave?" 

Seeing Sōken Ishida trying to escape, Ailin lifted his head.

"Bakudō Number 1 - Sai!"

"Ah!"

As Ailin chanted in a low voice, Sōken Ishida let out a cry.

The hands he was shooting arrows with were directly pried open by a huge force and pulled back behind him.

Crack!

The Reishi bow in Sōken Ishida's hands immediately collapsed. A wooden stock, condensed from Reishi, tightly locked his hands behind his back.

The uncontrollable movement of his hands directly threw Sōken Ishida into chaos. The Reishi under his feet also dissipated without Sōken Ishida's control, causing him to fall to the ground.

"It's over..." Despair filled Sōken Ishida's eyes. Could it be that the Quincy bloodline would be completely extinguished from him?

"Bakudō Number 4 - Crawling Rope!"

The Shinigami's voice rang out in Sōken Ishida's ears. In the next moment, a rope condensed from Reiatsu wrapped around Sōken Ishida's body and pulled back...

"Ah..."

Pulling the paralyzed Sōken Ishida back to the campfire, Ailin dispersed the Reiatsu from the rope in his hand. Even the Bakudō that had bound Sōken Ishida's hands was removed by Ailin.

Regaining his freedom, Sōken Ishida didn't dare run away at all right now. Although he didn't know why this enemy of the Quincies, a Captain of the Thirteen Divisions Guardians of Seireitei, hadn't killed him yet, Sōken Ishida could still feel that if he dared attack the other party again or try escaping, he would probably be killed in the next second.

From the brief clash earlier, he already knew that if the other party wanted to kill him, it would be no more difficult than crushing an ant.

" Sōken Ishida."

"Yes."

"Earlier you said the Quincies have two great enemies, Hollows and Shinigamis. Seeing how you called me Uncle, I'll tell you why Hollows and Shinigamis are enemies of you Quincies."

"Hollows are what human souls become after death if they harbor attachment and reluctance to let go of the Human World, refusing to be sent on by Shinigamis to Soul Society."

"After falling and becoming Hollows, the attachments they harbor towards the Human World leave a void in the Hollows' hearts. To fill the void in their hearts, Hollows devour human souls. From this point, it's not excessive to call Hollows the enemies of all living beings."

Sōken Ishida nodded. He understood a bit about this from the remnants of documents left in his clan. For the most part, it was the same as what Ailin said.

"Next is the conflict between Shinigamis and Quincies. Before talking about this issue, let me first introduce the structure of the world we're in." Seeing Sōken Ishida listening attentively, Ailin faintly nodded.

"Project!"

Blue Reishi gathered in Ailin's hand, eventually condensing into a straight tree branch. When forging non-sword weapons using No Sword Style, the weapon's grade would drop by one level.

What Ailin had just projected was a relatively straight tree branch from a nearby tree. Because Ailin didn't attach any "sword" concept to this tree branch, the tree branch he projected wasn't a "sword" this time.

With its prototype being fresh and vibrant green, after dropping a level in Ailin's hands, it turned into a withered, dried up branch, just right for use.

Using this withered branch, Ailin drew a large circle on the ground before Sōken Ishida, then drew three smaller circles within the large circle.

"The structure of the world we're in is roughly like this."

"This is the Human World. This is Hueco Mundo. And this is Soul Society."

"Humans live in the Human World. Human souls that fall after death and become Hollows enter Hueco Mundo. Souls guided on by Shinigamis enter Soul Society. Aside from evil people who fall into Hell, human souls generally reincarnate between these three worlds..."

"These three worlds maintain a subtle balance based on the amount of souls they contain. If the number of souls in one world becomes excessive or too scarce, it would throw off the balance between the three worlds and lead to their destruction."

"Shinigamis exist to maintain stability between the three worlds. Whenever an imbalance of souls occurs in one of the worlds, Shinigamis would make some of the souls in Soul Society reincarnate or enter Hueco Mundo for purification depending on the situation...

"And this is what Shinigamis do. The Quincies only protect humans in the Human World. From the big picture of the entire world, with the Shinigamis regulating everything, at most they would only cause more work for Shinigamis. The impact isn't actually that huge."

"But..."

Ailin circled the large circle on the ground several times with his tree branch. " Sōken Ishida, do you know that the total number of souls our world contains has never increased?"

"I don't know."

Slap!

"Ow!"

"Now you know."

Withdrawing the tree branch he used to smack Sōken Ishida's head, Ailin continued explaining. "Because, this is a major reason why Shinigamis started the extermination campaign against Quincies."

"What?!"

Sōken Ishida jerked his head up in astonishment. The world's total soul count has never increased, and this is actually the reason why Quincies were surrounded and suppressed by Shinigamis?

Well, of course, there was also an even bigger reason, and that is how the current Quincies are actually remnants from the fallen Empire of Light more than nine hundred years ago.

"Do you know the difference when Shinigamis and Quincies slay Hollows? When Shinigamis slay Hollows using their Reiryoku, the Hollows' souls disperse back into the cycle of reincarnation."

"But when Quincies use their power of Quincy: Vollständig to destroy Hollows, it completely eradicates the Hollows' existences."

Staring at Sōken Ishida, Ailin slowly asked, "Kid, tell me, if the Quincies continue eradicating Hollows like this, continuously reducing the number of souls in the world, after hundreds of years, how many souls do you think would remain in this world? Without enough reincarnating souls to replenish itself, what would this world turn into?"

Sōken Ishida's face turned deathly pale as beads of cold sweat slid down his forehead.

According to the description from the Shinigami before him, if Quincies were allowed to continue eradicating Hollows without end, the world would indeed change in that way after a long time.

Quincies...would actually become the source of the world's destruction?

Staring at his own hands, bewilderment filled Sōken Ishida's heart. Putting an end to the world-destroying Quincies with his own hands seemed to not actually be a bad thing.

"Kill me!"

Sōken Ishida closed his eyes, resigned to his fate.

"Oh? You're that eager to die?"

"No, I don't wish to die, but after hearing what you said, I also feel like Quincies shouldn't exist in this world."

"Hmph, I didn't expect a brat like you to have some vision for the big picture. However, I absolutely detest situations where someone has to be killed for the greater good or whatever."