"He was lying with a different purpose just now."
Aizen continued speaking. When it came to scheming and acting, he was far more formidable than Gin Ichimaru.
After all...
He knew exactly why Gin Ichimaru had been following him all this time.
"I see... so what should we do?" Grimmjow asked. With Aizen here, he could only dutifully serve as one of Aizen's Espada.
Moreover, as Grimmjow encountered more and more powerful beings, and as he better understood Aizen's strength after merging with the Hōgyoku, his inner defiance toward Aizen gradually weakened.
After all, when two people's strength is close and the other is only slightly superior, you feel unwilling to submit and harbor thoughts of surpassing them.
However, when the other's power overwhelms yours by more than one level, that inner drive slowly fades until it disappears completely.
This is called accepting reality.
Now, Grimmjow was gradually accepting reality.
"Their objective isn't important. Since he wants to report back first and then discuss future cooperation with us, let's see what kind of collaboration he proposes," Aizen spoke indifferently.
At most, the other party's intention was to use him and Hueco Mundo to handle some dangerous tasks.
This wasn't a major issue. Even if they plotted against Hueco Mundo, so what?
As long as Aizen himself remained unharmed, he could abandon Hueco Mundo completely at any time.
Because after several encounters with Hui, Aizen had clearly realized something.
That is, as long as one person's strength is sufficient, even a single individual can easily overthrow any power!
One person alone could dominate all of Hueco Mundo, the entire Soul Society, or the entire human world!
Therefore, Aizen's only concern now was how to safely complete the fusion with the Hōgyoku.
Nothing more.
Once he fully merged with the Hōgyoku, he would at least possess strength that could rival Hui.
And with such power, Hueco Mundo would become dispensable to him.
At that point, if he wished, he could become the ruler of Hueco Mundo at any time.
…
In the palace of the Wandenreich, where Yhwach resided.
Jugram Haschwalth had already reported their expedition's experiences to Yhwach and shared his thoughts, awaiting Yhwach's decision.
"It seems Aizen truly has the potential to become a powerful adversary," Yhwach remarked with feeling, though he had known this all along.
"Your thinking is correct. If our opponents were merely those Shinigami, we would have nothing to fear.
"But those mysterious people who vanished from history and are indeed returning, they are our true enemies for the future.
"We don't know exactly how many of these people there are, nor do we know their overall strength levels or ambitions.
"Therefore, before these people return, the most urgent task for our Wandenreich is first to enhance our own strength. Second, we must preserve our fighting power as much as possible.
"Since you have a plan in mind, go ahead and execute it. Let Hueco Mundo and that fellow Aizen fight for us."
Yhwach spoke to Jugram Haschwalth with deep trust. He could confidently entrust major matters to Haschwalth to make decisions.
"As you command, Your Majesty."
Upon hearing this, Haschwalth bowed to Yhwach before leaving the palace.
In the palace, after Haschwalth departed, Yhwach once again fell into deep thought.
He was still wondering what exactly was the situation with Hui and his people.
To be honest, those people put tremendous pressure on him.
His ability was The Almighty, which was the foundation of his confidence.
It was a power that was "All knowing and all powerful," and any technique known to Yhwach could not harm him.
Yhwach had personally revealed that The Almighty's ability was "the power to alter the future."
This was practically like cheating.
But fortunately, this ability seemed to have certain limitations and wasn't truly invincible.
Now, Yhwach's ability appeared to have lost its effect against Hui.
Because even though he knew Hui's techniques, he still couldn't change any future involving Hui.
Even more terrifying was that he couldn't see any future related to Hui at all.
In other words, Hui was a completely unknown mysterious powerhouse to Yhwach, and his ability would be useless in any future battle between them.
This shook Yhwach's inner confidence, because he knew that without this ability, he had no chance of being Hui's match.
If Hui was the only one, that would be one thing.
But according to Hui himself, there were many others like him throughout history, and they would gradually return.
This made Yhwach feel his position was seriously threatened, robbing him of his sense of security.
"Sigh, forget it. I'll focus on recovering my full strength first."
After thinking for a long time and finding no good solution, Yhwach sighed helplessly.
…
In the human world.
Hui was unaware that to deal with him, Aizen and Yhwach had formed an alliance between Hueco Mundo and the Wandenreich.
But even if he knew, it wouldn't matter. The current Hui, he didn't take Aizen seriously at all until Aizen completely merged with the Hōgyoku.
As for Yhwach, Hui wasn't really wary of him but lacked absolute confidence in victory.
But even if he couldn't win, Hui was 100% confident he could safely escape.
If he couldn't fight now, he would return after assimilating spiritual power!
Even if after assimilating Spiritual power he still couldn't defeat Yhwach and a fully merged Aizen, that was fine too—he could further assimilate time!
Hui refused to believe that after assimilating both time and spiritual powers, he still wouldn't be their match.
After obtaining the power of time, he couldn't imagine losing!
Therefore, unlike Aizen and Yhwach, Hui felt absolutely no pressure.
He even had the leisure to train Ichigo Kurosaki, planning to cultivate a powerful fighting force for fun.