Crunch…
Crunch…
The quiet Forest of Menos echoed with the grating sound of something being chewed.
After devouring the Hollow masks of the remaining Gillians, Lin Huang lowered his gaze toward the bloodied head of the Vulture Hollow.
Using the Sword Scales at the tip of his tail, he neatly separated the beak-shaped Hollow mask from the head before swallowing the comparatively small mask in a single gulp.
The instant it entered his mouth, an incomparably pure stream of reishi burst forth, dissolving almost immediately before surging throughout every part of his body.
In an instant, an overwhelming wave of spiritual pressure erupted from within him.
“So this is the reishi contained inside an Adjuchas’ Hollow mask…” Feeling the tremendous flow of reishi coursing through his entire body, Lin Huang couldn’t help revealing an intoxicated expression.
After devouring the Adjuchas’ Hollow mask together with the masks of dozens of Gillians, his spiritual pressure underwent another tremendous leap, becoming more than fifty percent stronger than before.
“I actually broke through just like that…” The bottleneck that had trapped both Liotta Ekk and Karl Taylor for countless years had been crossed with astonishing ease.
His spiritual pressure had risen directly from the peak of a lower Adjuchas to the level of a middle Adjuchas.
It was obvious that both Liotta Ekk and Karl Taylor had already reached the limits of their natural potential.
For them, the peak of a lower Adjuchas had been the end of the road.
For Lin Huang…
It was only the beginning.
More importantly…
His true body had not even evolved into a Menos yet.
He was still fundamentally a Giant Hollow.
Yet his spiritual pressure had already reached the level of a middle Adjuchas.
“If this continues…” “Once my true body evolves into a Gillian…” “Will my spiritual pressure already rival that of an ordinary Vasto Lorde?” Lin Huang silently contemplated the possibility.
The greater the potential he displayed…
The more reassured he became.
After all…
The future of Hueco Mundo was filled with terrifying monsters.
Even Arrancar evolved from ordinary Vasto Lorde were not necessarily among the strongest.
Possessing greater potential and denser spiritual pressure now would allow him to become even more formidable after eventually evolving into a Vasto Lorde or an Arrancar.
Only then would he truly possess the qualifications to stand beside the strongest beings.
If he simply followed the ordinary evolutionary path…
Even becoming a Vasto Lorde and later an Arrancar would likely leave him as nothing more than another subordinate beneath Aizen Sōsuke.
Lin Huang had absolutely no intention of accepting such a future.
Thinking this…
Much of the excitement brought by his recent breakthrough gradually faded.
After taking only a brief rest…
He immediately continued deeper into the Forest of Menos.
He had to become stronger as quickly as possible.
As for Nelliel…
Lin Huang had personally witnessed her escaping beyond the range of the Sand Tide Storm.
She should have survived.
Furthermore…
The storm had completely reshaped the upper layers of Hueco Mundo.
The endless Sea of Sand had been thoroughly transformed.
Even if he returned now…
Finding Nelliel by blindly searching across the altered landscape would be nearly impossible.
Rather than wasting precious time…
It would be better to continue growing stronger.
Once his spiritual pressure reached a sufficiently overwhelming level…
Searching for Nelliel across Hueco Mundo would become far easier.
Because of that…
Lin Huang abandoned any thoughts of immediately returning to the surface.
Instead…
He intended to temper himself within the Forest of Menos.
Only by devouring more Menos could he continue evolving at the fastest possible speed.
As he ventured deeper…
The Forest of Menos truly lived up to its name.
Among every Hollow he encountered…
The weakest were ordinary mindless Gillians.
Along the way…
He hunted dozens more Gillians and completely devoured their Hollow masks.
By now…
His spiritual pressure at the level of a middle Adjuchas had become completely stable.
However…
Lin Huang soon discovered another problem.
The masks of ordinary Gillians now produced almost no noticeable increase in his spiritual pressure.
If he wished to continue growing rapidly…
He would have to devour even more Gillians in massive quantities…
Or simply hunt stronger Adjuchas.
Within this region of the Forest of Menos…
Most Adjuchas gathered large numbers of Gillians beneath them, ruling as commanders over their respective territories.
The truly talented Adjuchas…
Those who still possessed the possibility of becoming Vasto Lorde…
Rarely remained here.
Instead…
They ventured into the deepest regions of the Forest of Menos.
There…
They constantly engaged in life-and-death battles with equally powerful opponents, striving to continue their evolution.
In other words…
If Lin Huang wished to locate more Adjuchas…
Following large groups of Gillians would be the quickest method.
Every Gillian herd was likely being controlled by an Adjuchas somewhere nearby.
Although Lin Huang’s enormous serpent body had already reached well over forty meters in length…
He moved through the forest with astonishing speed.
Using Sonído together with his agile movements…
His silver-white body passed between the towering black trees like a streak of flowing moonlight.
Suddenly…
He sensed an unusual fluctuation of spiritual pressure from the front left.
“ROAR!” Several roars echoed throughout the forest.
Looking toward the source…
Lin Huang discovered seven or eight Gillians surrounding something.
They continuously roared while opening their enormous mouths.
Black and crimson Ceros repeatedly bombarded the ground below, filling the surrounding area with explosions and dust.
“Meow!” Only after looking carefully did Lin Huang finally discover the target.
Surrounded by the Gillians…
Was a cat-shaped Hollow measuring barely over one meter in length.
Although its body remained comparable to that of a newly evolved Hollow…
The spiritual pressure it emitted had already reached the level of a Powerful Hollow.
The small cat Hollow desperately dodged through the endless bombardment.
Its movements appeared extremely miserable.
However…
Lin Huang quickly realized something.
Those Gillians weren’t actually trying to kill it.
Every Cero intentionally missed by a narrow margin.
They were deliberately tormenting the little Hollow.
“Hm?” “When did mindless Gillians become capable of something like this?” Lin Huang quietly observed the battlefield.
He immediately sensed something unusual.
Ordinary Gillians acted almost entirely on instinct.
They lacked both intelligence and the patience required to deliberately toy with prey.
Suddenly…
Lin Huang noticed something.
Among the eight Gillians…
One possessed a Hollow mask that differed from the standard clown-like mask shared by ordinary Gillians.
“A Variant Gillian…” It was precisely this unusual Gillian that was directing the others while deliberately torturing the cat-shaped Hollow.
Among Gillians…
There occasionally existed extremely rare individuals that retained their self-awareness after evolving.
Unlike ordinary mindless Gillians…
These special individuals preserved their intelligence and could deliberately hunt other Hollows in order to continue evolving toward Adjuchas.
The Gillian before Lin Huang clearly belonged to that category.
However…
Although it had preserved its intelligence…
It had failed to retain its unique body.
Its Hollow mask differed from those of ordinary Gillians…
But its gigantic body remained identical to theirs.
Only after successfully evolving into an Adjuchas would it recover its own unique appearance.
Gillians like this…
Those that retained intelligence but not their individual forms…
Still possessed the potential to become Adjuchas.
However…
Their chances of eventually reaching Vasto Lorde were extremely small.
Only Menos with truly extraordinary potential could retain both their individuality and their unique appearance even after evolving into Gillians instead of becoming identical to every other member of their species.