27 Chapter 26: The World Within The Stone (1)

Ulquiorra stood in front the Intent Stone. He observed the stone and its carvings. The more he did so, the more he felt as if some sort of image was trying to show itself. Ulquiorra was instinctively trying to go against the images from penetrating his mind. Still, he realized that this was the opposite of what he needed to do.

Ulquiorra slackened his mental defense, and was immediately immersed in an illusion of some sort. He was within the void, and in front of him was a phantom with no face that was holding a spear whilst maintaining a forward stance. The phantom started to thrust its spear towards Ulquiorra with a surprising amount of explosiveness in its movement. Ulquiorra wanted to dodge or block, but his body didn't cooperate. The spear went towards Ulquiorra, and when it was about to hit him, it vanished.

The next moment, a different phantom with a larger build and weapon appeared. This time the phantom weilded a giant hammer. The phantom didn't use a martial stance, but instead used a carefree posture with the hammer on its shoulder. It then started swinging the hammer around with one hand, and each swing seemed to have been connected leading for the consecutive strikes to slowly appear to be some sort of tornado.

Ulquiorra kept seeing different sorts of phantoms appearing before him. Some striked towards him while some didn't. All this time, Ulquiorra pondered the meaning of what he was looking at. Was he supposed to learn these movesets? Did he need to see a certain pattern?

Ulquiorra pondered as the phantoms kept appearing and disappearing. After a whole day in the library, the cycle of phantoms repeated starting with the initial spear user. At this moment, Ulquiorra had a flash of inspiration. When the spear was thrusting towards him like the first time, Ulquiorra didn't block or dodge. He wished to adopt a spear stance similar to what the phantom did, and this time, his body listened.

Ulquiorra thrusted towards the spear with a motion that made it seem he was holding a spear too. The motion was extremely similar to what the phantom did. They both held an explosive nature. A phantasmal spear appeared in Ulquiorra's hand as he did so, and the two spears collided. Ulquiorra's spear lost, and the spear disappeared as the phantom stopped its spear near Ulquiorra's neck before disappearing.

'I'm missing something.' Ulquiorra thought.

What Ulquiorra did was not simply copying the moves of the phantom. What he did was also trying to understand the nature of the strikes. This sort of style was alien to him as what he was used to doing was simply using the quickest and fastest way to slice an opponent whenever he used his sword. In his strikes, there were no emotions or feelings. It was pure emptiness.

Ulquiorra continued doing the same thing with each phantom, but with different weapons, and slowly he began to understand each phantom's style. Two more days have passed, and when the cycle was reset once more on the fourth day, the spear user was once again in front of Ulquiorra.

The spear user thrusted its spear. A phantasmal spear appeared in Ulquiorra's arms, but this time he didn't copy the phantom's movements. He realized something during the second cycle, and the rest of the cycle along with the third cycle was used as a testing phase for that realization.

Ulquiorra thrusted his spear, but this time, it wasn't explosiveness that was imbued within it, but a different nature. Ulquiorra was now trying to use the nature he knew the most. It was the nature of nothingness.

Ulquiorra's spear rendered the phantom's spear move useless. The phantom's spear vanished as Ulquiorra pierced through the phantom. The phantom didn't disappear, but spoke out of the first time. It had a voice that was the mixture of a myriad of voices. It was eerie hearing it, but Ulquiorra was not affected.

"You have passed the initial test of the spear. Do you wish to move to the next level or continue the tests for the other weapons?" the phantom said.

"Not yet. I still wish to try the others." Ulquiorra said emotionlessly.

The phantom nodded before disappearing. Ulquiorra didn't take up the next test as he felt that he wanted to try his idea on other weapons and natures. What he did just now was similar yet different from his style back then during his life as an espada.

Before, his strikes were merely efficient as he wielded his weapons with no emotions. What he did now was fundamentally different in application. He tried to imbue the 'intent' of nothingness and emptiness within the strike. He visualized himself turning all that stood against his weapon's path into nothingness. It's a vague concept, but that's why Ulquiorra needed to test it on other weapons and phantoms before moving on. He felt as if he was very close to something, but quite far at the same time. Another phantom appeared before Ulquiorra.

"Come." Ulquiorra taunted.

Monitoring all this in a seperate space was Tian Cai. He was already surprised at Ulquiorra's strength, but to think he could comprehend this much so quickly in less than a week! It was proof that Ulquiorra possessed comprehension beyond the norm.

"To think he would actually imbue the embryotic form of such an intent in his weapon. Most cultivators would choose to copy the intent of the phantoms, and then use it as a basis for their future intents, but what Ulquiorra did was completely using his own intent. There were phantoms with intents that were a bit similar in nature, but the quality of this kid's intent left them all in the dust." Tian Cai said to himself.

Suddenly, Tian Cai's eyebrow rose up. He closed his eyes, and immediately his sight went towards somewhere else. What entered his view was a familiar looking silver haired disciple and a short haired green eye female in their own seperate tests. Tian Cai shook his head as he saw both of them tattered and beaten. Tian Cai muttered to himself.

"How disappointing..."