Bleach: The Invincible Slacker from Rukongai

In other words, defeating him might be the primary method for his opponent to obtain the Hogyoku for himself. This realization actually presented him with a genuine opportunity.

Aizen thought that through this upcoming battle, he could use the overwhelming pressure of this space to force the Hogyoku to awaken and respond to him once again. Therefore, this was actually going to be a battle for control and possession of the Hogyoku itself.

But the Hogyoku belonged to him and him alone—no one could take it away! Even Uehara Shiroha would be no exception to this rule!

In the Infinite Void World, upon hearing Aizen's detailed analysis, Uehara Shiroha couldn't help but applaud with genuine appreciation: "Very wonderful reasoning, with tight logic where each link connects closely to the next. There's absolutely nothing wrong with your deductive process except that you guessed completely wrong."

"Because I don't actually need to evolve into a transcendent through the Hogyoku at all."

Using the complete Hogyoku could indeed force an evolution beyond normal limitations. At present, this was also the most likely and accessible evolutionary option for most beings. But for Uehara Shiroha, this simply wasn't the case.

If he had wanted to complete his evolution relying solely on the power of the Hogyoku, it wouldn't have been delayed until this point. Of course, that didn't mean he wouldn't eventually use the power of the Hogyoku to enhance his evolution.

But he would be the one in complete control of the process, not the artifact itself. It was for this fundamental reason that Uehara Shiroha had not been in any hurry to obtain the Hogyoku immediately.

Just look at Aizen's final transformed appearance—he had been completely driven to madness, his rational mind was almost completely gone, and he had been disfigured beyond recognition, looking extremely ugly and monstrous.

In fact, by the end of his transformation sequence, Aizen had been unable to properly control the Hogyoku's power. The Hogyoku had exerted its maximum strength, but when it determined that Aizen was still no match for his opponents, it had simply given up on him entirely.

Of course, it was also possible that the Hogyoku had consumed too much energy and was unable to continue supporting him, then fell into a dormant state to preserve itself.

But regardless of the specific mechanism, the Hogyoku actually possessed the autonomous ability to change the user's soul and body form according to its own judgment. This was actually not entirely a good thing from Uehara Shiroha's perspective. For him, it was completely an unacceptable side effect.

Just as he had stated, the Hogyoku was not his only option for advancement, so of course he would not risk using it in an uncontrolled manner. After all, there was a significant difference between reorganizing one's soul to complete evolution through personal control versus passively evolving through automatic soul reorganization.

The former approach remained under the user's control and would not become too outrageous—the body and soul would not collapse or change in unpredictable ways. The latter approach was much harder to predict, and it wouldn't be surprising regardless of what the final result turned out to be.

Uehara Shiroha definitely didn't want to carry such an unpredictable artifact within his body. He also wanted to become a transcendent, but it was impossible to say what kind of power the Hogyoku would exert if left to its own devices.

Of course, this concern was based on the premise that he did not have complete control over the Hogyoku's functions. If the Hogyoku was under his absolute control, then he would have the final say on what form the evolution would take and to what extent it would proceed.

Therefore, Uehara Shiroha's plan was actually very straightforward. He would first let Aizen develop the Hogyoku to its strongest possible form. Then, he would begin to use various methods to "tame the artifact" until it was completely compliant, transparent, and honest in its responses, and only then would he integrate it into his body.

In this way, the power of the Hogyoku could be brought to its fullest potential within a controllable range, and he could be promoted to transcendent status safely and reliably. Although it sounded somewhat unconventional, it was indeed a very feasible and practical plan.

Uehara Shiroha did not actually need to use the Hogyoku to be promoted to transcendent status. With his daily system missions, sooner or later he would naturally transform into a transcendent being. There was no need to take unnecessary risks, and he definitely wasn't without other choices.

The reason why he had chosen to pursue the Hogyoku was simply because it could save considerable time while simultaneously enhancing his foundation and providing additional trump cards.

"Impossible! I've studied this extensively, and there is no other way for a Shinigami to break the fundamental limit except through soul reorganization." Aizen flatly denied Uehara Shiroha's statement with absolute confidence:

"I admit that your Infinite Void technique is on the same level as my own transcendent abilities. But you don't want to admit the truth. You cannot achieve true transcendence through other means."

"Just like Ichigo Kurosaki who used the final Getsuga Tensho was able to temporarily surpass me, but it was only temporary power. In the end, I was the one who emerged victorious."

"The same applies to you and your abilities. I will break through your infinite space and prove that I am the only real transcendent here!"

He considered himself an expert in this particular area of study. If there really was an alternative method to evolve other than through the Hogyoku, he wouldn't have waited until today to pursue it.

As for the evolutionary method used by Squad Zero, Aizen considered it nothing more than elaborate self-deception. Several captains of Squad Zero were simply trying to survive by consuming the Soul King's leftover spiritual energy and fragments.

In his eyes, the Zero Squad with their partial integration of the Soul King's power could only be regarded as pseudo-transcendents who were completely "living off the scraps of their betters."

Aizen simply despised this method of evolution as fundamentally inferior. Therefore, from the very beginning, he had had no intention of cooperating with Squad Zero, nor did he plan to join their ranks.

Instead, he had chosen to use the Hogyoku to perform a genuine transcendent evolution, and he intended to create the Oken by himself and launch a direct attack on the Soul King Palace.

After hearing what Aizen had declared, Uehara Shiroha nodded thoughtfully and said with perfect calm: "So that's what you thought about my abilities. You think that Infinite Void is only the ability of a transcendent, but it does not grant the actual status of a transcendent being."

"Although techniques like Mugetsu can temporarily obtain transcendent status, the effect will not last for very long. Then, if I bring out both Infinite Dangai and Mugetsu simultaneously, how exactly are you going to respond to that combination?!"

This assessment was certainly not accurate. The true strength of Infinite Dangai was determined by the combined power of his Zanpakuto's Dangai abilities, the Infinity Gems, and Unlimited Blade Works.

The strength of these three fundamental components determined the overall power of Infinite Void, and their potential was far greater than Aizen understood.