# Chapter 6: Flower
"Your gaze... makes people very uncomfortable."
Matsumoto Rangiku frowned. Just now, the feeling that Su Xiao might devour her at any moment had become even more pronounced.
"Is that so."
Su Xiao smiled, appearing harmless and casual.
"We're here. This is the place."
Tōshirō stopped in front of a two-story wooden building. This area was already relatively close to the central district of the Seireitei.
Sliding open the door, this appeared to be a house that hadn't been lived in for a long time. Soon, Su Xiao, Tōshirō, and Matsumoto Rangiku sat facing each other around a wooden table in the room, cross-legged on the floor.
"I'm busy, so I'll keep this brief," Tōshirō said, resting his arm on his knee. After a moment of deliberation, he continued, "I'm not interested in your origins. What I want to know is, what exactly do you intend to do?"
Tōshirō was very direct—or rather, he was testing Su Xiao.
"Purpose? Haven't thought of one yet."
The Reincarnation Paradise where Su Xiao belonged had no shortage of old schemers. The best way to avoid being schemed against among a group of old schemers was to blend in with them.
Su Xiao wasn't skilled at laying out plans, but he excelled at disguise. In this regard, he was even stronger than Qing Yan. After all, he came from an assassin background—if he weren't good at disguising himself, the weeds on his grave would already be several meters tall.
"This answer doesn't satisfy me."
Tōshirō's eyelids drooped slightly. This little brat wasn't easy to deal with—of course, that was for ordinary people.
"To be honest, I could easily fabricate a purpose. Revenge? Getting stronger? Or perhaps seeking status?"
Su Xiao's fingers lightly tapped the table. His expression was very natural, and as he spoke, he was also surveying the structure of the room.
"Unfortunately, I haven't yet decided what purpose to fabricate. I came here simply because wandering around the Rukongai was too boring. Coincidentally, I'm skilled at making various types of potions, so I came to the Seireitei to try my luck. Maybe I could even become a Shinigami?"
"Become a Shinigami..."
Tōshirō shook his head. Given Su Xiao's aura, the Seireitei was unlikely to acknowledge him as a Shinigami.
"The killing intent—or rather, bloodlust—that you sense is mostly from people I killed while I was alive. The evil of humans is beyond what you can imagine. Interrogation, infiltrating enemy camps, behind-enemy-lines assassinations, behind-enemy-lines sabotage—these are all things I'm skilled at. I just haven't done them in a long time."
"..."
Tōshirō's brow furrowed deeply. He felt that Su Xiao was being far too frank. These were things that should be hidden.
"I didn't come here seeking a high position, so I don't need you to trust me much. Compared to wandering around the Rukongai, this place is clearly more interesting."
"Is it really that simple?"
"You can observe with your own eyes. If you find anything suspicious, kill me. Of course, I won't just sit there and take it."
"Let's end this topic here."
Having talked this far, Tōshirō didn't sense anything abnormal. On the contrary, Su Xiao was too suspicious. It was precisely this suspiciousness that made him doubt—if a criminal wanted to infiltrate the Seireitei, would they really do it this way?
"That potion you made earlier—can it be mass-produced?"
"No."
"I thought so."
Tōshirō was somewhat disappointed. Although the Shinigami had medical personnel, recovery medicines usable in battle were very scarce. This was due to the special constitution of the Shinigami—if the potion didn't contain a large amount of spiritual particles, its healing effect on Shinigami was very limited.
"The one I gave you earlier was just a trial product, cobbled together from a few common materials. That kind of garbage naturally doesn't need mass production."
"What do you mean..."
Tōshirō pressed his hand on the wooden table. The reason he was talking with Su Xiao was precisely because of the strategic value of alchemical potions to the Shinigami. With such potions, the casualty rate when Shinigami fought Hollows would be drastically reduced. When Shinigami went out to hunt Hollows, they couldn't always have medical personnel following them.
Su Xiao's gaze shifted to Matsumoto Rangiku, asking her for paper. Soon, he wrote down dozens of materials on the paper. He planned to create a weakened version of the Ancient Secret Medicine, reducing its recovery ability while adding a large amount of solid spiritual particles.
With his Devouring Core, obtaining solid spiritual particles was simple for Su Xiao. The difficult part was integrating solid spiritual particles into a liquid potion—the two weren't simply mixed together but needed to be fused.
Su Xiao tossed the potion formula to Tōshirō. The more Tōshirō looked at it, the deeper his frown became. He recognized all the characters, but when strung together, he was astonished to find that he couldn't understand the meaning of the formula at all.
Tōshirō glanced at Matsumoto Rangiku. Matsumoto Rangiku's expression remained composed. Although she couldn't understand it either, she couldn't show it—that would be beneath the dignity of the Seireitei.
Matsumoto Rangiku picked up the formula, carefully examined it for a few minutes, then spoke: "Is that all?"
From her tone, Matsumoto Rangiku seemed to have some understanding.
"That's right. T24 solvent and Life Coagulation Essence are both substitutable materials. In essence, they..."
Su Xiao's words—Matsumoto Rangiku only understood the first two sentences. After that, it was like listening to a heavenly book.
"I see."
Matsumoto Rangiku folded the formula and tucked it into her collar.
"Is there any problem finding these materials? If not, this potion can be mass-produced. Its effect is ten or even dozens of times that of the trial product. In principle, it could even replace..."
"Let's stop here for now. We need to consider this matter."
Matsumoto Rangiku interrupted Su Xiao. She knew she absolutely couldn't let herself get confused.
Tōshirō cleared his throat lightly, feeling fortunate for having brought his assistant Matsumoto Rangiku along. From a few minutes ago, the three of them had already started communicating on different frequencies.
Su Xiao deliberately made the alchemical pharmacy theory sound abstruse and difficult to understand, while Matsumoto Rangiku "understood a little" about everything—even when completely baffled, she pretended to have grasped it.
Tōshirō, on the other hand, was on a completely different channel of incomprehension. His head was starting to ache.
Tōshirō left with Matsumoto Rangiku, leaving Su Xiao in this two-story wooden house. The reason they felt so at ease was that not far away was the station of the Second Division.
Su Xiao waited for about an hour before Matsumoto Rangiku pushed open the door. This time, Tōshirō didn't come—he probably really didn't want to listen to Su Xiao's abstruse alchemical knowledge anymore.
Accompanying Matsumoto Rangiku this time was a gentle-faced mature woman who gave people a very warm feeling.
The visitor was named Unohana Retsu, captain of the Fourth Division (Medical Division). She appeared gentle, but before joining the Seireitei, she was a villain who had since undergone a drastic personality change.
"Hello, I am Unohana Retsu."
Unohana Retsu was surprisingly polite. She sat sideways at the wooden table, smiling as she looked at Su Xiao.
Su Xiao's heart sank. If Tōshirō's cunning was 10, then Unohana Retsu was at least 80 or above—very difficult to deal with.
"White Night."
Clearly, the alias White Night was quite ordinary in the Shinigami world.
"The materials or formulas you wrote down don't seem to be things that exist in the Soul Society."
"Is that so? Then use materials that exist in the Soul Society as substitutes."
"..."
The corners of Unohana Retsu's mouth lifted. She was testing Su Xiao. Her statement "not things that exist in the Soul Society" was a trap. If Su Xiao had started explaining the origins of these formulas in detail, speaking mysteriously and profoundly, Unohana Retsu would have given the order, and the dozen or so Shinigami outside the door would have apprehended Su Xiao and taken him to the administrative body of the "Central Underground Conference Hall" for processing.
"What is the origin of this potion?"
Unohana Retsu pressed further.
"Family heirloom. Counting my generation, it's been passed down for... I've forgotten."
Su Xiao took back the potion formula he had written and began annotating the properties of various materials. Over twenty minutes later, he pushed the formula in front of Unohana Retsu.
"As long as there are materials with these properties, I can produce the finished potion."
What Su Xiao was about to do was mass-produce a spiritual-particle version of the alchemical secret medicine for the Seireitei. First, supply it in large quantities, then limit production due to "health reasons," and finally produce only small amounts. Without letting the Seireitei taste the sweetness, he couldn't gain a voice in a short time. After that, the process would become much simpler—find a way to obtain a Zanpakutō.