bleach so far

I just read the 172nd chapter of bleach and I'm wishing that this arc is just a dream of one of the characters or an elaborate ruse within a ruse. I couldn't bear the thought that the story is going this way. Some of the characters I've come to be interested in are turning out to be major baddies while others are dead or are dying. Eeyaaargh! I think the mangaka is on a major crisis in his life, otherwise he wouldn't be so ...... grrrrr....
Ah! That's it! I'm going back to the comfortable world of PoT. heheheh