Invasion of Soul Society

"I, Grimmjow, Nnoitra took the opportunity to collect the souls of Soul Reaper."

Before the two could refute, Kaname Tōsen continued:

"Is evolution more important, or is a temporary battle more important?"

They both shut their mouths at the same time.

"Operation begins."

Chapter 178 Invasion of Soul Society

In the deepest, most secluded room of the Soul Society's Shinigami Research and Development Institute, the room was made of a special metal and shaped like a box.

This metal is quite strange; it contains very little Reishi, even less than most metals in the World of the Living.

In the center of this box, the New Sternritter' Cang Du looked like a tattered rag doll, his body in ruins.

He coughed up blood, one hand was dislocated, one leg was severed, and his stomach was covered with various gruesome wounds and stitches.

His eyes were lifeless; he lay on the ground, hissing continuously.

The door opened with a whoosh.

A beam of light flooded the dimly lit room Mayuri Kurotsuchi, the head of the Shinigami Research and Development Institute, entered and stood before Cang Du, scrutinizing Cang Du with eyes that seemed to regard him as an object.

Cang Du struggled to lift his head, but several attempts ended in failure.

Finally, he could only tilt his head to the side, pressing it against the ground, and stare at Mayuri Kurotsuchi out of the corner of his eye, before struggling to speak, "Don't waste your time, I won't tell you anything."

Upon hearing this, Mayuri Kurotsuchi grinned, revealing a mouthful of large gold teeth.

He took another step forward, squatted down, reached out and grabbed Cang Du's head, lifting it up so that Kiruja's eyes could finally meet his own.

Mayuri Kurotsuchi smiled and said, "When did you get the idea that I need you to explain?"

Cang Du endured the excruciating pain coursing through his body, and the persistent thought of dying that lingered in his mind.

"His Majesty will definitely..."

Bang! Mayuri Kurotsuchi slammed Cang Du's head down and shoved it to the ground.

Mayuri Kurotsuchi grinned and said, "It seems you really are out of your mind. Did I just say I needed you to speak?"

From the very beginning, I never intended to extract any information from you.

Cang Du was somewhat confused at this point.

Indeed, ever since this guy captured him and imprisoned him in Soul Society, he hasn't questioned him at all, only tortured him relentlessly.

First they chopped off his hands, then his feet, and then they cut open his stomach, doing something to him. He only knew that it hurt a lot.

I thought this guy was definitely trying to get information out of me about how to enter the Wandenreich.

But now it seems like they were simply enjoying torturing themselves.

Thinking of this, he breathed a sigh of relief.

To be honest, this endless torment was driving him to the brink of collapse.

If this continues, who knows if he'll lose his mind and blurt out something?

The other person is just a bastard who enjoys tormenting others, which is actually better.

This feeling of relief instantly showed on his face.

Seeing this, Mayuri Kurotsuchi took out a vial of reagent from his sleeve, slowly brought it close to Cang Du's eyeball, and said:

"Don't worry, I've already completed my research on the shadow ability within your body. I'm currently conducting reverse research, and it won't be long before I create Shadow-Invasion Drug."

"No! Absolutely impossible!" Cang Du simply didn't believe it.

This ability was bestowed upon him by His Majesty; he himself did not possess it.

How could you possibly discover shadow abilities by simply studying his body?

"Whether you believe it or not, it doesn't matter." Mayuri Kurotsuchi put the needle away and then moved it to Cang Du's neck in front of him.

"By the way, this is a drug I once developed; I call it the Superhuman Drug."

This is a good thing. I originally developed it to compensate for the Soul Reaper's slow reaction time.

As he spoke of this, the image of Tokoyo Misao making a move that he had once witnessed resurfaced in his mind.

And during the battle with Orihime Inoue that day, she instantly used multiple orbits, leaving him no time to react and resulting in his defeat at the hands of a young girl.

The image lingered in his mind, and his previously smiling lips drooped.

However, seeing Cang Du's miserable appearance, he smiled again and continued to explain.

"The Superhuman Drug can forcibly stimulate the user's senses to their extreme, increasing the rate of nerve signal transmission and brain processing speed by dozens of times; it can also be called the unlimited acceleration of the senses."

"What do you mean?" Cang Du was confused. Why bring out a drug that sounded extremely effective in combat?

"He really is an idiot." Mayuri Kurotsuchi shook his head, somewhat disheartened.

"If it's just one gram injected, then one second in reality will be stretched into an hour in your senses."

What I'm about to inject into you is a full kilogram.

Using your monkey-like brain to calculate, do you think that about one minute would feel like forty days to your senses?

Wrong! Utterly wrong! The use of large doses of Superhuman Drugs is not a simple matter of addition.

So after I inject this kilogram, the next hour will feel like hundreds of years, thousands of years, or even hundreds of thousands or millions of years to your senses.

Even I can't calculate it precisely.

With that, Mayuri Kurotsuchi plunged the Superhuman Drug into Cang Du's neck, pushing the thick syringe all the way to the end in one go.

Immediately afterwards, he drew his Zanpakuto and stabbed it directly into Cang Du's eyeball.

With a swift, sharp sound, the knife fell.

However, he didn't completely penetrate Cang Du's brain; he withdrew just before touching it, then turned and walked towards the door, leaving behind the words: "Enjoy it."

Click—the sound of the door closing.

At this moment, Cang Du's eyes remained motionless.

In his current perception, time has been stretched infinitely.

The words Mayuri Kurotsuchi uttered when he left were just an incredibly long syllable.

The Zanpakuto that had long since pierced his eyeball was now, in his senses, slowly approaching it.

In reality, only a few dozen seconds had passed, but to Cang Du's senses, it felt as if hundreds or even thousands of years had gone by.

He had only one thought in mind: when would that knife finally be inserted?

Only then can one be freed...

Mayuri Kurotsuchi dealing with Cang Du, Mayuri was preparing to return to the research lab to speed up the study of the Shadow-Invasion Drug.

He believed that Kisuke Urahara, that indecisive and slow-moving guy, could never possibly be as fast as him.

He can definitely develop the drug in just three hours—no, one hour—and beat Kisuke Urahara!

The urgent alarm sounded in the corridor, and a blood-red emergency light filled the entire Shinigami Research and Development Institute.

Mayuri Kurotsuchi frowned, turned around and walked towards the central control room, pushed open the door and shouted, "What's going on? Have the Quincy attacked?"

Vice Captain Akon hurriedly reported, "Captain, a spatial rift has appeared in the sky above North Junrinan. Judging from the parameters, it's Garganta. The Hueco Mundo is attacking!"

Aizen didn't go to the World of the Living; instead, he directly attacked Soul Society.

Sweat beaded on Akon's forehead. As the deputy director of the Shinigami Research and Development Institute, he had naturally participated in the production of the replicas of Karakura Town in the World of the Living world, and had even personally set up many traps.

But now Aizen hasn't gone to the World of the Living; instead, he's attacking the Seireitei directly. This is completely different from what was expected.

The traps are all useless now!

"What's the panic? Report to the Captain-Commander immediately, sound the intrusion alarm, and notify all captains via communicator."

"Yes!" Akon immediately instructed the technician beside him.

"Edit the message immediately and ensure that the message is sent to each captain's Soul Pager every three seconds."

"Yes!" The technician's hands flew across the keyboard, and a message was sent to all Captain-level communicators.

The communicator on the waist of Tōshirō Hitsugaya, the acting captain of the Ninth Division, rang.

He immediately pulled it out; its appearance was no different from a World of the Living mobile phone.

He skillfully opened the email, saw the text message from the Shinigami Research and Development Institute, his brows immediately furrowed, he slammed his phone away, turned around and shouted:

"Lieutenant Saki, Hueco Mundo has invaded; follow me to meet the enemy."

Shūhei Hisagi immediately replied, "Yes!"

As soon as he stepped out of the Ninth Division barracks, his gaze turned toward the Tenth Division.

Currently, the captain of the Tenth Division Boss Misao, is stationed in the World of the Living. The division includes the vice-captain Rangiku Matsumoto, and the villain Gin Ichimaru.

If Hueco Mundo's visit to Soul Society this time isn't a full-scale attack, but rather an attempt to take Gin Ichimaru back with them.

That...

Shūhei Hisagi noticed Tōshirō's hesitant actions. Following his gaze, he pondered for a moment, guessed a possibility, and spoke directly:

"Captain, how about I go to the Tenth Division instead?"

Actually, he had other ulterior motives for asking to join the Tenth Division.

If this operation in Hueco Mundo is indeed as suspected, the enemy might be trying to save Gin Ichimaru.

It's highly likely that former captain Kaname Tōsen appear; he wants to settle things with his former captain.

Tōshirō frowned, pondered for a moment, and was about to agree when the communicator rang again.

He took it out and saw that it was an order issued by the Captain-Commander: Tōshirō Hitsugaya, acting captain of the Ninth Division, was to go to the Tenth Division for garrison duty.

It seems that not only he and Shūhei Hisagi had thought of this, but the Captain-Commander had also realized it.

That's good, it saves us from having to divide our forces.

"Let's go, let's go to the Tenth Division together."

Meanwhile, outside the captain's room of the Tenth Division, the room was already filled with members, while Rangiku Matsumoto was in the corridor.

She put her hands on her hips and said, "The Captain-Commander the order that Captain Hitsugaya will come to provide support and stay at the Tenth Division. We will not attack for the time being and will wait for further orders."

The members of the Tenth Division obeyed the order, dispersed again, and surrounded the base.

As Rangiku Matsumoto entered the captain's room, she saw Gin Ichimaru looking up at her.

"Rangiku, unlock my handcuffs." He made a completely unreasonable request.

Rangiku Matsumoto flatly refused. "No, Gin, you are still a criminal, and the Captain-Commander has also sent Tōshirō to guard this place."

If he sees you're not wearing these handcuffs, he'll definitely attack you.

She stepped forward, sat down in front of Gin Ichimaru, and spoke earnestly.

"Captain Misao went to great lengths to persuade the Captain-Commander to let you stay in the Tenth Division, and I absolutely cannot break the rules."

Rangiku Matsumoto is a veteran vice-captain and is very familiar with the rules of Seireitei.

If she were to unlock Gin Ichimaru's handcuffs now, even if he were truly on the side of Soul Society, it would still be a serious crime.

Gin Ichimaru slightly opened his eyes, staring at Rangiku Matsumoto with his deep blue gaze, and softly said, "But in this way, I can't protect you."

These handcuffs did indeed bind the power within him, and his Zanpakuto was not with him either; he was currently locked up in the Second Division.

To be honest, apart from Gin Ichimaru's spirit being a bit stronger, he's not much different from an ordinary squad member right now.

Rangiku Matsumoto smiled upon hearing this.

She gently shook her head and reached out to hold Gin Ichimaru's hands. "No, now it's my turn to protect you."

The sound of the door being opened with a whoosh.

Tōshirō Hitsugaya had a sullen face and his arms were crossed over his chest.

"What kind of time is this? What kind of romantic drama are you two still acting out here?"

Gin Ichimaru instinctively tried to pull his hand back, but Rangiku Matsumoto held it firmly.