Killing the 7th Espada (1)

Especially Ichigo Kurosaki, who, witnessing this scene— Liu Shu catching the Espada's sword with his bare hands and then starting to chat with him about life and ideals—suddenly realized that his understanding of "combat" was seriously flawed. So... you can fight like this? This isn't just a matter of overwhelming the opponent; this is humiliation!

Zomali Lulu's knuckles turned white from gripping the knife hilt so tightly. Veins throbbed on his forehead, and his chest heaved violently. The rage that had been suppressed deep within him finally broke through the last line of reason!

"You--!"

He let out a low, furious roar, almost a scream, and with a sudden burst of strength, forcibly pulled his Zanpakuto from Liu Hao's grasp! The blade rubbed violently against Liu Hao's palm, emitting a piercing shriek and even sending sparks flying! He retreated rapidly like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, instantly creating a distance of more than ten meters between himself and Liu Hao!

He breathed heavily, staring intently at Liu Hao, his eyes a mixture of fear, anger, and humiliation. But when he spoke again, his voice, which had peaked in rage, softened, becoming cold and dangerous. "I admit, you are indeed... quite strong." He practically spat out the words, "But you've seriously underestimated me, Zomali Luru!"

He abruptly Zanpakuto to chest level, tip pointing upwards, blade parallel to his line of sight. Then, incredibly, he released his grip on the sword!

The Zanpakuto didn't fall to the ground; instead, it mysteriously hovered in front of his chest, as if being supported by an invisible force.

Zomali Lulu took a deep breath, clasped his hands together in front of his chest, interlocked his fingers, and assumed the starting stance for his Resurrección!

Upon seeing this action, Liu Hao's smug smile vanished instantly, and his eyes sharpened. Without a word, he raised his right hand, extended his index finger, and instantly, blazing white, crackling lightning gathered at the tip—

"Hadō #4: Byakurai!"

A slender yet extremely refined white lightning bolt, like a sniper bullet, shot straight towards Zomali Luru's forehead at a speed far exceeding that of sound!

This strike was swift, accurate, and ruthless, with a clear objective—to interrupt the opponent's Resurrección!

However, even in his extreme rage, Zomali Lulu maintained his Espada fighting instincts. He jerked his body to the left, narrowly avoiding the deadly lightning that grazed the outside of his right shoulder! Although the Byakurai didn't hit a vital spot, it carved a charred gash on his shoulder, and red Reishi blood instantly seeped out.

But he didn't stop!

The Zanpakuto hovering before his chest began to change. The blade seemed to lose its solid stability, and began to fold, compress, and deform piece by piece, starting from the tip, like a piece of paper! Each fold was accompanied by a crisp "click" sound, as if the metal joints were being reshaped.

At the same time, a thick, opaque, pure white mist, as if it had a life of its own, surged out from the folded blade and quickly engulfed Zomali Lulu's upper body! The mist was not ordinary water vapor, but a manifestation of high-concentration Reiatsu, thick and viscous, so thick that even the line of sight could not penetrate it.

Immediately afterwards, drops of a viscous, white substance, resembling molten wax, began to drip from the bottom of the mist. Upon contact with the ground, this substance rapidly accumulated, solidified, and shaped, completely enveloping Zomali Luru's body from the waist down.

The whole process took no more than two breaths.

Then, Zomari Luna's voice, somewhat ethereal and as if pierced by a layer of water, emerged from the thick white mist, carrying a hint of renewed arrogance born from his successful Resurrección Zanpakuto, and a chilling mockery of Liu Hao's earlier sneak attack. "It seems you're quite afraid of my Resurrección. Otherwise, you wouldn't have been so eager to interrupt my Zanpakuto."

Liu Hao lowered his hand and sighed helplessly. The smug, self-satisfied smile on his face had completely vanished, replaced by... a genuine, heartfelt disgust that made him think, "This thing is disgusting, I don't want to touch it." He scratched his head, his tone unusually tinged with frustration:

"It's not that I'm afraid you 'Resurrección. Really, it's not that I'm afraid," he emphasized, his voice full of disdain. "It's just... your ability is rather disgusting to me. The kind of disgusting that I don't really want to see or deal with. That's why I wanted you to go find Byakuya Kuchiki, a win-win situation, isn't that great?"

As he finished speaking, the white mist slowly dissipated, revealing Zomali Lulu's completed Resurrección —or rather, his Resurrección pose known as "Gōrō."

He has completely lost his human form.

His lower body transformed into a massive, bloated, Pumpkin -like sphere. But the surface of this "Pumpkin" wasn't a smooth rind; instead, it was densely covered with countless eyeballs of varying sizes, their eyelids opening and closing, their pupils moving... These eyeballs weren't decorations; they were living organs with independent visual functions, rotating erratically, each one seemingly searching for prey, sending chills down one's spine.

Although his upper body still largely retained a human shape, his torso, arms, and even back were also inlaid with a varying number of constantly blinking eyeballs! The irises of those eyeballs displayed eerie, ripple-like concentric circle patterns, and simply looking directly at them would give one a strong sense of discomfort, as if being "locked in" or "marked".

Zommari Lulu – Gōrō. In this form, his voice became deep and eerie, echoing as if from all directions. "Is that so? It seems you do indeed... know my abilities very well."

He hadn't finished speaking.

Beneath his enormous "Pumpkin" body, a rather prominent, fist-sized eyeball suddenly contracted! The frequency of that contraction was not a normal biological stress response, but a clear, commanding signal with a definite will!

An invisible "marker" wave, which could not be blocked by ordinary physical defenses, spread rapidly toward Liu Hao's location like a radar wave!

However, just as the "mark" was about to touch Liu Hao's lips parted slightly, and he uttered four words. His tone was calm, as if he were reciting a text he had already memorized, without any sense of tension. "Bakudo #81 - Dankū."

The moment the words fell, a massive, completely transparent Reiryoku barrier, like crystal Ruri, appeared out of thin air between Liu Hao and Zomali Lulu! The surface of the barrier was as smooth as a mirror, reflecting a faint rainbow light under the pale light of the Hueco Mundo, and in the very center of the barrier, a huge, ancient and solemn sun emblem was radiating a soft yet firm golden light!

This is the highest level of defensive demonic Kidō, known as an absolute barrier capable of "completely defending against all attacks"!

The invisible wave of the mark struck the barrier of the Dankū squarely, but vanished without a trace, like a mud ox sinking into the sea, without even causing a ripple.

On the Dankū mirror surface, corresponding to the eyeball where Zomali Lulu launched the mark, a similarly exquisite sun-shaped emblem, also emitting a faint black glow, quietly appeared.

That was proof that the attack was completely repelled and "marked" against the target.

All of Zomali Luruna's eyes stopped moving in unison. They seemed to fall into a brief state of bewilderment and blankness, their pupils slightly dilated, unable to believe what they were "seeing".

His arrogance, which had been rekindled after he Resurrección, crumbled instantly before this transparent wall, like a thin mist under the sunlight.

He stood frozen in place, his massive, eye-covered body appearing somewhat stiff and bewildered.

Liu Hao stood behind the Dankū, not even moving a step. He quietly looked at Zomali Luru, his eyes calm, devoid of the previous teasing and frivolity, only a faint, almost compassionate indifference. "Since you know I understand your abilities, Zomali," he addressed him by his first name, without any honorifics or mockery, "Haven't you considered—if I know, how could I not know how to break it?"

He paused, a hint of regret in his voice. "So what I said just now was the truth. If you had listened to my advice from the beginning and turned around to go find Byakuya Kuchiki, I really wouldn't have done anything to you. You could have fought him for as long as you wanted, left as many footprints on his haori as you wanted. That would have been the battle you deserved, and it was my sincere advice."

His eyes suddenly turned icy, like a blade tempered by the cold water of a winter night. "But now... it's too late... so please... die here."

He slowly raised his right hand and, with an almost ritualistic, solemn, and deliberate movement, placed it on the hilt of the ancient and unadorned sword called "Imperial Sword" at his waist.

As his fingers tightened, a terrifyingly powerful Reiatsu that made one's heart feel as if it were being gripped by an invisible hand, slowly rose around him, like an ancient volcano that had been dormant for millennia about to awaken. The Reiatsu was not a deliberate outburst, but merely a natural leak, yet it already caused the surrounding air to distort and the sand on the ground to tremble.

Zomali Lulu's pupils suddenly contracted to pinpoints! All the eyeballs in his body began to roll wildly and in unison! It was fear, an instinctive tremor from the depths of his soul against a higher form of life!

He no longer hesitated, no longer tested the waters!

He frantically activated his abilities, and all the eyeballs in his body capable of emitting marking waves—whether the hundreds densely packed on his lower "Pumpkin" or the dozens scattered on his upper torso and arms—at the same moment, all the pupils contracted suddenly, pointing towards Liu Hao with the highest frequency and strongest force!

One, two, ten, a hundred... hundreds of invisible markings surged forth, like a rain of arrows covering the sky, or a torrent bursting its banks, all pouring towards the same direction—the location where Liu Hao was!

Then--

Puff, puff, puff, puff...!

They all, without exception, crashed solidly into that unmoving, rock-solid, transparent Dankū!

On the Dankū mirror surface, sun-shaped emblems emerged one after another like bamboo shoots after a spring rain, densely packed and almost covering the entire barrier! But the barrier itself did not show a single crack, nor even the slightest tremor.

Liu Hao stood behind the Dankū, his movements completely unaffected. He didn't even look at the futile attacks, but focused intently and slowly, drawing the Imperial Sword three inches from its sheath.

Only three inches.

The exposed section of the sword, barely the length of a palm, was not the silvery white of metal or the pitch black of steel, but rather a... beautiful and eerie material that seemed to be formed from pure Reiatsu compressed and purified millions of times, existing between a solid and a liquid state, flowing with dark red light patterns. Just by looking at it, one could feel the terrifying heat and destructive energy contained within, enough to incinerate everything.

Then, Liu Hao spoke. His voice remained calm, yet carried an unquestionable, verdict-like authority. "I've already said, you should die here, so don't... struggle anymore."

The moment he finished speaking, he gently lowered the Imperial Sword he had drawn, the tip of the sword resting on the gravel on the ground.

His lips moved, uttering five words casually, as if announcing the weather. "Imperial Flame - Blazing Graveyard."

Boom--!

Without warning, without any build-up of power.

Centered on the spot where Zomali Lulu stood, within a radius of twenty meters, the ground suddenly sank by half an inch, as if struck by a giant's warhammer!

Immediately afterwards, a ring of thick, crimson pillars of fire, as thick as ancient trees, carrying temperatures high enough to instantly vaporize steel, shot up from beneath the ground around him like erupting magma or like fingers reaching out from Hell! The eight pillars of fire, arranged in a perfect Bagua (Eight Trigrams) configuration, completely blocked all his escape routes!

But this is just the beginning.

The ground beneath his feet, the hard, pale stone plaza solidified by Reishi, seemed to come alive at that moment. It transformed from solid to liquid, from pale to crimson, from solid to boiling—it was magma, a genuine sea of lava, forcibly summoned from the depths of the earth, powerful enough to melt everything!

As Zomali Luruna's enormous, eye-covered "Pumpkin" lower body touched the boiling magma surface, the eyeballs on the surface instantly bubbled, burst, charred, and carbonized like grapes roasted on fire! He let out a shrill, inhuman scream, trying to escape this land of death with Sonído.

But it was too late.

At the very instant the lava surged beneath his feet, the ground directly beneath him suddenly cracked!

A massive pillar of fire, thicker and more intense than the surrounding pillars, with a dazzling white-gold temperature, the Roar out from the earth like a fire dragon that had been dormant for millions of years deep within the earth, ready to destroy everything!

The pillar of fire instantly engulfed Zomali Luruna's bloated and terrified body, completely enveloping him in a fiery cage over three meters in diameter, composed entirely of destructive energy!

"Ahhh--!"

His screams quickly distorted, twisted, and weakened in the flames, eventually fading into silence.