Ghost Dao Turret (Thanks to 032000502 for the reward)

Yoruichi swung her Zanpakuto once more, shattering the Quincy arrows before they could reach Hongjiang. Crimson flames, like a gargantuan beast, opened their maw and lunged toward the Quincy in the plaza; viewed from above, the sight was truly magnificent.

"Blue Binding Way: Bell Prison!"

Hongjiang had little leisure to admire the scenery. Discovering the Senkaimon right beneath his feet, he bypassed the incantation and activated the Kido, slamming a brass-colored bell directly over the gate.

The surface of the bell was embossed with eighteen Buddhas, each suppressing a phantom-like vengeful spirit beneath them. A deep, heavy toll erupted from beneath his feet, causing the surrounding air to tremble faintly.

Bell Prison was a Kido that required constant maintenance; any attack striking the bell would be absorbed by the vengeful spirits on its surface. As long as the spirits could not break free from the Buddhas' suppression, the prison would remain intact. If not for the fact that the caster could not leave the top of the bell, it would, in some sense, be a perfect defensive binding spell.

"Destructive Way #33, Pale Fire Crash!"

"Destructive Way #58, Heavenly Storm!"

No sooner had he set the Bell Prison than Hongjiang unleashed a continuous barrage of offensive Kido. His left palm faced downward, releasing a beam of pale blue flame, while his right index and middle fingers flicked upward in the air, conjuring a pale cyan whirlwind from the flat ground!

The plaza, previously saturated in crimson, suddenly bloomed with a touch of pale blue. It was like blue oil paint spilled onto red cloth, or a cold, lonely pool amidst a fire; looking at it alone, no one would associate it with scorching flames.

This harmonious scene did not last long. Driven by the cyan whirlwind, the two types of flames intertwined, rising and spreading like two giant pythons wrestling in a ball. They raged madly across the plaza, turning everything they touched into ash.

The fire borrowed the wind's momentum, and the wind bolstered the fire's might. The blaze burned for over ten minutes before gradually extinguishing. The entire plaza was razed to the ground, and even the row of houses adjacent to the square had mostly collapsed. But that was as far as it went; buildings could only sit and take the beating, but the Quincy were not fools and had retreated early.

Although Hongjiang never intended to wipe out the opposition with just two Destructive Ways, seeing the twenty-one Quincy standing unscathed on the rooftops left a bitter taste in his mouth. Not even their clothes were dirty—you people are being far too disrespectful! Especially since Nodt Futz, an old acquaintance, was among them; he felt inexplicably humiliated.

As for humiliation, the Quincy who had been driven out of the plaza and instantly lost the Senkaimon they were guarding were now even more disgraced. Both sides stared at each other from a distance, neither daring to act rashly.

The Quincy's goal was to protect the Senkaimon, and since Hongjiang and Yoruichi were currently standing right on top of it, they dared not move. However, Hongjiang's goal was identical to theirs, and a stalemate was absolutely to his advantage.

Just as Nodt Futz and the others were at a loss, a young, blonde-haired, blue-eyed Quincy suddenly struck. Three arrows were fired almost simultaneously, targeting Hongjiang, Yoruichi, and the Bell Prison beneath their feet. That wasn't all; a deeper-colored, faster blue arrow followed, trailing a tail like a meteor as it charged toward the Bell Prison. Despite being fired later, it arrived at the exact same time as the first three!

"Lord Ryan!" Nodt Futz exclaimed in a daze. Attacking the two Soul Reapers was one thing, but why attack their own Senkaimon?

"Destructive Way #4, White Lightning!" Hongjiang's reaction was swift. Dozens of white lightning bolts surged from his index finger, not to block the arrows, but to strike them precisely on the side, forcibly altering their trajectories. The four arrows either missed or struck the ground; not a single one hit its intended target.

The boy called Ryan was not discouraged. His left hand flicked up and down, as if he were pulling four strings on a diamond-shaped spirit bow with four hands at once. His figure flickered, appearing intermittently across several rooftops. In an instant, blue arrows of varying shades poured down from every direction like rain!

If Ryan had transformed into a mobile arrow tower, then Hongjiang was a ruthless Kido turret!

"Binding Way #12, Crawling Fire!"

He first used the Kido net formed by Crawling Fire to assist in tracking the arrows, allowing him to focus most of his energy on casting Kido.

"Destructive Way #8, Twin Roar White Lightning!"

"Destructive Way #12, Earth Piercing Sting!"

He then unleashed low-level Destructive Ways as if they cost nothing. Earth-yellow rock spikes and white lightning guarded the ground and the air tightly.

Ryan attacked fiercely, and Hongjiang defended beautifully. For a time, smoke rose from the ground, or blue meteors defied gravity and flew into the sky. Yoruichi, standing to the side, had nothing to do but watch the scenery.

Just as she was getting bored enough to yawn, Qing's aged voice echoed, "Go and knock that archer boy unconscious for me!"

If it were just a matter of defending like this, Hongjiang would be happy to slack off. However, he knew that several of Ryan's arrows had grazed past the Bell Prison, and he hadn't bothered to intercept a single one of them!

A Quincy missing a stationary target? Don't joke! It could only be that the opponent was intentionally firing empty shots!

It wasn't hard to guess what such behavior meant: the opponent was testing his combat style and how much he cared about the Senkaimon beneath the Bell Prison.

Previously, the Quincy had been restrained for fear of hitting the Senkaimon, but now that a Soul Reaper with such precise Kido control was willing to waste energy rather than dodge, the implication was clear: the Soul Reapers cared about the Senkaimon even more than they did!

Now was the time to seize the initiative. Hongjiang understood that Yoruichi's role in a defensive battle was minimal, so he had her switch from defense to offense to maximize their combat efficiency.

Ryan was no slouch, issuing orders almost simultaneously: "You all attack the masked one, no need to hold back! I'll handle the woman with the staff! Open the Senkaimon as quickly as possible!"

The woman with the staff was naturally Yoruichi. Her Bankai was a long staff with ten cubic boulders distributed along its length, each side of the boulders bearing different fire patterns that flickered in the night, even more eye-catching than the giant long-handled hammer of her Shikai.

Hongjiang watched Yoruichi, who was constantly creating fireworks, with a look of schadenfreude behind his mask. Poor girl, she was drifting further and further down the path of a pyrotechnician.

Truth be told, he wasn't under much pressure. Nodt Futz and the others were still firing arrows from a distance, but they lacked the ability Ryan had shown as a mobile arrow tower. Although each arrow was more powerful, in Hongjiang's eyes, they were just targets for higher-level Destructive Ways to deflect. Their quantity and speed were insufficient, which actually allowed him to spare some energy to keep an eye on Yoruichi.

Yoruichi, having mastered Bankai, was definitely at the Captain level, while Ryan, based on Hongjiang's observation, was stronger than a Lieutenant but still fell short of a Captain. Therefore, in his view, Yoruichi should be able to finish him off quickly.

But now, it seemed an accident had occurred. It wasn't that Yoruichi couldn't beat Ryan, but that she couldn't seem to hit him—a hard thing to believe, but a fact nonetheless.

Although Yoruichi was not yet the "Flash Goddess Yoruichi" of the future, her Flash Step was definitely top-tier in the Seireitei. Hongjiang could even tell that her Flash Step was more than twice as fast as it had been 150 years ago!

However, Ryan appeared to be the same as Yoruichi, both relying on a clean, swift combat style. The Hirenkyaku, a unique footwork of the Quincy, was also the fastest he had ever seen among all the Quincy he had encountered.

Even so, in terms of speed, Ryan was still slower than Yoruichi. Why couldn't she hit him?

If Hongjiang could watch for a while longer, he would surely understand, but at that moment, Nodt Futz and the others suddenly changed their attack pattern, leaving him unable to spare any more attention.