'%3e%3cclipPath%20id='prefix__a'%3e%3cpath%20d='M0%200h1080v1080H0z'/%3e%3c/clipPath%3e%3cg%20clip-path='url(%23prefix__a)'%3e%3cpath%20d='M1033.05%20324.45c-.19-137.9-107.59-250.92-233.6-291.7-156.48-50.64-362.86-43.3-512.28%2027.2-181.1%2085.46-237.99%20272.66-240.11%20459.36-1.74%20153.5%2013.58%20557.79%20241.62%20560.67%20169.44%202.15%20194.67-216.18%20273.07-321.33%2055.78-74.81%20127.6-95.94%20216.01-117.82%20151.95-37.61%20255.51-157.53%20255.29-316.38z'%20fill-rule='nonzero'/%3e%3c/g%3e%3c/g%3e%3c/svg%3e)
The shattering of the Millennium Ice Prison caused an extremely brief hesitation in Hyōrinmaru's movements.
For the battle-hardened Isshin Shiba, it was a perfect opportunity!
"Good chance!"
Without the slightest hesitation, Isshin Shiba drove Engetsu's flames to their limit, instantly bursting out of the area filled with powdered ice crystals. At a speed beyond the limits of an ordinary Flash Step, he closed in on Hyōrinmaru!
His tactical intent was crystal clear—strike while you're down and finish you off!
"Moon Fang Heaven-Cleave!"
This book was first published here. For reading, choose Tiantian Novels—super reliable, offering error-free and properly ordered chapters.
Blazing flames compressed tightly around Engetsu. Wherever its blade passed, even space itself seemed scorched into faint distortions!
Splat—!
The feel... was wrong! There was no resistance of cutting through a solid body, nor the hard sensation of ice crystals shattering. Instead, it felt like he had pierced a layer of viscous, frigid mist that was rapidly dispersing!
Isshin Shiba's pupils suddenly contracted! The "Hyōrinmaru" before him, the instant it was struck by Engetsu, became like an ice sculpture that had been smashed apart.
Countless cracks spread rapidly from the point of impact. Then, with a crash, the whole thing exploded into fragments of ice crystals!
An afterimage?! No, something far cleverer than an afterimage—an Ice Illusion!
"Damn it!" Alarm bells exploded in Isshin Shiba's mind. A bone-piercing chill didn't come from outside—it shot violently up his spine!
Almost at the exact instant Hyōrinmaru's illusion exploded, a terrifying chill, like a silent ghost, appeared extremely close behind him!
He didn't even have time to fully turn around. Out of the corner of his eye, he only caught sight of a hand covered in an icy dragon claw, its fingertips condensed with a deep blue radiance of absolute zero that seemed capable of swallowing all light and heat, silently pressing toward the center of his back!
It was Hyōrinmaru's true body! At some unknown time and by some unknown method, he had already shed his shell and circled into Isshin Shiba's visual and spiritual blind spot, launching the true killing blow!
At the same time, Hyōrinmaru's low, cold, utterly emotionless voice rang in Isshin Shiba's ear like a Soul Reaper's verdict:
"Four Realms Freeze!"
As those four words were spoken, a rule of "freezing" that transcended the very concept of physical low temperatures spread outward from where Hyōrinmaru's true body stood!
It wasn't cold air spreading, but the manifestation and domain expansion of the very concept of "freezing" itself!
Within four steps, the tiny space centered on Hyōrinmaru and Isshin Shiba seemed to have been cut away from the entire world, becoming an independent domain known as Absolute Freeze!
Light, sound, the flow of Spirit Particles, even the foundations composing all things began to solidify and crystallize at a visible speed, turning into eternally stagnant ice-blue!
Four Realms Freeze! It froze all elements and all existences within four steps! This was one of Hyōrinmaru's supreme abilities as the strongest ice-type Zanpakuto, touching upon the origin of rules themselves!
Even Isshin Shiba's thoughts seemed about to freeze stiff. He could feel his Spiritual Pressure, blood, and even consciousness being rapidly eroded and solidified by this unreasonable power of Absolute Freeze!
Engetsu's flames rapidly dimmed and shrank within the domain, like the last flicker of a candle in the wind.
He wanted to move, resist, and erupt with power, but his body seemed trapped in the most viscous Ten-Thousand-Year Mystic Ice. Every movement required unimaginable strength, and he was getting slower and slower!
At that life-or-death moment of absolute crisis!
"Heavenquake—"
A calm shout, yet one that seemed to contain the power to shake the very foundations of the world, pierced through the nearly solidified domain of Four Realms Freeze and rang clearly in the ears of Isshin Shiba and Hyōrinmaru!
It was Liu Chuan! At some point, he had already appeared at the rear flank of Hyōrinmaru's true body!
His movements did not seem fast, yet they carried a strange rhythm, as though every step landed upon the "nodes" of space and the flow of Spirit Particles.
At the very instant Four Realms Freeze's domain fully formed, he had forcibly invaded this absolute domain that froze everything!
Heavenquake in his hand became covered in a dense, chaotic silver glow!
An even more immense and terrifying power than when he shattered the Millennium Ice Prison earlier gathered and compressed along the blade!
"Shatter!"
Liu Chuan brought his blade down at the spot on Hyōrinmaru's forehead where the golden light shone!
Starting from Heavenquake's edge, a trembling "shockwave" spread out like ripples raised by a massive stone thrown into a perfectly still lake!
Crack, crack-crack-crack—!
The absolute domain that froze light, solidified Spirit Particles, and sealed concepts in ice collided with this force of vibration!
From the point where it touched the shockwave, countless dense, crisscrossing white cracks appeared throughout the domain!
These cracks were not tears in space, but the collapse caused by the rule of "freezing" itself being disrupted and destroyed by "vibration"!
The frozen light began to flow again, the solidified Spirit Particles started to scatter, and the icy seal rapidly disintegrated!
Immediately afterward, the shockwave pierced through the collapsing domain and slammed viciously into Hyōrinmaru's true body!
More precisely, it struck the golden light on his forehead!
A dull thud, low enough to seem as though it came from the depths of the soul.
Under Liu Chuan's violent assault, that golden light finally flickered to its limit.
The light abruptly went out.
Like the final ember of a candle in the wind, its last trace of fuel exhausted, it completely returned to darkness and nothingness.
The instant the golden light went out, Hyōrinmaru's violet eyes, once interwoven with golden radiance, suddenly lost all vitality and became utterly vacant.
The terrifying Spiritual Pressure surging around him instantly plummeted and withered like a deflated balloon.
His hands, covered in icy dragon claws, dropped limply to his sides. The deep blue radiance of absolute zero at his fingertips quietly faded as well.
His enormous body swayed, as if it had lost all support, then crashed forward onto the frozen earth covered in cracks of ice crystals, kicking up a cloud of icy dust.
The true blade of Hyōrinmaru in his hand also flew free, landing tilted in the distance with its light dimmed.
The domain of Four Realms Freeze completely vanished, and everything that had been solidified returned to normal. Yet that bone-deep chill still lingered in the air.
"Huff... huff..." Isshin Shiba knelt on one knee, using Engetsu to support himself as he gasped for breath. His face was pale, his entire body coated in thick white frost, and even his eyebrows and hair had frozen over.
In that instant just now, he had truly experienced what it felt like to brush past death.
Still shaken, he glanced at Hyōrinmaru lying not far away, then looked ahead.
Liu Chuan slowly sheathed his blade. The chaotic silver glow on Heavenquake receded like the tide, returning it to its silver-white appearance.
Add Bookmark
Return to Contents
Report Chapter Error
Share with Friends: