Thunder Roar Cannon?

An invisible pressure quietly spread through the air. It was neither killing intent nor fighting spirit, but the calm composure of someone in absolute control, as though he were not facing a duel, but conducting an experiment that required precise handling.

"Heh, that look!" Renji grinned wildly. He knew it all too well.

Back in the practical combat classes at Shin'ō Academy, whenever Liu Chuan entered this state, it meant that seemingly insignificant Kido would erupt in the most tricky and unexpected combinations.

"Don't disappoint me, Liu Chuan!"

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Before his words had even faded, Renji vanished from where he stood! It was not Flash Step, but an explosive, all-out charge that blasted a shallow crater into the sand beneath his feet.

At almost the same instant, Zabimaru was already out of its sheath. It was not a complete Shikai, but the blade instantly extended and split apart, transforming into several savage blade segments connected by Spirit Particle chains. With a piercing shriek that tore through the air, they lunged at Liu Chuan from several tricky angles like a giant python choosing its prey!

"Snake Fang Devour!"

A classic Renji opening—swift, direct, and wide-ranging, meant to suppress his opponent with a ferocious assault and force out an opening.

Yet, facing an attack that would leave an ordinary seated officer scrambling, Liu Chuan merely shifted slightly.

It was not the afterimage of Flash Step, but more like precise prediction and perfect use of airflow and Spiritual Pressure fluctuations.

His steps seemed small, yet in the narrowest possible instant, he neatly avoided the first two blade segments. At the same time, the fingers of his raised right hand spread apart, spiritual light flowing around his fingertips.

"Hadō #31: Red Fire, Crash Down."

An incantation? No, there was none! He did not even call out the full name, only uttering a few low, rapid syllables.

A blazing crimson fireball instantly condensed before his palm. It was not large, but immensely dense, its radiance contained within.

Then, as if thrown with perfect precision by an invisible hand, it struck the side connection of a blade segment in the middle of Zabimaru without missing by an inch!

Boom!

It was not an earthshaking explosion, but a highly condensed blast of flames and Spirit Particle destruction.

That blade segment was blasted off course, disrupting the following segments as well. A trace of disorder instantly appeared in what had been a tightly sealed encirclement.

And Liu Chuan used the recoil and his exquisite footwork to slip out from Zabimaru's range like a fish through water.

"Oh?" At the edge of the field, Third Seat Madarame rubbed his bald head, the mockery on his face fading slightly. "A chantless Hadō #31? And the power was controlled that precisely? He only struck the connection point?"

"Hmph, cheap tricks." Yumichika folded his arms, his words disdainful, though his gaze had grown more serious.

To so casually defuse Renji's fierce opening attack with a low-numbered Hadō, that level of Kido control and combat instinct could not be underestimated.

Renji's first strike had missed, but he was not discouraged. Instead, he grew even more excited. "Not bad! Again!"

With a flick of his wrist, Zabimaru's blades traced strange arcs through the air, turning back like living creatures.

They curled toward Liu Chuan once more. At the same time, Renji took a large step forward, clenching his left fist as powerful Spiritual Pressure wrapped around it. He threw a straight punch at Liu Chuan's face, the blow carrying a savage gust of wind!

Zanpakuto and Hakuda combined—no frills, only a pure crushing force of power and speed!

Liu Chuan's eyes narrowed slightly. Renji's strength and speed had indeed improved considerably since their days at Shin'ō Academy.

He did not choose to take the attack head-on. His footwork shifted again, and his body drifted like willow fluff in the wind, evading the heavy fist by the narrowest margin.

At the same time, his left hand swept rapidly at his side.

"Bakudō #39: Arc Shield."

A flash of light appeared, not aimed at Renji, but directly in his path of pursuit. A circular shield instantly materialized.

Renji's momentum was too fierce, and he was nearly upon it. He let out a low roar and neither dodged nor retreated, instead slamming his Spiritual Pressure-wreathed fist into the shield!

Bang! The shield shook violently, cracks spreading across its surface, but it did not immediately shatter. It successfully stalled Renji for an instant.

And in that instant, Liu Chuan raised his right hand again. This time, his fingers spread wide and aimed at Renji as even faster, sharper fragments of an incantation spilled from his lips.

Spirit Particles crazily gathered and compressed before his palm, forming a complex, dazzling set of small concentric rings.

"Hadō #58: Tenran."

A highly compressed lance of storm shot forth. It did not seek maximum area damage, but condensed into a sharp spiral wind drill that flew at extreme speed, aimed directly at the slight opening Renji had exposed while attacking the Bakudō!

"What?!" Renji's pupils contracted. He had not expected the other man's Kido transitions to be so fast, nor its power to so greatly exceed the earlier Red Fire, Crash Down.

He hastily pulled Zabimaru back. Several blade segments rapidly returned to defend him, weaving into a net of blades before his body.

Rumble!

The spiral wind drill slammed into the blade net, erupting with violent wind pressure and screeching cutting sounds as sand and dust burst upward.

Renji was shoved several steps backward by the force. The blade net trembled as it barely blocked the attack, but his sword hand went numb and sore.

As the smoke and dust thinned, Liu Chuan still stood where he had been, his breathing steady, as though that swift and fierce two-part Kido attack had been nothing more than a casual gesture. He had not even drawn the Zanpakuto at his waist.

"Hey, hey, you've got to be kidding, right?" An Eleventh Division member stared wide-eyed. "He forced Eighth Seat Renji back using only Kido?"

"Was that really Tenran #58? Why does its speed and penetration feel a little off..." another seated officer with some knowledge of Kido muttered.

Renji shook his wrist, the fighting spirit in his eyes burning brighter, though it was now mixed with greater gravity.

He admitted that he had underestimated this old classmate. Ten years in the Kido Corps had not dulled his edge.

Instead, they had refined his Kido techniques and brought his control to a terrifying level. And... the power of that Kido seemed somewhat stronger than the standard version?

"Just as impressive as I expected, Liu Chuan!" Renji laughed loudly. His Spiritual Pressure surged again, Zabimaru humming as the spiritual glow on each blade segment became increasingly dazzling.

"But the warm-up is over! Let me see if you can take this—Roar, Zabimaru!"

At last, Shikai!

A massive serpentine bone blade manifested with overwhelming ferocity. Renji's aura rose once more, as though he had merged with his Zanpakuto and become a true savage python.

Even facing Renji's fully released Shikai, Liu Chuan's expression did not change much.

He merely took a soft breath, and the flow of Spirit Particles around him seemed to undergo an extremely subtle change.

Vast amounts of Spirit Particles gathered wildly, forming a violently spinning vortex before him that radiated a heart-palpitating energy fluctuation.

"This method of gathering Spirit Particles, and those fluctuations..." At the edge of the field, even Third Seat Madarame lost his careless look, his expression turning grave.

Feeling the dangerous aura coming from within that Spirit Particle vortex, Renji did not dare be careless. With an angry roar, he pushed his Spiritual Pressure to its limit. The massive Zabimaru came crashing down at Liu Chuan with enough force to split mountains and shatter stone!

"Hadō #63: Thunder Roar Cannon!"

Rumble—!!!

It was not the usual massive beam of Thunder Roar Cannon. What erupted from the Spirit Particle vortex was a more condensed torrent of lightning, threaded with blazing white lightning and deep violet arcs.

Its core temperature and destructive power appeared to have been compressed to the limit. It blasted out in a strange spiral, meeting the descending giant serpentine bone blade head-on!

A deafening explosion rang across the entire training ground. Blinding lightning and wild blade force collided and tore at each other furiously, sending out a violent shockwave.

It swept up every bit of sand and stone from the ground, forcing the observing Eleventh Division members to raise their Spiritual Pressure to resist. Their expressions changed in alarm.

The light and dust slowly dispersed.

At the center of the field, Renji knelt on one knee, supporting himself with Zabimaru as he panted heavily. The sleeves of his Soul Reaper Robes were slightly scorched, the web of his sword hand split open and bleeding. His face was filled with shock and disbelief.

Not far in front of him, Liu Chuan stood quietly. Aside from a little dust on the hem of his clothes, tiny lightning Spirit Particles still crackled in the air before him.

The training ground fell deathly silent. Every Eleventh Division member, including Madarame and Yumichika, stared at the figure in the center as though he were a monster.

Using only Kido... he had clashed head-on with Renji's fully released Shikai and even gained the upper hand?!

Though Renji Abarai was currently only the Eighth Seat, that was merely because he had not been in the Eleventh Division for long. No one present believed they could defeat him with certainty.

If Liu Chuan could so easily defeat Renji, did that not mean he possessed at least lieutenant-level strength?

"Th-that really was Thunder Roar Cannon #63?" one member swallowed dryly.

"Modified? He rewrote a Hadō?!" another member cried out.

Liu Chuan steadied his breathing and looked at Renji, who was struggling to stand. His gaze remained calm. "Do you still want to continue, Renji?"

Renji stared fixedly at Liu Chuan, then looked at his scorched sleeve and split palm. After a long moment, he suddenly burst into a slightly hoarse yet utterly exhilarated laugh.

"Hahahaha! Good! Very good, Liu Chuan! I never expected you to have something like this hidden away! Modified Hadō... its power can actually reach this level! I lost!"

He conceded cleanly and decisively. The Eleventh Division respected the strong—victory was victory, defeat was defeat.

Yet the curiosity and desire to investigate in his eyes were nearly overflowing. "What exactly have you been researching in the Kido Corps all these years? What was that move just now?"

Liu Chuan did not answer directly. He merely dispersed the last faint glimmer of Spirit Particles from his fingertips, walked over to Renji, and handed him a small roll of bandages emitting a cool spiritual aura. They were standard Kido Corps supplies, used to treat Spiritual Power burns.

"Just a few personal adjustments. I optimized the Spirit Particle gathering structure and energy output pattern."

His tone was casual, as if that strike, which had been enough to alter everyone's understanding of Kido, had truly been nothing more than an insignificant "adjustment."

But now, no one dared look at this Soul Reaper from the Kido Corps as a "desk worker" or a "weakling."

For the first time, the Eleventh Division training ground had fallen into a strange silence mixed with shock and curiosity because of someone outside the division, someone who had displayed overwhelming strength using Kido alone.

This spar with his friend had been more like a small test, and the result seemed fairly good.

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