The Slaughter Begins

The Spider Demon silently crept up behind one of the participants.

The three of them were completely unaware, still earnestly discussing their situation.

"So, should we stay here, or head down right away?"

"Cough, the villagers found out I was taking the Demon Slayer Corps assessment and even scraped together quite a bit of money to send to my family. If I go back just like this, wouldn't I be humiliated to death?"

"What's so bad about that? Just make up an excuse. It's not like anyone can simply join the Demon Slayer Corps. Are there supposed to be no living people who fail the assessment?"

The Spider Demon circled around the three of them.

Yet the three failed to notice the horrifying monster crouched behind them.

The Spider Demon was in no hurry to eat the three prey before it. It intended to have some fun first. It spun in place like a top, as if it had finally come up with an idea.

Scuttling behind the tall participant on its six legs, it slowly rose while swaying its skeletal body, extending a pair of hands beneath the tall participant's neck.

The two people sitting opposite and diagonally opposite him finally saw the ugly monster, as though it had suddenly crawled out of the ground. Both of them immediately thought of a centipede.

In an instant, the hairs on their backs stood on end and goosebumps covered their bodies. They desperately wanted to turn and run, but their legs felt filled with lead, rooted to the ground and unable to move.

The participant sitting diagonally opposite slowly raised a hand toward the tall participant, his lips trembling as though he wanted to say something. Whether from terror or panic, tears were nearly spilling from his eyes.

The tall participant noticed that his companion was pointing not at him, but behind him. Thinking they were deliberately trying to scare him, he started to turn around. "What's wrong with you two? Did you see..."

Before he could say the word "demon," there was a crack, and the tall participant's neck made a ninety-degree turn.

The tall participant stared wide-eyed in terror as he finally saw the monster behind him. His eyeballs gradually became bloodshot.

With the tall participant's death, the binding force on the other two seemed to vanish all at once.

"Ahh! A demon!"

The participant sitting diagonally opposite suddenly let out a shrill scream and scrambled toward a dim trail.

That path led up the mountain. Kimura's group had gone that way earlier. He wanted to catch up to them, beg for their forgiveness, and ask them to take him in. He began to regret listening to the tall participant's persuasion.

The other participant was scared stiff, his face deathly pale and his body shaking uncontrollably. A stream of yellow liquid ran down from his crotch. He clearly wanted to run, yet his body refused to obey him.

He could only watch helplessly as the monster walked up to him, then behind him. A pair of dry claws reached beneath his neck, cold and clammy. Then, with another crack, he heard the sound of his own neck breaking.

The screams exploded through the silent night and the eerie forest like fireworks before a banquet.

The banquet had begun. The hunt had begun. The revelry had begun—of course, it was a demon's banquet.

The screams alerted Kimura's group, who were searching the forest for a defensible position.

At the sound, everyone froze in place. Their scalps tingled and tightened as they all turned toward its source.

"Help! Help! Someone save me..."

The cries for help drew nearer and nearer, then abruptly stopped, like a candle flickering in the night that had suddenly been snuffed out. Everyone's heart trembled.

He was dead!

That was the thought that appeared in everyone's mind after the cries were cut off.

The crowd began to stir. Fear spread like wild grass, rising from their feet and winding around their necks.

It was coming! Something was coming this way!

One, two, no... more than two. Ahead of them, behind them, all around them, there came rustling sounds of feet stepping on fallen leaves. In the trees, beneath the trees, every... everywhere... W-we were surrounded?

"Everyone, d-don't panic. There are so many of us. There's nothing to fear. Form a circle and move slowly."

Kimura's trembling voice was weak, but it still gave those panicked team members direction.

As the core and brain of the group, the leader's value finally showed itself at this moment.

Hearing Kimura's order, everyone followed their prior arrangement and began changing formation, shifting from an arrowhead formation built for attack and advance into a slowly moving circle.

Kimura took a deep breath and suppressed the panic in his heart. This was the critical moment. As the team leader, he had to give everyone confidence. Otherwise, forget passing the assessment—this ragtag group would immediately fall apart.

Here, fighting alone meant certain death before long.

"Everyone, don't panic and don't lose order. Once we entered this place, there was no turning back."

Kimura began with a few opening words to soothe everyone's emotions. After a pause, he continued, "The fact that you came to take this assessment means you were all prepared to die in battle. Fear and terror will not help in any way. Instead, they will drag down others and the entire team."

"So, I hereby state this solemnly: anyone too cowardly to draw their blade and fight back will be abandoned. Anyone who runs away will be abandoned. Only team members who fight wholeheartedly for the group will receive help."

"My team exists to lead everyone through the assessment, not to shelter the weak. I hope you understand this. Do not think of muddling through. From this moment onward, we must cast aside all fear and unite as one. Only then will we have a chance of passing the assessment."

Kimura's forceful speech undoubtedly gave everyone reassurance. His words were logical, rigorous, and without a single flaw.

Everyone responded in agreement.

"Also, there's no need to worry. Do you remember what those two little girls at the foot of the mountain said? The demons on this mountain were all captured by Demon Slayer Corps members. That means they cannot be very powerful. If the Demon Slayer Corps could deal with them, then so could we."

As soon as he said that, everyone became even more confident.

It was not because Kimura's words were especially inspiring, but because they made sense. People were convinced by reason. Otherwise, they would only be empty talk.

Elsewhere, Han Zhiqi and Nohime were sitting on a stone platform, bored out of their minds.

Han Zhiqi looked up at the moon overhead and casually picked up a pebble, tossing it into the forest below.

Nohime hugged her knees, puffed out her cheeks, and used a thin wooden stick to draw circles.

Even with a tide of demons descending, only these two could remain so calm.

Suddenly, a shrill scream came from nearby to one side.

Nohime sprang to her feet and turned toward the source of the sound.

It seemed to have come from halfway up the mountain. This was followed by a string of increasingly distant cries for help, which soon vanished as well.

Nohime instinctively wanted to go and help, but in the end, she turned back and sat down beside Han Zhiqi again.

"Someone died."

"I heard."

"Are we not going to do anything?"

"What do you want to do?"

Nohime shook her head. "I don't know."

"If you don't know, then do nothing. There are seven days. The first night is the hardest. Once you endure the first night, it'll be fine."