Charcoal Selling Boy

"Hakuji, don't take this defeat too much to heart. In my opinion, your strength was already outstanding."

Faced with Rota's encouragement, Hakuji could only lower his head in response. He truly had no face to look Rota in the eye. Hakuji had long prepared himself mentally for defeat, but the way things unfolded exceeded his expectations.

He had thought he could at least exchange a few moves with Rota, but the facts proved that he had still overestimated himself.

Rota gently shook his head and lightly tapped Hakuji's forehead with a finger. "Hakuji, do you know why you failed? The reason is simple: you rely too heavily on Qi Perception."

"Are you saying I shouldn't continue training Qi Perception?" Hakuji looked at Rota in surprise. He had never expected such an answer.

Rota had given this matter deep consideration as well. In the original story, Hakuji—Akaza—had been briefly suppressed during the later Infinite Castle battle by Tanjiro, who had awakened Clear World.

It could be said that Clear World countered Hakuji's Qi Perception. Against Clear World, which could predict an opponent's movements in advance, Qi Perception was at a disadvantage.

Qi Perception could be considered Akaza's lower-grade version of Clear World. Naturally, it was somewhat inferior when facing the complete version of Clear World.

Although Akaza had been temporarily suppressed by Tanjiro and Giyu, he soon adapted to the rhythm of battle again and overcame the limits of a demon through sheer force of will.

If not for those memories, Tanjiro and Giyu might have died. That alone was enough to show how terrifying Akaza's strength was. The top three Upper Ranks in Demon Slayer were practically unsolvable. Compared to Kokushibo and Akaza from the original story, Douma, Upper Rank Two, was also incredibly troublesome. His Blood Demon Art even