Mountain top, mountainside, mountain foot.
Soon, the ripples covered the entire mountain and continued to expand.
When the troops at the foot of the mountain were also covered, the same thought came to the minds of most soldiers.
"If the plan changes, execute it immediately."
The moment the sound disappeared, the soldiers moved.
They took the muskets from their backs and pointed them at some people.
Among them were foreign nobles such as Ral.
"What's going on? What's wrong with these soldiers?!"
The soldier's sudden strange behavior frightened Ral and the others, who shouted in alarm.
"We are His Highness Ayu's partners, friends, not enemies."
"Oh God, I must tell Ah Yu bad things about you!"
"Put down your guns right now! Do you know the power of the family behind me?!"
Whether it was gentle persuasion or threats of force, the soldiers seemed not to hear it.
"These are all Ayu's ideas."
"Ayu?"
A quick-witted foreigner noticed something amiss in the conversation.
Just now, they were calling Ayu "Your Highness".
In the blink of an eye, how did they start calling each other by name?
Moreover, judging from their tone, they showed absolutely no respect for Ayu.
"Fire."
Countless bullets erupted, riddling the nobles and their hired guards with holes.
The twisted corpse lay on the ground, from which a large amount of blood flowed, staining the ground red.
"Can I eat their brains?"
"Whatever, their value has already been almost completely exploited."
"I want one too, I want a tender one."
"First come, first served."
Dozens of soldiers stepped forward and wiped their foreheads with their hands.
As their skulls opened, the contents of their brains were revealed.
It was a soft, shapeless mass of flesh with countless tentacles growing on it.
Another location within the military base.
The young man who fired the shot earlier was forced to a location with a gun pointed at his head.
Here, he also saw many people who had similar experiences to him.
They couldn't understand how their allies had suddenly become enemies.
"Brother, what did we do wrong?"
"Shut up, you're just our food."
The middle-aged man behind the young man gave him a hard shove, his face expressionless.
Before long, more than a thousand people were gathered together.
The young man paused for a moment, because he saw many famous people among them.
Many of them are owners of domestic dojos or masters with extremely high skills.
But under the threat of gunfire, they had no choice but to compromise and were forced to kneel on the ground.
"Their physical condition is quite good; those who need a body replacement can choose one."
"I'll go. My body has been pierced by gunpowder, and it won't be long."
A figure squeezed out and stood in front of the young man.
"Ida, sir?"
After seeing what the other person looked like, the young man's eyes widened.
"No, you're not him!"
The person in front of me looks exactly like Ida, but he is wearing a Demon Slayer Corps uniform.
More importantly, he had more than a dozen bullet wounds on his body.
One of the wounds was to the heart, which was clearly fatal.
With injuries like that, let alone being able to stand and talk, one would have lost their life countless times.
But the man in front of her had a smile on his face, an incredibly eerie smile.
"I am not him, but you can treat me as him."
The man slapped his forehead, looked down at the young man, and hugged his head with both hands.
"Since you know him, why don't you become one with him?"
To the shock and fear of the young man, Ida's skull opened, and a lump of flesh covered in tentacles jumped out.
The chunk of flesh leaped onto the young man's face at incredible speed, desperately reaching its tentacles into his skull.
Upon seeing this, the others realized what was happening.
It's not that they did anything wrong, it's that these guys aren't even human!
They are ghosts, the ghosts of legend!
"Let's give it our all!"
One of the dojo masters stood up and shouted.
"They're monsters! Let's work together, kill them, and break out!"
After saying that, he attacked the nearest soldier first.
Another soldier tried to fire, but was stopped.
"No, many of them are martial arts masters and are rare materials. Shooting them would cause a loss of value."
Nodding, the soldier then dropped his musket and charged at the farm owner.
In an instant, the entire area turned into a chaotic battlefield.
Although the soldiers were not weak in combat, they were no match for these arena owners in close combat.
"Bang!"
A middle-aged man threw a punch, twisting the neck of the soldier in front of him.
With a single kick, a soldier's chest caved in.
"These monsters are nothing special; they can be easily blasted to pieces."
He kicked the corpse in front of him and then prepared to find his next opponent.
But the instant his foot left the corpse, the soldier, who should have been dead, suddenly opened his eyes.
He jumped up and grabbed the owner's leg.
"What?"
The owner's expression changed drastically, and he forcefully struck the soldier's spine.
But no matter how heavy the blow, even when his spine was completely shattered, the soldier never let go.
"Your body is mine now."
A low murmur came, and the manor owner then saw another soldier he had killed get up.
Around him, more "dead" soldiers walked toward him.
The same sentence was being uttered from the mouths of these corpses.
"Your body is mine now."
A sense of despair washed over him, and the owner gave up the fight.
"This is... an undead legion."
The next second, he was surrounded by more than a dozen "soldiers" and then fell silent.
Chapter 584 Breakthrough
Similar situations are constantly occurring at the foot of the mountain.
Whether they are dojo owners, martial arts masters, or young men who join A-Yu's ranks, they all share the same fate under the siege of the Brain Eater army.
Parasitized.
After an unknown amount of time, the sounds of fighting ceased.
How many died?
"There are probably around five hundred of them, but their overall combat strength has increased after their bodies were replaced."
"Okay, leave some of them to watch over those guys, and the rest of you all go up the mountain."
Soon, the massive army of brain-eating creatures split into two parts.
A small number remained at the foot of the mountain, while the vast majority rushed uphill.
The reason some were left behind was to guard the Demon Slayer Corps swordsmen and their families.
Such a high-quality body is not something that these consumables can possess.
On the mountaintop, inside the mansion.
Did you hear anything just now?
"Are you talking about the sounds of battle?"
"I heard it too, it seemed to be coming from the foot of the mountain."
Just as the pillars in the mansion were wondering what was going on, a large group of people emerged from the distant forest.
"So many? Did they all come up here?!"
"No, something's not right with them."
"It's the aura of a ghost!"
Tanjiro was the first to react, followed by Agatsuma Zenitsu, and then Inosuke.
All three of them possess a sense that is beyond the reach of ordinary people, enabling them to detect the aura of ghosts that is not easily detected.
At the very moment those people appeared, they sensed an incredibly dense aura.
The sheer number is far beyond imagination.
Tanjiro's face turned pale, and he almost collapsed to the ground to vomit.
"Kid, explain yourself clearly!"
"Those are not human."
Tanjiro struggled to his feet and pointed to the crowd in the distance.
"There is no trace of human presence; they are all ghosts."
As soon as he finished speaking, the pillars noticed it too.
In an instant, my nasal cavity, mouth, and throat were filled with the aura of a ghost.
Even though they were pillars, they had never encountered such a situation before.
More than 10,000 ghosts!