The High Monk's Physical Requiem

With no other choice, Yu Luo could only jump back a step under the threat of being turned into a eunuch. That single step gave the demon an opening. It had looked unable to rise, but now it sprang up on one leg, kicked off the ground, and smashed a huge hole through the wall. With its back to Yu Luo, it fled into the distance under his gaze.

"Don't run!" Yu Luo roared, pulling out another Heroic Spirit Card. Amid a silver glow, he changed into a black cowboy outfit, a revolver in hand as he aimed at the demon's head.

"Noble Phantasm, Bad Beat!"

"Bang! Bang! Bang!" Three deafening gunshots rang through the night sky, shattering the town's dead silence. Many residents jolted awake from their dreams, yet not a single one dared come out to investigate. Even the occasional cries of infants were quickly hushed.

Three bullets formed from magical energy streaked through the air at speeds beyond the naked eye, tracing three separate paths. They caught up with the demon, which had already hopped more than a hundred meters away on one foot, and struck its grotesque head from three bizarre angles almost simultaneously.

"Pop!" Like a watermelon bursting apart, the massive head exploded into fragments. Red blood and white brain matter sprayed out together like fireworks. Satisfied, Yu Luo holstered his revolver and prepared to inspect the demon's corpse. Yet to his surprise, the headless demon did not die. It was not even affected, its body still running forward.

Under the moonlit night, a headless corpse hopped away on its sole remaining leg, looking utterly bizarre. Anyone unaware of the situation might have fainted from fright upon seeing such a sight.

"Damn it!" Yu Luo wanted to draw his revolver and fire another Noble Phantasm at the demon, but Billy the Kid's Transformation Energy had already been depleted by the previous attack. He could only angrily cancel his transformation. With his current physical abilities, there was no way he could catch a demon with only one leg left.

What was more, dense clusters of flesh buds suddenly erupted from the demon's bare neck, growing at a visible speed. In only a few seconds, a massive head had regrown on its neck, identical to the one Yu Luo had blown apart earlier.

"So this is a demon's immortality?" Seeing this, Yu Luo recalled how the system mission had said demons neither aged nor died. This scene of a head regenerating perfectly confirmed the system's words.

"Can demons really only be killed by sunlight?"

Just as Yu Luo could only helplessly watch the demon flee, it was as though even the gods above could no longer stand it. A flail suddenly flew out of the darkness, wrapping around the demon's lone leg and tripping it to the ground.

"Ah, someone has already been harmed. How sorrowful." A monk wearing a string of prayer beads around his neck emerged from the darkness. A long scar ran across his forehead, and he wore a brown kasaya. Two streams of tears slid from his dull, lifeless eyes, his face filled with grief. In his right hand was a hand axe, its handle attached to a long chain. At the other end of that chain was the flail binding the demon.

"Roar!" At the sight of the suddenly appearing monk, the demon panicked completely. Its remaining left hand grabbed the chain connected to the flail and tugged desperately, hoping to break free. Unfortunately, its efforts were entirely futile. The sorrowful, weeping monk before it was utterly unaffected, as though the demon's tremendous strength did not exist.

"How sorrowful it is to become a demon. Let me lay you to rest." The monk slowly walked up to the terrified demon and pressed his palms together. By then, Yu Luo had also reached his side. Hearing those words, Yu Luo immediately grew anxious and was just about to speak, but the monk had already begun his rites.

"Be reborn." The monk spoke sorrowfully, then grabbed the chain with his right hand and swung the hand axe high. With a shrieking gust of wind, it came down heavily on the demon's neck. Blood splattered everywhere, and a round object rolled far across the ground—it was the demon's head, its grotesque face still frozen in panic.

"Uh..." Yu Luo was momentarily speechless. In the end, he could only force out, "A physical requiem. Your Buddhist teachings truly run deep."

Yu Luo had no idea whether it was some technique the monk used or an effect of his weapon, but the demon that could regrow even after its head had been blown apart merely twitched weakly twice after being beheaded. Then its body turned into black smoke and slowly dispersed. The head on the other side likewise dissolved into smoke, leaving not the slightest trace behind. Only the blood on the ground silently testified to everything.

The monk who had appeared so suddenly turned toward Yu Luo. His dull, lifeless eyes fixed on him as he praised with palms together, "Though you are an ordinary person, you possess the power to fight demons. That is truly astonishing." Although he was offering praise, tears poured from his dim eyes again as he spoke.

Yu Luo immediately felt awkward and quipped, "With you crying like this, I'd think I died gloriously fighting that demon and you came to my memorial service."

"I am deeply sorry. I will take note of it." Though the monk said so, the tears on his face did not lessen in the slightest. Yu Luo sighed helplessly and could only treat him as a man made of water.

"Forget it. I'm going to bury the victims' bodies." Yu Luo spoke to the monk. Still weeping, the monk followed behind him and nodded.

"Allow me to offer what little help I can."

Yu Luo had returned to his original clothes, Thunder Cutter tucked at his waist. Looking at the house riddled with holes, his spirits sank. Who could have imagined that just half a day ago, this had been a warm little home? The master and mistress of the house had both been good people, and they had two adorable daughters.

Yu Luo entered the courtyard. Ignoring the blood and stench, he dragged the two mangled corpses into the yard. Though he tried his best to piece their bodies back together, the demon had eaten part of them. Even in the end, Yu Luo could not restore their original appearances.

"Water Monk, help me dig two holes. You look pretty strong, so it shouldn't be a problem for you, right?" Yu Luo was still an ordinary person, and after all that work, he was exhausted to the point of collapse. He finally sat down amid the wrecked room, placing a broken piece of door beneath himself as a cushion, and spoke to the monk standing nearby.

"Water Monk? Are you referring to me?"

"Who else?" Leaning against the wardrobe behind him, Yu Luo answered the monk calmly. "I don't know your name, so I could only give you a nickname. It suits you pretty well."

"I failed to give my name. That was discourteous of me." The monk pressed his palms together and bowed to Yu Luo. Bright moonlight spilled over his robes. "I am Gyomei Himejima, the Stone Pillar of the Demon Slayer Corps."

"You're from the Demon Slayer Corps?!" Yu Luo instantly perked up. Sitting straight, he stared fixedly at Gyomei Himejima. "Can I join the Demon Slayer Corps too? I want to kill demons."

"You may." Gyomei Himejima nodded easily. "The Demon Slayer Corps is an organization dedicated to exterminating demons. So long as you have the will, you may participate in the Demon Slayer Corps selection and join the Demon Slayer Corps."

"I want to join the Demon Slayer Corps too!" The moment Gyomei Himejima finished speaking, Yu Luo heard a familiar voice from within the wardrobe he was leaning against. Then the back of his head took a heavy blow, sending him crashing face-first onto the ground.

"I want to join the Demon Slayer Corps with my sister!" Another familiar voice immediately followed. Upon hearing those two voices, Yu Luo threw the sharp pain in the back of his head aside and happily rolled over. Two girls with light violet eyes and butterfly hairpins stood inside the wardrobe, staring resolutely at Gyomei Himejima outside the house.

"Is this truly all right? Lives that were saved with such difficulty." Gyomei Himejima raised his head, his dull eyes facing the sisters as he advised, "Before your parents died, they must have hoped that you would live well and spend the rest of your lives as ordinary people."

Yet the sisters' determined expressions did not change in the face of Gyomei Himejima's advice. The elder sister stepped forward, her gentle voice carrying firm resolve. "I want to be like him and have the strength to protect others. Please let me join the Demon Slayer Corps as well!"

Under the moonlit night, the girl whose parents had both died revealed her unwavering determination. Her eyes fixed on Gyomei Himejima beneath the moon as she waited for his reply.