Dan Lei actually knew very little about Sickle Leaf. After all, the original story had only vaguely described his methods as involving poison. His name alone was enough to suggest a connection to disease.
As for the Tree demon and Bat demon, it would be a miracle if those two little demons knew Lower Rank Three's trump cards.
Still, Dan Lei wasn't so timid that he'd back down just because he lacked information.
So Sickle Leaf's ability to strengthen his skin was no big deal.
When Dan Lei saw that his sword hadn't cut off Sickle Leaf's arm, he promptly abandoned it. Two vortices appeared in his hands. He thrust them forward, sending a pair of whirling ice blades hurtling ahead.
Water Breathing: Fourth Form, Frost Annihilation!
There was no doubt whose move he was cosplaying. A certain young lady from the Kamisato Clan gave it a thumbs-up.
Sickle Leaf wasn't prepared for this at all. The whirling ice blades sent him flying, and his body was instantly sliced a thousand times over. By the time he hit the ground, he was covered in blood.
But for a demon, injuries like these only hurt. He got to his feet in an instant and roared,
"Brat! I don't care whether you're one of Lord Doma's subordinates or not—you've made me angry!"
After saying this, Sickle Leaf took a deep breath, seemingly about to spit something out.
But his windup was too long. Dan Lei knew the structure and movement of the human body well. The moment he saw Sickle Leaf's neck tilt forward slightly and his mouth open, he realized he was about to inhale. Without hesitation, he took a yellow crystal out of the box on his back and tossed it straight into Sickle Leaf's mouth.
Sickle Leaf never expected Dan Lei to throw a "stone" at him. He inhaled it in one gulp, and it lodged in his throat.
Then Sickle Leaf's neck swelled up instantly. Several sharp stone spikes finally pierced through his skin from the inside.
A large amount of black vapor leaked from the base of the spikes, mingling with blood as it seeped out between the stones and his skin.
At the same time, Sickle Leaf soiled himself. The thing he'd meant to spit out had been blocked by the stone, so it could only come out the other end.
What Dan Lei had used was the Tohsaka Family's specialty: Gem Magic.
Gem Magic wasn't patented, of course. The Tohsaka Family was simply one of its foremost practitioners.
It was an advanced form of Replacement Magic. Its principle was to store magecraft and magical energy inside gems, then activate and throw them when needed.
When making combat automatons, releasing magecraft required similar techniques. But since gems were expensive, combat automatons with ranged attacks or special magic were high-end models. Ordinary ones could generally only fight at close range.
Dan Lei was skilled in Replacement Magic and knew how to make automatons, so naturally he knew Gem Magic too—and he'd even learned Aozaki Touko's own signature technique.
As for where the gems came from, Dan Lei had simply raided a human trafficking organization and taken them as spoils.
In Sickle Leaf's understanding, each demon could only have one Blood Demon Art. Dan Lei had been using ice the whole time, so it never occurred to him that the "stone" Dan Lei tossed could do something like this.
Now Sickle Leaf's mouth was full of rocks, and his head hung on by only a bit of skin. He looked utterly wretched.
But he hadn't lost his ability to fight. He braced his arms, the rocky spikes dragging along with them, and lifted his head along with the stones before throwing it aside.
Then he tried to pick up his head and reattach it.
But Dan Lei wasn't going to let him put his head back on so easily.
Sickle Leaf was surrounded by all the filthy things he'd made, but Dan Lei only had to cover his body in the power of the Abundance Destiny to keep toxins from invading him through contact.
As for breathing, his body could switch directly to an internal magic-energy cycle. Dan Lei could use Breathing Techniques without breathing.
So Dan Lei plugged his nose with ice, clenched his mouth shut, and unleashed Water Breathing: Third Form, Thunderclap Flowing Dance! Water and electricity trailed behind him as he charged straight at Sickle Leaf.
Only now did Sickle Leaf realize Dan Lei wasn't a demon. He recognized Flowing Dance.
But it was too late. A body without a head was already clumsy, and his opponent was Dan Lei, whose physical strength was no weaker than a demon's.
On top of that, Dan Lei reinforced himself with Reinforcement Magecraft during battle. Thunderclap Flowing Dance, shimmering with water and crackling with electricity, was terrifyingly fast.
In a single exchange, Sickle Leaf's headless body was hacked into a torso with no limbs.
His arms and legs could still move, but Dan Lei used Magecraft Thread the very next moment to suspend them in midair.
Then Dan Lei plugged Sickle Leaf's mouth with ice, drove an icicle through his temple, and pinned him to a nearby wooden post. He placed a slowly spinning ice blade beneath Sickle Leaf's neck to keep the wound from healing and ensure the blood kept flowing.
Next, he used Replacement Magic to bring over a large earthenware jar from one of the surrounding houses. He'd arranged a magic-sealing preservation array made of mercury inside it, and now placed it beneath Sickle Leaf's neck to collect the blood.
After that, Dan Lei dragged Sickle Leaf's body over and began the dissection.
At that moment, five Kasugai Crows flew near the town, and five people wearing Demon Slayer Corps uniforms with the character for "destroy" on their backs entered it.
Faced with the chaos in the town, they didn't stop to investigate. They headed straight for the place where Dan Lei was dissecting Sickle Leaf.
Then they saw a "demon" cutting open a person's torso, with the severed limbs of "people" hanging nearby. The person's head had been nailed to a post.
There was no need to ask who the demon was in this situation. The five Demon Slayer Corps members drew their swords.
But Dan Lei had already been mistaken for a demon by Giyu Tomioka, so he had no interest in going through the same misunderstanding with another group of ordinary Demon Slayer Corps members.
The instant the five of them drew their swords, five Magecraft Threads pressed against their hilts, stopping them from drawing their blades.
Dan Lei used Replacement Magic to bring his Nichirin Blade into his hand. He stood up, turned around, and shouted sternly,
"You lot can't even tell who the demon is? Look at the head pinned over there! That's Lower Rank Three! I'm dissecting a precious Lower Rank demon's body, so don't disturb me! Go calm down the chaos in town first!"
Dan Lei's shout cowed the five Demon Slayer Corps members a little. Seeing the Nichirin Blade in his hand convinced them halfway. Then they looked at the head on the post. The eyes were wide open, and they could indeed make out the characters for "Lower Rank" and "Three" in them.
The five Demon Slayer Corps members immediately mistook Dan Lei for a Hashira. After all, ordinary Demon Slayer Corps members couldn't possibly recognize every Hashira. They hurriedly stood at attention, bowed, and apologized.
"Sorry! We didn't know you were busy, sir! We'll go deal with the chaos in town right away!"
With that, the five Demon Slayer Corps members hurried off in a panic to restore order in the town.
Dan Lei thought the five helpers had arrived at just the right time. Now he wouldn't have to deal with the town's problems himself.
After collecting all the information he could from Sickle Leaf's body, Dan Lei had also collected a whole jar of his blood. He promptly sealed it for storage. Otherwise, once Sickle Leaf died, the magical energy in the jar would dissipate rapidly, and all that would be left was a jar of foul, dead blood.
Once he was done, Dan Lei used his Nichirin Blade to end Sickle Leaf's life ahead of schedule.
At least this unfortunate character from the original story wouldn't have to die miserably at the hands of his own boss this time. He'd even made a small contribution to the extermination of demons. Truly a cause for celebration. A cause for celebration.
Before you continue