After wringing every last bit of value out of Sickle Leaf and killing it, Dan Lei saw that the five Demon Slayer Corps members were gradually bringing the town's chaos under control. He glanced at the Kasugai Crow that had watched him kill Sickle Leaf from beginning to end, waved goodbye, and left the town.
The Kasugai Crow didn't follow him. Dan Lei made it to the woods outside town without incident.
Once the matter was settled, Kojiro Sasaki appeared and said,
"Dan Lei, you rely too much on Magecraft in combat now. That won't do your swordsmanship any favors in the future.
"You're already familiar with fighting with Magecraft. From now on, it'd be best to fight with your sword more often, especially against opponents you can't kill quickly with swordsmanship."
Dan Lei scratched the back of his head, embarrassed.
Kojiro Sasaki was right. Whenever a fight broke out, Dan Lei was more accustomed to using the techniques of a Mage from his previous life, so Magecraft made up a large part of his combat style.
That wasn't necessarily wrong. Combat wasn't child's play, and eliminating the enemy naturally came first.
But Dan Lei was currently pursuing the path of swordsmanship.
And this was a goal Dan Lei had set for himself. He couldn't just sit around doing nothing in this world while waiting for the Holy Grail to fill with magical energy. He killed demons and studied them only to improve his chances of surviving here.
So Dan Lei had set himself the goal of learning swordsmanship.
All he could do now was say awkwardly,
"Got it, Kojiro. I'll be sure to keep that in mind next time."
Kojiro Sasaki knew Dan Lei was a disciplined person, so he didn't say anything more about it. Instead, he asked,
"The demon in this town has been eliminated. Where should we go next?"
Dan Lei answered without hesitation,
"Didn't you say I used my sword too little when I fought Lower Rank Three? Then I'll find another Lower Rank demon to practice on. Same destination as before: Mount Natagumo."
Since Dan Lei had a clear goal, Kojiro Sasaki said no more. He dematerialized again and quietly followed at Dan Lei's side.
The journey that followed went smoothly. When Dan Lei reached the train station in a large city, he bought a ticket to the station closest to Mount Natagumo.
Thanks to Suggestion magic, the station staff and ordinary passengers didn't bat an eye at Dan Lei carrying such a large box with a jar hanging beside it. No one came over to ask questions, and no one seemed curious.
However, once the train started moving, Dan Lei and Kojiro Sasaki both sensed something was off. There was a demon on this train, too.
Dan Lei immediately dug out his ticket and checked it. It wasn't the Mugen Train.
His interest waned a little. If it wasn't the Mugen Train, then the demon he encountered might not be Enmu. It could just be the speedy demon from the beginning of the Mugen Train arc.
Still, there was no need to search for a demon on a train. The whole train was small enough that Dan Lei would know the moment anyone was attacked.
So all he had to do was wait patiently.
Before long, the train staff began checking tickets.
When they reached Dan Lei, he didn't say a word. He obediently handed over his ticket, then spoke to Kojiro Sasaki via telepathy.
"Kojiro, if I fall asleep later and you can't wake me, then when the demon appears, break a window and take me out of here. If that happens, the demon wins this fight. I'll get ready and fight again next time."
Kojiro Sasaki had no objections. After all, the official Type-Moon setting gave him the alignment Neutral-Evil.
His "evil" came from the idea that killing someone was evil, but he had long since grown used to death. No one should expect him to care much about ordinary civilians. Dan Lei's safety was definitely more important.
Since Dan Lei had acted just like an ordinary passenger the whole time, the staff returned his ticket after checking it.
But when Dan Lei took the ticket back, his eyelids suddenly grew heavy, and he found himself in a sea of flowers.
Dan Lei knew this sea of flowers well. It was the flower field inside the Holy Grail Space, and the Holy Grail floated quietly at its center.
Dan Lei walked up to the Holy Grail, touched it, and checked its condition.
Everything seemed normal. The magical energy inside it was at about the same level as when he'd boarded the train, and he could feel Ley Line energy continuously flowing into it from outside.
That Ley Line energy came from the hair ornament Dan Lei had made using Nezuko's hair. It was being absorbed and supplied at exactly the rate and quantity he'd set.
To be honest, Dan Lei couldn't tell if he'd fallen asleep and was dreaming that he'd entered the Holy Grail's inner space, or if the Holy Grail had protected his mind and pulled him inside as soon as he was affected.
But one thing was certain: Dan Lei seemed to have hit the jackpot. He'd just run into Lower Rank Three, and now, less than two days later, he'd encountered Lower Rank One.
Of course, to anyone else, running into two Lower Rank demons in two days would be a case of one disaster following another.
Dan Lei hesitated. He wasn't sure whether he should kill himself this time.
If he wasn't dreaming, and he killed himself while his soul was inside the Holy Grail, it was hard to say whether that would damage his soul. The power of Abundance definitely wouldn't protect the soul. Otherwise, Xianzhou natives wouldn't suffer from mara-struck.
So Dan Lei didn't dare take the risk.
As for contacting Kojiro Sasaki through telepathy from the Holy Grail Space, Dan Lei had already tried that on the first night after summoning him.
It was only prudent to guard against others. Even though he was Dan Lei's Heroic Spirit, Dan Lei still wanted to test him.
The point of the test was to see if Kojiro Sasaki knew about Dan Lei's most important treasure: the Holy Grail, which had been altered by an Aeon.
No matter how much Dan Lei tried to reach him telepathically, Kojiro Sasaki didn't respond. After Dan Lei came out, Kojiro Sasaki's reaction suggested he really hadn't received the messages.
Dan Lei had also asked him about the Holy Grail afterward. Kojiro Sasaki had looked baffled and said he didn't know anything about a Holy Grail. He had answered the summons simply because he'd sensed it.
Dan Lei thought that sounded exactly like Kojiro Sasaki. He was, after all, a Servant who could be summoned with nothing but a temple gate.
Besides, in more than a year, Dan Lei had never once dreamed about Kojiro Sasaki. Clearly, there was some kind of firewall between Kojiro Sasaki's mind and his.
As for what that firewall was, Dan Lei figured it was either the Holy Grail or the Memory Destiny.
At that thought, Dan Lei suddenly realized something.
That was right. He'd been glanced at by the Aeon of Memory, and had awakened the Memory Destiny long ago. His starting level had been high, too.
There was a huge difference in the starting treatment on the path between those who walked a Destiny without being glanced at by an Aeon and those who had been glanced at.
The former could only absorb more Imaginary Energy from their Destiny by understanding it step by step. The latter were like people who'd had knowledge poured straight into their minds. They weren't Emanators, but from the outset they could draw considerable energy from their Destiny. It was practically a leap to the top.
If a Pathstrider was already walking that Destiny when an Aeon glanced at them, the Aeon's glance would instantly deepen their understanding of it, and the power they gained from it would surge.
The Memory Destiny primarily dealt with concepts like the mind and soul.
So Dan Lei thought he could try using the power of the Memory Destiny. Even if he couldn't break Enmu's hypnotism, he should at least be able to tell whether he was awake or asleep.
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