The Drawbacks of the Perfect Being (Seeking Follows)

After dealing with the stubborn guy in front of him, Kibutsuji Muzan glanced at the subordinate demon still searching for its body nearby.

"Bang!"

The demon's head instantly exploded, turning into a pile of mangled flesh and blood.

Kibutsuji Muzan turned and walked away directly; to him, anyone who had failed once was trash and had no reason to exist.

An hour after the Demon King had departed, several human figures appeared on the tragic battlefield, their expressions filled with sorrow.

"Lord Mingye..."

"He failed..."

Mingye was the Wind Breathing swordsman who lay on the ground, killed by Kibutsuji Muzan.

The newcomers were scouts for the Ubuyashiki family, not official Demon Slayer Corps swordsmen.

"But it seems the demon died as well."

One of them looked at the exploded flesh and the demon's body before them.

"Though the manner of death is a bit strange..."

"Come look at this!"

One of them, while collecting Mingye's remains, discovered something unusual.

He pointed to the Nichirin Sword held in Mingye's hand, where a few peculiar bloodstains could be seen.

To an outsider, it might look like an accidental smear, but to the Ubuyashiki scouts, this was a unique code used by the Demon Slayer Corps.

Usually, demons would devour the corpses of Demon Slayer Corps members entirely, making it difficult to leave any traces on the bodies.

However, the Nichirin Sword was different; because demons loathed the material used to forge them, they would ignore the blades entirely.

Therefore, the Ubuyashiki patriarch had established that if one were in mortal danger, they could leave specific marks on their Nichirin Sword to relay intelligence.

"The meaning of this mark is..."

The scouts present exchanged glances, their eyes filled with a mix of excitement and fear.

"It's the Demon King!"

"Wind Style: Gale Palm!"

Masahiro circulated his Chakra and struck out with his palm.

Violent wind force erupted from his palm, sending the tall, masked figure in front of him flying several meters away.

It slammed into a nearby tree, snapping the trunk in two.

Yet, the tall figure acted as if nothing had happened, springing up and charging toward Masahiro once again.

"Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!"

Masahiro's expression remained unchanged as he continued to weave hand signs.

Scorching flames spewed forth, forming a massive fireball that instantly surpassed the scale achievable by Flame Breathing.

The high-temperature flames instantly incinerated the tall figure's clothing, revealing the face of Perfect 1.

Although carbon-based lifeforms were fragile in the face of such high heat, Perfect 1 was clearly no ordinary carbon-based lifeform; the charred, ignited skin peeled away at an incredible speed, revealing the fair, already-regenerated skin beneath.

"What a monster."

Masahiro's mouth twitched; this guy, who had always been by Sarutobi's side, possessed vitality and physical strength comparable to a demon.

If it weren't for the fact that he wasn't afraid of the sun and had been eating human food the entire journey, Masahiro would have been shocked if this guy were some kind of super-mutant demon.

His own Chakra was limited, making it difficult to continuously unleash Ninjutsu, so he could only pick up his Nichirin Sword to spar with the guy.

Fortunately, with the enhancement of Chakra, although Masahiro's swordsmanship hadn't improved, he could trade blows with Perfect 1 by relying on superhuman reaction speed and strength.

"Masahiro is improving quite well."

Sarutobi Hiruzen watched Masahiro's combat performance and nodded slightly in approval.

Throughout their journey these past few days, Masahiro had been training diligently, and it was starting to show results.

"And besides..."

"Lord Sarutobi..."

Tsugikuni Yoriichi watched the Ninjutsu Masahiro had unleashed, feeling somewhat moved.

"This power called Chakra is more potent than Breathing."

"If it could be popularized, Breathing would eventually be phased out."

Sarutobi Hiruzen smiled upon hearing this, neither confirming nor denying it; Tsugikuni Yoriichi's vision was beyond doubt.

In this world, the power of Breathing might not be inferior to Chakra, but the versatility of Chakra's application was something Breathing could never hope to match.

Most importantly, Chakra places a smaller burden on the body; even without awakening the Demon Slayer Mark, swordsmen of the Breathing Style rarely live past the age of fifty.

"What a pity..."

"This will escalate the brutality of human warfare."

Tsugikuni Yoriichi also realized that there is a massive gap in efficiency on the battlefield between the use of Ninjutsu and the Breathing Style.

Sarutobi Hiruzen said with profound meaning, "That is not necessarily true."

"After all, the reason for humans killing one another is humanity itself, not anything else."

Sarutobi Hiruzen chuckled inwardly; Tsugikuni Yoriichi did not know that future humans would invent a weapon called a Firearm, the killing efficiency of which would surpass all other weapons.

Compared to the number of people killed by Firearm, the number of people eaten by Demon is merely a drop in the ocean.

Tsugikuni Yoriichi fell silent upon hearing this; he possessed compassion for humanity and life, but he also knew that war was unavoidable, regardless of the methods or weapons used.

Sarutobi Hiruzen turned his gaze toward Perfect 1, Through certain methods of Puppetry and Genjutsu, he had granted it a degree of autonomous combat capability, 'But the drawback is that it remains very clumsy...'

Sarutobi Hiruzen thought to himself, 'It struggles to adapt to more complex combat...'

'And the Perfect Being itself has its own flaws.'

After all, the Perfect Being was transformed from a Demon, retaining some of the properties of a Demon.

Sarutobi Hiruzen discovered that it was difficult for the Perfect Being to improve its physical abilities through ordinary means, such as exercise or eating food.

Of course, unless it was special training like the Breathing Style, or... eating humans.

That's right, just like a Demon, the Perfect Being must eat humans to further evolve; otherwise, it can only maintain its current physical state.

This is perhaps the greatest drawback of the Perfect Being.

'In this regard, it is weaker than the T-Virus...'

'The T-Virus can evolve eight branches in a single second.'

Sarutobi Hiruzen was not surprised, because in the original work, other than overcoming the sun, the Perfect Being had no other advantages over an ordinary Demon.

The current Perfect 1 had physical capabilities slightly stronger than an ordinary Demon, but it could only maintain the status quo.

'Although eating humans could solve this problem.'

Sarutobi Hiruzen shook his head, 'But I still have some bottom lines,'

'I still cannot bring myself to do things that are completely devoid of humanity...'

'Fortunately, I never intended to become a Perfect Being in the first place,'

'Otherwise, it would be very easy to be limited by this so-called "perfection".'

"Rustle, rustle."

Suddenly, a faint sound came from the bushes; although it was extremely subtle, none of the people present were ordinary, They immediately focused their gazes on the bushes to the side, "Who is it!"

"Come out!"

Masahiro held his Nichirin Sword with one hand and a Kunai in the other, full of vigilance.

Although it was daytime and a Demon could not possibly appear at this hour, it was also an era of war, and the danger posed by humans was sometimes even greater than that of a Demon.

"Wait!"

"I have no malicious intent!"

Before long, the person in the bushes could not withstand the gazes that felt like physical pressure, and they rolled out with their hands raised.