从鬼灭开始,成就最强魔刀! 第17章

Tanjiro and Inosuke shifted and lunged inside the room, exchanging blows hand-to-hand.

They continuously sparred in physical combat.

However, Tanjiro held an absolute advantage. Strengthened by several instances of nourishment, his physical power was simply incomparable to Inosuke's.

"You bastard... you're so strong!"

Inosuke's hands went numb, and he couldn't help but blurt out.

Meanwhile, Tanjiro still calmly requested, "Can we stop now? Listen to me..."

Yet Inosuke refused to show weakness or make peace without a second thought. "No! I won't listen! I'm definitely going to beat you, bastard!"

With that, he rushed forward to continue the fierce battle, relying on his flexible body to fight.

Faced with this for the first time, Tanjiro even felt as though he wasn't fighting a human, but rather struggling against a wild beast!

Lin Fan also offered a timely reminder.

"Just knock him out. If this keeps going, it'll never end."

Tanjiro hesitated for a moment.

"Would that really be okay?"

Yet facing Inosuke's relentless attacks and having no better alternatives, he was forced to adopt Lin Fan's suggestion.

"Alright then, I suppose we have no choice." After speaking, facing the incoming Inosuke,

Tanjiro seized the right moment, quickly crouching down to sweep his leg. Seeing this, Inosuke immediately leaped up to dodge.

And right at that moment, Tanjiro had already turned around and stood up.

Yet Inosuke was still airborne.

Tanjiro extended both hands, and Inosuke likewise raised his hands to block as their four palms met.

Lin Fan also teased in his mind.

"Use a headbutt on him, Tanjiro."

Hearing this, Tanjiro used a headbutt without the slightest hesitation. Inosuke refused to be outdone and thrust his head forward to clash as well.

To this, Lin Fan could only say that his courage was admirable; the last person who dared to compare headbutts with Tanjiro already had grass growing over their grave.

The result had no suspense either.

With a loud thud,

the two parted.

Inosuke's body rocked unsteadily, even his boar head dropped off, and fresh blood trickled down his delicate forehead.

At that moment, he only felt a splitting headache, and even his vision blurred slightly.

In contrast, Tanjiro.

Not to say he was completely uninjured, but he was utterly fine. He just stood there and said righteously, "Can you calm down now?!"

Yet Inosuke remained stubborn.

"No, I must defeat you, bastard! Give me another headbutt and let's see, bring it on!"

Yet right now, his entire body was limp.

Only his mouth was still tough!

Tanjiro stared straight at the blood flowing from his forehead and couldn't help worrying, "Are you alright? Should you sit down and let me take a look?"

Yet Inosuke cared nothing for his own body or the concern of others. Intent only on continuing the fight, he said in a hoarse voice,

"Broad-forehead, stop talking nonsense. Let me tell you my name—I am Inosuke Hashibira, remember that! Now give me a headbutt..."

Before he could finish his sentence,

his entire body suddenly froze and stopped.

Under Tanjiro's gaze, he rolled his eyes, fell straight backward onto the ground, twitching all over and foaming at the mouth.

Just at that moment,

in the hallway outside, Zenitsu happened to witness the whole thing and looked even more deranged. "Ah?! Tanjiro, did you kill that guy?"

Hearing this, Tanjiro turned his head.

He saw Zenitsu along with a boy wearing a yellow haori standing beside him. "It's not like that, Zenitsu. I just knocked him out."

"Really?"

Zenitsu cautiously stepped forward, glanced at the person who was still twitching, and, confirming he wasn't dead, spoke softly.

"This guy is also from the Demon Slayer Corps, just hot-headed. He was the first to arrive and the first to leave—I never thought I'd run into him here."

Tanjiro had anticipated this long ago, seeing as Inosuke was holding two Nichirin Blades.

"Alright, Zenitsu.

The demon here has already been slain. Let's first bury the people who died here."

"Eh? You already killed that demon? I knew you were the most reliable!"

Zenitsu entirely snapped out of his terrified expression and grew extremely excited instead.

Tanjiro didn't pay much attention to it, though.

Together, the two carried the unconscious Inosuke and the remaining corpses of the dead.

Along with the sole survivor, they left the mansion and dug pits nearby to bury them on the spot.

I do not know how much time had passed.

When Inosuke woke up and sat up, he saw several newly made graves before him, with Tanjiro and the others standing nearby.

Without a single moment of preamble, he got up and rushed straight toward Tanjiro.

"Come and fight me to the death!"

When he reached them, he pointed at Tanjiro and demanded,

"What are you guys doing?!"

Faced with the questioning, Tanjiro merely turned his head and explained cordially,

"Burying the dead. You should join us too, though you needn't push yourself if your injuries hurt too much."

Seeming to feel looked down upon, Inosuke's fiery temper flared instantly. He even threw the thought of fighting Tanjiro to the back of his mind as he roared angrily,

"Ha? Don't underestimate me! I'll bury a hundred people for you to see!"

Zenitsu watched with astonishment written all over his face.

Does this guy have a screw loose?

The few of them joined forces to dig pits and bury the corpses.

During this time, however, Lin Fan was also communicating with Tanjiro.

"Your body, Tanjiro, has now surpassed the limits of ordinary humans thanks to my nourishment. Ordinary training is of little use to you anymore."

Tanjiro, who was busy digging the pit, hurriedly and earnestly asked, "Then how should I grow stronger next? Do I keep hunting man-eating demons?"

Hearing this, though Lin Fan very much wanted to say yes,

he changed his tune instead.

"While I'm glad you have such resolve for revenge, blind slaughtering can only improve your physical body, whereas swordsmanship and breathing styles are the keys to your strength."

"Swordsmanship and breathing styles? Please tell me, Ashura Maru. I beg of you."

Tanjiro requested with humble reverence.

"Very well."

Lin Fan nodded slightly and then began to recount his summary of breathing styles from the anime he had watched in the past.

"Tanjiro, the breathing style you've mastered is merely something you can use for now. Next, you need to maintain the operation of the breathing style 24 hours a day.

The longer you maintain the breathing style, the stronger your baseline physical strength will become!"

"All day long?!"

Tanjiro drew in a sharp breath.

Lin Fan paused for a moment before continuing, "This is called Constant Breathing, but what I'm about to say next is the crucial part."

Hearing this, Tanjiro listened intently, terrified of missing a single word.

"When you master a breathing style to a certain extent, the corresponding breathing will produce a Demon Slayer Mark. Once the Mark is awakened, your strength will skyrocket, but it will also cause immense damage to your body.

Those who awaken it later in life cannot live past the age of twenty-five."

If maintaining Total Concentration Breathing all day long had merely shocked him, then learning that awakening the Demon Slayer Mark meant not living past twenty-five terrified him.

"Then won't I also die young?"

As soon as those words fell,

he was snapped at irritably by Lin Fan, "Don't interrupt me!"

"Ah, sorry, I got a little too excited just now." Tanjiro hurriedly apologized for his previous behavior and continued to listen attentively.

Having been interrupted, Lin Fan gathered his thoughts before continuing, "However, you will be fine. I can heal the damage caused by awakening the Demon Slayer Mark."

Hearing this, Tanjiro finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Next, Lin Fan said with utmost seriousness.

"As for the final stage of breathing styles, it is known as the supreme realm called the Transparent World. Once opened, you will gain unparalleled evasion and predictive abilities.

In your eyes, enemies will become transparent, and all their weaknesses will be crystal clear. Beyond that, you can even conceal your own fighting spirit.

Throughout history, those capable of opening the Transparent World have been few and far between."

Learning for the first time that breathing styles were divided into so many stages, Tanjiro felt a sense of novelty mixed with self-doubt.

Could he really open the Demon Slayer Mark and the Transparent World?

Seemingly sensing Tanjiro's mood, Lin Fan suddenly spoke in a slightly teasing tone.

"You don't have to be so depressed. Have some confidence—after all, your father once opened the Transparent World."

"What?!"

Tanjiro was completely stunned. No matter what, he never expected that his own father had actually opened the Transparent World.

Yet recalling his father's figure, he felt a sense of relief wash over him, alongside memories of his father's final injunctions.

Lin Fan showed no intention of stopping and continued to guide him, "And didn't you want to know about Yoriichi Tsugikuni?"

"Can you really tell me?"

Tanjiro appeared extremely curious as to why Muzan feared that person so intensely, to the point where even a mere resemblance terrified him to such a degree.

"It's fine to tell you."

Lin Fan began to recount calmly and steadily.

"Yoriichi Tsugikuni lived roughly three to four hundred years ago. He can be called the strongest person of all time! He was the creator of Sun Breathing and the source of all breathing styles.

Back then, he completed his swordsmanship in a mere instant, hacking Muzan to the brink of death. However, right at the moment he was about to kill him,

Muzan split himself into over eighteen hundred pieces and scattered to flee. Yet Yoriichi Tsugikuni instantly slashed apart more than fifteen hundred of those pieces, though Muzan ultimately still managed to escape.

Ever since then, he went into hiding and never appeared again. It was only after Yoriichi Tsugikuni's death that Muzan dared to show his face anew."

Although it was merely a simple narration and explanation, Tanjiro could still feel the might belonging to Yoriichi Tsugikuni from those sparse words!

"However, even though Yoriichi Tsugikuni has died, his Sun Breathing was passed down. It was precisely your ancestors who inherited Sun Breathing back then."

Saying this,