The nine Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps had been ordered to head to Lantian City to deal with Kaneda Yūichirō. As they passed a village, they caught an unusually strong scent of blood nearby and entered the settlement, which lay shrouded in deathly silence. "What happened here?"
"So many bodies?!!"
The air reeked of blood. Hundreds of corpses lay strewn before them, their blood staining the earth crimson, while Matsushita Akihiko stood in their midst. Even the Hashira, accustomed as they were to seeing the dead, could not help blanching.
Whether newly turned demons or vicious ones that had lived for centuries, demons only hunted humans for pleasure or to feed. They generally did not slaughter humans indiscriminately without cause, because doing so would draw the hostility of large numbers of powerful demon slayers and those in power.
The nobles and officials who disregarded human life could tolerate demons attacking and devouring commoners in their territories, but that did not mean they were truly helpless against demons. They simply considered the cost too high. Rather than expend vast amounts of manpower and resources hunting demons, they preferred to seize opportunities to expand outward. After all, the dead were merely lowly peasants. As long as the demons did not provoke them personally, that was enough.
As technology had flourished over the years, swords had been replaced by guns and massive cannons, while horses had given way to aircraft, tanks, and enormous warships. Although demons possessed immortal bodies, that did not mean they could withstand the bewildering variety of advanced technological weapons.
A hundred-man modern military unit could capture any demon outside the Twelve Kizuki. As for the powerful Twelve Kizuki and Muzan Kibutsuji, dozens or even hundreds of bombers and armored tanks pounding an area in successive waves would be