The Terror of Being Unable to Regenerate-Throughout Heaven and Earth, I Alone Reign Supreme!

"Reattach! Damn it, reattach!"

On the snow-covered ground, the demon's head writhed frantically, commanding its severed chunks of flesh to draw toward its torso.

As demons, so long as their necks weren't severed by a Nichirin Blade and they weren't exposed to sunlight, they could recover in seconds even after being hacked to pieces. This was the privilege of a superior life-form, granted to them by the Demon Progenitor.

But today, that ironclad rule had been broken.

The moment two severed pieces of muscle touched, no new flesh sprouted to knit them together. Instead, they hissed and corroded as though someone had poured sulfuric acid over them.

The cells along the cuts had died completely. No, it wasn't just the cells. To its horror, the demon realized that the blow had sliced away part of its very soul.

It was a curse from a higher dimension, an attack that crushed everything beneath it.

"You... what the hell are you?!" The demon stared at the approaching Yaha, an unmistakable sob creeping into its voice. In its fifty years of life, it had eaten dozens of humans, yet it had never encountered a monster that could defy the rules of regeneration.

Yaha walked up to the demon's head and stopped.

The black curse markings on his face looked even more sinister beneath the moonlight. He gazed down at the demon, his eyes holding no anger, only pure arrogance.

"Did I give you permission to look up at me?"

Thud!

Yaha raised his foot and stomped hard on the demon's face.

The tremendous force drove its head straight into the frozen earth. The crack of its nasal bone was clearly audible.

"Urgh!" The demon let out a muffled scream.

With both hands in his pockets, Yaha slowly ground his foot down.

"Weren't you acting tough a moment ago? Keep screaming. Let me hear how an inferior creature like you wails."

Under Yaha's grinding foot, the demon's skull cracked, unable to bear the pressure. It tried to retaliate with its Blood Demon Art, but beneath that terrifying oppressive presence, the power within it fell utterly still, like a mouse facing a cat.

He was too strong.

It had felt something like this only once, when it caught a distant glimpse of an Upper Rank. No, the aura of the boy before it was even more evil, more pure than an Upper Rank's!

"Spare... spare me..." Its eyes bulged under the pressure, and the demon finally broke down and begged for mercy.

"Boring."

Yaha gave a cold scoff and suddenly pressed down harder.

Pop!

It was like crushing a rotten watermelon. The demon's head burst apart, splattering red and white across the ground. Its headless chunks of flesh twitched a few times in the snow, then crumbled into drifting ash amid excruciating pain and incomprehensible despair.

[Ding! Ordinary demon killed. Portrayal progress increased by 1%. Current portrayal progress: 11%.]

[Passive skill acquired: Sukuna's Monstrous Strength (Beginner).]

The system's notifications rang in his mind. The crimson gradually faded from Yaha's eyes, and the black markings on his face receded into his body like an ebbing tide, vanishing without a trace.

Thump.

Yaha's legs gave out, and he landed on his backside in the snow.

Although he had integrated the template, unleashing that much power so suddenly through a ten-year-old body still left him utterly drained.

"Yaha!"

Giyu finally snapped out of his daze. He scrambled over and threw his arms around Yaha, smearing tears and snot all over him.

"Are you okay? What was that just now? You scared me to death!"

Yaha pushed at Giyu's face in disgust. "Wipe your nose. You're embarrassing yourself, stone-faced big brother."

Despite his sharp tongue, Yaha still reached out and patted Giyu's back. Then he turned toward Tsutako, who lay in a pool of blood.

Although Tsutako was badly injured, she had escaped any fatal wounds. She had already lost consciousness.

"We need to stop the bleeding..."

Whoosh!

Just as Yaha was about to rise, a figure wearing a Tengu Mask appeared in the courtyard like a phantom. The newcomer wore a light-blue haori patterned with waves and held an azure Nichirin Blade.

The Water Hashira, Sakonji Urokodaki.

After receiving a message from a Kasugai Crow, he had raced over to help. But when he took in the scene in the courtyard, his grip on his blade suddenly tightened.

There was no demon.

Only ash scattered across the ground, still fading away.

But what truly made Sakonji Urokodaki draw a sharp breath was the evidence of the battle around him.

The hard, frozen ground, the thick tree trunks, the collapsed roof beams... everything in that area had been sliced into impeccably even grids. The cuts were so smooth that not even the finest swordsman could have made them.

There was no lingering moisture or lightning in the air to indicate that a Breathing Style had been used.

Only a terrifying residual presence remained, making his heart quail as though it could cleave apart his very soul.

Behind his mask, Sakonji Urokodaki stared fixedly at Yaha, who sat in the snow. His instincts told him that what had happened here had gone far beyond anything ordinary.

"Child..." Urokodaki sheathed his blade, his voice low. "Who killed the demon here?"

Yaha yawned, leaned lazily against a wooden post, and pointed at the ash on the ground.

"It tripped and fell apart."

Sakonji Urokodaki: "..."

Looking at the badly injured girl and the two boys who had lost their home, Urokodaki sighed, stepped forward, and picked Tsutako up.

"Come with me. It isn't safe here anymore."

Yaha stood, brushed the snow off his backside, and took Giyu's hand as he followed. He knew the gears of the plot had begun to turn.

Two years later. Mount Sagiri.

Yaha slept soundly on a tree branch while Giyu and Sabito practiced their sword swings with all their might below.

Sabito finally lost his patience. He pointed his wooden sword at Yaha in the tree. "Tomioka Ye Yu! You lazy bastard, get down here! I'm going to beat some sense into you today!"

Yaha rolled over, rubbed his eyes, and curled his lips into a wicked smile. "If you want a beating, just say so. Even without a Breathing Style, I can beat you until you're calling me Daddy."