The Kasugai Crow lay twitching on the courtyard's white sand, covered in black blood, its feathers scattered across the ground.
Its hoarse, agonized voice echoed through the deathly silent courtyard, bringing chilling news-something had happened in Blue Stone Town to the west. Thousands of civilians had been forcibly assimilated by grotesque, dark red flesh.
They had not become lifeless things. They still retained human heartbeats and breathing.
The foul-smelling flesh wrapped around their bodies like vines, turning them into tireless puppets of flesh, half human and half demon.
Yaha glanced at the pool of blackened blood on the ground, then returned his gaze to Kagaya Ubuyashiki.
Kagaya's clouded eyes were unfocused, but his brows were tightly knitted. He covered his mouth and coughed violently twice. A glaring smear of scarlet immediately stained his white handkerchief.
"This is a death trap Muzan Kibutsuji designed specifically for you." Kagaya's voice was terribly weak, yet his words cut straight to the point. "He fears those slashes of yours that can sever the law of regeneration. He doesn't dare send an Upper Rank to face you head-on."
The Hashira in the courtyard held their breath. The air was frighteningly oppressive.
"He is using thousands of living people as shields because he knows the swordsmen of the Demon Slayer Corps would sooner die themselves than turn their blades on civilians." Supported by his daughter, Kagaya faced Yaha directly. "The moment a swordsman strikes, his convictions will crumble completely. Muzan wants to use those thousands of lives to wear you down until you die in Blue Stone Town."
Before he finished speaking, Kyojuro Rengoku took a heavy step forward, his haori snapping in the wind.
"Oyakata-sama!" Rengoku's booming voice rang through the courtyard as he dropped heavily to one knee on the white sand. "No matter how dangerous the road ahead may be, we must never abandon the civilians! I request permission to leave for Blue Stone Town immediately and protect every human being held hostage!"
Kagaya did not respond to Rengoku's request. He simply maintained his somewhat frail stance, using his senses to fix his "gaze" on Yaha.
Conventional Breathing Style sword techniques could never overcome a moral death trap in which they could neither kill nor even touch their opponents. To break through such repulsive rules, they could only rely on the one person who never followed them.
Yaha stood with his hands casually tucked into his trouser pockets, his lips curling into a cold, mocking sneer.
Civilians? Those ants' lives weren't worth even a weed by the roadside to him. He had no interest in traveling that far to babysit a bunch of strangers.
He turned and lifted his foot to step through the courtyard gate.
Just then, a glaring red translucent panel suddenly appeared in his mind.
A mechanical notification rang out in the depths of his mind right on cue.
[High-concentration aggregate of Muzan's Blood detected!] [Killing this target will allow the host's roleplay level to break directly through the 50% threshold!] [Reward: Unlock advanced Absolute Law-Domain Expansion!]
Yaha's raised military boot froze in midair.
The words "Domain Expansion" were reflected deep within his pitch-black pupils. His half-lowered eyelids snapped open, and terrifying scarlet fury and brutality surged in the depths of his eyes.
He knew all too well what [Malevolent Shrine] meant.
It was a true higher-dimensional strike that ignored every defense and stood above the very laws of this world. Once he trapped that coward Muzan inside the unenclosed shrine, a thousand-year-old immortal body would mean nothing. He would instantly be chopped into evenly minced meat!
Yaha slowly lowered his foot and turned around.
An utterly savage grin spread across his pale, handsome face.
"I'll take this fucking job."
With those icy words, Yaha walked straight out without so much as glancing at the stunned Hashira in the courtyard.
At last, a relieved smile appeared on Kagaya's face, covered in the scars of his curse.
The Special Extermination Squad was swiftly assembled.
Kyojuro Rengoku led the team as its main attacker, while the Insect Hashira, Shinobu Kocho, handled toxins along the route and medical treatment. Yaha served as the team's ultimate "insurance." Kagaya knew perfectly well that only this black-clad youth could truly cut this calamity short.
After leaving headquarters, the three raced west along the steep mountain paths.
The biting wind roared constantly in their ears.
The atmosphere during their journey was bizarre in the extreme. Kyojuro Rengoku maintained his boundless energy throughout. From somewhere, he produced two roasted sweet potatoes wrapped in oiled paper, and their rich, sweet aroma quickly spread through the cold air.
"Young Yaha!" Rengoku laughed as he offered him a piping-hot sweet potato, his voice full of vigor. "You need a full stomach to have the strength for the battle ahead!"
Yaha turned his head aside with undisguised disgust.
He extended a long index finger, pressed it against the steaming sweet potato, and mercilessly pushed it away.
"Keep that away from me, you stupid owl." Yaha's voice was cold enough to shed ice.
Rengoku merely laughed, utterly unbothered, and took an enormous bite himself, his eyes shining. "Mm! Delicious!"
Shinobu Kocho leaped lightly through the air from branch to branch, her purple butterfly haori fluttering in the wind. She tilted her head slightly, her gaze drifting toward Yaha.
The suffocating terror of that night in the woods, when this youth had gripped her throat with one hand, still lingered deep in her bones.
"I hear the demons on Spider Mountain died in rather unusual ways." Shinobu Kocho wore her usual gentle smile, but her tone was probing. "The Hidden Corps said the entire mountaintop was sliced flat. I'd really love to know what sort of weapon could leave such a smooth cut."
Yaha simply closed his eyes.
He slowed his breathing and kept his hands in his pockets as he kicked off a tree trunk and leaped, making a thoroughly halfhearted pretense of sleeping. He treated the Insect Hashira beside him as though she were nothing but air.
The smile on Shinobu Kocho's lips stiffened slightly, and she wisely fell silent.
After several hours of grueling forced marching, the three finally reached the outskirts of Blue Stone Town.
The night was so dark that not even a faint glimmer of starlight shone through.
The town ahead had become a hell on earth. An enormous dark red membrane of flesh covered every building like an overturned bowl.
Thick, purplish-red blood vessels covered the membrane's surface. They swelled and contracted in a nauseating rhythm, spewing an unbearably foul cursed aura.
Every surrounding tree had withered and blackened, and the earth had been contaminated into a sticky purplish brown.
Kyojuro Rengoku stopped before the Blue Stone Archway at the town entrance. He clamped a hand around the hilt of his Nichirin Blade. His smile vanished completely, replaced by utter gravity.
Crrrk-
A fissure suddenly opened in the dark red membrane at the town entrance with a teeth-grating sound.
Heavy, dragging footsteps sounded from deep within the fissure. Hundreds of townspeople staggered out.
Their eyes had rolled completely white, and black blood continually seeped from their corners. Dark red, fleshy tissue crawled across their skin.
The revolting flesh resembled crude puppet strings, tightly entwining and controlling their limbs and torsos.
The townspeople gripped rusty farming tools, machetes, and logging axes. Completely stripped of reason, they packed together and blocked the only road into town.
Scorching air rose around Kyojuro Rengoku as Flame Breathing instantly surged through his lungs.
He drew his crimson Nichirin Blade and pushed off hard, becoming a blazing meteor of flame as he charged straight toward the crowd.
A middle-aged man at the front raised his machete and mechanically hacked down at Rengoku's neck.
Rengoku dodged sideways and turned his wrist, preparing to strike the man's arm with the back of his blade and knock him unconscious.
At the very instant the back of the blade was about to connect!
Rengoku's keen ears caught an exceedingly faint sound-a rapid human heartbeat, accompanied by breathing suppressed deep in the throat.
These people hadn't become demons! They were still truly alive!
Veins bulged along Rengoku's arm. He violently twisted his wrist, bringing the red blade and its tremendous force to a dead stop in midair. The enormous backlash of forcibly halting his strike sent a muffled thud through his chest, and his face instantly paled.
The middle-aged man, however, had no thought of retreating. Carried forward by his momentum, he lunged, opened his mouth to reveal sharp teeth assimilated by the flesh, and bit hard into Rengoku's left shoulder.
Blood instantly soaked through his white haori.
Rengoku clenched his teeth without so much as furrowing his brow. He caught the back of the man's neck with his left hand and forced him to the ground, yet never retaliated.
He could not swing his blade. Against these fragile civilians, even a blow from its blunt edge might shatter their internal organs under the control of that grotesque flesh.
A dozen puppet townspeople caught the scent of fresh blood and swarmed him madly. Rusty machetes and hoes rained down in a wild barrage.
Rengoku could only rely on his exceptional footwork to dodge desperately through the crowd. Deep, bloody scratches opened across his shoulders and arms one after another, yet he never brought his blade to bear.
Standing behind him, Shinobu Kocho drew her specially crafted, stinger-shaped Nichirin Blade.
"Leave this to me!" Shinobu Kocho called in a low voice.
She intended to use a minute dose of wisteria poison to paralyze the townspeople's motor nerves.
A purple figure flashed past. Her blade tip precisely pierced one puppet's arm, instantly injecting a tiny dose of poison.
The pierced townsman suddenly let out an agonizing scream!
The dark red flesh attached to him seemed to possess a life of its own. It rapidly devoured the wisteria poison, triggering an extremely violent rejection reaction.
The townsman's body twisted and convulsed in excruciating pain, his bones snapping in a series of sharp cracks.
"Stop! The poison isn't just ineffective-it accelerates the breakdown of their bodies!" Shinobu Kocho's pupils contracted sharply. She immediately withdrew her Nichirin Blade and hastily retreated.
Her fingers paled around the hilt. She did not dare use another drop of poison.
The extermination squad was instantly trapped in the most hopeless of dead ends.
They could not kill them, much less poison them.
The hundreds of townspeople advanced step by step like a tireless tide of monsters, forcing Rengoku and Shinobu Kocho to retreat again and again.
A suffocating sense of oppression filled the air at the town entrance.
An ear-piercing burst of wild laughter suddenly sounded from deep within the dark red membrane. The sound swept along the night wind, steeped in utter malice.
The Special Lower Rank Demon lurking in the shadows was mocking them to its heart's content.
The demon brazenly ridiculed the Demon Slayer Corps swordsmen's laughable mercy and weakness. It was certain these self-proclaimed champions of justice would never dare step over civilian corpses to enter.
Yaha remained at the very back.
His hands were still tucked carelessly into his trouser pockets. He had not even touched the hilt of the Nichirin Blade at his waist.
He watched Rengoku being forced to dodge in desperation ahead of him. He watched Shinobu Kocho hold her poisoned blade without daring to strike. Finally, he listened to the unbearably raucous laughter from deep within the membrane.
Yaha slowly withdrew his hands from his pockets.
He lowered his head slightly, his gaze growing colder by degrees. Along the edges of his pitch-black pupils, scarlet light began to churn savagely like magma on the verge of eruption.
Ancient black Cursed Markings emerged from beneath his collar, slowly crawling up his pale neck to the side of his face.
The temperature around him instantly plunged to freezing.
An icy killing intent that made souls tremble tore through the night sky's deathly silence and engulfed all of Blue Stone Town.
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