Muzan's attention

"Kill him, now! He's definitely not Number Four!"

As the demons wavered in shock and suspicion, their leader shouted at the others.

The other demons lunged at Ye Chen, but he ducked and swung his long blade hard, instantly severing two demons' heads. He then rolled, using the Bushido Style's special ability to evade two more demons' attacks, before spinning with his blade and cutting both of them down as well.

"Die, you bastard!"

The instant he cut down those two demons, Oni Boss had somehow appeared behind him and lashed out at Ye Chen with his long claws.

Ye Chen's expression remained unchanged. He bent at the waist and drew in a sharp breath. In his perception, the demon's movements seemed to play out in slow motion. Then he stepped forward.

Netherworld Breathing, First Form: Cherry Blossom Spirit Blade Slash!!

Ye Chen spun twice as he surged forward, appearing behind the demon in the next instant. As he drew his blade back slightly, the demon behind him fell to the ground in several chunks of mangled flesh.

"I was just experimenting to see whether I could turn the Bushido Style's hunting arts from Monster Hunter into Breathing Style techniques. Looks like it worked."

Looking at his handiwork, Ye Chen felt a surge of pride. He had finally figured out this whole Breathing Style business.

Yes, he had already settled on a name for his Breathing Style. Since Xeno'jiiva's netherworld fire was his trump card, he might as well call it Netherworld Breathing.

[Ding! Successfully created a Breathing Style. Combat power increased to B.]

Awesome! Seeing the notification, Ye Chen understood. Although his Breathing Style currently had only one technique, creating even one technique made it a complete Breathing Style. After all, Zenitsu Agatsuma in the original story only knew Thunder Breathing's First Form, and no one said his Breathing Style was incomplete.

A demon behind him tried to escape, but a Boomerang suddenly flew over and severed its head. Xiao Hua, hidden in the shadows, was handling the cleanup.

"I've got B-rank combat power now, but there are fewer and fewer things that can boost it. Getting stronger from here won't be easy..."

Thinking about that gave Ye Chen a headache. With B-rank combat power in this world, probably no one except Muzan could reliably overpower him. Kokushibo might be able to as well, but if Ye Chen wanted to run, Kokushibo probably couldn't stop him.

But Muzan was precisely what worried him! The bastard was practically everywhere and could even share other demons' vision, making him a real problem. That was why Ye Chen had disguised himself as this "Number Four" to attack these demons. As for the original "Number Four," he had long since ambushed and killed him, all to keep that crafty bastard Muzan from learning what he looked like.

"Whatever. As long as I have enough exchange points, none of this will be a problem."

Ye Chen shook his head. With enough exchange points, killing Muzan would only be a matter of time. For now, the main thing was:

Play it safe, build up my strength, and don't get cocky!

"All right, I'll stay in this town for two days, then move on to the next place to farm demons. I can't stay anywhere too long, or I'm bound to draw attention."

Ye Chen swung his arm and headed toward the town center with Xiao Hua. Naturally, he would find an inn to rest first. Tomorrow morning, he would have to work as a meat vendor to earn some money for his living expenses in town, then enjoy spending some of it before farming demons again at night. Ah, life as a powerful fighter was just so dull and tedious.

Time passed quickly, and a month had already gone by. In an otherwise deserted cottage stood a beautiful woman. Her face was somewhat pale, her features alluring yet delicate, and her figure curvaceous beneath her kimono. There was a trace of anger in her eyes, along with something inscrutable.

"Who could it be? Who killed so many demons this past month? How did my shared vision fail to uncover even a single clue?"

The woman narrowed his eyes slightly, feeling an ominous premonition. A man beside him suddenly asked:

"Lord Muzan, could it be someone from the Demon Slayer Corps?"

Indeed, the beautiful woman before him was the legendary Demon Progenitor, Muzan Kibutsuji. Muzan had evidently transformed himself into a woman. The one speaking to him was also a demon, with six eyes and a long blade at his waist. Had Ye Chen seen him, he would certainly have recognized Muzan's strongest subordinate: Upper Rank One, Kokushibo.

"Probably not. I've been using shared vision to search for this person these past few days. His movements are unpredictable, but there is one common thread: he never lets demons discover his whereabouts. He usually kills them in a single strike. Even when he can't, he disguises himself as someone else, and his methods are exceedingly strange. The only definite clue is that the blade in his hand isn't a Nichirin Blade."

Muzan played with his lustrous hair as he spoke at length in an unhurried voice. Then his pupils suddenly contracted as he recalled someone he had encountered in a town about a month and a half earlier. The blade that person had carried seemed remarkably similar to the one he had seen through shared vision. That person had also given him an extremely strange feeling at the time.

"Unfortunately, I only saw him from behind..." Muzan bit his red lip in regret. Otherwise, he would have known what that person looked like.

"Lord Muzan, would you like me to dispose of him?" Seeing Muzan's reaction, Kokushibo slowly rose, preparing to set out and capture the person who had been slaughtering demons everywhere.

"No. Leave this to those lazy, gluttonous Lower Ranks."

Muzan shook his head, then continued, "I know perfectly well that these Lower Ranks enjoy killing people, but the moment they encounter a Hashira from the Demon Slayer Corps, they're quick to flee. And Byōga, Lower Rank Three, was clearly not far from one of the places where this person was hunting demons, yet did nothing and ran away."

"Send orders to Lower Rank Three, Lower Rank Four, and Lower Rank Six. From what I can deduce, their locations shouldn't be far from this person's next target. Have them hunt him down with everything they have. If three Lower Ranks can't complete a task like this within half a month, they have no reason to remain alive."

"Understood." Hearing Muzan's decision, Kokushibo nodded in understanding, then found a place to sit quietly.

[Ding! Kill 500 demons completed. Obtained the Professional Demon Slayer title and 2,000 exchange points.]

[Ding! Kill 20 Intermediate Demons completed. Reward: 2,000 exchange points.]

[Quests refreshed.]

All that had happened several days earlier. Ye Chen kept moving from town to town, farming demons at quite a brisk pace. Although he often went without encountering any along the way, spending two days in a large town would let him kill around a hundred. They were much harder to find in mountainous areas and small villages, but Ye Chen wasn't worried. He had the ultimate demon-finding tool: the Farseeing Potion!

The Farseeing Potion from Monster Hunter could reveal monsters' locations. A bottle cost 25 exchange points, and drinking it granted a certain degree of enhanced vision for ten seconds. Of course, despite its name, it could actually only detect things within roughly twenty li. Whenever Ye Chen couldn't find demons, he used this Farseeing Potion to locate them. Otherwise, he could never have farmed them so quickly.

Looking at his exchange points, which had climbed to 6,231, Ye Chen sighed. Four thousand had come from quests, while the rest had been earned by farming demons. The life of a hardcore grinder really was dull and tedious-grinding, grinding, grinding every day. After a month, he was finding it a little hard to bear, but there was nothing for it. Those exchange points were simply too tempting. Still, seeing the refreshed quests made him ache at the thought of all the grinding ahead.

Kill a total of 100 Intermediate Demons. Difficulty: B. Reward: 3,000 exchange points. Current progress: (23/100).

Kill a total of 3,000 demons. Difficulty: B. Reward: Demon Slayer Master Title and 3,000 exchange points. Current progress: (576/3000).

"What a rip-off!" Looking at the quests, Ye Chen tipped his head back and let out a long sigh. These quests were an absolute scam. The requirement for that damned title had shot up from five hundred to three thousand. Were they trying to work him to death?