Three ranks in one leap

Perhaps the Demon Slayer Corps had taken Xia Xi's message, delivered by his Kasugai Crow, to heart.

Or perhaps he had simply been lucky.

On his way to the next recommended instructor, Xia Xi picked up three more demon-slaying missions at intervals.

Compared with the demon with hands growing out of its head, these three demons were indeed somewhat stronger.

Their stats were mostly above 60.

One of them even had a stat of 87, a new high, along with a rather impressive Blood Demon Art.

It could swallow huge amounts of air, then fire off successive invisible attacks like cannonballs.

High damage, short cooldown, and no visible trajectory.

An ordinary swordsman would struggle even to get close, let alone kill it.

After all, demons could regenerate severed limbs.

Swordsmen, meanwhile, were only ordinary humans. Even a minor injury would take a month or so to heal.

And this demon had both high stats and a rather good skill set.

Even Xia Xi had needed quite some effort to deal with it.

Of course, the rewards for eliminating them were substantial.

Not only had they added a hefty sum to his savings in the central bank, they had also pushed his Wind Breathing experience bar past the halfway mark.

And a few days later, a Kasugai Crow brought more good news.

He had been promoted.

At the time, he was training under the Stone Breathing Cultivator, swinging a hammer and furiously pounding iron.

A jet-black Kasugai Crow flew through the woods and landed precisely on the eaves overlooking the courtyard.

It was not Little White, the crow Xia Xi knew best.

Its human speech was impeccable, every syllable crisp, clear, and forceful.

"Mizunoto-ranked member, Kurumazuka Natsumi, receive your orders!"

"Verification by Kakushi members has confirmed that you have eliminated twenty-seven demons over the past several months, including a demon possessing a Blood Demon Art that you defeated alongside other members during the Final Selection."

"Five days ago, you also single-handedly defeated a demon possessing a Blood Demon Art that had killed multiple Corps members."

"Your achievements are outstanding, your contributions exceptional."

"Therefore, Oyakata-sama Kagaya Ubuyashiki has issued this special order: Kurumazuka Natsumi shall receive an exceptional promotion in Corps rank, advancing directly from [Mizunoto] to [Kanoto]!"

"May you remain diligent and achieve further distinction!"

"Your new credentials and uniform will be delivered by a subsequent [Kakushi] unit. That is all!"

After speaking, it gave Xia Xi a remarkably human nod before flapping its wings and flying off into the sky.

My faction rank went up?

Three ranks in one go, too.

Over the past few days, Xia Xi had gained some understanding of the Demon Slayer Corps' promotion rules.

Normally, ordinary members advanced one rank at a time. They not only had to accumulate achievements, but also needed higher-ranking swordsmen to acknowledge their strength and verify their accomplishments.

Simply put, they had to kill enough demons.

And other swordsmen present had to cooperate in confirming that nothing had been exaggerated or fabricated.

Besides, promotions almost always came one rank at a time.

Xia Xi's promotion clearly had not followed the normal procedure.

"It seems the Master values you more than I thought." The speaker was a composed, stern-faced man.

[Matsuyama Daimon (Power level: 137)] Stone Breathing LV.5

Even among all the Cultivators, practitioners of Stone Breathing were exceedingly rare.

He was also a retired Kinoe-ranked swordsman who had lost a limb.

Tall and powerful-that was the first impression he gave.

Even through his loose robes, the contours of his well-developed muscles were visible.

As was his prosthetic right leg, made of hardwood and iron components.

Compared with kindly old men like Kazami Kōgi and Sakonji Urokodaki, Matsuyama was much younger, around thirty or forty and still in his prime.

Unfortunately, he had suffered grievous injuries while fighting a Lower Rank of the Twelve Kizuki.

Although he had survived, his body could no longer support fighting on the front lines after the amputation.

So he had chosen to become a Cultivator.

From a different position, he continued the fight against those demons.

"Of course," Xia Xi said. "We're an armed organization that kills demons, after all. Promoting the capable and demoting the weak is the most basic judgment a leader needs to make."

"It means the boss appreciates my mob-clearing efficiency."

Matsuyama nodded.

His expression barely changed, as though Xia Xi had merely told him he had finished chopping the firewood.

"Confidence is a good thing. Now, wind boy, keep hammering."

He pointed at the hammer in Xia Xi's hand and the anvil in front of him.

A dark-red iron ingot still radiating intense heat rested on it.

Matsuyama Daimon's training methods were rather unusual.

They were neither Kazami's traditional swordsmanship training nor Urokodaki's approach of teaching a method and leaving the student to grasp it himself.

Instead, he had Xia Xi undergo grueling exercises that seemed tedious and highly repetitive.

On the first day he agreed to train Xia Xi, he had him brace his back against a pillar and assume the most basic horse stance.

Then he had him breathe to his rhythm.

This was meant to let Xia Xi feel the connection between the soles of his feet and the earth, to converse with the ground beneath him.

He was to let his breath flow through his lungs in a state of stillness, allowing his awareness and strength to sink like roots into his waist, his legs, and his heels.

He was to imagine that he was growing out of the ground.

It was an abstract teaching method, yet a simple one.

And he held that horse stance for eight hours.

After fast-forwarding through the training animation, Xia Xi was stiff all over, his back and waist aching.

He did not complain about Matsuyama's training methods.

Because the moment he assumed the horse stance, Matsuyama took the same stance beside him.

The man believed in leading by example.

"Wind flows around obstacles, water seeps through them. Only repeated tempering can forge the hardness of mountain rock."

"Once you grasp that feeling, you will naturally understand the essence of Stone Breathing."

Whatever Matsuyama had Xia Xi do, he did himself as well.

With things like that, what could Xia Xi possibly say?

He could only watch the [Stone Breathing] training progress slowly climb as he held the horse stance day after day.

After imparting this philosophy to him.

Matsuyama soon began the second stage of training.

Matsuyama called it [Dialogue with the mountains].

He brought Xia Xi to the foot of a cliff behind the town.

He tapped the cliff face with his wooden prosthetic leg.

And told Xia Xi to try pushing it using every method he could.

Never mind Xia Xi, whose stats had yet to reach 100-even stats in the thousands would not let someone move this cliff.

After all, anyone who could move it would not be far from toppling the entire mountain.

Looking skeptical, Xia Xi gave it a try.

He tried every technique he could, wringing out every last bit of stamina and potential.

He wondered whether this cliff possessed some special property.

Just as Nichirin Blades changed color, perhaps this mountain would automatically report measurements like "Power level: 18,000" or "Combat energy: third stage" according to the force he exerted.

But the mountain was only an ordinary mountain.

Naturally, Xia Xi could not move it.

Then Matsuyama stood beside him and demonstrated.

His muscles bulged, loose stones scattered beneath his feet, and the mountain did not budge.

But when Xia Xi exerted himself, the opposing force made his feet scrape broad trails across the ground.

Matsuyama's feet, in contrast, seemed welded to the earth.

Although he kept exerting force against the mountainside, he maintained a delicate balance with it.

"What are you pushing?"

"I'm not asking you to wrestle with the mountain. It's about breathing, about becoming part of it."

Xia Xi tried to learn, holding his pushing stance as he imitated Matsuyama's breathing, which had become incredibly long and deep.

The progress bar began moving again.

Along with the sweat streaming down and Xia Xi's taut muscles, the essence of Stone Breathing flowed into the system panel, slowly but steadily, bit by bit.

After fast-forwarding through several days of arduous training.

Crack.

Under Xia Xi's feet, the ground endured hours of him standing with all his strength, subjected to relentless pressure directed downward and backward.

The section originally joined to the mountainside cracked beneath his feet.

And so, his Stone Breathing training entered its third stage.

The very stage Xia Xi was practicing now.

Swinging a hammer and forging iron.

(Matsuyama Daimon)