Security at the Eternal Paradise Cult's headquarters was several times tighter than at any stronghold the Demon Slayer Corps had encountered before.
Almost every hundred meters, warrior monks armed with naginatas patrolled back and forth, their eyes burning with fanaticism. They were not demons, but their steps were steady and their breathing deep and sustained. They had clearly undergone extremely rigorous training, and their fighting prowess far exceeded that of ordinary samurai.
Beyond these visible guards, several lesser demons transformed by Doma lurked beneath the temple's eaves, in the shadows of trees, and behind ornamental rock formations. Like loyal, bloodthirsty hounds, they used their keen demonic senses to monitor every corner of the vast temple.
For ordinary Demon Slayer Corps members, even approaching this temple, let alone infiltrating it, could mean being discovered in an instant, then torn to pieces by swarming guards and demons.
For this elite hunting squad led by Uesugi Sasuke, however, it was not an impossible task.
Under the terrifying perceptiveness of the Mangekyō Sharingan, every guard's position, the patterns in which patrol routes crossed, and the blind spots in the hidden demons' senses appeared in Sasuke's mind as clearly as the lines on his palm, forming an absolutely precise, constantly updating map.
He walked at the head of the group, each step landing precisely within the brief gaps as guards crossed paths during their rotations, each turn taking him just beyond some demon's sensory range in the shadows. He moved without a sound, as though he were strolling through his own empty courtyard rather than passing through a heavily guarded enemy camp.
Shinobu Kocho, Kanao, and Inosuke followed close behind. They needed neither to think nor to observe. Simply copying Sasuke's every footstep allowed them to move unhindered through this impregnable "fortress" like phantoms.
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