"Zheng..."
A crisp, abrupt sound of a pipa echoed through the woods...
The sudden sound of the pipa startled both of them.
Immediately, an antique-style door appeared at Akaza's feet.
The warm yellow light shone on Akaza.
Teiichi's pupils suddenly widened, and all the muscles in his body tensed up at that moment.
This is...
Patches of sunlight filtered through the dense foliage, casting shadows on the doorway.
The instant the sunlight touched the door, a plume of black smoke rose rapidly from the illuminated area.
However, the incomplete sunlight does not diminish the purpose of the door's presence here.
The door suddenly opened.
Without any foothold, Akaza's figure began to fall downwards involuntarily.
suck--!
A frantic gasp came from Teiichi.
At that moment, a large amount of air entered Teiichi's lungs through both his nostrils and mouth, causing Teiichi chest to rise high.
An invisible gale gathered and coiled around Teiichi's lower body and Nichirin Blade.
The next moment.
With a loud bang, Teiichi's figure vanished from the spot in an instant.
Hearing the noise, Akaza quickly snapped out of his daze, a smile spreading across his face.
He had originally prepared himself to die, but now that he could live, he certainly didn't mind.
Whoosh--!
The Nichirin Blade slashed horizontally towards Akaza at an extremely fast speed.
Clang!
Akaza raised his hand to block the incoming Nichirin Blade, then looked at the Demon Slayer in front of him.
"Alright! Teiichi, that's enough for today's battle! Let's continue fighting later!"
Ignoring his words, Teiichi gritted his teeth, his arm muscles bulging, and slashed faster and faster than the last.
Seeing this, Akaza didn't mind.
He clenched his fists and met each of the incoming Nichirin Blade head-on.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!...
In the blink of an eye, the two had collided hundreds of times.
Sparks kept flying between the two of them.
However, none of this helped.
Akaza is like that...
Teiichi's nose...
A little bit...
Slowly, it falls!
Until finally, it fell completely!
The door closed quickly and silently after the Akaza disappeared.
A gentle breeze swept through the silent forest, leaving Teiichi Yi's figure on the battlefield.
Teiichi stood there, holding his Nichirin Blade, his eyes wide open, heavy breathing coming from Teiichi mouth.
Anger and frustration filled Teiichi's heart.
All the hard work of the night, and the harvest was almost ready, suddenly came to naught.
No one could be completely unaffected, right?
Teiichi suddenly closed his eyes and tried to calm himself down by taking deep breaths.
Inhale! Exhale!
Inhale! Exhale!
After a long while, once his agitation subsided Teiichi opened his eyes again.
" Muzan using the Infinity Castle like this again?"
"Won't that mean we'll never be able to kill the Upper Rank in the future?"
Teiichi cursed under his breath.
He pondered why Muzan would use the Infinity Castle to save Akaza.
No! That's not right!
" Muzan generally doesn't consider the situation of his subordinates."
"He will only know when his subordinate dies."
" Akaza attracted Muzan's attention because he broke through his limits."
Thinking of this, Teiichi couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
This at least proves that when killing demons, as long as the demons don't attract Muzan's attention, this situation won't happen again.
Despite having found a reasonable explanation, Teiichi's agitation did not completely dissipate.
Teiichi arrived at the spot where he had abandoned his load, looking quite annoyed.
The loads that were originally piled together were broken into individual iron blocks and scattered around.
Judging from the strips of cloth wrapped around the iron blocks, they were likely caught in the crossfire.
Teiichi shook his head and didn't pick it up again.
Once your body has reached a certain level of fitness, there's not much point in continuing to carry these weights.
He turned and walked down the Yamashita.
"Oops..."
"If I don't kill Akaza today, won't I be raising a mini-boss?"
"Never mind..."
"At Muzan, I can just call Kyojuro along when he goes on a mission on the train. I don't believe Muzan will still be staring at Akaza like that..."
"Bang!"
With a soft thud, Akaza landed on the wooden floor.
He used his hands to push himself up from the ground.
He looked up and surveyed his surroundings.
What unfolds before us is a bizarre and illogical world.
There is no up or down, and no left or right.
The ancient houses seem to be magically suspended in the air in a staggered arrangement.
Some of these houses float alone, seemingly isolated from the world;
Some are connected by long corridors, forming unique building complexes.
The whole world was illuminated by the faint lights from the houses, exuding a mysterious and enchanting atmosphere.
" The Infinity Castle..." Akaza murmured, gazing at the familiar scene before him. "Did Lord Muzan save me?"
"Isn't this Akaza?"
A male voice came from beside him, Akaza looked in the direction of the voice.
A delicate teapot sat quietly on the platform of a house not far away, and a strange figure slowly emerged from its spout.
The figure consisted only of its upper body, connected to the teapot by a black tentacle made of flesh and blood, floating in the air, appearing exceptionally eerie.
It was a figure entirely white, with five purple fins on its head, and a bare, muscular upper body. However, it had no arms; instead, it had small, childlike arms growing from the sides of its head and the two sides of its body.
Where eyes should be, two green lips have grown, while the eyes have grown on the forehead and mouth respectively.
The characters "Upper Rank" and "Wu" are respectively engraved in the upper and lower eyes.
As Gyokko skillfully emerged from the pot, he spoke.
"That aura just now must have been yours, right? I thought you'd been..."
The words stopped abruptly the moment their eyes met.
The golden pupils, etched with the image of Upper Rank Three, stared intently at the Gyokko.
An unprecedented sense of oppression emanated from Akaza.
Gyokko couldn't help but feel a shiver run through her body, and immediately changed her words:
"Are you... are your injuries alright?"
Upon hearing this, Akaza realized that he still had burn marks from the sun on his body.
He looked down and examined his own body.
His body was covered with wounds of varying sizes; some were charred black, while others were swollen and red, a truly shocking sight.
He tried to activate his body's healing abilities, but found that the wounds were so stubborn under the sun's power that they showed no signs of healing.
No more hesitation.
Akaza suddenly raised his right hand and ruthlessly tore off the pieces of the sunburned wounds.
As the wound is removed, the regenerative capacity within the Akaza is rapidly activated.
Flesh and blood grew at an alarming rate, filling the gaps and leaving only pools of blood on the ground.
Looking at the scene before him, Gyokko's lips twisted slightly.
"That's terrifying..."