Meanwhile, in a high-class guest room halfway up the mountain in the Swordsmith Village.
Tanjiro had just finished his day of special training and was lying on the tatami, resting with his whole body aching.
Zenitsu and Inosuke were still fighting in the room over a piece of steak.
Suddenly, a very slight sound of footsteps came from outside the door.
Tanjiro's nose twitched violently.
"Something's wrong. This scent..."
Tanjiro's face turned pale, and he grabbed the nichirin blade by his pillow.
The sliding door was slowly pushed open. A hunched, skinny, half-bald old man was kneeling on the corridor at the doorway. He had two tumors on his forehead, his face was covered in tears and snot, and his whole body was trembling violently.
"So scary... don't bully me... please don't bully me..."
The old man was shivering on the tatami while crying, looking pitiful to the extreme. But in those cloudy eyeballs, the characters "upper rank" and "four" were clearly carved.
"An upper rank demon?!" Tanjiro gasped, his hair standing on end instantly.
Why did he only smell the scent when he pushed the door open, even though such a terrifying monster was approaching?
"Don't be fooled by him."
The sound of wooden boards breaking suddenly came from the ceiling.
Muichiro had been lurking on the roof. He hung upside down, the nichirin blade in his hand bringing up a hazy mist.
Mist Breathing, Fourth Form: Shifting Flow Slash!
The cold blade instantly swept across the old man's neck. Without any resistance, the ugly head with tumors rolled onto the ground with a thud.
"Did he succeed?" Tanjiro was stunned.
But this was an Upper Rank! How could he be beheaded so easily?
Sure enough, the headless corpse and the head on the ground didn't turn to ash. Instead, they quickly grew into brand-new bodies amidst disgusting wriggling.
Two demons exuding completely different terrifying auras appeared out of thin air in the room.
One held a staff, looking ferocious, with the word "Anger" carved in his tongue.
The other held a fan, with a frivolous smile on his lips, and the word "Pleasure" carved in his tongue.
The manifestations of Upper Rank four—Sekido and Karaku!
"This is infuriating! Cutting off his neck the moment you arrive!" Sekido roared, slamming his staff hard against the floor.
Boom!
A thick golden lightning bolt erupted instantly from the bottom of the staff, like a dancing thunder dragon, striking at Tanjiro and Zenitsu who were closest.
"Thunder Breathing..."
Zenitsu was scared out of his wits and subconsciously wanted to draw his sword, but the speed of the lightning was just too fast.
On the other side, Karaku laughed loudly and swung the huge fan in his hand fiercely.
"This is truly joyful!"
A terrifying hurricane capable of blowing off the roof rose from the ground.
Muichiro, who had just landed, didn't even have time to adjust his center of gravity before he was blown away by this powerful wind pressure, crashing through the paper window and smashing far into the forest of the back mountain, disappearing into the night.
"Tokito-san!" Tanjiro was shocked.
That fatal golden lightning was about to engulf Tanjiro and Zenitsu.
Just at this critical moment.
Clang!
A crisp sound of a sword ringing suddenly sounded outside the room.
Accompanied by a flash of blinding purple lightning, a black afterimage instantly shattered the wooden door of the corridor and cut straight into the golden lightning.
Zzzzzzz—
Two completely different lightning bolts collided violently in mid-air.
The moment the golden thunder bolt touched the straight sword wrapped in dark patterns, it was instantly absorbed, torn apart, and disintegrated.
The purple lightning illuminated the entire room.
Yamada held the Kusanagi Sword in one hand, wearing a black haori, and had stood steadily in front of Tanjiro and the others at some point.
He looked coldly at Sekido, who was holding the staff and looked stunned opposite him, with his deep black pupils.
"Holding a broken stick and releasing some static electricity, you dare to throw it around everywhere?"
Yamada flipped his wrist, and the Kusanagi Sword swirled in front of him, making a cold, ringing sound.
"Playing with lightning in front of me, you've kicked an iron plate."
Sekido was stunned by this sudden turn of events, but the anger in his eyes flared up instantly.
"I don't know where a brat popped out from! You dare to block my path! Turn into charcoal!"
He raised his staff again, pushing his Blood Demon Art to the limit, preparing to unleash a stronger lightning strike.
However, Yamada didn't give him a second chance to attack at all.
Bang!
The tatami under Yamada's feet exploded into powder instantly, and his figure disappeared from where he stood. There wasn't even an afterimage.
Sekido only felt his eyes blur, and a sense of fatal threat instantly locked onto his throat.
"Too slow." A cold voice sounded in his ear.
Yamada had already appeared in front of him. His left hand didn't weave signs, but was clenched into a fist, with violent lightning compressed at high density on his knuckles.
He threw a punch.
Boom!
Sekido didn't even have time to make a movement to block with his staff. That face full of anger was solidly smashed by Yamada's thunderous punch.
Accompanied by the crisp sound of bone fracture, Sekido was sent crashing through several walls, creating a long air wave in mid-air, and finally slammed heavily into the rock wall of the cliff opposite, deeply embedded in it, life or death unknown.
The room, which had just been in chaos, instantly fell into a deathly silence.
The smile on Karaku's face, who was holding the fan, froze.
Zenitsu and Tanjiro, who were lying on the ground preparing for death, had their mouths open wide enough to fit a fist.
Yamada slowly retracted his fist and flicked the remaining lightning sparks off his knuckles.
He turned his head and looked at Karaku, who was still standing there stupidly holding the fan, a bloodthirsty arc curling at the corner of his lips.
"You're next, fan freak."
***
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