I, Yuhaka, am hungry!

"【Death Force - Sky Split】(Ora Ora Ora!)"

As soon as Ji Lin finished speaking, the shocked ghoul saw countless small fists mixed with lightning swinging towards him. The next instant, crackling sounds rang out from the ghoul's body.

Chapter 437 [The Taixu School]

Crackle crackle crackle crackle crackle crackle—!

As countless fists crackled with lightning pounded into the ghoul's body, the sounds of his body being burned by lightning and his bones and muscles breaking filled the air. The ghoul, caught in the "Ora Ora" attack, couldn't even let out a scream.

"【Death Force - Sea Break】"

As Ji Lin swung her small fist and slammed it directly onto the ghoul's head in front of her, with a crack and a tearing sound, the ghoul's head was sent flying by Ji Lin. After seeing the ghoul's head fly away, Ji Lin's face immediately showed a 0A0?! expression.

"Yabai! I forgot that ghouls don't have as much vitality as demons!"

Just like Ji Lin said, ordinary ghouls don't have the same vitality as demons. Once their heads are knocked off, they're basically done for. That's why the ghoul that Ji Lin just hurled was instantly killed.

Looking at the motionless, lifeless corpse of the ghoul, Ji Lin scratched his cheek with a troubled expression and said:

"This is bad... I was originally going to ask who turned him into a ghoul..."

That's right. Ji Lin originally wanted to defeat this ghoul and render him unable to fight so he could interrogate him about who turned him into a ghoul. Ji Lin had questioned Zelus about this before. There was only one target for the Void Transfer, and ghouls are not like demons who can turn humans into demons with bodily fluids.

Through Zelus's explanation, Ji Lin understood that if a human wanted to become a ghoul, they had to transplant a ghoul's kagune and internal organs; otherwise, they could not become a ghoul, and even after transplanting a ghoul's kagune and internal organs, they would at most become a half-ghoul... However, what Ji Lin couldn't understand was that the ghoul in front of him didn't seem like a half-ghoul at all. What was going on?

Just as Ji Lin was pondering what was going on, an old man not far away walked over and called out to Ji Lin's retreating figure:

"Hey, little girl, is that monster dead?"

Hearing the old man's words, Ji Lin turned around with a surprised expression and looked at the old man standing beside him, saying:

"Hey?! Grandpa, you haven't left yet?"

The old man looked embarrassed by Ji Lin's words. Although he had thought about running away before, he hadn't been able to do so when Ji Lin had already defeated the ghoul. This made the old man, who had originally wanted to leave, feel a little awkward.

"I'm an adult, how could I possibly abandon a little girl like you and run away!"

The old man said these words with a shameless expression, while Ji Lin showed a helpless smile upon hearing them. Clearly, the old man's trembling legs and cold sweat betrayed his inner thoughts.

........................................................

Finally, the two boarded a carriage and headed to the next town. On the carriage, a curious old man asked Ji Lin what kind of creature had just attacked them.

"Hmm... if I had to say, it would be [ghoul]..."

Hearing Ji Lin's words, the old man looked completely bewildered, as he had never heard of ghouls before. Seeing the old man's puzzled expression, Ji Lin explained to him:

"If we use foreign terms, they'd be called 'ghouls'~ Like ghosts, they're monsters that eat people, uh, yokai."

Hearing Ji Lin's explanation, the old man finally understood what the ghouls were. To put it simply, they were like demons, man-eating monsters, except that these "demons" were not afraid of the sun.

This made the old man sigh at how the world had become like this. He used to only worry about it at night, but now he had to worry about it during the day, just like that ghoul who suddenly jumped out of the shadows.

Then, as if remembering something, the old man looked at Ji Lin with great gratitude and said:

"However, I really owe you a lot today, young lady. Otherwise, I'm afraid I wouldn't be alive today..."

The old man felt extremely frightened when he thought about these things. If he hadn't given Ji Lin a ride along the way, he probably would never have seen his son and daughter-in-law again.

"Really, thank you so much!"

Hearing the old man thanking him, Ji Lin waved his hand and said:

"It's nothing. After all, I can't just stand by and do nothing. I need to take the old man's carriage to the next town. I'd be in a real predicament if the carriage was gone."

As he spoke, the old man driving the carriage looked at Ji Lin with great curiosity and asked:

"By the way, young lady... are you a member of the Demon Slayer Corps?"

Hearing the old man's words, Ji Lin looked at him with a puzzled expression and said:

"Huh? The Demon Slayer Corps? Me?"

Ji Lin shook his head and said to the old man:

"I'm not a member of the Demon Slayer Corps, but why do you ask that, old man?"

The old man scratched the back of his head and said:

"Well... after all, young lady, your posture looks like that of someone who practices martial arts, so I can't help but wonder if you're a member of the Demon Slayer Corps... But speaking of which, young lady, what's your name? Which martial arts style do you follow?"

Hearing the old man's "ha," Ji Lin paused for a moment, then pointed to himself and said:

"My name and martial arts style?"

Then Ji Lin said to the old man:

"My name is Ji Lin. If we're talking about a martial arts style, it should be called [Tai Xu]."

Upon hearing Ji Lin's name and martial arts style, the old man looked completely bewildered, as he had never heard of the Taixu school before.

.......................................

Just an hour after Ji Lin and the old man left, a group of people in black uniforms arrived at the ghouls that Ji Lin had eliminated. The people in black uniforms had the character "滅" printed on their backs. One of them, a girl wearing a haori with butterfly wings, came to the ghoul's corpse.

Looking at the headless ghoul's corpse, the girl covered her mouth and said:

"Oh dear, this corpse looks so gruesome..."

The girl lowered her head, poked the corpse with a twig, and said:

"Hmm...were all the bones in his body shattered? And..."

The girl looked at the somewhat familiar charred marks from the lightning, which reminded her of the charred corpse she had encountered in the mountains last time.

Chapter 438 [Shinobu Kocho's Investigation]

At the spot where Hime-rin Ora dropped the ghoul, a small team of Demon Slayer Corps members and support staff are present.

Shinobu Kocho looked at the ghoul's corpse in front of her with a curious expression and said:

"Is this the demon that the lord spoke of, one that is not afraid of the sun?"

Shinobu Kocho looked up at the sky where the sun was shining, then looked down at the ghoul corpses on the ground and said:

"As expected... it didn't turn to ashes..."

For Shinobu Kocho, a demon would turn to ashes and disappear from the world if it were exposed to the sun or had its head cut off by a Nichirin Blade. But now...

Although the "demon" before her was dead, its body had not disappeared, and even after being exposed to the sun, it had not been burned to ashes. This made Shinobu Kocho feel troubled. Although Shinobu Kocho did not use her Nichirin Blade to cut off the demon's head to eliminate it, she used wisteria flowers, which had a deadly poison to demons, to kill her enemy.

However, if they are not afraid of the sun, it means that the Nichirin Blade, a weapon specifically used by the Demon Slayer Corps against demons, will be ineffective against them.

Thinking about these things, Butterfly couldn't help but frown.

but.......

Shinobu Kocho felt something was off as she looked at the ghoul's corpse with its head blown off. Based on her understanding of demons, decapitation and shattered internal organs and bones should not be enough to kill a demon. However, the corpse of the "demon" in front of her showed no signs of recovery and looked just like a dead person.

"Hmm... indeed, quite strange..."

Shinobu then had the Demon Slayer Corps members take her dissection and collection tools to gather enough research material from the ghouls for analysis and study.

After collecting research materials from the ghoul corpses, Shinobu Kocho took off her gloves and breathed a sigh of relief. Although the collection of research materials went smoothly, Shinobu still felt that the corpses of the "demons" in front of her were a bit hard.

Is it because this "ghost's" body is harder than other ghosts?

Looking at the devastation around him, Shinobu wondered who had fought and killed this "demon." Could it be someone of the same kind as this "demon"? After all, the "demon" hadn't been dead for very long, so under this blazing sun, it could only be someone like this sun-unafraid "demon."

Just as Shinobu Kocho was pondering the reason, a member of the Demon Slayer Corps approached her and said:

"Lord Insect Pillar, we found the tracks of a carriage on the road, and it seems to be related to this [Demon]."

Hearing the Demon Slayer Corps member's words, Shinobu Kocho nodded and asked the member to lead her to investigate. Soon, guided by the Demon Slayer Corps member, Shinobu saw the tracks left by the carriage. Looking at the tracks, Shinobu nodded and said:

"Hmm... if I'm not mistaken, they're planning to head towards the nearest town, right?"

The Demon Slayer Corps members standing nearby nodded in agreement upon hearing Shinobu's words, and then asked her:

"Lord Insect Pillar, should we give chase?"

Regarding the question about the Demon Slayer Corps members, Shinobu Kocho nodded with a smile and said:

"Well, of course, after all, it's hard to say whether the other party is a human or a ghost. If it's a ghost, then someone in that town might be attacked by it..."

Upon hearing Shinobu's words, the Demon Slayer Corps member was momentarily stunned. Indeed, if the other party was a demon, then someone else was sure to be killed. However, driven by curiosity, the Demon Slayer Corps member asked Shinobu:

"Lord Insect Pillar, if that person isn't a demon, then what should we do?"

Regarding the question about the Demon Slayer Corps members, Shinobu Kocho looked quite pleased and said:

"That's great! That way we can at least talk to that person or something, for example..."

Shinobu Kocho opened her eyes and looked at the ghoul's corpse engulfed in flames, saying:

"How did she/he manage to defeat the demon with his bare hands...?"

Upon hearing Shinobu's words, the Demon Slayer Corps member also looked surprised and said:

"Bare-handed?? You must be kidding me!"

Upon hearing Shinobu Kocho's words, the Demon Slayer Corps member looked utterly incredulous. Throughout history, the Demon Slayer Corps had always used a type of cold weapon made of a metal that could absorb sunlight to decapitate demons and thus eliminate them.

But when Shinobu Kocho said that the demon was killed with his bare hands, the Demon Slayer Corps member looked on in disbelief. It seemed impossible that someone could kill a demon with just their bare hands!

Uh... ghosts don't seem to be anything scientific...

Shinobu Kocho chuckled upon seeing the Demon Slayer Corps member's appearance and said:

"Well~ I was also quite startled at first, finding a lot of boxing marks on that ghost's body, but it's really hard to believe that it was just punches. It probably used some kind of breathing technique."

Upon hearing Shinobu's explanation, the Demon Slayer Corps member showed an expression of understanding. If what Shinobu said was true, then it could explain why demons could be killed with just their fists.

Shinobu Kocho looked in the distance as if she had seen something and said:

"If possible, I'd like to try and see if I can invite that person to join the Demon Slayer Corps..."

At the same time, Shinobu Kocho also became curious about the martial arts of the person who killed that ghoul. What kind of martial arts could kill a demon with just a fist?

Of course, Shinobu would be quite upset if she knew that the ghoul had only died from having his head knocked off.

......................................................

"Ah!"

Ji Lin, who had just stepped down from the cargo wagon, suddenly sneezed. An old man arranging the goods nearby looked at Ji Lin with a puzzled and worried expression and said:

"What's wrong, Miss Ji Lin? Are you feeling unwell?"