I, Yuhaka, am hungry!

"Boss, one serving of yam puree udon..."

Seeing the panting, exhausted-looking boy, the bald ramen stall owner was taken aback. Seeing the sleepy-looking girl chewing on a bamboo tube behind him, the bald ramen stall owner abandoned his plan to close up shop. After all, the boy looked very tired. The bald ramen stall owner then said to the boy, "Okay, just a moment," and began making yam udon noodles for him.

The boy carrying the wooden box and the girl biting the bamboo tube are none other than Tanjiro Kamado and Nezuko Kamado.

Tanjiro, looking exhausted, sat on a bench with Nezuko, who also looked sleepy. The atmosphere in Asakusa City had just made Tanjiro a bit nervous. To be honest, Tanjiro hadn't expected the city to be so developed, and frankly, he was having a hard time adjusting to it.

Soon, after the bald ramen stall owner finished making the ramen, he handed the yam udon noodles to Tanjiro and said something like, "Please enjoy your meal."

After Tanjiro took the yam udon noodles from the bald ramen stall owner, he sat on the bench and took a small sip of the soup. Tanjiro breathed a sigh of relief. However, just as he was about to eat, he suddenly smelled a "familiar" stench.

Tanjiro's face immediately turned very ugly, and the yam udon noodles in his hand fell to the ground. Just as the bowl and chopsticks fell to the ground, a loud clap of thunder sounded in the sky.

Tanjiro, with a grim expression, sniffed the air and rushed towards the direction of the smell, carrying his Nichirin Blade that was on the chair.

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

On the streets of Asakusa, not long after the thunder rumbled, a heavy rain began to fall, and the people on the streets began to look for places to take shelter from the rain, even Muzan Kibutsuji did the same.

Muzan Kibutsuji looked at the rainy sky with a displeased expression. To be honest, it seemed like the weather was conspiring against him; he hadn't been out long when it started pouring rain. It was infuriating! He rarely went out for a stroll, and this was the last thing he got...

After buying an umbrella at a rain gear store, Muzan Kibutsuji was about to head back. There wasn't much to see around here on a rainy day, so he decided to return to that human's home.

Just as Muzan Kibutsuji entered a deserted alley and was about to take a shortcut, a bolt of lightning flashed across the sky, accompanied by a loud boom. Muzan Kibutsuji saw a small figure standing not far in front of him.

When Muzan Kibutsuji saw the figure in a kendo uniform and wearing a straw hat appear before him, his pupils contracted instantly. Muzan Kibutsuji felt as if he had been transported back to the Warring States period. When Muzan Kibutsuji saw the golden katana at the figure's waist, he realized that the short figure before him was one of those annoying Demon Slayer Corps members.

Muzan Kibutsuji squinted at the short figure that appeared before him, looking quite annoyed. After all, Muzan had just encountered a rainy day that prevented him from going out for a stroll, and on top of that, he ran into the Demon Slayer Corps. This made Muzan suspect that he hadn't checked the Rokuyo (Six Luminaries) before going out today.

This greatly angered Muzan Kibutsuji. Looking displeased, Muzan pointed his right hand at the short figure in front of him and said:

"I'm already tired of you swordsmen who use breathing techniques..."

As he spoke, Muzan Kibutsuji's right hand suddenly transformed into a bizarre shape, resembling a twisted lump of flesh with mouths full of sharp teeth, a sight that sent chills down one's spine. The twisted arm, like a venomous snake, lunged at the short figure in front of Muzan Kibutsuji.

In response to Muzan Kibutsuji's attack, the short figure, Hime Rin, simply gripped the hilt of her sword and made a drawing motion.

"【Tai Xu Sword Form - Ripple - Third Style Qi Blade Slash】".

With a flash of light before Muzan Kibutsuji's eyes, he saw his twisted, fleshy arm being sliced ​​into several pieces. He could feel the searing pain emanating from his severed arm, as if it were being burned by the sun, and the flesh turning to ashes. His five brains went completely blank.

Why is my arm burning? Why isn't my regenerative ability activated? What move did that swordsman use?

These three questions puzzled Muzan Kibutsuji. However, when he saw the arm burning as if it were being exposed to the sun and still burning towards him, Muzan Kibutsuji quickly threw away the umbrella in his left hand and turned his left hand into a bone blade, severing his twisted right arm.

After severing his right arm, Muzan Kibutsuji regained his right hand's regenerative ability. Although his right hand had recovered, Muzan Kibutsuji still felt a familiar sense of fear. However, the thought of this also ignited a surge of anger within him.

With veins bulging on his forehead and a furious expression, Muzan Kibutsuji glared at Ji Lin before him and said:

"You bastard...who are you?! Those weak Demon Slayer Corps members don't know these things!"

Ji Lin did not answer Kibutsuji Muzan's question. Instead, he assumed a sword stance and then addressed the enraged Kibutsuji Muzan before him:

"Ikku is leaving, Kibutsuji Muzan."

Having said that, Ji Lin brandished his sword, which shimmered with ripples of light, and charged towards Muzan Kibutsuji. Seeing Ji Lin charging towards him, Muzan Kibutsuji frowned and then spoke with an angry expression:

"Don't get too cocky, kid!"

As he spoke, Muzan Kibutsuji unleashed a barrage of thorn-like things from his hands, enveloping Ji Lin. Ji Lin, like a spinning bamboo dragonfly, slashed the surrounding thorn-like Blood Demon Art into pieces while charging towards Muzan Kibutsuji.

Then, to Muzan Kibutsuji's astonishment, Ji Lin's single katana-shaped Xuanyuan Sword transformed into a dual-blade form and slashed towards Muzan Kibutsuji's neck.

Chapter 452 [The Persecution of Muzan Kibutsuji Continues (Part 2)]

Upon seeing the twin blades with their golden radiance like the sun, Muzan Kibutsuji immediately recalled the scene of his right arm being severed. That scene reminded him of the time when Yoriichi Tsugikuni had cut his body—no! It was even more terrifying than that!

Muzan Kibutsuji could clearly feel that even after his arm was cut off, it still had a continuous sensation as if it were being exposed to the sun. This was even more powerful than the Sun Breathing and the Crimson Blade!

If his head were chopped off by this attack, Muzan Kibutsuji would doubt that he would die!

"Get away from me—!"

As a pair of crimson wings suddenly emerged from Muzan Kibutsuji's back, Ji Lin, who was preparing to cut off Muzan Kibutsuji's head, also looked at the wings, which looked like they were shooting out flames, with a surprised expression. Without a doubt, that thing was a ghoul's kagune.

As for why Muzan Kibutsuji has a kagune like the Feathered Kagune, Ji Lin could roughly guess, but for now, Ji Lin should focus on defending against the Feathered Kagune's attacks.

Thinking this, Ji Lin was soon attacked by Kibutsuji Muzan's storm-like feathered kagune. Feathered kagune is a rare type of long-range attack among kagune, using explosive power to shoot the kagune out like bullets.

Faced with such an attack, Ji Lin retreated while wielding his twin swords, sending a large number of kagune bullets flying. When Muzan Kibutsuji launched a large number of kagune bullets with his yukata, he also quickly retreated to a distance. Muzan Kibutsuji looked terrified and was panting heavily. Just now, Muzan Kibutsuji experienced the distance between himself and death, just like when he encountered Yoriichi Tsugikuni.

After forcing Ji Lin back with his katana, Muzan Kibutsuji dared not approach Ji Lin again. Muzan Kibutsuji was very wary of Ji Lin's two swords. Although he did not know what the sun-like radiance wrapped around the two swords in Ji Lin's hands was, Muzan Kibutsuji knew that it was probably more terrifying than the Breath of the Sun and the Crimson Blade.

No! We have to escape!

Terrified, Muzan Kibutsuji felt he had to escape. He used his Kagune ability to fly into the air, but Ji Lin, who was nearby, would not let Muzan escape. Without hesitation, Ji Lin transformed his weapon into a longbow and aimed it at Muzan Kibutsuji as he flew through the air.

While flying through the air, Muzan Kibutsuji originally wanted to say a few sarcastic remarks to mock Ji Lin, but when he saw the two swords in Ji Lin's hand merge into one longbow, Muzan Kibutsuji immediately shut his mouth and dared not say anything more, focusing on escaping.

As Ji Lin unleashed an arrow transformed into lightning, it hurtled towards Muzan Kibutsuji, who was flying through the air. However, Muzan Kibutsuji noticed the lightning arrow heading straight for him and dodged it with a spin. Seeing that Ji Lin's lightning arrow had missed him, Muzan Kibutsuji looked at Ji Lin, who was holding a longbow on the ground, with a mocking expression. But just then, Muzan Kibutsuji saw Ji Lin's gesture.

A thumbs-up gesture pointing downwards.

Before Muzan Kibutsuji could even get there, a thunderous roar echoed from the sky, followed by a shower of brilliant lightning.

Boom——————!

Incidentally, Muzan Kibutsuji, who was flying in mid-air, became the target of lightning.

A thunderous roar echoed across Asakusa, followed by a sudden power outage. The once brightly lit streets were plunged into darkness, and everything around them was enveloped in gloom. Muzan Kibutsuji, struck by lightning, lay twitching on the ground with an afro. Although Muzan Kibutsuji possessed great physical strength, he was no match for the lightning.

With difficulty, Muzan Kibutsuji raised his head to look at Ji Lin, who was slowly walking towards him. With each step Ji Lin took, the seven hearts in Muzan Kibutsuji's body would throb, and the fear in his heart would continue to grow. However, Muzan Kibutsuji was not the kind of "demon" who would sit and wait for death.

"You, you don't come any closer—!"

With a face full of howling demons, Muzan Kibutsuji struggled to get away from Ji Lin while a large number of tentacles made of kagune emerged from his back and flew towards Ji Lin. In response to Muzan Kibutsuji's attack, Ji Lin simply swung his twin swords, shattering the kagune as he charged towards Muzan Kibutsuji.

"Don't go too far, you brat—!"

As he spoke, Muzan Kibutsuji swung his left hand, which transformed into several tentacles covered in kagune, and attacked Ji Lin. However, they were quickly cut off by Ji Lin. Muzan Kibutsuji did not expect that the kagune with its hard shell would be cut open so easily.

However, Muzan Kibutsuji was only slightly shocked before he began his escape plan. But Ji Lin would not let Muzan Kibutsuji escape. Ji Lin dodged a few kagune tentacles that attacked him and ran up the wall. While Ji Lin was running up the wall, Muzan Kibutsuji was also restored from the paralysis caused by the lightning strike.

Kibutsuji Muzan combined a large number of rinkaku and kōkaku to form a giant claw and slammed it towards Ji Lin. Ji Lin did not dodge when he saw the giant claw coming towards him. After all, there were houses and such around Ji Lin. If the buildings were knocked down, it would be bad if there were people inside.

Ji Lin combined his twin swords to the size of a katana from Monster Hunter World, then unleashed a spirit slash imbued with ripples, slicing Muzan Kibutsuji's claws into several pieces and continuing to slash along Muzan's path. As the blade grew larger before him, Muzan felt a sense of despair spreading through his heart.

But just then, a figure appeared at the end of the alley, and that figure was none other than Tanjiro Kamado, who had been following the scent of Muzan Kibutsuji.

Hime Rin was quite surprised to see Tanjiro here. Although Hime Rin knew that Tanjiro would come to Asakusa, she deliberately used the abilities of Kirin and Steel Dragon to create a heavy rain to disperse the crowd and also to hinder Tanjiro's sense of smell. However, Hime Rin did not expect that Tanjiro would still find this place.

Just as Ji Lin was momentarily distracted, Muzan Kibutsuji saw this as a good opportunity. Instantly, Muzan Kibutsuji split his body in two to dodge Ji Lin's attack. Ji Lin was dumbfounded when he saw Muzan Kibutsuji's move. Although Ji Lin knew that Muzan Kibutsuji could split into more than 1000 self-aware pieces of flesh, he was still caught off guard by Muzan Kibutsuji's sudden splitting in two.

Chapter 453 [Muzan: This is my escape route!]

This smell... I can't be wrong...

Tanjiro searched for Muzan Kibutsuji's scent in the air as he walked through the rain-soaked streets. Although the scent was faint, Tanjiro could still smell it.

Following the scent of Muzan Kibutsuji, Tanjiro rushed in that direction. As the scent grew stronger, Tanjiro knew he was getting closer and closer to Muzan. When Tanjiro arrived at the entrance of a small alley, he witnessed an unbelievable scene.

Tanjiro saw a figure resembling a swordsman wielding a huge katana slashing at a man who looked like a demon. Tanjiro could smell the familiar stench emanating from that man.

Without a doubt, the man pinned to the ground, about to be cleaved in two, was the enemy he was looking for, Muzan Kibutsuji. However, to Tanjiro's surprise, before the swordsman's greatsword could cleave Muzan Kibutsuji in two, Muzan Kibutsuji himself split in two first.

Tanjiro and Hime Rin were quite surprised to see Muzan Kibutsuji's actions, especially Hime Rin, because just as Hime Rin was about to cut Muzan Kibutsuji in two, Muzan Kibutsuji suddenly split his body in two, causing Hime Rin's strike to miss and fall directly into the ground.

The two halves of Kibutsuji suddenly shouted into the air beside him:

"Narume!"

As soon as Muzan finished speaking, a door appeared not far from him. Seeing this, Ji Lin immediately realized that Muzan was trying to escape. Just as Ji Lin was about to draw his weapon and finish off Muzan, the other half of Muzan mutated into a huge mouth and lunged at Ji Lin. However, Ji Lin reacted quickly and cut the mouth-shaped Muzan in two the instant he drew his katana. But at that moment, the two halves of Muzan immediately wrapped around the katana in Ji Lin's hand, refusing to let go even as it was burned by the Ripple.

Tanjiro, who was watching from a distance, reacted quickly. He drew his Nichirin Blade, threw down its sheath, and charged towards Muzan, who was trying to escape, shouting:

"Kibutsuji Muzan——!"

Upon hearing someone call his name, Muzan Kibutsuji could see a boy wielding a Nichirin Blade rushing towards him. At the same time, Muzan Kibutsuji also noticed the familiar earring on the boy's ear, who had a face full of hatred for evil. Muzan Kibutsuji immediately recalled the fear of having his head chopped off by Yoriichi Tsugikuni, and thus Muzan Kibutsuji increased his crawling speed as he crawled toward the door opened by Nakime's Blood Demon Art.

Just as Tanjiro rushed over, Muzan Kibutsuji also fell down in a very disheveled state. When Tanjiro swung his Nichirin Blade, he only managed to cut off a corner of Muzan Kibutsuji's clothes. Seeing this, Tanjiro also had a ferocious look on his face, holding his katana and preparing to stab Muzan Kibutsuji, ready to jump down after him. However, before Tanjiro could jump down, Hime Rin, who had just finished off the other half of Muzan Kibutsuji, grabbed Tanjiro by the back of his collar and pulled him behind him.

Tanjiro, who was pulled to the ground by Ji Lin's immense strength, also landed on his bottom. When Tanjiro came to his senses, he found that the door had been closed and disappeared.

Seeing this, Tanjiro, with a look of resentment, tapped the ground with the hilt of his sword and said:

"Damn it—! That guy Muzan Kibutsuji got away—!"

Seeing Tanjiro's resentful expression, Hime Rin could somewhat understand. The enemy who killed his family was right in front of him, but he had missed the chance to kill him. Such disappointment and resentment were hard to bear...

However, Tanjiro quickly recovered and stood up, bowing to Himeko, who was even shorter than him, and said:

"I'm so sorry—!"

"OvO???"

Upon hearing Tanjiro's words, Ji Lin looked at the bowing Tanjiro with a completely bewildered expression. Tanjiro didn't seem to have done anything to wrong him, did he?

But then Ji Lin learned the reason for Tanjiro's apology. It turned out that Tanjiro had blamed himself for not stopping Muzan Kibutsuji from escaping. Upon hearing this, Ji Lin shook his head and said to Tanjiro:

"No, Mr. Tanjiro, it's not your fault that Muzan Kibutsuji escaped. It's just that Muzan Kibutsuji was too cunning."

Then, Ji Lin changed to a serious tone and held up one finger, saying to Tanjiro:

"And another thing! Tanjiro's action of trying to jump down with Muzan Kibutsuji was extremely dangerous. If Mr. Tanjiro had jumped down, he would have been dead!"

Upon hearing Ji Lin's words, Tanjiro looked quite surprised. However, upon closer reflection, Tanjiro realized that his impulsive actions just now had been too dangerous.

Then Ji Lin explained to Tanjiro:

"If you, Mr. Tanjiro, jump down with that guy Muzan Kibutsuji, then it won't be you fighting Muzan Kibutsuji anymore, but his twelve demon moons."

Upon hearing Ji Lin's words, Tanjiro also learned of the existence of the Twelve Demon Moons, but he was unsure of their fighting strength, although his master Urokodaki had mentioned them...

Ji Lin then told Tanjiro about the strength of the Twelve Demon Moons. He said that if they were Upper Moons, they could easily kill Tanjiro. However, if they were Lower Moons, Tanjiro would have a hard time defeating them.

After hearing Ji Lin's words, Tanjiro broke out in a cold sweat. If he hadn't been pulled back, he would have been dead.

Seeing that Tanjiro was reflecting on his actions, Ji Lin nodded with satisfaction. Then, Ji Lin clapped his hands, and with Ji Lin's clapping, the heavy rain in the sky quickly stopped, and the faint rumble of thunder also disappeared. This action startled Tanjiro, who was standing to the side.

Ji Lin looked at Tanjiro, who was staring in disbelief, and said:

"Alright, the rain has stopped. Tanjiro-san, shouldn't you go back to Nezuko-chan? It's not good to leave your little sister alone at the ramen stand, you know~"

Upon hearing Ji Lin's words, Tanjiro recalled that his sister Nezuko had been forgotten at the ramen stall, and Tanjiro immediately showed a "WTF!" expression. Seeing the expression on Tanjiro's face, Ji Lin also showed a helpless smile.

Ji Lin then checked his system pointer. After Muzan Kibutsuji left, the pointer's position started to erratically, indicating that Muzan Kibutsuji was now his target to eliminate...

Chapter 454 [Herrscher of Reason Ability Test]