Demon Slayer: Can I add points to my Breathing Technique?

Xia Xi didn't explain much, but simply turned and drew his sword.

A flash of light.

It cleaved the boulder next to the hunter's house straight in two, and the cut was as smooth as a mirror.

Jiulang's words stuck in his throat.

The next moment, he bent down deeply, his attitude undergoing a complete 180-degree change.

"Sir Samurai! Red Bean Paste Secret Horse Race! It was me just now, I was blind!"

Nod, bow, apologize.

All in one go.

Are Tokyo police... really this terrifying now?

What else could he say?

Not to mention that the other party simply pulled out a knife and cleaved the rock in two.

If all three are used at the same time.

Let alone rocks... He dared not think any further, only feeling a chill down the back of his neck.

"It's Special Operations Section Nine."

Xia Xi calmly corrected him.

"Hi! Senior Agent of the Demon Slayer Unit, Special Operations Division 9, Tokyo Public Security Bureau! My apologies for my rudeness just now."

Actually, I still prefer your rebellious self from just now. How about we go back to how we were?

Despite her thoughts, Xia Xi didn't make things too difficult for the other party. Instead, she sheathed her knife and inquired about the details of the bear disaster.

"Sir, no one has gone missing in our village recently. But Noki Village, which is just over the eastern mountain ridge... has been quite unsettled lately."

He lowered his voice.

"At first, only tenant farmers who left the village alone disappeared. But a few days later, an old man who lived alone in the mountains also disappeared."

"His oak door... was torn to shreds. Judging from the claw marks, it was definitely not a bear commonly seen in our mountains."

"Several hunters of ours went up the mountain together to search..."

He paused, glancing at Yuko inside the room.

After his wife understood and turned to make tea, he continued, his Adam's apple bobbing as he recounted the cruel scene he had witnessed.

"It was definitely not done by bandits."

"The corpse... wasn't just gnawed on. It was torn to pieces, with intestines dragging all over the ground."

"It's like slaughtered livestock being ravaged by wild dogs."

He closed his eyes, and the wide-open eyes of the dead, frozen with fear and pain, seemed to still be before him.

"We waited there until the sun was setting, and it was almost dark, but we still didn't see the bear."

"Although I didn't encounter that bear, I'm sure it must have been a vicious bear that had tasted human blood and was almost a demon."

"Only bears that have tasted human flesh will actively approach villages and attack humans."

The hunter's face showed a hint of resentment: "I really don't know where it came from, or how many people it has harmed."

"Maybe it's a ghost?"

"Ghosts? The monsters from the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons?" The hunter was taken aback, then chuckled, "Sir, don't joke around. Aren't those just stories to fool children?"

Xia Xi casually said, "It's not quite the same. Let's just say it's... a 'bear demon' that has become a demon."

The hunter wanted to argue that monsters didn't exist.

But when I think of Xia Xi's powerful sword strike that just now, which seemed like something out of a legend...

He opened his mouth, but ultimately didn't refute it.

Could it be that the stories about Shuten-dōji and Yama-baba that the elders told us when we were young... were actually true?

So, could it be that the Demon Slayer Unit of Special Operations Section 9, to which this samurai belongs, is actually a secret expert within the government responsible for exorcising demons?

He thought he had discovered a great secret.

His gaze then fell on the three Nichirin Blades at Xia Xi's waist.

Perhaps these three swords are like the legendary "Dojigiri Yasutsuna," divine weapons for slaying demons.

Three generations of Kangshi, Jinmaiqie, and Tongyiwan: ...

After finding out the exact location of Noki Village, Xia Xi declined Jiulang's offer to accompany her.

A raven landed on my shoulder, and I turned and stepped into the deepening twilight.

The hunter and his wife were left in their cabin at dusk, silently watching him go.

"This samurai is truly remarkable..."

Jiulang stroked the smooth, mirror-like surface of the boulder and murmured.

Even if you tried to chop it with an axe yourself, you might still get a chipped edge. Let alone manage to cut such a smooth and neat cross-section.

"The Demon Slayer Corps of Tokyo, huh? If I ever encounter a monster in the future, I'll know who to ask for help..."

"Yuko, go and kill the fattest hen in the yard."

"We must treat the master well when he returns tonight."

The woman watched as Xia Xi's figure gradually disappeared into the woods.

He murmured, "Kuro, I have a feeling that lord won't be coming back..."

"What?! You mean he's no match for that monster?!"

"Idiot! I meant he'll leave after he kills the bear demon!"

Chapter 25 Borrowing Your Head

This time, with the hunter's guidance, Xia Xi quickly found the clues.

In less than half a day, he discovered an abandoned small Buddhist shrine deep in the mountains.

The air was thick with the stench of blood.

After cutting through the bushes and walking a few more steps into the forest, I saw several mangled animal carcasses carelessly tossed on the ground.

Due to the climate, the body had begun to decompose.

Numerous flies hovered over it, and many maggots wriggled on the remains.

The signs of nibbling are very faint.

It's like when someone is hungry, they pick a few fruits, take a bite, find them unpalatable, and then casually throw them away by the roadside.

No normal wild beast or hunter would waste its prey like that.

Even more bizarrely, no other scavengers came to eat the remains. They just piled up there and rotted away.

It was as if this area belonged to some absolute "lord," and even ordinary scavengers dared not approach it.

Xia Xi stepped forward, broke off a branch, and carefully examined the remains.

Fortunately, the game has a cognitive buffer function.

Despite the nauseatingly realistic visuals and smells, he didn't feel much discomfort.

It's like when you used to play some old PC games and click on a game model's corpse to drop equipment.

"It really wasn't a bear bite after all..."

Xia Xi came to a conclusion.

Although he has never seen a bear in real life, he is very familiar with them in the game.

After all, not long ago in the Misty Mountains, more than one kind-hearted "Mr. Xiong" contributed his rich medical experience to him.

It's a ghost, no doubt about it.

His spirits lifted, and he immediately began a search centered on the mountain god temple.

This is a unique mechanism he discovered during the game.

Unlike NPCs who need to explain science in the storyline.

No matter how much the swordsmen train, their vision will inevitably be affected in the pitch black of night.

While you might not be able to see clearly because it's too dark, the game UI within your field of vision is unaffected by the game's ambient lighting.

No matter how dark it is, as long as you enter a certain range, a red system icon and name will appear above the demon's head.

This is something that no one else can do.

It is also a huge tactical advantage that I have when searching for ghosts who are good at hiding.

It is even possible to derive another capability from this system mechanism.

If those evil spirits don't have any special transformation or stealth abilities.

Even if evil spirits hide their fangs among the crowd, as long as they are not too far away, one can tell at a glance which ones are not human.

This is equivalent to a short-to-medium range [faction identification] and [target detection radar].

as predicted.

Within half an hour, Xia Xi had made a discovery.

As he carefully examined a patch of bushes.

Out of the corner of my eye, I suddenly caught a glimpse of the edge of the system panel; a very faint red icon, carrying a hint of hostility, flashed by in the woods not far away.

The distance is about thirty meters.

The other party maintained this approximate distance throughout, neither approaching nor moving away from Xia Xi, no matter how she moved.

Are they targeting me?

Or were they secretly assessing their own strength?