Who are you calling a stable boy?!

"You touched the wrong one."

"Oh, I'm sorry."

He removed his hand from Akaza's face, took off Daki's head, and held it in front of him.

"elder brother!"

Upon seeing Gyutaro, Daki finally dared to speak again.

"Speaking of which, you could have easily taken your sister's head when you came over earlier, why didn't you do it?"

"...Don't joke around."

Gyutaro gritted his teeth.

"You were just waiting for me to go up there so you could kill them all at once!"

"He's smarter than your sister."

Zheng Jing nodded and readily admitted it.

"..."

Gyutaro took a deep breath.

He was trying to think of a way to save his sister's life.

At this point, he couldn't care less about anything else. All he could think of was that he might be able to exchange his own life for his sister's.

Zheng Jing is right. Under normal circumstances, for a Demon Slayer Corps swordsman to kill the brother and sister, he would have to cut off their heads almost simultaneously.

But this doesn't mean that if one sibling is alive, the other won't die.

If they could really achieve that, they would have already pulled that Jade Pot guy down from the position of Upper Moon Five.

Simply put, if one of them, a brother or sister, had been exposed to the scorching sun for an extended period of time, and had been burned away completely...

Once it's gone, it's truly gone. Even if the other sibling is still alive and kicking, it's impossible for the one burned to ashes by the sun to be resurrected.

Gyutaro knew that Jeong Kyung was fully capable of doing such a thing.

He...he wasn't confident he could take his sister back from Zheng Jing by force.

Then we'll have to try other methods.

"I--"

"Take it."

Just as Gyutaro was about to say something more, Zheng Jing threw Daki's head at him.

His body instinctively reached out and caught his sister's head. For the first time, even as his sister wailed in his arms, Gyutaro couldn't come to his senses.

“I, Lao Zheng, keep my word. You’ve delivered the message, so I’ll return her to you.”

It wasn't until he heard Zheng Jing's words that Gyutaro realized what was happening.

He glanced at the princess in his arms, then looked up at Zheng Jing.

"However, I don't want to waste time, so I'll only give your sister five seconds to regenerate her body. Of course, you can also use these five seconds to say your last words to your sister."

Standing tall, Zheng Jing held a stick in one arm, pointing it at the bewildered Gyutaro who was holding Daki in his arms.

"Hurry up."

"—Wait! Hold on a minute!"

Holding Daki in his arms, Gyutaro frantically reached out to Zheng Jing and shouted, "If you're going to kill someone, then kill me!"

"elder brother?!"

"I did eat a lot of people and do a lot of dirty things, but my sister—"

"She's never eaten human flesh?"

Zheng Jing tilted his head, his smile vanished, and he looked down at Gyutaro with a blank expression.

"..."

"Or, let me broaden the scope further. Between you and her, which one of you hasn't eaten food from someone you have no grudge against?"

"..."

"I haven't started counting yet. If you have something to say, hurry up and tell your sister."

"..."

Gyutaro lowered his head and looked at Daki.

"......elder brother?"

Daki saw her brother smiling.

At a time like this, why is it still possible to—

"escape!"

—Gyutaro suddenly threw Daki's head deep into the mountains with all his might.

This is the only method he can think of right now.

For an Upper Moon demon, unless it is directly exposed to the sun or its head is severed by a Nichirin Blade, the damage it suffers upon landing from that height is negligible.

What he had to do was to hold off the monster in front of him before his sister could escape as far as possible!

Pulling open his double sickles, Gyutaro turned and lunged at Zheng Jing.

He truly didn't think he had a way to defeat Zheng Jing.

But he was confident that he could just stall Zheng Jing!

The previous encounter with You Guo, and Zheng Jing's performance in killing Kai Yue and Hantengu just now, convinced Gyutaro that he could use his speed to hold off Zheng Jing.

It doesn't need to be too long, as long as it can be done—

"when!"

The double sickles struck Zheng Jing's shoulders, but all that could be produced were crisp, cracking sounds.

This was exactly what Gyutaro had expected.

What he couldn't understand was why Zheng Jing didn't react at all to his attacks.

"five."

— Zheng Jing reacted.

He simply tilted his head slightly, looked in the direction where Daki's head had flown away, and uttered a number.

"Four."

A wave of horror washed over Gyutaro.

He hadn't felt this way in a long time.

The last time he experienced this was when he saw his sister, burned beyond recognition, lying in the pit, barely alive!

"three."

Gyutaro gritted his teeth and sped up.

Hurry! Hurry even faster!

It needs to be fast enough to make this monster feel threatened—

"two."

"Aaaaaaaahhhhhh!"

"one."

Zheng Jing made his move at the last digital exit.

With a flick of his wrists, a long staff exploded into a flurry of shadows before Gyutaro's eyes, densely packed like an angry swarm of bees, instantly filling almost no gaps in Gyutaro's vision.

This counterattack was completely unexpected by Gyutaro, catching him off guard in his anger and frustration.

In Gyutaro's memory, Zheng Jing relied on his truly invulnerable body and unparalleled strength to fight enemies; he was simply a numerical monster who gave no way out.

Unexpectedly, he was able to unleash such an impenetrable staff technique!

In his haste, he could only stagger backward. Knowing Zheng Jing's superhuman strength, he didn't even dare to use his double sickles to block the oncoming barrage of clubs.

But this retreat played right into Zheng Jing's rhythm.

Suddenly, the overwhelming shadows of the sticks merged into one, and with a twist of the arms, divine power was unleashed, penetrating into the middle of the prostitute Taro's body, striking straight at his heart and piercing his chest!

"Boom!"

With a loud bang, Gyutaro's body exploded.

With a flick of the stick, Zheng Jing stopped the remaining half of Gyutaro's head on the stick, and looked up.

Gyutaro realized that this seemed to be the first time the man in front of him was looking at him directly.

"Please...don't let her be with me..."

Zheng Jing shook his head expressionlessly.

"Snapped!"

The masculine internal force flowed into the staff, instantly blasting open Gyutaro's head, turning the bloody remains into ashes in mid-air.

"...If you run away, you might actually have a chance."

Lowering the stick, Zheng Jing glanced sideways at the panting Princess Duoji who had rushed back.

"Ah...ah..."

However, this female ghost, who had devoured countless people, now sat slumped on the ground, sobbing uncontrollably.

She seemed not to hear Zheng Jing's voice.

Like a child who gets lost while playing with family outside.

"......well."

Zheng Jing held the long stick upside down and took a step forward.

"puff."

Clean and efficient, the mud turns to ash, and flowers will bloom in the future.

Shouldering the stick, Zheng Jing rested his hands on the stick, head drooping, and sighed softly as he looked down at the ashes scattered in the wind.

"Your sister is incredibly stubborn. How could she possibly let you walk this road to the underworld alone?"

He turned around.

"Alright, if you're still not satisfied..."

“Reincarnate as a human and come find me again.”

Chapter 47: Aren't you afraid?

Rushing into the village, Zheng Jing informed the village chief that the crisis had been resolved. He immediately summoned the Black and White Swordsman and asked it to lead the way to the Demon Slayer Corps headquarters, which was also the location of the Ubuyashiki family residence.

Although Muzan Kibutsuji is a coward, it is precisely because he is cowardly enough that he takes action when he is confident that he has succeeded.

It's like sending three Upper Moons to find Zheng Jing, one of whom is Hantengu, who was just given new blood and greatly improved his strength, rising from Upper Moon Four to Upper Moon Three. In Muzan Kibutsuji's mind, such a lineup would be enough to deal with Zheng Jing.

absolutely okay.

It's easy!

After all, in Muzan Kibutsuji's mind, humans, or rather, Demon Slayer Corps swordsmen, are only divided into two types.

One is Yoriichi Tsugikuni, who died long ago.

One type is trash that can be killed at any time.

Even after seeing Gyutaro's memories, he only felt that this human who called himself Optimus Prime deserved to die, rather than truly regarding Zheng Jing as an "opponent".

In short, in Muzan Kibutsuji's view, sending half of the Upper Moons to besiege a mere Pillar already showed that he had given Zheng Jing enough importance.

Zheng Jing really didn't expect to have such a big harvest in the knife-making village.

Not only Hantengu and Gyutaro, but also Kaigaku, a traitor from the Demon Slayer Corps.