Who are you calling a stable boy?!

Moreover, through repeated attempts and observations, Tanjiro has roughly figured out what this demon's Blood Demon Art is.

Simply put, the other party can manipulate the space within the mansion by striking those small drums that seem to be forcibly embedded into its body.

Striking the drum on the right shoulder turns the room to the right, while striking it on the left shoulder turns it to the left.

Striking the drum with your right foot means turning forward, and striking it with your left foot means turning backward.

If it were only this bad, it wouldn't have made him and Zenitsu look so pathetic.

The most threatening part of this evil spirit's blood demon magic is the drum located on its abdomen.

After the ringing, an unseen, enormous claw will strike him or Zenitsu!

The constant spinning, coupled with the invisible claws that fall almost immediately upon the sound of the drum, created a combined offensive that kept Tanjiro and Zenitsu constantly on the run.

(This can't go on...)

Tanjiro, who had just embedded the blade into the wall to steady himself, had to move again as soon as he saw the demon banging on the drum in his abdomen.

Those invisible claws seemed to target only one of him and Zenitsu at a time.

Even so, when the demon banged on the drum in its belly, he and Zenitsu still couldn't gamble on who the unseen claws would be aimed at.

At this rate, although he and Zenitsu could manage in the short term, as their physical strength and energy depleted, they would inevitably make a mistake in judgment sooner or later...

We have to think of a way!

(Um?)

Suddenly, Tanjiro smelled a familiar yet peculiar scent approaching.

And the one that possesses this scent is—

Where did this speed bump come from?

With a rumbling sound, Zheng Jing burst through the wall, enveloped in a strong gust of wind!

He shouted in a language that Tanjiro and Zenitsu couldn't understand, and as soon as he burst into the room, he charged straight at the demon standing at the door.

As Zheng Jing passed the two boys, he casually tossed something into Tanjiro's arms.

Tanjiro looked closely and realized it was a small drum.

One of them was a small drum almost identical to the one used by the evil spirit to cast blood demon magic.

Upon seeing the drum, the demon's already gloomy expression turned even more ferocious, and its blood-red eyes completely ignored Tanjiro and Zenitsu, staring straight at Zheng Jing!

"Boom boom boom——"

With three consecutive strikes, the demon was clearly trying to use the rotation of the room to hinder Zheng Jing's steps, just as it had done to Tanjiro and Zenitsu earlier.

However, no matter how the room spun, Zheng Jing's feet seemed to be rooted to the spot, firmly planted on the tatami mats that had instantly transformed from the floor to the ceiling.

No, that's not right!

Zheng Jing didn't slow down at all, charging straight towards the evil spirit standing at the door with unstoppable momentum.

It was as if the Blood Demon Art that had caused Tanjiro and Zenitsu so much suffering suddenly lost its effect on Zheng Jing!

In the blink of an eye, almost before the last drumbeat had even finished, Zheng Jing had already closed in on the evil spirit.

With his arms clamping down on the demon's hands, which were trying to bang the drum again, Zheng Jing lunged forward and hoisted the two-meter-tall demon onto his shoulder, then dashed out of the room.

"Charcoal Boy, beat the drum!"

Without turning his head, Zheng Jing shouted at Tanjiro, who was holding the drum.

Although he didn't know what the small drum's function was, Tanjiro's body reacted before his mind when he heard Zheng Jing shout, and he swung his hand at the drumhead.

"Boom!"

Zheng Jing had just stepped onto the corridor outside the room when the sound of drums began to ring out inside.

In an instant, the door that had been behind Zheng Jing turned into a wall.

At the same time, Zheng Jing, carrying the evil spirit, used his tall body like a battering ram, and crashed headfirst into a new room that suddenly appeared on the other side of the corridor.

"Hey—whoosh!"

As soon as he entered the room, Zheng Jing twisted his waist and threw the evil spirit to the ground.

"cough--"

The spine bore such a heavy force that even a demon who had once been one of the Twelve Demon Moons couldn't help but cough up a mouthful of hot blood.

But a ghost is a ghost after all. For an ordinary person, the fall that would allow them to skip the ambulance process and go straight to the hearse would only cause them pain and dizziness.

Before he could recover, Zheng Jing had already stepped on his chest.

"You—you—what did you do to the rare blood—"

Despite being trampled under Zheng Jing's feet, the evil spirit didn't rush to struggle. Instead, it frantically shouted at Zheng Jing.

The term "rare blood" refers to humans who possess rare blood types.

The most common way for a ghost to become stronger, besides receiving a gift from a scoundrel, is to eat people.

Generally speaking, the more people who eat it, the stronger the ghost becomes.

For a demon, consuming a human with rare blood is as effective as consuming dozens or even hundreds of people!

As one of the former Twelve Demon Moons, this demon named Kyōkai wants to return to the ranks of the Twelve Demon Moons and regain the trust of that lord.

Therefore, his solution was to eat more people—especially more "thin blood"!

Yesterday, he was extremely lucky to find a rare blood type.

But just as he brought the rare blood home and was about to eat it, two ghosts, drawn by the scent of the rare blood, broke into the mansion.

The three evil spirits started fighting over the rare blood.

In the chaos of battle, one of the drums on Xiang Kai's body was knocked off. The man with the rare blood seized the opportunity to pick up the drum and used it to fight off three evil spirits in the mansion...

When Xiang Kai saw Zheng Jing appear with that drum, he knew that this suddenly appearing human had most likely already met the rare blood.

—I have indeed seen it.

That's right, the rare blood that Xiang Kai mentioned is the eldest brother of the brother and sister outside, the boy named Qing.

When Zheng Jing met him, he was in extremely poor physical and mental condition due to excessive blood loss and fear.

So after using the ripples to treat his body, Zheng Jingxian led him out of the mansion and sent him back to the brother and sister who were waiting obediently outside the mansion.

After that, Zheng Jingcai picked up the small drum and returned to the mansion.

Following the sound, Zheng Jing, no longer having any scruples, charged recklessly, and after casually killing the second ghost in the mansion, he quickly found Xiang Kai, the last unlucky guy.

"Hey."

Hearing Xiang Kai's words, Zheng Jing grinned.

He raised his fist, as big as a vinegar jar, aimed at Xiang Kai's head.

"If you have anything to say, go and say it to my Dragon Elephant Prajna Skill!"

Chapter Thirteen: Can I indulge him?

Just as he had no idea why he was being suppressed in strength by a human, Xiang Kai had no idea about the Dragon Elephant Prajna Technique.

However, seeing Zheng Jing unarmed, Xiang Kai remained calm and composed.

Having been one of the Twelve Demon Moons, this was naturally not his first time facing a Demon Slayer Corps member.

In Hikaru's view, these ignorant mortals would be no threat to him once they lost the weapon called the Nichirin Blade.

In Xiang Kai's eyes, Zheng Jing before him was the same.

So what if you're strong?

Is he a good fighter?

There will always be times when you're physically exhausted.

Then it will be his turn.

With this thought in mind, when he saw Zheng Jing's fist heading straight for his face, Xiang Kai was still thinking about how to find that rare [rare blood] later.

For him, the most urgent task was to quickly find the [rare blood] and swallow it all to prevent any further trouble.

As for Zheng Jing?

If he weren't currently unable to defeat Zheng Jing, who clearly possessed abundant stamina, he would have already—

"Oh!"

A punch crackling with golden lightning struck Xiang Kai squarely on the nose. In an instant, the flesh of his nose melted into the filthy blood, like a piece of lard thrown into a hot pan, and flowed straight into Xiang Kai's rotten mouth, where half of his teeth had been broken.

In an instant, salty, sour, and spicy flavors were all poured into his mouth at once.

"you you--"

Xiang Kai struggled wildly as he was stabbed, but he couldn't break free from the foot that was pressing down on him. He could only make indistinct noises.

He couldn't understand why Zheng Jing's punch felt like being slapped by the midday sun.

Xiang Kai hadn't experienced this excruciating, burning pain for countless years.

"You actually dared to agree?!"

As Zheng Jing spoke, he punched Xiang Kai in the eye socket again, causing half of Xiang Kai's head to explode. The flesh and bones, red and white, were burned into black ashes in the golden lightning.

Upon realizing that the injury inflicted by Zheng Jing's punch seemed unable to heal itself through the demon's regenerative abilities as usual, Xiang Kai truly panicked.

"and many more--"

"Bang!!"

The third punch was swift and decisive, turning the remaining half of Xiang Kai's terrified face into scattered ashes.

"Pah, why are you wasting your breath talking to me?"

Zheng Jing shook his hand and spat at the headless corpse as he straightened up.

Not only do they kidnap innocent teenagers, but they also eat people. What's the point of wasting words with this kind of guy?

If he hadn't already killed two of them and vented his anger, Zheng Jing would have torn the drums off this guy's body piece by piece before tearing him apart alive.

Three punches were enough to send him to meet the King of Hell; that was too lenient.

After taking a deep breath, Zheng Jing turned and left the room.

Kyokai's death restored the mansion's layout, which had been in disarray due to the Blood Demon Art, to its original state.

As soon as Zheng Jing left the room, he walked a few steps along the corridor and saw the staircase leading to the first floor.

"Old Zheng!"

Just as Zheng Jing was about to go downstairs, Tanjiro came into his view first.

Upon seeing Zheng Jing, he took three steps at a time, leaped up the stairs to the second floor, grabbed Zheng Jing's hands, and carefully examined him from head to toe.

"What are you doing? You only realize now that I'm incredibly handsome?"

Zheng Jing rubbed Tanjiro's hand away and grinned.

"Want to learn? Unfortunately, I can't teach you. That's how gifted players are."

Seeing that Zheng Jing was still acting so irreverently, Tanjiro shook his head, both amused and exasperated.

When the small drum, which most likely originated from that demon, suddenly disappeared, Tanjiro, who had fought against the Blood Demon Art, knew that this most likely meant that the owner of the mansion, that powerful demon, was dead.

The victor in this battle is self-evident.

This made Tanjiro both happy and relieved.

Everything happened so fast.

By the time he realized what kind of effect the drum might have, he and Zenitsu had been moved to some unknown location within the mansion, and they had no idea how far they were from Jeong Kyeong.

Fortunately, before he could choose between searching on foot or trying his luck by constantly beating the drum, the small drum that had taken him and Sun-il away, leaving Jung-kyung to fight the evil spirit alone, suddenly turned into ashes.

"...Are you really not injured anywhere, Lao Zheng?"

"Injured? He's just a little Karami, what strength does he have?"

Zheng Jing curled his lip.

"Zheng Jing is very capable, I understand that now, but..."