Amidst the swirling black smoke, Rui’s body was flung backward, crashing heavily into a large tree.
With a thud!
Rui slammed into the tree. After a loud crash, the tree snapped, falling backward.
Bai Ye didn’t pause. He repositioned himself and then…
Teleportation!
Bai Ye flickered, appearing instantly before Rui. He raised the Nanming Lihuo Sword and thrust forward.
Rui quickly dodged. The Nanming Lihuo Sword struck the broken tree trunk behind him, cleaving it in two.
After creating distance between himself and Bai Ye, Rui gasped for breath.
Bai Ye turned, looking at Rui again.
“Can we end this now?” Bai Ye asked. “Jumping around won’t save you.”
Bang!
The moment Bai Ye spoke, he leaped forward again, the Nanming Lihuo Sword slashing ahead.
Rui swiftly raised his hand, a large amount of spider silk erupting from his fingertips, rapidly forming a defensive web.
Bai Ye smirked.
That spider silk wouldn’t stop the Nanming Lihuo Sword!
But…
The spider silk Rui condensed suddenly turned blood-red. Then…
Clang!
Bai Ye’s Nanming Lihuo Sword struck the spider silk. He forcefully dragged the silk, slashing across Rui’s neck, followed by a crisp metallic ringing sound.
Rui’s expression contorted, and he roared at Bai Ye, “This is the hardest silk! You can’t cut it, can you!”
As he spoke, Rui pushed the spider web, shoving Bai Ye away!
Bai Ye stumbled back several steps. He looked at Rui and said, “Twelve Kizuki, you do have some tricks up your sleeve!”
Twelve Kizuki represented the twelve strongest demons below the Demon King.
Thinking about it, Bai Ye felt it wasn’t entirely surprising that Rui could withstand a blow from the Nanming Lihuo Sword.
Meanwhile…
Rui suddenly unleashed a massive amount of spider silk, enveloping himself in a cocoon. “Let me show you my strongest Blood Demon Art, Spinning Spider Thread!”
In an instant, the cocoon encasing Rui began to spin at high speed.
The next moment, strands of spider silk shot out in all directions.
The hardness of the spider silk dramatically increased, and its power amplified severalfold.
Boom, boom, boom!
The flying spider silk struck the ground, shattering it. It hit trees, and they snapped.
In that instant, the spinning spider silk swept out like hundreds, even thousands, of blades, fanning out in every direction, leaving no blind spots, aiming to shred everything around into pieces.
Bai Ye took a breath and raised the Nanming Lihuo Sword in his hand.
“While it’s not entirely surprising that you could block one strike from the Nanming Lihuo Sword, but…” Bai Ye said, “You used all your strength to block that sword, while I…”
Bai Ye slowly let go. The Nanming Lihuo Sword didn’t fall to the ground but hovered in mid-air!
“I haven’t even used my full power yet!”
Instantly, the Nanming Lihuo Sword blazed with light.
“Lihuo Shocks the Heavens!”
In a flash, the radiance erupting from the Nanming Lihuo Sword spread outwards like spilled mercury!
The radiance was a deep azure, billowing in the wind like a raging inferno.
In that instant…
Within the flame-like radiance, countless swords rose!
Each fiery sword fanned out in all directions, suspended in the air, arranged in a wondrous formation.
That was, unmistakably…
A Sword Array!
Lihuo Shocks the Heavens (Utilizes Lihuo to form a sword array, combining offense and defense)
Bai Ye waved his hand. “End this!”
With a roar!
As Bai Ye’s voice fell, the burning Lihuo Swords suddenly exploded. Then…
A pillar of azure fire instantly engulfed the surroundings, rising into the sky and transforming into a fiery column that ascended to the heavens.
The chosen ones still wandering in Mount Natagumo looked up at the sky in astonishment.
At the foot of the mountain, the Demon Slayer Corps’ rescue finally arrived. Tanjiro Kamado and Inosuke, supporting Zenitsu Agatsuma, looked towards the summit with expressions of horror.
It was a magnificent spectacle, an azure pillar of fire reaching for the clouds.
The mountain forest seemed as if a giant hand had gouged out a section.
Even the clouds in the sky were shattered by the fiery pillar as it shot upwards.
Within the mountain, Rui’s face was filled with terror.
His proud spider silk was utterly vulnerable before the Lihuo of the Nanming Lihuo Sword, swallowed by the azure flames almost in the blink of an eye.
The cocoon formed by the spider silk was not only capable of offense but also excellent in defense.
But…
It was all for naught!
The spider silk wrapped around Rui began to melt rapidly. Soon, Rui’s body reappeared, consumed by the flames.
The burning sensation, the scorching pain, contorted Rui’s expression.
He felt death!
This was a feeling difficult for demons to experience. After all, as long as demons weren’t killed, they possessed infinite life. As a Twelve Kizuki, they mostly played the role of hunters.
This was Rui’s first time feeling the approach of death.
Pain, unwillingness, ferocity, fear, struggle, and then…
Rui suddenly became calm.
Rui remembered his childhood, his frail and sickly self, which had always made his parents despondent. Despite their best efforts, they couldn't restore his health.
Then…
That Demon King appeared. He granted Rui’s wish, turning him into a demon.
After becoming a demon, he was no longer sickly.
He possessed infinite life.
His parents no longer had to worry, no longer had to be despondent because of him.
But why did they want to kill him?
Because he was a demon?
Why? Why?
Why!
He had become a demon for them, so they wouldn’t have to worry, yet they wanted to kill him?
Why!
These weren’t his parents; they definitely weren’t. True parents wouldn’t want to kill him.
But he missed them so much, he really missed them…
Rui looked up at the sky. In that moment, he seemed to see his young self, held in his parents’ arms, his father smiling faintly, his mother gently telling stories, lulling him to sleep.
Then…
Rui closed his eyes, his body consumed by fire!
“You have completed the Restricted Area mission, eliminating the controller of the Spider Demon family, the Lower Rank Five of the Twelve Kizuki. Mission rewards: Demon Blood x1, Random Blood Demon Art (Spider Demon) x1, Shard of God Stone x15.”
“All Restricted Area missions are now complete. Surviving participants will be returned to the Mount Natagumo (Supernatural) area in three minutes. Please prepare yourselves.”