If the idea of maintaining Total Concentration Breathing for an entire day had rely shocked Tanjiro, then the truth about the Demon Slayer Mark left him cold with fear.
Those who awakened it later in life would not live past twenty-five.
Tanjiro's face paled.
"Then... won't I die young too?"
The words had barely left his mouth before Alex snapped, "Don't interrupt ."
"Ah—sorry!" Tanjiro hurriedly apologized. "I got too worked up. Please continue."
Inside Asuramaru, Alex gathered his thoughts again before speaking.
"You'll be fine. I can heal the damage caused by the Demon Slayer Mark."
Tanjiro finally let out the breath he had been holding.
Relief washed over him, but only for a mont.
Alex's tone grew more serious.
"The final stage of Breathing Styles is called the Supre Realm. Its na is the Transparent World."
Tanjiro listened closely, every word carving itself into his mind.
"Once you enter the Transparent World, your evasion and predictive ability will rise to an extraordinary level. Your enemies will appear transparent to you. Their muscles, bones, blood flow, and weaknesses will beco clear at a glance."
Alex paused, then added, "You can also conceal your own fighting spirit. In history, very few people have ever reached that realm."
Tanjiro fell silent.
This was the first ti he had learned that Breathing Styles had such depths.
Total Concentration Breathing: Constant.
The Demon Slayer Mark.
The Transparent World.
Each stage sounded more distant than the last, like a peak hidden above the clouds. For a mont, self-doubt crept into his heart.
Could he truly reach sothing like that?
Could he awaken the Mark?
Could he enter the Transparent World?
Alex seed to sense his uncertainty and spoke with a hint of amusent.
"You don't need to look so defeated. Have so confidence. Your father once entered the Transparent World."
"What?!"
Tanjiro froze completely.
His father?
That frail, gentle man who had always seed so sickly, yet could dance the Hinokami Kagura through the snow without stopping?
For a mont, Tanjiro rembered his father's figure beneath the falling snow, his calm breathing, his steady movents, and the final words he had left behind.
Sothing that had once seed distant and hazy now began to take shape.
Alex did not stop there.
"And didn't you want to know about Yoriichi Tsugikuni?"
Tanjiro's eyes widened.
"You can tell ?"
He had wondered about that na ever since Asakusa.
Why did Muzan fear him so much?
Why had a re resemblance been enough to make the Demon King tremble?
"There's no harm in telling you," Alex said calmly.
Then he began to speak.
"Yoriichi Tsugikuni lived around three or four hundred years ago. He can be called the strongest swordsman in history. He was the creator of Sun Breathing, the origin of all Breathing Styles."
Tanjiro held his breath.
"Back then, Yoriichi completed his sword technique in a single instant and cut Muzan to the brink of death. But just before Muzan could be killed, he split his body into more than eighteen hundred pieces and scattered in every direction."
Alex's voice remained even, but the words struck with trendous weight.
"Yoriichi cut down over fifteen hundred of those pieces in an instant. But in the end, Muzan escaped."
Tanjiro's hands tightened around the shovel.
"After that," Alex continued, "Muzan hid himself away and refused to appear again. Only after Yoriichi Tsugikuni died did he dare to resurface."
It was only a brief account.
Yet even from those few sentences, Tanjiro could feel the overwhelming strength of that man.
A swordsman who had driven Muzan Kibutsuji into such terror that the Demon King hid until his death.
Then Alex spoke again.
"Although Yoriichi Tsugikuni died, Sun Breathing did not vanish. It was passed down. And the one who inherited it back then was your ancestor."
Tanjiro's thoughts stopped.
Then everything connected at once.
His father's dance.
The earrings.
The ritual passed down through the Kamado family.
He asked carefully, almost afraid of the answer.
"Could it be... the Hinokami Kagura?"
"You guessed correctly."
Alex's answer was direct.
"Your father was not a swordsman, so he never trained Sun Breathing as a sword technique. But you are different. You have the potential to learn it."
The truth ca too suddenly.
Tanjiro felt as though a door had opened before him, revealing a path he had never known existed.
A path connected to his family.
To his father.
To Yoriichi Tsugikuni.
To Muzan Kibutsuji.
Then another question erged in his heart.
"So..." Tanjiro hesitated. "Is that why you chose ?"
Alex answered without any emotional change.
"I did not choose you because of your potential to learn Sun Breathing. What moved was always your firm resolve for revenge."
Of course, the truth was that the system had forced him.
But there was no need to say that.
Tanjiro smiled brightly.
"You must have your own reasons. But thank you for choosing anyway."
"Stop saying useless things," Alex replied. "Start training your Breathing Style now."
"Right!"
Tanjiro imdiately focused his breathing.
He continued digging graves while trying to maintain the rhythm of Total Concentration Breathing. At first, he managed it with determination, but before long, his lungs burned as if they were about to burst.
Whenever he reached his limit, Alex used Demon Power to restore him.
Ti passed quietly.
By the ti dusk approached, all the dead had finally been buried.
The setting sun dyed the horizon red.
Night was coming.
After the group paid their respects before the graves, a Kasugai Crow descended from the sky, flapping its wings as it circled above them.
"Go down the mountain! Go down the mountain! Follow !"
After giving its order, the crow flew ahead to lead the way.
Tanjiro and the others said goodbye to the four survivors, then followed after it.
Under the fading twilight, the three Demon Slayers made their way down the mountain path.
It was then that Alex warned Tanjiro.
"Be careful. Demons may attack tonight."
"I'll stay alert."
Tanjiro rested one hand on Asuramaru at his waist. The familiar weight gave him an unprecedented sense of security.
Then he turned to warn the others.
"Demons might attack us tonight. Please be careful, both of you."
Inosuke imdiately beca excited.
"I don't care how many demons show up! I'll kill them all! Hahahaha!"
Zenitsu's face twisted in horror.
"What happened?! Why would demons co to ambush us?!"
Then he paused and glanced at Tanjiro.
On second thought, with soone as strong as Tanjiro here, one or two demons probably would not be that much of a problem.
That thought cald him down.
Slightly.
The group continued down the winding mountain road, following the Kasugai Crow until night had fully fallen.
Then, while they were walking along the small path, Alex's voice suddenly rang out in Tanjiro's mind.
"Demons are rushing toward you. Be careful."
A pause.
"There are thirteen of them this ti."
Tanjiro's expression changed.
Thirteen?
Only after taking a few more steps did his nose catch the scent.
Blood.
Rot.
The unmistakable stench of demons.
The odors were layered together, surging into his nostrils all at once.
Without exception, every scent belonged to a demon.
Beside him, Zenitsu's ears twitched.
He slowly turned his head, face stiff.
"Did... did you two hear sothing?"
Tanjiro did not hide it.
"Demons. Thirteen of them are approaching from ahead."
Zenitsu's face collapsed.
"Thir... thirteen?"
His knees hit the ground.
"Why are there so many demons?! I'm going to die here! I haven't even gotten married yet!"
Inosuke snorted and drew his twin Nichirin swords.
"What's so scary about thirteen demons? I'll cut every last one of them down!"
Tanjiro drew Asuramaru from his waist.
The black sword glead beneath the moonlight.
"I'm counting on you, Asuramaru."
.....
[If you don't want to wait for the next update, read 50 chapters ahead on P@treon.]
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