"I'm not sure I can do it," Tanjiro said honestly, tightening his grip around Asuramaru's hilt, "but I'll do my best."
Even after two years of training, he still did not place blind confidence in himself.
And this was also one of the few tis in those two years that he had fought with Asuramaru again.
As he ventured deeper into Mount Fujikasane, the air changed.
The sll of wisteria gradually thinned, replaced by sothing colder, fouler, heavier.
The scent of demons.
Tanjiro stopped at once.
His right hand closed around the hilt and, in that instant, a strange sense of absolute harmony flowed through him. The sword felt natural in his grasp, almost impossibly so, as though it were not a weapon at all, but another limb attached to his body.
It was nothing like the sword he had used during training.
Not even close.
At the sa mont, Alex was already sweeping the surrounding area with his newly awakened perception.
"A demon's coming from above," he warned imdiately.
Tanjiro reacted on instinct.
He looked up, bent his knees, and sprang into the air in one clean motion. Steel flashed from the scabbard. The mont Asuramaru cleared it, the edge locked onto the demon's neck as if drawn there by fate.
One slash.
The head flew.
By the ti Tanjiro landed, the corpse was already toppling.
But there was no pause.
Another demon lunged from behind, trying to tear into his back while his feet were still touching down.
Alex's voice rang out again.
"Behind you!"
Tanjiro turned with perfect timing and cut again.
The second demon's head spun off just as cleanly as the first.
Both corpses began to break apart, turning to ash in the night wind.
[Ding! Negative emotions detected from a man eating demon before death. Obtained 100 Emotion Points!]
[Ding! Negative emotions detected from a man eating demon before death. Obtained 80 Emotion Points!]
One hundred and eighty points.
Just like that.
In the past, Alex might not have harvested that much in an entire day.
He could not help but sigh inwardly.
If you wanted Emotion Points fast, killing demons really was the answer.
anwhile, Tanjiro stared at Asuramaru in disbelief.
Not only did the sword move exactly as he wished, it was terrifyingly sharp. He had not even used a Breathing Style just now, much less a sword form. Those had been simple, straightforward slashes.
And yet they had severed demon heads with absurd ease.
Seeing Tanjiro still standing there in a daze, Alex imdiately grew impatient.
"Stop staring and move. More are coming."
"All right!"
Tanjiro snapped back to himself, then lifted his head and followed the scent of fear.
Not the scent of a demon.
The scent of a human being hunted.
He turned toward it and saw a man running for his life through the trees, stumbling in panic. Behind him ca a massive demon, huge and grotesque, following at an unhurried pace, as though it were simply enjoying the chase.
It was the first ti Tanjiro had faced sothing that large during the Final Selection.
His breathing faltered slightly.
Fortunately, Alex spoke before hesitation could take root.
"It isn't watching us. Close in and cut its neck before it notices."
Tanjiro gripped the sword with both hands.
"I understand."
He drew in a breath.
Power gathered in his legs. His chest rose and fell in steady rhythm. The mont his breathing aligned, his focus sharpened in an instant.
Ahead of him, the massive demon lifted one of its many arms and stuffed a corpse into its mouth. Its grotesque body was covered in writhing limbs, each one moving with unnatural flexibility. Then, without warning, several of those arms shot forward like springs, stretching across the ground and seizing the fleeing man by the ankle.
The victim scread as he was dragged back.
Alex spoke at once.
"Now!"
Tanjiro moved.
His feet drove into the ground, launching him into the air. As he breathed, mist gathered faintly at the corners of his mouth, and water-like currents seed to flow along the blade.
"Water Breathing, Second Form: Water Wheel!"
His body spun.
The blade traced a brilliant arc through the darkness, the flowing current around it resembling a wheel of water slicing through the night.
The demon did not even have ti to turn.
Its head had already been severed.
It flew through the air, struck the ground, and rolled to a stop several paces away.
Its enormous body collapsed, and both flesh and consciousness began to crumble away.
At the very end, all the demon saw was Tanjiro's back and the fox mask he wore.
"A disciple... of Urokodaki..."
Then its head dissolved as well.
Tanjiro landed lightly and looked at the fading remains. For a brief mont, pity flickered in his eyes.
But only for a mont.
It was quickly replaced by resolve.
[Ding! Negative emotions detected from a man eating demon before death. Obtained 170 Emotion Points!]
Alex was in an excellent mood.
That single kill had already matched what he used to earn over two or three days.
Such a rare opportunity could not be wasted.
"Keep going," he urged. "Do not stop."
"All right."
Tanjiro sheathed the blade and imdiately pressed farther into the mountain.
With his sense of sll guiding him and Alex's perception covering what scent could not, demons had nowhere left to hide. Any demon that wandered too close was found. Any demon that tried to ambush him was cut down first. Any demon that ran was tracked and hunted.
For seven straight days, man and sword turned Mount Fujikasane into a slaughterhouse.
At first, demons still dared to attack.
By the third day, they had started becoming cautious.
By the fifth, most of them had stopped showing themselves entirely.
But hiding was useless.
They could avoid sight.
They could not avoid pursuit.
Tanjiro and Asuramaru swept through the mountain again and again, killing from one end to the other, then turning around and doing it all over again.
There was only one goal.
Leave no demon alive.
Accordingly, the system notifications in Alex's mind never stopped.
[Ding! Negative emotions detected from a man eating demon before death. Obtained 100 Emotion Points!]
[Ding! Negative emotions detected from a man eating demon before death. Obtained 150 Emotion Points!]
[Ding! Negative emotions detected from a man eating demon before death. Obtained 120 Emotion Points!]
[Ding! Negative emotions detected from a man eating demon before death. Obtained 90 Emotion Points!]
...
By the end of the seven days, Tanjiro, wielding Asuramaru, had thoroughly purged Mount Fujikasane. He had swept through it back and forth so many tis that not a single demon slipped through the cracks.
This haul alone earned Alex eighteen thousand Emotion Points.
A seven-day fortune.
And that was not all.
His Demon Power had surged as well, rising from the original 100 all the way to a staggering 400.
At that level, Alex could already manifest a solid avatar in the outside world.
...
When the survivors finally returned to the foot of the mountain, Tanjiro looked around and realized that less than half of those who had entered were coming back out.
The sight made his chest tighten.
Even after all the killing he had done, people had still died.
Self-reproach rose in him almost at once.
Before he could dwell on it for long, however, the two young girls from before appeared once again.
After a brief explanation, each survivor was assigned a Kasugai Crow responsible for relaying orders and information. After that ca the selection of Nichirin Ore for their future Nichirin Blades.
One by one, the survivors stepped forward to look over the tal laid out before them.
Most of them hesitated.
After all, Nichirin Ore was not sothing ordinary people knew how to judge.
Tanjiro stood before it in silence for a mont, then followed instinct. After thinking briefly, he reached out and chose a piece from the center.
Once the selection was complete, they were free to leave.
Tanjiro wasted no ti.
He wanted to bring the news back to Mount Sagiri as quickly as possible.
In less than half a day, he had returned.
Standing before the wooden hut once more, Tanjiro looked at Sakonji Urokodaki and broke into a bright smile.
"I'm back."
A faint smile appeared beneath Sakonji's tengu mask.
"It's good that you're back."
The two entered the hut together.
Tanjiro recounted everything that had happened during the Final Selection, from the beginning of his ti on the mountain to the end.
Sakonji listened quietly.
When Tanjiro finished, the old man was silent for a mont before suddenly saying, "Tanjiro, the sword at your waist is unusual."
His voice grew more serious.
"It is not an ordinary blade, and it is not a Nichirin Blade either. How much do you know about it?"
Tanjiro paused.
He genuinely did not know how to answer that.
So instead, he asked inwardly, "Asuramaru... can I tell Mr. Urokodaki about you?"
Inside the blade, Alex fell into thought.
Based on his understanding of Sakonji Urokodaki, the old man would not spread things carelessly. More importantly, Alex had his own considerations.
Using Sakonji as an information channel might actually be useful.
It could save him a lot of unnecessary trouble later.
And if handled properly, it might even bring him so benefits.
After a brief mont, Alex made up his mind.
In the quiet of the hut, Asuramaru suddenly slid partway from its scabbard on Tanjiro's waist.
Then black mist began to pour from the blade.
It thickened rapidly, rising and twisting in the air until it gradually took on human shape before the eyes of both Tanjiro and Sakonji.
When the mist finally solidified, what stood there was unmistakably a young man.
His long dark purple hair frad a delicate face. Crimson eyes shone with a proud, almost arrogant light. A pair of white horns curved from his forehead, and his presence carried sothing strange and dangerous, beautiful and oppressive at the sa ti.
Tanjiro had already seen this form once inside the blade's inner world, but witnessing him appear in reality was an entirely different feeling.
Even Sakonji's gaze sharpened beneath the mask.
Alex lifted his chin slightly, looking straight at the old man with a faintly challenging expression.
"Old man," he said, voice smooth and cool, "are you really that curious about ?"
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