Kyogoku House came crashing down at last, finally jolting the courtesans and customers awake. With blood streaming from their heads, they fled outside in a panic. The enormous noise shocked all of Yoshiwara, making even the stubborn people Hinatsuru had failed to persuade realize that death had already drawn near.
The sudden onset of night had already unsettled many people. Now, panic boiled over completely. The crowd scrambled to flee Yoshiwara, racing toward the light outside.
Luke turned in midair and landed atop a building beside Kyogoku House, looking down at the five Explorers and Daki, who had been cut in half at the waist.
"Your reaction speed isn’t bad."
Luke looked down at Daki. Her overall attributes were not much higher than Steel Cannon’s, yet Daki had reacted in time. That showed that even a pampered Demon like her had developed a certain fighting instinct over centuries—one stronger than that of a first-stage Explorer.
"Aah—It hurts so much! Damn it!"
Daki screamed after being sliced into two. She desperately tried to reconnect the halves of her body, only to find that they were incredibly difficult to close together.
She had fought many Demon Slayers in the past. Even against Hashira, as long as her head was not severed, she could quickly reconnect injuries such as lost limbs or being cut in half. Yet for some reason, recovering from this wound was extremely difficult.
"Fuck, the other side has a god-tier carry!"
The Explorer carrying the tower shield, whose charge had missed, cursed furiously. At last, he realized something was seriously wrong.
They had thought this world was far too strange from the beginning. Endspace would never hand them an easy world as though it were a benefit. Muzan’s faction already held an enormous advantage, and there were thirty-three Explorers who had chosen Muzan’s side—eleven times the number on the other side. How was the Demon Slayer Corps supposed to stand a chance?
Now, though, it seemed that was not the case. The other side might only have three Explorers, but they were likely all superhuman monsters like the man before them—absurdly powerful.
How many days had they even been in this world? He had already learned Thunder Breathing? And wielded it with such mastery that he had cut the entirety of Kyogoku House in half with one slash!
"Steel Plate, don’t be scared. Trust your durability!"
The white-robed swordsman landed beside the main tank and stared gravely at Luke above them. "No matter how strong he is, he’s only one man. We have the power of teamwork."
"But he’s too fast. My Blood Demon Art can’t even hit him."
Moore, the team’s seductive, curvaceous female mage, crawled from the ruins with her brows tightly furrowed. She had thought acquiring a Demon bloodline would let her soar in Endspace, only to run into an awkward situation so quickly.
Muzan’s Demon bloodline was one of the most useful early-stage bloodlines for low-level mages. It offered high regeneration and high resistance, vastly improving a mage’s odds of survival. The attributes it granted also compensated for the weakness of a mage’s physical body.
She was a top-tier first-stage mage with thirty points of Spirit, the team’s main source of damage. Yet she now discovered, to her embarrassment, that her spells could not hit Luke.
"Yu, Thunder Breathing counters the two of us too hard. He’s impossible to lock onto."
The sniper spoke as well, his expression grim.
"It’s fine. Steel Plate and I will tie him down. Then the rest of you make your move."
As Yu spoke, he stepped forward. His aura steadily climbed, and beneath the moonlight, the markings in his eyes became visible: Upper Rank Nine.
"Looks like you’re all there is."
After sweeping his senses around the area, Luke spoke with a trace of regret.
After the chaos he had caused just now, the crowd had already fled toward the outskirts of Yoshiwara. There were barely any humans left nearby.
Although he had cut Kyogoku House in two, he had deliberately avoided the people inside through his prior perception. Since it was a wooden structure, the collapsed building left plenty of open spaces, and no one had been crushed to death. Injuries, however, were unavoidable.
Several figures were already crawling out through the windows. Without needing anyone to tell them, they fled toward the perimeter in blind terror.
"Well then, the field is more or less cleared. Time to start harvesting."
Luke stood atop the building. Under the moonlight, his Zanpakuto trembled lightly, and purple-black mist spread through the air. Chains coiled around his right arm like vines as he entered Shikai.
To the Explorers below, Luke’s figure seemed to grow even larger. Pressure bore down from above, and the invisible baleful aura and killing intent made their legs tremble involuntarily.
"The difference in our levels is too huge..."
The sniper’s voice shook. He was certain that Luke had killed people even before entering Endspace, and that his combat mastery was now at a very high level. That kind of presence was fundamentally different from theirs.
Even with higher base attributes, they could not suppress this man. They had thought themselves hunters waiting for a rabbit to walk into their trap. Instead, what had entered their snare was not a harmless rabbit, but a savage tiger!
"What is going on? I was cut in half—why can’t I regenerate...?"
Daki could feel the invisible pressure radiating from Luke as well. Her voice was shrill, tinged with fear. At this point, she no longer resented the newly joined Upper and Lower Ranks for coming to Yoshiwara. She only wanted this black-clad man dead as quickly as possible, so that inexplicable sense of danger in her heart would disappear.
"Brother, I’m being bullied—!"
She cried out in a spoiled, plaintive voice. A bulge rose from her back, and another Demon emerged.
Unlike his sister’s breathtaking beauty, her brother, Gyutaro, was hideously ugly.
His sclera were yellow. The irises of his left and right eyes bore the characters "Six" and "Upper Rank" respectively. His hair was a mix of black and green, his bare upper body had pale gray skin, and he wore loose blue trousers on his lower half. Red-and-black ribbons were wrapped around both his arms.
Luke used his scouting skill on him and obtained Gyutaro’s detailed status.
[Twelve Kizuki: Upper Rank Six—Gyutaro]
Constitution: 36
Strength: 33
Agility: 33
Spirit: 20
Charm: 2
[Because the Pioneer’s Spirit attribute far exceeds the target’s, partial details of his skills and bloodline can be obtained.]
Advanced Man-Eating Demon Bloodline: Possesses extremely high physical regeneration. As long as its head is not severed by the power of the sun or it is not exposed to sunlight, it can regenerate at superhuman speed from ordinary physical injuries.
This bloodline grants its owner extremely high overall attribute bonuses. Consuming humans can further improve one’s base strength, but once the limit is reached, consuming humans will no longer increase power.
The bearer of this bloodline gains formidable defense and can withstand powerful physical attacks. The neck receives an even greater degree of reinforcement.
Blood Demon Art: Flying Blood Sickles: Gyutaro can turn his own blood into razor-thin blades and fire them. These thin blades are highly poisonous, and after being launched, can alter their flight paths according to Gyutaro’s will.
Blood Demon Art: Rampant Arc: Causes blood slashes to circle around his body for all-round defense. This move can block an opponent’s large-scale attacks.
Blood Demon Art: Circular Slash Rotation—Flying Blood Sickles: Wraps spiraling blood slashes around his hands, typically used during close-quarters blade clashes with an opponent.
One glance at Gyutaro’s status panel was enough for Luke to understand why the Upper Rank Demons had dominated for centuries without dying. Gyutaro alone had eaten fifteen Hashira.
The Upper Rank Demons’ base stats were simply too high. Combined with well-developed Blood Demon Arts and combat experience accumulated over centuries, ordinary Hashira had great difficulty standing against them.
That was why the Hashira who could kill Upper Ranks in the original story were genuine geniuses. To develop their human bodies to a higher realm through Breathing Styles at such a young age, then temporarily rival Upper Rank Demons in raw attributes during the explosive state of Total Concentration Breathing, was no easy feat.
Still, aside from the Stone Hashira, no matter how hard the other Hashira trained, their stats could at best reach the level of Upper Rank Four. In an actual battle, they still had to rely on numbers or technique.
Before entering this world, Luke’s overall attributes had already reached twenty-seven. His highest attribute, Constitution, had risen to thirty-one with the boost from his title, while his Spirit stood at thirty.
In terms of raw stats alone, after Prison Demon entered Shikai, he was not that much weaker than Gyutaro.
"Stop crying. Your face is so pretty—it would be a shame if crying ruined it."
Gyutaro separated from Daki’s body. His hoarse voice was languid as he stroked his sister’s face. "You were only cut in half at the waist. Just put yourself back together."
"But, Brother, it’s so hard to reconnect..."
Daki spoke through her tears. "I really worked hard while you were away, but that guy came here first thing in the morning to bully me. He cut me up like this."
Gyutaro gently patted his sister’s back to soothe her while lending her his own power to reconnect her body. Then he looked at Luke. "You’re pretty capable, aren’t you? To injure my sister while so many people were attacking you..."
His hoarse tone was utterly flat. "...You really took good care of my airheaded little sister."
"Brother, it hurts so much when he cut me... Even after putting myself back together, it still hurts."
Daki raised a hand to wipe away her tears. It was impossible to tell whether she was truly in unbearable pain or simply acting spoiled.
"Yes, yes. What an unforgivable crime..."
Gyutaro’s voice gradually rose, as did his killing intent. His gaze locked onto Luke. "Everyone who bullies my sister, I’ll kill them all."
Invisible killing intent collided in the air. Luke watched the crowd fleeing in the distance, then bared a mouthful of white teeth in a grin. "Is that so? Then let me bully her a little more..."
As he spoke, lightning erupted across the rooftop, and countless roof tiles sprayed out behind Luke.
A godspeed slash empowered by Thunder Breathing streaked toward Daki’s slender, pale neck!
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