One, a handsome, scholar-like man with refined features.
One, a large, burly man with knotted muscles.
The veteran from Zhongzhou Team Four, Leozhy, and the captain, Wokeng!
Both lay on the ground with the color of death on their faces. Leozhy's body had been severed in two, and Wokeng's body was covered in wolf-like fur, stained with bright red blood.
'Truly unexpected.'
Lexon raised an eyebrow, sighing inwardly.
At the same time, he couldn't help but lament the veterans' bad luck in running into Muzan.
Seeing that the other party didn't respond, Muzan frowned but didn't act rashly.
The sword at the other person's waist indicated his identity as a member of the Demon Slayer Corps.
And his experience of being seriously injured and almost killed by Yoriichi Tsugikuni centuries ago had long since made Muzan much more cautious. He had grown a lot and wouldn't attack easily without knowing his opponent's capabilities.
He would lie low if he could and would never strike recklessly. If he had to strike, he would have his subordinates do it.
Suddenly, Muzan sensed a familiar aura.
It was coming from the burlap sack the other person was carrying...
Muzan's brows knitted together.
"Gyokko!"
He suddenly called out, his face icy.
Instantly, the burlap sack in Lexon's hand began to squirm violently. The thing inside was struggling continuously and let out an impassioned, grief-stricken voice.
"Lord Muzan, save me! Save me!!!"
"Silence."
This cold, restraining command was not spoken by Lexon, but by Muzan.
The Gyokko in the sack immediately fell silent as a winter cicada.
To Muzan, Gyokko's only value was that the pots he made could be sold for money.
"What do you want?" Muzan asked Lexon again.
But Lexon still didn't respond, lost in some unknown thought.
The next moment, a thick, ink-like oppressive aura suddenly erupted from Muzan's body, aimed at Lexon, and crushed down upon him.
In that instant, Lexon felt as if he were a lone boat in the middle of a vast ocean, swaying and on the verge of capsizing.
'Is the gap really that big...'
Even under the heavy pressure of the aura, Lexon's mind was still clear, and he devoted himself completely to feeling the power difference between himself and Muzan.
[Demonization]
After getting a rough idea of the gap, Lexon activated his demonization without hesitation.
His hair gradually grew longer, and the color within his eyes turned a deep black, as profound as an abyss, from which not even light could escape.
Strange, narrow patterns, red as blood, gradually appeared on his cheeks, like the grotesque paintings of a ritual.
The flesh of his neck folded back, and a greedy, evil gaze shot out from within, as if prying into everything in the world.
An extremely ominous and bizarre aura spread from the demonized Lexon's body, counteracting and washing away the aura Muzan had directed at him.
"A demon?"
Muzan's tone was surprised and puzzled.
'He's a demon, yet he's not under my control.'
He found that there was no trace of his blood in the other's body at all.
It was a known fact that even demons like Tamayo and Yushiro, who had been modified and were not under Muzan's control, still had traces of his blood in their bodies.
Because no matter what, Muzan was the first demon. All demons were born from him.
But now, Lexon was completely beyond Muzan's comprehension.
'What's going on?'
Muzan couldn't understand.
His face grew even colder, as if it were about to frost over.
Too many unexpected things had happened today. First, that demon hunter with Yoriichi Tsugikuni's earrings, then three reckless fools who dared to attack him, one of whom could even turn into a wolf-like creature! Another one even escaped using some unknown method! And now, he had even encountered a demon who could turn into a demon and was completely unrelated to him!
Muzan felt that too many strange things had happened today.
But the next moment, a look of excitement suddenly appeared on Muzan's face.
"You can switch between human and demon?"
His voice trembled with excitement.
As everyone knew, a demon's greatest natural enemy was the sun. Being able to switch between human and demon meant that one would no longer fear the sun and could bask in the sunlight freely.
Muzan, who prided himself on being a "perfect creature," always felt immense pain at the thought that he could only exist in darkness. This was also the reason for his thousand-year obsession with finding the Blue Spider Lily.
But now, an opportunity to once again bask in the sunlight was right in front of him. How could he not be excited! How could he not be thrilled!
"How did you do it! How did you do it!" Muzan shouted excitedly, desperate to get an answer from Lexon.
"Wouldn't you like to know~" a hoarse, eerie voice came from Lexon's mouth.
"If I eat you! If I eat you, maybe I can become like you!" The blood vessels on Muzan's body bulged, his suit ripped, and several ferocious whips suddenly sprouted from his body.
They lashed out at Lexon with terrifying speed.
The entire narrow alley was encompassed within the whips' attack range.
It was completely unavoidable.
Lexon had no intention of dodging either.
"Mist Breathing, Second Form..."
This was a new sword form he had developed on his way to Kyoto after defeating Gyokko.
He activated his breathing technique and continuously swung his Nichirin Sword, a dense fog gathering on the blade.
With each swing, each slash, as the number of swings and slashes increased, the mist continuously stacked and compressed on the blade.
The moment the fastest whip reached Lexon, he swung his Nichirin Sword to meet it, and they collided.
"Great Fog Blaze!"
The condensed mist exploded in an instant. The violently rushing fog blasted all the whips back.
"Mist?"
Before Muzan could react further, the dense fog had already covered the entire alley.
"No damage?"
Muzan found that the dense fog was not harmful in any way.
But the next moment, he felt that something was wrong.
The mist throughout the alley actually began to burn, and at a very fast rate! The temperature suddenly soared, and all the mist instantly transformed into a raging, devouring black flame that swept through and burned everything in the alley.
The black flame was shocking to the eye, soul-stirring.
It only stopped after everything in the alley had been turned to black charcoal, and there was nothing left to burn.
'Black flames?'
At this moment, Lexon was also a little surprised.
The "Great Fog Blaze" he had experimented with before, when he discovered that Mist Breathing could switch between water and fire properties, was not black flame, nor did it have this quality of seemingly wanting to burn everything to ashes.
'It must be a buff from my demonized state,' Lexon thought.
The alley was now filled with the traces of a fierce fire, leaving only a few charred human-shaped objects that emitted a foul, burnt smell.
Even Muzan had been burned to a crisp.
"Crack."
Muzan's charred body suddenly made a cracking sound. Pieces of the charred skin fell off, revealing the pale, tender body of Muzan underneath.
His face, as pale as paper and completely bloodless, showed a cold and sinister expression.
He realized that his opponent was a bit tricky and that he couldn't kill him easily.
'Time to go.'
Lexon thought.
The impact on his hand from the collision of the whip and his Nichirin Sword made Lexon understand that even in his demonized state, he was still no match for Muzan, so he planned to run.
[Reviews - Power St0nes - Comments are highly appreciated to keep me going.....(+50 chapters) patre0n.c0m/talecrafter]