Sanemi Shinazugawa was somewhat puzzled as he watched the Upper Rank demon, which had been about to charge at him, suddenly stop midway and become incredibly agitated.
But the Nichirin Sword in his hand did not slow its swing because of this.
"Wind Breathing, Second Form: Claws—Purifying Wind!"
A fierce wind rose, and with a vertical slash of his Nichirin Sword, four claw-like slashes shot out, rushing towards Gyokko with the force of a gale.
"Lord Muzan!" Gyokko howled excitedly and forcibly pushed through the slashes, continuing his charge towards Sanemi.
...
'Why did he suddenly get so agitated...'
Still sitting on a tree branch watching the two fight, Lexon thought, propping his chin on his hand.
His thoughts turned quickly, and he soon came up with a rough answer.
'Muzan must have sent him a message...'
'He's not planning a direct assault, is he?'
Lexon thought.
'Muzan is so timid, having laid low for so long... it's unlikely...'
'But I still can't let my guard down...'
'I need to speed up the acquisition of strength through sign-ins.'
Thoughts continuously surfaced in Lexon's mind.
In Lexon's own opinion, his current strength in his demonized form should be about the same as Muzan's.
But he felt that it was still not enough.
Strength comparable to Muzan's was not enough.
He wanted enough strength to completely crush Muzan Kibutsuji. Only then could he do what he wanted without being obstructed or restricted.
"First, I'll discard the unnecessary and strive for what's more needed."
Lexon muttered to himself.
'What's more needed right now... Tanjiro's Hinokami Kagura, the physical fitness of the Hashira, and their more useful breathing styles.'
'Things like Beast Breathing, I'll give up on those for now.'
'After all, breathing styles that can't be fused can't increase my combat power by much.'
'And I can't use multiple breathing styles at the same time...'
'So it's better to focus on some things that are actually useful.'
The struggle between Sanemi and Gyokko soon ended. Sanemi Shinazugawa spent the entire thirty minutes at a complete disadvantage.
Next, Lexon put Gyokko back into the pot.
However, before he put him away, the venomous look in Gyokko's eyes confirmed to him that Muzan was indeed up to something.
After all, it would be strange if the cowardly and terrified Gyokko suddenly became so bold for no reason.
After this contest with the Upper Rank Five, Gyokko, Sanemi deeply understood that there was still a gap in strength between himself and an Upper Rank. Therefore, he no longer had such a bad attitude towards Lexon and instead focused on improving his own strength.
Although this person, Sanemi Shinazugawa, was quick to anger and prone to rage, he could distinguish what was important. After knowing that his strength was indeed insufficient, he would forge ahead and work even harder to improve himself, in order to be able to slay demons and fulfill the mission he carried on his back.
As time went by, through multiple sign-ins on Sanemi Shinazugawa and Tanjiro, Lexon also obtained what he wanted.
[Physical Fitness of the Wind Hashira, Sanemi Shinazugawa: A body tempered through a hundred battles, possessing extremely high reflexes and containing immense power...]
[Wind Breathing - Expert: The result of advancing Wind Breathing. The mastery of this breathing style has reached its peak.]
[Hinokami Kagura: A special breathing technique passed down through the Kamado Tanjiro family, used when dancing to worship the fire god. In essence, it is a breathing style evolved from Sun Breathing.]
Then the sign-in system thoughtfully evolved the Hinokami Kagura into:
[Sun Breathing - Basic: The breathing style created by Yoriichi Tsugikuni, the most powerful breathing style. All other breathing styles are derivatives of Sun Breathing.]
'Only a basic level breathing style...'
Lexon tried to use this breathing style to execute a sword form, but the basic level was indeed just that, basic. The power of the sword form he executed was far inferior to the power of the slashes he made with his expert-level breathing styles.
Was it because Sun Breathing wasn't powerful? Not at all.
The power of a sword form executed with the basic level of Sun Breathing was already completely comparable to the power unleashed by other breathing styles at the proficient level. It was undeniably powerful.
But compared to the many expert-level breathing styles Lexon possessed, it was a bit lacking.
If he wanted to improve his Sun Breathing, he could wait for Tanjiro to gain some insight and improve his understanding of Sun Breathing, and then he could just sign in and get it.
Or he could continuously sign in on Tanjiro's [Sun Breathing - Basic] and stack it to upgrade across levels.
Lexon could also practice and comprehend it himself.
But Lexon felt that this was the worst method.
After all, everything Lexon had regarding breathing styles came from sign-ins. To have to comprehend and learn them was a bit of a challenge for him.
In these dozen or so days, Sanemi had sparred with Gyokko a total of three times.
The first time, he was at a disadvantage. The second time, the battle was close to a draw. The third time, there was a faint trend of him defeating Gyokko.
This couldn't help but make Lexon once again marvel at the talent and potential of this generation of Demon Slayer Corps Hashira.
Under the pressure of high-intensity death battles, to be able to improve one's strength each time was a very remarkable thing.
Next, Sanemi left to carry out a mission, and the replacement Hashira was someone Lexon had not expected.
The Stone Hashira, Gyomei Himejima.
He also seemed to hold a great deal of interest in Gyokko.
But this made Lexon rather pleased. After all, signing in on the strongest Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps was an indispensable thing for him to do while he was here.
Within ten days, Gyomei Himejima fought Gyokko twice.
The first time was a draw. The second time, he had a complete upper hand.
And these results were achieved entirely without opening his mark.
After two times, Gyomei Himejima left.
And Lexon had also obtained what he wanted in these ten days. By the way, he had gone to sign in on Gyomei Himejima every single day of those ten days.
Compared to his passive approach with the other Hashira, Lexon took the initiative with Gyomei Himejima.
Therefore, he signed in for...
[Physical Fitness of the Stone Hashira, Gyomei Himejima: A body tempered through a hundred battles, possessing extremely high reflexes and containing incomparably immense power...]
The power contained in this flesh had an extra adjective, "incomparably," compared to the descriptions of the other Hashira.
This also showed the gap in this aspect between the Hashira.
[Stone Breathing - Expert: The result of advancing Stone Breathing. The mastery of this breathing style has reached its peak.]
[Mark: When the ability of a swordsman who uses a breathing style reaches its peak, different marks will appear on their body, and their strength will be greatly improved. However, most swordsmen who open the mark will die before the age of 25 (Note: The system has removed the side effect of death before the age of 25, but at the same time, it has also removed the resonance effect of a marked swordsman that can cause other swordsmen to awaken theirs.)]
Lexon had obtained the mark he wanted most, and it was one that had been optimized by the system, so he could use it with more peace of mind.
As for the removal of the resonance effect... he was rather indifferent to it.
[Reviews - Power St0nes - Comments are highly appreciated to keep me going.....(+50 chapters) patre0n.c0m/talecrafter]