Boom...
Accompanied by a roaring sound, a huge blast of air vented to the surroundings, overturning the entire courtyard wall of the house in front.
"Hoo..."
Looking at the ruins in front of him, Tanjiro was expressionless.
Obviously.
At the moment Tanjiro swung his sword at Nakime, Nakime activated her Blood Demon Art 'Infinity Castle', trapping Tanjiro inside.
Lifting his sword and slowly getting up, Tanjiro scanned the surroundings and said: "Without replenishment of flesh and blood power, your 'Blood Demon Art' won't last long."
There was no response from the surroundings.
Only streets and houses extending quietly.
Tanjiro sniffed his nose again, seemed to smell something, and with a bang, stomped fiercely on the ground, flying out in one direction like a cannonball.
Whether houses or walls along the way, they were as fragile as paper in front of Tanjiro. He didn't even bother to swing his sword.
Boom...
After crashing through another wall, he finally saw Nakime holding a biwa behind the wall.
Strum!
However, before Tanjiro could swing his sword, Nakime strummed the biwa again. The surrounding space instantly shifted, and Tanjiro was moved to a strange house again.
"Hmph!"
With just a light snort, Tanjiro stomped fiercely on the ground again, rushing out of the house like a cannonball.
After repeating this several times, when Tanjiro found Nakime again, Nakime was obviously panting, showing fatigue on her face. Even the sound of the biwa playing began to be disordered.
Demon's Blood Demon Art was not without consumption, especially for 'Infinity Castle' like Nakime's which manipulated large-scale space, consuming far more flesh and blood power than ordinary Blood Demon Arts.
With Nakime's strength as 'Upper Rank Three', if she replenished flesh and blood power before the battle, she could sustain such consumption for a long time. However, to avoid pursuit by ninjas during this period, she dared not devour humans freely, so she was very weak, causing her to be somewhat unable to continue now.
"Give up!"
Tanjiro didn't rush to swing his sword this time.
Nakime asked: "Who exactly are you?"
Tanjiro replied: "After you fuse with me, you will know everything!"
"Fuse?!"
Nakime looked puzzled.
Tanjiro walked towards Nakime: "No need to question, and futile to resist, accept the fusion!"
Obviously, Tanjiro came all the way to find Nakime not to eliminate this 'Upper Rank Demon' companion, but to fuse Nakime.
The reason was simple, precisely because of Nakime's Blood Demon Art 'Infinity Castle'.
With this Blood Demon Art, it was equivalent to having local field control ability. Ubuyashiki Ryuhei had the confidence to start a war with the Ninja World back then because 'Infinity Castle' allowed the 'Upper Rank Demons', who were numerically inferior, to briefly obtain a local numerical advantage.
Unfortunately, Ubuyashiki Ryuhei obviously underestimated the strength of the Ninja World. The wretched defeat in the Land of Grass battle ruined everything.
Seeing Tanjiro pressing step by step, Nakime sighed and slowly put down the biwa in her hands.
Tanjiro could find her through scent and blood sensing, so no matter how she activated 'Infinity Castle', she ultimately couldn't escape Tanjiro's pursuit, so she had to give up resistance.
Coming in front of Nakime, Tanjiro reached out and pressed on Nakime's forehead. Instantly, Nakime's body seemed to wither, rapidly shriveling at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Not only Nakime's body, even the biwa Nakime put down turned into ashes and dissipated with the wind.
After a moment, Nakime's body completely disappeared, and Nakime's eerie face gradually emerged on the back of Tanjiro's head.
Snap...
With just a snap of his fingers, 'Infinity Castle' disappeared from Tanjiro's eyes.
As he fused Nakime, he also mastered Nakime's Blood Demon Art 'Infinity Castle'.
Sensing slightly, Tanjiro looked into the distance, which was the southeast direction. If he understood the terrain of the Ninja World well enough, he would know the location he sensed was in the Land of Rain.
Currently, besides him, there was only one Demon left in the Ninja World, that was Muku, the Grass Ninja turned into a Demon.
Tanjiro absorbed Nakime to obtain 'Infinity Castle'. Next, he wanted to absorb Muku, the last Demon, to obtain Muku's ability to sense malice.
As a Demon descended from the Demon Slayer World to the Ninja World, the stronger his power, the greater the anchoring effect. Through him, the Fear Hegemon who had already devoured the Demon Slayer World could more easily sense the Ninja World and break through the spatial barrier on the periphery of the Ninja World.
So just by existing, he was contributing to the Hegemon's breakthrough into the Ninja World.
Of course, having been completely corroded by the Hegemon's power, he was not willing to wait passively for the Hegemon to break through the spatial barrier of the Ninja World. He planned to absorb all Demons in the Ninja World, find the 'Lamp Bearer' guarding the Ninja World, and kill him!
Land of Rain.
Pouring rain was just a daily routine here.
In the heavy rain, Kakuzu and Hidan, wearing bamboo hats and Akatsuki red cloud cloaks, shuttled through a forest.
Hidan complained: "Hey, Kakuzu, hiding like this is not a solution!"
Kakuzu glanced coldly: "Shut up!"
Hidan spat: "Tch, you don't have to take it out on me just because you're in a bad mood!"
According to Leader Nagato's order, all Akatsuki members were divided into three groups to capture the Three-Tails Jinchuriki Yagura, the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki Killer B, and the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki Naruto respectively.
And Kakuzu and Hidan's target was exactly the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki Naruto Uzumaki!
Initially, they thought this task was easy to complete. After all, compared to the Fourth Mizukage and Cloud's Killer B, Naruto, an underage Jinchuriki, was obviously much easier to deal with.
But as collected intelligence showed, Naruto was actually taken by Fifth Hokage Tsunade and was currently in the Ninja Village Alliance headquarters in the Land of Rain. This left Kakuzu and Hidan with no way to start because no matter how arrogant they were, they didn't have the guts to break into the Ninja Village Alliance headquarters alone.
Thus, they could only roam in the Land of Rain, looking for opportunities to act.
Coming to a resting point, Kakuzu sat down and closed his eyes to rest.
Hidan leaned against a big tree aside, muttering: "Why haven't those guys arrived yet? Could they have died on the way?"
Like Kakuzu and Hidan's situation, Itachi, Juzo Biwa, Moryo, and Shinno responsible for capturing the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki also had no chance to act because the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki Killer B was also in the Ninja Village Alliance headquarters at this moment.
So they decided to meet up first and then figure out a way to complete the task together. And this forest was their meeting point.
Not long after, Itachi and Juzo Biwa, also wearing bamboo hats and red cloud cloaks, walked slowly into the forest in the rain curtain.
Kakuzu opened his eyes and asked: "Where are Moryo and Shinno?"
Juzo Biwa shook his head: "We can't contact them anymore!"
Hidan said: "Then they are probably dead!"