In truth, when Lin Chen and the other arrived, Tanjuro had already noticed the extraordinariness of the two.
In these deep mountains, with heavy snow falling from the sky, both of them wore only thin clothing, yet didn't seem particularly cold.
This in itself was an extremely unusual situation.
At first, Tanjuro thought the two might be the demons from the old legends.
But once they drew closer, he knew—these two weren't demons, but genuine humans.
Throughout the process of dancing the Dance of the Fire God, Tanjuro had maintained the Transparent World state for the entire night.
So when the two approached, he had completely seen through their blood and bones.
These two were genuine humans.
It was just that their physical conditions were astonishing.
Stronger than even the most robust hunters in the mountains.
Such physiques shouldn't belong to youths of their age at all.
Following that, Tanjuro noticed Lin Chen's special breathing rhythm.
This special breathing method was quite similar to his family's inherited Dance of the Fire God breathing rhythm.
But it was also largely different.
The only similarity was that both possessed special and miraculous effects.
And then, something happened that moved even Tanjuro, a man with a plant-like temperament.
After that young man observed one complete set of his Dance of the Fire God, he had actually learned it directly.
Although his breathing application wasn't yet refined enough, and his movement proficiency wasn't that high either—
There was no doubt that he had indeed learned it.
Astonishing comprehension, astonishing talent.
Even with Tanjuro's calm and peaceful nature, he couldn't help but marvel at Lin Chen's talent.
But regardless, after observing for so long—
Tanjuro also breathed a sigh of relief.
At least these two peculiar youths weren't dangerous individuals.
They hadn't come with malicious intent.
Tanjuro was breathing slightly heavily.
Under normal circumstances, when he activated the Transparent World and shut down all other unnecessary senses, channeling all his strength into dancing the Dance of the Fire God—
Only then could he persist through the night.
Now, to guard against Lin Chen and Fujiwara Chika, he had no choice but to keep his senses open.
This consumed a great deal of his stamina.
Closing off his unnecessary senses again, Tanjuro redirected all his strength back into the Dance of the Fire God.
Meanwhile, on Lin Chen's side, he continued the teacher-student game with Secretary.
Heavy snow danced through the air.
The deep mountains were eerily quiet—so quiet you could hear the crackling of burning firewood.
So quiet it seemed you could hear the sound of falling snow.
In this tranquil environment, the three maintained a relative harmony.
As time passed, the snow gradually stopped.
The horizon began to show the pale white of dawn.
Day was about to break.
[Sun Breathing LV2 (12/20)]
[Sun Breathing Swordsmanship LV2 (7/20)]
Over the half-night, Lin Chen's Sun Breathing and swordsmanship proficiency had each increased by 2.
Sun Breathing practice was quite stamina-consuming, especially when one hadn't fully mastered it.
Secretary Fujiwara could only persist for two hours before having to rest.
After that, Lin Chen practiced alone.
The training efficiency was about the same as when practicing Water Breathing.
One hour of full-effort training was approximately one proficiency point.
When the morning sun rose and a ray of sunlight pierced through the forest, illuminating the snowy ground beneath the trees—
Lin Chen completely stopped his movements.
Steam rose from his body, as if he were a small furnace.
However, the next moment—
Gurgle.
Extreme hunger assaulted Lin Chen.
He hadn't eaten anything all night.
More accurately, he hadn't eaten anything since noon yesterday.
He had been relying purely on willpower and the miraculous effects of Sun Breathing.
At the same time, in the center of the four torches, Tanjuro also couldn't hold on any longer.
His body went limp, and he collapsed directly onto the snow.
"Tan—... S-Sir."
Seeing this, Lin Chen hurried over and helped Tanjuro up from the ground.
Extremely light—as if he were lifting a bundle of bones.
Earlier, when Tanjuro was dancing with his face covered, it wasn't clear enough to see.
Now that he was close, he could clearly see the completely sunken cheeks on both sides of his face.
He was very close to death.
Lin Chen's heart sank.
In Tanjuro's current state, he could die at any moment.
At most, he probably couldn't last more than half a year.
In other words, this time point was already very close to when the main plot would begin.
Lin Chen thought to himself.
One year after Tanjuro died of illness, Muzan would come to the door, and the entire Kamado family except Tanjiro would die.
"My apologies."
Tanjuro apologized while breathing weakly.
"I thought I could dance one more time, but I overestimated my body."
"Not at all—we were the ones who disturbed you."
Lin Chen spoke.
With Tanjuro's Transparent World activated, he naturally wouldn't misjudge his own body's condition.
It was certainly because of their arrival that his vigilance had created a stamina deficit.
"Then, right now... would you like us to carry you home?"
Lin Chen quickly asked.
The man's condition was truly terrible. He was already terminally ill, yet had forcibly overexerted himself dancing in the snow.
Lin Chen was genuinely worried he might die right here.
Tanjuro was quite an important figure in his subsequent plans—he truly couldn't die quietly in these mountains like in the original story.
"Then I'll trouble you."
After saying this, Tanjuro began coughing violently.
Lin Chen carefully lifted him onto his back, then following his directions, passed through a stretch of forest and saw a wooden cabin.
Secretary Fujiwara followed closely behind, clutching her stomach.
She was also quite hungry, walking weakly.
Before being swallowed by the spatial rift, she had been planning to find a ramen shop in that old district.
Supposedly there was a ramen shop there that was extremely delicious with huge portions.
So she had deliberately skipped a meal beforehand.
The result was getting lost as soon as she arrived, not getting any ramen, and ultimately ending up unluckily in this other world.
If Lin Chen hadn't crossed over with her—
She truly didn't know how she would have survived in these snowy deep mountains.
"Father."
When Lin Chen arrived at the wooden cabin, a beautiful young girl happened to push open the door.
Behind her, there was also an honest-looking young man with a scar on his forehead, holding a shovel as if about to go out and clear snow.
"Father!"
Seeing the weakened Tanjuro on Lin Chen's back, the two immediately rushed over anxiously.
Lin Chen recognized these two at a glance.
The young man was Demon Slayer's protagonist Tanjiro, and the young girl was the highly popular Nezuko.
Following the two, he carried Tanjuro all the way into the house.
The warm environment inside the cabin made Tanjuro feel slightly better.
After drinking some hot soup, some color finally returned to his gaunt face.
But his condition was still quite poor.
After all, in the original work, he died around this time period.
This time, the arrival of Lin Chen and Secretary Fujiwara had flapped the butterfly's wings, seemingly pushing Tanjuro's death even closer.