Chapter 48: Sister, Come Here Quickly! Get Away From That Monster!
Listening to Kanae's words and feeling those slender, soft, yet incredibly warm hands on his cheeks,
Tatsu let out a long sigh of relief.
He naturally leaned his head forward slightly,
like a puppy that had been fighting outside all day and finally returned to its owner's side,
gently rubbing against Kanae's palm.
Kanae was amused by his slightly childish behavior,
letting out a silver-bell-like chuckle.
"Alright, you've practiced enough, haven't you?"
Kanae gently patted his cheek and took half a step back.
Tatsu nodded and raised his right hand,
handing over the peach-colored nichirin sword stained with his sweat.
"I've practiced enough;"
"my body has reached its limit for today."
"This sword, I'm giving it back to you."
Tatsu said to Kanae Kocho,
"It's late, and the wind is a bit chilly. Let's go back and rest."
Kanae smiled as she took the nichirin sword, sliding it into the scabbard at her waist with a crisp 'click.'
In truth, Tatsu had another calculation in mind.
With the help of his 'Astonishing Insight,' he had indeed completely mastered
the twelve forms of Sun Breathing.
However, he always felt that the most core element was still missing.
During his practice just now, no matter how much he squeezed his body's potential,
he could never cross that invisible barrier.
He knew what it was—the Transparent World.
It was a supreme realm of martial arts; once understood,
one could see through the bodies of living beings,
observing the opponent's muscle contractions, blood flow, and even nerve conduction to anticipate their movements in advance.
In that state, the world would become incredibly slow,
and one's own attacks would lose all killing intent, becoming as natural as a plant, making them undetectable to the opponent.
He only knew that the Transparent World was powerful—a cheat-level skill—
but he didn't know how to achieve it.
While his 'Astonishing Insight' was heaven-defying, it still required a catalyst, a direction to analyze.
One could not comprehend the Transparent World out of thin air.
"I must go and ask Tanjuro about it..."
Thinking about his plan for tomorrow, Tatsu turned his head and naturally reached out, taking Kanae's soft hand.
Kanae was slightly startled, and a faint blush immediately crept onto her cheeks,
but she didn't pull away, instead gripping Tatsu's large hand in return.
The palms of their hands pressed together, transferring their warmth to each other.
One cold, one hot.
"Let's go, Tanjirou's mother should have already laid out the futons."
Kanae said softly, pulling Tatsu toward the wooden cabin.
The paper doors of the cabin emitted a warm orange glow, like a lighthouse waiting for a traveler to return home in the dark.
Tatsu looked at Kanae beside him and then at that door, a sense of unprecedented satisfaction welling up in his heart.
If things could stay like this forever, even being a demon wouldn't seem so bad.
The two stepped onto the wooden cabin's porch, preparing to slide open the paper door.
Just then.
Without any warning.
The surrounding wind suddenly stopped.
A hair-raising, thick, and inescapable killing intent surged frantically from all directions like a tide.
Immediately after, a voice that seemed to come from the nine depths of hell, filled with endless resentment and violent killing intent,
exploded in their ears like a thunderclap:
"Vile demon... you deserve to die!!!"
Accompanying that thunderous roar,
hundreds of 'phantom butterflies' woven from poison and sword qi suddenly emerged from the darkness.
Those butterflies flickered with a ghostly purple light.
They traced eerie and light trajectories through the air, aimed directly at Tatsu's throat and eyes.
Insect Breathing, Dance of the Butterfly: Caprice!
At this moment, Kocho Shinobu's violet eyes, which were usually full of playfulness and spirit,
were completely filled with panic, rage, and killing intent.
Her gaze was fixed intensely on Tatsu, or rather,
on Tatsu's hand, which was tightly holding her most beloved sister, Kanae Kocho.
From Kocho Shinobu's perspective, this was a terrifying scene that made her eyes feel as if they were bursting:
A demon radiating demonic qi
was using his filthy hand, stained with the blood of countless humans,
to hold her sister, who was as pure as a white lotus!
That demon must have used some despicable Blood Demon Art to cloud her sister's mind,
and was surely preparing to open his bloody maw to crush her sister's throat in the next second!
"Let go of my sister!!"
Kocho Shinobu's pace exploded with unprecedented speed due to her extreme anger and fear.
Her Haori fluttered loudly in the wind, like a venomous butterfly spreading its wings to kill.
Just as the poison-coated tip of the blade was less than half an inch from Tatsu's pupil,
and Tatsu could even feel the bone-chilling cold and the pungent smell of the wisteria poison,
"Clang—!!!"
An extremely crisp, deafening sound of metal clashing rang out!
Tatsu didn't move.
He had already captured the trajectory of the attack the moment the killing intent arrived,
but he forcefully restrained his body's instinct to counterattack.
Because he knew who the attacker was,
and more importantly,
because the woman beside him, as gentle as water, had already reacted in an instant.
Kanae Kocho let go of Tatsu's hand.
Those slender, soft hands that still carried the warmth of Tatsu's palm
drew the nichirin sword from her waist at the critical moment.
Flower Breathing, Fourth Form: Crimson Hanagoromo!
The nichirin sword with the peach-colored tsuba traced a beautiful arc from bottom to top.
That seemingly delicate strike contained the terrifying power and absolute precision of a Hashira-level swordsman,
unerringly striking the side of Kocho Shinobu's stinger-like blade,
forcefully parrying that lethal blow.
"Sister?!"
Kocho Shinobu used the force of the rebound to flip lightly in the air, landing steadily on the dirt ground several meters away.
Her eyes widened in disbelief, her purple pupils trembling violently,
as if she had seen the most absurd and incomprehensible sight in the world.
Her sister, who always gently stroked her head and taught her to slay demons to protect the weak,
was now standing with her back to that demon, hands gripping her nichirin sword, shielding him behind her.
And the direction her sister's blade was pointing was actually at her!
"Shinobu, stop!"
Kanae Kocho's voice was still gentle, but now it carried an unprecedented hint of sternness and urgency.
"Put your sword away quickly, it's not what you think! Tatsu, he..."
"Not what I think?!"
Kocho Shinobu was like a cat whose tail had been stepped on; her voice became sharp due to the extreme emotional fluctuation,
even carrying a shrill, sobbing tone,
"Sister! Look closely! He's radiating such thick demonic qi!
He's a demon! A man-eating demon!
Did he use a Blood Demon Art to control you?
Sister, come here quickly!
Get away from that monster!"
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