Chapter 169

A deafening loud noise came from beside them, and a terrifying Qi blade over ten meters long grazed past the two, crushing the bodies of the spider father and spider sister like a dump truck, and then continued to plow a long trench on the ground with undiminished momentum.

The wind whistled, and trees were destroyed.

The dust and smoke filling the sky rushed toward them amidst the rumbling roar, choking Tanjiro and Inosuke until they couldn't help but cough violently.

The two hurriedly covered their mouths and noses with their sleeves, barely managing to open their eyes in the dust and smoke, looking at the devastated forest in front with lingering fear.

"Was this... done by your sword?"

Inosuke said with some trepidation.

Tanjiro came to his senses from his stupor and exchanged glances with Inosuke beside him.

Just as he was about to speak, another loud noise came from the deep mountains not far away.

The two looked at each other, and Inosuke whispered: "He wouldn't have killed all the demons in the mountain, would he?"

Tanjiro looked at the terrifying scene in front of him and couldn't help but nod: "It's possible!"

Inosuke whispered: "Then now... are we still going to find him?"

Previously, Tanjiro felt that the mountain was full of crises, and with three burdens, it would be difficult for them to walk out alive, so it would be safer to stay by Lin Yu's side.

But now, Lin Yu had already killed all the evil demons except Rui from a distance.

Even without Lin Yu by their side, they could take these three burdens out of Spider Mountain...

After a little thought, Tanjiro still firmly said: "Follow him!"

Inosuke nodded, didn't ask why, immediately picked up one person, turned around, and turned his back to Tanjiro.

Tanjiro tied another person to his back, picked up the last one himself, and rushed toward the direction where the Qi blade came from with Inosuke.

The aura of the three evil demons all disappeared, Lin Yu lowered his altitude slightly and cast his gaze toward the treetops under his feet.

He saw that among the treetops, a white-robed youth was stepping on the tough spider silk, staring at him expressionlessly.

Through the white bangs, Lin Yu could clearly see that the characters 'Lower Five' were engraved on the youth's left eye; it was Rui, the spider demon, Lower Rank Five of the Twelve Kizuki!

"Oh ho ho~ instead of turning and running away, you are walking toward me?"

Lin Yu looked at the youth with a smile, and said with great interest: "I really admire your courage, knowing it is seeking death, you actually dare to come in front of me..."

"Seeking death?"

The youth was expressionless and noncommittal.

In the next instant, the fingers hanging by his side suddenly moved, and strands of scarlet spider silk attacked from all directions, binding Lin Yu, who was suspended in the air, into a red rice dumpling.

"I have already tried!"

The youth looked at the red spider cocoon in front of him and said lightly: "Although the airflow you unleashed is powerful, it also has a limit and simply cannot cut my blood spider—"

"Pfft!"

Before his voice had faded, brilliant sword light bloomed from the blood cocoon.

The blood-colored spider silk, as hard as steel, instantly snapped, revealing the unharmed figure inside.

The youth's pupils shrank, and he hurriedly jumped back, pulling a distance of ten meters, looking at Lin Yu with a face full of astonishment:

"How is this possible?!"

"What is impossible about it."

Lin Yu raised the Nichirin Sword and looked at the blade lightly: "Did you think the sword Qi just now was my ultimate move?"

"No, that was just a basic attack!"

"The reason it could kill evil demons is because a little bit of sunlight component was added to it; in essence, those subordinates of yours were all crushed to death by tons of sunlight..."

Can sunlight also be measured in tons?

The youth's eyelids twitched, and his expression became increasingly gloomy.

Lin Yu brushed his fingers across the blade, causing it to glow with Qi, then raised his head, looked at the youth, and said lightly: "Just by secretly feeling the sword Qi, you dared to make a move against me—little guy, you have quite some nerve!"

Before his voice had faded, a great sense of crisis emerged out of thin air.

The youth's pupils shrank sharply, and he hurriedly waved his five fingers, shouting sharply: "Blood Demon Art: Cutting Thread Cage!"

"Swish—"

In an instant, strands of blood-colored spider silk attacked from all directions, winding toward Lin Yu's arms.

Lin Yu's body erupted with golden light, turning into an amber-like protective shield, bearing the bombardment of the surrounding blood-colored spider silk, and raised his hand without any hesitation, pointing the Nichirin Sword toward the sky.

"I heard that demons in this world only fear sunlight..."

Lin Yu held the Nichirin Sword high and said lightly: "Why don't you help me verify it and see if the demons in this world can really be immune to the Heavenly Thunder that restrains all evil!"

"Rumble!!"

Before his voice had faded, the wind and clouds in the sky changed, and dark clouds rolled.

The black curtain spread like a vortex, swallowing the last ray of bright moonlight.

Amidst the deafening thunder, blue-white thunder surged in the depths of the clouds, like blue-white dragons swimming and intertwining in the center of the vortex, brewing a thunderstorm vortex with a diameter of over a hundred zhang.

Arcs of electricity leaped from the Nichirin Sword in Lin Yu's hand, faintly connecting with the lightning spreading like branches in the sky above.

This scene was like a legendary Thunder God descending to the world, a god descending to earth, attracting everyone in the mountain to cast their gazes, looking at the figure entangled by thunder in the sky with astonishment and shock.

"... What is that?!"

Giyu Tomioka, the Water Hashira who came to the rescue, looked at the sky and said this while enduring the shock.

Shinobu Kocho, the Insect Hashira, and other Demon Slayer Corps members beside him were the same, looking at the sky with faces full of shock.

"Boom!"

In the next instant, the brilliant and dazzling blue-white thunder crashed down, hitting the figure fleeing in terror in front of Lin Yu.

"Ah!!"

The youth fleeing in terror let out a miserable wail, his demon body collapsing inch by inch under the ravages of the thunder, and constantly repairing itself under his extremely strong self-healing ability.

Repeating the cycle, the two opposed each other.

In the end, the thunder was still superior. In just a few seconds, his self-healing ability could not keep up with the speed of the thunder's destruction, and his whole body's flesh and blood collapsed and annihilated in the blue-white arcs of electricity, completely turning into nothingness...

But this was not over yet; the violent thunder continued to spread, destroying the forest within a radius of a hundred meters like a hot knife through butter, and then barely stopped in front of Tanjiro and Inosuke.

The two hurriedly stopped, looking at the scorched giant crater with a diameter of over a hundred meters in front with faces full of shock.

Inside the crater, whether it was trees, soil, or rocks, they were all shattered and melted by the violent thunder, turning into cooled crystalline substances attached to the crater walls.

Under the dark clouds of lightning and thunder, Lin Yu lowered the Nichirin Sword, looked at the scorched marks in the center of the giant crater, and said lightly: "Facts prove that the demons of Demon Slayer cannot withstand Heavenly Thunder either..."

After speaking, he glanced at Tanjiro and Inosuke at the edge of the crater, immediately descended in front of them, and said irritably:

"Why haven't you two left yet?"

"..."

Tanjiro and Inosuke looked at each other.

The former gave a dry laugh and said cautiously: "That, my sword..."

Lin Yu twitched the corner of his mouth, just about to answer, when his brows suddenly furrowed slightly, as if he had discovered something, and he turned his head to look at the center of the crater.

If observed with the naked eye, the crater was naturally empty.

But from Lin Yu's perspective, a translucent, frail figure had emerged in that place, and looking at his delicate face, it was exactly Rui in his human form.

Or more accurately, Rui's soul as a human!

However, at this moment, what Lin Yu saw in his eyes was not just his soul alone.

In front of him, a door invisible to ordinary people had opened, and behind the door were two souls with faces somewhat similar to his, as well as a sea of raging fire.

"Is that... Hell?"

Lin Yu raised an eyebrow, looking at the three of them thoughtfully.

In the worldview of Demon Slayer, there indeed exists such a hell; those who do evil during their lifetime will fall into hell after death and suffer the torture of karmic fire in hell.

As for the scene at this moment, it was related to Rui's backstory.

When he was a human, he was born frail and found even walking difficult. Muzan, who had a similar experience, gave Rui his own blood out of 'sympathy', making him a demon.

In this way, Rui did gain a strong body, but he also began to live a life that required eating humans.

Regarding this, his parents were very self-reproachful, believing that they could not let their son continue to harm innocent people, so they intended to kill their son first with the awareness of going to hell together, and then apologize with death.

At that time, Rui sensed his parents' murderous intent, was dominated by anger, and believed that the bond between him and his parents was hypocritical, so he killed his parents in anger.

Afterward, Rui realized it too late and had some awakening, but in the end, he was still deceived by Muzan, lost himself, and began to capture weak demons, launching a decades-long game of house in order to find so-called true bonds.

Until now, he died by Heavenly Thunder, lost his demon body, and instead recovered his human reason.

Looking at his parents smiling and welcoming him at the entrance of hell, Rui was in tears.

He had thought that he would never be able to repent to his parents again, but he didn't expect that his parents' souls had been lingering on the edge of hell, wanting to fall into hell with him to atone for their sins.

Looking at the family of three embracing affectionately on the edge of hell, Lin Yu couldn't help but sigh, lamenting that Muzan had done all kinds of evil.

Souls and hell, mortals like Tanjiro and Inosuke certainly couldn't see them.

They could only see Lin Yu staring straight at the bottom of the crater, sighing from time to time, as if he had some serious illness.

The two looked at each other, Tanjiro weighed his words and said cautiously: "Mr. Sword, I..."

Before his voice had faded, Lin Yu's expression changed again.

And unlike before, this time, it was a negative change.

In an instant, an indescribable sense of oppression permeated, making Tanjiro and Inosuke feel difficulty breathing, and they couldn't help but look at Lin Yu in fear.

Lin Yu's expression was ugly, his pitch-black eyes looking at the sky, as if he could pierce through the void and see the scene outside the world.

In fact, it was indeed so; the reason he suddenly changed color was because he had sensed the movement of that mysterious power.

After circling around the silver ball of light, that mysterious power originating from the chat group suddenly folded in place, flashed a few times, and disappeared into the dark and dead void...

What does this mean?

Could it be that there are no qualified group members in this world?

(End of chapter)