"Hey!"
Kurozawa reached out and knocked on the tree trunk.
The sound wasn't loud, but in the silent forest, it was startling enough. The Demon in the tree was clearly frightened, its body shaking and making the branches and leaves tremble.
Kurozawa had approached stealthily, not intending an ambush. His purpose was simply to prevent the Demon from escaping. Now that he had pinpointed its location, there was no need to hide his presence anymore.
While knocking on the tree, he unleashed his Fighting Spirit, his aura erupting like a volcano.
Up in the tree, the Demon steadied itself, looking down with wide, shocked eyes. Kurozawa's imposing figure came into view.
For this Demon, it was like a normal person resting without a care, who then opened their eyes, turned their head, and found a fierce tiger silently staring at them. A chill shot from its feet all the way to the top of its head.
At that moment, Kurozawa happened to be looking up as well, and their eyes met.
The Demon in the tree looked young, appearing to be a young male around twenty-five, like an Upper Moon. He had a pair of sharp, upward-pointing horns on his forehead, and his face and body were covered in dark blue Demon Marks.
Because he had been startled by Kurozawa's sudden action, this Demon still wore an expression of fear.
Kurozawa was very pleased with the other party's expression. He couldn't help but grin. This showed that suppressing his Fighting Spirit fluctuations to lower his presence had been very effective; his whereabouts hadn't been discovered at all.
"Who are you?"
The Horned Demon stood in the tree, asking the question while observing the surroundings for a quick escape route. With just a glance, he knew he was no match.
At this point, Kurozawa twisted his neck and let out a sinister laugh, "Do you know it's bad for your spine to have to keep looking up to talk?"
With a reach of his hand, Pitch-Black Aura ignited on his palm, then the flames flowed like water, quickly extending and transforming outwards. In just a few breaths, the Blade of Despair, entirely black and resembling a Nichirin Blade, formed in Kurozawa's right hand.
Water Breathing · First Form · Surface Slash! Surface Slash was Kurozawa's most proficient and frequently used technique among all his Sword Forms. Its characteristic was its simple, brutal, fierce, and sharp nature.
A pitch-black blade light, as if absorbing all light, shot out from the Blade of Despair. A sharp blade light over a meter long rapidly slashed towards the Horned Demon's chest. The other party didn't even have time to react.
Kurozawa intentionally didn't aim for the vital points; he didn't want to kill him instantly, because he wanted to test the level of his Sword Forms. Killing him in one go would be boring.
Just a short while ago, Kurozawa had used all his remaining Potential Points to raise his Sword Form level to Tier Three.
This third tier of Sword Forms happened to be able to project sword energy, turning the aura of his Breathing Technique into tangible, long-range attacks, and they were extremely sharp.
Before, Kurozawa always used Surface Slash at close range; he couldn't possibly slash out a blade light. But just now, with a mere lift of his hand, his body instinctively unleashed a blade light.
Kurozawa had never felt a weapon so comfortable to use. He always felt like something was missing when using weapons before, as if there was a layer of gauze between his hand and the weapon, just that little bit preventing true contact.
*Crack!* The sharp blade light traveled from a distance, slashing onto the Horned Demon's chest, then passing through him, continuing to cut off large sections of branches and flying out of the tree canopy.
With a flop, the Horned Demon fell from the tree onto the ground, landing about a meter in front of Kurozawa, within arm's reach.
The flesh and bone in his chest area were split open, and Pitch-Black Aura was still burning and consuming the wound. Seeing him struggling and rolling on the ground, it was quite evident he was in great pain.
Unless they had extremely strong willpower, most beings were almost unable to resist the negative effects brought about by the burning Pitch-Black Aura, and would consequently fall into a series of negative statuses like dizziness, paralysis, and fear, losing their ability to fight.
"Can you stand up?"
Kurozawa kindly extended his hand, but unfortunately, this Demon's willpower was too weak. He had lost the ability to think normally from the burning Pitch-Black Aura and could only wail on the ground.
Thus, Kurozawa's idea of testing out his Sword Forms more extensively fell through. He had overestimated this Demon's strength. Well, he had been fighting Lower Moons recently; the gap with other Demons was too large.
"Forget it, I'll only know the level of my Sword Forms in a real fight."
"But, being able to cut out blade light means my Sword Forms have finally improved. Blade light, sword radiance, immortal flying from beyond the heavens... how cool is that?"
Kurozawa recalled some dreams from his childhood, the corners of his mouth curving up slightly. He was clearly in a good mood.
He looked down at the Blade of Despair in his hand, which was completely black without any other colors, and suddenly remembered that famous swordsmen in stories often named their swords.
"Hmm, that's right. Although it's essentially Pitch-Black Aura, since it's condensed into a weapon, it should have a name."
"Let me think. You're so black, so from now on I'll call you... Mingzhou, haha."
The Blade of Despair, entirely black and wreathed in deep flames, was named Mingzhou, which means bright day and light. The contrast between its appearance and name was highly satirical and unexpected. Sometimes, Kurozawa just had this kind of twisted sense of humor.
Holding the hilt of Mingzhou, Kurozawa examined its long blade up and down.
According to his preferences and habits, Mingzhou had the appearance of a katana.
Kurozawa's favorite types of swords were Tang swords and katanas. However, since Water Breathing Sword Forms primarily focused on slashing, the straight-bladed Tang sword was clearly not as effective for slashing as the katana. Therefore, when he condensed Mingzhou, he ultimately decided on the general shape of a katana. If Water Breathing Sword Forms were primarily based on thrusting techniques, he would definitely have chosen to make Mingzhou in the shape of a Tang sword.
After reaching out and touching the blade, Kurozawa turned to look at the pitiful Demon rolling on the ground and casually unleashed a slash.
Before the Mingzhou blade arrived, the pitch-black blade light reached first, directly splitting its head in two from the middle. The Pitch-Black Aura then burned, reducing it to layers of ash.
Looking at the gray panel, Kurozawa saw that his Potential Points had only increased by thirty, which also indicated how weak this Demon was; it wasn't enough for Kurozawa to even use a few more moves.
Afterward, Kurozawa used some other Sword Forms in place, leaving the surrounding trees and ground in a mess before turning to leave, satisfied.
Soon, he walked out of the forest and returned to the small village.
"Hmm? Not resolved yet? What is Kanae doing?"
After unleashing his Fighting Spirit domain, Kurozawa was surprised to find that the Demon's Fighting Spirit in that house was still fluctuating, with no change from before.
And Kanae's Fighting Spirit was beside it, with shallow fluctuations, appearing to have no desire to fight at all.
Could it be that you really found a Demon you can have friendly communication with?
Kurozawa's expression remained unchanged. At full speed, his body stirred up a fierce wind. In a few breaths, he reached the source of the Demon's Fighting Spirit.
This was a very ordinary house, similar in appearance to the surrounding buildings, except for a few small flower pots placed at the entrance, emitting a fragrant scent.
The door was still tightly shut. Kurozawa politely knocked, "Is the little piggy in? The big bad wolf is here."
With a soft creak, someone opened the door. Kanae's pretty face appeared, and Kurozawa noticed her expression was full of conflict.
"You still haven't finished after all this time? What are you doing?"
Upon seeing Kurozawa, Kanae ignored his question. As if she'd found a savior, she quickly pulled Kurozawa inside. "I don't know how to handle this situation."
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