They won the Holy Grail War, but this turned out to be the Virtual Tree Universe.

Chapter 19 Tree Ghost and Bat Ghost (Please continue reading)
Now that it was confirmed that the town was haunted, and most likely not by a weakling, Dan Lei became interested.

So Danlei Ono Yunako first took her to the town's main water source to take samples.

Dan Lei was quite familiar with pharmacology, and upon receiving the water, he immediately realized that there was something wrong with it, but it didn't seem like a plague; rather, it was someone who had deliberately poisoned it.

However, this poison was very insidious, and given the limited medical resources of a small town in this era, it was not surprising that it was mistaken for an epidemic.

If this were a normal, righteous protagonist, he should be going upstream to find the source of the poison, solving the town's drinking water problem before looking for the ghost.

But Danlei didn't want to put in the effort.

Although Danlei is not an efficiency-oriented person, his slow pace in doing things is also due to his longevity.

Danlei hates doing things that will lead to problems he has no interest in and that are very troublesome.

Let's find the source of the poison now, without even discussing how long it will take.

Once the water source is restored, this somewhat cunning ghost in the town will likely go into hiding for the time being.

Keep in mind that the plan to attack a town involved poisoning, so there might be more than one ghost here, and finding them will take even longer.

Moreover, if any escapees were to slip through the net, and a town he had cleaned up was left unpunished after he left, Dan Lei himself would feel ashamed.

Therefore, Danlei chose a more brutal solution.

After taking water samples, Danlei found the mayor and made it clear that he would tell the county government about the samples and what had happened there. If things went smoothly, the relief water would arrive by tomorrow.

Dan Lei didn't ask the mayor any more questions, because regardless of whether he was Gui's mole or not, Gui would definitely find out about his affairs through someone in the town government.

Therefore, as long as you head normally towards the location of the county government, ghosts will come to intercept you.

When the time comes, I can go to the ghosts' place to find out what's going on in this town.

So, after saying goodbye to the mayor, Danlei immediately moved towards the county government, to which the town belonged, at a normal running pace.

However, less than three kilometers from the town, just as the sun began to set, Dan Lei sensed that something was wrong with his surroundings.

As mentioned before, this town is surrounded by dense forests with canopies that block out the sky, so ghosts can attack people even during the day.

At this moment, the woods were incredibly quiet.

I don't know when it started, but I can no longer hear birds chirping or insects chirping around. The natural sounds in modern residential gardens are louder than here, and the ghostly atmosphere has become stronger.

Dan Lei knew the ghost was coming without Sasaki Kojiro even reminding him.

So Danlei kept running and spoke to his heroic spirit in his mind.
"Sasaki, you should wait and wait until I'm really exhausted before you make a move."

Sasaki Kojiro had no objection to this arrangement. Now it was Danlei's own growth journey, and he only needed to provide support.

Moreover, in his view, the ghost that came this time was not qualified to threaten his Master.

Since Danlei couldn't pinpoint the ghost's exact location using his own senses, he didn't stop running and pretended not to know anything.

This would cause the ghost to attack proactively, thus exposing itself.

Sure enough, Dan Lei was running peacefully in the dense forest when suddenly a tree root at his feet came to life, grabbing his ankle and causing him to fall to the ground.

Then, numerous vines extended from all directions, binding Dan Lei to a tree. A female figure slowly emerged from the tree—a gaunt female ghost draped in tree bark—and embraced Dan Lei from behind, saying…

"What an unlucky man! He died on a business trip, even though he was so young and already a high-ranking official in the county, and quite handsome too." As the female ghost spoke, a male ghost with bat wings under his arms and sharp teeth, resembling a vampire, descended from the sky.

"Honey, don't get all horny just because you see a handsome man. I'm thirsty, let me have a couple of sips before I decide what to eat."

After saying that, the male ghost rushed toward Dan Lei, who appeared to have been knocked unconscious.

However, as the male ghost lunged at Dan Lei, Dan Lei suddenly murmured, "[Water Breathing - First Form: Wind Modified Hidden Line Slash]".

Suddenly, the bat-winged male ghost turned into large chunks of flesh in mid-air. Looking back at the place where he had just pounced, blood-stained lines of water were crisscrossing in the air.

Moreover, Dan Lei, who was entangled by the female ghost's vines, began to speak openly.
"I said, a skinny piece of wood shouldn't even think about attacking people. Wouldn't it be better to just live by photosynthesis?"
【Water Breathing - Land Type Ice Modified Polar Storm】.

As soon as Dan Lei finished speaking, the female ghost felt as if she was holding not a person, but a block of ice, and her body began to frost over.

Danlei is using a variation of Water Breathing at this moment.

With the water control talent of the Vidyadhara Dragon Clan, Danlei could have made a lot of fun with water.

Use the true qi of the meridians to generate water, use magic circuits to cool it, and use cloud chanting techniques to control it. Learn about the ice storm that creates a temperature of minus seventy degrees Celsius around your body.

The branches that were wrapped around Danlei instantly became brittle from the cold, and with a gentle struggle, they turned into pieces on the ground.

The female ghost who was hugging Danlei from behind was also shattered into several pieces.

The male and female ghosts had now turned into frozen chunks of meat. Dan Lei looked at them and slowly said...
"It seems it was just the two of you who came to attack me, a tree ghost and a bat ghost, quite a combination. And you two are a married couple turned ghosts? Or perhaps you got married after becoming ghosts?"

However, the mouths of the two ghosts were frozen shut, so they couldn't speak at all.

Seeing this, Dan Lei apologized, then used a fireball to burn off their mouths before continuing.

“You should still be able to fix your mouths. Tell me honestly what happened in that town, and you’ll suffer less.”

As Dan Lei spoke, he directly took out a bottle of mercury he had bought in the city from his backpack, poured it on the ground, and then used the water flow to control it to form a magic suppression array.

Within this array, the demon's magical activity is suppressed, specifically manifesting as difficulty in activating Blood Demon Arts and a significant reduction in self-healing speed.

It's important to understand that since Muzan Kibutsuji himself was a coward who bullied the weak and feared the strong, the demons created from him should not be expected to have any pride.

As soon as they sense the loss of their invincible immortality, these ghosts will say anything they can in order to survive.

Sure enough, after their mouths were repaired, they experienced the disappearance of their immortality. Watching Dan Lei use the magic extraction array to continuously drain their bodies until they turned to ashes, the two ghosts collapsed.

Next up is the Q&A session.

Dan Lei quickly learned that the demon who orchestrated the attack on the town was Lower Moon Three, Byoyo, one of the Lower Moon demons who was eliminated by Muzan Kibutsuji after the Natagumo Mountain incident in the original story.

At this point, he was involved in an attack on the town by four ghosts, including a tree ghost and a bat ghost, and he was the doctor who said the water source was contaminated.

The main purpose of this complex arrangement is to prevent the formation of pillars from the very beginning of the plan.

The Lower Moon demons all know that as long as the Pillars don't come, the ordinary members of the Demon Slayer Corps are just easy targets, so there's nothing to be afraid of.

Moreover, Danlei also learned that his appearance made Bingye believe that the outside world had become suspicious of the town's lack of communication, so the attack would begin tonight, or rather, it had already begun.

(End of this chapter)