The Warrior of Love

But putting aside the spoof fan works, the background and plot tone of this game itself is a complete tragedy!

The swordsman Isshin is old, and his adopted son Genichirō wants to protect Ashina but develops an evil heart. However, even if he falls into the path of evil, he cannot change the fate of the country.

The protagonist Sekiro is an orphan ninja whose purpose of existence is to protect his master. However, his master is the noble "Miko" who possesses the power of "immortality", and therefore he is in opposition to Genichirō.

At the end of the story, no one was redeemed, Ashina was eventually destroyed, and there was a high probability that the protagonist Sekiro would die or become a Shura.

Among the three "clearance" endings, only one is relatively gentle: Miko's soul enters the body of a priestess and survives in this form, and Sekiro takes his lord Miko, who has "turned into a girl", on a journey to the East, trying to find a way to return the "immortal power".

The sequel to this ending is that Sekiro and Miko successfully regained their immortality, became ordinary people, and lived in seclusion in a rural area. Sekiro gave up his ninja career and made a living by carving Buddha statues - this is just Jiang Liu's speculation.

Although there is no factual basis for this, Ashina Country is a completely made-up place in the game. If there really is a ninja who knows Ashina-style swordsmanship and lives in seclusion with his wife...it seems that it can only be Sekiro, the protagonist of the game.

As for whether Sekiro’s wife is the gender-changed Princess, and how Sekiro came up with such bold ideas about his master...this is not something Jiang Liu can know.

The only thing that Jiang Liu couldn't understand was why "Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba" was connected to the world view of "Sekiro".

It’s not that Jiang Liu looks down on Demon Slayer, but Sekiro is a semi-magical world...

But after thinking about it, Jiang Liu felt relieved. The settings of teleportation and blood recovery in the game are obviously for the gaming experience and they should not exist in reality. Apart from these, most of the "mystery" of the entire "Sekiro" comes from a creature called Sakura Dragon.

Judging from the shogunate army's attack on Ashina in the later period, the shogunate army that was able to unify the world did not show any supernatural powers. Instead, it emphasized everywhere that "technology is the primary productive force." In other words, this kind of mysterious power may not exist outside Ashina, or it is extremely rare.

Ashina was able to preserve this kind of thing because the country is small and remote.

If we put it in the Type-Moon worldview, this means "the mysterious decay rate will be slower in a relatively closed environment", which is not difficult to understand.

After excluding the existence of the "Sakura Dragon" and the immortal power, the per capita combat power of Ashina Country is still a bit outrageous, but it is not unacceptable. At least even Ashina Isshin, who is at the ceiling of combat power, is still a flesh and blood body and will die due to physical aging.

In comparison, the demons in Demon Slayer are afraid of sunlight, but their immortality is indeed very strong...

In addition, this is the real world, and many things may be different from the settings in the game. Even if there was an Ashina Country in the past, it is not incredible.

Anyway, these things happened two or three hundred years ago and there was no way to verify them, so Jiang Liu simply stopped thinking about it.

He only knew that the "Mindless Breathing Method" he wanted to learn, although it sounded like a wild method, was definitely the real thing!

Chapter 17: Final Selection

"There's nothing left for me to teach you."

One day, after finishing his real sword fighting training, Feng said these words without warning.

Jiang Liu, who was about to leave, froze for a moment, then said with relief: "Is it already this time?"

"You are already very strong..." Feng said calmly as they turned their backs to each other, "and you will become even stronger."

"Uh……"

"Ashina swordsmanship, nameless breathing method, Ashina Heartless Style... you have basically mastered everything you should master. Combined with your own physical fitness and special abilities, you are no ordinary ghost hunter now."

Feng thrust the katana into the ground with his backhand, then left his weapon behind and walked away.

"Go to the final selection, survive with this sword, then come to see me, and I will tell you the final moves of this style."

Feng left, leaving Jiang Liu alone. He waited quietly for a moment, then drew out the sword and returned to his room.

Jiang Liu and Feng did not live together. The woman lived in a small house next to the Buddhist temple. She rarely appeared except during training and meals. She was always carving Buddha statues alone in the room.

Jiang Liu lives in a wooden house a little further away. Behind the house is a clear stream, and almost all of his daily water comes from this river. Jiang Liu will also go in to take a shower after finishing a day's training.

At first, Feng was in charge of the two's meals, but what she took out could only be described as "food" at best, and it was definitely not gourmet food, and it was even quite... Later, Jiang Liu was in charge, and Jiang Liu would sometimes go to nearby towns to replenish daily necessities and food.

Feng doesn't seem to be short of money, perhaps it's because the Demon Slayer Corps provides subsidies.

As usual, he dragged his tired body back to his residence. After washing the sweat off his body, Jiang Liu stood in the shallow water with his upper body naked. Suddenly, he became quiet and began to observe his reflection in the water in the moonlight.

The moonlight tonight is not very bright and clear, but perhaps because of its divinity, Jiang Liu is now beginning to show differences from ordinary people in all aspects, including his five senses are becoming more and more acute, and he can clearly see the reflection on the water even at night.

It was a face that was not particularly "tough".

The man is about eighteen or nineteen years old, between adulthood and youth. His facial features were originally delicate, but now the lines on his face have become tougher. Although he is not yet "majestic", you can see the determination in his character.

On the left cheek, there was a very thin scar about four or five centimeters long, running diagonally, like the beard of a wild animal, but it was not too obvious and could easily be overlooked if one did not look carefully.

Turning your gaze to below the neck, you can see a muscular body that does not look like that of a young boy.

His muscles are not exaggerated and cannot be compared with those muscular men in European and American movies, but each muscle has clear lines, and looks neither cumbersome nor thin.

What is particularly eye-catching are the criss-crossing scars on it, about ten in total, most of which are thin and narrow knife wounds.

In a sense, this is also a testament to the various trainings Jiang Liu has gone through.

Not knowing what mood he was in, Jiang Liu stared at his own face in silence. After a long time, he let out a long breath as if he had unloaded a huge burden.

"It's been a year."

It has been a year since he came to "Demon Slayer". After experiencing life-and-death battles with evil spirits and hellish training with the red-haired teacher, he finally arrived at this day.

Five months of abnormal physical training and basic skills learning, seven months of swordsmanship training and even more abnormal physical training...

There is no so-called "sudden enlightenment" or "photographic memory". Simply learning skills is meaningless. Only a strong body can transform martial arts and realm into real power.

This was a year that made Jiang Liu almost breathless. He was on the verge of collapse countless times, and also exceeded his original limits countless times.

And he can also clearly feel that he is stronger every day than he was yesterday!

If it were an ordinary person, even if his will was as strong as iron, his body would not be able to hold on. However, Jiang Liu's body, which had been transformed by divinity, had unimaginable plasticity and growth potential, even though he could not fly.

Coupled with his own ambition and unwillingness, he managed to persevere.

Then today is the day when he finishes all his training.

He was not worried about the so-called "final selection with a very high mortality rate" because his body and mind were as strong as iron now!

-

The final selection location was already known. It was not too far from Jiang Liu's practice place and would take about a day for Jiang Liu to walk there.

They set out early in the morning. Feng did not come out to see her off, and Jiang Liu did not go looking for her. She set out on the journey to the trial alone, holding her teacher's sword.

At dusk he arrived at his destination: a deep mountain surrounded by a wisteria forest.

In the open space where the selected candidates gathered, since it had not officially started yet and they were not familiar with each other, everyone had nothing to do. Jiang Liu had no intention of making friends with others and looked at the blooming wisteria tree out of boredom.

In the light of the lanterns, the purple and white flowers gathered together like snow piles and hung down from the slender branches. A flower tree seemed like a beautiful dream, and the ocean of thousands of flower trees gathered together added a raging momentum to the beautiful dream.

If you look down from the top of the mountain during the day, it will surely be a magnificent view that will touch your soul.

Very beautiful - this was Jiang Liu's only thought.

Perhaps the long-term spiritual practice has seriously damaged his three views. If it were the old him, he might have been moved, but now he really has no idea except "beauty".

Oh, by the way, he also thought of the role of wisteria...which was a bit of a spoiler.

The Demon Slayer Corps does not have a team emblem or anything like that. Wisteria can barely be considered a totem of the Demon Slayer Corps because this flower is a toxin to demons. Evil demons generally hate or even fear wisteria flowers.

But this is the same as the relationship between humans and cockroaches - they are just afraid of it, not actually being poisoned to death.

If the ingredients of wisteria flowers are extracted and concentrated and refined, it is indeed possible to produce a deadly poison for ghosts, but both the cost and the process are difficult, and each ghost has different resistance... In short, it is not universally available.

At present, the most reliable way to kill evil spirits is still the Sun Blade and the Breathing Technique.

Wisteria flowers have become a prop used to block evil spirits or block their range of activities.

For example, the mountain chosen as the trial site is surrounded by wisteria flowers. However, this is not to prevent evil spirits from breaking in, but to prevent the evil spirits inside from running out.

"Ms. Chanelho?"

A girl in a pink kimono and a side ponytail stood quietly in the corner. Although her outfit did not seem very conducive to movement, her calm temperament and the long sword that seemed particularly suitable at her waist revealed her identity as a trial-taker.

Jiang Liu accidentally saw this familiar figure: "She is here too, which means..."

Although Kanao is Shinobu Kocho's disciple and adopted daughter, and has been educated as an elite demon hunter since childhood, even she has to pass the final selection according to the prescribed procedures before she can join the Demon Slayer Corps.

If Jiang Liu remembers correctly, Kanao should be from the same class as the protagonist of the original novel.

Could it be that I am from the same class as the protagonists?

Jiang Liu was a little surprised. After all, he couldn't remember exactly which year the original story took place in. He didn't expect that he would bump into the protagonists by coincidence.

He looked at the trial participants calmly, and soon found a yellow-haired boy standing alone on the side, with bruises all over his face and tears and snot silently flowing.

As soon as he saw him, Jiang Liu nodded secretly: It is indeed the case.

Zenitsu, this character should be regarded as the second male lead in "Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba", with a lot of popularity and screen time.

The reason why he is like this now is mainly because he didn't dare to participate in the final selection and was beaten by his master...

But don’t underestimate him because he is such a coward. His strength cannot be underestimated. In the original book, he really is “saying the most cowardly words and fighting the most fiercely”. Although his attacking methods are monotonous, they are extremely sharp because of their focus.

However, due to his personality, he cannot display that kind of strength when he is awake, but when he loses consciousness, his strength explodes, so he is also nicknamed the "Sleeping Pillar".

"The head pillar... Tanjiro hasn't come yet?" Jiang Liu looked around again and did not see the male lead Tanjiro Kamado. Although he was a little disappointed, he didn't take it to heart.

Even though he discovered the members of the protagonist group, Jiang Liu himself had no intention of going up to them to build relationships. Maybe when he first arrived he was still thinking about how to join the protagonist group and intervene in the plot, but now he is completely indifferent and hopes to let nature take its course.

The plot doesn’t matter. As long as I have the knife in my hand, there is nothing to worry about.

Chapter 18: Jiang Liu Today

"Thank you all for coming tonight to participate in the final selection of the Demon Slayer Corps."

"On this Fujisaki Mountain, the demons captured alive by the swordsmen of the Demon Slayer Corps are imprisoned."

"But the ghosts can't leave, because from the foot of the mountain to the mountainside, wisteria flowers, which the ghosts hate, bloom all year round."

"But there will be no more wisteria ahead, and there will be ghosts."

Twin kimono girls (?), with two different hair colors, one black and one white, but almost identical faces, stood under the torii gate and explained the requirements for the final selection to everyone.

They (?) have no extra expressions except for smiling, and their voices and tones are extremely strange. Their dress and appearance are like those of dolls, making their existence seem very strange.

Maybe some people would believe that it was the vengeful spirit of the little girl.

However, Jiang Liu remembered that these two people were indeed just humans, and they were the adopted sons and daughters of the Demon Slayer Corps boss (one of them was a cross-dresser).

"Surviving for seven days in there is the requirement to pass the final selection."

"Then please have a pleasant journey."

There were only twenty or thirty people in the final selection this time. They were all reserve swordsmen who had undergone rigorous training. They were not surprised by the passing requirements and set out on the journey into the forest.

Jiang Liu was the same, but he deliberately looked back before leaving.

A young man with dark red hair, a scar on his forehead, and wearing a water-patterned short coat was walking towards him with a serious face.

Tanjiro Kamado, a gentle ghost hunter who bears blood feud and fate...

"I hope you can pass the test smoothly this time as in the original book." Jiang Liu smiled silently, without stopping, and entered Tengxi Mountain first.

-

The swordsmen of the Demon Slayer Corps are also divided into levels, with a total of ten levels from low to high, but they are not divided by strength, but by their achievements in defeating evil spirits.

However, it is impossible for the weak to survive in such a cruel ghost hunting career, so in a sense, this is indeed the level of strength.

Above all the ranks, there are a few people who are considered the strongest in the Demon Slayer Corps and are called "Pillars". They have an exclusive status and unimaginable authority.

For example, Shinobu Kocho, who saved Jiang Liu before, is the head of the medical department of the Demon Slayer Corps and a member of the "Pillars", known as "Insect Pillar o Shinobu Kocho".

As for Feng... Jiang Liu felt that this woman should be a pillar, or had been one of the pillars.

Even though she had stepped down due to her physical condition, even in her current physical condition, the oppression she exerted on Jiang Liu was no less than that exerted by Shinobu Kocho, or even stronger.

However, Feng never revealed his past, especially the scar on his face, and Jiang Liu tactfully did not ask.

Jiang Liu thought that if necessary, Feng would tell him even if he didn't ask. Since she didn't mention it at all... maybe she didn't want Jiang Liu to get involved in her past.

Jiang Liu himself doesn't really care about the so-called "class". In fact, the protagonists in the original novel didn't care about it either. Even the original author seemed to have forgotten this setting in the later period...

After all, the class system of the Demon Slayer Corps is just a system to distinguish qualifications and merits. At most, it can increase wages and authority, but other than that, there are really no other benefits.

Even if they are promoted to "Pillar", they generally don't have many subordinates, and they mostly act alone or in a small team. Only a few of them manage an entire department like Shinobu Kocho.

After all, this title won't improve your strength...

Jiang Liu walked aimlessly on the mountain path, thinking about random things. His body seemed to be very relaxed, and he looked defenseless and "delicious".

Not to mention drawing the sword, he didn't even put his hand on the hilt. Instead, he put one hand in his arms, looking even more relaxed and casual than a tourist.

"Susu-"

There was a commotion coming from the treetops above, as if a wild beast was about to rush out, but Jiang Liu acted as if he didn't hear it and didn't care, just walking on his own.