The Warrior of Love

Tanjiro originally thought that the two boys and girls who had helped him on his training were orphans who lived nearby and were also adopted by their teacher - in fact, this was indeed the case, but another important truth was concealed.

They have died long ago.

Long before Tanjiro became a disciple of the previous Water Pillar, they had already graduated and participated in the final selection... and then were killed and eaten by this hand ghost.

What Tanjiro encountered was actually just the remaining longing.

After knowing the truth, Tanjiro naturally felt uncontrollable anger and... murderous intent towards the hand demon in front of him!

On the contrary, the hand ghost was full of joy and happiness.

He had been defeated by the previous Water Pillar and imprisoned in this mountain. At that time, he was very weak, just a small fish demon that had eaten two or three people. However, in this deep mountain, he showed extraordinary patience, and with a little bit of luck, he actually lived from the end of the Edo period to the Taisho period.

In every final selection, he would secretly kill a few participants, but he would never cause a complete annihilation to attract outside attention. So he stayed in hiding and devoured more than fifty people!

During this period, in order to take revenge on the former Water Pillar who had imprisoned him, he specifically targeted the Water Pillar's disciples, and so far there have been more than ten of them.

Since he hid it very well, even Shui Zhu was just sad and thought that the children were unlucky. He blamed himself and gradually became unwilling to teach his disciples anymore.

Today, Shuu-gō met another disciple of the Water Pillar, who was also the youngest one, and Tanjiro also met his fateful enemy.

"With such a big body...how many people have you eaten?!" Tanjiro shouted loudly, suppressing his anger.

"Fifty-three? Fifty-four? Fifty-eight? I can't remember clearly."

The whole body was surrounded by arms transformed by blood demon magic, even the vital part of the neck was covered, and the hand ghost with only two eyes almost exposed laughed in a happy voice.

"You can't remember the number of rice balls you've eaten anyway."

"asshole!"

It’s not enough, this guy is not angry enough—the hand ghost narrowed his eyes.

The reason why he was able to lurk in the "Novice Village" for so long without being discovered, in addition to blood magic and luck, was also largely due to his cautious style.

Although he seems to be fearless in capturing humans, in fact, he will not let go of anyone who has seen him. He will not let the survivors pass on the news. When dealing with powerful swordsmen, he will keep a distance and use his blood magic to consume the opponent and protect his own weaknesses.

The disciples of the previous Water Pillar were all very strong, especially the little devil called Flesh-colored Hair (錆兔), who almost defeated him at that time, but in the end he was lucky enough to survive.

He was very lucky - the Hand Ghost firmly believed in this!

Although the little devil in front of him is equally strong, the hand ghost does not think that he can remain rational. As long as Tanjiro rushes up rashly, he can easily solve him, just like before.

But it's not enough. This level of provocation is not enough. Tanjiro is much calmer and stronger than his peers. He must add some "spices".

"Ah, but although I can't remember how many people I ate, I know how many disciples of Urokodaki (former Water Pillar) there are. Let me count, one, two, three..."

Arms stretched out from the bloated body, calculating in a clumsy, ridiculous, yet extremely creepy manner.

"Thirteen, and then the fourteenth—"

The hand ghost pointed at Tanjiro and chattered, "What a pity! Urokodaki worked so hard to train these apprentices, but it was all in vain. Next is you, the fourteenth little ghost! Together with your brothers, become my nutrients!"

"Ahhh!"

Finally unable to control his emotions, Tanjiro rushed forward quickly.

The hand ghost narrowed his eyes, smiled, and activated the blood ghost technique. His thick arms stretched out like tentacles and attacked the young man continuously.

The human body is very fragile. If any arm could hit Tanjiro, the force like a battering ram would shatter the boy's bones, but the boy must get close before he can launch an attack.

The battle between the two sides is completely unequal. It is very easy for Hand Ghost to win, and this is also the source of his confidence.

As he expected, although Tanjiro's swordsmanship was already quite good and he kept swinging his sword to cut off the arms of the hand demon, no matter how many he cut off, they would regenerate immediately, as if they were endless. Tanjiro was soon put in an extremely difficult situation, and it was extremely difficult for him to get close to the hand demon.

"You're too late!"

Finally, the hand demon seized the opportunity and lashed Tanjiro hard like a whip, easily throwing the boy's body away and rolling to the ground, his life or death unknown.

"I won. It's my victory again, hahaha!"

The hand ghost made a smug sound. He was so excited that he almost trembled at the thought that he would soon be able to enjoy fresh human flesh, and that it would be the descendant of the hateful Urokodaki.

Although he enjoyed it immensely every time he ate someone, he was particularly excited when he targeted the people under the Water Column, because that was the pleasure of revenge engraved in his bones.

"As expected, the flesh and blood of Urokodaki's disciples is the most suitable. I am so excited (I am so awesome)!"

The hand ghost immediately repaired the damaged part, then concentrated his strength to shoot out his thickest arm, aiming directly at Tanjiro who was unconscious on the ground!

However, at this critical moment, a cold flash of light appeared in the darkness, instantly cutting off the arm.

"what?!"

The hand ghost was stunned for a moment, and when he looked carefully, he found that there was an extra person next to Tanjiro.

——It was Jiang Liu who was hiding nearby.

Chapter 21: Cutting off the cause and effect

"who are you?"

The hand ghost said bitterly: "When you saw me, you didn't run away, but rushed up to me. Do you want to die too?"

"Me?" Jiang Liu blinked and was speechless for a moment.

He was originally a very talkative person, and he had also been a light novel writer, so he had the most basic language organization skills. However, during this one-year training period, apart from occasionally going to the town to replenish daily necessities, he almost only communicated with Feng.

And how much can two people talk about?

After the first three months, the two had already formed a tacit understanding where they could understand each other almost without talking, and verbal communication was even less.

As a result, Jiang Liu developed a habit of talking to himself... and was not very comfortable talking to others.

I have to pay attention to this problem - Jiang Liu thought about this little thing and waved casually to the evil ghost.

"I'm just a passing ninja, don't mind me."

"Nonsense!"

The hand ghost launched an attack impatiently, and more than ten arms slapped towards Jiang Liu and the unconscious Tanjiro, making heavy shouting sounds.

Jiang Liu unhurriedly spread his legs, naturally getting into position, and with a click of his thumb the blade popped out of the sheath. A subtle and clear metallic sound echoed melodiously in the night.

Standing in front of Tanjiro, Jiang Liu did not show any fear in the face of the blood demon technique that could easily break human bones. He suddenly took action when the strong wind broke into his perception area.

Clang, clang, clang!

Three consecutive sword sounds were heard, accompanied by a flash of cold silver light, and a ghost hand as thick as a tree trunk fell down.

The ghost hands attacked continuously, and Jiang Liu's slashes became connected. He didn't need to dodge at all. He could adjust the trajectory in a breath, allowing the blade to cut along a precise path, and the force did not decrease at all. Each time it was as sharp as if he had just drawn the sword.

The force generated during breathing, the state of "looseness and tightness", things that were once out of reach for Jiang Liu, are now firmly engraved on his body.

As a result, he showed overwhelming dominance on the battlefield and blocked all of the hand ghost's attacks!

"I see, is this the blood demon technique?"

Jiang Liu felt the touch on his hand and made a judgment in secret.

"Although the power is great, the muscle tissue of the arm is not very tough, and this is probably the price of unlimited regeneration. This guy's blood ghost art is to quickly produce a large number of ghost hands for consumption attacks, so simply chopping off the hands will not cause any substantial damage to him."

It’s very interesting. When Jiang Liu was watching animation in his previous life, he was wondering about the principle of something like “blood demon magic”.

This is a special skill possessed by a few ghost geniuses, and almost no two blood ghost arts are exactly the same. It seems like they have discovered their respective talent potential.

However, this world has no mysterious elements other than ghosts, which makes this thing seem a bit abrupt.

Even if growing arms and legs, body deformation, spitting spider silk, spraying venom and the like can be explained by "body transformation", but those spatial, field, and even telekinetic blood vampire arts... are really incredible.

Since these things can appear, it proves that this world is not completely isolated from "mystery". Then all human beings are flesh and blood and have no extraordinary abilities... It seems a bit unreasonable.

Animation and comics are fine, after all, they are just a fantasy world, and most problems can be solved by simply saying "this is the setting".

But Jiang Liu is now in the "real world"! Those logical contradictions will naturally be supplemented, and therefore many things that did not appear in the animation will appear, and the plot may not necessarily unfold as it originally did.

For example, when the hand demon attacked Tanjiro just now, in the animation the boy should have heard the voices of his relatives and woke up in time, and finally turned defeat into victory.

But here, Tanjiro did not wake up. If it were not for Jiang Liu's intervention, he might have died here. This is probably the difference between "animation" and "reality".

In the real world, there is not so much passion to burn...

But miracles can happen even in reality—isn’t Jiang Liu such a person?

"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! Why can't I kill him?!"

The hand ghost scratched his face madly, and his sharp nails made his face covered in blood, but his powerful recovery ability restored the wound to its original state in an instant.

"Don't get in my way, you stinky bug!"

More ghost hands appeared, and the evil ghosts' offensive increased again. Jiang Liu couldn't help but frown.

It was not difficult for him to kill the hand ghost. Having learned the ninja footwork from Feng, he could easily avoid all attacks, shorten the distance between the two, and then complete the decapitation.

However, once he leaves his original position, Tanjiro behind him will have no one to protect him, and any move of the hand ghost can smash him to pieces.

After all, Jiang Liu is fearless where the blade touches him... but that's all.

Swords are not magic or supernatural powers, and they have a distance limitation that cannot be broken physically.

Jiang Liu himself does not want to give up Tanjiro. This has nothing to do with whether he is the protagonist of the original work. It is simply because Jiang Liu has a certain liking for him - in terms of personality.

Or maybe it was Tanjiro's tragic fate that resonated with Jiang Liu.

Both of them had their family members killed, both of them were the only ones who survived, and both of them had a younger sister to protect... The difference is that Jiang Liu and Li Xiang are not orthopedics doctors.

Ah, no, the enemy that Jiang Liu has to face is much stronger than Tanjiro's, and he is destined to put in more effort.

If there is enough time, Jiang Liu doesn't mind giving him a hand.

After all, Jiang Liu is no longer a "warrior of love". After experiencing the tragedy of fate himself, he now hates the so-called "deep" dark and cruel plots. He even wants to travel back in time and beat up his then alias Lao Xu.

You are a third-rate light novel writer, why are you trying to be so profound? Isn't a happy ending good enough? !

"Um……"

Just as Jiang Liu was fending off the hand ghost's increasingly fierce attacks, something unusual suddenly appeared in his field of perception.

Jiang Liu's expression changed slightly, but his good psychological quality allowed him to remain calm and he was not discovered by the hand ghost.

Even without turning around, one could guess that the unconscious Tanjiro must be beginning to wake up.

Sure enough, after just two or three seconds, the boy on the ground began to breathe rapidly and his body became visibly tense.

"Are you awake already?"

Jiang Liu said softly: "Then don't hesitate. You just need to know that I am your ally and your enemy is not dead yet. That's enough - do you know what to do?"

"Ok!"

"What are you talking about?" The hand ghost suddenly shouted, "What are you whispering about, and who are you talking to?!"

"Who?"

Jiang Liu suddenly laughed: "It's your god of death."

Taking a step forward, Jiang Liu, who had not moved a single step since the war began, now took a leisurely step forward.

His body was like a bird feather flying in the wind, dodging the strong wind brought by the ghost's hand. His extraordinary agility allowed him to easily escape the evil ghost's attack.

However, in doing so, he also exposed the young man behind him, and those ghost hands whipped over with strong wind pressure -

"Drink!"

Suddenly rising without any warning, the young Tanjiro rolled nimbly on the ground, avoiding the first wave of attacks, and then jumped high on the devil's hand.

"Can you still move?!"

The evil ghost glared and subconsciously wanted to continue killing all of Urokodaki's disciples, but a fierce murderous intent coming from the front forced him to be distracted.

Jiang Liu rushed forward in a flash, his long sword had been sheathed without him noticing, and his body was leaning forward slightly.

"Above or below?"

The evil spirit hesitated for a moment. Whether it was Tanjiro in mid-air or Jiang Liu in front of him, the target was undoubtedly his head, but he could not decide which one to deal with first.

"It doesn't matter. My neck is very hard and cannot be cut off. It has been like this before and no one has ever cut it off. These little devils will definitely not be able to do it!"

The hand ghost knocked most of the arms that grew from the blood demon art into the air - he finally chose to take revenge on Urokodaki.

However, this choice was a fatal mistake.

"Breathing of Nothingness - Style 1—"

clank!

In a flash, he drew his sword and slashed, and two sword lights flashed through space. Their speed was so fast that it seemed as if they were struck at the same time, and even their afterimages overlapped.