The Warrior of Love

Jiang Liu said speechlessly: "At times like this, you have to rely on your intuition."

"Intuition?" Zenitsu was dumbfounded, "How to do it?"

Tanjiro seemed to be thinking about something. After a moment of silence, he suddenly raised his nose and sniffed twice, and quickly chose his own piece of steel.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah?"

Zenitsu became even more excited: "Why can you all choose well? To me, they are all the same."

"It's the smell." Tanjiro nodded vigorously, "The smell of the jade steel gave me an intuition!"

"It doesn't make any sense!" Zenitsu was stunned. "Why don't you say something I can understand?"

The smell... Jiang Liu looked at Tanjiro with complicated eyes.

This boy's sense of smell is extremely sensitive, surpassing that of many wild animals, reaching the level of super powers. In the original book, he can even distinguish the smells emitted by people in different emotions...

Even Jiang Liu found this level of sensitive sense of smell incredible, but it did exist.

By the way, Zenitsu actually has outstanding perception abilities, but his sense of smell is not that of smell, but that of hearing that is beyond that of ordinary people, almost as accurate as radar, but it is of no use in selecting tamagan.

When everyone else had almost finished choosing, Zenitsu picked out a nondescript piece with a pitiful look on his face.

After selecting the steel blocks, after a while someone brought the team uniforms of the right size, and everyone went home to wait for the Demon Slayer Corps to deliver the finished Nichirin swords.

There is no need to worry that the Demon Slayer Corps will not be able to find them, because in addition to transmitting messages, the crows have the function of locating them. This is also a way for the Demon Slayer Corps to grasp the movements of its team members and deploy manpower.

"No, I don't want to be separated from Jiang Liujun! I have decided to follow you for the rest of my life. Oh, and Tanjiro, you will definitely protect me, right?!"

When they parted, Zenitsu cried almost to the point of being unable to speak. When he thought about officially becoming a member of the Demon Slayer Corps and fighting life and death with evil spirits, he could not control his emotions.

But Jiang Liu did not despise him for this, because even if he was afraid of this, Shan Yi still chose a piece of jade steel instead of quitting...

No matter what, they had to separate. After making a fuss for a while, Zenitsu seemed to have accepted his fate and gave up, and left Fujishikoyama obediently.

As for Jiang Liu, he and Tanjiro high-fived each other and said goodbye.

"That's a matter of course, Tanjiro."

Jiang Liu looked at the red-haired boy gradually disappearing into the background, with a slight smile on his face.

"We will definitely meet again."

-

After separating from Tanjiro, Zenitsu and the others, Jiang Liu set off on his journey home with the Demon Slayer Corps uniform he had just obtained, while the messenger crow flew away to an unknown place.

The seven-day trial hardly consumed Jiang Liu's energy. Fighting to recuperate and having ample time to rest put him in the best condition ever. He returned to his residence without much rest.

He did not go directly to his room, but went to the Buddhist hall first to say hello to Feng, but unexpectedly he did not find anyone.

"Not at home?"

Jiang Liu opened the Buddhist hall and frowned slightly as he looked at the dim interior.

"It's strange that Feng would leave."

His teacher didn't like to socialize with others and would not go out unless necessary. Even daily shopping was done by Jiang Liu.

Feeling a little uneasy for some reason, Jiang Liu returned to his residence and planned to take a shower and clean himself up first.

"Wow..."

Hearing the sound of water coming from behind the house, Jiang Liu's heart moved and he immediately stopped and stood up.

After waiting for about ten minutes, the sound of water disappeared. After a short pause, Jiang Liu started walking again and went around the back of the house.

"I'm back safely."

Jiang Liu was not surprised when he heard Feng's voice as soon as he turned around.

"Thanks for your teachings to me these days."

"In this way, you can be considered a true swordsman, and my fate with you will end here."

Jiang Liu saw Feng's current appearance and couldn't help but be surprised.

The red-haired mature woman was now standing in the small river behind the house, wearing only a thin white silk garment, which was soaked and wrinkled and stuck to her skin, almost appearing translucent, perfectly showing Feng's plump and tall outline.

The red hair also fell down after being soaked, and the hair kept dripping crystal water droplets on the white skin, making it look somewhat gorgeous.

It was dusk at this moment, and the ambiguous afterglow enveloped everything, giving Jiang Liu's eyes the texture of an oil painting.

"What? Have you never seen a woman before?" Feng glanced at Jiang Liu with his only intact eye.

Jiang Liu narrowed his eyes and did not answer the question, but instead raised a question.

"The one behind you is... So you have a tattoo."

Behind Feng, the wet clothes did not serve to cover his body at all, revealing a large area of ​​delicate blue-black patterns.

"Tattoo? Oh, you mean this?"

Feng smiled slightly: "Is it strange?"

"I never knew..."

"What do you think of a woman's skin? It's not something you can show to others."

Then what’s going on with you now—Jiang Liu’s mouth twitched.

Even though Feng was seen in such an unbecoming manner, he showed no sign of panic at all. He didn't seem to be as conservative as she said.

"Actually, I'm very shy right now. If it weren't for the teacher's authority, I would turn around and run away."

Whether you believe it or not—Feng added to himself.

Jiang Liu didn't say anything, but his expression clearly expressed three words: I don't believe it!

"Well, come to think of it, I do have something to hide from you...Want to see it? My secret."

Without waiting for Jiang Liu to respond, Feng slowly pulled his clothes off his shoulders and turned his back to Jiang Liu, revealing the blue tattoo that almost occupied half of his back.

——No, not a tattoo!

With the help of the afterglow of dusk, Jiang Liu saw the whole picture clearly, and his pupils shrank suddenly.

"Is that a ghost's face?"

Chapter 24: Traditional Arts!

Although most of Feng's body was exposed to Jiang Liu's eyes, he did not have the slightest beautiful thought in his mind, but instead felt a chill all over his body.

What a strange scene it was!

A baby-like face occupies the upper left part of the back, as if it has come into reality from a picture. Although the facial features are not very prominent and look like a tattoo at first glance, it is clearly something "alive".

The dark blue veins extending from this face spread all over the back, and the blood vessels could be seen wriggling faintly. The overall skin color was like that of a demon. If only a part of it was exposed, it might be mistaken for a large tattoo.

The baby seemed to be sleeping, with his eyes closed and had not woken up yet, but even so, Jiang Liu gasped.

He had been with Feng day and night for a whole year, but he had no idea that the other person had this thing on his body!

"It was suppressed by the amulet made of wisteria flowers."

Feng said, "But even so, this is almost the limit... I don't have much time left."

"What do you mean?" Jiang Liu was startled by his own voice as he opened his mouth.

Dry and hoarse, like a wanderer who has been traveling in the desert for weeks.

"I have something to ask of you."

Feng turned around to face Jiang Liu, his fair and charming upper body exposed, forming a striking contrast with his back corroded by the evil spirit.

This woman, who had never shown her weak side in front of Jiang Liu, blushed for the first time in her life. She raised one hand to cover her plump upper body, with the edge of her arm revealing a soft curve.

But her words were so cold.

"Can you please kill me? This is my last request."

"But I refuse!" Jiang Liu said with a cold face.

-

Maternal love is a woman's nature. When a woman is nurturing life in her body, she is at her most vulnerable but also her most powerful.

"Let my child be born safely..." - This obsession can sometimes be strong enough to create miracles.

Once upon a time, a woman from a red-light district became pregnant unexpectedly. She was not a glamorous courtesan or a doctor, but just an ordinary prostitute struggling to survive at the bottom of society. She had neither the ability to raise the little life that was in her gestation, nor the desire to give birth to it.

Rather than letting "him" come to this world and suffer in a dark corner, it would be better not to let him be born in the first place.

People like me are not worthy of the title of mother. Struggling in the mire like I am now, and then dying somewhere like my predecessors and letting my body rot, this is the normal life.

To continue her life or something like that... She had never had such a luxury.

But unexpectedly, her child was exceptionally "strong" and she did not miscarry even after taking the abortion pills sold on the red-light district.

People's hearts are easily changed. Just one failed attempt caused the barriers in this woman's heart to collapse.

Maybe this is a revelation from God - the woman thought so and tried to escape from the life in the red-light district.

However, it is not so easy for a person who has fallen once to escape from his original environment. Unlike Buddhist scriptures, there is not even a spider thread of salvation in the real world, and people cannot climb out of hell and return to the world by their own strength.

Her attempt failed again, and there was no second chance. The tattered woman was thrown into the river, protecting her belly.

But perhaps she was too unfortunate. Although she failed to meet the Buddha who saved the world, she saw evil spirits from hell.

I don't know what the reason was, or maybe someone just wanted to do an experiment on a pregnant woman, but he gave her his own blood to see what a "ghost child" would look like.

The experiment ultimately failed.

Because the child, who was born at only seven months old, had no warm water to wash his body, only dirty river water. There were no doctors or parents around him, only a cold "human" and a new ghost who had lost his rationality due to hunger...

That day, beside the river where countless newborns had drowned, a new life was indeed born.

But it was not a baby, but a ghost girl who was trapped in a demonic barrier.

The ghost girl's spirit was divided into two sides, positive and negative. She could only hear the crying of babies but could not find her own child. She still stubbornly believed that she was still "alive" somewhere in the world.

She never took the initiative to recall what happened by the river that night, but just kept wandering in this world, looking for her child.

There have been many legends about ghosts and spirits in Japanese folklore since ancient times, many of which evolved from rumors about evil ghosts, and ghost girls have played many roles in them.

Sometimes she is a female ghost in the deep mountains, sometimes a snow girl on the snowy mountains, and sometimes a ghost prostitute who seduces men. She constantly has intercourse with men, constantly absorbs their blood and flesh, and tries again and again to "find" her child.

As time went by, obsession and human flesh made her stronger and stronger.

Although she had encountered swordsmen from the Demon Slayer Corps before, even the "Pillars" could not kill her. Over a long period of time, a total of seven Pillars were defeated by her strange blood demon magic.

Four years ago, Feng and his companions met her and paid a heavy price in casualties before they forced her into a desperate situation. In the end, Feng broke her blood demon magic and ended her painful life.

However, Feng also lost an eye and was disfigured, and withdrew from the front line.

In fact, if it was just one eye, Feng would not lose her fighting ability, it would just be discounted. What really made her choose to retire was the demon curse that was planted at the end of the battle——

That is the "fetus" on her back!

"Originally, this should be a spell that plunders flesh and blood. The person who is hit will become the nutrients of the "fetus". Within a few hours, he will turn into a shell, and his original flesh and blood will turn into a "newborn" after being digested.

Well, even though they are children, they are just monsters created by vampire magic, not real humans."

Feng glanced back and said, "My situation is a little special. Although the fetus was planted, I successfully killed the mother body, so the growth rate of the fetus was greatly slowed down.

However, I don’t know what kind of mutation it has caused. This evil thing cannot be removed no matter what I do. The sunlight and the sun blade have no effect on it. Even if it is completely removed, it will definitely grow again... and slowly, it has connected to my spine and internal organs. "

Sunlight is the natural enemy of evil spirits, but this "fetus" is not a real evil spirit - at least not before it is born.

It is actually closer to "living vampire magic" and has reached a subtle parasitic relationship with Feng. Just like a real baby, it is under the protection of the mother (Feng).

In a sense, if Feng is not dead, it is also immortal.

"That's why I want you to end this."

Feng put on his clothes again and slowly walked out of the river.

“Shinobu has diagnosed me. Even though the fetus is dormant, it is still absorbing nutrients instinctively. Sooner or later, I will be dragged down by it, or worse... I will be assimilated!

If it really comes to that, all I can do is commit suicide by basking in the sun, or ask someone to help me put an end to it.

But after I fell, I probably wouldn’t think about suicide anymore… Even now I reject the idea of ​​suicide. Maybe I have been manipulated unconsciously.”

"Then why me?"

Jiang Liu's voice choked for a moment, but he pretended to be calm.