The moment the blade touched his pale skin, it emitted a crisp clang, like metal striking stone!
"Oh?" Muzan let out a soft hum, a hint of surprise in his voice.
He hadn't expected a man cooped up in a small tavern in such a remote place to possess such skill.
But his outstretched claw didn't even retract; he merely casually extended it forward—
Clang!
A crisp, teeth-grinding sound of metal snapping!
Himura Senichi's finely crafted sword, its tip, was easily pinched by Muzan's two fingers, and with a gentle snap, it broke!
The broken tip spun through the air, embedding itself in a wooden pillar, buzzing.
Himura Senichi, holding the broken blade, his pupils suddenly constricted to pinpricks, the color draining from his face, replaced by an expression of incredible horror!
Bare-handed… broke his sword?!
This was simply not something a human could do!
"Good reflexes, and your swordsmanship has some semblance of form." Muzan flicked away the insignificant blade tip from his fingers, as if brushing off a speck of dust.
"Bastard!"
The broken nichirin blade in Himura Senichi's hand sliced through the air, emitting a piercing shriek.
He abandoned all defense, unleashing every fierce, suicidal move from his ancestral swordsmanship!
His footwork was elusive, his blade light like lightning.
In an instant, he parried Muzan's casual claw, and the tricky angle even forced Muzan to slightly shift his body!
In Muzan's scarlet eyes, the playful, cat-and-mouse amusement was finally replaced by a hint of genuine surprise.
But that was all.
"The struggles of an ant are a bit more interesting than expected."
His voice was icy, having lost his last shred of patience.
The next instant, his figure blurred.
Himura Senichi only felt a flash before his eyes, and an irresistible force slammed into his tightly gripped broken nichirin blade!
"Clang—!"
A deafening clash of metal!
The half of his beloved sword, which had accompanied him for years, flew completely from his grasp, spinning to embed itself in the distant ceiling, its hilt still trembling.
As for Himura Senichi himself, it was as if he had been struck by a heavy hammer.
He was sent flying backward, slamming hard into the tavern wall.
Thud!
A dull thud sounded, and blood gushed from his mouth.
He hadn't even seen how his opponent had attacked!
Before he could struggle to get up, several terrifying, needle-sharp Whip, mutated from Muzan's arms, shot out like venomous snakes!
Pfft! Pfft!
The Whip precisely avoided vital points but cruelly pierced his shoulders and thighs, pinning him tightly to the wall, intense pain instantly sweeping through his entire body!
"Ugh ah—!" Himura Senichi let out a pained grunt, blood quickly staining the dilapidated wall.
"Papa!" Himura Ruri, seeing her father's tragic state, let out a heart-wrenching cry, struggling to rush forward.
"Don't come here!" Himura Senichi roared hoarsely, blood spilling from the corner of his mouth.
Muzan, however, was indifferent to Himura Senichi's defiance.
He merely watched the blood flowing from Senichi's wounds with interest, his inhuman eyes gleaming with the focused intensity of a researcher discovering a novel specimen.
"Good eyes, good bones," he remarked.
"Become my servant, and atone for your previous transgression."
Before he finished speaking, he squeezed a drop of thick, almost black demon blood, exuding extreme evil and ominous aura, from his fingertip, flicked it, and it shot directly into Senichi's largest wound!
"Ugh ah ah ah—!!!"
Senichi's body suddenly began to convulse violently.
Pain far more intense than being pierced by the Whip erupted instantly.
That drop of demon blood, like the most potent poison, or a living entity with its own consciousness, surged wildly through his body, attempting to tear, transform, and assimilate everything within him!
Veins bulged beneath his skin, turning purplish-black, and his muscles spasmed and twisted unnaturally.
However, unlike ordinary people who rapidly mutate after being injected with demon blood, Senichi's body exhibited an extremely strong rejection reaction.
His blood seemed to "burn" on its own, emitting a faint but tenacious scorching aura, desperately resisting the demon blood's erosion, making the transformation process abnormally slow and painful.
Especially when Himura Ruri cried out "Papa," that resistance became even more fierce!
Muzan's brow slightly raised, the "playfulness" in his eyes turning into genuine surprise, followed by immense, indescribable ecstasy!
"This is...?" He seemed to have discovered a rare treasure.
"Strong obsession… mixed with special bloodline traits? It can resist my blood so intensely?!"
A brilliant experimental idea formed in his mind.
To verify his conjecture, he had a thought.
Several thicker, mucus-covered, dark red blood vines suddenly shot out from the ground, coiling around the stunned Himura Ruri like giant pythons.
The blood vines swung her up violently, then slammed her heavily onto the cold, hard ground!
Bang!
"Ruri!!!" Himura Senichi's eyes were bloodshot, letting out a desperate roar.
Muzan could clearly feel that the scorching resistance within Himura Senichi's body had suddenly intensified a notch the moment the girl was injured!
Bang!
The blood vines once again swung the crying Himura Ruri up and slammed her down!
"Let her go! Beast! Come at me!!"
Himura Senichi's struggles became more violent, blood gushing from his wounds, that scorching sensation almost bursting out of his body!
Bang!
The third heavy slam!
Himura Ruri's small body lay limp on the ground, blood oozing from her mouth and nose.
Her breath instantly became faint, and she looked as if she was about to die.
"Ruri... Ruri..."
The light in Himura Senichi's eyes seemed to dim with the fading life of his daughter, and boundless despair and rage accumulated and erupted like a volcano in his chest!
"Ah ah ah ah ah—!!!"
He suddenly threw his head back and let out an earth-shattering roar.
His obsession, at this moment, transcended the limits of his physical body, reaching its peak!
Buzz—!
A faint red energy wave, visible to the naked eye, suddenly burst forth from his body!
The Whip that pierced his body were forcibly pushed back a few inches by this power.
The blood in Himura Senichi's wounds boiled violently, emitting astonishing heat.
He even temporarily evaporated and forced back some of the demon blood that had seeped into his body!
His originally purplish-black, mutated skin even showed unstable signs, as if it was about to return to its original state.
"Interesting! Too interesting!!!"
Muzan, far from being alarmed, was delighted, a nearly crazed, excited smile on his face.
"It's an even more precious and rarer trait than Marechi blood!"
"Obsession... can it actually affect blood itself in such a tangible way?! What a treasure this is!"
He decided to raise the stakes.
Disregarding the heart-wrenching pain and frantic rejection from his bloodline instincts that Himura Senichi was enduring, Muzan directly unleashed his power!
More, thicker, and more powerfully evil demon blood, like a black stream, forcibly poured into Himura Senichi's wounds!
"Ugh... ah...!"
Himura Senichi's body trembled violently, the whites of his eyes instantly covered in black, then difficultly receded.
His skin repeatedly tore and healed, emitting a teeth-grinding creaking sound.
Muzan watched expectantly, laughing madly: "Hold on, hold on with your obsession and pain!"
"Perhaps... you can become an Upper Rank Three-level existence, let me see what kind of... human emotions can create..."
Just at this critical moment—
The tavern window shattered with a crash!
A figure, hot as the scorching sun and swift as a meteor, enveloped in endless rage and scorching sword energy, charged straight in!
"Flame Breathing, Eighth Form: Instant Scorching Flame!"
Accompanied by a roar as loud as a lion's, the newcomer concentrated all his strength into one ultimate thrust!
The nichirin blade, with the force of a thunderbolt, did not strike Muzan, but slammed fiercely into the ground between Muzan and Himura Senichi.
Boom—!!!
A massive impact force suddenly erupted!
The ground cracked inch by inch, and an incredibly hot shockwave, mixed with burning, flame-like sword energy, swept out like an exploding ring of fire!
The scorching, bright, and righteous energy clashed violently with Muzan's cold and evil aura, emitting sizzling sounds!
This sudden, powerful attack, filled with power to restrain evil, finally forced the caught-off-guard Muzan back a step.
It also forcibly interrupted his continuous injection of demon blood into Himura Senichi.
As the firelight receded slightly, the newcomer's figure appeared.
His long, yellow and red hair was like burning flames, and his bright eyes blazed with towering fury.
He stood with his nichirin blade drawn, blocking the path between the dying Himura Ruri and Himura Senichi, who was struggling between mutation and resistance.
His posture was as tall and straight as a pine tree, and his voice boomed like thunder:
"Evil one! Your wickedness ends here!"