After several days of rigorous mountain training, Cheng Mo and Tanjirou embarked on the path down the mountain.
Halfway down, a sizable hot spring inn came into view.
"Relax for a night, then continue tomorrow," Cheng Mo's voice, devoid of much emotion, led the way towards the brightly lit, Japanese-style building.
Tanjirou followed behind him, his muscles aching from days of high-intensity training.
But his spirit was invigorated by his steady improvement in strength.
He took a deep breath, looking forward to a hot bath to wash away his fatigue.
After walking for a while, Tanjirou saw Cheng Mo suddenly stop.
"Teacher?" Tanjirou was a bit puzzled.
He noticed Cheng Mo's expression instantly darken, colder than the mountain night.
"Go," Cheng Mo's voice was emotionless, but his steps clearly quickened.
Before long, Tanjirou's nose twitched violently a few times, and his face instantly turned pale.
"Teacher…" His voice trembled uncontrollably, and his stomach churned.
"Up ahead… such a strong smell of blood! And so many… so many dead people!"
Cheng Mo did not speak, but deep within his calm eyes, a faint golden glow silently swirled.
The [Eye of Truth] pierced through the night and the mountain forest, clearly "pulling" the scene of the brightly lit hot spring inn in the distance into his sight.
In his vision, the inn was no longer warm and bright.
The inn was enveloped by an extremely faint, yet deeply resentful, blood-red energy field.
It was lifeless, utterly contrary to the "liveliness" that an inn should have in his perception.
His brow furrowed almost imperceptibly, then slowly relaxed, his face covered with a layer of icy frost.
The closer they got, the stronger the nauseating smell became.
Tanjirou almost had to exert all his strength to suppress the urge to vomit, and his eyes involuntarily reddened.
The inn's sliding doors were wide open, and warm light spilled out, forming an eerie and cruel contrast with the pervasive scent of death in the air.
The moment he stepped through the doorway, Tanjirou's breathing completely stopped.
Hell.
What met his eyes was true hell.
The front hall, the corridors, even the stone path leading to the hot springs… everywhere was splattered with fresh blood and incomplete corpses.
Men and women, dressed in yukata or inn uniforms, lay sprawled on the ground in various twisted, painful postures, their faces frozen in extreme terror.
And amidst this mountain of corpses and sea of blood, two figures were prostrate, emitting a grating chewing sound.
Their skin was pale, their eyes blood-red, their mouths torn to their earlobes, and their sharp teeth were stained with bits of flesh and blood.
They greedily tore at the corpses on the ground, devouring them in large gulps, like beasts that had been starved for centuries.
They were newly born demons.
"Ugh—" Tanjirou could no longer hold it in, he bent over abruptly and dry-heaved, tears welling up physiologically.
He had seen death before; the tragedy of his own family was still vivid in his memory.
But to witness such a direct scene of his own kind being gnawed upon as "food," the impact almost shattered his nerves.
Cheng Mo stood quietly, expressionless.
But his gaze was terrifyingly cold, like the thousand-year-old ice that never melts in the extreme north.
As a soul from modern society, even after experiencing life-and-death transmigration and witnessing the existence of demons… such a large-scale, cruel massacre still strongly challenged his cognitive baseline.
This was not a battle; it was a slaughter.
It was naked, brutal savagery!
The killing intent brought by the name Kibutsuji Muzan had never surged and boiled as it did now, almost materializing.
"Tea… Teacher…" Tanjirou struggled to straighten up, his voice hoarse and broken.
He sniffed hard, beneath the thick, suffocating smell of blood in the air, a faint, yet incredibly familiar, bone-deep, chilling stench of evil.
"This smell… is it… that night…?"
His pupils contracted violently in horror, and the scene of his family's brutal death resurfaced uncontrollably before his eyes.
"Yes," Cheng Mo's voice was low, carrying a cold confirmation, "It seems Kibutsuji Muzan is not far from us."
And, he had just left not long ago.
Perhaps… he was still nearby.
Just then— "Caw—!"
A sharp, urgent crow cry pierced the night sky.
A Kasugai Crow swooped down like an arrow, landing precisely on Cheng Mo's raised arm, its voice extremely anxious:
"Caw! Urgent message! Flame Pillar Kyojuro Rengoku is facing a powerful enemy! Suspected to be Kibutsuji Muzan! Location: southwest valley! Requesting support! Caw! Repeat! Requesting support! Caw!"
Mr. Rengoku? Kibutsuji Muzan!
Tanjirou suddenly looked up at Cheng Mo.
Cheng Mo's eyes sharpened, without the slightest hesitation: "Tanjirou, you stay here, deal with these two new demons, then immediately contact the nearest Kakushi Corps."
"No!" Tanjirou blurted out almost instinctively.
He suddenly grabbed Cheng Mo's sleeve, his knuckles white from the force.
He looked up, and in those eyes, which were always clear and gentle, now burned deep-seated hatred and immense sorrow, tears rolling down uncontrollably.
"Teacher! Please! Take me with you!"
Cheng Mo frowned: "This is not a battle you can participate in right now; Kibutsuji Muzan's strength far exceeds your imagination."
"I know! I know I'm weak!" Tanjirou almost roared, his voice hoarse with emotion.
"I know I might not be able to help, and might even hold you back!"
"But… but I don't want to just hide in a safe place!"
His tears flowed even more fiercely, but he bit his lip hard.
"I want to see with my own eyes… witness firsthand what kind of evil we have to face… I want to know… how far the path of revenge truly is! Please, Teacher, take me with you! I promise I will absolutely obey all your commands and will not act recklessly!"
Cheng Mo looked at the almost desperate plea and boundless pain in his disciple's eyes, and fell silent for a moment.
He saw in Tanjirou a similar burden, the weight of carrying the fate of his closest kin.
He also saw the impact this cruel scene had on the young man, and the determination to confront the abyss directly.
With a casual slash of his sword, the two new demons, who had already noticed them, were decapitated and dispersed into black smoke.
"…Follow me," Cheng Mo finally uttered two words.
He reached out and grabbed Tanjirou's shoulder.
The next moment, a violent, azure Lightning Release Chakra surged out, enveloping Tanjirou as well, like a protective shield!
"Let's go!"
Boom!
Before he finished speaking, Cheng Mo had already transformed into a bolt of lightning tearing through the night sky, carrying Tanjirou with him, and shot towards the southwest at an incredible speed!
"!!!"
Tanjirou felt a huge force pulling him, and the surrounding scenery rapidly receded, blurring into a distorted mosaic of colors.
The fierce wind lashed at his face like knives, and even with Cheng Mo's Chakra protection, he could barely breathe.
Was this his teacher's full-power speed?
It was too fast! Several times faster than any previous experience!