Looking at his reflection in the lake, Ren took a deep breath and then drew his sword, beginning his dance.
In an instant, sword energy seemed to traverse thirty thousand miles, a single strike cold enough to freeze fourteen prefectures.
That description might be a bit exaggerated, but a chilling, domineering sword aura truly permeated the edge of Black Water Lake, resembling an invisible meat grinder.
If anyone were to rashly approach at this moment, they would surely be minced into meat paste by the sword energy that cut iron like mud!
As he drew his sword and rose, the Mark appeared on his forehead once again, and his pupils were dyed blood-red due to the rapid flow of blood.
"Is this my Mark?"
Looking at the seven red cloud-shaped marks on his forehead, Ren muttered to himself.
"It actually looks pretty good. Moreover, after activating the Mark, my strength and five senses have improved significantly. Although I haven't unlocked the Transparent World yet, with senses more than thirty times sharper than an ordinary person, it isn't much different from the Transparent World."
As he spoke, Ren swung his sword forcefully at a giant boulder ten meters away. Fierce, domineering sword energy whistled out, instantly slicing the rock, which was over two meters tall, in two.
Looking at the smooth cut, Ren couldn't help but smile. "This is my current strength. Compared to my previous self, I am simply too much stronger, especially after unlocking the Mark! If I were to meet Muzan now, I could definitely drag him out to sunbathe together, provided the Twelve Kizuki don't come out to get in the way..."
Thinking this, Ren looked at the lake water, imagining the large carp swimming inside were Muzan, and slashed out with his sword.
The sword energy acted like the wind, smashing into the water and instantly curling up a thousand layers of waves. In a short while, more than ten large carp were carried to the shore by the spray. The carp were huge, nearly a meter in length, and weighed about eight or nine catties each.
Such large carp could undoubtedly be sold for a good price. Ren took out the rope he had prepared in advance, bundled the carp up, and returned to Chinatsu's home.
At this time, the old woman was still sleeping, but Chinatsu had already woken up and was busy preparing breakfast for her grandmother and Kocho Shinobu.
Seeing Ren return, she was about to tell him to wash his hands and get ready to eat.
However, when she saw the dozen or so large carp Ren was carrying, she was completely dumbfounded; saying her eyes widened like copper bells would not be an exaggeration.
Even though she had lived in Black Water Village for several years, she had never seen so many big fish. Usually, if villagers could catch a single fish weighing over ten catties, they would be thanking the heavens. Yet, Ren had over a dozen such fish in his hands.
Chinatsu asked in a daze, "Brother Ren, d-did you catch all these big carp?"
"Sort of."
Ren smiled awkwardly. These carp had merely been brought up by his sword energy, but he didn't plan to tell Chinatsu that, lest he scare the little girl.
He paused, then continued, "I plan to keep a few for you guys, to nourish Granny and little Chinatsu. I intend to take the rest to the market to sell. The money earned will be given to Keiko as Ryoichi's legacy, a bit of care for her. After all, Keiko is the only one left in her family now. It's not an easy thing for a little girl to support herself."
"Brother Ren, you really are so gentle!" Chinatsu said, moved. "Then let me help too. Keiko is my good friend, after all. I happen to know where the town market is."
After eating breakfast, the two greeted the old woman and went to the market in the nearby town, selling the remaining ten large carp to the owner of a fish stall.
Although they earned a bit less this way, it saved them from having to shout and sell them individually. Moreover, seeing the plump, beautiful carp, the fishmonger was generous, directly paying six hundred coins to buy all of them.
One had to remember that this was the Taisho era; six hundred coins was not a small sum. It was roughly six Japanese yen, equivalent to about five grams of gold, and could buy a lot of rice and eggs.
Back when he and Tanjiro went to the town at the foot of Mount Kumotori to sell charcoal, they would work themselves to the bone all day just to earn two hundred coins.
Now, ten large carp were worth three days of their usual income. This was only because Ren didn't want to drain the pond dry; otherwise, if he jumped into Black Water Lake and scooped up all the big fish, he could definitely make a small fortune.
After selling all ten carp, Ren returned to Black Water Village with Chinatsu, and together they arrived at the door of Keiko's home.
Chinatsu stepped forward, knocked on the door, and called out softly, "Sister Keiko, are you home? I have something I want to tell you, Sister Keiko..."
Chinatsu knocked for a long time, but no matter how she knocked, no one inside responded.
Furthermore, Ren smelled a faint scent of blood through the crack in the door. His expression changed, and he quickly said, "Chinatsu, step aside!"
He gently pushed Chinatsu away, then broke down the door and rushed into the simple wooden house. He saw Keiko on the bed, but by now, Keiko was already a cold corpse.
There was even a large pool of coagulated blood on the floor beside the bed; clearly, she had been dead for a long time.
"Sister Keiko!"
Seeing this scene, Chinatsu immediately shouted, tears bursting from her eyes. She hurried over to check Keiko's condition, and Ren followed.
He saw that Keiko's face was pale, but the corners of her mouth were slightly raised, wearing a faint smile. She had died very peacefully, tightly hugging a piece of old, tattered clothing in her arms.
Ren turned Keiko's body over, only to see a deep knife wound on her wrist and a rusty kitchen knife on the floor by the bed...
At this point, even if he didn't want to believe it, he understood how Keiko had died.
"Sister Keiko, Sister Keiko, how could this happen?"
"Sister Keiko was already so pitiful, why did the demons still refuse to let her go!"
"Why..."
Watching her good friend die in front of her, Chinatsu couldn't help but break down and cry. Ren, however, squatted down, gently patted Chinatsu's shoulder, and spoke softly.
"It has nothing to do with demons. I'm afraid Keiko committed suicide."
"Suicide?!"
Chinatsu suddenly looked up, gazing back at Ren with a face full of disbelief. "Impossible! How could Sister Keiko possibly commit suicide?"
"It must be because her brother was killed by a demon, and Keiko couldn't bear the blow for a time, so she couldn't think straight and took her own life, right? I'm afraid Keiko also understood that Ryoichi went to Black Water Lake to fish at the risk of his life just to earn money to buy her fever medicine. She must have felt that Ryoichi died because of her, that she killed her own brother, and so she couldn't go on..."
Looking at Keiko's corpse, Ren couldn't help but think of Kocho Shinobu from the night before.
After Doma escaped, Shinobu was also in a state of extreme breakdown, but Shinobu had him by her side to comfort her.
Keiko, clearly, was not so lucky. In the end, under extreme grief, she chose this way to reunite with her family.
Looking at the smile on her face, she must have felt very happy before she died.
"If I could have arrived half a day earlier, maybe this wouldn't have happened..."
Ren suddenly thought of the words Tomioka Giyu had once said. Now, he could finally understand Giyu's feelings at that time.
'If I could have arrived two days earlier, could I have saved Ryoichi and let the brother and sister live a happy life?'
Before transmigrating, he had mocked Giyu more than once, thinking he wasn't Muzan's match and that arriving half a day earlier would just mean dying in vain. But now, he couldn't laugh.
Because if he had arrived two days earlier, he really could have saved two human lives!
[Reviews - Power St0nes - Comments are highly appreciated to keep me going.....(+50 chapters) patre0n.c0m/talecrafter]