Gyutaro was furious because Lu Li had cut off his sister's head. But more than that, he was terrified—because he could no longer sense Daki.
They were fundamentally connected in mind and body. Whether it was lending his power to Daki, or surviving individual decapitations without dying, it was all due to this profound link.
But right now, he was clearly alive and well, yet he couldn't feel Daki at all. It was as if... she was already dead.
But how is that possible?! he thought frantically. His neck hadn't been cut. Logically, as long as he was alive, Daki should have been able to reattach her head. Even if this man had some special method to hinder their regeneration, his sister shouldn't have just died!
"Oh?"
Lu Li wore a smile that, to Gyutaro and the Explorers, looked like a true demon's. "So she really didn't come back to life."
Without even looking, Lu Li casually flicked his blade behind him, cleanly slicing a sniper bullet out of the air as if he had eyes on the back of his head. "I thought I actually had to decapitate both of you simultaneously. Guess I didn't need to go through all that trouble."
His Zanpakuto was far more effective than he had anticipated. Because its core property was severing souls, it didn't rely on the power of the sun to kill demons. As long as he severed their heads, their souls were absolutely and permanently annihilated.
Therefore, even though this Upper Rank Six sibling duo possessed a unique mechanic requiring simultaneous decapitation, it was completely useless against Qiu Mo. As souls, they were still independent entities.
"You bastard... how dare you..."
Gyutaro roared, his raspy voice trembling with a potent mix of fury and despair. His sister was his sole motivation for living.
When he was human, he had failed to protect her and lived in constant guilt. He thought he had been saved from absolute despair when Lord Muzan granted them a new life as demons. He never expected that, in the end, he would still fail to protect her.
His sister had actually died before him. This was something Gyutaro could absolutely not accept.
Fury and despair completely overloaded his brain. The only thing he could do now was kill Lu Li to avenge his sister, and then choose death himself.
Because he was afraid the road to the underworld would be too dark, and his sister would be scared walking alone.
"How dare I kill your sister?"
Facing Gyutaro's wrath, Lu Li remained entirely unmoved. "When you and your sister murdered all those people, did you ever consider that they might have had sisters and families too?"
"Ah? Who cares about that?! Our happiness was destroyed long ago! Anyone happier than us deserves to die!"
Gyutaro's voice was exceedingly dark. He dropped into a combat stance, pushing his Blood Demon Art to its absolute limit. Right now, his only desire was to sever this black-clad man's head.
The remaining Explorers rejoiced at this sight, feeling that their opportunity had finally arrived. Gyutaro now harbored a death wish and was no longer dragged down by his sister's weakness. He would definitely be a whole tier stronger than before. If they coordinated their attacks with him, killing this terrifying monster wasn't entirely impossible.
"Because you were caught in the rain, you want to tear up everyone else's umbrellas..."
Even though he already knew how Gyutaro thought, Lu Li couldn't help but sigh. "It's not that I can't understand it."
His own happiness had also been destroyed. He knew better than anyone the agonizing despair of losing the most important people in his life. After his Master and Senior Sister died, he, as a child, used to look at happy families with burning jealousy.
He was jealous that they had parents while he was abandoned; he was jealous that they were well-fed and warmly clothed while he had to hide in the shadows, freezing and starving.
But as he grew up, that jealousy faded, replaced by a deep nostalgia for the warmth he once possessed. The bitterness gradually diluted, eventually transforming into a quiet, microscopic blessing for others.
What he truly couldn't tolerate were those who had lost all human conscience yet still sat in high positions, enjoying everything the world had to offer. He had originally thought that if he successfully exacted his revenge and survived, he would join the resistance to overthrow the mega-corporations.
He completely understood Gyutaro's feelings. Gyutaro had suffered through an even more tragic past; human malice had snatched away the only light in his life. So, he was the one person in the world who least regretted becoming a demon. He genuinely felt he owed Muzan a debt of gratitude.
Gyutaro was a monster birthed by the cruelty of humanity. Precisely because he had suffered through the coldest, most bitter winter, he wanted to plunge everyone else into that freezing hell.
Lu Li tilted his head, dodging another sniper round, and sighed. "How pathetic..."
"We don't need your pity!"
Gyutaro roared and charged. Blood Demon Art: Flying Blood Sickles activated! Countless red, razor-sharp arcs slashed toward Lu Li. Gyutaro himself dashed forward at hyper-speed, the two sickles in his hands aiming simultaneously for Lu Li's arm and neck.
In the next microsecond, amid a deafening thunderclap, lightning erupted where Lu Li stood. Gyutaro was sent flying backward, several deep gashes sliced across his body. Blood flowed profusely as his regenerative abilities struggled to close the wounds.
Thunder Breathing, Sixth Form: Rumble and Flash.
Lu Li stood sideways, his blade deflecting yet another sniper bullet. "I wasn't pitying you. That would be an insult to the dead."
He shifted his body laterally, perfectly evading a savage charge from the main tank, Steel Plate. Lu Li drove a knee right into Steel Plate's abdomen, the sheer kinetic force suspending the massive man in mid-air. In the next instant, Qiu Mo descended, cleanly severing his thick neck.
Lu Li strolled through the battlefield with the leisurely pace of a courtyard walk. He didn't look like he was in a life-and-death struggle at all as he effortlessly executed his enemies. "I also know you won't repent. If given the choice a second time, you'd still choose to become a demon. So there's nothing left to discuss..."
"Crimson flames of..."
Seeing Lu Li talking, the female mage, Mole, began chanting, attempting to cast a spell from his blind spot.
But in the next microsecond, Lu Li's form flickered out of existence. Empowered by [Shunpo] and Thunder Breathing, he moved like a phantom of death across the battlefield. When he reappeared, he was standing directly in front of the female mage.
She was already incredibly tense under the suffocating pressure of the fight. Seeing Lu Li instantly close the distance triggered a fatal sense of crisis. She subconsciously clamped her long legs together, her chanting voice trembling violently.
Ultimately, her incantation was never finished. A pitch-black blade was shoved directly into her mouth, pinning her against the stone wall behind her.
Lu Li maintained his lunging posture, Qiu Mo lodged firmly inside the mouth of the female mage—who had completely lost control of her bladder out of sheer, unadulterated terror. Lu Li wore a smile that she perceived as purely demonic. "How ill-mannered. Didn't you see I was talking to someone? Why are you opening your mouth to interrupt?"
The female mage was terrified and desperately wanted to scream that she wasn't trying to interrupt the conversation, but since she was currently being "interrupted" physically by a sword, she couldn't utter a single syllable.
"Let her go!"
The sniper roared from his vantage point, firing continuously at Lu Li. But to his absolute despair, Lu Li didn't even bother dodging this time—and he wasn't injured either.
Fired in a blind panic, the inaccurate bullets struck Lu Li's back, only producing the sharp clinks of metal crashing against metal. Through the torn holes in his black coat, only faint white marks could be seen on his skin.
Lu Li twisted Qiu Mo horizontally. With a brutal burst of force, the blade flashed, and a head covered in tears and drool rolled onto the ground.
Putting aside their factional enmity, since these Explorers had actively chosen to become demons and eat humans, he would show absolutely no mercy in slaughtering them.
As for gender, on the battlefield, everyone was exactly the same in his eyes. Flesh was flesh, and it all cut the same.
A fierce wind attacked from behind. It was Gyutaro's hateful strike arriving. Lu Li spun around and parried Gyutaro's twin blood sickles with Qiu Mo. The tiny, secondary blood blades generated by the Blood Demon Art slashed against Lu Li's body, leaving nothing but faint white scratches.
This was the sheer defensive power of Level 10 [Armament Haki] combined with the [Pure Black Nightmare] coat. Ordinary attacks had an incredibly hard time dealing any actual damage to him now.
Gyutaro's close-quarters combat skills were formidable, but the direct physical destructive power of his Blood Demon Art was quite average. In the original story, it didn't inflict immediate, fatal physical trauma to the Sound Hashira either. His most threatening assets were the twin blood sickles he wielded and the lethal poison they carried.
And as long as Lu Li's skin wasn't pierced, he wouldn't be poisoned. Furthermore, he highly doubted that poison would be instantly fatal to him anyway. After all, his Constitution had surpassed 30 points; the Sound Hashira and Tanjiro couldn't even be compared to his current physique.
Of course, he wasn't going to court death just to test the poison's potency. In a battle he could completely crush head-on, there was no need to get careless.
"What the hell are you?!"
Even engulfed in rage and despair, Gyutaro couldn't help but voice his disbelief. To him, the man standing in front of him was far too abnormal.
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