His brain felt like it was being pierced by countless red-hot needles. An unspeakable pain that reached deep into its soul made the Hand Demon lose the last vestiges of its sanity. Arm after arm clutched its head as it began to wail, completely ignoring its formidable enemy, Kurozawa, standing nearby.
The Demon's tolerance for pain was completely useless at this moment.
The Hand Demon had never felt such agony before.
A sensation of its soul burning, being dragged into an endless abyss, filled its mind.
Kurozawa didn't move rashly, watching the Hand Demon struggle and twitch wildly on the ground, like a fish gasping for air after being pulled ashore.
Its physical presence plummeted, dropping to freezing point in just a few breaths, and then, completely and utterly vanished.
"What happened?"
"Died so suddenly?"
After he had shattered the Hand Demon's head with a punch, the Hand Demon had suddenly undergone this change.
However, Kurozawa had shattered the Hand Demon's head several times before, and each time it had recovered in the blink of an eye. It felt good to hit, but it was actually useless.
"Stop pretending to be dead. You won't fool me."
Kurozawa remained vigilant, using his toe to flick up a stone and send it towards the Hand Demon's leg.
*Boom!* Amidst the flying ash, the stone passed through the Hand Demon's body, and the Hand Demon's massive form also dissipated into the air.
Potential Points +70, Power of Despair +10. The concurrent changes from Gray-White confirmed to Kurozawa that the Hand Demon was truly dead and not faking its death to ambush him.
Kurozawa was a bit stunned, and he touched his smooth head.
A warm, comfortable feeling came from his head.
Hmm? Dropping his hand, Kurozawa's eyes widened.
Due to the darkness of the night and Kurozawa's attention being drawn to the mutated Hand Demon, he hadn't noticed the change in his hands.
At this moment, Kurozawa finally saw the layer of black, swirling energy covering his hands.
"What is this?"
It was a deep, dark black color, yet it was strangely transparent. He could see Kurozawa's palms through the black, swirling energy. The deep black color was transparent, giving an unusually contradictory sense of confusion.
And just seeing it would cause a great sense of despair to involuntarily rise in one's heart.
Kurozawa looked closely, but his naked eyes couldn't see anything. It was still burning black, swirling energy.
But when he had the thought of understanding the black, swirling energy, Kurozawa's eyes lost focus.
At the same time, the black, swirling energy infinitely magnified in Kurozawa's vision.
After being magnified countless times, Kurozawa finally "saw" its fundamental composition.
They were symbols, perhaps even smaller than atoms, interconnected and structured, forming the appearance of the black, swirling energy layer by layer.
Kurozawa recognized these symbols.
"Power of Despair..."
The Power of Despair belonging to the Undying Man-Eating Demon had formed the black, swirling energy before Kurozawa's eyes.
"My understanding of Gray-White, of myself, is just a drop in the ocean..."
"Am I still human? Master said that my scent wasn't human a year ago, coupled with these current changes... What exactly am I?"
"Human? Demon? Devil? Someone wielding the Power of Despair couldn't possibly be an angel, right?"
Kurozawa gave a self-mocking smile. With a thought, the black, swirling energy dissipated.
The profound symbols in Gray-White began to appear both unfamiliar and mysterious in Kurozawa's eyes.
"The current me doesn't even have the right to understand myself..."
The many changes in his body had given Kurozawa many questions. Before, he had suppressed them, pretending to ignore them. Now, with the appearance of the black, swirling energy formed by the Power of Despair, all these suppressed questions flooded into his mind.
But Kurozawa sadly realized that he couldn't find the answers.
"Only those who stand at the peak can see more scenery."
"As I gradually grow stronger, these secrets should naturally unravel."
At this moment, Kurozawa's desire to become stronger was unprecedentedly intense.
Once again hiding his many questions in his heart, Kurozawa picked up the broken Nichirin Blade fragments from the ashes on the ground.
"I hope it can be repaired, otherwise Master might really want to use a knife on me."
Putting away the blade broken in two, Kurozawa turned and left the summit of Mount Fujikasane.
Four robust Demons of various forms attacked together.
Facing them was Kocho Shinobu, with a solemn expression.
"Four at once..."
Kocho Shinobu's palms were covered in sweat.
She had fought one Demon for too long, and the constant shifting of the battleground had attracted other Demons.
Now, with four Demons surrounding him, the situation was looking grim.
She immediately activated her Breathing Technique.
Insect Breathing - Total Concentration! Insect Breathing - Dance of the Butterfly! Four hideous Demons lunged at the same time, and among them, Kocho Shinobu, true to her name, was like a nimble, fluttering purple butterfly, her figure rapidly circling among the Demons.
A Mutated Demon that looked like it had an elongated neck, like a snake's head, was the first to be struck in the neck by Kocho Shinobu.
However, the snake demon was unharmed. Instead, Kocho Shinobu's wrist went numb from the hardness of the demon's body.
Gritting her teeth, Kocho Shinobu spun around, her Nichirin Blade sweeping across the necks of the other three Demons again.
Her speed was very fast. Even surrounded by the four demons, she was still at ease. The Demons couldn't even touch the hem of Kocho Shinobu's clothes.
However, Kocho Shinobu's arm strength was pitifully weak, even weaker than some strong ordinary people.
This was also why she had been entangled with the first demon for so long. Kocho Shinobu used her Nichirin Blade, and even with its sharpness, she couldn't cut off the demon's head, only leave wounds on its neck.
"Am I only meant to keep dodging demons and finish the test?"
Kocho Shinobu felt a bit unwilling, but she had no good solution.
Her Breathing Technique was self-created, Insect Breathing, adapted to her Constitution. It was a derivative of Flower Breathing and a secondary derivative of Water Breathing.
Insect Breathing greatly enhanced Kocho Shinobu's agile footwork and strong leg Strength, but her arm Strength was relatively too weak.
Moreover, Kocho Shinobu hadn't yet created a formal Sword Form belonging to Insect Breathing. Her weak Strength prevented her from cutting off a demon's neck.
Even the weakest demon's body would have the toughness of leather.
"Damn it, I have to find a way to kill these demons."
Feeling her stamina draining, Kocho Shinobu reluctantly stopped the impulse to cut off the demons' heads, turned around, and ran.
With her agile figure, even ten demons surrounding her wouldn't be able to do anything to her.
"Hey, little girl, are you in trouble?"
Just as Kocho Shinobu was about to leave, a voice with a hint of playfulness sounded.
The voice sounded very familiar and carried a deep, convincing quality.
Looking towards the source of the sound, a tall figure, two meters high, walked out of the shadows.
His bare upper body, bulging muscles, and prominent blue veins wrapped around them, and his bald head gleamed coldly in the moonlight, giving off a suffocating sense of pressure.
"Bad! I've encountered a powerful Demon!"
This was Kocho Shinobu's first thought.
Seeing her shocked expression, Kurozawa vaguely guessed Kocho Shinobu's thoughts and couldn't help but darken his face.
"Your memory is really bad. We just met yesterday."
"Forget it, since I promised your sister, I won't bother with it."
As Kurozawa's voice fell, his figure moved instantly like a Tyrannosaurus Rex, and the ground shook violently.
In an instant, the sound of flesh tearing and bones shattering echoed in Kocho Shinobu's ears.
The four Demons beside her simultaneously collapsed weakly, their bodies looking as if they had been crushed by a giant rock, a gruesome sight.
"Let me borrow your Nichirin Blade for a moment."
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