This is the third Blood Demon Art...
Chiba Yo silently counted as he watched the thorns emerge from behind the demon, but he felt that this demon wouldn't be able to withstand this attack.
After three arcing flame slashes made contact with the thorns on the demon's back, its thorny whip quickly melted away, soon revealing itself to Chiba Yo again.
"Ahhhhh!!!"
The burning pain caused the demon to shriek. After melting its thorny whip, the three flame slashes continued their momentum, heading for its two brains and neck.
Although he felt that this demon could no longer withstand his attack, Chiba Yo cautiously gripped his nichirin blade and charged at it.
"Blood Demon Art: Transference!"
The demon endured the pain and roared. The next second, its position with Chiba Yo swapped again, and the three slashes appeared in front of Chiba Yo.
"Sun Breathing: Burning Bone Sun Halo."
However, knowing that this demon possessed such an ability, how could Chiba Yo not be on guard? He wielded his nichirin blade, using what was originally an offensive move for defense. The technique that had just rendered the demon helpless was easily nullified by Chiba Yo.
"Sun Breathing: Blue Heaven."
Immediately after, Chiba Yo twisted and spun, unleashing a circular slash that radiated outwards from him.
The slash landed precisely on the neck of the two-horned demon behind Chiba Yo. Without any surprise, its neck was severed by the slash, and its head flew high into the air.
Damn it... Why am I so unlucky... I just got here and already ran into such a strong guy...
Looking at the figure standing on the floor, the two-horned demon felt more self-condemnation for its bad luck than fear or unwillingness.
Its name was Shen. It had only been a demon for three years, yet it already possessed strength not inferior to any Lower Moon.
Just two months after becoming a demon, it had already consumed nearly a hundred people, relying on its Blood Demon Art, which it called Shen, just like its name.
Its ability was also very simple: mimicry. It could change its own appearance and voice. It could make itself look exactly like a human, thereby disguising itself as a weak, pitiful human in need of help to lure other humans closer.
Two years after becoming a demon, having consumed a large number of humans, Shen's strength greatly increased. However, because its Blood Demon Art could only be used to mimic humans, its performance in battles against other demons was not impressive, which is why it failed to become one of the Twelve Kizuki.
But then, it discovered that its Blood Demon Art was not limited to that. After consuming more humans and becoming stronger, it realized it had gained another Blood Demon Art: the ability to release a thorny whip. Moreover, its body was also undergoing some changes, gradually starting to grow new brains.
At this point, it understood. Its Blood Demon Art wasn't just simple mimicry; it possessed even more powerful abilities that manifested as its strength grew. At the same time, it also learned the function of this ability.
Its Blood Demon Art was indeed mimicry, but it wasn't just simple appearance mimicry. It could control this most basic form of mimicry at will, but beyond that, there were higher levels of mimicry.
It could achieve deeper mimicry by consuming blood, not only appearance and voice but also physical structure and abilities. The first time it used this ability, it used Muzan's blood. Through this, it unknowingly began to slowly mimic Muzan's Blood Demon Art and a small part of his body structure.
Upon realizing this, Shen was ecstatic. It believed that with this ability, it would soon surpass the current Twelve Kizuki and replace them, serving Muzan.
It would acquire more of his blood to make itself stronger.
After that, a new creature was added to its diet: demons.
While consuming humans, it would also seek out weaker demons to consume, thereby mimicking their Blood Demon Arts.
However, not all demons possessed Blood Demon Arts. From the time it understood its abilities until now, it had only been able to mimic four additional Blood Demon Arts: besides Muzan's Black Blood Thorns, there was Blood Demon Art: Illusory Dream, which could create environmental illusions; Blood Demon Art: Annihilation, which allowed for invisibility; and Blood Demon Art: Transference, which allowed it to swap places with a designated creature.
But even so, its strength had greatly increased, and as its strength grew, its mimicry ability would also strengthen. It could now use four Black Blood Thorns, whereas originally it could only use one, though the thorns' strength was still far from Muzan's level. At the same time, its appearance had also become a grotesque hybrid due to the mimicry.
After its strength greatly increased, it planned to consume one of the current Lower Moons, acquiring their abilities and simultaneously replacing them as the new Lower Moon.
It turned out that all six Lower Moons were gone.
Upon learning of this situation, it didn't feel too much disappointment. It simply moved to a different location to continue eating humans and demons to become even stronger, planning to directly confront the Upper Moons later.
The new place it found was this mountain. Originally, it had heard that there was a demon with a Blood Demon Art nearby and wanted to find and consume it. Feeling a bit hungry, it decided to have a few good meals here before looking for that demon.
After all, although it could eat demons, to it, demons tasted as bad as feces. Its primary food was still humans.
However, tonight it encountered Chiba Yo. Originally, it planned to effortlessly devour this human using its usual tricks, but things turned out far more unexpectedly than it could have imagined.
"Utterly unlucky! Truly utterly unlucky!" Shen's head was still flying in the air, but its mouth was still muttering. Although it could mimic Muzan's body structure, it had not yet reached the point where it could overcome the weakness of its neck.
But even if it reached that point, it would be useless. For Chiba Yo, it would just mean one or two more moves.
Turning to look at the demon's fallen body, Chiba Yo was not yet at ease, as it still had another brain inside its body.
"Sun Breathing: Benevolent Radiance."
A spiraling slash descended from the sky onto Shen's body, completely destroying its other brain. Most of its body disintegrated under this attack, and the remaining parts had already begun to turn to ash.
However, at this point, Shen could no longer feel its body.
"Thud!"
Only then did Shen's head fall to the ground.
Seeing the demon's body gradually turning to ash, Chiba Yo felt much more relieved.
This should be enough to completely eradicate it.
"Don't get cocky, brat! Muzan will definitely kill you!"
Realizing that it would soon die, Shen no longer feared Muzan's curse and directly shouted Muzan's name. In its eyes, Muzan was the most powerful being.
"Do you know where Muzan is?"
Upon hearing its words, Chiba Yo immediately pressed the disappearing demon, his expression filled with excitement.