In the swirling black smoke, Rui's body was sent flying backward, then slammed hard into a large tree.
With a bang!
Rui crashed into the tree, and after a loud noise, the tree snapped and fell backward.
Bai Ye didn't stop, re-teleported, and then...
Teleportation!
Bai Ye's figure flickered, instantly appearing in front of Rui. He raised the Nanming Lihuo Sword in his hand and thrust it forward.
Rui quickly dodged, and the Nanming Lihuo Sword struck the broken tree trunk behind him, instantly splitting it in two.
After creating distance from Bai Ye, Rui couldn't help but gasp for breath.
Bai Ye turned around and looked at Rui again.
"Can we end this now?" Bai Ye said. "Jumping around won't help you survive."
Bang!
The moment Bai Ye finished speaking, he leaped forward again, swinging the Nanming Lihuo Sword at Rui.
Rui swiftly raised his hand, and a large amount of spider silk gushed from his fingertips, rapidly forming a web for defense.
Bai Ye curved his lips.
That spider silk couldn't block the Nanming Lihuo Sword!
But...
The spider silk Rui condensed suddenly turned blood-red, and then...
Clang!
Bai Ye's Nanming Lihuo Sword struck the spider silk, then forcibly dragged the silk to slash at Rui's neck, accompanied by a crisp metallic sound.
Rui's expression turned ferocious as he roared at Bai Ye, "This is the toughest silk, you can't cut it, can you!"
As Rui spoke, he pushed the spider web, shoving Bai Ye away!
Bai Ye retreated several steps, glancing at Rui and remarking, "Twelve Kizuki, you do have some tricks up your sleeve!"
Twelve Kizuki represented the twelve strongest demons below the Demon King.
Thinking of it that way, Bai Ye felt it wasn't entirely surprising that Rui could withstand a strike from the Nanming Lihuo.
At the same time...
Rui suddenly released a massive amount of spider silk, wrapping himself into a cocoon. "Let me show you my strongest Blood Demon Art, 'Thread Rotation'!"
Instantly, the cocoon enveloping Rui began to spin at high speed.
The next moment, spider threads shot out in all directions.
The hardness of the spider threads drastically increased, and their power naturally multiplied severalfold.
Boom, boom, boom!
The flying spider threads struck the ground, shattering it instantly. They struck trees, causing them to snap immediately.
In that instant, the spinning spider threads swept out like hundreds or thousands of blades, scattering in all directions with no blind spots, aiming to shred everything around them.
Bai Ye took a breath and raised the Nanming Lihuo Sword in his hand.
"While you could block one strike from the Nanming Lihuo, it's not too surprising, but..." Bai Ye said, "You used all your strength to block that one sword, and for me..."
Bai Ye slowly released his grip. The Nanming Lihuo Sword didn't fall to the ground but remained suspended in mid-air!
"I haven't even exerted myself yet!"
Instantly, the Nanming Lihuo Sword blazed with light.
"Lihuo Shocks the Heavens!"
In an instant, the radiance erupting from the Nanming Lihuo Sword spread out in all directions like spilled mercury!
The radiance was azure blue, wafting in the wind like a raging inferno.
In an instant...
Within the flame-like radiance, countless swords rose!
One by one, these fire swords were arranged in all directions, suspended in the air, forming a wondrous formation.
That was undoubtedly...
A sword formation!
Lihuo Shocks the Heavens (using Lihuo to set up a sword formation, integrating offense and defense).
Bai Ye waved his hand and said, "End this!"
With a roar!
As Bai Ye's voice fell, the burning Lihuo Sword suddenly exploded, and then...
A pillar of azure flame instantly engulfed the surroundings, soaring into the sky and transforming into a fiery column that reached the clouds.
The selected participants still wandering Mount Natagumo looked up at the sky in astonishment.
At the foot of the mountain, the Demon Slayer Corps' rescue finally arrived. Kamado Tanjiro and Inosuke, supporting Agatsuma Zenitsu, looked towards the mountaintop with horrified expressions.
It was a spectacularly brilliant scene, an azure fiery column piercing the clouds.
It looked as if a giant hand had gouged out a piece of the mountain forest.
Even the clouds in the sky were shattered in one area by the fiery column's ascent.
On the mountain, Rui's face was filled with terror.
His proud spider silk was completely incapable of resisting the Lihuo of the Nanming Lihuo Sword, being swallowed by the azure flames in mere blinks of an eye.
The cocoon formed by the spider silk was not only excellent for offense but also for defense.
However...
It was all in vain!
The spider silk entwined around Rui began to melt rapidly, and soon, Rui's body reappeared, engulfed by the flames.
The burning pain of the flames twisted Rui's expression.
He felt death!
This was a sensation difficult for a demon to experience, as demons possessed infinite life as long as they weren't killed. As one of the Twelve Kizuki, they mostly acted as hunters.
This was the first time Rui had felt death approaching.
Pain, unwillingness, ferocity, fear, struggle, and then...
Rui suddenly became calm.
Rui remembered his childhood, his frail health that constantly made his parents melancholic. Despite their best efforts, they couldn't restore his health.
Then...
That Demon King appeared. He fulfilled Rui's wish, turning him into a demon.
After becoming a demon, he was no longer sickly.
He possessed infinite life.
His parents no longer had to worry or be sad because of him.
But, why did they want to kill him?
Because he was a demon?
Why? Why?
Why!
He had become a demon for them, and yet they wanted to kill him?
Why!
These were not his parents, surely not. True parents wouldn't want to kill him.
But, he missed them so much, he really missed them...
Rui looked up at the sky, and in that moment, he seemed to see his young self, held in his parents' arms, his father smiling gently, his mother whispering stories to lull him to sleep.
Then...
Rui closed his eyes, his body burned to ashes!
"You have completed the Forbidden Zone mission: Defeat the controller of the Spider Demon family, the Lower Rank Five of the Twelve Kizuki. Mission rewards: Demon Blood x1, Random Blood Demon Art (Spider Demon) x1, Shard of God's Stone x15."
"All Forbidden Zone missions are now complete. Surviving participants will be sent back to the Mount Natagumo (Supernatural) area in three minutes. Please prepare yourselves."