His words, however, made Chu Yang look at him in a new light; upon reflection, it was indeed true.
For a long time, every member of the Demon Slayer Corps had been fighting with this kind of resolve.
While admiring it, Chu Yang still found the Final Selection method foolish; there were clearly better training models.
After a brief silence between the two parties, the host did not continue to argue with Chu Yang but instead addressed the others, saying, "Since the number of survivors this time exceeded the usual average, we didn't prepare enough ore and Kasugai Crows, so your right to choose has been canceled."
A clamor arose among the crowd.
"You should understand why you were able to pass the Final Selection…" The host's icy gaze swept across the crowd, his aura overwhelming everyone, and the murmuring gradually subsided.
"Of course, not everyone will lose their right to choose." The host changed the subject, then looked at Chu Yang, "Given your personal performance, your right to choose can be retained."
Chu Yang smiled, plunging the massive zanmatō from his back into the earth. The terrifying force made the ground tremble, and the crowd also flinched.
"Is there ore big enough for this?" Chu Yang pointed to the zanmatō and said without ceremony, "If not, I'll take this sword. Technically, it's still a weapon of the Demon Slayer Corps."
After the struggle on Mount Fujikasane, Chu Yang was intimately familiar with the weight and dimensions of the zanmatō, and it felt increasingly natural to use. A sudden change would mean he'd have to spend time adapting.
Facing Chu Yang's exorbitant demand, the host surprisingly nodded in agreement, which somewhat surprised Chu Yang; he had prepared for an argument.
The host responded to Chu Yang's surprise with a single sentence, "This is preferential treatment for a genius. The Demon Slayer Corps exists with only one goal: to kill all demons. To achieve this goal, we will not be stingy with resources."
Just as he finished speaking, the host blew a whistle, and a black shadow glided down from the sky, landing on Chu Yang's shoulder. It was a Crow with hazy eyes.
"This is your Kasugai Crow, responsible for daily contact with the Demon Slayer Corps and transmitting information about demons."
Chu Yang gently stroked the Kasugai Crow on his shoulder. From now on, this little fellow would be needed to provide the locations of demons.
Thus, the Final Selection concluded with an unprecedented and astonishing turn of events.
Chapter 63: Makomo's Request
After the selection results were out, Kagaya Ubuyashiki, the head of the Demon Slayer Corps, received the news immediately. At this time, his eyes were not yet completely blind, and the scars on his face were not very prominent.
The curse's erosion of his body was not yet severe.
"A fascinating young man appeared in this selection, possessing such strength at a young age."
Hearing the continuous information from the Kasugai Crow, Kagaya Ubuyashiki, sitting on the veranda of the courtyard, said with relief, "So he is Gyomei's Tsuguko. Has his Stone Breathing finally found a successor? That's wonderful…"
"I hope the appearance of this young man can bring a slight turning point to this thousand-year war."
In the empty courtyard, no one responded to Kagaya Ubuyashiki's earnest hopes. After every Final Selection, he would say similar words.
Chu Yang, officially a swordsman, went to the Butterfly Mansion before returning to the temple.
He planned to inform Kocho Kanae and Shinobu Kocho, who had saved his life, of this news.
However, Makomo, who had arrived at the Butterfly Mansion earlier, had already told them everything, making Kanae marvel at the entire process of the Final Selection.
"We're going to be busy now. This kid almost killed all the demons in Mount Fujikasane; we'll have to catch another batch to put in." Kanae's tone carried a hint of admiration, yet also helplessness; the Butterfly Mansion had many injured, and she couldn't leave.
"It's supposed to be the trial ground for the Final Selection, yet such a powerful demon appeared. No wonder the survival rate was low in the past. If we had noticed earlier, many people could have survived." The still-young Shinobu Kocho couldn't help but complain to her sister.
"Shinobu, this situation might be cruel, but it's something Demon Slayer Corps members must experience. Once you become an official member, you'll often go through such cruel things. The targets might be ordinary people, or they might be ourselves."
Kanae earnestly admonished, "Although you are also an official member, you've always lived with me in the Butterfly Mansion and haven't experienced these things yet. But that doesn't mean you can always be so naive."
"I know, Sister." Shinobu Kocho, who had not yet experienced life and death separation, was lively and cheerful, playfully sticking out her tongue at her sister.
Kanae shook her head helplessly when she saw that Shinobu hadn't taken it to heart.
As the two sisters spoke, Chu Yang had already pushed open the door of the Butterfly Mansion.
Just as he was about to greet them, an angry Kanae shooed him into the bathroom to wash off the grime from his body.
This was a place for treating the injured, and it was highly taboo for Chu Yang to enter with bloodstains and dirt; if he was unlucky, it could cause patients to contract diseases.
Chu Yang, accustomed to the smell of blood, hadn't realized this.
If it were before, he would have been the first to be bothered by dirt on himself.
By the time Chu Yang emerged clean from the bathroom.
The sun had already quietly set. At dusk, the aroma of food wafted through the Butterfly Mansion.
"Familiar dinner time."
Having lived here for a week, Chu Yang was very familiar with every inch of the Butterfly Mansion and could find the Butterfly Mansion's dining hall without anyone leading him.
Makomo, with both legs in casts, sat alone at the dining table.
Upon seeing Chu Yang, her eyes suddenly lit up.
"Will you sit here?" Makomo's eyes widened, staring at Chu Yang pleadingly.
Chu Yang clicked his tongue and reluctantly walked over. Even after spending seven days together on Mount Fujikasane, the little girl's anger at being mistaken for a pervert had not completely dissipated.
In fact, the two of them hadn't truly spent seven days together.
Instead, Makomo had spent seven days on Chu Yang's back, waking and sleeping in a daze.
Chu Yang hadn't even said a word to her, busy hunting demons everywhere, and Makomo was too embarrassed to initiate conversation with Chu Yang because she had previously misunderstood him and thought he was a bad person. So, the two oddballs really hadn't spoken for a full seven days.
Until the selection ended, and Makomo was brought to the Butterfly Mansion by the "Kakushi."
"How is it?" Chu Yang sat down beside her, casually, and glanced at her leg injury, which seemed a bit severe.
"It's fine. Kanae-sama said that if I receive treatment properly, my mobility won't be affected." Makomo, having narrowly escaped death, was very happy, her eyes curving into crescent moons. "If you had come any later, I might really have been crippled."
"That's not bad." Chu Yang nodded, relieved, then asked, "Roughly when will you recover?"
Makomo's smile lessened a bit, but she still tried hard to smile and said, "I can take off the cast in three months, but to fully regain mobility, I'll need another month of rehabilitation training."
"I didn't expect my first four months as an official member to be spent in the Butterfly Mansion…"
At this point, Makomo suddenly looked at Chu Yang, hesitating to speak.
"You're not going to ask me to do something troublesome, are you?" Chu Yang looked at her warily.
Makomo, whose thoughts had been guessed, blushed deeply, the color spreading from her ears all the way down to her neck. She shyly waved her hands and said, "I'm sorry, if you don't want to, then forget it."
And Chu Yang, who always disliked trouble, nodded, "Indeed, I don't want to."
Makomo's face was crimson, and her voice grew softer and softer, buzzing like a mosquito, until she finally buried her head.
"Bullying girls is not what a man should do!"
Kanae suddenly appeared beside the two.
She looked at Chu Yang with disdain and firmly tapped Chu Yang's head with the spoon in her hand.
The sound was quite loud, but Chu Yang didn't feel any pain at all, probably because his skin was too thick.
Shinobu Kocho also wanted to imitate her sister and tap Chu Yang's head.
But Chu Yang snatched the spoon from her, and with a casual swing, he knocked a large bump on her head.
"Wah!!" Shinobu Kocho cried out in pain, hugging her sister, her eyes full of tears, glaring fiercely at Chu Yang.
Their childishness made Kanae feel both annoyed and amused.
"What's wrong with listening to her request? You won't lose a piece of yourself." Shinobu Kocho said angrily, clutching her forehead.
"Go on, say it." Chu Yang's lips curved slightly upward, feeling pleased.
"I just wanted to ask you to take a message to Sakonji-san, to let him know he can rest assured, and also…" Makomo bit her lip and whispered, "About the Hand Demon, I don't know if I should tell him."
Upon hearing this, Chu Yang also became solemn.
Those deceased children had probably become a lingering sorrow for Sakonji Urokodaki.
Kanae sighed softly. What she feared most was not facing powerful demons, but precisely Sakonji Urokodaki's current predicament.
If he knew that the warding masks he kindly gave to his disciples ultimately became their death warrants, anyone would break down.
"He has the right to know. As for whether he can find peace, that's his own business." Chu Yang decided to go on Makomo's behalf; anyway, he wasn't in a hurry to return to the temple, and demon-slaying missions could come down at any time.
Finally, Makomo told Chu Yang the location of Mount Sagiri, and the latter decided to set off under the Xingye after dinner. Kanae couldn't stop him.
Kanae complained, "Why is this person like an ox?"
Shinobu Kocho nodded repeatedly from the side, planning to definitely return that forehead flick next time.
64. Chapter 64: The Charcoal Seller
64.
Due to carrying a terrifying zanmatō, Chu Yang could not take any form of transportation and even found it inconvenient to enter towns, so he could only choose to travel through the wilderness.
The Gekko didn't illuminate many places in the wilderness, and Chu Yang hadn't brought a lantern or other lighting. He could only cast a Lumos Charm to make his hands glow.
From a distance, Chu Yang's hands looked like car headlights, swaying in the darkness as he swung his arms, which was a bit unsettling.
"When can I learn the Undetectable Extension Charm? Carrying a huge sword all over the world is very inconvenient. Next time we meet, I must remind the top student to choose some useful spells first."
Most of Magic Chu Yang's spells were elementary, but they were quite practical.
For example, the Incendio Charm could be used to make fire in the wilderness, a very important survival skill.
The Scouring Charm could be used to clean objects, even on people. The Impervius Charm made the target waterproof and fireproof; both were essential for travel.
An-cough-soothe could clear the trachea, and Splint Tightening could alleviate pain and fix bandages and splints to injuries, which could be life-saving in crucial moments.
But because they didn't have wands, the Chu Yangs from other worlds couldn't control their magic very well, always leading to small accidents, such as setting Yamakaji, and so on.
Chu Yangs from the Pirate World and Naruto World both had similar experiences.
So, except for particularly safe spells, they would not easily use other spells.
With illumination, Chu Yang traveled very quickly, and since the island nation itself was not large, two days later, Chu Yang arrived in the Mount Sagiri area and found a small wooden house in the mountains.
Sakonji, who was splitting wood, sensed a human presence and quickly returned to the house, putting on his mask. When he came out, he saw Chu Yang walking towards him with a zanmatō on his back.
The slowly approaching young man was extremely imposing, making Sakonji Urokodaki feel a little nervous. If he hadn't detected no demon scent from the other party, he would have been ready to draw his sword.
"Are you Sakonji-san?"