Before the words finished, a beautiful and agile purple figure appeared, like a butterfly dancing under the moon.
She landed silently and gracefully.
She landed lightly behind the two clones, Sekido and Karaku.
Her face still bore that characteristic, sweet and harmless smile, and her purple eyes curved into crescents.
But anyone familiar with her could see that there was not the slightest hint of a smile beneath that expression.
Only a chilling killing intent, like the arctic ice!
Her nichirin blade was already unsheathed, its slender tip trembling slightly, like a venomous bee's stinger poised to strike.
"Kochou, you finally arrived!"
Uzui Tengen leaped out of the dust from the collapsed wall.
Although slightly disheveled, his aura was undiminished, and he grinned, saying:
"But this guy is Upper Moon Four, and his ability is troublesome division, so don't get yourself killed; that would be too unflashy!"
"Please rest assured, Uzui-sensei."
Kochou Shinobu tilted her head slightly, her voice soft.
"For dealing with these insects that like to split up, I might... just have some experience."
Her gaze instantly locked onto Sekido, who held a tin staff and exuded a furious rage.
"Insect Breathing, Dance of the Bee Sting: Caprice."
Before she finished speaking, Kochou Shinobu's figure instantly transformed into an elusive purple streak of light.
She approached Sekido in an erratic, unpredictable Z-shaped trajectory, incredibly fast!
The Nichirin rapier in her hand was like a venomous bee's precise stinger, accompanied by a sharp tearing sound.
It stabbed directly at Sekido's neck, heart, joints, and other vital points!
"Annoying fly! Get lost!"
Sekido roared, brandishing his golden tin staff, and violent lightning, like an exploding electric net, lashed out wildly in all directions!
But Kochou Shinobu's speed was too great, and her footwork was exceptionally agile.
All the lightning attacks seemed to be anticipated by her, as she easily dodged them by a hair's breadth.
The hem of her purple haori fluttered like butterfly wings, not even touching a speck of dust!
Puff! Puff! Puff!
The rapier accurately struck its targets.
But the wounds caused were extremely shallow, more like stings from a poisonous needle.
However, at the moment of being stabbed, Sekido's face suddenly changed.
The areas around those tiny wounds quickly blackened and rotted, and a strong sense of numbness and weakness rapidly spread along the wounds!
"Ugh! What is this? Poison?!"
Sekido felt his movements suddenly stall, and the arm wielding the tin staff became heavy.
This was Kochou Shinobu's special, potent poison targeting demons.
Even an Upper Rank Demon couldn't completely ignore it in a short amount of time!
"Bastard, don't ignore me!"
Karaku, seeing this, immediately swung his maple leaf fan with a playful smile.
"Blood Demon Art: Violent Pressure Sonic Wave!"
A terrifying invisible wind pressure once again condensed, slamming towards Kochou Shinobu like a heavy hammer.
Karaku attempted to blow her away, interrupting her suppression of Sekido.
"Your opponent is me!"
How could Uzui Tengen let him succeed?
He laughed loudly, and swung his arms forcefully!
"Sound Breathing, First Form: Roar!"
Several kunai wrapped with special explosives were rapidly thrown by him.
They were not aimed at Karaku's body, but precisely at the space in front of him and to his sides.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The kunai detonated the air prematurely, creating violent and chaotic explosive shockwaves.
At the same time, Uzui Tengen slashed with his two swords.
He forcibly interfered with and even negated the solid wind pressure fanned out by Karaku!
"You like blowing wind, do you? I'll let you blow to your heart's content!"
Uzui Tengen laughed, his two swords dancing like an impassioned musical performance.
"Sound Breathing, Fourth Form: Constant Resounding Slashes!"
Continuous explosive slashes, like a torrential storm, completely enveloped Karaku.
The omnipresent slashes forced him to continuously wave his fan in defense.
The deafening explosions made it impossible for him to assist Sekido on the other side.
The four fought fiercely for a moment, and the battlefield situation changed rapidly.
Kochou Shinobu and Uzui Tengen, with extreme tacit understanding, seized an opening and instantly swapped opponents!
Kochou Shinobu, like a ghostly purple butterfly, silently appeared beside Karaku, who was busy dealing with the explosions.
Her face bore a sweet yet deadly smile, and the Nichirin rapier in her hand had, at some point, completed a rapid thrust indiscernible to the naked eye!
On the other side, Uzui Tengen's explosive slashes instantly enveloped Sekido, who was slowed by the poison!
Almost simultaneously, the wind pressure condensed on Karaku's fan suddenly dissipated, and his arm and half of his body showed unnatural stiffness and twitching.
And the lightning on Sekido's body flickered on and off, his movements becoming even more sluggish.
Kochou Shinobu's specially formulated, potent paralyzing toxins targeting the nervous system, like an invisible spiderweb, had already been laid through previous attacks.
Now, the toxins finally erupted, rapidly spreading within the bodies of these two clones.
Their limbs, at a crucial moment, fell into a brief, fatal state of stiffness and loss of control!
"Now, Uzui-sensei!" Kochou Shinobu's voice was still soft, but carried an extreme decisiveness.
"Oh, well done, Kochou! This is worthy of my flashy performance!"
Uzui Tengen laughed loudly.
Having fought countless battles, how could he miss this excellent, deadly opportunity created by his teammate?
His muscular body, like a taut bowstring, erupted with ultimate strength and speed!
"Sound Breathing, Fifth Form: String Performance!"
His crimson-gold twin blades slashed out in an almost imperceptible blur!
The special explosives embedded in the blades did not cause large-scale area bombing.
Instead, they compressed and condensed all the energy to the extreme, forming two incredibly sharp, high-frequency vibrating, destructive explosive slash waves!
Swish! Swish!
Two brilliant golden arcs slashed out almost simultaneously.
They precisely, at a speed exceeding sound, swept past the necks of Sekido and Karaku, who were unable to defend effectively due to paralysis!
Two heads, each with a different expression, flew off with a sound!
"Did... did it succeed?!"
The two young Demon Slayers watching nervously from a distance couldn't help but exclaim excitedly, their hearts practically in their throats.
But Uzui Tengen and Kochou Shinobu's eyes became even more serious and sharp at the same time.
The two Pillars not only did not relax but instantly entered a higher state of alert!
Because they clearly saw that the severed parts of the two headless bodies, gushing black blood, still did not turn into ashes like ordinary demons.
Instead, they were like living creatures thrown into a boiling oil pot... wildly, sickeningly, violently writhing, swelling, and proliferating.
"As expected... it's not over yet, truly endless and disgusting!"
Uzui Tengen spat, tightened his grip on his twin blades, and his gaze completely darkened.
Amidst the spine-chilling sounds of flesh tearing and multiplying, the two bodies underwent an even more terrifying transformation!
Sekido's headless remains quickly regenerated a head.
And his flying head also split and transformed in mid-air, eventually becoming a new clone holding a cross-patterned spear, with empty, sad eyes and an expressionless face.
Karaku's situation was similar: his headless body regenerated, and his flying head split and expanded... transforming into a new clone with an unusually muscular build, wings, bird-like features on his hands and feet, and a golden-yellow bead on his waist.
Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish!
Four figures, exuding even denser resentment and evil than before, completely formed!
The reborn Sekido and Karaku.
The newly born Aizetsu and Urogi.
The chilling "Upper Moon Four" appeared simultaneously in their four eerie eyes, surrounding Uzui Tengen and Kochou Shinobu from four different directions.
The terrifying pressure merged into one, heavy as a physical entity, almost suffocating.
"I see..."
Kochou Shinobu's brows furrowed slightly, but the smile on her face did not diminish in the slightest; only the smile became colder.
"Cutting off one clone regenerates and becomes two, and simultaneously cutting off two demons that were once clones... directly proliferates into four? That's... a very, very annoying ability."
Her voice was still soft, but carried a hint of subtle difficulty.
"Tsk, this is truly a super unflashy big trouble."
Uzui Tengen shook his twin blades, and the explosives on the blades emitted a faint hum.
He took on a stance of full readiness, his voice lowered, "Hey, Kochou, the situation is tricky, don't hold me back!"
"Ara ara..."
Kochou Shinobu chuckled softly, the poison on her rapier reflecting a faint purple glow under the pale moonlight, like a poisonous butterfly fluttering its wings.
"That very same sentence, I return it to you, Uzui-sensei."
"It seems that without finding that hidden, most crucial 'main body,' this unpleasant dance... won't end so easily."
The two Pillars stood back to back, facing off against the four terrifying Upper Rank clones in a final confrontation.