Ten minutes ago.
A woman's happy voice came.
"Cult Leader, I beg you to let me and other believers ascend to paradise!"
"Hehehe, then I will save you, letting you merge with me."
Crack!
The crisp sound of bones breaking appeared.
Douma looked at the woman whose neck he had broken, her expression still frozen in happiness, and made a gentle expression.
"Hmm... how boring, it's been over a hundred years since the Upper Ranks last gathered."
"Muzan-sama also doesn't allow private contact between Upper Ranks."
As he spoke, he looked at a ceramic jar next to him, which had a woman's head stuck in it.
"It's been fifty years since I last caught up with Lord Gyokko, I wonder how Lord Gyokko has been doing these past few years."
"If we are to meet again, perhaps an Upper Rank needs to be killed, but let's not do that."
"Everyone is the best of friends, especially Lord Akaza." Douma's face was full of gentleness, but deep within his colorful eyes was a coldness like solid ice.
His heart had no emotions; the smile on his face and his rich expressions were merely disguises. He didn't understand what emotions were.
Just then, he heard successive sounds of people falling in the mansion.
"Oh?" Douma looked beyond the door curtain; the believers who were on patrol were strangely collapsing on the ground. A floral scent wafted into his nostrils, and his nose twitched.
In an instant, he felt his body grow weak.
His colorful, inscribed eyes instantly lit up, and the smile on his lips widened even more.
"Wisteria flower poison! Hehehe, it seems that too many women have recently disappeared, and the Demon Slayers have found this place."
"The believers are truly careless."
Douma took no action, instead continuing to calmly chew and slowly eat the woman's arm.
Wisteria flower poison was indeed fatal to ordinary demons, but for him, Upper Rank Two, the Demon Slayers hadn't even reached him before the wisteria flower poison was completely decomposed.
He didn't put any Demon Slayers in his eyes, not even a Hashira.
He had already killed over fifty Hashira.
He was an ice demon, the bane of all Demon Slayers. As long as they used a Breathing Technique, his ice would freeze the Demon Slayers' lungs. Even if he didn't continue to strike to end their lives, the Demon Slayers with frozen lungs would die painfully on their own.
To deal with Demon Slayers, he had specifically gathered information on various Breathing Techniques.
Douma looked at the Demon Slayer who had reached him. Seeing that she was female and possessed such a powerful aura, he was overjoyed.
However, what he didn't expect was that after only a few words, the oppressive aura emanating from the female swordsman in front of him made his body stiffen.
The female swordsman's speed was too fast; she appeared before him in an instant. Before he could fully react from the oppressive feeling, a thrust pierced through his right eye and into his head in that brief gap.
Shinobu Kocho's nichirin blade, imbued with hatred, instantly sliced off half of Douma's head. In that moment, the wisteria flower poison she had created, hundreds of times more potent than usual, was injected into his body.
The blade's light cut an arc, and the second strike went straight for Douma's neck, its speed far exceeding her previous self by more than five times.
Douma felt a sensation he had never experienced before.
Death—
The star of death was twinkling above his head.
The moment the nichirin blade touched his skin, Douma reacted. The smile on his face had completely vanished, replaced by an emotionless coldness.
Crack!
The nichirin blade's edge had already cut into his neck, emitting a steel-like sound, but its speed began to slow down when it had cut two-thirds of the way in.
A cold, yet crazed voice, cried out from Douma's mouth. At the same time, the half of his head that had been sliced off had recovered somewhat. His half-recovered colorful eyes stared fixedly at the nichirin blade that had cut halfway into his neck.
"Blood Demon Art! Freezing Fog - Bodhisattva Lotus!"
Bone-chilling cold erupted, and icy spikes, piercingly cold, appeared around Douma's body, spreading wildly in all directions.
Shinobu Kocho gritted her teeth, pulled back her nichirin blade, dodged the icy spikes that were thrusting at her from all directions, and instantly moved out of the Blood Demon Art's range.
Boom!
These icy spikes intertwined and expanded, instantly forming a fifteen-meter-tall ice Bodhisattva with hands clasped, encasing Douma within.
"Almost." Shinobu Kocho stared at the colossal ice Bodhisattva and the Upper Rank Two encased within, gripping her nichirin blade tightly.
However, she felt no regret; hundreds of times the poison had already been injected into his body.
Now, she just needed to use one more magic trick to directly kill him.
"How dangerous, my neck was almost cut off."
Douma, whose head had fully regenerated, walked out of the ice Bodhisattva and stood on an ice lotus on its shoulder. He touched his cut neck; the healing speed was very slow. Had he inhaled too much wisteria flower poison just now?
"Powerful! So powerful! You are the most powerful female Demon Slayer I have ever seen."
"I truly wish to share the happiness of eternal life with you."
Douma looked down at the woman who had almost cut off his neck.
Powerful, that oppressive aura had turned the entire room into her domain! Aside from her breathing, there were no flaws!
She definitely possessed strength and swordsmanship as powerful as that man's.
When facing that man, he couldn't even entertain the thought of a blood battle for a rank exchange; his intuition told him he would surely lose, and lose terribly.
This woman, like that man, could kill him in a short amount of time.
However, despite this, he wasn't too concerned; he was the bane of Demon Slayers.
Without the ability to use a Breathing Technique, a Demon Slayer couldn't even unleash half of their strength.
He just needed to use his Blood Demon Art to exhaust this woman until she couldn't swing her sword anymore.
Since she couldn't instantly kill him just now, this woman no longer had a chance to kill him.
"Ah~ to possess such powerful swordsmanship, you must have undergone unimaginable effort, I am very touched."
"I will redeem you to the greatest extent. My name is Douma, what is yours? I will remember your name forever."
Shinobu Kocho's face twisted with anger as she looked at this demon. She clenched the haori on her non-sword-wielding hand and angrily said, "Nonsensical demon! Have you forgotten this haori I'm wearing!"
"Four years ago! The person who wore this same haori!"