"Tch, so it didn't work?" Gyokko halted his now-useless Blood Demon Art. Twisting his grotesque body, the vase beneath him rocked back and forth in rhythm with his contortions.
"You're quite the formidable demon slayer, aren't you? Don't tell me… you're a Hashira?"
Li Xuan said nothing. As the surrounding flames from his last technique began to dissipate, he casually raised his blade and shattered the vase Gyokko had used for his previous attack.
Gyokko interpreted his silence as silent confirmation. His twisted face lit up with a disturbing excitement.
"Ahh… Muzan-sama… to prove my loyalty, I will slay this Hashira with my own hands!"
Suddenly, one of the tiny hands on his body produced a vase marked with aquatic plant patterns. Without hesitation, he pointed it toward Li Xuan.
Blood Demon Art: Thousand Needle Goldfish Strike!
Dozens of brightly colored goldfish shot out from the vase's mouth. Each fish looked uncanny and unnatural, their cheeks puffed up as if they were swimming in water, even as they floated through the air.
"This move..."
A memory flickered in Li Xuan's mind, a panel from the manga.
"Better be careful."
The goldfish's swollen cheeks inflated like balloons. In the next instant, they snapped tight—launching countless razor-sharp needles from their mouths, all aimed directly at Li Xuan.
"Evade?"
Li Xuan quickly assessed the situation.
"No good. The area is too wide."
"Should I use Flaming Spiral Vortex again?"
Without hesitation, Flame Breathing ignited once more. The Nichirin Blade swept outwards, conjuring another vortex of roaring fire that wrapped protectively around him.
But this time, something unexpected happened.
The needles pierced through the vortex.
The barrage tore through the flame spiral with terrifying force and continued on their trajectory toward Li Xuan.
"It didn't block them?"
His mind raced.
"Water Breathing, Third Form: Flowing Dance!"
In an instant, the searing flame on his blade shifted into the gentle shimmer of water.
Switching Breathing Styles mid-combat usually inflicted a heavy toll on the user's body. In the anime, when Tanjiro had switched from Water to Sun Breathing during the Spider Mountain arc, the backlash left him barely able to stand.
But for Li Xuan, both Water and Flame Breathing had been granted by the system. He could use them interchangeably, as easily as drawing breath. There was no backlash.
As the words fell from his lips, Li Xuan moved like a dancer in the rain. He glided with fluid grace, his footwork flawless, dodging needle after needle with elegant twists and arcs.
Those he could not avoid were neatly sliced from the air with clean swipes of his blade, the flowing water accompanying his strikes like waves pulled by the tide.
Even after dodging the entire attack, Li Xuan's movement didn't break for a moment. Like a surging tide, he advanced toward Gyokko, blade in hand, water trailing behind him.
Gyokko, however, showed no fear. Instead, he smiled twistedly and produced yet another vase.
"Blood Demon Art: Octopus Vase Hell."
In an instant, massive octopus tentacles erupted from the vase, lunging at Li Xuan with crushing force, aiming to coil and crush him to death.
"Water Breathing, Second Form: Water Wheel!"
In the blink of an eye, Li Xuan altered his stance. His body rotated through the air, mimicking the spinning motion of a water wheel, his sword slashing in a circular arc as he spun.
The blade struck one of the massive tentacles. Though the octopus flesh was soft and didn't take much damage, it served as the perfect leverage.
Using the impact as a pivot, Li Xuan propelled himself backward, leaping out of the range of the writhing limbs.
"You're really something... a Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps... hahaha!" Gyokko laughed, twisting and writhing gleefully.
Troublesome.
Li Xuan narrowed his eyes.
He had assumed that possessing both Water and Flame Breathing made him far superior to Muichiro Tokito, the Mist Hashira who had killed Gyokko in the original story—especially after unlocking the Demon Slayer Mark. While Li Xuan wasn't expecting an easy victory, he didn't think the fight would be this difficult either.
He could kill Gyokko.
He understood most of the demon's techniques.
And until now, they had only been testing each other.
But still—he preferred battles where one strike ended it all.
A fleeting thought passed through his mind: maybe I should play it safe and retreat.
He quickly dismissed it.
How could he walk away now? An Upper Moon had appeared, and letting him go would be a colossal waste.
Truthfully, Li Xuan had never intended to kill Gyokko.
What he really wanted was to capture him alive—for use as a daily sign-in material.
Kill or capture, it didn't matter just yet.
For now, it was time to experiment.
He lifted his deep blue Nichirin Blade. A faint mist began to rise from the steel, clinging to the air around it.
"Mist Breathing."
As the mist thickened, Li Xuan recalled how the Mist Hashira's techniques always involved fog.
Tokito's Mist Breathing was derived from Wind Breathing, while Li Xuan's came from the fusion of Water and Flame Breathing.
Still, there must be some common ground. He made a mental note to seek Tokito out in the future.
Li Xuan deepened his breathing rhythm.
Mist rapidly filled the hall, billowing like smoke, swallowing up the surroundings. Within moments, visibility dropped to near zero.
"Mist?"
Gyokko frowned at the rapidly thickening fog. A deep sense of foreboding began to rise within him.
He couldn't let this continue.
More arms sprouted from his body—now ten in total. Each hand held a vase etched with an image of a sticky, eel-like fish.
"Blood Demon Art: Ten Thousand Slippery Stickyfish!"
At his command, streams of venomous, sharp-toothed eels gushed from the vases in overwhelming numbers, pouring forth like a tide.
Each eel bore vicious fangs and secreted a toxic fluid. The moment any part of them touched skin, the venom would seep into the bloodstream.
They swarmed toward Li Xuan's position.
But something felt wrong.
Gyokko's grin faltered.
He couldn't feel their ecstasy. Not even a single eel had struck its target.
"He's not there?"
He extended his senses. Nothing. Not a trace of human presence.
He ordered the vases to unleash more stickyfish, aiming in all directions. The entire hall filled with snapping jaws and glistening scales.
And yet... every strike missed.
"Did he escape?" Gyokko growled, stopping the technique. He searched the area.
Only fog met his gaze. Endless, suffocating fog.
At that moment—
"Mist Breathing, First Form: Low Clouds, Distant Mist."
A calm voice echoed within the haze.
"He's still here?"
Gyokko whirled around in panic, staring into the mist.
A ripple surged through the fog. A deep blue blade cut through the murk like lightning, scattering the mist as it slashed toward his chest.
Gyokko barely managed to tilt his head backward in time to avoid being decapitated.
"Aaaaaaaaargh!!"
The blade bit deep into his shoulder, slicing clean through half of his torso. Gyokko screamed in rage and agony.
"You bastard! You bastard! You bastard!"
He glared at Li Xuan, who calmly retracted his blade and stepped back.
Though his body rapidly regenerated, Gyokko could not suppress his fury.
If that attack had struck just a bit higher—
His eyes widened in realization.
His body began to morph.
Slowly, Gyokko emerged from the vase, revealing his true form.
"Now, behold the perfect form I've refined from within my vases. You are only the third person to witness this magnificence. I'll crush you into dust."
His new form was covered in scales harder than diamond. His hands were webbed, and his lower body coiled like a serpent. A foul, ominous aura radiated from his every pore.
"Kneel before the flawless beauty of my ultimate form!"
His voice was filled with manic confidence.