That speed just now...
In the blink of an eye, he appeared right in front of her. She had not even sensed his approach.
Suzamaru, who had grown arrogant in the original storyline after receiving new blood from Muzan, now looked visibly cautious. She narrowed her eyes, retreating several steps to put some distance between herself and the calm-faced Li Xuan.
Then, with a swift motion, she pulled off her outer robe. From beneath her ribs on both sides, two new arms sprouted, joining her original pair to make a total of six. Each hand held a ball, shimmering with latent power.
She stood on full alert, posture tight, breath controlled.
Suzamaru was ready.
The moment he made a move, she would unleash all six balls in a coordinated strike, aiming to restrict his movements and deliver a devastating blow.
Yet, despite her sharp gaze and heightened concentration, the next moment left her disoriented. The man she had been staring at disappeared without a trace.
Alarms rang in her mind. Her face twisted with aggression.
"Die!"
With a furious scream, she hurled all six balls in a sweeping arc around her. Each ball, charged with terrifying force, whistled through the air, leaving trails of turbulence and shrill howls as they cut through space.
Not knowing the exact direction from which Li Xuan would strike, Suzamaru aimed to cover all six basic attack vectors around her body.
These balls did not fly in simple straight lines like ordinary projectiles. Mid-flight, they twisted, curved, and shifted, creating unpredictable trajectories that made it almost impossible to anticipate their path.
"Up here," a voice spoke calmly above her head.
"Above?" Suzamaru reacted quickly, raising her head.
But before she could even focus, a hand seized her face.
Through the gaps between five fingers, Suzamaru saw Li Xuan floating directly above her, his expression serene.
A tremendous force pressed down from his palm, slamming her face-first into the ground with a crushing impact. The earth cracked beneath the blow, and a cloud of dust billowed outward as her face was ground into the stone.
But in the very next instant, the six balls, which had been suspended in midair, abruptly reversed direction with astonishing speed. They converged from all angles, targeting Li Xuan in a vicious counterattack.
"Oh?"
Li Xuan raised an eyebrow, showing a hint of approval.
Not bad. Her reaction speed was impressive.
Facing six simultaneous projectiles, Li Xuan remained completely unfazed. He casually tossed aside the burlap sack he had been holding. His breathing technique activated, enhancing his physical attributes across the board.
With a fluid motion, he twisted his body to avoid the first ball. Then he reached out and caught two others mid-air with sheer brute strength. Using his elbow, he struck a fourth ball, deflecting it into a fifth. The two collided and exploded in a shower of fragments. With one final pivot, he lifted his leg and kicked the sixth ball away with greater speed than it had arrived.
A muffled string of incomprehensible words came from Suzamaru, whose face was still crushed into the dirt and had not yet fully healed.
Suddenly, there was a sharp whooshing sound.
One of the deflected balls, the very one Li Xuan had dodged earlier, curved back from behind and flew straight toward the back of his head.
Despite being caught off guard, Li Xuan reacted as if he had eyes in the back of his skull. Without turning, he lifted the hand that held one of Suzamaru's balls and intercepted the incoming one.
A loud thud echoed as the two balls collided. The ball in his hand shattered from the sheer force.
But the attacking ball remained intact and spun furiously in his palm, vibrating from the residual energy.
Li Xuan's five fingers, like iron shackles, locked around it with terrifying grip. No matter how violently it shook, it could not break free. Eventually, it stilled, locked completely in his grasp.
"Is throwing balls all you've got? Do you have anything new? Anything remotely interesting?"
He glanced down at Suzamaru, who had now recovered and was rising to her feet. His voice was filled with playful disdain as he tossed one of the captured balls up and down.
"You bastard!" Suzamaru roared in rage, her face twisted with fury.
She was one of the Lower Moons personally chosen by Lord Muzan. To be mocked like this was intolerable.
Once more, six arms manifested six new balls, pulsing with energy.
Li Xuan sensed the two captured balls struggling to escape his grip. Without hesitation, he crushed them both in his hands.
"Still throwing balls? Boring."
His face lost all trace of amusement.
With a flicker of movement, Li Xuan vanished again. When he reappeared before Suzamaru, a deep blue Nichirin blade had already appeared in his hand.
…
Elsewhere on the battlefield, Tanjiro was locked in an intense fight with Yahaba.
In the original story, Tanjiro had the support of Yushiro's demon art, which allowed him to see the trajectory of Yahaba's arrows. But now, without that assistance, the fight had become far more difficult. And to make matters worse, Yahaba had entered a berserk rage after being stabbed by Li Xuan and kicked into a wall.
Still, Tanjiro's strength had clearly improved beyond what it had been in the original timeline.
The battle was intense, with both sides trading fierce blows in rapid succession.
"Get away from me! Do not come any closer!" Yahaba roared, raising his arm. The eye on his palm blinked sharply.
Invisible arrow sigils embedded themselves into Tanjiro, forcibly dragging him through the air and flinging him away from Yahaba.
"Water Breathing, Second Form: Water Wheel!"
Midair, Tanjiro twisted his body. Spiraling water formed into the shape of a spinning wheel, reducing the force of the throw and allowing him to land lightly on the ground.
But the moment his feet touched the earth, more invisible arrows pierced his body, slamming him in a different direction with violent force.
"Just die already, you filthy monkey!" Yahaba snapped, his tattered monk robes fluttering as he cursed.
His only thought now was to eliminate that other demon hunter as soon as possible.
A piercing sound suddenly cut through the air.
"What was that?"
Yahaba turned his palm-eye toward the source of the noise.
The next instant, his vision was filled with a colorful blur.
"A Suzamaru ball?"
Before he could react, the ball struck his open palm.
A wet, tearing sound followed.
The enhanced ball, supercharged by Li Xuan's earlier kick, ground through Yahaba's hand, pierced his chest, and burst through his back in a stream of shattered flesh and blood.
He coughed, a spurt of dark blood spraying from his lips. The shockwave from the impact rippled through his entire body.
"Ahhhhhh!"
Though such wounds were trivial for demons and would heal in seconds, Yahaba's fury erupted like a volcano.
He turned to Li Xuan's direction and confirmed it was indeed him who had kicked the ball.
His hatred deepened.
Suzamaru was the one fighting inside the house.
He was the one pinned to the wall.
And now, even when fighting this brat, the ball that hit him had come from the same person.
Rage. Humiliation. Resentment.
All of it boiled over in Yahaba's heart.
A shadowy, ink-black aura began to rise from his body like toxic smoke.
Not far away, Tanjiro, still grappling with the arrow force inside him, suddenly sensed an overwhelming sense of doom.