"Yes, perhaps there is no functional difference in the immediate method," Yoriichi admitted slowly, his voice echoing in the quiet hall. "But my intent was absolute deterrence. I instilled a profound fear into their hearts, but I caused them no permanent physical injury. I ensured they would never dare to bother my family, or anyone else, ever again."
He paused, looking down at his iron-bound wrists, then back up to the towering Commander.
"I acknowledge that my actions bypassed your authority," Yoriichi continued, bowing his head a fraction of an inch in respect. "I know I made a mistake regarding the academy's protocols, and I am entirely willing to face the consequences you deem necessary."
For a moment, Captain Lin and Vice-Captain Feng let out subtle sighs of relief. The boy was apologizing. He was submitting to the law. Usually, this meant a heavy deduction of academy points or a stint in the solitary confinement caves—harsh, but survivable.
But Commander Wu did not relax. In fact, a dangerous, volatile energy began to build around him.
"You think just telling me all this nonsense, offering a polite apology, will calm this matter?" Wu's voice suddenly rose in volume, echoing harshly against the basalt walls.
"This time you bypassed us to handle a bully. What about next time? What happens when you decide an instructor has slighted you? What happens when a rival clan offends you? If every 'genius' in this academy decides to take justice into their own hands, the entire institution will descend into chaos! We will be absolutely no different from the lawless, blood-soaked streets of the Black-Corner Region outside our gates!"
Wu took a heavy step forward, closing the distance until he was towering directly over Yoriichi.
"Do you truly believe you can just take justice into your own hands instead of trusting our unit to solve everything?" Wu demanded, his voice a roaring thunderclap.
Yoriichi did not flinch. He looked up, his crimson eyes locking onto the furious Commander. His mind recalled the demons of his past life, the predators that slipped through the cracks of the law, the innocent blood spilled while authorities debated protocol.
"Yes," Yoriichi stated slowly, his voice dropping to a freezing, absolute whisper that sent a chill down the spines of the watching elders. "Justice. If something wrong is happening right in front of my eyes, I will engage. I will not wait."
BAM!
Commander Wu's armored fist slammed violently onto a nearby stone pillar, shattering the top half of it into dust.
"Then if I start doing something wrong right now," Wu roared, his face twisting into a mask of terrifying wrath, "will you go against me, too?! A Core Elder?! A power protected by the very heavens of this academy?!"
Instantly, the full, unadulterated spiritual pressure of a Dou Huang erupted from Commander Wu's body.
It was a localized apocalypse. The air in the judgment chamber instantly turned as heavy as solid lead. The crystal lamps on the walls shattered from the sheer atmospheric distortion. Captain Lin and Vice-Captain Feng were violently forced to lower their stance and took several steps back, gasping for breath as the pressure pinned them to the floor.
Yoriichi took the absolute brunt of the impact.
Because his Dou Qi was completely sealed by the Cold-Iron cuffs, his body had no internal buffer to resist the crushing weight. He felt the terrifying gravity slam into his shoulders. His bones groaned loudly.
Yoriichi's eyes widened slightly. He gulped, a bead of cold sweat rolling down his temple. His martial instincts—the primal urge to survive—screamed at him to take a step back, to bow his head, to kneel and submit to the overwhelming disparity in power. The pressure was actively trying to crush his spine and force him to his knees on the stone floor.
He gritted his teeth, the muscles in his jaw bulging. 'No.'
"Why so silent?!" Wu continued to roar, his aura pressing down harder, completely unyielding. The other elders at the desk looked on in slight shock. Why was the Commander pushing a restrained student this far? This wasn't standard discipline; this was psychological and physical torture!
"Tell me, boy!" Wu challenged, his eyes burning. "Will you dare to deliver your justice in front of me, too?!"
Yoriichi's breathing hitched.
Deep within his suppressed Dantian, denied the use of his Dou Qi, his ancient soul reached for the only weapon it had left: the absolute, limit-breaking capacity of his mortal vessel.
His heart rate skyrocketed, bypassing two hundred beats per minute in a fraction of a second. His core body temperature surged, vaporizing the cold sweat on his skin into a faint, hissing steam.
Slowly, starting from the left side of his forehead, a jagged, intricate crimson pattern began to actively etch itself across his pale skin, glowing with a terrifying, demonic luminescence in the dim hall.
The Demon Slayer Mark had awakened.
A surge of pure, unadulterated, monstrous physical strength flooded Yoriichi's muscles, entirely bypassing the Qi-suppression of the shackles.
He raised his hands in front of his chest. The heavy chains connecting the cuffs pulled taut.
CREAK.
The elders at the desk shot up from their obsidian chairs, their eyes bulging in absolute disbelief. Those were Qi-Restricting Cold-Iron cuffs! Without Dou Qi, even a specialized body-refining Dou Ling would struggle to dent them!
Yoriichi flexed his wrists outward.
CRACK! BANG!
The impenetrable black iron violently shattered, exploding into dozens of heavy metal shards that rained down upon the stone floor.
Free from his restraints, Yoriichi did not step back. Fighting against the suffocating, crushing gravity of the Dou Huang's aura, Yoriichi planted his boot and took a single, heavy, earth-shattering step forward.
He stood chest-to-chest with Commander Wu, his glowing crimson mark radiating an aura of absolute, unyielding defiance.
"Yes," Yoriichi declared loudly, his deep voice slicing through the heavy Dou Huang pressure like a hot knife through butter. "What I feel is right, I will do. Even if it means going against you. Even if it means going against the heavens."
Yoriichi tilted his chin up, his crimson eyes locking onto Wu's shocked gaze, delivering his final, unbreakable vow.
"I will gladly play with death as many times as I can get."
The judgment hall descended into a state of absolute, paralyzed shock.