Sukuna strolled through the Mountain, whittling every demon he encountered. He then tied their hair together and dragged them behind him.
He hadn't found a suitable place to store them yet, nothing like a dried-up pond.
The demons he encountered early on still had the energy to yell a few threats at Sukuna.
But as the number of demons being dragged by Sukuna grew, they began to have second thoughts. They hadn't heard any rumors about the Demon Slayer Corps torturing demons.
They had always been clean and efficient in their kills. How could there be such a strange guy here for what was just a swordsman's final selection?
But whether they were arrogant or not, any demon Sukuna came across met only one end: having all his limbs severed and added to the collection.
This created a bizarre scene. On the burning slopes of Fujikasane Mountain, a person holding a Nichirin Blade dragged a bundle of demons with severed limbs behind him, still searching for more demons.
Fujikasane Mountain wasn't that large, but walking at Sukuna's pace while dragging the demons would still take considerable time to cover the whole area.
Fortunately, the fragrance of his human flesh and the scent of the demons served as excellent bait.
The human scent was like a fragrant feast, while the bloody smell of the demons seemed to say that many demons had already come to fight over it. Didn't you want to see what kind of person could cause such a bloody struggle?
How could demons, hungry for so long, resist such temptation? Especially since they all thought highly of themselves. Why would they back down from something like this?
Thanks to this, Sukuna didn't have to expend much effort to hunt down most of the ordinary demons on the Mountain.
The only one left was the demon the others had mentioned, the one who had already eaten thirteen people. Sukuna hadn't encountered him yet.
Just as he was considering whether to put these demons down temporarily and quickly search for that demon's trail, he sensed movement in the distance.
A massive figure several meters tall easily pushed aside burning trees and walked toward Sukuna.
As the hand demon approached, illuminated by the firelight, Sukuna got a clear look at the strongest demon on Fujikasane Mountain.
It was a grotesque demon with countless arms wrapped around its body. Beneath those tangled arms, its torso had the silhouette of a fat man.
From Sukuna's perspective, he couldn't see the hand demon's mouth, only its eyes exposed to the outside.
Sukuna observed how the hand demon had diverged from a normal human shape. It looked more like the cursed spirits he was familiar with. This alone showed that it was significantly different from the other demons. He just didn't know about its combat ability.
The hand demon looked down at Sukuna in the distance, but its first attention was drawn to the bundle of demons he was dragging behind his left hand. It spoke.
"Hmph, a swordsman. So it's that time of year again?"
Because of the Nichirin Blade in his hand, the hand demon mistakenly assumed he was a swordsman participating in this year's Final Selection.
It only thought this year's swordsman was a bit strange. Combined with the act of burning the wisteria, the hand demon guessed the Demon Slayer Corps was up to something. It naturally had no way of knowing this was Sukuna's doing.
Sukuna ignored what the hand demon meant by that time of year. He simply released the 'demon sticks' from his left hand, raised his Nichirin Blade, and asked the hand demon.
"So, you're the one who ate thirteen people? The strongest demon on this mountain?"
Sukuna's words were met with the hand demon's merciless laughter.
"Thirteen people? Is that what those fools told you? Thirteen is the number of Urokodaki's students I ate. Inside this prison, I've eaten fifty whole brats! You'll soon be number fifty-one!"
As it spoke, the hand demon's arms, which had been wrapped around its body, all pointed at Sukuna in unison.
Hearing this, Sukuna smiled instead. This confused the hand demon, and it also felt ignored.
"You brat, what are you smiling about when you're about to die?!"
Sukuna ran his left hand through his hair and said casually.
"Nothing. I was worried you might be too weak."
This clearly angered the hand demon, who found this human too arrogant.
"Don't you dare talk big, you brat! Just because you killed a few weaklings, you're getting cocky? I'll show you what a real difference in power looks like!"
The hand demon roared. All the arms across its body opened their palms and aimed at Sukuna, then extended and shot toward him at terrifying speed.
Facing the first arm, Sukuna didn't dodge. He stood there and took the attack on his chest, wanting to feel the level of a demon that had supposedly eaten fifty people.
But unfortunately, the moment that arm grabbed Sukuna's chest, the hand demon felt as if it had grabbed a rock wall. It couldn't budge him at all.
By Sukuna's standards, the hand demon was indeed stronger than the previous ones. But that was only in comparison to them.
If he compared it to the young swordsman he had killed earlier, the gap was far too wide.
Sukuna's gaze toward the hand demon changed. It became somewhat disappointed, mixed with a trace of pity.
But then he reconsidered. If this thing were truly strong, it wouldn't have been captured and imprisoned here by the Demon Slayer Corps. With that thought, Sukuna let it go.
A demon kept in 'captivity' like this would ultimately have its strength controlled and kept below a certain threshold.
If he wanted to find truly strong demons, he would need to go to a densely populated city.
After gauging the hand demon's power, he began swinging his Nichirin Blade, cutting down the arms the hand demon shot at him.
The hand demon watched Sukuna's 'pointless effort' and couldn't help but laugh mockingly.
"It's useless, useless! I'm not like those other ones. No matter how many of my arms you cut off, I can grow them back! Don't even think about reaching my neck, hehehehe!"
"Is that so?"
Sukuna just shook his head disdainfully.
Water Breathing, Third Form: Flowing Dance
Though Sukuna didn't have a Breathing Technique and couldn't manifest a water dragon from his Nichirin Blade, his physical stats were not something Tomioka could ever match.
Sukuna wielded his Nichirin Blade, weaving between the hand demon's arms while continuously cutting them down.
In just a few breaths, Sukuna had severed all the arms on the hand demon's body, whittling it down into a huge 'demon ball' (because the hand demon's body was so round).
"Impossible! How can this be?! In decades of living, I've never encountered such a thing! That dead Urokodaki..."
Sukuna interrupted the hand demon with a smile.
"Really now. Your appetite is so small. Only fifty brats in several decades?"
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This was the 10th chapter, hope you are hooked by now. if you are enjoying the story-Give some power stones. Thank you