Demon Slayer: Strength Gained with Every Swing of the Sword

"Good morning, Uncle..."

"Mm, good morning, Fengyu..."

Fengyu had woken up early and was already at the village's road junction. After greeting Meixiu's father, he started checking whether the cargo was securely tied. He would give it a tug here, a nudge there.

Once he had finished inspecting everything, the two of them said goodbye to Meixiu and her mother and set off.

The ox cart carrying the goods rolled forward with Meixiu's father leading the way, guiding the ox, while Fengyu followed behind, making sure the cargo stayed firmly fastened.

Along the way, Meixiu's father would stop at various points to explain things to Fengyu about the local area, as well as share interesting stories from his time delivering goods with Fengyu's father.

Of course, he also recounted terrifying tales he had heard from the small town...

"Legend has it that after the sun sets, evil Demons come out to devour people. Some Demon hunters kill these evil spirits to protect the people..."

Meixiu's father even boasted about having seen a Demon. But Fengyu didn't believe him, thinking to himself that if he had actually seen a Demon, he wouldn't be standing here, telling stories.

"Uncle, didn't you say the evil Demons eat people? So, how did you survive?" Fengyu asked.

"Haha, didn't you realize I was just bragging? I've never seen a Demon. The last person who told me that story also said the same thing. I'm just passing on the tale, but you know, stories aren't always true. In my 25 years, I've never seen a Demon. I think it's just a made-up story to warn children not to sneak out at night..."

Indeed, in many backward villages, people were isolated, and even if someone did encounter a Demon, if they weren't part of a Demon-hunting squad, they wouldn't survive to tell the tale.

After about three hours, they arrived at a small town. This was actually Fengyu's first time experiencing a town from the Taisho era (1912-1926) of Japan. In his past life, he had read that it was a brief but relatively stable period in Japan's history.

As he looked at the bustling town, Fengyu couldn't help but remember a phrase—foreign land…

His eyes dimmed.

I wonder how my parents are doing now... What will they think when they realize I'm gone?

Meixiu's father noticed the sadness in Fengyu's eyes and thought perhaps he was missing his parents. He said, "Fengyu, come on, let's deliver the grain to the merchant. Afterward, I'll take you to get something tasty."

Soon, they reached the merchant where they settled the price for the grain.

Afterward, the two of them wandered the lively streets, with Meixiu's father constantly pointing out various things he thought Fengyu might have never seen before. After all, in his memory, Fengyu had never left the village to visit a town.

But Fengyu only wanted to hurry back home, to make up for the time lost today, practicing his sword techniques, and preparing for the possible dangers that might soon descend upon him.

Though most of the things he saw were familiar, some small items, special to this little island country, were quite novel to him.

At this point, small islands had already begun to have firearms, and some prosperous districts had even started building concrete high-rises.

In the end, the two of them bought some daily necessities and a few snacks for Meixiu, then hitched the ox cart and started heading back to the village.

The sun was still up, as it set later during this season, and by the time they returned home, it hadn't yet gone down. The fiery red sunset bathed Fengyu's face.

As he felt the light breeze on his face, Fengyu sensed that his body was somehow different.

But he didn't think much of it, perhaps just missing his past life a little...

After all, it was a foreign land...

After tidying up, Fengyu began practicing his sword techniques, making the most of the remaining daylight.

The days passed by quickly. Half a year went by in a flash. During this time, Fengyu's daily routine hardly changed—cooking for himself, practicing his swordplay, and the weekly deliveries.

Yet there was one constant: a pair of small eyes that would watch him every day. At first, it had felt a bit awkward, but over the months, it had become a familiar part of his daily life.

Fengyu occasionally visited Meixiu's house for meals—after all, having someone else cook meant more time to practice his sword techniques, which was always welcome.

Over the past six months, Fengyu would push himself to exhaustion in his practice, but with the system's help, his body would recover fully by the next day. His swordplay was getting faster and more agile.

As a result, the number of sword swings in the system had already reached 700,000.

Now, every day he was nearing 10,000 swings, showing just how fast he was improving.

Perhaps that's what they meant by "When your heart has a goal, the sword comes naturally."

Moreover, over the past months, Fengyu had noticed something strange about his body. It seemed to be growing quickly. From his previous height of 1.45 meters, he had already reached about 1.60 meters. That was a huge change for just six months.

After all, the people of this small island had generally shorter statures, while Meixiu's family hadn't changed much—they ate, drank, and lived comfortably.

"Almost there," Fengyu thought. "At this rate, my sword swings will soon reach 1 million, and the system will activate."

"And why do I have this uneasy feeling... like something bad is about to happen..."

Fengyu, shirtless, stopped practicing and furrowed his brows as he gazed into the distance.

"That direction..." he thought. "It feels unsettling."

His wooden sword lowered as Meixiu, puzzled, asked, "Brother Fengyu, why did you stop? Did something happen?"

Fengyu shook his head and didn't say much. After all, it was just a feeling in his heart—maybe he was just overthinking.

But soon, Fengyu's unease was proven true...

"Hey, have you heard? Over in the neighboring village, they say a man-eating beast has appeared. Several people have gone missing, dragged up into the mountains and eaten. By the time they were found, there was nothing left but scraps of meat and torn clothes. It was all cleaned up..."

"Now the whole village is in panic. People won't go out, and everyone's locking up tight at night... I hope the officials kill that damn beast before more people die."

"Yeah, they better kill it quickly. If it gets tired of eating the people from the next village and comes here, it'll be trouble..."

"Forget it, just make sure to lock the doors and windows tight, and put some weapons next to the bed. Better safe than sorry, right?"

"Right, right..."

That morning, a group of elders in the village had gathered, gossiping idly.

Fengyu listened to their conversation, his brows furrowing as he felt an uneasy tightening in his chest. The direction of the danger was unmistakably the neighboring village...

"No wonder I'll have to face the man-eating monsters of this world so soon..."

"And this body's sixth sense... it's so strong."

Fengyu muttered to himself, but soon, he rushed back home to practice his swordplay, placing an axe and a chopping knife by his bedside.

Although he knew that if it really was a man-eating Demon, knives and axes wouldn't work—only the Demon Slayer Corps' Nichirin Swords could kill them.

Still, since it was happening, he thought, Just go with the flow, and began his daily sword practice.

A week passed without incident, but on the eighth day, the dreaded news arrived in Fengyu's village... 

----------------------------------------------------------------

𝙄 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙖𝙠𝙚 𝙖 𝙢𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙚𝙭𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝙢𝙮 𝙜𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙩𝙪𝙙𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙨𝙚 𝙬𝙝𝙤 𝙨𝙪𝙥𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩 𝙢𝙚 𝙤𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙟𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙣𝙚𝙮. 𝙔𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙗𝙪𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨 𝙢𝙖𝙠𝙚 𝙖 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙡 𝙙𝙞𝙛𝙛𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚! 

Join my patreon you will get:

• 𝗘𝘅𝗰𝗹𝘂𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗔𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀: 𝙂𝙚𝙩 50+ chapters 𝙖𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙙 𝙤𝙛 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙚𝙡𝙨𝙚.

• 𝗘𝘅𝗰𝗹𝘂𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘁-𝗢𝘂𝘁: 𝙍𝙚𝙘𝙚𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙖 𝙨𝙥𝙚𝙘𝙞𝙖𝙡 𝙨𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙖𝙨 𝙖 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙠 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙨𝙪𝙥𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩!

𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝘆 𝗳𝘂𝗲𝗹𝘀 𝗺𝘆 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝗮𝗹𝘀𝗼 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽𝘀 𝗺𝗲 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆. 𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂'𝗿𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗮 𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗻 𝘆𝗲𝘁, 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗷𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘂𝘀!

👉 𝙅𝙤𝙞𝙣 𝙣𝙤𝙬: patreon.com/sorkarnayeem