Before his heart could stop pounding, strange, pitch-black patterns, like the legendary skin texture of a demon, emerged from Kurozawa's brow.
At first, it was just a black dot, but then it quickly twisted and spread down Kurozawa's cheeks. The direction of the black patterns was completely random, like savage rose vines stretching everywhere. In the blink of an eye, the single dot turned into a texture covering Kurozawa's entire body.
The sight of these pitch-black patterns all over his body was unsettling, yet it also possessed a strange and eerie beauty.
"This is the Demon Slayer Mark."
After the pitch-black patterns, the Demon Slayer Mark, covered Kurozawa's body, his wildly beating heart finally stopped accelerating, settling at its current frequency.
Kurozawa took a long, deep breath, his gaze solemn.
He could feel that his heartbeat, blood flow rate, cell metabolism, and so on were instantly nearly ten times faster than that of an ordinary person.
This level of change, if it happened to a normal person who hadn't practiced a Breathing Technique, would instantly cause all their blood vessels to burst, their body exploding into a mist of blood.
Even for a Swordsman who practiced a Breathing Technique, if they hadn't cultivated it to a certain level, at least reaching Total Concentration: Constant, they would instantly die.
Only with a sufficiently strong physique could one survive the insane acceleration of the heart and blood flow when the Demon Slayer Mark formed.
"No wonder most Swordsmen who awaken the Demon Slayer Mark die suddenly."
While dodging Rui's attacks, Kurozawa analyzed his current physical condition.
He found it difficult to control his heartbeat and blood flow rate, and even using the Breathing Technique could only reduce it to a certain extent. But at its weakest, it was still more than double that of an ordinary person, equivalent to activating a weakened Total Concentration mode. Over time, this would cause significant damage to the body, which even a Swordsmen couldn't avoid.
"However, despite the huge cost, the rewards are incredibly abundant."
In the Status Panel, Kurozawa's attributes, excluding intelligence, finally broke through an average of 1.0. Before, his average was only about 0.6. Now, it had nearly doubled directly.
Licking his lips, Kurozawa no longer suppressed the physical changes caused by the Demon Slayer Mark. He took a deep, almost intoxicated breath, and even used his Breathing Technique to enter Total Concentration again, further increasing his physical attributes.
The stronger the physique, the greater the boost from Total Concentration. Kurozawa's various attributes surged again, reaching an average of 1.4.
At this moment, in terms of physique, he absolutely crushed Rui in all aspects.
Not only that, but his visual perception had also changed. Even with his eyes closed, Kurozawa could perceive all the movements around him.
This feeling was very strange. Moreover, in Kurozawa's perception, everything around him showed various completely different auras. He predicted Rui's multiple attacks by the flow of these auras.
"This feeling... is it Fighting Spirit?" With a slight thought, Kurozawa remembered the name of this ability. He hadn't expected that with the advancement of his Breathing Technique, his visual perception would turn into Fighting Spirit perception.
The improvement gained by expending lifespan and a large amount of Potential Points was indeed incredibly powerful.
*Blood Demon Art: Evil Spider's Fangs!*
*Blood Demon Art: Thread Net!* Opening his mouth, Rui's teeth suddenly transformed into sharp fangs and fell out. The tips of the fangs glowed with a faint blue light, piercing the air as they shot towards Kurozawa at incredibly high speed.
At the same time, countless blood threads rolled and surged, instantly forming dense nets, hindering Kurozawa's movement.
Kurozawa's abnormality was too obvious. Rui put away his unnecessary thoughts and used his Blood Demon Art with all his might, attempting to kill Kurozawa.
However, Kurozawa, dozens of meters away from him, merely smiled and charged forward.
Clang, clang, clang... His right hand, wreathed in Pitch-Black Aura, was held in front of him. As he swung it, his fingers constantly flexed and extended. Like afterimages, his fingers struck the side of the fangs each time, knocking them away.
As for the net-like blood threads, they couldn't even get close to Kurozawa's body before being torn to shreds by his Pitch-Black Aura.
What had seemed like an impenetrable blood thread net, a suffocating offensive, now appeared slow in Kurozawa's eyes. His previously struggling figure now moved like a fish in water, effortlessly and easily dodging the cutting and encirclement of the blood threads.
"What's going on? His strength increased so much all of a sudden..."
A huge sense of crisis arose in Rui's heart. His body instinctively told him that escaping now was the best option.
"I remember now! Those pitch-black patterns all over his body... are what the Master called a Marked Swordsman!" The most powerful period for the Demon Slayer Corps, the era when they casually hunted Demons, was precisely because of the existence of Marked Swordsmen.
Many powerful Demons knew about this past from their inherited memories. However, Marked Swordsmen hadn't appeared for hundreds of years, so they had become legendary figures.
Rui hadn't expected to encounter a Marked Swordsman, and this opponent seemed to be a genius who had achieved a breakthrough in the heat of battle. A Marked Swordsman capable of fighting fiercely against an Upper Moon was not someone he could handle.
His heart tightened, but Rui's fighting spirit did not diminish; instead, it burned like a raging fire.
As a Demon, his savage and insane side finally revealed itself in Rui.
He no longer stood proudly in place. He tapped the ground with his toes and retreated rapidly. At the same time, he spread his hands, and the swirling crimson blood threads reappeared. Threads of blood surged out from it, pouring towards the pursuing Kurozawa from the front.
"It's useless. What if I take your attacks head-on?"
With a physique now more than ten times stronger than an ordinary person's, even if someone tried to cut Kurozawa's body with a sword, it would take a lot of effort to break through his skin.
Because Rui kept retreating, seeming to have a tendency to escape, Kurozawa endured many attacks to break through the blockade of blood threads. He suffered numerous dense cuts on his body, but not a single drop of blood flowed out.
Kurozawa controlled the circulation of blood and muscle movement, locking the blood at the wounds. This ability was possessed by many Swordsmen and was the reason why Swordsmen could still fight desperately even when severely injured.
Now, Kurozawa's speed greatly surpassed Rui's. As one chased and the other fled, coupled with Kurozawa disregarding minor injuries, the distance between them rapidly closed.
A few minutes later, there was only a distance of two or three meters left between Kurozawa and Rui.
At this distance, Rui's hardened threads were no longer effective and could easily cause trouble for himself.
However, to Kurozawa's surprise, Rui suddenly stopped abruptly and turned around, launching a fierce punch straight towards Kurozawa's heart.
As he turned around, Rui's body suddenly expanded. When his back was to Kurozawa, he was still the size of a small boy, but after turning around, his clothes had burst, and he had become a burly Demon over two meters tall with bulging muscles. His appearance was quite similar to the Demon Father from before.
It seemed that his family members' Blood Demon Arts were all derived from Rui.
This sudden punch was Rui's last gamble. His constant retreat was merely an attempt to lull Kurozawa's vigilance.
Unfortunately, in Kurozawa's Fighting Spirit perception, the flow of aura within Rui's body as he gathered strength did not escape his eyes at all.
As Rui turned around, Kurozawa had already crossed his hands, blocking the path of Rui's punch in advance, and directly collided with it.
His wrist was struck by Rui's fist, sinking slightly. His bone was likely cracked. The action and reaction were mutual. The inertia from Kurozawa's full-speed charge also intensified Rui's punch.
But on the opposite side of Kurozawa, Rui's arm snapped directly into two pieces with a crack. His body was like a thrown puppet, sent flying by the Tyrannosaurus Rex-like Kurozawa. He rolled continuously on the ground, smashing through more than a dozen large trees before stopping. A long gully appeared on the ground.
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