Reincarnation as Lower Rank Five in Demon Slayer

Li Lei approached Tanaka Naoki, whom he had wrapped into a ball using his Blood Demon Art, and released the Blood Demon Art.

Inside, Naoki Tanaka had already woken up. Sensing the opening of the silk ball, he immediately stood up and gripped his Nichirin Blade tightly, aiming it at Li Lei, who was in the darkness.

He thought to himself, "I think I just had two dreams."

"I dreamt that I went back to my childhood, and my mother was still alive and caring for me just like before. I also dreamt that the evil spirit that killed my mother had received its due punishment."

"Hmm, is this Li Lei?"

Naoki Tanaka stared at the face before him, a face just as familiar as before, except for its white hair and bloodshot pupils. He recalled how the boy had been joking and laughing with him just moments before, fighting demons together. Now, in the blink of an eye, he had become the demon he hated most!

Looking at Tanaka Naoki, who was pointing his Nichirin Blade at him, Li Lei felt a deep understanding for him, after all, his birth mother had died at the hands of an evil spirit.

Li Lei smiled and said, "It's wrong for Mr. Tree Planter to point a knife at his friend!"

Naoki Tanaka said coldly, "Who's your friend! You devil."

Li Lei said, "If you say that, I'm going to get angry! Besides, I just saved your life."

Tanaka Naoki's tone remained icy as he said, "Don't pretend. What exactly is your purpose in saving me? I won't let you succeed."

Li Lei said speechlessly, "Is there something wrong with your brain? What purpose would I have in saving you?"

Naoki Tanaka said, "No matter what your purpose is, even if I die today, I will drag you to the sunrise. Water Breathing, First Form: Water Surface Slash."

Suddenly, with a sharp sound, Tanaka Naoki, wielding his Nichirin Blade, slashed horizontally at Li Lei's neck.

Just as his nihilistic blade was about to strike Li Lei, it was instantly and tightly grasped by Li Lei's right hand, which was clad in a blood-red silk glove.

With a sudden burst of strength from Li Lei's right hand, Tanaka Naoki felt himself being pulled towards the other man, only to be met with Li Lei's fist, which was as big as a sandbag.

"Bang!"

Immediately, Naoki Tanaka's nose started bleeding profusely, and his Nichirin Blade was snatched from his hand.

Li Lei looked at Tanaka Naoki, who was covering his face with his hands, and kicked him to the ground. Then, with a forceful swing, he pinned the Nichirin Blade in his hand to a nearby tree.

Then, straddling Tanaka Naoki, he clenched his fists and unleashed a barrage of punches, bang, bang, bang! The sounds of left and right punches echoing through the woods were indiscriminate.

Half an hour later, Li Lei stood up, clapped his hands, and looked down at Tanaka Naoki lying on the ground, his face bruised and swollen. Even his own father wouldn't recognize him.

Li Lei pointed at Tanaka Naoki and said, "You better watch out in the future, or I'll beat you up every time I see you!"

After saying that, he turned around and left.

At this moment, Tanaka Naoki, lying on the ground, looked up at the receding figure, slowly disappearing from his sight. He was filled with endless confusion, having not retaliated when Li Lei struck him earlier.

Despite being a ghost hunter, he was saved by a ghost. The reason he attacked Hui Li Lei was because he couldn't believe that a ghost could restrain its appetite and not attack people, but instead save people when they were in danger.

A gentle breeze blew through the night, and Naoki Tanaka lay motionless on the ground. As time passed, the sun's rays bathed the earth. The night was over, the sun reigned supreme over the land, and everything returned to life.

Naoki Tanaka lay sprawled on the ground, contemplating life, when a figure blocked his view of the sunlight. Naoki looked up at the figure blocking the sunlight—it was you…

"Naoki, you mean you encountered a demon disguised as a human last night, and later became friends with it. You came to this forest together to fight the superimposed weight demon that had just escaped from my grasp, and in the end, you were saved by the superimposed weight demon because you were no match for it."

"Yes! Senior Brother Urokodaki."

Naoki Tanaka looked at Urokodaki, who was wearing a red tengu mask. It was none other than Sakonji Urokodaki, the master of Tanjiro, the protagonist of Demon Slayer.

Urokodaki Sakonji looked at Tanaka Naoki's face, which was swollen like a pig's head, and asked him, "What happened to your face?"

Tanaka Naoki froze for a moment, then said with a firm gaze and a very serious tone:

"That's because after we dealt with the superimposed ghost, we discovered that Li Lei was actually a ghost. I was so angry that I fought with him, and that's how we ended up like this. But he didn't fare well either; I only suffered internal injuries."

Urokodori Sakonji looked at Tanaka Naoki, who was trying to hide his feelings, and calmly asked, "Naoki, what do you think of this ghost named Li Lei?"

“Brother Urokodaki, I didn’t know that my mother was killed by a demon. That’s why I joined the Demon Slayer Corps, hoping to find the demon who killed my mother and take revenge.”

"But during this period, as I encountered more and more evil spirits while saving people, most of them were either irrational or cannibalistic. This made me think that ghosts were irrational, and cannibalism and psychological abnormality were the norm for ghosts."

"But Li Lei's appearance made me waver a little. Li Lei is different from all the ghosts I have encountered before."

"Li Lei doesn't have the same desire to eat people as other evil spirits, and his aura isn't particularly unpleasant either."

"When he disguised himself as a human, he looked like a frail teenager, except for being a bit annoying. I couldn't tell at all whether he was a human or a ghost."

Urokodaki Sakonji said, "Could it be because you're too weak that you can't tell?"

"Impossible, absolutely impossible! How could it be that I'm too weak to see it!"

Urokodaki Sakonji looked at Tanaka Naoki, whose words were biased towards Li Lei, and couldn't help but feel curious. What kind of demon could make the vengeful Tanaka Naoki change his opinion so much?

"Ah sneeze!"

Hiding underground, Li Lei rubbed his nose and asked himself, "Who's thinking about me behind my back? Could it be Ueki-kun whose brain is racing after seeing a ghost, or Muzan? Never mind!"

"I sleep during the day when I have nothing to do."

Daylight slowly faded, and night gently descended. It was another beautiful night. Li Lei crawled out of the ground, brushing the dirt off his clothes. Where should he go? Li Lei squatted on the ground, resting his chin on his hands, deep in thought. Should he continue along the path, going from village to village? Or should he head to the bigger city?

"Yeah! Take the back road, it's safer that way. Otherwise, it wouldn't be fun if we ran into a Demon Slayer Corps Pillar in a big city."

After saying that, he continued walking along the path, using the Blood Demon Art to increase his weight by five times as he went, in order to train his body. At first, Li Lei used walking to adapt to the five times his weight, and after adapting, he gradually used jogging to train his body.

Five days later, in the dead of night, on a calm and peaceful path, a white figure suddenly ran past. It was Li Lei.

During these five nights, Li Lei used the Blood Demon Technique—weight superposition training—and can now run with seven times his body weight.

After absorbing the power transmitted through the Blood Demon Art - Parasitic Cage, he further enhanced his Thread Blood Demon Art and Parasitic Blood Demon Art, and his flesh regeneration speed also increased to a higher level.

Li Lei, who was running, stopped beside a large tree that was half a meter in diameter and five meters tall. Looking at the tree in front of him, Li Lei said:

"You're the test subject!"

Li Lei stretched out his right hand towards the tree and said, "Blood Demon Technique - Formless Parasitism." Instantly, a fleshy ball flew out from his right palm and burrowed into the tree, which was half a meter in diameter and five meters high.

Li Lei withdrew his right hand and closed his eyes.

"Assimilation begins!"

As Li Lei gave the order to the fleshy ball that was merging into the tree, the fleshy ball began to assimilate into the tree's heart, and a minute passed.

Li Lei stopped the assimilation process and felt that about one-third of the material had been assimilated. The assimilated areas were all tree trunks, the center of branches, and tree roots buried deep underground.

Okay, in three more hours we can feel the sun during the day.

With a thought from Li Lei, the roots of the large tree dug a ten-meter-deep pit in front of him.

Li Lei jumped into the pit, controlled the tree roots, covered the pit, and then covered the surface with soil.

Li Lei, inside the pit, used the Blood Demon Technique—Weight Stacking—to add the weight of the earth onto himself, increasing his own weight to 14 times the original intensity for physical training.

Three hours later, the sun rose from the east and soon shone on the tree. The tree did not burn but turned to ash.

Meanwhile, underground, Li Lei sensed that his flesh and blood within the tree were not burning, and the corners of his mouth involuntarily turned up.