Several evil spirits let out shrill howls as they lunged toward Hikigaya Hachiman, only to be wiped from existence by the Demon slayer Sword in a single exchange. A patch of space momentarily cleared, but it was quickly swarmed by new spirits pouncing toward him.

Looking at the dark, oppressive crowd of evil spirits before him, Hachiman didn’t feel a hint of panic. On the contrary, he was thoroughly enjoying this battle against a never-ending stream of enemies.

“Slain a High-level Evil Spirit. Obtained 500 Spirit Coins.” “Slain a Special-class Evil Spirit. Obtained 1,000 Spirit Coins.” …

In his mind, the system notifications refreshed incessantly. Correspondingly, Hachiman’s Spirit Coin balance was skyrocketing at a blistering speed. After being besieged for only a few minutes, his Spirit Coins had already climbed back into the five-digit range, yet the spirits he had eliminated didn’t even account for a tenth of the total swarm!

Staring at the spirits surrounding him with a burning gaze, Hachiman swallowed hard, feeling a surge of excitement. How long had it been since he last encountered this? Since he killed the Ghost King, it had been a long time since he’d come across such a massive group of “Spirit Coin extractors.”

Another ten minutes passed.

Hachiman’s Spirit Coin count had risen to 50,000, and the wall of evil spirits surrounding him had grown considerably thinner. Panting heavily and feigning physical exhaustion, Hachiman took the initiative to break out in a direction away from the camp, creating the illusion that he intended to flee.

Seeing Hachiman’s actions, the Ghost Emperor, who had been nearly unable to restrain itself from making a move, suppressed its desire to strike once again. Centuries of experience told the Ghost Emperor that every human spiritualist possessed a “bottom of the chest” life-saving trump card.

Since Hachiman appeared to be losing stamina, the Emperor saw no harm in waiting a bit longer. Once its subordinates forced out Hachiman’s final hole card, it would strike and devour him at the minimum possible cost. Furthermore, it couldn’t rule out the possibility that Hachiman was deliberately faking this state to lure it into attacking…

Under the Ghost Emperor’s cold, watchful eye, dozens more evil spirits died miserably under the Demon slayer Sword. Among them were several high-level spirits of the General and Special classes; the strength of one General-class spirit had even been close to reaching the level of a Ghost King.

Yet, faced with such losses, the Ghost Emperor remained unmoved. As long as it remained alive, it could always gather enough subordinates on this land given enough time. Moreover,

the very reason it had gathered so many subordinates in the first place was to use them as cannon fodder to drain the spiritual power and stamina of high-level spiritualists.

It practically wished for more of its subordinates to die if it meant further weakening Hachiman’s combat effectiveness. Why would it care about the loss of a few evil spirits?

Hachiman lured the Ghost Emperor and its minions deeper into the mountains. Finally, when his Spirit Coins broke the 100,000 mark for the first time, Hachiman stopped his “flight.” He shed his disguise and stood before the swarm, once again brimming with energy.

“Confirm consumption of 50,000 Spirit Coins to upgrade the rank of the Demon slayer Sword?”

The system prompt rang in his head. Looking at the Ghost Emperor before him, Hachiman nodded without hesitation.

“Confirm!”

As soon as he spoke, the Demon slayer Sword, which had been glowing with a faint green light, was instantly enveloped in a layer of black radiance. The entire blade began to extend and reshape itself…

Three seconds later, as the black light faded, a brand-new Tachi, radiating a faint blue glow, appeared in Hachiman’s hand.

“Did it skip right over green?”

Seeing that the light emitted by the Demon slayer Sword was blue, Hachiman breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, the weapon’s upgrade path wasn’t what he had feared. If it had actually turned green, he swore he wouldn’t have used the weapon a single time until he saved up enough coins for the next upgrade!

With his worries dispelled, Hachiman began to carefully sense the changes in the upgraded Demon slayer Sword. First and foremost was the sharpness, which was easily perceptible. Holding the sword, Hachiman couldn’t help but feel that there was nothing in this world he couldn’t cut through.

To test his hypothesis, Hachiman gave a casual swing toward the crowd of spirits. A pale blue arc of sword beam instantly manifested, slicing through several spirits standing in the front. Without a trace of struggle, the spirits struck by the sword beam dissipated into smoke before they even realized they had been attacked.

“Not only the sharpness—even the weight of the blade has been reduced?”

The moment he unleashed the sword beam, Hachiman immediately noticed the weight. If the un-upgraded Demon slayer Sword required Yuigahama Yui and Yukinoshita Yukino together to barely lift it, now even a primary schooler like Tsurumi Rumi could easily hold it up.

Yet, even with the weight reduced so drastically, Hachiman felt no discomfort using it, as if the Demon slayer Sword automatically adjusted itself to the user’s experience.

“Now I’m even more confident!”

Tightening his grip on the sword, Hachiman looked at the Ghost Emperor with eyes full of self-assurance.

At this moment, the Ghost Emperor—realizing that Hachiman’s previous weakness was entirely an act—saw its expression turn grave. There were now two possibilities in its mind. One: Hachiman had indeed been acting all along, and his strength hadn’t actually been consumed much by its subordinates. Two: Hachiman was at the end of his rope and was currently forcing himself to look peak-strength in an attempt to scare it away.

“Which possibility is more likely?”

The Ghost Emperor narrowed its eyes, staring back at Hachiman. While it didn’t care how many subordinates died, re-gathering a swarm of that scale wouldn’t be easy. It was truly unwilling to return empty-handed. But if Hachiman really did have strength left, and it failed to gain an advantage but got wounded instead, the loss would outweigh the gain.

However, Hachiman didn’t give the Ghost Emperor much time to think. While the Emperor was hesitating over whether to strike, Hachiman had already formed a hand seal with one hand. Spiritual power surged continuously from his body, forming a magic circle that isolated a 300-meter radius around him from reality.

[Spirit Lock Formation]

Price: 50,000 Spirit Coins Function: Consumes a vast amount of spiritual power to partition the space within a 300-meter radius of the user from reality. Unless the user voluntarily deactivates it or is killed, no other living beings within this space can leave by any other means!

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Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep