"He's really fast…" Fang Hao shook his head helplessly. If he had gone all out, he definitely could have caught up, but even after integrating Water Breathing, the breathing technique only reduced stamina consumption; it didn't eliminate it.
He was about to face one of the Twelve Kizuki. Even if his mental state was better or his fighting spirit stronger after killing the Spider Demon Mother, if he exhausted too much stamina and faced Rui in such a state, he wouldn't do something so foolish.
He continued to chase in that direction, and soon, a series of beast roars reached his ears. "Found them." This sound should be from a demon fighting, and the one fighting the demon was probably Inosuke.
Suddenly, Fang Hao jumped backward with Extreme Speed, and many spider threads shot onto the spot where he had just been standing.
He fixed his gaze on the direction from which the spider threads came, narrowing his eyes slightly. Fang Hao looked in surprise at the figure that appeared before him: a young female demon in white, almost an exact copy of the previous Spider Demon Mother—no, to be precise, she and Rui looked like they were cast from the same mold.
"Oh, look what I found? A wild demon—uh, or maybe a domesticated one. In any case, it has a Rui content of up to ninety percent."
The entire Spider Mountain family was turned into demons by Rui using his own blood, which is why they resembled him so much. But for the family members he found, like the Spider Demon Mother, to actually look like him—this wasn't a grammatical issue, but a fact, truly a bit of a 'filial piety' joke.
However, Rui certainly didn't care about this; he might even think it was better. What's wrong with a family looking alike?
"I promised your mother I would send you down to join her," Fang Hao said seriously.
"So, it was you who killed 'Mom'." The girl heard Fang Hao's words and realized that the person in front of her had killed her mother. Her voice was very calm, and there was no sadness on her face, as if she were just saying "Oh."
"Even if you can kill Mom, you are definitely no match for Dad, and you certainly can't kill 'Rui'."
"Human, you're dead! So, please die now!" She attacked again, spider threads dancing from her hands, her attack style identical to that of the Spider Demon Mother before.
In the anime, the Spider Mountain family originally had an older sister demon, and the Spider Demon Sister was close to her. The two had agreed to escape Natagumo Mountain together, to break free from Rui's childish games, but the result was that the older sister demon was reported by her and subsequently strung up outside by Rui to die from sun exposure. The Spider Demon Sister then naturally took the older sister demon's place, gaining a higher status.
Fang Hao had nothing to say to such a demon; he would just grant her death.
"Thunder Breathing First Form: Thunderclap and Flash - Fivefold."
Meanwhile, on the other side, "Roar." A giant figure was pounding the enemy in front of him.
Bang! The boy barely managed to dodge, stumbling, but the large tree behind him snapped under the attack and fell straight to the ground.
"Tch, this guy's really strong." The boy, or rather Inosuke, discovered in his fight against the demon that this demon was the strongest he had ever encountered.
He tried to cut open the demon's body, but even with all his strength, he only managed to break the giant demon's skin, unable to even touch the muscles inside, let alone cut them.
"Huff, huff." Inosuke gasped for breath. He had never encountered such an opponent. Previous demons, when faced with his serrated nichirin blade—which he had sharpened by smashing it against rocks—were utterly defenseless. Coupled with his wild and swift Swordsmanship Prodigy like a beast, he had never met an opponent he couldn't defeat in a single blow.
Yet, the demon before him, when faced with his cuts and saws, didn't even need to defend. He, who had always been invincible, had now met his match…
"Roar!" Another iron fist. Inosuke raised his two nichirin blades and barely managed to block it, the intense wind pressure making him unable to open his eyes. He could only take advantage of the momentum to roll and dissipate the force, then get up and continue to grapple with the demon.
"Damn it!" Inosuke looked troubled at the giant demon before him. This was an abnormal demon over two meters tall, with a human torso but a spider's head, its mouthparts ferocious. That face alone was enough to inspire fear.
"I can't hit its vital points!" Inosuke was in a difficult situation. Even if he risked jumping to slash the demon's neck, he couldn't cut it off, and with its regenerative abilities, unless it was a fatal injury, it was difficult to cause it any significant harm.
However, he had no time to consider all that now. The demon's relentless attacks left him struggling to cope. The massive expenditure of stamina and the injuries on his body made him increasingly fatigued. The groans from his muscles all over his body told him he had reached his limit…
Anger, dissatisfaction, but more than that, powerlessness. Inosuke, who believed in the law of the jungle, sought stronger opponents and greater power. Now he had found it, only to discover that even with all his might, he had only managed to sever one of the demon's hands, and even that hand was rapidly regenerating.
"Damn it, is this the end? I still want to meet stronger opponents!" His consciousness gradually blurred, and the strength with which Inosuke blocked attacks grew weaker and weaker…
"Crack!" Another heavy punch. His blurry consciousness instantly cleared quite a bit. His nichirin blade had broken…
He knew he couldn't keep this up. He threw away his broken nichirin blade, gripping his other nichirin blade tightly with both hands. "This is the last strike! Boar Rush!" He used the trees behind him to leap to the demon's diagonal rear, unleashing all his remaining strength, and slashed towards the demon's neck…
"Clang!" His nichirin blade, gripped tightly in both hands, plunged deep into the demon's neck, but it only cut halfway through the neck before it could not advance an inch further. The nichirin blade itself finally buckled under the strain and broke completely.
The iron fist was closing in on his body, but he had no chance to dodge.
"As expected, it's no good. This is the end…" His heart was filled with unwillingness and despair. "To die at the hands of this demon, which has no reason, only brute strength…"
Suddenly, he felt his body lighten, and he was held by someone. "Look out!" He instinctively wanted to cry out, but he was astonished to see the massive figure collapse to the ground, its head flying high before falling to the ground and disappearing.
"Hogao!" Inosuke shouted, looking at the familiar face.
"Can you at least get my name right for once!" That single sentence immediately broke Fang Hao's composure. It could only be said that he was indeed the boar-headed boy; in the original work, besides Shinobu Kocho and Kanao, he couldn't get anyone else's name right.
The newcomer was none other than Fang Hao.
In the previous battle with the Spider Demon Sister, Fang Hao used Thunder Breathing First Form: Thunderclap and Flash - Fivefold. Fang Hao, who was familiar with the original work, had long ago created Thunder Breathing First Form: Thunderclap and Flash - Sixfold. With his Swordsmanship Prodigy talent, slightly modifying sword techniques was not difficult for him.
The reason he used Thunder Breathing First Form: Thunderclap and Flash - Fivefold was because the four limbs plus the neck made for exactly five slashes. For this particularly nasty demon, Fang Hao, wanting her to die a more painful death, deliberately added four extra slashes to sever her four limbs before finally choosing to decapitate her.
After doing all this, Fang Hao then rushed to this location, just in time to save Inosuke.