Approaching the window and gazing at the Hidden Leaf Village under the night sky, Shinji mentally reviewed the layout of the village once more.

Regarding the "invasion," he had analyzed many possibilities over the past few days and considered various countermeasures. For instance, he had memorized the layout of Konoha in his mind, knowing where the Hokage building, the Anbu building, the hospital, and other important institutions were located; he could distinguish them even with his eyes closed. Once an "invasion" actually occurred, he could respond immediately. After all, this was Konoha; no matter what kind of invader it was, Konoha would not sit idly by. Being in Konoha, he could fully utilize this point to deal with the "invasion."

Secondly, during his two days of solitude, he gradually adapted to the state of activating his Mangekyō Sharingan and carefully explored its application techniques without excessively exhausting his eye power. With this Mangekyō at his side, he felt somewhat reassured.

Finally, for safety, he spent money to buy a lot of ninja tools. Twenty shurikens, four steel-forged kunai, and thirty explosive tags were all neatly stored in the ninja pouch at his waist. Regardless of whether they would be useful, it was always better to be prepared.

Time passed slowly.

Click...

With a soft sound, the hour hand on the clock finally pointed to twelve o'clock. Shinji gripped a kunai in his hand, vigilantly scanning his surroundings for any potential "invasion," but nothing happened.

Minutes passed, and he frowned slightly, "Could it be a prank?"

Before he finished speaking, he suddenly vanished from the room...

Boom! Boom! Boom!

When Shinji regained his senses, he found himself in a strange palace, with explosions rumbling in his ears from time to time. He crouched down and peeked out the window.

In the courtyard of the palace, over a hundred guards armed with bows and swords were attacking a huge, dark green, bulging monster with countless arms on its upper body.

"Stop it!"

"Protect the prince!"

"Don't let it near the main hall!"

Amid the shouts, the guards continued to launch attacks against the monster.

Arrows rained down like heavy rain, and some arrows were even tied with ignited explosive tags. However, these attacks failed to stop the monster in the slightest.

The monster was pierced with arrows but remained indifferent, and its severed limbs from the explosions were rapidly regenerating at a visible speed.

Clearly, ordinary attacks had no effect on it whatsoever.

Every time the monster's numerous arms reached out, they could accurately grab a guard and drag him in front of it. Then, it would swallow them whole!

"This... isn’t this the Hand Demon?"

Hiding in a side hall of the courtyard, Shinji immediately recognized that this monster was the Hand Demon from Demon Slayer, the one that had devoured Tanjiro's senior brothers and sisters in the trial arena. However, the Hand Demon before him was significantly larger than he remembered, with a bulging body and an unbearable stench.

The courtyard quickly filled with a pungent smell of blood, scattered with severed limbs, resembling a scene from hell.

"No way!"

Although his heart raced with fear, Shinji still sensed something from his hiding place. He noticed that as the Hand Demon continued to devour the guards, its size increased, and its attack frequency, strength, and even recovery ability showed significant improvement.

There was no doubt that devouring the guards made it stronger, and this enhancement was very noticeable.

In Demon Slayer, demons can indeed become stronger by eating humans, but this strengthening takes time and accumulation.

Shinji suspected that the Hand Demon’s noticeable growth in size with each person it consumed was related to the chakra contained within the guards being eaten.

“If a demon with terrifying regeneration abilities also possesses chakra...”

Just thinking about it sent chills down Shinji's spine, making his scalp tingle.

In the courtyard, it seemed the Hand Demon sensed its rapid power increase, and its frequency of eating guards quickened significantly.

It voraciously devoured the guards, letting out a nauseating moan, "So delicious! The people here are so tasty, oh~ ah~!"

"This thing is the invader?"

Watching the guards dwindle rapidly, Shinji forced himself to calm down.

If he didn’t target its weaknesses, ordinary attacks would have very limited effect on the demon. Just like those fearless guards, no matter how many times they shot, slashed, or blew up the Hand Demon, they couldn’t kill it. Yet, as long as the Hand Demon devoured them, it could swiftly recover from the consumption.

Fortunately, Shinji knew the weaknesses of demons from Demon Slayer.

Without a doubt, the greatest weakness was sunlight. As long as they were exposed to sunlight, even the strongest demon would turn to ash under normal circumstances.

Besides sunlight, another weakness of demons was their necks. Using a Nichirin blade to sever a demon’s neck was the most common method for the Demon Slayer Corps to eliminate demons. Additionally, demons feared a plant called “wisteria.”

However, Shinji had neither a Nichirin blade nor wisteria at the moment.

Looking at the time, it had just passed midnight, and sunrise was still a long way off.

"What to do!"

Shinji felt a headache coming on and turned his gaze back to the courtyard.

From the guards’ attire and the explosive tags they used, it seemed they were still in the ninja world, so he guessed this was likely a palace of some feudal lord.

This was hinted at by the guards bravely engaging the Hand Demon.

Analyzing the battle situation, the Hand Demon was very strong!

It wasn’t that the Hand Demon couldn’t be countered; in fact, the guards had already severed and blown off its arms a dozen times, and once, they even blasted half of its body to pieces.

But the fatal injuries that would be deadly to normal creatures had no effect on the Hand Demon.

The Hand Demon could rapidly enhance its strength by continuously devouring guards; in just a short time, its size had swelled again, looking like a moving mountain of flesh from a distance.

"Why do the people here smell so good? Ah... glurk... glurk... so sweet!"

As it slaughtered, the Hand Demon emitted chilling chewing sounds.

"Damn it, what kind of monster is this!"

"Where are the reinforcements? Why haven’t they come yet!"

"Don’t eat me!"

Amid the roars and wails, the guards’ resistance gradually weakened.

Hiss...

Watching the Hand Demon devour the last guard, Shinji’s expression turned grave.

Even when it moved, the Hand Demon emitted a rumbling sound that made the ground tremble slightly, and the buildings in its path crumbled like tofu at a touch.

At that moment, it seemed to have its sights set on the nearby main hall.

Dragging its bulky body, it moved step by step toward the main hall.

In the side hall, Shinji felt a sense of relief: "It seems it hasn’t discovered me yet..."

Swish...

Just as Shinji let his guard down for a moment, an arm suddenly shot out from the Hand Demon’s back, accompanied by a foul-smelling wind, crashing through the wall and reaching for Shinji, who was hiding behind.

"What?!"

Before he could react, Shinji was caught by the Hand Demon.

Then, the arm that grabbed Shinji quickly retracted, lifting him off the ground and bringing him before the Hand Demon.

"Oh ho ho, I’ve smelled you for a long time; you smell better than them—so much more, it’s making me drool!"

The Hand Demon gazed at Shinji with a foolish expression, and saliva actually dripped from its mouth.

Shinji felt nauseous and wanted to vomit.

Suddenly, the Hand Demon seemed to sense something, and its already deformed face twisted further into madness: "So you are the 'light' of this realm; don’t drive me away!"

"Light?"

Seeing the Hand Demon’s reaction, Shinji realized that his identity seemed quite special.

Countless arms flailed and swayed around him, and the Hand Demon, resembling a demonic entity, became increasingly frenzied. It grabbed Shinji and lifted him above its gaping maw: "As long as I eat you, I can stay here forever; this is my paradise!"

"Paradise?" Shinji spat lightly and coldly replied, "You have a misunderstanding about the ninja world! This is hell!"

Before his words fell, Shinji's eyes turned crimson...