The journey of dragon transformation starting from Demon Slayer

On the other side, sensing the scene in the insect warehouse, Zouken Matou, who was staying deep in the mansion, showed a sinister smile, and immediately activated the magic power in his body. The whole person began to rot and turned into countless insects that dissipated in the room.

"Hehe, Tsuruno...what are you waiting for..."

"Could it be that after seeing this child, you began to feel guilty?"

Suddenly, an old and low voice came from behind. The voice sounded like the urging of the god of death, which scared He Ye so much that his heart skipped a beat.

Hearing this familiar voice, Matou Tsuruno was frightened.

He took a deep breath, knowing that he had to make the final decision.

One second passed, two seconds passed...

In the end, He Ye chose to freeze his heart and resolutely took the first step towards the stairs in front of him.

Yes, I can't hesitate any longer. If I hesitate any longer, I will suffer bad consequences.

At the same time, Sakura turned around and her eyes fell on the face of the old man behind her. She saw a sinister and cunning smile and a pair of eyes shining with shrewdness.

"Grandpa?" Ying's voice was filled with a hint of doubt and fear.

“Sa... Let me hear your wail... Ying...” The old man’s laughter echoed in the air, as terrifying as a demon from the depths of hell, “Hehehahahaha…”

Hearing this, Sakura felt a chill all over her body, and her limbs became stiff and weak.

“No…don’t!!”

Sakura's mouth opened wide and she let out screams of extreme terror.

The feeling of fear surged into Sakura's heart like a tide, even drowning her reason.

Feeling her body moving uncontrollably towards the stairs, seeing herself getting closer and closer to the sea of ​​insects below, Sakura felt as if every step she took was like walking on the edge of a knife and was extremely painful.

She tried to resist, but it was in vain.

Ahhh...someone come save me...

Sakura doesn't want to feed the bugs...

Sakura's heart was filled with despair and helplessness.

......

Under Zang Yan's cold and sharp gaze, the two slowly walked down the stairs until they reached the end of the road leading to the insect warehouse.

Suddenly, a wave of magical power swept across Zang Yan's body, and the next second he disappeared from the platform above like a ghost.

However, almost at the same moment, his figure appeared in the center of the dense and creepy swarm of insects below.

Zang Yan was seen tapping the ground lightly with his cane, and immediately, under his mysterious manipulation, thousands of hideous poisonous insects scattered to both sides, leaving a narrow but relatively unobstructed path for He Ye.

Thus, Tsuruno was able to lead the struggling girl and smoothly reach the core area of ​​the underground insect warehouse.

At this moment, Sakura's face was filled with extreme fear, and all of this was seen by Zōken who was standing not far away.

Looking at the poor and helpless girl in front of him, a malicious and evil smile slowly appeared on the corner of Zang Yan's mouth. However, when he noticed that something unusual was happening on the girl's chest, he couldn't help but narrow his eyes suddenly, revealing a look of astonishment.

"That is..." Zang Yan murmured in a low voice.

That's right, although it was extremely subtle and difficult to detect, Zang Yan still saw it after all - it was a ray of pure blue light without any impurities, just like fluorite in the middle of the night, emitting a faint and elegant light.

If he hadn't been in the dark basement, he would definitely not have noticed the light.

Is it a magic gift? Judging from the position and the depth of the light, it should be a gemstone necklace, right?

Zōken guessed that this should be the work of the son of the Tōsaka family, but why couldn't he sense any magical fluctuations along the way?

As a great magician who has lived for more than five hundred years, it is impossible for him to make such a small mistake.

But now it's in his territory, let's test it out first...

Zang Yan thought for a moment in his mind, and at the same time raised the crutch in his hand, ready to pick up Ranying's clothes to confirm what it was.

Suddenly, a hint of red flashed before Zang Yan's eyes, forcing him to stop what he was doing.

"Hmm? Wait..."

The cane in Zang Yan's hand was suspended in the air. He narrowed his eyes in shock, looking at the red color on the back of the girl's hand, and murmured in disbelief.

"No, impossible... Impossible..."

Although it was just a faint red mark and had not yet fully formed, Zang Yan believed that his eyes would never be wrong and he would never mistake the pattern on it.

This is not a bruise caused by struggle, but a kind of stigmata...

The name of this holy mark is - the Command Seal.

......

What are the rules for the Holy Grail to select its Master? This thought suddenly popped up in Zōken's mind.

The Holy Grail has rules and priorities for selecting its Master.

The first condition is the desire for something, the wish to be fulfilled in one's heart, and the need for the Holy Grail. These will all be included in the Holy Grail's consideration of the Master.

The next step is to possess magical power, enough to become a magician.

The essence of the Holy Grail War is to send "Servants" to fight. Therefore, in order to defeat others, as a summoner, you must have a certain level of magic training.

If a person does not have Magic Circuits in his body, he cannot even summon Heroic Spirits, and it is impossible for him to be chosen by the Holy Grail to be a Master.

Of course, even if you are not a magician, as long as you have enough magic power to summon familiars and a desire that is important enough to be valued by the Holy Grail, you will naturally be qualified to become a Master.

As a member of the three founding families who built the Holy Grail system hundreds of years ago, Matou and Zouken are very familiar with this mechanism.

In addition to the above two, the Holy Grail Master selection mechanism has another feature, that is, the magicians of the three founding families of the Holy Grail system, "Matou", "Tousaka", and "Einzbern", have the priority right to be granted Command Spells.

That is to say, among the seven masters recruited by the Holy Grail, three of them must be magicians from these three families.

Judging from the situation of the little girl in front of him, her current wish should be to escape from this insect warehouse, and the magic circuits in her body should not have been fully activated, so she does not have the magic power to summon familiars.

Judging from the conditions she possesses, it should not be enough for her to be chosen as a Master by the Holy Grail.

It would not be impossible if the Holy Grail recognized Sakura's identity as a magician of the Matou family, but the current situation is that she is not even a magician.

And even if the Holy Grail acknowledged this little girl's identity as a magician of the Matou family, Zōken still found it difficult to understand.

The best time to summon a Heroic Spirit is before the Holy Grail Ceremony begins, when the Greater Holy Grail is filled with magical power.

Only in this way can the summoned heroic spirit be called a powerful familiar.

If the magic power is insufficient, the creature summoned will most likely be a defective one.

The stigmata that has not been fully formed represents Sakura's identity as a substitute for the Master. To become a Master, one must have enough magical power reserves to support the appearance, movement, and combat of the familiars.

This girl is only five years old. Compared with normal magicians, her current magic power is not even one tenth of that of others. In other words, neither the Holy Grail nor she herself has an advantage.

And there is clearly still more than a year left, why is it at this point in time?

Does the Holy Grail think that after one year, this girl will be good enough to become a magician who can command familiars?

This joke is not funny!

......

Tsuruno had no idea what his father was thinking at the moment. When he saw him raise his crutch, Tsuruno thought he was going to do something, so he took the girl by his hand and stood quietly in the center of the sea of ​​​​insects.

Like the girl at hand, Tsuruno's heart was filled with fear.

His legs couldn't stop shaking and cold sweat almost soaked his shirt.

Insects will inevitably appear in the field of vision, and the hissing and wriggling of insects will echo in the ears.

He couldn't close his eyes, because once he did, his other senses would be enhanced, which would only greatly increase the fear in his heart.

So scary... so scary...

If possible, he really wanted to leave here and leave this underground space as soon as possible.

......

Zōken was the first to recover from his shock. His eyes fell on Tsuruno's ugly expression. The corners of his mouth slightly raised, revealing a deep contempt and disdain, and he uttered a ruthless and sharp laugh.

"Hehe, look at your miserable state, it's really unbearable to look at, Heye..."

"It's so disgusting, how can you still have the face to call yourself the master of the Matou family?" After saying this, Zang Yan sneered again.

"..."

Facing Zang Yan's sarcasm, Tsuruno said nothing, but just lowered his head silently, as if he did not want to respond to the other party's provocation and sarcasm.

Compared to enjoying the old man's aura at the gate before, staying in this dark insect warehouse is more of a test of one's willpower.

After all, before he took off his disguise, his father at least looked like a human being, and he wouldn't turn into a bunch of insects and surround him for no reason.

There was a hint of impatience in Zang Yan's eyes. He narrowed his eyes and said coldly to He Ye.

"Hmph! Forget it, take your hands off Sakura and get out of the way..."

"Yes, father..."

Hearing what Zang Yan said, He Ye was secretly delighted and looked as if he had been pardoned.

He hurriedly let go of Sakura's hand and ran up the stairs in two or three awkward steps.

Seeing Tsuruno fleeing in such a panic, Sakura's originally tense nerves relaxed a little. She wanted to follow Tsuruno and escape from this terrible basement, but just as she was about to take a step, countless insects blocked her way, completely blocking her way.

These disgusting insects gathered together densely, forming an impenetrable wall of insects, completely blocking the girl's way.

"what!!"

Sakura couldn't help but scream, and her face turned pale in an instant.

She has always been gentle and kind, but when faced with such disgusting and terrifying insects, she couldn't control her inner fear.

She was so frightened that she stepped back repeatedly and accidentally fell to the ground, her body hitting the hard and cold rock floor of the basement.

At this moment, countless poisonous insects quickly surrounded and trapped poor Sakura tightly. At the same time, a low and hoarse laugh came from the depths of darkness - it was the insidious and cunning Zou Yan!

"I didn't expect you to be chosen as a reserve Master, Sakura..."

"Well~ Although it's a bit unexpected, he is only a candidate for the Master after all, not the real Master, so the result won't change..."

"Anyway, let's try it first to see if you can survive the baptism of insects... Then we can talk about the Holy Grail War..."

Zang Yan narrowed his narrow and sinister eyes and issued an attack order to the densely packed and creepy poisonous insects under his feet.

It's true that these words were directed at Sakura, but it sounded more like Zouken was talking to himself.

Immediately afterwards, a sharp and piercing sound of insects suddenly rang out, and countless ugly reptiles surged forward like a tide, sweeping straight towards the little girl in the center of the underground space.

"No!"

Seeing so many disgusting poisonous insects rushing towards her, Sakura was terrified. She subconsciously raised her arms to protect her face and closed her eyes tightly.

Her heart beat rapidly, as if it was about to jump out of her throat.

However, unexpectedly, the terrifying feeling of being possessed by poisonous insects did not come upon him, but instead, Zang Yan's shocked cry reached his ears.

“W-What is going on?!!”

Zang Yan widened his eyes and exclaimed in disbelief.

"This old bug actually..."

His voice became a little trembling due to extreme shock. Zang Yan kept shaking his head and took two trembling steps back before stopping.

Under Zouken's gaze, the necklace worn on Sakura's neck floated in the air, having been freed from the cover of the girl's clothes, and was completely exposed in front of Zouken Matou.

"Have the bugs been eliminated? This kind of reaction...but why is there no magical fluctuation?"

"The Tousaka family's jewel magic shouldn't be able to do something like this!!"

"Sakura! What's that thing on your chest?!"

At this moment, Zang Yan's heart was filled with astonishment and confusion. He stared at the front in amazement, watching the insects he had carefully cultivated rushing towards Sakura like a tide, but died strangely in the area about 25 centimeters around her.

Those poisonous insects that were originally tenacious and terrifying now seemed to have encountered an insurmountable barrier. After coming into contact with the invisible restrictions around Sakura, they immediately fell to the ground without any resistance and died, lying on the ground motionless.

However, that's not all. After death, the bodies of these insects continue to dissipate uncontrollably, almost instantly turning into ashes so fine that they are difficult to detect even with the naked eye, and then floating in the air.

No, that's not right. There is something left in this dark space.

It is the faint magic power left on these insects after they died!

Although it was very subtle, as the amount accumulated, the magic in the air gradually formed a blue light visible to the naked eye.

The necklace on Sakura's chest burst into a dazzling light, and the light became more and more intense, as if it could penetrate the entire space.