Chapter 88: Muzan Kibutsuji
Infinity Castle.
Countless wooden corridors, tatami rooms, staircases, and paper doors crisscrossed, inverted, and folded in a way that defied gravity, resembling an endless geometric labyrinth.
Deep within this magnificent fortress, in one of the tatami rooms.
The air was filled with the pungent scent of chemical reagents.
On a long rosewood table, an array of precise glassware, test tubes, and beakers were laid out, filled with liquids of eerie colors churning inside.
At this moment, Muzan sat upright at the table in the guise of a pale, handsome young man.
He wore an impeccably tailored black suit with a dark red tie at his collar, his slender fingers holding a test tube filled with azure liquid.
He was searching—searching for the ultimate formula that would allow him to become the truly perfect creature.
However, in the very next second, a sudden and jarring sense of anomaly pierced deep into his brain.
"Crack—"
Muzan's previously steady fingers trembled violently, and the precious test tube was instantly crushed to pieces.
Within his network of consciousness, the'string' belonging to Lower Rank Three, had snapped.
At the moment of death, through the connection of their blood, an incredibly vivid image of his final moments was projected directly into Muzan's mind.
It was a dimly lit mountain forest.
Demon's terrified gaze was spinning violently.
And at the center of this spinning vision was a light.
A ring of crimson-gold blade light, as dazzling and brilliant as the scorching sun, carrying the force to incinerate all evil in the world!
Sun Breathing, First Form: Flash Dance!
"Thump! Thump! Thump!"
The moment he saw that crimson-gold blade light, Muzan's body began to tremble violently and uncontrollably.
He remembered that man.
The man who wore Hanafuda earrings, wielded a Nichirin sword, and forced him into a desperate situation as if a god had descended to earth—the man who crushed his self-esteem, his pride, and his absolute confidence as the Progenitor of Demons, treating them all like trash!
Tsugikuni Yoriichi!
The monster who, even after being dead for hundreds of years, still clung to him like a nightmare, making every one of his cells feel terror!
"Bang!!!"
Muzan stood up abruptly and swung his arm.
The expensive bottles and jars, precise experimental instruments, and the fruits of countless days and nights of experiments on the table were all reduced to dust in that instant.
The colorful chemical reagents mixed together, corroding and emitting pungent white smoke.
"Why... why?!"
He stared intensely at the final image transmitted by rank three that kept replaying in his mind.
The one who unleashed Sun Breathing was not a Demon Slayer, but a demon!
A demon who had his blood flowing through its veins, yet had completely escaped his control, and was even turning around to slaughter its own kind!
"It was one thing that the bitch Tamayo escaped my control, but why... why has another one appeared now? And, he actually knows how to use that damned Sun Breathing!"
A demon that had broken free of his control was an open defiance of his absolute dominion.
And a demon that could use Sun Breathing was a malignant tumor that directly threatened his very existence.
"This one must not be left alive. He must... be annihilated immediately! Not a single cell can remain!"
Muzan took a deep breath, slowly turned his head, and looked toward the figure that had been silently kneeling in the shadows in the corner of the tatami room.
Nakime.
She had long black hair that covered most of her face and held a primitive biwa in her arms, looking like an exquisite, lifeless doll, quietly lurking in Muzan's shadow.
"Nakime."
Muzan spoke coldly, his voice having regained that high-and-mighty, unquestionable, absolute authority, "Bring Doma to me."
"Twang—"
Nakime lowered her head slightly, her slender fingers lightly plucking the strings of the biwa.
The crisp sound of the biwa rippled through the deathly silent Infinity Castle.
Accompanying this string sound, the space above Muzan's head suddenly twisted like water ripples.
Immediately after, with a "creak," a yellow wooden window appeared out of thin air in mid-air and slowly slid open to both sides.
"Oh my, what a surprising summons."
Accompanied by a frivolous, cloying voice that seemed to always carry a smile, a tall figure leaped down from the opened wooden window and landed in front of Muzan.
The newcomer wore a magnificent dark red high-collared cult leader's robe and a lotus-shaped hat that looked as if it had been splashed with blood.
The leader of the Eternal Paradise Faith, Upper Rank Two—Doma.
"Good evening, Muzan-sama~"
Doma snapped open the golden fan in his hand with a "swish," half-covering his chin, and smiled in his characteristic, cloying tone, "Oh my, you look terrible. Was there some blind fool who angered you? Please, leave it to me. I will use the gentlest method to send him to the Eternal Paradise without ever feeling pain~"
Listening to Doma's incessant chatter, which seemed concerned but actually held not a shred of genuine emotion, a flicker of undisguised disgust flashed in Muzan's eyes.
Among all the Upper Ranks, the one Muzan hated the most was Doma.
Because this guy was a born psychopath—no emotions, no fear, no sadness. He even felt that this guy's 'reverence' for him was just a facade.
If it weren't for the fact that Doma's strength was indeed formidable and his efficiency in getting things done was extremely high, he would have long since torn this disgusting guy with the fake smile to pieces with his own hands.
"Shut up, Doma."
Muzan coldly cut him off, "Put away that sickening act of yours."
"Oh my, you are too harsh, my lord. I am genuinely concerned about you."
Doma pouted in mock grievance, but there was not a ripple of emotion in his rainbow-colored, glass-like eyes.
Muzan couldn't be bothered to waste any more words on this madman.
He abruptly raised his hand, aiming it at Doma's forehead from a distance.
"Hum!"
Through his absolute control over their blood, Muzan forcibly and crudely shoved the memory transmitted by demon before his death—the one regarding Tatsu—into Doma's brain.
The smile on Doma's face stiffened slightly.
In his mind, Tatsu's appearance, that crimson-gold blade light, and Tatsu's cold gaze flashed by.
After receiving this memory, a trace of curiosity flashed deep within Doma's eyes, but on the surface, he immediately put away his previous frivolity.
"Swish!"
Doma slammed his golden fan shut, clenched his hands into fists in front of his chest, and his smiling face instantly transformed into an extremely exaggerated expression of "righteous indignation."
His features scrunched together, and his voice rose in 'anger': "Good heavens! This is an unforgivable sin! A demon who received your grace, not only failing to be grateful, but actually daring to betray you! And he even mastered that unpleasant Breathing Style! This is a desecration of your absolute authority!"
Doma's chest heaved violently, as if he were truly trembling with rage: "Muzan-sama, please calm your anger! I, Doma, swear that I will help you slay this disobedient demon! I will use my frost to freeze his flesh bit by bit, letting him know how miserable the consequences of betraying you are!"
He delivered his speech with great emotion, his tone filled with anger.
Muzan watched Doma's performance coldly, feeling increasingly nauseated.
"His current trajectory should be heading in the direction of Shi Town."
Muzan withdrew his hand, placing both hands behind his back, "Go to Shi Town, find him, and... eliminate him. Do not underestimate him. If you mess this up, you should know the consequences."
"I shall obey your will, my supreme master."
Doma bowed deeply, the perfect smile curling on his lips once again, "I guarantee that I will completely erase that defective product named 'Tatsu' from this world."
Muzan ignored him further, merely turning his head slightly to give Nakime in the shadows a look.
"Twang—"
The sound of the biwa rang out again.
The wooden floor beneath Doma's feet instantly vanished, turning into a bottomless black hole.
"Well then, I shall be off. Take care of yourself, Muzan-sama~"
Doma waved at Muzan, and then fell straight into that endless abyss.
Muzan looked at the devastated laboratory, his eyes so dark and sinister that they seemed capable of dripping water.
"Sun Breathing... escaped control..."
Muzan chewed over these words repeatedly in his mind, the sense of unease within him growing wildly.
He had a premonition that if he could not eliminate this variable named Tatsu as soon as possible, his absolute empire, built over so long, would face an unprecedented disaster.
"No matter who you are, no matter what on earth you are... you must die."
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