"Quite the opposite!"
Su Yan looked at the varying expressions on everyone's faces, quietly raising an index finger and waving it.
In his eyes, becoming a demon was actually a very low-level existence. Because other than an increased lifespan, there were almost no significant benefits.
Not to mention the two major flaws of being unable to look directly at the sun and having to eat humans to grow stronger. In terms of growth potential alone, it was not even as good as the vampires transformed by the Stone Mask in JoJo.
At least the vampires in JoJo could eventually evolve into perfect beings like Kars, who feared no sunlight and could freely evolve life. Even when banished to space, they remained perfect organisms capable of sustaining life.
As for the man-eating demons in Demon Slayer... Su Yan's assessment was that they were absolute trash.
Even if they could overcome the weakness of sunlight with the Blue Spider Lily, and later develop drugs to eliminate the craving for human flesh, Su Yan's priority for choosing to become a man-eating demon to extend his life remained incredibly low.
Put it this way: in the Demon Slayer world, apart from Muzan, the progenitor of demons, among the top three Upper Ranks, only Upper Rank Two, Doma, relied entirely on the Blood Demon Art acquired after becoming a demon.
The other two—Upper Rank One, Kokushibo, relied on the Moon Breathing he learned during his human days. Upper Rank Three, Akaza, also relied on the martial arts he learned as a human, perfectly combining them with his Blood Demon Art and continuously refining them over the hundreds of years since becoming a demon. It could even be said that he was using his body to perform a breathing style unique only to Akaza himself.
Most importantly, looking at the subordinates Muzan turned into demons, apart from Upper Rank Six, Daki, almost all of them looked like abnormal freaks. Even the heroine, Nezuko, couldn't avoid growing a bone-like horn on her head and developing crack-like patterns on her face after demonization.
Su Yan spoke in a calm tone, "My second request is very simple. I want the Demon Slayer Corps to spread the information I just shared about the Blue Spider Lily."
"What?" Everyone was shocked upon hearing this, their faces filled with utter disbelief.
Shinobu Kocho immediately asked in confusion, "Why?"
Shinobu Kocho had twice witnessed her closest family members die right before her eyes. The first time was when she was a child at home with her older sister, Kanae Kocho; their parents were killed and eaten by an invading demon. Had the Stone Hashira, Gyomei Himejima, not arrived in time, the two sisters would have inevitably shared the same fate.
The second time was when her older sister, Kanae Kocho, encountered the Upper Rank demon Doma alone. Outmatched, Doma eventually fled at dawn, and her beloved sister died in her arms.
Since those two tragic experiences of losing her loved ones, Shinobu Kocho wore a fake smile mimicking her sister Kanae, always presenting a smiling face to others. But beneath that fake smile lay an unforgivable, deep-seated rage toward demons.
If Su Yan's answer just now truly meant he wanted the Demon Slayer Corps to help him find the so-called Blue Spider Lily so he could become the very monster she despised most... even if he might have genuinely had a past relationship with her sister, she would absolutely never forgive him.
However, what Shinobu Kocho couldn't understand was why Su Yan wanted the Demon Slayer Corps to spread such crucial information about the Blue Spider Lily. If Muzan Kibutsuji found out and managed to overcome his weakness to sunlight, wouldn't he become even harder to defeat?
"Shinobu, let me ask you." Su Yan smiled at her and said softly, "In the thousand years of conflict with Muzan Kibutsuji, aside from those transformed into demons and Yoriichi Tsugikuni, who nearly killed him during the Sengoku period, has anyone else ever seen Muzan?"
"..."
Shinobu Kocho was momentarily speechless.
It was true. Although the Demon Slayer Corps had always aimed to hunt down Muzan, no one, not even the Master of the Corps, Kagaya Ubuyashiki, had ever seen him. They didn't even know what he looked like. It had to be said, this was extremely ironic.
Su Yan smiled and said, "In your eyes, Muzan Kibutsuji is a terrifying archenemy. In the thousand years of opposing the Demon Slayer Corps, just the demons he created have been overwhelmingly difficult for you to handle. But in my eyes, Muzan Kibutsuji is actually just a coward with empty power."
"You might not know this, but Muzan Kibutsuji has twelve unhealing scars on his body. These are the marks left by Yoriichi Tsugikuni four hundred years ago using the twelve forms of Sun Breathing. They correspond exactly to Muzan's twelve weak points: his five brains and seven hearts."
"It was precisely because of that encounter with Yoriichi Tsugikuni that the near-death experience completely shattered Muzan's arrogant personality, turning him into a coward as timid as a mouse. So much so that from then on, until Yoriichi Tsugikuni died of old age, Muzan never once appeared before the world again."
"Furthermore, in the centuries following Yoriichi Tsugikuni's death, Muzan continuously sent his subordinates to assassinate swordsmen who had learned Sun Breathing, wanting to erase the traces Yoriichi Tsugikuni left in this world."
"In the end, even knowing that Yoriichi Tsugikuni was dead and the Sun Breathing he created was nearly extinct, he still remained hidden behind the scenes. He avoided the Demon Slayer Corps like the plague. He is simply terrified that someone like Yoriichi Tsugikuni might appear in the Demon Slayer Corps again, even if the possibility is extremely low, almost impossible. But Muzan still doesn't dare to take that gamble."
Pausing for a moment, Su Yan then asked everyone present another question: "Do you know why, in the hundreds of years since breathing styles were created, Lower Rank demons have died at the hands of the Demon Slayer Corps?"
"Why?" Nezuko listened to Su Yan's story with great interest. When he asked this question, her bright, expressive eyes sparkled with curiosity.
Su Yan patted Nezuko's head and explained with a smile, "Because Muzan Kibutsuji is too cowardly. He is so cowardly that he doesn't allow the Twelve Kizuki to gather privately, terrified that they might unite and betray him. Because of this, it gave the Demon Slayer Corps the opportunity to defeat the Lower Rank demons one by one."
"Ah?!" Nezuko opened her mouth wide, blinking her eyes, her face full of disbelief. She then sighed, "Is... is this the Demon King known as the progenitor of demons? Why do I feel like he's so stupid? He's scared of this, scared of that, and foolishly searched for the Blue Spider Lily for over a thousand years, yet he doesn't even know the basic information about it."
It had to be said, Su Yan's words completely shattered the veil of mystery surrounding the Demon King, Muzan Kibutsuji, in the hearts of the Demon Slayer Corps. Even knowing that his power was something they could not overcome, they inexplicably felt a sense of superiority over Muzan in their hearts. It gave them the illusion that Muzan was nothing special, and that even they could take him on.
"But..." Despite this, Shinobu Kocho still couldn't quite understand why Su Yan wanted to leak the information about the Blue Spider Lily. Wouldn't it be better to just let Muzan Kibutsuji remain a clown, chasing after a Blue Spider Lily he could never find?
"It seems you still don't understand what I mean, Shinobu." Su Yan shook his head and said with some disappointment, "Like I just said, Muzan is an absolute coward."
"If we don't use the news of the Blue Spider Lily as bait, even if another few hundred years pass, he will never take the initiative to appear before the Demon Slayer Corps."
This was an undeniable fact. In the Infinity Castle Arc, if Muzan hadn't learned that the demonized Nezuko had successfully conquered the sun, and if Kagaya Ubuyashiki hadn't intentionally leaked the location of the Demon Slayer Corps headquarters to him, Muzan would never have gone to the headquarters to meet Kagaya, who had buried massive amounts of explosives underground. The Demon Slayer Corps would never have had the chance to face Muzan directly and initiate the final battle in the Infinity Castle.
In fact, if Tanjiro's nose hadn't been so sensitive as to catch Muzan's scent in a bustling city, Muzan could have kept hiding forever.
"Or do you want to search for Muzan in a sea of people, like looking for a needle in a haystack?" Su Yan said flatly. "Even if your Demon Slayer Corps has that kind of patience, I don't!"
[Reviews - Power St0nes - Comments are highly appreciated to keep me going.....(+50 chapters) patre0n.c0m/talecrafter]