Hearing his name, Gyokko, emerging from his pot, immediately rubbed his hands together excitedly, his misplaced facial features twisting into a sycophantic grin. "Yes, Lord Muzan! My pot detected a hidden valley. While it hasn't been fully confirmed, there is the scent of a large quantity of high-quality ore there. Nine times out of ten, it is the place where those Demon Slayers forge their swords!"
"Very well."
Muzan's voice turned cold. "Hantengu, go with Gyokko. Once the location is confirmed, raze that village to the ground. Kill every swordsmith. Without their Nichirin Blades, those Demon Slayers will be like snakes with their fangs pulled out, left to be slaughtered by us."
"Understood, Lord Kibutsuji Muzan!" Gyokko accepted the order eagerly.
Hantengu trembled as he kowtowed. "Y-Yes… I will carry out your command…"
After arranging the plan to destroy their source of weapons, Muzan's gaze shifted to the others.
"Doma."
"I'm here. Does Lord Muzan have any instructions?" Doma waved his fan and looked up with a smile.
"Go and investigate the background of that boy with the hanafuda earrings who has been active within the Demon Slayer Corps recently, as well as that black-haired swordsman who uses lightning."
In Muzan's mind, the image of the young man in the black haori from Akaza's memories surfaced.
In his eyes, that boy was nothing more than a slightly faster mouse, but the fact that he had been able to coordinate with the Flame Hashira to force Akaza back made him a potential threat.
"Find them, then kill them. Bring their heads to me."
Doma snapped his golden fan shut and lightly tapped it against his lips, a flicker of interest flashing through his eyes.
"A swordsman who uses lightning? Sounds like his meat would have quite an electrifying taste. No problem, Lord Muzan. I'll personally cut him down and present him to you."
Hearing this, Akaza clenched his fists once more.
That human was clearly his prey. He had already sworn that the next time they met, he would crush him with Destructive Death to wash away his shame.
But he did not dare disobey Lord Muzan's orders and could only suppress his killing intent deep within his heart.
At last, Muzan turned his gaze toward Kokushibo, who stood at the highest point.
"Kokushibo, continue your search for the Blue Spider Lily. If you encounter any Hashira who have awakened the Demon Slayer Mark, show no mercy."
Kokushibo lowered his head slightly, his six eyes utterly still. "I will… obey your command."
With everything arranged, Kibutsuji Muzan turned and strode away.
"A feeble organization like the Demon Slayer Corps has lingered on its last breath for far too long. This time, I will erase them completely from this world."
Ting—~! Nakime plucked the biwa once more.
The figures of the Upper Ranks gradually faded as space twisted, each of them being sent to different corners of the outside world.
The Infinity Castle returned to its deathly silence.
Muzan walked alone down the corridor, his expression dark and unreadable.
Once the Swordsmith Village was destroyed, the Demon Slayer Corps would lose its source of weapons. Then, by dispatching a fighter on Doma's level to hunt down the most outstanding among them, even if the Demon Slayer Corps had truly mastered the Demon Slayer Mark, it would make no difference.
Human bodies had limits, while the Upper Ranks under his command were tireless killing machines.
"Just wait, Ubuyashiki… your foolish family will soon be wiped out."
...
If the atmosphere within the Infinity Castle was like an abyss that suffocated all who entered, then the Butterfly Mansion in the early morning was a disaster zone filled with the chaos of everyday life.
"Aaah! It's gone! It's all gone again! Three hundred catties of rice were delivered just yesterday—how is there not even a single grain left this morning?!"
In the kitchen, Kanzaki Aoi, wearing an apron and clutching a rice scoop bigger than her head, let out a desperate cry.
Three young attendants huddled behind the doorframe, trembling.
On the long veranda outside, the culprit sat cross-legged at a low table, holding a bowl of white rice piled high like a small mountain, calmly picking up a piece of golden, crispy tempura.
Since fusing with the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan, Rin's chakra had undergone a qualitative leap, but it had also driven his basal metabolism to an absurd level.
Just as he was about to bring the tempura to his mouth..
A gust of wind struck from the side.
"Boar Assault! That fried shrimp is mine!"
Inosuke, wearing his boar mask, leapt down from the roof, brandishing a strainer he had no business holding. He traced a sharp arc through the air, aiming straight for the tempura in Rin's chopsticks.
After several days of hellish training, Inosuke's speed had indeed increased significantly. This strike even carried the tearing sound of Beast Breathing cutting through the air.
Rin didn't even glance at him.
The hand holding the chopsticks casually traced a semicircle.
Thwack!
The two bamboo chopsticks struck the strainer directly.
A powerful counterforce traveled through it. Inosuke's hands went numb, his balance broke mid-air, and he flew straight over Rin's head, plunging into the courtyard koi pond with a loud splash.
Water splashed everywhere.
"It's early in the morning—stop trying to steal other people's breakfast. If you want to eat, go ask the kitchen yourself."
Rin blew on the tempura to cool it, took a bite, and a crisp crunch rang out.
"That's too much! You're not even human!"
Zenitsu sat at the other end of the veranda, biting into a rice ball as he pointed at Rin with tearful eyes. "Why do you eat more than a boar and still not gain any weight?! And every day you just sit here drinking tea and basking in the sun—yet you can beat us senseless with a flick of your hand, and you even have beauties like Miss Shinobu bringing you special meals! This world is completely unfair! May divine punishment strike down this winner in life!"
"Zenitsu, don't say that about Rin-san. He must be training in ways we don't understand."
Tanjiro, dark circles under his eyes, was still stuffing half a steamed bun into his mouth.
His current state was unusual. Even while eating and speaking, his breathing followed a steady rhythm, his chest rising and falling at a fixed pace—he had clearly ingrained Total Concentration Breathing: Constant into his body.
Rin swallowed the last mouthful of rice and set down his bowl and chopsticks.
He glanced at Inosuke, who was still wrestling with the koi in the pond, then at the complaining Zenitsu. Clapping his hands, he stood up.
"Since you're all full and have nothing better to do, let's get some post-meal exercise."
Zenitsu's expression froze instantly, not even noticing the rice ball slip from his hand and fall to the ground.
"Bo… Boss, the exercise you're talking about… it couldn't be…"
Rin walked over to the old pine tree in the center of the courtyard, its trunk so thick it would take three people to wrap their arms around it.
He slipped one hand into his pocket, looked up at the canopy more than ten meters above, and said calmly, "As swordsmen, if you can't make full use of your surroundings, what will you do when you encounter a demon that can fly or climb walls? Just stand there and stare from below?"
"But… how could a person…" Tanjiro started to question how a human could defy gravity.
Before he could finish, his mouth hung open, unable to close.
He watched as Rin lifted his right foot and stepped directly onto the vertical tree trunk.
Without any run-up, without using his hands, he moved as if walking on level ground—one step, two steps, three… his body remaining perfectly parallel to the earth as he casually strolled up the vertical pine tree.
If Newton were here, his coffin lid would have flown open.
"You've got to be kidding me!!!"
Zenitsu clutched his head with both hands and let out a pig-like scream. "How are you ignoring gravity?! Did you coat your feet in glue?! This isn't swordsmanship at all—this is magic! It has to be magic!"
Inosuke, who had just crawled out of the pond, was equally stunned, his eyes wide beneath the boar mask. "I want to learn this too! Is this the legendary Mountain King's footwork?!"
Rin reached a thick branch, flipped over, and planted his feet on its underside, hanging upside down like a bat.
Crossing his arms, he looked down at the three stunned boys below.
This was merely the most basic form of chakra control training in the world of Naruto—tree climbing.
But in the Demon Slayer world, where such techniques did not exist, the visual impact was nothing short of a miracle.
"Stop staring. This is an application of chakra. You'll never learn it in your lifetime."
Rin mercilessly crushed their hopes.
"Boo! Then why did you even show us?! Just to mess with us?!" Zenitsu shouted in exasperation.
"Heh~ Don't rush. What I mean is, even if you can't hang upside down, you can still train your evasion."
Rin flipped his wrist and produced a dozen water-filled balloons from who knew where.
"For the next half hour, I'll be throwing these at you. If you get hit once, your lunch portion is halved. Get hit three times, and you'll spend the entire day helping Kanzaki Aoi scrub toilets."
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12 Advance chapters:Patreon/slept01