Late autumn morning mist shrouded the Ubuyashiki Estate, and the surrounding pines and cypresses rustled in the cold wind.
This was the absolute core of the entire Demon Slayer Corps, a forbidden area hidden behind layers of barriers and a wisteria forest.
Usually, apart from the Hashira when summoned, few outsiders ever visited. But today, this tightly closed gate was pushed open without any obstruction.
Yamada walked along the pebble path of the courtyard with his hands in the pockets of his woolen coat, his pace casual.
Shinobu followed half a step behind him, her expression tense.
"Are you really sure about this?"
Shinobu lowered her voice, her brows slightly furrowed. "Master's illness is not an ordinary ailment, but a bloodline curse that has entangled the Ubuyashiki Family for a full millennium."
"It is a divine punishment inflicted to punish their clan for giving birth to a monster like Kibutsuji Muzan. Every successive head of the family, without exception, has died from full-body festering before the age of thirty."
"For hundreds of years, countless famous doctors have been helpless against it."
As the person in charge of the Butterfly Mansion, she knew too well how tyrannical that curse was. It was not a problem that could be solved by medicine or surgery, it was a bottomless pit where vitality evaporated into thin air.
"Divine punishment?" Yamada sneered and shook his head disapprovingly.
"There is no such thing as divine punishment in this world. It is merely high-dimensional karma, or rather, the existence of that trash Muzan, like a parasite, continuously draining the vitality of his same-origin bloodline conceptually. As long as it is an energy consumption, there is no pit that cannot be filled."
While they were talking, they had already arrived in front of the master bedroom in the deepest part of the estate.
The members of the Kakushi responsible for guarding saw that it was the Special Executive Officer and the Insect Hashira, so they respectfully saluted and stepped aside.
The sliding door was gently pulled open from the inside.
Amane, with white hair and a gentle face, walked out carrying a basin of turbid, bloody water.
Seeing the two people outside the door, she was stunned for a moment, then bowed slightly.
"Yamada-san, Shinobu-san. My husband's body has become increasingly heavy today, and he just coughed up blood, so it is inconvenient for him to get up to greet you. I hope you two will forgive us." Amane's voice was filled with undisguisable fatigue and sorrow.
Through the gap in the sliding door, Yamada saw Kagaya lying on the tatami.
Having not seen him for just over a month, this spiritual leader of the Demon Slayer Corps had weakened to the point of being skin and bones. The marks on his face had spread from his forehead to below the bridge of his nose, completely taking away his vision.
"Amane-san, it is fine."
Yamada did not stand on ceremony, walked directly into the room, and sat cross-legged beside the tatami.
Hearing the movement, Kagaya struggled to turn his head, and those eyes that had lost focus accurately directed toward Yamada's position.
"Yamada-san... cough cough... you came here specially today, is there any latest news about Kibutsuji Muzan?" Kagaya's voice was weak, but the gentle warmth remained unchanged.
"Muzan is hiding, don't count on him showing his face anytime soon."
Yamada looked at this face ravaged by the curse, his tone flat. "I didn't come here today to deliver information. I came to cure your illness."
The air in the room seemed to freeze for a moment.
Amane's hand holding the basin trembled violently, and water splashed onto the tatami. She looked at Yamada in disbelief.
Kagaya was also stunned, then a bitter smile pulled at the corner of his lips. "I appreciate your kindness, Yamada-san. But this is the destined fate of my clan, there is no need to waste effort on my broken body."
"Shut up and lie still." Yamada interrupted him.
Ignoring the stunned reaction of the couple, Yamada slowly opened his eyes. His pitch-black pupils instantly turned blood-red, and the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, where the hexagram and three tomoe intertwined, quietly rotated.
In the extreme field of vision of the Sharingan, the marks on Kagaya's face were no longer simple skin rot. They were clusters of cold energy that radiated intense evil, like maggots on a bone. These energies were like countless invisible straws, deeply rooted in the depths of every cell of Kagaya, continuously draining his vitality.
As expected. The karmic curse produced by the same-origin bloodline is essentially a one-way plunder of vitality.
Yamada figured out the crux of the problem.
To break this kind of curse, ordinary treatment methods were of course useless. Because if you pull out the old lesion, new rot will immediately grow along the bloodline.
One must use higher-dimensional power to sever this connection from the root, and simultaneously infuse life energy sufficient to reshape the body.
Yin Release and Yang Release!
"Shinobu, step back. Amane-san, if you don't want your husband to pass away today, don't make a sound to disturb me." Yamada's voice was low, carrying an irresistible will.
Amane covered her mouth tightly, her eyes instantly turning red, and she pulled Shinobu back to the corner of the room.
Yamada reached out his right hand and hovered it an inch above Kagaya's face.
Hum—
A deep, cold black Chakra first surged from Yamada's palm.
This was the pure power of Yin Release.
It represented the embodiment of spirit, will, and intangible things.
Under the control of the Sharingan, this Yin Chakra was like scalpels precise to the molecular level, piercing under the skin along the marks on Kagaya's face, cutting off the black energy threads that maintained the curse.
"Ahh!"
Kagaya, who had always been able to remain calm no matter how much pain he endured, let out a muffled groan that was suppressed to the extreme at this moment.
The pain of severing the karmic cause and effect of the millennium bloodline struck the depths of his soul.
"Hold on." Yamada reminded him.
As the scalpels peeled away the roots of the curse layer by layer, the light in Yamada's palm changed. From the original cold black Chakra, a dazzling emerald green light suddenly burst forth.
Yang Release!
The power representing body, life, and creation!
The emerald green life energy was like a waterfall pouring backward, continuously pouring into Kagaya's body that had long since run out of oil.
A miracle happened at this moment.
Shinobu and Amane, standing in the corner, witnessed a scene they would never forget for the rest of their lives.
The rotting flesh on Kagaya's face, which even expensive herbs could not contain, began to dissolve and fall off the moment it touched the emerald green light.
The necrotic skin turned into black ash and dissipated, replaced by smooth, healthy skin that grew back at a speed visible to the naked eye.
The shriveled muscles became full again, and the heavy breathing in his chest gradually became steady and powerful.
Even his hair, which had withered due to premature aging, gradually regained a glimmer of luster under the endless nourishment of Yang Release.
***
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