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Chapter 103: He Was Once a King, Until Yoriichi Tsugikuni Arrived
"Quite the contrary!"
Seeing the hostile and guarded expressions surrounding him, Suyan calmly raised his index finger and wagged it back and forth.
In his eyes, becoming a demon in this world was a laughably low-tier path to power. Aside from biological immortality, the benefits were practically nonexistent.
Putting aside the fatal weakness to sunlight and the pathetic requirement of eating human flesh to grow stronger, the evolutionary ceiling of a demon was simply embarrassing. It couldn't even compare to a vampire created by the Stone Mask in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. At least in JoJo, a vampire had the potential to evolve into the Perfect Lifeform like Kars—conquering the sun, freely manipulating cellular biology, and surviving indefinitely even when banished into the cold vacuum of space.
As for the man-eating demons of the Demon Slayer world? Suyan's review was simple: Complete trash. Even if one used the Blue Spider Lily to conquer the sun and developed a drug to suppress the craving for human flesh, becoming a demon for the sake of immortality ranked at the absolute bottom of Suyan's priority list.
Look at the facts. In this world, aside from the Progenitor, Muzan, how did the demons achieve their power? Among the top three Upper Ranks, only Upper Rank 2, Doma, relied entirely on the Blood Demon Arts gained from his transformation. Upper Rank 1, Kokushibo, relied on the Moon Breathing techniques he mastered as a human. Upper Rank 3, Akaza, relied purely on the martial arts he developed as a human, flawlessly fusing them with his demonic regeneration to essentially forge his own unique Breathing Style.
More importantly, look at the hideous aesthetics of Muzan's underlings. Aside from Upper Rank 6, Daki, almost all of them mutated into grotesque, twisted freaks. Even the canonically beautiful Nezuko sprouted a jagged bone-horn and demonic vein-cracks across her face when fully transformed.
"My second request is very simple," Suyan stated evenly. "I want the Demon Slayer Corps to spread the information I just gave you regarding the Blue Spider Lily as far and wide as possible."
"What?"
The crowd was stunned, completely baffled by the demand.
"Why would we do that?" Kocho Shinobu immediately asked, her brow furrowing.
Shinobu had watched her family be slaughtered by demons twice. The first time, as a child, her parents were butchered and eaten right in front of her and her sister, Kanae. Had Himejima Gyomei not arrived in time, they would have been devoured as well.
The second time, Kanae encountered the Upper Rank 2, Doma, alone. She fought until sunrise forced the demon to flee, ultimately dying in Shinobu's arms.
Since those twin tragedies, Shinobu wore a permanent, fake smile—a perfect imitation of her gentle older sister. But beneath that serene mask simmered an inextinguishable, venomous hatred for all demons.
If Suyan's true goal was to use the Corps to find the Blue Spider Lily and transform into the very monsters she despised—even if he truly did have a past relationship with Kanae—she would never forgive him.
But what completely baffled her was why Suyan wanted to leak the secret of the Blue Spider Lily to the world. If Kibutsuji Muzan caught wind of it and finally conquered the sun, wouldn't he become truly invincible?
"Let me ask you something, Shinobu," Suyan smiled at her, his voice soft. "In the thousand years that the Demon Slayer Corps has fought Muzan, aside from the humans he turned into demons, and Yoriichi Tsugikuni who nearly killed him in the Sengoku Era... has anyone else ever actually seen him?"
Shinobu was struck speechless.
It was true. Even though the eradication of Muzan was the sole purpose of the Demon Slayer Corps, not a single person—including Kagaya himself—had ever laid eyes on the Demon King. They didn't even know what he looked like. It was a bitterly ironic reality.
"In your eyes, Kibutsuji Muzan is a terrifying, insurmountable nemesis. Just the demons he casually creates are enough to push the Corps to the brink," Suyan chuckled. "But in my eyes? He is nothing more than a pathetic coward who happens to possess brute strength."
"You probably don't know this, but Muzan's body carries twelve permanent, unhealing scars. They were carved into his flesh four hundred years ago by the twelve forms of Sun Breathing used by Yoriichi. Those scars perfectly correspond to Muzan's twelve vital organs: his five brains and seven hearts."
"That near-death experience utterly shattered Muzan's arrogant ego. It terrified him so thoroughly that from that day until the day Yoriichi died of old age, Muzan never once showed his face to the world."
"And even after Yoriichi's death, for centuries, Muzan relentlessly hunted down anyone who knew Sun Breathing, desperately trying to erase Yoriichi's existence from history. Even knowing Yoriichi was long dead, and Sun Breathing was practically extinct, he still chose to hide in the shadows."
"He actively avoids the Demon Slayer Corps. Why? Because he's terrified that one day, by some cosmic joke, a second Yoriichi might appear among your ranks. Even if the chances are infinitesimally close to zero... Muzan is too cowardly to take the gamble."
Suyan paused, letting the weight of the revelation sink in before posing another question. "Do you know why, over the past few centuries, the Corps has only ever managed to kill Lower Rank demons?"
"Why?" Nezuko had been listening to Suyan's story with rapt attention. When he asked the question, her expressive eyes sparkled with intense curiosity.
Suyan affectionately ruffled Nezuko's hair and explained with a smile. "Because Kibutsuji Muzan is a coward. He is so terrified of betrayal that he strictly forbids the Twelve Kizuki from gathering together in private. He fears they might unite and overthrow him. Because he isolates them, he practically hands the Demon Slayer Corps the perfect opportunity to pick off the weaker Lower Ranks one by one."
"Ah?!" Nezuko's jaw dropped, her face painted with disbelief. "T-That's the Progenitor of Demons? The Demon King? Why does he sound so... stupid?"
"He's scared of this, he's scared of that, and he's been foolishly searching for the Blue Spider Lily for a thousand years without even knowing the most basic facts about it!"
Suyan's speech had systematically dismantled the impenetrable, terrifying mystique of the Demon King. Although the Hashira knew Muzan's raw power was still vastly beyond their current limits, they couldn't help but feel a bizarre sense of superiority over him. A fleeting illusion that 'Muzan is nothing special, I could probably take him' crept into their minds.
"But..." Despite understanding Muzan's nature, Shinobu still couldn't grasp the logic. Why leak the information? Wouldn't it be better to just let Muzan play the fool, searching endlessly for a flower he could never find?
"It seems you still don't understand, Shinobu." Suyan shook his head, a hint of disappointment in his voice. "As I just said, Muzan is an absolute, irredeemable coward."
"If we don't use the Blue Spider Lily as bait, he won't voluntarily step out of the shadows to face the Demon Slayer Corps for another five hundred years."
This was an undeniable fact. In the original timeline's final battle, the conflict only occurred because Muzan discovered Nezuko had conquered the sun, and Kagaya deliberately lured him to the Ubuyashiki Estate, intending to blow himself up. If not for Tanjiro's miraculous sense of smell catching Muzan's scent in a crowded city earlier, the Demon King could have remained hidden indefinitely.
"Or what, do you prefer aimlessly searching for him in a sea of millions like finding a needle in a haystack?" Suyan asked flatly. "Even if the Demon Slayer Corps has that kind of patience, I certainly do not!"
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