"Crunch--"
The flimsy wooden door was opened a crack.
Tanjiro Kamado gripped the old wood-chopping axe tightly with both hands, his palms covered in cold sweat.
His nose was bright red from a bad cold, and steam was uncontrollably escaping from it; he dared not wipe it.
A man stood outside the door as the snow fell heavily.
The man wore a well-tailored black Western suit and a white top hat.
If placed on the bustling streets of Tokyo, he would definitely be a charming aristocratic gentleman.
But this is the dead of night, on the Mount Kumotori in the middle of nowhere!
The man stood quietly in the snow, without a single footprint around him, as if they had appeared out of thin air.
The stench that made Tanjiro's stomach cramp was emanating from this gentleman.
The ancestor of ghosts - Muzan Kibutsuji!
Muzan slightly raised his head, his crimson vertical pupils, hidden in the shadow of his top hat, exuding an air of arrogant cruelty.
Muzan felt extremely frustrated during this business trip.
Over the past year, in order to evade that monster named Giyu Tomioka, he, the mighty Demon King, has honed the art of "survival" to its utmost perfection.
He wouldn't dare send even a fly into any place where that expressionless swordsman might appear!
If he hadn't accidentally explored a hunter's memories a few days ago and learned that the incompetent and useless Upper Rank Seven Yaoshi had once met a charcoal seller in this mountain and seemed to have mentioned the whereabouts of the Blue Spider Lily, he would never have braved the freezing cold to come here.
"Just a bunch of lowly humans."
Muzan scoffed inwardly.
He planned to randomly grab the people in this house, extract their memories using the cruelest methods, and then turn them into low-level evil spirits to vent the frustration of hiding and running away for a year.
"Hey, kid."
Muzan's lips curled slightly, preparing to announce his prey's death in the most elegant voice.
Can--
His gaze focused on the face of the boy holding the axe peeking through the crack in the door.
Muzan's elegant voice was as if an invisible hand was gripping his throat, preventing him from uttering even a single syllable!
What a face!
Wine-red short hair, a flame-like scar on her forehead, and Sun Wheel Hanafuda Earrings swaying gently in the wind by her ears!
Thump!
Muzan felt as if all seven of his hearts had been hit by a ton of metal at once, and he almost had a heart attack on the spot!
"Tsugikuni... Yoriichi?!"
This name had haunted Muzan for four hundred years, and now it was exploding like a nuclear bomb in his five brains!
You can't be wrong!
Those damn earrings!
That annoying expression!
Muzan's pupils shrank to pinpoints, and his pale, handsome face was contorted in extreme pain.
Every cell in my body was screaming, trembling, and screaming for help!
As the progenitor of demons at the top of the food chain, his legs went weak, and his body under his suit trembled uncontrollably.
PTSD caused him to lose his ability to think.
I recalled the terror of being chopped into pieces like sashimi by that man four hundred years ago!
Tanjiro had no idea why the man in the suit was suddenly shivering in the snow.
He felt that this man's malice was a hundred times more chilling than the coldest winter snow!
"No refunds..."
Tanjiro gritted his teeth and glanced back at the tightly closed paper door of the inner room behind him.
Mother, Takeo, Nezuko, and Delia... were all fast asleep inside!
The image of Giyu Tomioka's expressionless face flashed through my mind.
As Mr. Giyu once said, even if a man's legs are trembling, he should still be the wall blocking the way in front of his home!
Never relinquish the power of life and death to others!
"Call--"
With a severe cold and a congested nose, Tanjiro could only open his mouth and take a deep breath of the icy, bone-chilling air.
The pain in his lungs felt like needles pricking him, but this pain actually brought him to his senses.
He closed his eyes, and the image of his father, Tanjuro, dancing the Kagura dance in the snowstorm flashed through his mind, along with Giyu's instructions on muscle and breathing techniques when he was teaching him how to wield a sword.
"I will protect everyone!"
Tanjiro suddenly opened his wine-red eyes, and an unprecedented fighting spirit erupted from within him.
"Total Concentration-- "
With a sudden burst of strength from his legs, he smashed open the wooden door, and like a lion cub protecting its young, he brandished a rusty old axe and slashed Muzan at Muzan!
"Sun Breathing!"
The instant the axe was swung, something incredible happened!
Miraculously, a faint golden-red flame rose from the blade of that broken iron axe used for chopping wood!
Although the flame was faint, it was as dazzling as the rising sun in the dark snow!
"Fire! It's the Sun Breathing!! He's resurrected and is attacking me again!!"
Muzan watched the axe blade enveloped in golden-red flames slash towards him, his last line of mental defense completely collapsed.
Reason, dignity, the prestige of the Demon King?
To hell with them all!
At the Muzan even have the courage to utter a harsh word, and directly activated the ultimate life-saving technique engraved deep in his soul!
"Bang--!"
A muffled thud.
Just moments ago, Muzan Kibutsuji dressed in a suit and tie, but before Tanjiro's axe could even touch him, he self-destructed on the spot!
The noble body exploded into thousands of tiny, disgusting chunks of flesh, scattering like petals in the wind and snow as it frantically fled in all directions!
"As long as I shatter fast enough, the Sun Breathing won't be able to hit me!"
This was Muzan the only consensus among Muzan's five minds at this moment.
"Ah?!"
Tanjiro, who rushed out, was dumbfounded.
I was prepared to fight to the death, but halfway through chopping with my axe, the living person opposite me shattered into pieces like a bomb!
The momentum was too great, Tanjiro couldn't retract his old axe.
"Whoosh--!"
The faint golden-red flames on the axe blade grazed a few pieces of Muzan flesh that were frantically fleeing in mid-air.
"Sizzle!"
The flames touched the meat.
The Muzan, fleeing flesh closed its non-existent eyes in despair, awaiting the excruciating pain that would burn its soul.
A second passed.
Two seconds passed.
Minced flesh, chopped by the axe, fell onto the snow.
Muzan waited for a long time, then sensed something was wrong.
Um?
Why doesn't it hurt?
This temperature... let alone burning the soul, it's not even thirty degrees!
What's the difference between that and being rinsed with lukewarm water?!
The nerve endings scattered throughout the thousands of pieces of flesh quickly compiled the data into Muzan's brain.
There wasn't that terrifying heat!
It doesn't possess the absolute destructive power to sever cell regeneration!
"Swish swish--"
In less than a second, thousands of pieces of flesh scattered on the snow rolled back, accompanied by a nauseating writhing of blood and flesh, Muzan's body reformed three meters in front of Tanjiro.
However, his suit was now torn, and his pretentious white top hat had fallen and been trampled flat in the snow, leaving him looking utterly disheveled.
Muzan's crimson eyes were fixed Muzan on Tanjiro opposite him.
The red-haired boy was kneeling in the snow, leaning on an old axe!
With a severe cold and the forced use of excessive Breathing Style, he was coughing so hard he could barely stand.
Silence.
The snowfield was deathly silent.
Muzan's chest heaved violently, his face turning from pale to ashen, finally contorting into a terrifying, furious expression.
He realized what was happening!
There was absolutely no resurrection of Yoriichi Tsugikuni!
This is just a charcoal-selling kid who happens to look like someone else and is wearing the same earrings!
That faint light just now wasn't even a bluff; it was a complete half-baked, defective product!
And he, the absolute ruler of the Twelve Kizuki, the progenitor of ghosts who has lived for a thousand years!
First, I was so scared by that bastard named Giyu Tomioka that I stayed in the Infinity Castle for a year, too afraid to go out. Today, I was scared by a little charcoal-selling brat with a bad cold, holding a broken axe, that I exploded into thousands of pieces on the spot?!
Utter disgrace!
This is an absolutely shameful disgrace that can never be washed away in the life of a ghost!
Muzan felt a surge of blood rushing to his head, making his blood vessels throb wildly with rage.
"You... damned ant!!"
Muzan roared Muzan, his slender hands instantly transforming, his ten fingers growing out into terrifying, blade-like arcs.
He walked step by step toward Tanjiro, who was coughing incessantly. With each step, the snow beneath his feet was shattered by the violent rage emanating from him.
I'm going to crush every single bone in your body, inch by inch!
Muzan's face was completely twisted into a monstrous shape, his eyes filled with a chilling venom.
"Killing you would be too easy! I'm going to force my blood into your body!"
"I'm going to turn you into the ugliest, lowest, and most irrational demon in the world!"
"... I'll make you tear all the family members in this house apart with your own hands!"
Thank you "Dianzi" for the Inspiration Capsule X1!
Thank you "He Will Return" for the 5 love letters!
I didn't get to see it, so I'll update it with a new chapter! ε(´｡•᎑•`)っ♡