The Lower Rank Meeting!

Infinity Castle.

A shadow abruptly emerged deep within a hall so vast and empty that it was unnerving.

Muzan Kibutsuji!

She wore a dark purple kimono, its fabric reflecting the cold gleam of silk in the dim light.

Clusters of intricate red spider lilies had been embroidered along the hem and cuffs with darker thread. Whenever she moved, their bewitching petals seemed to unfurl slowly in the darkness, breathing out the stench of death.

Her face was too perfect to be real, her skin as white as snow and her lips as red as blood.

Most frightening of all were her eyes... a pure, flawless bloodred.

Her gaze fell on the figures kneeling stiffly below and swept over them.

"Lower Rank One, Tetsusai, is dead."

A cold male voice rang out, though its tone was quite pleasant.

"He was killed by a brat. Did you know?"

The words echoed through the empty hall, adding a chill to the dead silence.

The four figures kneeling below trembled almost imperceptibly.

Their bodies were taut, their heads pressed so low they looked ready to shove them into the cracks between the icy floor tiles. They even kept their breathing to a minimum.

They were Lower Ranks Two, Three, Four, and Six.

Muzan's gaze swept over them. There was no anger in it, only pure weariness and the scrutiny one might give a pile of trash.

"I have only one question," Muzan said, his voice utterly flat. "Why are the Lower Rank demons so weak?"

She took a small half step forward, her hem brushing across the cold floor.

"Becoming one of the Twelve Kizuki was never the end."

"It was the beginning, the point from which you were supposed to keep growing stronger and absorbing nourishment for my use."

Her bloodred eyes swept over the demons' heads as though passing over a patch of worthless dead grass.

"For hundreds of years, the Upper Ranks have held their positions as steady as ever. They've always been the ones killing Hashira, too."

"And the Lower Ranks? You keep getting replaced, like disposable goods."

There was no anger in her tone, only the coldness and incomprehension of someone assessing whether a tool was fit for use.

"Now even Lower Rank One, the one with the best chance of reaching that threshold, has died at the hands of a human swordsman."

"Tell me!!!"

She paused, her bloodred eyes narrowing slightly.

"What use is there in keeping you?"

As soon as the words left her mouth, an overwhelming pressure erupted from Muzan's slender-looking body, powerful enough to make souls tremble. It slammed down on every demon below!

"Thud!"

"Thud!"

Several muffled impacts sounded in succession.

Before the kneeling Lower Ranks could even grunt, the absolute power of their progenitor pinned them firmly to the floor.

They no longer had the strength to lift even an eyelid. They could only press their foreheads against the ground, feeling the trembling and submission rising from the depths of their souls. o(╥﹏╥)o

It was fear of their creator and of absolute power, engraved in the blood of every demon.

"So... pathetic."

Muzan's voice came from above, as flat as ever, yet it seemed to freeze the air around them.

"You're really making me question the point of your existence."

She slowly narrowed her bloodred eyes, her pupils plainly filled with impatience and disgust.

For an instant, the hearts of the demons below practically stopped.

They didn't dare harbor even the slightest stray thought, because this lord could read minds.

The slightest hint of disrespect, complaint, or despair could bring consequences more terrifying than immediate death.

Dead silence blanketed the hall...~~~

Seeing the Lower Ranks lying there like dead dogs without a word, Muzan gave a snort so quiet it was almost inaudible.

Yet that faint sound made the hearts of the four demons below clench hard.

None of them knew that, just a second ago, the thought of disposing of all the trash before him had already crossed Muzan's mind.

In her long life and pursuit, apart from Tetsusai, who was barely useful, and Rui, who was a little special,

the Lower Ranks, who couldn't even deal with human Demon Slayers, truly had no right to continue occupying places among the Twelve Kizuki and wasting her blood and expectations.

Just before that invisible killing intent could turn into action—

"N-no... Lord Muzan!"

A trembling female voice rang out in a panic, struggling to keep its words clear.

Lower Rank Four, Yuelian, strained with all her might and managed to lift her head just a tiny bit.

She was quite beautiful, dressed in a moon-white kimono, with black hair cascading down like a waterfall. Silver threads wrapped around her wrists gleamed coldly in the dim light.

Now her face was deathly pale, her eyes full of pleading and the struggle of someone facing death.

"We... can still be useful! Please... give us a little more time! One chance!"

Muzan stopped.

Her bloodred eyes turned to Yuelian, looking at her without much emotion.

"Oh?"

Indeed, even trash might still have a little value to squeeze out before it was discarded for good.

With that purely practical thought in mind, her roiling killing intent subsided slightly, returning to a bottomless coldness.

"The one who killed Tetsusai..."

Muzan closed his eyes, as though reading some information, his voice as cold as ever.

"Was a thirteen-year-old human brat. If nothing unexpected has happened, he should already be the Demon Slayer Corps' Water Hashira."

As she spoke, a series of images engraved directly in their blood and consciousness was forced into the minds of the four demons below.

Fragments of images:

A slender youth stood amid the ruined walls and rubble of Blue Stone Town, surrounded by drifting cherry blossom petals.

He had black hair and ice-blue eyes that were as cold as ancient ice in battle, yet held a calm and resolve beyond his years.

He wielded a broken sky-blue sword, with what looked like water vapor swirling around him. His movements were simple and ruthless.

For the final strike, sword light and water blended together as he slashed down with a will to never turn back...

The images vanished, but the lingering fear they left behind was all too real.

The coldness in the youth's eyes and the sharpness of his blade sent an inexplicable chill through the four Lower Ranks, even though they had seen only fragments.

"Rest assured, my lord!"

Before the lingering fear had faded, an obviously flattering, ingratiating male voice immediately rang out.

Lower Rank Two, Yeshu, was an effeminate-looking demon whose eyes darted about. He practically rushed to declare himself, his tone full of eagerness to earn merit and clear his name:

"We'll do everything in our power to cut off the head of that Water Hashira brat who doesn't know his own limits, and present it to you with both hands, my lord!"

Muzan slowly opened his bloodred eyes. His gaze settled on Yeshu, then slowly swept over the other three demons.

"Is that so?" Her voice suddenly grew colder, every word clear and deliberate, like a sentence being handed down. "Then this is your last chance. If you can't kill the new Water Hashira, there's no need for you to go on living in this world."

The demons' hearts sank straight to rock bottom.

A sharper anxiety, born of life and death, gripped them by the throat.

"Twang!"

Just then, a clear, mournful note from a pipa pierced the dead silence without warning.

The sound waves rippled outward with an eerie rhythm that manipulated space.

Following the pipa's note, the entire Infinity Castle seemed to come alive, shaking wildly and defying all reason.

The surrounding beams, pillars, walls, and floors began moving up and down, left and right, back and forth, joining and separating at random, like building blocks in an invisible giant hand.

The spacious hall was cut apart and twisted in an instant. Light and shadow crossed wildly, and all sense of space was thrown into chaos.

When the dizzying spatial shifts stopped, the four Lower Ranks found that they had been thrown out of the suffocating hall and into a relatively quiet corner.

Muzan's pressure seemed more distant, but that cold death sentence weighed more heavily on each demon's heart than before.

Had they survived the ordeal?

Like hell. This was nothing more than a stay of execution.

The four demons struggled to their feet, all looking somewhat worse for wear.

They glanced at one another, each seeing the lingering fear and the shock hidden deep in the others' eyes.

"Phew..."

Lower Rank Three, Yannu, a burly-looking demon with skin like stone, was the first to let out a great breath. His voice was muffled.

"That guy Tetsusai... he really did..."

"The new Water Hashira?"

Lower Rank Six, Jinhua, a demon with an indistinct figure, spoke in a hoarse voice tinged with fear.

"A thirteen-year-old Hashira? You've got to be kidding..."

Yuelian casually straightened her disheveled moon-white kimono and long hair. The silver threads around her wrists slid silently.

Her face was still pale, but her gaze had emerged from pure fear, with a trace of cold calculation in it.

"Whether it's a joke or not doesn't matter anymore."

"You all heard Lord Muzan's order clearly."

Yeshu forced a smile onto his effeminate face that looked worse than crying, while his eyes kept darting about.

"So what if we did? Tetsusai was a lot stronger than us."

"If even he was killed, wouldn't going after the Water Hashira alone just be feeding him kills?"

Silence.

It was a fact they couldn't avoid.

"Then... are we just going to wait for death?"

Lower Rank Six, Jinhua, sounded even more strained.

"Of course not."

Yuelian raised her head, a trace of resolve appearing on her beautiful face.

"Going alone would be suicide. But what if we... joined forces?"

"Joined forces?" Yannu asked in a muffled voice, his tone full of doubt.

Trust was a luxury between demons. More often, they competed with and distrusted one another.

"It's our only way to survive."

Yuelian's voice was soft, but it carried a convincing force.

"Lord Muzan wants results, not a particular method."

"As long as we present the Water Hashira's head in the end, our lord may not care who contributed how much."

"But if we keep fighting on our own and get killed one by one, then it really is game over."

Yeshu's eyes rolled as he quickly weighed the pros and cons.

Joining forces would indeed greatly improve their chances of winning. As for what happened after they succeeded... he had his own little scheme in mind.

But he immediately voiced his agreement:

"Yuelian's right! We should all be in the same boat now! Let's get through this first!"

Yannu and Jinhua exchanged a glance and saw the same desire to survive in each other's eyes.

Muzan's order was a sword hanging over their heads. None of them was completely confident of facing the Water Hashira who had killed Tetsusai alone.

"How do we join forces?" Yannu asked in a deep voice, signaling his agreement.

"First, we gather information." Yuelian's thoughts grew clearer. "We find out where the Water Hashira goes, what his habits are, and the specific characteristics of his Breathing Style."

"He's only just become a Hashira, so he can't stay at headquarters all the time. We find a time when he's acting alone or has few bodyguards."

"We also need to choose the ambush site carefully," Yeshu added, a cold glint flashing in his eyes. "Preferably somewhere that favors us and limits what he can do."

"..."

For the sake of their most basic survival, the four demons temporarily set aside their mutual distrust and secret schemes, forming an alliance that was fragile but deadly.

The fear remained, but now there was more of the ruthlessness and killing intent born from being backed into a corner.

The new Water Hashira, Giyu Tomioka.

That name became their only marker on the road to survival, one they had to cross... or destroy.