The reception room was deathly silent.
The steam from the tea rose in wisps, twisting and turning into various uncertain shapes under the light.
"Tap~"
Giyu Tomioka put down his teacup, the bottom of which tapped against the table.
But this soft sound was like a pebble thrown into a calm lake, shattering the brief harmony.
He raised his head, his icy blue eyes, which Transparent World, pierced through Tamayo's gentle appearance and stared directly at her soul, which had weathered hundreds of years of trials.
"Muzan Kibutsuji."
Giyu slowly opened his mouth and uttered that forbidden name.
What kind of person is he?
This question stunned everyone present.
Sabito's face, still showing sympathy and sighs, widened in surprise upon hearing this. He had expected Giyu to ask Tamayo about the method of modifying her body, or some other secret, but he never expected that Giyu would ask about the source of all evil.
Yushiro, standing beside him, instinctively tensed up, his eyes filled with wariness and confusion as he looked at Giyu.
Only Tamayo, after a brief moment of astonishment, understood the weight of Giyu's question.
"Is this question really that important?" she countered, her beautiful eyes sparkling with inquiry.
"Very important."
Giyu's answer was resolute.
"I once spoke with the Master. Our Demon Slayer Corps knows almost nothing about the progenitor of demons. His appearance, personality, abilities... everything about him is shrouded in mystery."
His voice wasn't loud, but it carried a convincing weight.
"For hundreds of years, the history of the Demon Slayer Corps has even experienced gaps, and much information about the first swordsman and the Demon King has not been passed down. We are like blind men with our eyes covered, fighting an unseen enemy in the dark for thousands of years."
"Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated. But right now, our knowledge of the enemy is zero."
"And you,"
Giyu's gaze, like two of the sharpest knives, pierced deeply into Tamayo's heart. "Perhaps he's the only one who can dispel this fog for us."
Tamayo remained silent.
Looking at the thirteen-year-old boy before her, at his eyes that seemed to see through everything, she felt a storm raging in her heart.
This is no ordinary swordsman.
The perspective he took and the issues he considered went far beyond the scope of "slaying demons," rising to the strategic level of the entire war.
This foresight and vision startled her, but also gave her... a glimmer of hope.
You're right.
After a long while, Tamayo let out a long sigh, and her eyes were filled with an intense, overwhelming fear and hatred.
"Muzan Kibutsuji... He is neither human nor demon; he is merely a monster who exists solely for his own desires, selfish to the extreme."
Her voice began to tremble, as if just mentioning that name was enough to remind her of those dark and hopeless years when she was dominated.
"His desire for control was pathological. Every ghost he transformed bore his mark in its cells. We couldn't gather together, we couldn't utter his name, and even the slightest thought of resistance would be instantly detected and... annihilated by him."
"His sole purpose in life is to overcome sunlight and become an immortal, flawless, Ultimate Lifeform. To this end, he relentlessly creates minions and searches the world for a legendary flower— the Blue Spider Lily."
"To make him easier to find, he has countless identities and faces in the human world. He might be an extremely wealthy businessman, a powerful politician, or even just an ordinary child... No one knows his true face."
Tamayo's words sent a chill down Sabito's spine. How was he supposed to find a Demon King who could change his identity at will and hide in the vast sea of people?
However, it was Tamayo's next words that truly made him realize what despair meant.
"And..."
Tamayo took a deep breath and uttered a guess that even she found chilling, "I suspect that after thousands of years of evolution, Muzan... may have overcome his weakness of dying from being decapitated by Nichirin Blade."
"What?!"
The Sabito could no longer contain itself and cried out in alarm!
He suddenly stood up from his seat, his face filled with disbelief.
"No... no way?! To live without being beheaded? Then... would that still be a ghost?! Wouldn't that make one truly invincible?!"
Even the usually calm and Giyu unconsciously tightened his grip on the teacup at this moment.
His "Transparent World" told him that Tamayo wasn't lying. This wasn't alarmist; it was the most reasonable deduction she made based on her understanding of Muzan.
If this is true, then what does it mean for the Demon Slayer Corps to have worked for over a thousand years, and for all the sacrifices made by its members?
"Yes."
Tamayo's voice was filled with bitterness, "Once he finds the Blue Spider Lily again and overcomes the weakness of sunlight, this world will be plunged into eternal night."
A deathly silence fell over the reception room.
Sabito's breathing became heavy, and he felt a chilling cold rush from the soles of his feet to the top of his head, almost freezing his blood.
"Then... what should we do?"
His voice was dry and hoarse, with a tremor he himself didn't even realize, "Besides sunlight, is there really... is there anyone who can defeat Muzan Kibutsuji?"
This question reflects the sentiments of all Demon Slayer Corps swordsmen.
What can they do when faced with a demon Demon King may no longer be beheaded?
In the midst of this atmosphere of despair that could crush anyone, Tamayo slowly and clearly uttered a single word.
"Have."
This single word, like a lightning bolt piercing the night, instantly dispelled the gloom hanging over everyone's heads!
Sabito and Giyu's gazes were both fixed intently on her!
A complex expression, a mixture of awe, worship, and nostalgia, appeared on Tamayo's face.
"During the Warring States period, there was a swordsman who single-handedly drove Muzan Kibutsuji into an unprecedented predicament, almost erasing that demon from the world."
"For decades while that swordsman was still alive, Muzan, like a frightened mouse, led all his trusted subordinates into complete hiding, afraid to engage in any activity in the world, or even to show their faces. His existence was a nightmare that Muzan shake off throughout his life."
"It was precisely because of the two hundred years he bought me that I was able to break free from Muzan's control through my own research."
"He is the progenitor of all Breathing Style for swordsmen, and the only user of the original breathing technique— Sun Breathing."
His name is --
Tamayo looked at Giyu Tomioka and, speaking slowly and deliberately, in an almost reverent tone, uttered the legendary name.
"Tsugikuni Yoriichi".
The name struck like a thunderbolt, exploding simultaneously in the minds of Giyu and Sabito!
Sabito dropped open. He had never heard of this name before, but just from Tamayo's description, he could imagine what an extraordinary and powerful figure he must be!
To suppress the Demon King single-handedly for decades! What divine power that is!
Giyu Tomioka's body jolted violently!
His mind was uncontrollably filled with the image of Kokushibo's six eyes on Hachijōjima, a mixture of jealousy, fear, and hatred.
A furious roar of resentment resurfaced:
"This talent... is exactly the same as Yoriichi Tsugikuni's from four hundred years ago!"
So that's what it meant...
Giyu's breathing became somewhat rapid at this moment.
Tamayo ignored their shock; she was completely absorbed in her memories of the legendary swordsman.
"Yoriichi was born with the Transparent World and the Demon Slayer Mark. He was chosen by heaven, a son of God born to slay Muzan."
"His entire life was dedicated to hunting Muzan. The Sun Breathing he created, with its thirteen forms of sword skills, was a killing move specifically designed to completely eliminate Muzan."
"It's just a pity..."
At this point, Tamayo's tone carried a hint of deep regret.
"Yoriichi, after all, just a human being; he would grow old and die. And it was only after his death that Muzan dared to reappear in this world."
"Even more tragically, although Yoriichi taught the Sun Breathing to the swordsmen of that time, apart from himself, no one else could truly master that Breathing Style that was comparable to Kamui."
"Later swordsmen could only modify the Sun Breathing according to their own characteristics, which led to the five basic breathing techniques of water, fire, wind, rock, and lightning that we know today."
"The historical rupture may have occurred at that time. In order to erase his humiliating past and to make the world forget the name Yoriichi Tsugikuni, Muzan may have slaughtered all the Demon Slayer Corps members who knew the truth at the time."
A piece of history that had been sealed away for four hundred years was slowly unveiled.
Cruel, yet tragic.
Silence fell over the reception room once again.
Sabito was so overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information that he was speechless. He just sat there blankly, the name "Yoriichi Tsugikuni" echoing repeatedly in his mind.
Giyu kept his head down, and no one could see his expression at that moment.
Tamayo's story has ended.
But her gaze never left Giyu Tomioka.
Looking into his eyes, which were exactly like Yoriichi Tsugikuni's, calm as if they could see through everything.
A thought that even she herself found absurd, yet desperately longed to come true, was growing wildly in her heart.
Perhaps...
The gods have not abandoned this world.
He simply made that man do it in a different way.
It's back.