Muzan's Contemplation

"Overthrow the Daimyo's tyranny! Build a peaceful nation!"

Muzan shouted it once, and the two children echoed him twice, their blood boiling with passion.

After a round of brainwashing—no, guidance—the two established firm goals and determination.

Satisfied, Muzan bought them clothes, had them wash themselves clean, and then passed on his own knowledge through the connection between himself and his subordinate demons.

The nation Muzan described was deeply appealing.

The two young children were thoroughly taken in by Muzan. The knowledge appearing in their minds made them look at him with a trace of fervent devotion.

"We'll start here."

Muzan smiled as he patted their heads.

The two nodded resolutely.

The following night.

Screams came from the towering, lavish building at the center of town. Strangely, the surviving nobles who had originally been there all denied that anything had happened the next day.

The dead had died for nothing, while the surviving Daimyo said nothing at all.

Perhaps because Muzan's brainwashing had been too thorough, after the two ate people and grew stronger, their Blood Demon Arts turned out to be alteration.

By altering cognition, they could make others obey them. And both of their Blood Demon Arts were the same...

Before leaving, Muzan approvingly patted their heads. "Keep it up. Don't rush. Take your time, and make sure to protect yourselves."

Encouraged, the two nodded even more firmly. For a better future!

Watching this, Ji Xing felt a chill run down his spine. His master's success had naturally not come solely from his immense strength and his brainwashing of the two children. It also came from the Demon King's subtle ideological pull over demons.

The demons under Muzan might rely on his blood to survive and grow stronger, causing their thoughts to gradually gravitate toward him and instilling in them a sense of worship toward the Demon King.

Muzan had naturally noticed this as well. In the original story, although Scum Boss was both scummy and cowardly and brutally harsh toward his subordinates, the demons remained extremely loyal to him. Many of them even admired or adored him.

He had originally thought that was utterly absurd. They should have slacked off and held back like they did in the final battle!

But now he understood. That was perfectly normal.

Muzan left the town with Ji Xing, leaving behind the fire of hope.

Perhaps he had gotten a taste for it, or perhaps he simply found it amusing. Whenever Muzan saw a place that displeased him afterward, he would leave a demon there.

Several months passed, and Ji Xing gradually got used to his boss laying off employees while recruiting new ones.

By the time they had traveled all over Edo, nearly all the demons Muzan had originally created had been laid off. Those who remained had been ordered by Muzan to study proper ideology.

The atmosphere among demons changed drastically.

Naturally, they encountered quite a few Demon Slayer Corps members along the way. Most could not tell that the two were demons, but some could.

But Muzan led them in circles the entire way, and they simply could not catch up...

And Muzan would mercilessly mock them as well.

The Demon Slayer Corps gradually discovered that demons seemed to have become more active, yet there was something different about them.

There were no longer reports of people being taken by demons in remote mountains and forests, or of someone suddenly going missing from a household at night. Instead, there were more reports of dozens of people suddenly dying in a single place overnight, or evil people suddenly vanishing somewhere.

In some places, people would suddenly disappear, only for everyone there to deny it outright, insisting there were no evil demons at all and telling the Demon Slayer Corps not to come cause trouble.

They treated them very poorly.

This deeply worried the Demon Slayer Corps. What exactly was Muzan plotting?

The common people had actually been so thoroughly deceived.

At that moment, at the Demon Slayer Corps headquarters—the Ubuyashiki Family estate.

The leader of the Demon Slayer Corps gazed into the distance with sorrow. For some reason, the future had changed.

He could not foresee anything in much detail. He could only vaguely see that the gloom over the future world was growing ever heavier, with only a faint glimmer of light flickering like an extremely unstable hope.

There was no hope of killing Muzan within a hundred years...

Just when would they be able to kill that evil demon?

Looking at the bleak future, he let out a heavy sigh and summoned a crow.

Muzan did not care in the slightest about what the Demon Slayer Corps was doing. He was currently deep in thought.

The demons under his command had all thoroughly studied the Twenty-Four True Sayings. They would not eat innocent people. Some devoted themselves wholeheartedly to creating a better world. Some were like slackers, only going out to beat up bandits when they occasionally got hungry. Some punished evildoers while robbing the rich to help the poor. Some even disguised themselves as humans and lived sweetly with their wives and children. Others pretended to be gods or demons at shrines, having those under their protection offer blood regularly...

But all of them were keeping watch for the Blue Spider Lily.

Muzan, however, had already had his fill of playing around. He began pondering deeper questions.

For example, what exactly were demons?

Based on the final epilogue of the original story, this world should still have been driven by technological development, while demons were more like the final remnants of the Mystic Side.

Yet it also resembled a disease rooted in medicine.

Although the Blue Spider Lily was said to allow Muzan to overcome his weakness of fearing sunlight, would it merely eliminate that flaw? Or, after taking it, would his need to eat people and fear of Wisteria Flower also be resolved? Better yet, would it turn him back into a human?

And without the accompanying prescription, would taking it alone even work?

Furthermore, what exactly did demons consume when they ate humans?

Amino acids? Blood? Antibodies? DNA? Or something else?

Why would animals not do?

Why could eating humans increase their strength?

What flaw made demons immortal, yet vulnerable to sunlight to the point of being killed by it?

What component of sunlight restrained demons? Ultraviolet rays? Infrared rays?

Or something else?

And why could Wisteria Flower poison demons? What component did it contain? What exactly did the poison do?

For humans, the flowers of Wisteria Flower were not poisonous, though other parts were. So which part was poisonous to demons?

Muzan realized that the pitiful scraps of knowledge from his previous life were utterly useless, and the backward technology of this era could not answer his questions either.

Moreover, rather than being a disease, the existence of demons resembled a bug in the world.

The sole Mystic Side bug in a technological world—the so-called disease was more like a trigger.

And according to the theories of Demon Slayer fans, the reason Nezuko could ultimately overcome sunlight and eating people, as well as why Tanjiro became the strongest Demon King, was that they had eaten the Blue Spider Lily.

After using the Blue Spider Lily, one would most likely be able to overcome the need to eat people and the fear of sunlight.

But judging by Nezuko's portrayal in the story, even if she no longer needed to eat people, she might still crave them.

But what exactly was the Ubuyashiki curse?

Was it a problem of the Mystic Side, or a hereditary disease?

Muzan had originally been a member of the Ubuyashiki Family. Rather than a curse, the Ubuyashiki family's affliction seemed more like a hereditary disease—or an infectious disease connected to genes—triggered by Muzan's short lifespan.

Then what about the Scarlet Traces?