Sharing the Heavens from Douluo Continent

Akaza looked at Rengoku Kyojuro, whose yellow hair and eyebrows somewhat resembled an owl's, and twisted his instantly regenerated wrist. "What a fine sword! You must be a Pillar, right?"

"I am the Flame Pillar, Rengoku Kyojuro."

Clenching his Nichirin Blade, Rengoku Kyojuro cautiously tested, "You must be an Upper Rank Demon, then?"

Akaza pointed at his eyes and revealed an excited smile. "I am Akaza, Upper Rank Three. You look quite strong!"

Akaza was also known as the "Fighting Demon." Since all his memories had vanished after becoming a demon, the only obsession left in his heart was the desire to grow stronger.

In order to become stronger, he came to enjoy fighting only powerful opponents, while looking down on the weak and even intensely despising them.

However, Akaza, who considered himself strong, also had his own code for the strong: he never killed or ate women, and only chose to eat people when he was starving.

Because of this, Akaza and Doma, Upper Rank Two, who only ate women, were practically opposites, and their relationship was extremely poor.

"Kyojuro, here I come!"

As Akaza spoke, a snowflake pattern appeared beneath his feet out of thin air. He immediately turned into an afterimage and shot toward Rengoku Kyojuro.

Rengoku Kyojuro instantly swung his Nichirin Blade, sweeping up sword light that resembled flames as he clashed with Akaza.

Given Rengoku Kyojuro's strength, even if he could not defeat Akaza, protecting himself would not have been difficult.

But Tanjiro and the others had all lost their ability to fight. Rengoku Kyojuro could only confront Akaza head-on; otherwise, it would certainly prioritize killing Tanjiro.

"Damn it! Move already!"

Seeing Rengoku Kyojuro struggling alone, Tanjiro struggled to get back up as he shouted at Nezuko, "Nezuko, go help Mr. Rengoku!"

"Mm!"

Nezuko obediently nodded, brandishing her two sharp demon claws as she pounced toward Akaza.

Bang!!!

However, Nezuko charged in quickly and was sent flying even faster. The moment she entered their battlefield, Akaza kicked her dozens of meters away.

Akaza did not kill or eat women, but that did not mean he would not hit them—especially since Nezuko was a female demon.

"You bastard! How dare you hurt Nezuko! I'll fight you!"

Zenitsu, who had fallen in love with Nezuko at first sight, saw Akaza kick apart half of Nezuko's body. He immediately forgot his fear of the Upper Rank Demon and swung his blade at Akaza with all his strength.

Rengoku Kyojuro's expression changed drastically when he saw this, and he could not help roaring, "Don't come over! This isn't a battle you can interfere in!"

Zenitsu did not possess Nezuko's regenerative abilities. If Akaza landed a full-force blow on him, he would probably die on the spot.

Thunder Breathing First Form: Thunderbolt Flash!

"Riiip—"

A blinding golden flash of sword light tore through the night sky like lightning, instantly passing through Akaza's neck and severing his head.

"You despicable bastard! You actually launched a sneak attack from behind!"

After Akaza's head fell to the ground, he looked at the slender figure that had suddenly appeared and shouted in furious indignation.

"Senior Brother Changsheng!"

Zenitsu, who had only charged halfway over, nearly burst into tears when he saw Dai Changsheng emerge from the nearby woods.

As his heated blood slowly cooled, Zenitsu felt a wave of lingering fear. Had Dai Changsheng not appeared in time, he might really have died here.

Dai Changsheng ignored both Akaza and Zenitsu, instead turning to ask Rengoku Kyojuro, "Kyojuro, are you all right? I didn't expect that I would happen upon you fighting an Upper Rank Demon while passing through here."

Because Dai Changsheng knew that Muzan Kibutsuji could share the images demons saw before their deaths, he deliberately created the illusion that he had merely happened to pass by, so as not to alert Muzan Kibutsuji.

"I'm fine. You came at just the right time."

Rengoku Kyojuro instinctively shook his head, then said with a grateful expression, "This time, it was truly thanks to you, Sound Pillar!"

"You two bastards, don't ignore—"

"Hakuji!"

Just as Akaza was about to be driven mad with rage by Dai Changsheng and the others, on the verge of forcibly breaking through a demon's limits, a gentle voice suddenly rang out. Immediately afterward, a young woman in a pink kimono appeared before him.

"Y-you are... Koyuki!"

As he looked at that familiar figure, the human memories Akaza had forgotten gradually returned.

"I-I'm sorry! I couldn't protect you back then. When you and Master needed me most, I wasn't by your side..."

Having regained his human memories, Akaza embraced the soul of his fiancée and wept bitterly.

"It's all right. It's wonderful that you remembered us again! It's wonderful that you became the Hakuji you once were again! Welcome back~"

Comforted by his fiancée Koyuki, Akaza's obsession was finally released. His fallen head and headless body slowly dissipated, while his soul followed Koyuki to hell.

"That idiot!"

At the same time, Muzan Kibutsuji, who had received the images Akaza transmitted before his death, cursed under his breath with an expression of frustrated disappointment.

Judging from the information Akaza had sent before dying, he had originally been capable of breaking through a demon's limits. From then on, even if his head were severed by a Nichirin Blade, he would have been able to regenerate it.

Butterfly Sisters

Aside from Muzan Kibutsuji, no other demon had yet managed to break through a demon's limits.

Perhaps Upper Rank One, Kokushibo, might also have broken through the limits of demons, but no demon slayer had yet been able to cut off his head, so Muzan Kibutsuji was not sure whether he had truly surpassed those limits.

Akaza had originally broken through the limits of demons and could have become Muzan Kibutsuji's most useful pawn, yet because he recovered his memories from when he was human, he willingly chose death.

For Muzan Kibutsuji, who would stop at nothing in order to survive, Akaza's actions were simply incomprehensible.

At this point, Muzan Kibutsuji had yet to realize the threat Dai Changsheng might pose. He believed Akaza had died by his own hand, while Dai Changsheng had merely taken advantage of a sneak attack and was not worth fearing!

Compared with Dai Changsheng, the Sound Pillar, Muzan Kibutsuji was far more wary of Tanjiro, who could use Sun Breathing.

Several days later

Demon Slayer Corps Headquarters, Butterfly Mansion.

The Butterfly Mansion was the logistics department under the Demon Slayer Corps, as well as a medical facility managed by the Insect Pillar, Shinobu Kocho.

It was a place specifically meant to provide treatment and rehabilitation for injured members, with most of its caretakers being Corps members who lacked talent in swordsmanship.

The one originally responsible for managing the Butterfly Mansion had been the Demon Slayer Corps' Flower Pillar, Kanae Kocho, Shinobu Kocho's older sister.

Unfortunately, while carrying out a mission, Kanae Kocho had encountered Upper Rank Two, Doma, alone. Her age was forever frozen at seventeen.

After Kanae Kocho died in battle, fourteen-year-old Shinobu Kocho took her place as the master of the Butterfly Mansion.

From that day onward, Shinobu had shouldered the responsibility of caring for the other girls at the Butterfly Mansion. She treated them like her own younger sisters and always greeted them with a smile.

Since Tanjiro and the others had all suffered serious injuries, after Dai Changsheng helped Rengoku Kyojuro kill Akaza, he brought them back to the Butterfly Mansion for treatment.

Once the news that Dai Changsheng had slain Upper Rank Three spread, the entire Demon Slayer Corps headquarters erupted.

Over the past century or so, not a single generation of Demon Slayer Corps members had managed to kill an Upper Rank Demon. Instead, many Pillars had died at the hands of Upper Rank Demons.

Although Dai Changsheng had only recently become the Sound Pillar, his heaven-defying achievement of killing Upper Rank Three made him the publicly acknowledged strongest member of the Demon Slayer Corps.

As a result, the other Demon Slayer Corps members also became noticeably more respectful whenever they saw Dai Changsheng.

"Be good, Nezuko~ It'll be over soon."

At Tanjiro's reassurance, Nezuko, still biting down on her bamboo muzzle, obediently held out her fair, rosy arm for Dai Changsheng to draw a vial of demon blood with a syringe.

"All done. Nezuko, you were very brave."

After drawing Nezuko's blood, Dai Changsheng smiled and rubbed her little head.

Faced with Dai Changsheng's affectionate gesture, Nezuko did not resist. Instead, she comfortably narrowed her eyes like a kitten.

"Brother Changsheng, Nezuko, she..."

Unable to hold himself back, Tanjiro asked, "Can Nezuko really turn back into a human?"

"Don't worry!"

Dai Changsheng smiled and nodded. "I discussed it with Miss Tamayo before and found that she has already made considerable progress in researching medicine that can turn demons back into humans. In another two or three years at most, she should be able to develop a medicine that can turn Nezuko back into a human."

"Really? That's wonderful."

The reason Tanjiro had let Nezuko cooperate with Dai Changsheng's blood draw was because Dai Changsheng had told him that he was researching medicine with Tamayo to turn demons back into humans, and that Nezuko's blood was needed as research material.

"All right, Tanjiro. Take Nezuko out to play for now! This blood will be enough for the time being."

"Then we'll take our leave."

Tanjiro did not doubt Dai Changsheng's words and left the medicine laboratory with Nezuko.

Only after Tanjiro and Nezuko had left did Dai Changsheng pick up a transparent beaker, inject half a syringe of demon blood into it, and place it on a windowsill touched by sunlight.

"Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle..."

Under the sunlight, the demon blood in the beaker instantly began to boil and rapidly dissipated at a visible rate.

"Not bad!"

Dai Changsheng nodded in satisfaction.

Compared with more than half a month ago, Nezuko's blood could now remain under sunlight for over ten seconds longer, showing that her immunity to sunlight was steadily growing stronger.

If Nezuko's blood could become completely immune to sunlight, Dai Changsheng could try using her demon blood to turn himself into a perfect being who feared no sunlight and did not need to eat humans.

"Knock, knock, knock..."

A crisp knock suddenly sounded, followed by a pleasant voice reaching Dai Changsheng's ears. "May I come in?"

Dai Changsheng instinctively turned to look. The visitor was beautiful and petite, with large violet eyes, her hair styled in elegant evening curls and adorned with a cute butterfly hairpin. It was none other than the Insect Pillar, Shinobu Kocho!

"Shinobu, you're back~"

Although Shinobu was the weakest Pillar in terms of combat power within the Demon Slayer Corps, she could still easily deal with Lower Rank Demons. Thus, she also had to go out regularly to carry out demon-slaying missions rather than staying at the Butterfly Mansion all the time.

"Changsheng, I received word from a Kasugai Crow that you killed Upper Rank Three, so I hurried to finish my mission and return."

Shinobu quickly walked up to Dai Changsheng and asked in a voice filled with anticipation and urgency, "Can you tell me what that Upper Rank Three looked like?"

Although Kanae Kocho had lost to Doma, she had still managed to delay him from the night until dawn.

Seeing that the sun was about to rise, no matter how much Doma craved Kanae Kocho's body, he could only choose to leave.

Thus, when Shinobu arrived at the scene, she found her sister on the verge of death.

Kanae Kocho knew that her younger sister had been born lacking in strength. Even if Shinobu trained bitterly for decades, she would never be a match for an Upper Rank Demon.

To keep Shinobu Kocho from seeking revenge for her and ultimately dying at the hands of an Upper Rank Demon, Kanae had asked Shinobu to leave the Demon Slayer Corps before she died. She hoped Shinobu could find happiness like an ordinary girl and live to old age.

However, Shinobu had not agreed to Kanae's request. Instead, she swore to avenge her and begged Kanae to tell her about the demon's origins.

Seeing how stubborn Shinobu was, Kanae eventually told her Doma's distinguishing features.

Since the Twelve Kizuki's rankings were not fixed and changed according to their strength, Shinobu only knew that the murderer of her sister was an Upper Rank Demon. She did not know his exact rank.

After learning that Dai Changsheng had slain an Upper Rank Demon, Shinobu had rushed back to the Butterfly Mansion without delay. She dearly hoped that the Upper Rank Demon Dai Changsheng had killed was the culprit who had murdered her sister.

Faced with Shinobu's expectant gaze, Dai Changsheng gave her a rough description of Akaza's appearance.

"It wasn't him! It wasn't that bastard..."

Although Shinobu had prepared herself beforehand, when she learned that Akaza was not the one who had murdered her sister, she could not help revealing a disappointed expression.

Seeing Shinobu look so lost and despondent, a trace of pity flashed through Dai Changsheng's eyes. He gently pulled her into his arms and stroked her silky hair as he comforted her. "Shinobu, you don't need to be disappointed. Since I can kill Upper Rank Three, I can kill the other Upper Rank Demons as well. I'll avenge your sister."

"Thank you, Changsheng."

Upon hearing Dai Changsheng's words, Shinobu's delicate body, which had been somewhat stiff, instantly softened as she pressed her pretty face tightly against his chest.

"The magnificent me has made a dazzling entrance!"

A voice brimming with adolescent bravado suddenly rang out. Immediately afterward, a burly white-haired man wearing a diamond-studded headpiece appeared at the entrance of the pharmaceutical research lab in an exceedingly over-the-top pose.

This man was Tengen Uzui, the current Sound Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps. He had once been a ninja, and his catchphrase was the word "magnificent."

"Um..."

Seeing Shinobu nestled in Dai Changsheng's arms like a petite wife, Tengen Uzui, who had three wives himself, could not help feeling a little awkward. "Did the magnificent me arrive at a bad time?"