Draining the Demon King

Kibutsuji Muzan felt he had indeed underestimated the Demon Slayer Corps. Since Tsugikuni Yoriichi, he had once again felt the threat of death.

Having his head severed was no major injury for Kibutsuji Muzan, who possessed five brains and seven hearts; he could simply self-destruct his head and grow another one.

The problem was the drug Tamayo injected into him.

Just like in the original story, Tamayo injected Kibutsuji Muzan with four types of drugs: a drug to revert him to human, a drug that aged him fifty years per minute, a drug to prevent his splitting, and a drug to destroy demon cells.

Unlike in the original story where Kibutsuji Muzan could slowly decompose Tamayo's injected drugs within the Infinity Castle, this time he had no time to decompose them at all.

Although no one in the Demon Slayer Corps had researched the Scarlet Blade this time, nor had anyone activated the so-called Transparent World and Marks, the power of the Path of the Hunt was enough to offset the gap between humans and demons.

Moreover, Kibutsuji Muzan had to face a genuine Heroic Spirit, Kojiro Sasaki, in a siege.

Just as Dan Lei predicted, Kojiro Sasaki had no good solution for Kibutsuji Muzan's immortality.

Without a Noble Phantasm or armament targeting immortality, no matter how many times Kojiro Sasaki cut Kibutsuji Muzan, he could instantly self-recover.

The drug that destroyed demon cells had very little effect under the influence of the Path of Abundance; Kibutsuji Muzan's recovery ability was almost unaffected.

However, it was wishful thinking for Kibutsuji Muzan to defeat Kojiro Sasaki in a short time. No matter how fast his nine whip-like appendages on his back and eight on his legs swung, it was useless.

Kojiro Sasaki didn't just know Swallow Cut; he had pushed the One-Point Strike of the Gale Slash Style to its extreme. Every time he swung his blade, Kibutsuji Muzan would lose something, and his whip-like appendages were severed as fast as they appeared.

Kibutsuji Muzan was too arrogant. His use of the power of the Path of Abundance was quite rudimentary; he only knew how to increase his recovery but not how to protect himself.

As time passed, the drugs Tamayo had given Kibutsuji Muzan continued to take effect, and he could clearly feel his strength continuously draining away.

One could only say that demons, a species leaning towards dead apostles, would also age.

Although this seemed counterintuitive, as the common understanding was that the older a dead apostle, the stronger they were.

In reality, older dead apostles were stronger due to the accumulation over time; they constantly absorbed external energy to survive, thus becoming powerful over time.

If they lived differently, say, an ordinary dead apostle slept for thousands of years, you would see whether their combat power increased or decreased upon waking.

After all, not all dead apostles were True Ancestors.

Now, Kibutsuji Muzan was aging without any accumulation, meaning the revert-to-human drug had a very poor effect on him. Otherwise, Kibutsuji Muzan, having turned back into a human, would have directly become a withered old man.

Of course, as time went on, the first ones to buckle under the pressure were Gyomei Himejima and Sanemi Shinazugawa, two pure humans.

Even with the boost from the Path of the Hunt offsetting some of the physical disparity, humans got tired. Gyomei Himejima and Sanemi Shinazugawa could only barely defend and hold their ground in this battle. Facing the unkillable Kibutsuji Muzan, they were simply hacking away until their arms went numb.

At this moment, Dan Lei was observing the entire battle from a cave within the mountains at the Demon Slayer Corps headquarters.

Due to having the advantage of terrain and allies, and with puppets acting as cannon fodder, the Demon Slayer Corps suffered many injuries but few deaths.

In contrast, among the demons, all demons below Upper Rank who entered the mountains were annihilated. The current Upper Ranks, except for Kokushibo and Akaza who were still resisting stubbornly, had all been eliminated.

Seeing that the time was almost right, Dan Lei decided it was time to focus on dealing with Kibutsuji Muzan.

Thus, Dan Lei notified Kojiro Sasaki via telepathy, saying:

"It's almost time. Execute Plan B. Lure Kibutsuji Muzan to the prepared location. I have already swapped the Blue Spider Lily there."

After Kojiro Sasaki and the other two received Dan Lei's telepathic message, Kojiro Sasaki immediately felt something appear inside his clothes on his chest.

He then leaped away from Kibutsuji Muzan and deliberately took out the Blue Spider Lily from his clothes.

This Blue Spider Lily was the real one. Kibutsuji Muzan only glanced at it, and his body's instinctive craving confirmed that this flower was definitely not fake.

So, Kibutsuji Muzan immediately roared at Kojiro Sasaki:

"Give me the flower in your hand!!"

Saying this, he unleashed his Blood Demon Art, Black Blood Thorn, drawing his own blood and transforming it into wire-like thorns that surged towards Kojiro Sasaki like a torrential downpour.

However, Kojiro Sasaki, possessing A+ Agility, was focused on escaping. With a flash, he was out of the attack range of the Black Blood Thorns.

Upon seeing the real Blue Spider Lily, Kibutsuji Muzan's desires had completely overridden his reason. He didn't question why Kojiro Sasaki, who was fighting so well, suddenly ran away. Instead, he pursued him with all his might.

Gyomei Himejima and Sanemi Shinazugawa knew that Dan Lei had a luring plan after they had worn down Kibutsuji Muzan for a while, but they didn't expect Kojiro Sasaki and Kibutsuji Muzan to be so fast. In the blink of an eye, the two of them disappeared.

Fortunately, Dan Lei immediately performed a swap, sending them to the battlefield of Kokushibo and Akaza to eliminate them as quickly as possible, as Dan Lei would no longer have the energy to provide further support to the Demon Slayer Corps.

Soon, Kojiro Sasaki led Kibutsuji Muzan deep into a cave, where a Magic Projection of Dan Lei was waiting.

Upon seeing "Dan Lei," he threw the Blue Spider Lily towards "Dan Lei" and then instantly spirit manifested and disappeared.

The Blue Spider Lily was naturally swapped away by Dan Lei. When Kibutsuji Muzan entered, he only saw one person, and his perception of the flower instantly broke.

Without the temptation of the Blue Spider Lily, Kibutsuji Muzan's intelligence finally returned. He looked at the "Dan Lei" in front of him and asked:

"Luring me here with the Blue Spider Lily, you are the one who set a trap using the Demon Slayer Corps. Judging by your attire, you are not from around here. What grudge do we have that you must kill me?"

To Kibutsuji Muzan's question, Dan Lei's Magic Projection replied:

"Naturally, you are a creature of Abundance, and everyone has the right to slay you.

Furthermore, I am very curious about what can be refined from a thousand-year-old immortal after draining his Magic."

After speaking, the walls of the entire cave suddenly lit up. Only then did Kibutsuji Muzan realize that the surroundings of the cave were not rock walls but a base built with silver as the foundation.

At this moment, countless golden threads and gems outlined mysterious circuits on the silver base. Subsequently, Kibutsuji Muzan felt his hands and legs suddenly weaken, and his body collapsed onto the ground.

Dan Lei had used a large amount of silver, gold, and gems to construct this Magic foundation, which had only one effect: the common Life Force Conversion Array in the Type-Moon Magic world.

Simple versions of this array could be cast by even Medusa in her Rider form (as seen in the TV series' barrier cast in school).

A more advanced version was the one presented by Medea's true Master, Atrum Galliasta, to Medea, which directly refined Magic Crystals from humans.

And now, Dan Lei was applying this array directly to Kibutsuji Muzan, wanting to see what could be refined from his thousand years of life.