Perfect Organism

"This is not a human."

"It's a demon..."

Sarutobi Hiruzen glanced at Masahiro indifferently.

Masahiro immediately snapped to attention, his hand resting on the katana at his waist.

But he quickly realized that it was daytime; even Kibutsuji Muzan could only skulk in dark, hidden places.

Under the light of the day, even if a demon was not directly exposed to the sun, its constitution would become exceptionally weak while inside a house or any shaded area.

Even an ordinary member of the Demon Slayer Corps could subdue one in such a state.

"So, my lord..."

"There should only be this one demon in the Spring Pavilion, right..."

Masahiro thought to himself, clearly feeling a sense of admiration, as Sarutobi must have subdued the demon at night, rendering it completely incapable of resistance.

"Yes..."

"So you don't need to worry."

"The geisha you slept with yesterday was not human..."

Sarutobi Hiruzen glared at Masahiro, knowing exactly what the fellow was thinking.

Masahiro smiled awkwardly; that was a relief.

If he had slept with a demon, he feared he would have vomited on the spot.

Just as Sarutobi Hiruzen had said last night, how thick-skinned would one have to be to still be able to perform while facing a man-eating monster?

Still, I wonder if demons even have the same sensory nerves for pleasure as humans.

Perhaps Renji was just faking those moans every night...

Masahiro asked, "My lord."

"Where are we heading next..."

Sarutobi Hiruzen shook his head.

"I do not know."

"However..."

"Where are the high mountains around here?"

Night fell over Kyoto once again.

Amidst the bright lights, the Spring Pavilion, usually bustling with people, was now deathly silent.

"So."

"You don't know anything?"

Kibutsuji Muzan's face was pale, his expression gloomy, and a bloody, terrifying aura continued to swell.

Kneeling before him was the madam of the Spring Pavilion.

"My lord!"

"I truly don't know how Renji disappeared!"

"Renji was in her room all night last night and did not receive any guests."

The madam spoke words that did not align with the facts.

Judging by the madam's tone, it was clear that Kibutsuji Muzan's public identity was quite high-ranking.

He likely controlled a significant number of high-level humans.

Hearing the madam's words, Kibutsuji Muzan fell into an eerie silence, the murderous intent in his heart growing until it was nearly overflowing.

Facing the hellish malice radiating from Muzan, the madam could only tremble, unable to move.

Kibutsuji Muzan usually slept during the day, but upon waking this night, he discovered that his subordinate in Kyoto—Renji—had completely severed her connection with him.

This made Kibutsuji Muzan incredibly furious; Renji was not only a capable subordinate to whom he had given a significant amount of his essence blood, but also a key figure in collecting intelligence and building connections within the Spring Pavilion.

Now, she had vanished without a sound or a reason.

A trace of inexplicable panic even flickered in Kibutsuji Muzan's heart, something that had never happened in the hundreds of years he had been alive.

In the past, when demons were killed, they were always low-level ones that Kibutsuji Muzan never cared about.

But Renji was a capable subordinate he valued, having been granted a portion of his Source Blood; her strength was such that she could retreat unscathed even when facing an entire human army.

After a long silence, Kibutsuji Muzan ultimately retained some rationality and did not kill the madam before him.

It was not only because this madam was a subordinate of his human followers and served a useful purpose, but also because, after becoming a demon, Kibutsuji Muzan possessed the ability to accurately perceive human emotions.

Judging by her emotional fluctuations, this old woman truly showed no signs of lying.

It seemed that either Renji had been quietly plotted against and killed by humans, or she had managed to break free from the shackles of Kibutsuji Muzan on her own.

Either scenario was intolerable to Kibutsuji Muzan.

"Hmph."

"I will get to the bottom of this..."

Kibutsuji Muzan narrowed his eyes, a look of venomous resentment appearing on his face.

"However, the top priority..."

"Is still to find the Blue Spider Lily."

"No matter what the Demon Slayer Corps does, they can only stir up trouble from the shadows..."

"These weak humans."

The power that had made him invincible for hundreds of years led Kibutsuji Muzan to view humans as nothing more than food.

And to this day, no existence had appeared that could actually harm Kibutsuji Muzan himself.

Although the inexplicable loss of a subordinate with decent strength made him somewhat angry, he did not take it too much to heart.

If a subordinate was gone, he could just replace them; although the conversion from human to demon had a success rate, the sheer number of humans was enough to dilute the probability of failure.

"Blue Spider Lily."

"Where exactly are you?"

At the location of the Demon Slayer Corps, In an experimental basement, Sarutobi Hiruzen took a Blue Spider Lily from his pocket and shoved it into the mouth of an unconscious human male.

He forced the man to swallow and digest it.

Looking at Sarutobi Hiruzen's pocket, there was a whole pile of dried Blue Spider Lilies.

The Blue Spider Lily that Kibutsuji Muzan had been desperately searching for for a thousand years was completely worthless to Sarutobi Hiruzen.

Although the Blue Spider Lily was not common throughout the Land of Days, it was distributed in certain areas.

It was just that the Blue Spider Lily only bloomed during the few days of the summer solstice when the sun was at its strongest.

Before blooming, the Blue Spider Lily was indistinguishable from the weeds on the side of the road.

This was why Kibutsuji Muzan had no way to get his hands on it, and it was also what gave the Blue Spider Lily a touch of mystery.

Even the humans of this world only discovered it through botanists after entering the new century.

And as far as Sarutobi Hiruzen knew, there were many Blue Spider Lilies growing near the former residence of Tsukiguni Yoriichi.

"Perhaps it is because they absorbed the power of Sun Breathing..."

"That they were able to grow so lushly at the home of Tsukiguni Yoriichi..."

For this reason, Sarutobi Hiruzen had made a special trip to collect quite a lot of Blue Spider Lily material.

"So, besides feeding the Blue Spider Lily directly to a demon to try and make it evolve to overcome the sun..."

"There is another way to use it..."

Having knowledge of the plot, Sarutobi Hiruzen naturally knew how the first demon to fear no sunlight was created.

"That is to have a human swallow it beforehand..."

"And then turn them into a demon after the substances of the Blue Spider Lily remain in their body..."

"This is actually a safer approach,"

"After all, the medicinal power of the Blue Spider Lily is so strong that I estimate even an Upper Rank demon would struggle to withstand it..."

"Only the Demon King Kibutsuji Muzan could give it a try..."

Sarutobi Hiruzen recalled the original plot; that was how the protagonist's family became the perfect life form.

"So..."

Sarutobi Hiruzen looked at the unconscious test subject and produced a syringe, injecting the scarlet blood inside directly into the man's arm.

This was a small amount of Muzan's blood that Sarutobi Hiruzen had extracted from Renji's body.

And sure enough, a demon of Renji's level had been granted the qualification by Muzan to infect humans.

She was no mere cannon fodder.

"Now, all that's left is to wait..."

"For the birth of a so-called perfect life form, right?"

Keep reading, keep reading!