It changed?
Shinobu Kocho looked up.
The mountain forest around them had suddenly vanished, and a simple wooden house had appeared before them.
Everyone filed inside.
The scene inside immediately stunned them all.
Heavy bloodstains covered the room, and traces of battle were everywhere.
Moreover, it seemed that not much time had passed; some of the demons' bodies had yet to disappear completely.
Someone had slain these demons before they arrived!
"Who did this? Could another Hashira have come here ahead of us?"
"Amazing! There were so many demons here! Who on earth did this?"
"This crater is huge! Judging by the sword marks, it looks like someone actually carved it out!"
All the Corps members were stunned.
They gathered around the traces of battle Su Chen had left earlier, examining them endlessly.
Shinobu Kocho walked around the room.
For some reason, seeing all this kept giving her a familiar feeling.
Then Shinobu Kocho stopped before a corpse.
It was a headless corpse, with an eyeball lying off to the side.
The character for "three" was written on the eyeball!
Shinobu Kocho's pupils contracted.
Someone had slain one of the Twelve Kizuki?
But her superiors had dispatched only her, a single Hashira, while the others all had their own missions.
Who had killed this member of the Twelve Kizuki?
"What's this?" Shinobu Kocho noticed something unusual about a nearby corpse.
The demon corpse's muscles bulged abnormally, its skin had turned a blackish purple, and it was covered in pustules of various sizes.
Wisteria poison!
Someone had used wisteria poison to kill these demons!
But she was the only one in the Demon Slayer Corps who used wisteria poison!
Who else could... wait!
Shinobu Kocho thought of someone.
Su Chen!
A few days ago, before she set out, Su Chen had demonstrated Bee Breathing for Shinobu Kocho, specifically emphasizing that it was also a Breathing Style capable of using poison!
Could Su Chen have killed these demons?
The poison was easy enough to explain; her laboratory had specially prepared toxins.
But how had he gotten up the mountain before her and killed these demons ahead of her too?
There were so many questions in Shinobu Kocho's mind that she could hardly process them all.
Her beautiful eyes instinctively swept the room.
She saw no sign of Su Chen.
That's a relief.
Su Chen should be all right.
"There's human blood!"
A Demon Slayer Corps member suddenly cried out.
Shinobu Kocho reached the Corps member who had spoken in a flash. "Move! Let me see!"
Shinobu Kocho's manner frightened even that Corps member.
It was the first time the Corps members had seen Shinobu Kocho wear an expression other than a smile.
Shinobu Kocho crouched down in a slight panic and carefully examined the blood on the floor.
Shinobu Kocho was not only the Demon Slayer Corps' Insect Hashira but also a highly skilled pharmacologist; her biochemistry skills were no less impressive than her swordsmanship and footwork!
With just one glance, Shinobu Kocho identified that the blood before her was not Su Chen's.
The blood was yellowish brown, and the person it came from likely had liver disease or an obstructive gallbladder disease and would generally be somewhat older.
But Su Chen had none of these diseases, and he was very young.
Shinobu Kocho concluded that Su Chen had not left this blood.
"Phew!" Shinobu Kocho breathed a sigh of relief.
Her smile had only just returned when she heard a voice from the next room. "There's more here!"
Whoosh!
Shinobu Kocho flew over again!
With just one glance, she could tell this pool was very likely Su Chen's!
The blood was bright with a dark tinge; it had originally been perfectly healthy blood, but its color gradually changed after leaving the body.
The slight dark red indicated a decline in the body's oxygen-carrying capacity, which gave the blood its somewhat dark red color.
Su Chen was injured!
Shinobu Kocho's expression changed drastically, and her slender body trembled uncontrollably.
A fellow Corps member beside her noticed something was wrong and could not help asking, "Lady Shinobu, are you all right?"
Hearing the concern of the Corps member beside her, Shinobu Kocho smiled.
"I'm fine, I'm fine~. Since the demons have been eliminated, let's head back!"
With that, there was a whoosh.
Without waiting to see whether the other Corps members could keep up, Shinobu Kocho hurried away.
The Demon Slayer Corps members left in the house exchanged looks.
They all felt that Lady Shinobu seemed a little different from usual.
After giving it some thought, they slowly followed her.
The Infinity Castle.
Muzan stared at the only two remaining Lower Ranks before him, lost in thought.
For a moment, he wondered whether he had remembered incorrectly.
Had Rui not been the only one to die on Mount Natagumo?
Fortunately, Muzan could share memories. He closed his eyes and swiftly searched the memories of the other three Lower Ranks.
The space immediately fell silent.
Within the Infinity Castle, densely packed tall buildings rotated past one another.
The buildings slowly rolled, their sounds echoing endlessly through the empty city.
Lower Rank Six, Kamanué, cautiously raised his head.
He could barely conceal the smile on his face.
Guys, does anyone get it?
I'd just taken a little nap at home, and when I woke up, I found myself in Lord Muzan's house.
And almost all my superiors were dead!
I was about to shoot straight up the ranks, getting promoted directly from Lower Rank Six to Lower Rank Two!
Four ranks in one go!
What did that mean?
It was the equivalent of saving myself fifty years of detours!
Something this wonderful had actually fallen into my, Kamanué's, lap.
At the thought of his imminent promotion, Kamanué could not help chuckling.
"What are you laughing at?"
Suddenly, an icy voice came from above Kamanué's head.
Kamanué's smile abruptly vanished.
"I asked you what you're laughing at." The voice continued its questioning.
It was Lord Muzan's voice!
Kamanué nearly wet himself in terror.
He pressed his head firmly against the floor, and sweat instantly streamed down his forehead.
By now, Muzan had finished processing the memories of the other three Lower Ranks.
He was even angrier.
Veins bulged across his face with emotion. "Lower Ranks Two, Three, Four, and Five have been killed!"
"I have only one question: why are the Lower Rank demons so weak?"
Kamanué kept his head lowered, not daring to look at Muzan.
Instead, he kept muttering inwardly, Let us clock out already! Telling us something like this is...
"Telling us something like this is...?" Muzan's voice suddenly rang out.
Kamanué went numb, thinking, I'm done for!
He had forgotten that his boss could read his thoughts!
"How are you done for? Go on, keep talking!"
Muzan was almost laughing in anger. His employee was not even listening properly while he was lecturing!
There was a crack!
Muzan snapped Kamanué's neck from a distance.
Watching from upstairs, Nakime could not stop shaking her head.
The company was laying people off again.
I'd better do my job properly.
Then Muzan turned his gaze to Lower Rank One, Enmu, and said coldly, "And you? What do you have to say?"
Enmu first froze, then revealed an intoxicated smile. "I'm ready!"
What followed was a speech of several hundred words displaying high emotional intelligence.
Muzan's demonic face lit up with delight.
He promptly gave Enmu more blood.
Upstairs, Nakime could not stop nodding again, silently committing the exemplary employee's speech to memory.
"When you have time, go and kill this person."
Muzan transmitted to Enmu the figure he had just seen in the memories of Lower Ranks Two, Three, and Four.
It was a youth dressed in a black robe, his face covered by a black veil.
At that moment, all the images of Su Chen's battles were transmitted to Enmu.
Enmu processed them for two seconds.
Then he obediently nodded, indicating that he had committed them to memory.
The next moment, at Muzan's command,
a note from a stringed instrument rang out, and the enhanced Enmu was sent out of the Infinity Castle.
Before you continue