That blade's gleam, seemingly carrying the sun's fire, those earrings etched deep into Muzan's memory, that figure faintly overlapping with the man from centuries ago in the moonlight and firelight...
Reason told Muzan that the person before him could not possibly be Yoriichi Tsugikuni. That man had been dead for centuries.
But his body still trembled instinctively. He even abandoned his defense on the spot, subconsciously trying to repeat the maneuver of splitting himself into a thousand pieces to escape this place, just as he had centuries ago.
Clues to the Blue Spider Lily, a chance to wipe out the Demon Slayer Corps-none of it mattered more to Muzan than staying alive.
As a result, the pressure on Gyomei and the others, who had been losing ground, suddenly vanished. Their attacks landed on Muzan without any resistance.
Yet Muzan showed no intention of retaliating. Even when half his body was smashed apart, he never so much as glanced at Gyomei and the others.
His body healed in the blink of an eye, only to begin inexplicably swelling immediately afterward.
Sensing the aura emanating from Muzan suddenly intensify, Gyomei and the others instinctively retreated and took defensive stances.
Just as everyone braced themselves, expecting Muzan to unleash an even stronger offensive, his swollen body suddenly shrank back down.
"?"
Question marks filled both Muzan's mind and everyone else's.
Kanzaki Kumo, however, understood that Tamayo's medicine had taken effect, successfully suppressing Muzan's ultimate means of survival: splitting himself apart.
With his reason already diminished from revealing his demon body, the sight of Tanjuro's figure, which bore a seventy-to-eighty-percent resemblance to Yoriichi Tsugikuni in the darkness, had directly triggered Muzan's fundamental imperative to flee. But his escape had failed.
Although the others also knew about this escape ability of Muzan's, they had ultimately