"Meow!"
A cat's cry suddenly rang out in the air.
"Meow!"
After another meow, a little calico cat appeared before Lin Yoriichi.
At the sight of Lin Yoriichi again, Chachamaru's feline face was full of surprise.
Through the sensing ability of its Blood Demon Art, it had just learned that Lin Yoriichi had used that blood-drawing knife again.
Chachamaru had intended to appear directly at the knife's location, only to run headfirst into an invisible wall, unable to enter at all.
Even now, Chachamaru could only vaguely sense a strange location.
With no other choice, Chachamaru could only appear where Lin Yoriichi had been before throwing the knife.
Lin Yoriichi chuckled, picked up the bewildered Chachamaru, and vigorously rubbed its head.
Then he took an unused knife from the little bag on Chachamaru's back and stuck it into the corpse of Hantengu's clone beside him.
Once the knife had filled with blood, Lin Yoriichi fished paper and a pen out of Chachamaru's bag and wrote a message:
"Yushiro, I sent a blood-drawing knife into Muzan Kibutsuji's base."
"His base is called the Infinity Castle, and a demon named Nakime is in charge of it."
"Aside from Muzan Kibutsuji, anyone entering or leaving requires Nakime's Blood Demon Art."
"Please use Chachamaru's senses to locate the Infinity Castle and find a way to counter Nakime's Blood Demon Art..."
By this point, Lin Yoriichi could already imagine Yushiro angrily demanding to know why he should listen to him.
At that thought, Lin Yoriichi chuckled and added a few more lines:
"Although this will be difficult, it concerns the grand plan to eliminate Muzan Kibutsuji once and for all. Miss Tamayo will certainly care a great deal about it!"
"So..."
"Yushiro, you wouldn't want Miss Tamayo to think you're incapable, would you?"
Only after finishing the message did Lin Yoriichi stuff the note and blood sample into Chachamaru's backpack with a wicked grin.
Seeing Lin Yoriichi's wicked grin, Chachamaru instinctively arched its back.
It kept feeling that this human was thinking about something strange!
Sigh!
Kitty worked so hard running errands. Kitty good.
But the human had put the knife somewhere strange. Human bad!
So, kitty good, human bad!
As he watched Chachamaru leave, Lin Yoriichi's expression gradually grew serious.
It still came down to the same thing: once he raised his fidelity to one hundred percent, all he had to do was find Muzan Kibutsuji and kill him.
But when that time came, the biggest problem facing him would be how to find Muzan Kibutsuji.
If Muzan Kibutsuji truly decided to hole up in the Infinity Castle, Lin Yoriichi really could not think of a particularly good solution for the time being.
Moreover, with him here as "Yoriichi Tsugikuni," Lin Yoriichi believed that even if Kagaya Ubuyashiki's family used themselves as bait as they had in the original story, they might not lure Muzan Kibutsuji into taking the bait.
To that end, Lin Yoriichi's earlier plan had been to conceal the real Blue Spider Lily's location while making a fake to lure Muzan Kibutsuji out.
But if that was his only plan, Lin Yoriichi truly felt it might not be reliable.
After all, given Muzan Kibutsuji's cautious, cowardly nature, who knew whether he would simply keep watching silently after receiving the news, waiting until Lin Yoriichi had exhausted his lifespan before emerging to continue searching for the Blue Spider Lily?
So Lin Yoriichi had kept thinking about how to locate the Infinity Castle and find a way to breach it on his own initiative.
And just now, Muzan Kibutsuji had inadvertently given him an opportunity!
"Tch. Was that just to vent your anger?"
Controlling Akaza, Muzan Kibutsuji returned to the Infinity Castle.
He pulled out the knife Lin Yoriichi had stabbed into the body and casually tossed it aside, muttering:
"Yoriichi Tsugikuni, so you're not all-powerful after all! Even you can be outwitted by me!"
Under normal circumstances, cautious as he was by nature, he might have examined the knife closely.
He would have checked whether the object "Yoriichi Tsugikuni" had thrown at the last moment had any special effects.
But now, Muzan Kibutsuji felt immensely satisfied!
He had finally bested Yoriichi Tsugikuni and saved Akaza's life from him!
"Yes, even if Yoriichi Tsugikuni has come back to life, what of it?"
"He's still a human, after all. His understanding is ultimately riddled with limitations!"
"Besides, however strong he is, he's still only one man."
"So, as long as I..."
Muzan Kibutsuji paused, then continued talking to himself:
"As long as I keep waiting patiently, find the Blue Spider Lily, and become a perfect being that need not fear the sun and will never age or die."
"Even Yoriichi Tsugikuni won't be impossible to defeat!"
At that thought, pleasure appeared on Muzan Kibutsuji's face, and he even gave a couple of quiet hums.
Yet when his consciousness returned to his own body and he saw Akaza kneeling before him, having barely regained a little awareness, Muzan Kibutsuji's expression darkened again.
He demanded in an icy voice:
"Akaza, I'm very disappointed in you."
"I clearly told you to take one look and retreat immediately. Why did you show yourself before the Demon Slayer Corps?"
Akaza opened his mouth, trying to speak, but Muzan Kibutsuji had his neck in a crushing grip.
Muzan Kibutsuji released his hand and said coldly:
"Do you still remember the other task I gave you?"
Blood flowed from Akaza's mouth and eyes.
But before Muzan Kibutsuji, Akaza did not even dare wipe it away. He merely forced out the words:
"I-I remember. To find the Blue Spider Lily."
One of Muzan Kibutsuji's hands suddenly swelled, becoming a demonic claw covered in countless eyeballs in an instant.
That demonic claw clamped directly around Akaza's head and lifted him off the ground as he berated him:
"If you still remember that task, stop wasting time!"
"Now, keep searching for the Blue Spider Lily!"
"But don't provoke the Demon Slayer Corps so readily again. Especially not that swordsman wearing hanafuda earrings!"
"Get out!"
As his words fell, Nakime immediately plucked her biwa.
With a clang, a passage instantly appeared beneath Akaza's feet.
Muzan Kibutsuji released his demonic claw, and Akaza immediately fell down the passage and vanished.
"Hah-"
After leaving the Infinity Castle, Akaza could not even spare the attention to look around and see where he had been transported.
The immense agony of his consciousness being torn apart and pieced back together was washing over his nerves like a tide.
But precisely because his consciousness had shattered and re-formed so many times, fragments of distant memories slowly began surfacing in his mind as well.
As though talking in his sleep, Akaza called out a name:
"Koyuki..."
Before you continue