94: The sun is so warm!

The space inside the Infinity Castle completely defied logic. Wooden corridors constantly extended and twisted like living things, while layers of eaves and paper doors endlessly reassembled. The air was filled with a suffocating mix of old wood and faint traces of blood, bizarre and heavy.

Kibutsuji Muzan stood silently in the center of a relatively stable Japanese-style room. He wore a dark purple kimono adorned with intricate arabesque patterns that flickered in and out of view in the swaying candlelight. His movements were calm and elegant, as if he were performing a meticulous tea ceremony. However, the black lacquered tray before him did not hold tea utensils, but rather a dozen crystal-clear test tubes. The liquids within them varied in color, reflecting faint light in the dimness.

On the far left was his own blood, appearing almost inky dark purple in the candlelight, with occasional glints of fragmented golden light flashing like living things, exuding an ominous aura.

The middle row contained ordinary human blood, its fresh red color already showing a murky sediment.

And on the far right were several tubes of faintly glowing blood, collected from transcendent beings possessing Spiritual Power.

Muzan picked up a test tube of human blood with his long, pale fingers, gently swirling it against the candlelight. His crimson eyes showed no emotion, only pure scrutiny.

"Fragile, utterly vulnerable," he murmured, his voice exceptionally clear in the empty Japanese-style room. "Less than six hours after leaving the host, its spirituality completely dissipates, and its structure entirely collapses."

He returned the test tube to its original place, his movements steady without a hint of tremor. Then, he took the test tube containing the glowing transcendent blood, dipped a slender glass rod into it to collect a drop, and gently placed it onto a jade chip as thin as a cicada's wing.

The jade chip instantly turned a dull gray, simultaneously emitting a faint, grating metallic sound.

"Peculiar energy," he frowned slightly, "able to convert external energy into special substances in the blood, used to strengthen the Physical Body."

His gaze finally returned to his own dark purple blood. The blood in the test tube was not static; it flowed autonomously, albeit very slowly, as if an independent life was gestating within it.

He carefully extracted a drop and placed it into another test tube containing transcendent blood.

Hiss—!

With a soft sound, the dark red blood suddenly burst forth with an eerie pinkish-purple light, violently boiling and expanding, almost shattering the test tube. Dense bubbles continuously formed and burst, making rapid popping sounds. However, this phenomenon lasted less than three breaths before the light abruptly extinguished. The substance inside the tube rapidly carbonized, eventually turning into a pile of black ash that settled at the bottom of the tube.

Another experiment ended with a shattered test tube and carbonized contents. Kibutsuji Muzan expressionlessly cleaned up the aftermath. Countless failures had already proven that whether it was the blood of Mortals or transcendent beings, their essence was incompatible with his blood, which contained the Origin of

He elegantly flicked his sleeve, moving the lacquered tray holding the test tubes aside. As his thoughts shifted, the structure of the Infinity Castle subtly changed, and another solution was silently presented. The lacquered tray was empty, but the next moment, accompanied by Nakime's clear biwa note, a transcendent being with dull eyes and weak energy fluctuations around him was teleported to the center of the Japanese-style room.

"Useless," Muzan didn't even bother to glance at him.

He extended a pale finger, directly inserting it into the person's skull, rudely cutting into their Sea of Consciousness, and flipping through, extracting all memories related to

A moment later, the transcendent collapsed to the ground, his life force extinguished.

Muzan closed his eyes, rapidly digesting the plundered memories. Unlike

"Strange movements, peculiar breathing methods," he habitually criticized the crude techniques of the original owner, "...but the essence of this energy is quite unique."

A new idea, distinct from blood Fusion, suddenly illuminated his consciousness like a flash of lightning in the darkness.

He didn't need to meditate step-by-step like those low-level Cultivators. With the complete knowledge system he had plundered and his profound insight into the essence of energy, he used his terrifying Mental Energy to directly simulate and optimize the entire process, forcibly perceiving, capturing, and seizing the invisible Spiritual Qi permeating the space. Vast Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi surged into his body as if drawn by a black hole.

However, this external Spiritual Qi did not strengthen his demon body as expected; instead, it clashed violently with the extremely yin and dark Origin of his demon blood, causing his aura to surge.

But Muzan was pleased rather than surprised.

He precisely controlled the process, no longer attempting to integrate the Spiritual Qi into his Bloodline. Instead, he used his own demon blood as a crucible, forcibly compressing and refining the absorbed Spiritual Qi, ultimately extracting an extremely pure, faintly glowing, peculiar substance. This substance was carefully guided by him and sealed in an empty test tube. It existed independently, neither fusing with nor conflicting with the demon blood, like a neutral

Immediately after, he conducted the final verification. He extracted a drop of his own blood, placed it on a pure crystal chip, and then exposed it to intense light simulating midday sun.

"Hiss—"

The blood immediately began to boil and smoke, showing signs of carbonization.

But the next moment, he dropped a single drop of the pure

A miraculous change occurred. The Spiritual Power substance did not heal the burn, nor did it change the demon blood's inherent fear of sunlight. Instead, it seemed to form an extremely thin yet incredibly tough invisible barrier on the blood's surface, effectively isolating and buffering most of the deadly destructive energy from the sunlight. The carbonization process of the blood was greatly delayed, almost to the point of stagnation.

Kibutsuji Muzan gazed at the blood drop on the crystal chip, which remained largely active under the strong light. For the first time in hundreds of years, a real and cruel arc curved on his ice-like lips.

The path had changed.

He still loathed wisteria flower, and sunlight remained his eternal nemesis; the essence of a demon could not be completely eradicated. However, as long as he stored enough of this

"Nakime," his low voice echoed in the Void Realm of the Infinity Castle, his gaze sweeping over the now worthless corpse on the ground, "Increase efforts, search for and bring more 'Cultivators'. I need...more 'samples' and 'knowledge'."

His gaze cast into the bottomless darkness of the Infinity Castle. In his crimson eyes, what burned was no longer obsessive fury, but the cold, greedy gleam of a predator who had locked onto its prey.

Nakime's voice came from the depths of the Void Realm, calm and unruffled: "Muzan-sama, Doma has sent four transcendent beings; they all seem to be affiliated with the official organization."

Muzan's brow furrowed almost imperceptibly at the news, then smoothed out. "Official organizations... they come at just the right time." A cold, sharp arc curved on his lips. "Bring them in."

Accompanied by Nakime's clear biwa note, four figures abruptly fell from the distorted air, landing heavily on the wooden platform of the Japanese-style room. Among them, a seemingly ordinary black-haired youth was Aki Tomoya. His eyes were tightly shut, his face pale, as he lay quietly among the three transcendent beings.

In the deepest part of the Infinity Castle, the air was as still as iron. On this day, all dispatched Twelve Kizuki were summoned here.

When Muzan's figure materialized in the darkness, the whispers and chaotic thoughts that had permeated among the demons instantly ceased. The high-ranking aura of the upper rank demons pressed down like a tide, causing all demons to involuntarily lower their heads, their breathing becoming cautious.

Muzan's crimson eyes slowly swept over the Twelve Kizuki prostrate on the ground, his voice calm yet carrying unquestionable authority:

"I have found a way to move about in the sun."

In the deathly silence, his words were like stones cast into an abyss, stirring countless undercurrents.

"Do any of you," he paused slightly, as if savoring the moment, "wish to experience the warmth of the sun after so long?"

Muzan's words echoed in the halls of the Infinity Castle like a giant stone thrown into a calm lake. The phrase "a way to move about in the sun" made all the demons' breaths catch, and the fear permeating the air was instantly replaced by an indescribable longing.

In this moment where deathly silence and throbbing anticipation intertwined, a figure appeared silently.

He did not descend from above, nor did he walk from afar; he simply stood there abruptly, as if it were natural, before all the upper rank demons, in the position closest to Muzan. Six eerie eyes calmly gazed forward, surrounded by an ultimate pressure forged from blood battles centuries ago.

It was Kokushibo.

"So fast," Akaza, standing below, felt a violent shock in his heart. He hadn't even caught a trace of movement, as if Kokushibo had always been standing there. This speed, beyond perception, this unfathomable strength, silently declared who was the undisputed pinnacle among the Twelve Kizuki.

Kokushibo's appearance made the already heavy atmosphere even more suffocating.

Kokushibo's calm words, "I will," echoed in the hall, carrying unquestionable weight. However, Muzan did not approve the request of his strongest upper rank demon. His crimson eyes slowly swept over the kneeling demons below, his gaze passing over the other upper rank demons one by one, finally settling on Akaza.

"Akaza," Muzan's voice carried a cold scrutiny, "you have deeply studied martial arts, honed your Physical Body to its extreme, and furthermore, you have integrated the thunder power of Cultivators."

At these words, the demons' gazes instantly focused on the pink-haired, youthful upper rank three. Akaza suddenly looked up, a flicker of astonishment in his rhomboid pupils, which then transformed into burning resolve. He knelt on one knee, fists clenched, his voice firm and resolute:

"I volunteer to test the method for Muzan-sama!"

Kokushibo's six eyes shifted slightly, silently observing this scene. Muzan's fingertip condensed a wisp of dark light, within which strange glowing points flowed—that was the Spiritual Power substance he had painstakingly refined, capable of resisting sunlight.

"This gift will verify the possibility of eternity."

The wisp of dark light on Muzan's fingertip suddenly flowed, transforming into a Bloodline containing his Origin power and the peculiar spiritual essence, precisely entering Akaza's glabella.

"Ugh—!"

The higher-grade life essence surged in like a torrent, far more domineering than when he first became a demon. Akaza's entire body trembled violently, his Raksasa tattoos suddenly glowing with dazzling blue light, and arcs of lightning uncontrollably sparked and leaped around him. The injected spiritual essence was like a self-aware virus, fiercely devouring and transforming every inch of his flesh and blood; meanwhile, his formidable regenerative power instinctively worked to frantically repair, and the two engaged in a brutal tug-of-war within his body.

Flesh and blood cycled between collapse and Rebirth, his skin constantly cracked and healed, with ominous purplish light emanating from the cracks. Akaza gritted his teeth, his martial arts-honed will allowing him to endure the pain that would instantly shatter an ordinary Kizuki.

Just as his body was about to reach its limit—

All anomalies suddenly subsided.

The cracked marks rapidly faded, and the rampaging lightning obediently receded into his body. Akaza slowly opened his eyes, a sharp glint contained within them, feeling an unprecedented and peculiar balance that subtly resonated with the world around him.

Akaza was sent out of the Infinity Castle by an invisible force, landing in the shadowy corner of a desolate courtyard.

Morning light streamed down from the damaged eaves, spreading a golden glow a mere inch from his toes. He gazed at that patch of light, his rhomboid pupils slightly contracting. For hundreds of years, this had been the boundary of death, the eternal nightmare of the demon race.

He slowly raised his right hand and extended his fingertip into the light.

A burning sting immediately came from his fingertip, like touching a scorching hot iron. Fine white smoke rose from the surface of his skin, and the familiar smell of scorching filled the air.

But that was all.

The hand remained perfectly intact in the sunlight; it did not turn to ash, nor did it violently burn. After the sting, there was a long-lost, almost forgotten sensation—the temperature of the sun.

Akaza extended his entire palm into the light, allowing the sun to envelop it. He closed his eyes, feeling the vitality contained within that heat.

"The sun..."

He murmured softly, his voice trembling with a hint of disbelief.

"It's so warm."

Muzan witnessed this scene through Akaza's vision, a cold arc curving on his lips.

It was a success.