"I refuse! Tsugikuni Yoriichi!"
Muzan, now reduced to just a head, shrieked with all his might.
His voice was filled with unwillingness and indignation, as if trying to break free from all constraints.
"None of this should have happened!"
Decapitated, he frantically tried to regenerate his body.
However, no matter how hard he tried, it was all in vain.
An unbearable scorching power completely stripped him of his regeneration ability.
He struggled desperately, but could not reverse this desperate situation.
Despair flooded over him like a tide.
He was filled with unwillingness.
"I was supposed to be the most special one, the origin of demons, I am immortal!"
"For a thousand years, no heavenly punishment has ever fallen upon me!"
"Even after killing hundreds and thousands of humans, I was forgiven!"
"But you... you are the only exception!"
Muzan's eyes burned with rage and confusion.
"You clearly died three hundred years ago, why did you crawl out of Hell to kill me!"
"Is there really such a deep hatred between you and me!"
Muzan completely failed to understand why Tsugikuni Yoriichi's attitude was so resolute.
Three hundred years ago, he was determined to kill him.
Three hundred years later, it was still the same.
This resolve even transcended life and death...
This made Muzan difficult to comprehend.
In his opinion, even if the other party's family died at the hands of demons.
It would be fine to treat those deceased family members as lives taken by natural disasters.
All humans eventually die.
As long as the murder of one's family was seen as encountering a great calamity, there was no need to delve deeper into anything.
The moment Muzan's thoughts surfaced, Yoriichi sensed these ideas.
And so.
Crack.
He pinned him to the ground with a single slash.
Muzan could only let out a muffled grunt of indignation.
Reflected in his vision was the sight of his flesh turning to ash, slowly disappearing along with his head.
This scene made his eyes split with rage, filled with despair and anger.
Yoriichi sighed at this moment:
"Twisted thoughts, I really don't want to hear your crazy talk anymore."
"Why do you think you were forgiven, and why do you think those people you killed don't resent you in the Underworld?"
"The sins on your body cannot be cleansed even by a Zanpakuto; fall into Hell."
As he spoke, Muzan's body accelerated its annihilation.
Muzan could understand every word Tsugikuni Yoriichi said, but put together, they were so alien.
Zanpakuto?
Wasn't it a nichirin blade?
Fall into Hell?
How can you, by yourself, determine my destination!
There were no gods in the world, and he didn't believe in them either!
It was a pity that his conviction was useless.
In Muzan's pupils, the clear image of a gate was reflected.
That gate was so grotesque.
It seemed to have eerie white bones and black bloodstains all over it.
Though it flickered in and out of view, just one glance was enough to terrify Muzan, making it hard to breathe.
What on earth is this thing?!
At this moment, Muzan struggled to turn his gaze towards Tsugikuni Yoriichi.
He saw a crimson energy beam blooming from the tip of the blade Tsugikuni Yoriichi held.
That energy, like a chain, maintained the appearance of that gate.
Immediately after.
With a rumble, the gate slowly opened.
Inside was a profound darkness, like a vortex, seemingly capable of devouring everything.
Everything he experienced firsthand was so unfamiliar.
Even though Muzan didn't know what was happening, he knew that it was probably the Hell that Tsugikuni Yoriichi spoke of.
—Impossible, how could there be Hell in this world!
He exerted himself to restore his severed vocal cords, enduring the pain, and barely reconnected them.
His voice was hoarse but filled with panic:
"Tsugikuni Yoriichi, you... who exactly are you!"
"What exactly is that place?"
"Why can you control it!"
The last question was what Muzan truly wanted to ask.
Because if Tsugikuni Yoriichi could control Hell, then he would be a legendary god or Buddha...
How could a mere human become a god or Buddha?!
Where had he been during these three hundred years?
Yoriichi glanced sideways indifferently, his voice as calm as water:
"Haven't you already known?"
"This place, it is Hell."
"For the rest of your life, you will atone here."
"As for me, well, I forgot to tell you, I am a Shinigami."
"What!?"
Upon hearing this, Muzan's thoughts instantly froze.
He had calculated everything, but he never expected Tsugikuni Yoriichi to give such an answer.
Shinigami!!
This guy really became a god!
Had he just been fighting a god?
Thinking of this, Muzan's face showed horror, and cold sweat poured down like a waterfall.
He just knew why he died so easily.
Why his subordinate demons couldn't even last a few seconds.
No matter how strong a demon was, it was still ultimately a human transformed.
And between humans and gods, how could mere physical prowess bridge the gap...
Muzan felt regret surfacing, and he desperately pleaded:
"No, I don't want to go there!"
"Tsugikuni Yoriichi! Give me a chance!"
"You are already a god, why do you still target a common demon like me!"
"I just want to live! Are humans really that important in your eyes!"
"To a god, there should be no difference between humans and demons, right!"
"You have transcended the mundane, you can control life and death, why do you still follow human rules!"
Muzan completely failed to understand.
Gods, in his eyes, were supreme and untainted by the mortal world.
Why meddle in human affairs?
Why specifically come to slay him, a demon?
What did he do wrong?
It was simply survival of the fittest, natural selection.
He shouted:
"It is only right for the strong to conquer the weak!"
"Demons eating humans is like wolves eating sheep, this is the law of survival in nature!"
"Let me go just this once!"
"Tsugikuni Yoriichi! Show your mercy!"
Yoriichi quietly watched Muzan.
His voice was flat:
"Demons are aberrations; they disrupt the balance of life and death."
"Mercy to you is cruelty to the world, and even more so, cruelty to the humans who perished at your hands."
"You want to live? Go ask them if they agree?"
"As for those principles, I'm too lazy to speak of them; you are not worthy of hearing them."
"Just atone obediently; a thousand, ten thousand years will pass in an instant."
"I hope by then, you can still maintain your sanity."
Yoriichi shook his head, and then sent the furious Muzan into Hell.
His physical body completely disintegrated the moment he entered Hell.
The demon's soul was stripped away.
His eyes burned with a ball of rage, seemingly wanting to devour Yoriichi completely.
Yoriichi paid no mind.
Just before disappearing, Muzan was still screaming:
"Tsugikuni Yoriichi! I refuse! Why can you become a Shinigami! I..."
However, his words were cut short by a "rumble."
The complete closing of the Hell Gate annihilated all sound.
Feeling the peculiar fluctuations emanating from his Zanpakuto.
Yoriichi's brow furrowed little by little, but then slowly smoothed out.
Muzan's disappearance made him understand how to reshape the reincarnation of this world.
Perhaps the method his Zanpakuto told him could truly achieve this...
...
The Hell Gate connects the Three Realms.
Among the Five Great Noble Families, one family controls the true form of the Hell Gate.
Of course, they only control it, but cannot manipulate it.
What he summoned was not the true form, but merely a projection, yet even a projection could connect the Three Realms.
As long as one summons the Hell Gate at a certain location and enters it.
One can see the true form of the Hell Gate within Hell.
Opening the true form allows one to return to the Soul Society.
Of course.
Due to its characteristic of connecting the Three Realms, the destination can also be changed.
Normally, this would be difficult to achieve.
However, he had a Zanpakuto.
If the destination were set to Hueco Mundo.
Once opened.
The endless reishi in Hueco Mundo would surge into the opposite world like a raging tide.
Once there was reishi, Shinigami would be able to survive there.
Coincidentally, there was a severe problem of imbalanced soul numbers in the Three Realms.
If some souls were guided to the Soul Society, this thorny problem would be greatly alleviated.
In this way, the Three Realms might evolve into Four Realms, and the reincarnation of this world would also return to normal.
This process was indeed a bit cumbersome.
But afterwards, if Yamamoto Genryusai's consent could be obtained, the process of projecting Hueco Mundo could be skipped, and the Hell Gate could be directly projected to the Soul Society.
By then, the Shinigami's travel would become extremely easy, and management would also be more convenient.
As for whether the people of this world wanted another life, it was entirely up to them to choose.
Because to reach the Soul Society, one must pass through the Hell Gate.
Regarding this, no Shinigami could force them.
Yoriichi also didn't want to force them.
After some twists and turns, all three parties could achieve a good balance, which could be considered a contribution to this world.
Yoriichi quietly watched the Hell Gate slam shut, thoughts sprouting like mushrooms after rain in his mind.
Because of Muzan's death, the Infinite Castle quickly shattered.
At this moment, Yoriichi suddenly noticed Nakime struggling on the ground not far away.
Nakime watched her body gradually turn into dust, her eyes filled with undisguised horror.
Lord Muzan is dead!
But why am I dying too!
Damn it!
She struggled to break free from the constraints of those light fragments.
Unfortunately, these seemingly fragile light fragments were like heavy iron blocks, firmly pinning her down.
She saw Yoriichi and quickly called out loudly:
"Save me!"
Yoriichi, however, was unmoved by her plea.
She had indeed not eaten humans, but the judgment given by the Karmic Fire was that she had killed people, and many of them, about a dozen.
In that special era, Yoriichi would not actively punish such people, but he would not grant her forgiveness either.
Let her fend for herself.
Yoriichi shook his head and quickly left the area.
He did not wait for the Demon Slayer Corps to appear, as it was meaningless.
Kibutsuji Muzan was dead; for him, his mission was over, and what remained was to reshape reincarnation and trace the remnants of poetry.
About a minute later, the surrounding Demon Slayer Corps rushed over.
However, what awaited them was a scene of devastation.
There was no trace of any demon in sight, nor any sign of the Infinite Castle.
Only the scattered wooden fragments remaining on the street ahead seemed to tell of the "intensity" of the battle just now.
"Was the Infinite Castle destroyed? That was too fast!"
Only seven or eight minutes had passed from the moment they received the order until now!
In seven or eight minutes, the Demon King, whom they considered their lifelong arch-nemesis, just died like that?
Their emotions were complex, as if an intractable problem that the Demon Slayer Corps had struggled with was casually solved by one person.
And after solving it, he even said they were too slow...
Hoo...
One person let out a heavy breath.
Immediately after, with a clang, his nichirin blade fell to the ground, his mood lighter than ever before.
At this moment, a Kasugai Crow flew in, reporting the good news they had expected.
—Kibutsuji Muzan is dead, and demons all over the world are dead...
—They, the Demon Slayer swordsmen, were free!
"Freedom..."
Among the crowd, Murata stared blankly at the blade in his hand, his emotions indescribably complex.
He joined the Demon Slayer Corps to avenge his family, but before he could, the leader of his enemies was gone...
Although it was a good ending, somehow, he always felt a bit useless.
Also, if nothing went wrong, he seemed to have been saved again...
At this moment, some whispers came from around him.
Murata listened carefully; they were all expressions of disbelief at the current situation, and surprise and admiration for that senior Tsugikuni.
It was as if they were saying that the Demon King was nothing special, but Murata knew clearly that it wasn't that the Demon King was too weak, but that Tsugikuni Yoriichi was too strong.
He was one of the few humans who had witnessed Tsugikuni Yoriichi release his divine power...
reishi, in his eyes, was divine power.
He envied it immensely.
Unfortunately, unlike money, he had no way of acquiring that ability.
While lamenting in his heart, Murata suddenly thought of a question.
Since the Demon King was dead, what was senior Tsugikuni doing now?
...
...
In the Underworld, Yoriichi successfully entered.
As before, the Sanzu River spanned the Human World and the other shore, in an eternal day, the deeper one went, the deeper the color of the blue spider lily became.
When red spider lilies appeared ahead, Yoriichi looked up.
What met his eyes was a wisteria flower forest, hanging from the sky, enveloping some grotesque creatures within it.
"Is this a realm similar to Hell?"
The demons wailed, unable to leave the wisteria-covered realm, as if this wisteria forest was their deepest punishment.
"Meaningless."
Yoriichi watched for a moment, then made this judgment.
This was not punishment at all.
Drawing a circle and putting some things demons hated into it, if that was punishment, it was far too gentle.
Just send them all into the Hell Gate.
It would also add some guards to Hell, to prevent Hell from rioting.
Having made these decisions in his mind, Yoriichi continued to delve deeper.
By the color of the spider lilies, one could tell that there were several different areas within the Underworld.
First, there was the area where human souls lived, covered with blue spider lilies, whose flower language was "desperate waiting."
The human souls living there would not reincarnate.
They would wait for the death of their loved ones.
Only when all their cherished relatives had died could they leave that area and truly reincarnate.
Next was the area where demons lived, covered with red spider lilies, whose flower language was "summoning of Hell."
The place covered by wisteria flowers was Hell.
As for what came after, Yoriichi was not yet clear, but he would soon know as he delved deeper.
White spider lily.
Its flower language was — endless yearning and desperate love.