Chapter 93: The Special Luo Fu! Our Fate, Swallowed by Desire

When Luo Fu, with ruthless cruelty, wore down Zhen Gu, slowly transforming the young girl entirely into his tool.

After descending the mountain, Rengyo Kyojuro quickly received a long telegram from his father.

That is, the Rengyo family, generations of demon slayers, with substantial family wealth.

Otherwise, given the current price of telegrams, just this single long telegram would be enough to bankrupt an ordinary wealthy household instantly.

Through this long telegram from his father, Rengyo Kyojuro finally gained a clear understanding of Luo Fu.

But precisely because he now understood Luo Fu’s past, Rengyo Kyojuro could not wait to return immediately to Mount Kumo, following the markings left by other demon slayers, rushing urgently to reunite with everyone.

Inside a wooden hut resembling a temporary encampment.

Rengyo Kyojuro, Koyoharu Nezuko, Tomioka Giyu, and Uzui Tengen—the Pillar members of the Demon Slayer Corps—gathered together.

After showing everyone the contents of his father’s long telegram.

The entire wooden hut fell utterly silent.

After a long while, Koyoharu Nezuko spoke: “The original breathing technique, the Demon Slayer Corps’ original elders, the ferocious demons—this Mr. Luo Fu is truly one of our predecessors.”

“He is not our predecessor—he is the Demon Slayer Corps’ disgrace,” Uzui Tengen said, having drawn his Nichirin Blade at some point, wiping its blade with a silk cloth: “No matter what hardships he once endured, after becoming a demon, his actions made him worthy of execution.”

“Please don’t misunderstand, Master Rengyo Kyojuro—I’m just… just moved by emotion. I didn’t expect the target we’re supposed to eliminate to be a former member of the Demon Slayer Corps,” Koyoharu Nezuko quickly explained.

In Rengyo Kyojuro’s long telegram, everyone learned not only Luo Fu’s former identity, but also the feud between the Rengyo family and Luo Fu.

The so-called original breathing technique was one of several special breathing styles directly derived from the primordial breathing method.

But that was not the key point—the real key was that Rengyo Kyojuro’s wife had died because of Luo Fu, even directly at his hands.

It was because of his wife’s death that Rengyo Kyojuro abandoned his identity as a Demon Slayer Corps member, even ceasing to care about his position as the Flame Pillar.

According to Rengyo Kyojuro’s account, the origin of his family’s generations of demon slaying was to kill the man who possessed the original breathing technique—Luo Fu.

But several years ago, as Flame Pillar, Rengyo Kyojuro finally tracked down Luo Fu’s whereabouts.

And it was then that his failed mission to eliminate Luo Fu provoked direct retaliation from demons.

Although the evidence of his wife’s death did not conclusively prove she died directly at Luo Fu’s hands, there was no doubt her death was directly causally linked to Luo Fu.

This blow instantly shattered Rengyo Kyojuro’s confidence as Flame Pillar.

He burned down the portrait of Luo Fu, passed down for generations in his family, and sank into alcoholism.

Had Rengyo Kyojuro not risen swiftly and successfully inherited the Flame Pillar position, the Flame Breathing style might have faced extinction within the Demon Slayer Corps.

The deep enmity between Rengyo Kyojuro and Luo Fu was something no other Demon Slayer Corps member had ever imagined.

This was also why Koyoharu Nezuko apologized to Rengyo Kyojuro.

Rengyo Kyojuro laughed heartily: “No need to apologize. This man named Luo Fu is our family’s archenemy. My father burned his portrait, yet I encountered him so soon—it’s clearly our Rengyo family’s fate with him. Slaying demons is the Demon Slayer Corps’ sacred duty; eliminating my archenemy is my own fate. And besides, this Luo Fu is the murderer of my mother.”

Clenching his fist tightly and swinging it fiercely, Rengyo Kyojuro said: “I will use my Nichirin Blade to sever his head outright.”

After expressing his resolve, Rengyo Kyojuro changed the subject: “In these past few days, haven’t Itachi found any trace of Luo Fu at all?”

Koyoharu Nezuko sighed bitterly: “After he took Zhen Gu, he vanished completely. We searched Mount Kumo for a long time and found not a single clue.”

“A pity,” said Uzui Tengen. “Zhen Gu tried probing Luo Fu’s motives several times on the road, but we still know nothing about why he sought Mount Kumo—if we had known, we could have set a trap.”

As the Pillar-level demon slayers discussed how to track down Luo Fu and eliminate this disgrace of the Demon Slayer Corps, preventing him from ever becoming a demon king more terrifying than Muzan Kibutsuji—

A boy dressed plainly, with a pattern on his forehead resembling a birthmark, arrived at the hut’s entrance carrying a basket and knocked on the door.

After entering the hut, the boy timidly glanced at everyone, then explained: “H-hello, everyone. My mother asked me to bring some wild vegetables to treat Itachi.”

“He’s…” Rengyo Kyojuro, who had been away from the mountain these past days, looked questioningly at his colleagues.

“He’s the eldest son of the Kamado family, who live in the mountain—Kamado Tanjiro. The hut we’re staying in was built by the Kamado family,” Koyoharu Nezuko explained.

Rengyo Kyojuro immediately understood, bowed deeply to Kamado Tanjiro, and said: “Thank Itachi for your hospitality these past days.”

Kamado Tanjiro quickly waved his hands after setting down the basket: “No trouble at all, no trouble. Itachi paid to rent the hut. And…”

A shy expression crossed his brow, and Kamado Tanjiro said hesitantly: “Itachi paid too much.”

“Hahaha,” Rengyo Kyojuro laughed loudly. “No problem. Boy, if we paid too much, treat it as compensation. After all, without renting your house, we’d have been sleeping in the mountains. Now we have shelter—and even delicious food.”

Kamado Tanjiro grew even more embarrassed. “It’s not anything special—just wild vegetables my mother and siblings gathered in the mountains. Please don’t disdain them.”

As he spoke, Kamado Tanjiro nervously opened the basket and took out several neatly prepared dishes of wild vegetables and rice balls.

If Luo Fu were here, he would instantly recognize that the wild vegetables and rice balls Kamado Tanjiro brought to the Demon Slayer Corps members—the rice balls aside—were unmistakably the blue Higanbana flowers that Muzan Kibutsuji had searched for a thousand years without ever finding a trace.

These blue Higanbana, prepared as vegetables, were merely ordinary food for ordinary humans, and not even particularly tasty.

But for demons, they were the ultimate treasure—capable of freeing them from their inability to withstand sunlight.

As he handed the rice balls and wild vegetables to Rengyo Kyojuro and the others, Kamado Tanjiro waited eagerly, hoping these noble guests would approve of the food his mother and siblings had prepared.

Kamado Tanjiro’s mindset was not hard to understand.

After all, the Demon Slayer Corps members had paid quite generously to use the Kamado family’s hut.

Of course, this “generosity” was only relative to the Kamado family.

In truth, the Kamado family was simply extremely poor.

Kamado Tanjiro’s father, Kamado Tanjuro, had inexplicably grown weaker over the past few years, suffering from illness for years before finally passing away.

Though Kamado Tanjiro was still a child, as the eldest son of the Kamado family, he was forced to shoulder the burden of supporting his household.

The Kamado family’s income came solely from selling charcoal. Even with Kamado Tanjiro’s tireless labor, they barely managed to scrape by.

That was why Kamado Kikuri had to regularly take her children to forage for wild vegetables.

Though Kamado Tanjiro now brought only rice balls and wild vegetables, these were meals the Kamado family themselves could not afford often.

Yes, the Kamado family was this wretched—or rather, their situation was typical of ordinary islanders in this era.

Demon Slayer Corps members, traveling far and wide to hunt demons, were well-traveled and observant. They easily guessed Kamado Tanjiro’s quiet hope.

The Pillar-level demon slayers exchanged knowing smiles, took the rice balls and wild vegetables, and began to eat them, under Kamado Tanjiro’s hopeful gaze.

Because of Luo Fu’s appearance, Kamado Tanjiro had encountered the Demon Slayer Corps earlier than he otherwise would have.

On the other side, under Luo Fu’s relentless torment—

Even though Zhen Gu hated demons with every fiber of her being, she ultimately chose to submit. But after submitting, her once-lively eyes became utterly vacant, devoid of all former light.

Yet this was normal for the Demon Slayer Corps. To Luo Fu, except for a very few members, most Demon Slayer Corps members were in this same hollow-eyed state.

Hollow eyes were entirely different from the divine inner stillness of the Immortal World—the latter being a profound state where one, after strengthening one’s life force, naturally concealed one’s essence and spirit to prolong life.

The former was caused by a strong body suppressing a weak spirit, preventing the spirit from circulating fully through the body, thus dimming the eyes.

One was deliberate restraint; the other was fundamental deficiency—the difference was as vast as heaven and earth.

Even among the powerful Pillar-level members of the Demon Slayer Corps, many were of this kind.

For example, Shinobu Kocho, Kanao Tsuyuri, Hiori Yoriichi (eldest son of Ubuyashiki), and Tomioka Giyu—all appeared with dimmed eyes.

Solely training breathing techniques to pursue physical strength and killing power, Demon Slayer Corps members had virtually no opportunity for spiritual cultivation.

At this moment, Zhen Gu, due to Luo Fu’s torment, had prematurely entered this state.

Luo Fu felt a faint pang of pity for turning this lovely girl into such a tool.

But compared to his grand ambition, sacrificing Zhen Gu as a stepping stone, he felt no guilt whatsoever.

“It seems Itachi’ve accepted your new identity,” Luo Fu said, leaning close to Zhen Gu, staring into her vacant eyes. “Now tell me—do Itachi know where the Kamado family, who sell charcoal on Mount Kumo, live?”

A flash of hatred crossed her eyes, but remembering the unbearable torment she had endured under Luo Fu’s hands, she ultimately yielded. She lowered her gaze unconsciously. “I’ve been away from home too long. I don’t know if the Kamado family still lives in their old place.”

“Oh?” His eyes brightened. When he asked Zhen Gu, Luo Fu hadn’t expected much—after all, while Zhen Gu had indeed lived on Mount Kumo, the Kamado family resided deep in the mountains, while she lived in the town below.

Their chances of interaction were minimal.

Yet unexpectedly, Zhen Gu gave Luo Fu a surprise.

Luo Fu’s goal in inquiring about the Kamado family’s residence was not to ask them for the Sun Breathing technique.

Don’t forget—before becoming a demon, his original breathing technique had been taught to him personally by Kagaya Ubuyashiki.

He could be considered Kagaya Ubuyashiki’s direct disciple; his understanding of Sun Breathing far surpassed even the Kamado family’s.

The real reason Luo Fu cared about the Kamado family was the possibility that blue Higanbana grew around their residence.

Luo Fu knew why Muzan Kibutsuji had failed to find blue Higanbana for a thousand years: the flower’s growing period was extremely brief, blooming only briefly at noon—precisely when the sun was most scorching.

Even ordinary humans felt discomfort in such weather, let alone demons.

Especially after a thousand years of change, the blue Higanbana’s growing environment had likely shifted, differing from what Muzan Kibutsuji had known.

Its fleeting bloom, restricted to the most intense midday sun, and the harsh condition of waiting an entire year if missed, had kept Muzan Kibutsuji from ever finding the flower.

Though the blue Higanbana had several days of growth, it bloomed only at noon. Luo Fu dared not gamble whether it would retain its efficacy if harvested outside noon.

After all, any tiny variation in a formula that created a monster like Muzan Kibutsuji could ruin the final result.

Now that he had found Mount Kumo, Luo Fu naturally sought absolute perfection.

Unfortunately, Zhen Gu was too clever—she had not only uncovered Luo Fu’s identity in advance, but had also tricked him soundly. Had she been more foolish, Luo Fu might have used her directly to obtain the blue Higanbana.

Under Luo Fu’s demands, Zhen Gu, nearly broken by torment and on the verge of losing her will to resist—or even her sanity—helplessly led Luo Fu toward the location she remembered as the Kamado family’s former home on Mount Kumo.

At this moment, Luo Fu was unaware that the Kamado family’s residence Zhen Gu remembered was precisely where the Demon Slayer Corps members were currently staying.

Although Zhen Gu did recall the Kamado family’s former home on Mount Kumo,

after many years had passed, after leading Luo Fu through several loops in the mountains, she finally began to recognize faint traces of familiarity.

Just as Zhen Gu prepared to follow this familiarity to locate the Kamado family’s old home—

A sense of danger surged instantly.

Zhen Gu’s heart tightened.

Looking around, she realized she had unknowingly led Luo Fu into a Demon Slayer Corps ambush.

Seeing the Demon Slayer Corps members surrounding them, Nichirin Blades in hand, clearly encircling them—

The first thought in Zhen Gu’s mind was not fear of death, but terror of Luo Fu—so much so that, in her mind, death was a relief compared to his punishment.

Before Zhen Gu could explain, Luo Fu, standing behind her, quickly deduced the situation by sensing the emotions of the Demon Slayer Corps members.

Mount Kumo, though sizable, was not particularly large relative to the number of Demon Slayer Corps members.

Especially since the Demon Slayer Corps had come to hunt him, they would surely choose someone familiar with the Yunqu Mountain environment as a guide.

The Kamado family were undoubtedly the most suitable people for the Demon Slayer Corps to contact in Yunqu Mountain.

One was Kamado Tanjiro, who regularly descended the mountain to sell charcoal—his identity made him trustworthy; the other was his family’s deep knowledge of Yunqu Mountain’s terrain, making them the perfect choice for a guide.

One could only say that encountering Demon Slayer Corps members while searching for the Kamado family was unexpected, yet perfectly logical.

“Don’t worry.” Luo Fu had previously broken down Shinobu’s pride and hostility toward him—not because he was psychologically twisted, but to strip away her illusions.

At first glance, it might seem as though Shinobu had led him straight into a Demon Slayer Corps trap.

But Shinobu’s panic and shock, and the Demon Slayer members’ surprise, were utterly genuine.

“Looks like this is quite the coincidence!”

The moment the words left his mouth, Luo Fu’s Seven Sins and Seven Emotions clones stepped out from his body as if splitting apart.

Numerically, Luo Fu was at a disadvantage. But none of these Demon Slayer Corps members were even a Pillar-level threat capable of holding him back.

At most, they were led by members of the Jia, Yi, Bing, and Ding ranks.

Even a Pillar-level encirclement could be easily torn apart by Luo Fu’s clones—let alone these common soldiers.

In the blink of an eye, countless Demon Slayer Corps members lay dead at the hands of Luo Fu’s clones.

Witnessing this scene, Shinobu did not seem like others who had been turned into demons and lost their memories—she tightly shut her eyes in anguish.

Luo Fu’s true body appeared behind Shinobu without warning, gently stroking her hair. “Now, only by my side can Itachi find your home. Let go of your past convictions. I think Itachi’ve already felt it—though I’ve turned Itachi into a demon, Itachi don’t crave human flesh nearly as strongly as Itachi should. Isn’t that right? Otherwise, with all this bloodshed around Itachi, how could a newly turned demon like Itachi resist eating even a single drop of human flesh? Itachi know better than anyone how powerfully human flesh calls to demons.”

Shinobu froze in place.

Among demons, from the Demon King Muzan Kibutsuji down to the upper and lower strings, and even the lowliest demons, the craving for human flesh was utterly irresistible.

Even the uniquely special Kamado Nezuko, when faced with a Demon Slayer deliberately cutting his finger and letting blood drip, drooled uncontrollably—had Kamado Tanjiro not kept calling her name, anchoring her humanity against the hunger, even Nezuko might have succumbed.

Yet Shinobu, though clearly turned into a demon by Luo Fu, had felt not the slightest craving for human flesh since.

Even Nezuko, upon her initial transformation, had attacked her own brother, Tanjiro.

Shinobu, however, had remained virtually indistinguishable from a normal human—aside from acknowledging her demonic nature.

“Itachi… I…” After her shock, Shinobu was stunned, yet elated.

As if reading her thoughts, Luo Fu struck down her hope: “Don’t dream. Itachi are a demon now. Even if Itachi don’t need to eat humans, that fact won’t change. Don’t forget—Itachi can no longer even approach your most treasured Nichirin Blade.”

Shinobu took a deep breath and gathered her courage. “Itachi… Itachi’re not like other demons, are Itachi? Itachi… Itachi’re like Mr. Juuetsu—Itachi’ve broken free from the Demon King’s control.”

Luo Fu looked at her in mild surprise. “Itachi know about Juuetsu?”

Juuetsu’s existence was a secret known only to a tiny circle within the Demon Slayer Corps.

Shinobu had never even become a full member before Luo Fu turned her—how could she possibly know about Juuetsu?

Even Kamado Tanjiro only learned of Juuetsu by sheer accident, and only because of his sister Nezuko’s uniqueness.

Ordinary Demon Slayer Corps members had no right to even know Juuetsu existed.

Shinobu nodded firmly, and even her fear of Luo Fu lessened slightly.

“I… I heard my master mention Mr. Juuetsu!”

Recalling Shinobu’s master, Tengen Uzui, Luo Fu suddenly understood.

As the former Water Hashira, Tengen Uzui was undoubtedly one of the most unusual figures in the Demon Slayer Corps.

Just look at how other Pillars treated demons—it was enough to reveal the Water Hashira lineage’s uniqueness.

The current Water Hashira, Giyu Tomioka, had seen Kamado Nezuko yet, after confirming her uniqueness, chose to aid Kamado Tanjiro.

Tengen Uzui was the same. Meanwhile, every other Pillar treated demons with a “kill first, ask questions never” attitude.

Yet even though the Demon Slayer Corps had already established some level of cooperation with Juuetsu, who had broken free from Muzan’s control,

Luo Fu could never receive the same treatment as Juuetsu.

The reason was simple: who else but the Demon Slayer Corps’ head, Ubuyashiki Kyojuro, had used his unique ability to glimpse the future—and, for reasons unknown, had ordered multiple Pillars to hunt Luo Fu down?

From this alone, it was certain: Luo Fu could never cooperate with the Demon Slayer Corps, even if he proved himself more unique than Juuetsu.

(End of Chapter)