Demon Slayer: Starting with the Kingdom

"Old friend, let me ask you, are you interested in acting?"

"Acting, acting?"

"It's about playing the demon that gets killed by a demon hunter or something..."

"Oh dear! Help! Miss Mitsuha still wants to kill this old man! Sir, please come and save me!"

With another piercing scream, the dog scrambled through the gap beside the doma and disappeared into the end of the alley.

"As expected of Lord Half-Heaven Dog, who is skilled at escaping, you really run fast!"

Blinking, Douma turned to look at Mitsuha and asked with a smile:

"Your Holiness, should we bring him back?"

"No need, there's probably no point in bringing him back..."

Standing up, Mitsuha sighed softly.

"My old friend is a coward. Every time he sees me, he acts like he's seen a plague god. He's also so emotionally unstable. I don't think he's suitable to cooperate with us in this charade..."

"That's right..."

The two walked out onto the street together, and Douma asked curiously:

"Speaking of which, I've always been curious why Lord Half-Heaven Dog is so afraid of you, Holy Maiden?"

"Actually, it's nothing much. I just dealt with him a few times when he was still human. I guess that fear is ingrained in his bones..."

"Oh! To have known the Holy Maiden since human times, and to have been personally dealt with by the Holy Maiden, Lord Half-Heaven Dog is truly fortunate!"

"Knight Doma, if you say such perverted things again, I'll beat you to death right now."

Walking side by side down the street, their eyes suddenly caught sight of a very conspicuous promotional poster for Xiaomei's new movie on a distant rooftop. Domo instinctively asked:

"Your Holiness, should we go and ask Xiaomei what she thinks again?"

Of the Upper Moon demons now, only Gyutaro's sister remains, and the two of them haven't yet asked her about her.

But as soon as he asked the question, Douma fell silent.

Immediately afterward, Mitsuha, who was standing next to him, also fell silent.

"Let's forget about child labor..."

"That's right..."

Remembering Xiaomei's innocent, adorable, and somewhat dim-witted appearance, the two of them tacitly excluded her at the same time.

"In that case, does that mean we can only consider the Lower Moon Demon?"

Sitting on a bench by the roadside with Mitsuha, Doma's gaze once again fell on the movie poster for Koume on the rooftop.

To be precise, it's the woman with the kind smile behind Xiaomei on the poster.

The woman has long, shiny black hair, a gentle and lovely smile, and a small, pointed canine tooth at the corner of her mouth; she is very beautiful.

The woman's name is Mi Rong, and judging from her position on the poster, she is undoubtedly the second female lead in this movie.

From the perspective of human society, Mi Rong is a popular actress who has suddenly emerged in recent years. She has participated in the filming of many movies, most of which she co-starred with Xiao Mei.

But during the Twelve Ghost Months, she also has another name—

The Lower Moon One - Ubume.

Mi Rong is the name of the Guhuoniao when it was a human.

She was born into a wealthy family and inherited a large fortune after the death of her parents, but because she married a violent husband, she suffered domestic violence for a long time.

This is quite similar to Nakime's life trajectory.

Unlike Naruto, Ubume did not develop a sense of rejection towards her husband's domestic violence.

On the contrary, she actually quite...enjoyed it?

That's right, Guhuoniao is a born masochist.

Chapter 127 Then it's decided it's the Ubume.

During human times, the Guhuoniao would always reveal to nearby villagers that she was being abused by her husband.

In order to create the image of a pitiful woman suffering from domestic violence, she sought to gain the attention and sympathy of the villagers and ultimately satisfy a certain perverse desire within herself.

Mitsuha didn't quite understand this distorted mental state at first.

It is worth mentioning that the guhuoniao's husband later drowned in the river on a rainy day due to an accident.

Although many villagers living nearby believed that this was likely an act of resistance by the Guhuoniao, who could no longer endure her husband's violence.

But Mitsuha was certain that Ubume was innocent in this matter.

Because Mitsuha had seen the karmic threads of the Ubume, she really did nothing that day; her husband truly did drown by accident.

But her daughter's situation is different.

Guhuoniao had a young daughter with her husband before his death. After her husband's accidental death, she could no longer get that perverse satisfaction from his domestic violence, and her mind began to become more twisted.

In an effort to regain the villagers' attention and sympathy, she tried to reshape herself into the image of a "poor widow who is struggling to care for her seriously ill daughter."

However, her daughter was not originally seriously ill, so how could she make herself have a "seriously ill" daughter?

The answer is simple: just do it yourself.

And so, in order to maintain his new image and to satisfy his perverse pleasure.

The Guhuoniao began a twisted behavior of repeatedly tormenting and treating her daughter.

And in this process, they gradually transformed from "victims" to "sadists".

One day, her daughter could no longer endure the torment and was discovered by the Guhuoniao while trying to escape, and was eventually buried alive.

Mitsuha, who was strolling around the streets at the time, happened to witness this scene.

Out of a small act of kindness, Mitsuha rescued the poor little girl.

At the same time, through the causal lines on the Guhuoniao, I completely understood the distortion in her heart.

Because of her wealthy background and the early death of her parents, she was alone for a long time. As a child, Guhuoniao's heart was already twisted and filled with a loneliness far beyond that of ordinary people.

She desperately craved attention and sympathy from those around her, and for this reason, she even got married at a young age.

The Guhuoniao's tolerance of her husband's domestic violence, her torment of her daughter, and the pitiful image she created for herself were all essentially means to gain attention and sympathy from others.

In her mind, a happy and uneventful family is unlikely to attract the attention of others.

Only tragedy, only something filled with pain, can be constantly observed, cared for, pitied, and mourned by others!

Only in this way could she alleviate the deep loneliness that lingered in her heart.

After thoroughly understanding the woman's twisted mind, Mitsuha became interested.

We need someone like you during the Twelve Ghost Months!

As everyone knows, the more twisted one's obsession and the more perverse one's behavior, the more cunning one's Blood Demon Arts become.

Out of curiosity about the Blood Demon Arts that such a perverted human could possess, Mitsuba immediately bestowed her blood upon Ubume Muzan, transforming him into a demon.

During this time, she also took some time to send her poor daughter to other families to be raised.

When Mitsuha returned, Ubume's transformation was also completed, and she awakened the Blood Demon Art as expected.

Unlike most combat-type Blood Demon Arts, Guhuoniao's Blood Demon Arts are a rather unique combination of illusion-type and spatial-type Blood Demon Arts.

She can use a special incense burner to release a special kind of fragrance.

Any creature that smells this incense will be transferred to a special alternate dimension completely under her control.

In this alternate dimension, the Guhuoniao can freely manipulate the five senses of those creatures, causing them to experience all sorts of hallucinations.

Moreover, her true form can leave this alternate dimension at any time to avoid being killed by the demon hunters trapped inside.

In addition, the necessary condition for the trapped person to escape from the other dimension is that the special incense burner must be broken.

However, this incense burner is located outside of another dimension.

This means that if someone is hit by the Blood Demon Art of the Ubume without any companions outside to help them, it is almost certain death for the trapped person!

A rather insidious blood demon technique, perfect for surprise attacks.

If you get infected, it's basically a death sentence.

Even if they can't kill you, just being trapped inside and starving to death will be enough to kill you!

What a treasure.

And Guhuoniao lived up to Mitsuha's expectations. In just a few decades, she climbed to the position of Lower Rank One of the Twelve Demon Moons, becoming the one in the world closest to the Upper Rank Demon.

A few years ago, because of her good looks and strong histrionic personality, Ubume was also taken away by Doma and went to make a movie with Mei.

"As for the next moon, let's forget about it..."

Sitting on a bench by the roadside with Doma, Mitsuha said with a slight headache:

"Among the current lower moons, even the Ubume, who has the best chance of becoming an upper moon, is still some distance from the weakest among us, Mei."

Their abilities are too easily compromised; they're not suitable to be the main villains..."

Nearly two hundred years have passed since Muzan delegated the power to manage the Twelve Demon Moons to Mitsuha.

But to be honest, the situation faced by the Lower Moon demons hasn't changed much from the past; they still die quickly and pathetically.

Of these, only the Ubume is someone that Mitsuha pays close attention to.

After all, she is indeed the most talented and has the best chance of being promoted to Upper Moon among all the Lower Moon demons.

The rest are just filler.

"Hmm...maybe not?"

As if suddenly struck by a brilliant idea, Mitsuha snapped her fingers and excitedly said to Doma beside her:

"Then let's choose Guhuoniao! I have a great idea; she can help me test my new ability!"

Yes, nearly two hundred years have passed, and Mitsuba's Blood Demon Art has evolved once again.

Chapter 128 The Descendant of the Initial Breathing Technique Swordsman Reappears!

Several months later, at Fujikasayama, the selection for this year's final swordsman is about to begin.

The person in charge of presiding over this selection was naturally Kagaya Ubuyashiki, the son of the current lord of the Demon Slayer Corps, who was already designated as the next lord at the young age of six.

A little boy with black hair dressed in a woman's kimono, with a little girl's hairstyle, and even his makeup is geared towards a woman.

Of course, the Ubuyashiki clan doesn't have any special fetishes.

The reason they dressed like this was purely because of a curse from the gods upon their race.

What almost no one in the Demon Slayer community knows is that the legendary Demon King Muzan Kibutsuji and the current Ubuyashiki clan were actually born into the same family nearly a thousand years ago.

It was because a demon king, an existence forbidden by the gods, appeared in the family that the gods cast a terrible curse upon the Ubuyashiki clan.

No more newborns were born into the family, and all the surviving members began to contract various diseases and gradually died due to various accidents...

It was only later, on the advice of the priests, that the gods finally eased the curse by having generations of people marry women from priestly families and by devoting the entire clan's strength to the goal of defeating Muzan.

Even so, all descendants of the Ubuyashiki family, regardless of gender, still have extremely short lifespans.

They will die of illness due to the curse at the age of twenty-something.

Even the male members of the clan, if not raised as girls in their youth, would generally die young due to poor health...

Therefore, the custom of men from the Ubuyashiki clan dressing as women in their childhood was not out of their own volition, but rather out of necessity.

The gods really have a wicked sense of humor.

Of course, these prospective swordsmen who have come to participate in the final selection cannot possibly know these secrets.

They had no idea that the seemingly adorable "little girl" before them was actually their future lord...

For Kagaya Ubuyashiki, this was his first time presiding over the final selection.

Actually, it's not difficult at all.

All you need to do is head to the camp halfway up Fujikasa Mountain and wait for all the prospective swordsmen who have come to participate in this year's selection to arrive.