Bai Cangshu’s Revenge, from Morning till Night

"Mr. Mercenary Tao, although Muzan escaped, the Master is fully aware of your contributions. The Master asked me to tell you that whatever you desire, the Ubuyashiki Family will find a way to provide it. Please continue helping us… hunt down Muzan."

Himejima Gyomei knelt on the tatami, yet he still resembled a small mountain. Bai Cangshu estimated that the man’s basic attributes were likely all extremely close to the maximum of 20 points.

In the Reincarnation Space, reaching 20 points in a basic attribute triggered an extreme-value reward, granting a special talent or ability. That was the most fundamental threshold for advancing to the strong rank.

When a paper-rank Reincarnator’s combined Strength, Agility, Constitution, and Spirit exceeded 40 points, the Space would determine that they could accept an advancement mission and attempt to enter the Bing-level.

As long as Reincarnators did not die and continued undertaking missions, theoretically, every Reincarnator would eventually reach this stage. And advancement missions were not particularly difficult.

The so-called requirement of single-handedly killing a Bing-level enemy was not especially difficult for Reincarnators, who could access many resources. Given suitable conditions and enough High-Explosive Grenades, the mission could be completed.

But the threshold for entering the strong rank was far higher.

Bai Cangshu knew that Himejima Gyomei’s actions probably counted, in a sense, as opening the Demon Slayer Corps faction’s Reputation Shop. But the Demon Slayer Corps mainly offered swordsmanship and Breathing Style abilities.

Bai Cangshu was not particularly interested.

After thinking for a moment, he said,

"Can I look through the Breathing Styles of every branch?"

Himejima Gyomei froze. Behind him, Kocho Kanae and Shinazugawa Sanemi wore different expressions. That request was truly quite greedy.

The Demon Slayer Corps had been able to fight Man-eating Demons because of the Breathing Styles and sword techniques passed down for centuries. In a sense, those were the Ubuyashiki Family’s most precious possessions.

With an indifferent smile, Bai Cangshu added,

"In return, although I won’t continue hunting down Kibutsuji Muzan, I’ll find a way to teach you the Breathing Style that can kill demons with the physical body alone."

Creak.

Himejima Gyomei instantly rose, the sound of his tensed, moving muscles like steel gears.

He held himself half-risen, his entirely white eyes widened.

"Kill demons… with the physical body…"

He had not witnessed Bai Cangshu fight. He had only sensed from his aura that this "Mercenary Tao" was indeed a rare expert with an exceptionally powerful physique.

Kocho Kanae had described how he could casually kill Man-eating Demons. Every demon struck by that ripple-like golden breath of his melted to death directly, unable to regenerate.

And he was actually willing to teach this power to the Demon Slayer Corps?!!

Warning, Code Ex051: The Space cannot directly write abilities into the bodies of non-Reincarnators.

Warning, Code Ex051: Allowing items or abilities that do not belong to this world to enter it may cause unforeseeable changes in the world, and such changes will prevent corresponding Singularities from forming.

Bai Cangshu was not deceiving Himejima Gyomei. But the moment the thought arose, two crimson Space notifications appeared.

Rather than being deterred by these two "warning" messages, Bai Cangshu instead gleaned some deeper mechanisms of the Space from them.

First, when the Space used scrolls or so-called Goddesses to allow players to learn and improve abilities, it regarded the process as "writing." This wording was closer to a programmatic language than anything mystical.

Combined with the Space’s consistently "precise" mission descriptions, Bai Cangshu had reason to believe that this Space was indeed a non-personified existence.

If it had been a higher will closer to the mystical side, words like "infuse" or "impart" would perhaps have been more accurate.

Second, Singularities were products born when Reincarnators’ actions caused the development of a world to deviate, resulting in new branches of fate.

Yet in this world, he had received no corresponding Singularities whether he killed Doma or Kokushibo. At first, Bai Cangshu had assumed they were not powerful enough, but now it seemed this might be related to the world itself.

The Space’s warning indicated that if he introduced items or abilities from other worlds into this one, causing unforeseeable changes, those changes would not generate Singularities.

That was quite interesting. After all, if players wanted to cause large-scale plot changes, aside from killing major figures such as protagonists, the easiest method was to spread things that did not belong to that world.

For example, spreading high-tech equipment and knowledge in a backward world to trigger widespread reform.

Yet the Space stated that such changes would not generate Singularities.

In other words, if Bai Cangshu’s earlier understanding had been correct, then the Space was like a hive, and Reincarnators were like worker bees. The Space dispatched Reincarnators to various worlds to gather the information it needed, and fresh, unknown changes were the information it most desired, which was why it rewarded them with Singularities.

But changes produced through the interaction and collision of information from two worlds, new information mixed from two kinds of information, were not what the Space needed. Thus, there was no reward.

Going further, Bai Cangshu had already guessed why normally killing Kokushibo and Doma in this world had not rewarded him with Singularities.

It was because the changes in Kibutsuji Muzan of this world had not arisen naturally. Kibutsuji Muzan had changed because of some item belonging to a Reincarnator, gaining intelligence that did not belong to him.

Twenty-Two Tarot, granting the chosen one the second card—the High Priestess.

Was that the unique trait of this sequence of Reincarnators?

"Although you may not necessarily be able to learn it, I do intend to leave that ability with you. After all…"

"Kibutsuji Muzan thinks he got one over on me, so I have to leave him a little surprise, don’t I?"

Bai Cangshu was not generous. On the contrary, he was fiercely competitive.

Vincent and Muzan both believed they had gained an advantage over Bai Cangshu through last night’s actions, so he would have to teach those two a lesson.

With Kibutsuji Muzan’s cowardly nature, he would probably be thinking of hiding somewhere. Then Bai Cangshu could only leave behind the ultimate nemesis of Man-eating Demons in this world—Hamon.

As for Vincent… Bai Cangshu felt that the man seemed to have misunderstood something.

Reincarnators were not Plot Characters. The battles of Reincarnators had never been confined to mission worlds…

A gentleman could take ten years to avenge a grievance, but when Bai Cangshu sought revenge, he would do it from morning till night.

"If you’ve taken what belongs to me, you’ll have to return it with interest."

Himejima Gyomei immediately contacted the Master with a Kasugai Crow and finalized the matter. The instructors of the various Breathing Styles were sent to Kyoto by the Kakushi at all costs in less than half a day.