Sumiko froze for a moment, covering her mouth. "Ah, sorry, I forgot about Miss Mizuki..."
Mizuki sighed inwardly, not offering much explanation.
She simply said, "Regarding this, just pretend you didn't hear it. Continue as normal. If you happen to see it and want to eat it as wild vegetables, feel free to pick it and take it home."
"The reason I was able to break free from Muzan's control and retain my humanity might be because of it."
She was so certain because this was Tanjirou's ancestral home.
Otherwise, there was no logical explanation for why she could break free from control like Nezuko.
Sumiko thought for a moment, slamming her fist into her palm. "Right! I think I picked some back then."
In ancient times, even pregnant farm wives often went out to do simple farm work, let alone minor tasks like picking wild vegetables.
At this moment, Tankichi said uneasily, "But, the flower is ultimately here. If the Demon King discovers it..."
Before he could finish, Mizuki shook her head and interrupted, "Regarding this, Elder Brother, you must have seen what the flower looked like when it bloomed, right?"
She said this while looking at Yoriichi.
Yoriichi pondered for a moment. "It suddenly bloomed, even though there wasn't a bud before."
Mizuki nodded slightly. "Yes, it was the same way when I first saw it."
"And I didn't pick it at the time. It bloomed for only a few minutes before suddenly withering."
Everyone was surprised. "A few minutes?"
"Therefore, Muzan definitely won't be able to find it."
To be honest, as a BOSS, Muzan's intelligence is worrying.
He could easily tempt a large number of powerful figures with the promise of eternal life and have them help him search.
For these powerful figures, allocating hundreds or thousands of people to search would be a simple matter.
Yet, he insists on searching himself because he never trusts anyone else.
Mizuki said, "So I think that flower only blooms during the day in summer."
"If that's the case, the Demon King truly has no way of finding it."
Yoriichi turned his head and asked, "Do you need us to transplant it into the house? It would make it easier for you to consume."
Mizuki paused, then waved her hand. "Better not. If such an important flower dies after being transplanted, what would we do?"
Yoriichi nodded slightly.
The two stayed at Tankichi's house for some time, but only managed to pick a few more flowers, all of which Mizuki consumed.
Although it was still useless.
The flower seemed to have even stricter growth conditions than they imagined; it wouldn't bloom every day, even in the summer... As summer ended, they bid farewell to Tankichi's family. Their next meeting would perhaps be when the spider lilies bloomed next year.
In the following days, Mizuki continued to practice her swordsmanship under Yoriichi's tutelage.
She gradually realized that the gap between herself and Yoriichi was not a gap in Sword Forms.
In terms of sword techniques and martial skills, she was definitely inferior to Yoriichi.
Even among master swordsmen who have achieved the highest realm of martial arts, there can still be an unimaginable difference between the strong and the weak.
Just as the saying goes: If you don't cultivate, seeing me is like a frog in a well looking at the moon; if you cultivate, seeing me is like a mayfly looking at the blue sky.
Yoriichi's talent and power were unmatched.
But if they were to only discuss the power of the sword techniques, Yoriichi, as a human, simply could not compare to a Sword Form enhanced by a Blood Demon Art.
Therefore, the problem lay in speed and reaction time.
She was still far from achieving the speed that even the Demon King couldn't react to.
Mizuki began to focus on training her dynamic vision and speed.
Once busy, one realizes that time truly flies quickly.
During the day, she meditated at home.
At night, she practiced in the mountains.
And every summer, she and Yoriichi would visit Tankichi's family.
Each visit yielded several blue spider lilies, and although she had consumed many, she still didn't feel any closer to conquering the sun.
Every attempt resulted in sunburn, and the most severe time was when her entire body was exposed to sunlight.
The horrific full-body burns meant that if Yoriichi hadn't acted fast enough, she would have been instantly melted.
This led Mizuki to suspect that perhaps this needed to be taken in combination with other medicines.
A figure gradually surfaced in her mind.
Tamayo.
But she had absolutely no idea where to find Tamayo.
Moreover, how could a useless person like her, who only stays home and mooches off others, survive away from home?
She couldn't possibly sneak into people's homes in the middle of the night to bleed them dry, right?
The matter was thus delayed... And another summer arrived.
This year, Mizuki was thirty years old, and Yoriichi was thirty-one.
"Sister Yuko, come out and play~"
Sumirei, who had grown into a little girl, affectionately kissed Mizuki's cheek and tugged at her clothes, pulling her outside.
Sumiko, who was cleaning wild vegetables inside the house, scolded, "No, Sister Yuko is sick and can't be in the sun."
Mizuki smiled and patted her head. "Go play with your little brother."
Children don't have such complicated emotions; she simply said "Oh" and bounced away.
Mizuki gently withdrew her gaze.
"Papa~" Sumirei, who had just skipped out the door, suddenly exclaimed in surprise.
"I'm back." Tankichi walked out from the woods, carrying a basket on his back.
After dealing with his daughter, Tankichi came inside the house.
He took the spider lilies out of his basket and said, "Miss Mizuki, I found two flowers."
Sumirei watched curiously. She had heard that her father went out to find medicine to cure Sister Yuko's illness.
Mizuki nodded slightly and glanced at Sumirei.
Sumiko immediately understood and said to her daughter, "Little Rei, could you call your little brother over to help Mama clean?"
"Okay~"
Sumiko took the children into the inner room.
Only then did Mizuki swallow the spider lilies.
Tankichi skillfully found several ropes inside the house, wrapping them around Mizuki multiple times.
Mizuki smiled. "Then I'll leave it to you."
Tankichi nodded solemnly. "Yes, Miss Mizuki, please rest assured. If the situation isn't right, I will pull you back immediately."
Mizuki nodded lightly, stood up, and walked out of the house.
As soon as her foot stepped into the sunlight, her body was rapidly burned.
It really still won't work?
Mizuki clenched her teeth. After becoming a demon, wounds inflicted by ordinary weapons barely bothered her, but the sun was different. Facing the sunlight directly, the scorching burn felt no different than being set on fire and burned to death.
The pain was unbearable.
Tankichi watched intently. Seeing Mizuki's body burns worsening, he quickly pulled the rope.
The taut rope suddenly snapped—it had been burned through. Tankichi nearly tumbled backward.
"Miss Mizuki!" he cried out in alarm, quickly steadying himself and reaching out to drag Mizuki back.
Fortunately, Mizuki was not far outside the shade.
So painful!
As soon as he touched Mizuki's clothing, Tankichi instinctively withdrew his hand.
"Papa."
Sumirei, hearing Tankichi's loud cry, ran out of the inner room.
"Don't come out! Go back!" Tankichi yelled back.
Sumirei froze in place.
This is bad... Just as Tankichi was panicking, a hand suddenly rested gently on his shoulder.
"Don't worry."