"You have received a hidden quest."
"Slay Upper Rank Six of the Twelve Kizuki. Quest reward: Upper Rank Six Random Blood Demon Art x1, Upper Rank Six Random Blood Demon Art x1, Shard of God's Stone x15."
"So the demon in the Entertainment District is an Upper Rank demon. No wonder the Sound Hashira had to personally intervene!"
Byakuya showed a look of realization. A demon that Tengen Uzui had to personally deal with surely wouldn't be ordinary.
At the same time, Byakuya wore a puzzled expression.
What was with these rewards?
Upper Rank Six Random Blood Demon Art was easy to understand; it meant randomly obtaining one of the opponent's blood demon arts.
But why were there two?
If it meant randomly obtaining two of the opponent's blood demon arts, then it would have just said "x2."
So, was there something more to it?
As Byakuya was pondering, Hinatsuru checked the obi and said, "This doesn't seem to be a demon? It's just a demonic object."
Byakuya snapped back to attention and said, "Of course, the matter isn't over yet."
The true demon was Upper Rank Six. This obi was likely just an item belonging to the demon, used to imprison "food."
Byakuya said, "Leave the cleanup here to you. Notify your husband, I'll be taking my leave."
After speaking, Byakuya's body transformed into a bolt of electricity and vanished. When he reappeared, Byakuya was already back on the streets of the Entertainment District.
Due to the sudden earthquake, many people had fled to the streets.
Byakuya spotted Tanjiro Kamado among the crowd, looking around. He clearly hadn't run out because of the earthquake.
Instead, as the ground cracked due to the battle, Tanjiro had smelled the presence of a demon from underground.
Byakuya waved at Tanjiro from within the crowd and then moved through the throng to a nearby corner.
"Don't worry, there was a demon, but I've already dealt with it," Byakuya said. "But the matter isn't over yet. There are still demons lurking within the Entertainment District, and they are clearly more troublesome."
Tanjiro asked, "Do you have any leads, Mr. Byakuya?"
"Yes!" Byakuya replied. "Who is the most beautiful woman in the Entertainment District?"
Tanjiro said, "Of course, it's the oiran."
Byakuya asked, "And the most beautiful among the oiran?"
Tanjiro thought for a moment and said, "Every establishment has its own oiran, but the most famous ones are likely Koisumi-oiran of Tokito House and Warabihime-oiran of Kyogoku House."
Byakuya said, "You go find Koisumi, I'll go find Warabihime."
Tanjiro looked confused. "Are the demons going to target them?"
Byakuya explained, "Currently, the missing people are all beautiful girls from the Entertainment District. Although I don't know the reason, the keywords are definitely 'beautiful' and 'girls.' Given that, wouldn't the most beautiful girls in the Entertainment District become his targets?"
Tanjiro nodded. "That makes sense. In that case, I will definitely take good care of Koisumi-san."
"Mhm!" Byakuya nodded, then sheepishly added, "Can I have some money first?" He scratched his head awkwardly. "Finding an oiran costs a lot of money. Without money, I can't even get into the house."
Tanjiro took out his money pouch and handed it to Byakuya. "This is all I have."
Byakuya nodded, took the money, and then went back to catch up on sleep.
Demons generally don't appear during the day because they fear sunlight. However, operating within buildings is different. But since Byakuya had just dealt with that obi, he felt that even if the opponent was Upper Rank Six, they wouldn't be brazen enough to come out and cause trouble.
Walking along the street, Byakuya checked his rewards.
The Shards of God's Stone were a given; they were good stuff.
Recently, Byakuya had scavenged quite a lot of God's Stone Shards, all thanks to the favor of Karasumaru and the brothers of the Evil Spirit Squad, who bravely sacrificed their God's Stone Shards.
With another fifteen now, he was certainly more comfortable.
But it was still a long way from a single God's Stone. Moreover, Byakuya felt he wouldn't achieve it anytime soon, especially with the gluttonous Steel Slime around.
Sound Breathing...
Even though there were two quests, one of them was an advancement of Sound Breathing.
Byakuya thought it was pretty good. This should be quite popular, especially the advanced version. He should be able to exchange it for something good.
Besides that, there was also good news...
The proficiency of the Rumble-Rumble Fruit had reached its maximum.
Rumble-Rumble Fruit (Devil Fruit) (Item) (Gold): Upon consumption, it is the ultimate Logia-type Devil Fruit that allows the user's body to become elemental. The user can transform their body into lightning. While in the lightning state, physical attacks are nullified, some energy attacks are nullified, and the user can unleash lightning for attacks. Through mastery of the ability, the power of attacks can be enhanced, and more techniques can be learned.
Weaknesses: Cannot touch seawater or Seastone.
Current Proficiency: 0/3000
Techniques Unlocked: 3/12
Abilities: Teleportation (Utilizing the Rumble-Rumble Fruit to emit an electric field, transforming into current, allowing high-speed movement within the field and ignoring obstacles).
Lightning (Releasing terrifying lightning from the palm with immense destructive power, its dazzling light can affect the vision of targets within a certain area).
Thunder Shock (A supersonic shockwave generated by breaking the air with lightning, repelling approaching attacks).
Byakuya's expression initially lit up; it was a defensive technique. Then, his expression fell. Zhenyuan Bodyguard seemed to be ready for retirement.
Although the Rumble-Rumble Fruit previously had only two moves, one for teleportation and one for discharging electricity, which seemed a bit monotonous, Byakuya actually had quite a few offensive methods and didn't lack them. So, monotony was fine.
However, in terms of defensive means, Byakuya was indeed quite lacking. Being able to add another move now was a good thing.
Upon closer inspection, Byakuya realized that Thunder Shock wasn't a purely defensive technique. It didn't block but rather repelled attacks.
Looking at it this way, the opponent might not even have a chance to touch Byakuya. Moreover, even if they did, physical attacks would still be ineffective against him.
Therefore, the effectiveness of Zhenyuan Bodyguard seemed even weaker.
After all, Zhenyuan Bodyguard was a purely "blocking" type defensive technique.
The fortunate part was that Zhenyuan Bodyguard was part of the Five Elemental Curses, and it would eventually be upgraded and advanced, so it wouldn't be completely useless.
As for proficiency...
The second stage of proficiency had increased from 0/1000 to 0/3000.
It didn't seem like much at the moment, but if it kept doubling like this, and the Rumble-Rumble Fruit had twelve effects in total...
Byakuya couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat.
The Steel Slime needed to consume things, the King's Treasure needed weapons to be thrown into it, and the Rumble-Rumble Fruit needed to increase its proficiency...
Was his future promising or fraught with hardship?
Just looking at it made Byakuya feel a bit tired.
Fortunately, Byakuya had the spirit of Ah Q. Thinking about his woes, he decided not to dwell on them.
He'd go back to sleep!
...