The Blade-Wielding Legend

Not long after, footsteps were heard from the shore.

More than ten people came from the direction of the fishing village, some in tattered clothes laboring, others armed ronin, exchanging torch signals with those on the ship, clearly signaling codes.

"Look over there!" Lv San quietly reminded.

Everyone turned their heads to look, only to see an unknown dense fog rising on the beach with seven figures wearing tattered armor lined up, faintly visible through the mist.

The moonlight was thin, unable to illuminate their faces, only revealing the mottled bloodstains and rust marks on the armor.

The seven remained motionless, like seven tombstones.

Seeing these shadows appear, both sides of the trade became very bold, even starting to laugh.

"There’s shadows, trying to act mysterious!"

Sha Lifei sneered coldly, pulling out the flintlock gun.

No gods or ghosts would have shadows, much less reveal themselves before people.

Only very powerful beings could achieve that, so Sha Lifei judged it was someone pretending.

"Wait."

Wang Daoxuan hurriedly stopped him, performing a mantra to use his Eye Divine Power and stared at those seven people, "They have corpse energy, but their souls haven’t dispersed... it’s like something’s controlling them."

As they spoke, customs ships had already lowered several small boats.

Black-clad people rowed ashore.

Ronin from the fishing village commanded laborers to lift coffin-sized wooden boxes.

"Thirty materials, inspect the goods."

The leader of the black-clad stepped forward, opened the wooden box.

Inside were long items wrapped in oil cloth, vaguely human-shaped.

The ronin leader from the fishing village nodded with a smile and said, "Fresh, all have died within three days."

The leader of the black-clad retorted displeased, "The master said this batch is urgently needed. The ’breeding farm’ in Tanba is progressing too slowly, the lords in the Capital City can’t wait."

"Alright, got it."

With the trade completed, the black-clad started transporting the coffins.

"Move!"

Li Yan and the others no longer hesitated.

Long Yan’er performed a single-hand mantra, then pulled open a pouch at her waist.

Buzz buzz buzz!

Numerous sesame gu rose like black smoke, rushing towards the coast.

Sha Lifei leapt onto rock, raised the gun and pulled the trigger.

Boom!

A loud explosion, smoke filled the air.

A figure in the fog instantly shattered into pieces.

Indeed, it was solid...

Sha Lifei sneered coldly, continued pulling the trigger.

But the surprising thing happened, other figures in the fog vanished instantly, as if startled.

"Enemies present!"

Both sides involved in the trade were startled, all drawing their blades.

But before they could make sense of what happened, countless sesame gu came with the night, just a few bites, and the ground was covered with people lying down, screaming in agony.

Against these ordinary people, the Gu Technique was enough.

Meanwhile, Li Yan and others also arrived on the beach.

Boom!

The ground explosively shattered, sand flew everywhere, a figure wrapped in black smoke rushed forth.

"Hehe~"

Wu Ba smiled innocently, muscles bulging, raised heavy gloves.

Only a loud boom was heard, Wu Ba disappeared from where he was.

Reappeared, already standing eight meters ahead, hand raised high, grasping someone.

Under the moonlight, the person showed their true face.

It was a face without blood color, eyes sunken, pupils showing eerie gray-white.

"A zombie after all."

Fatty Lin clicked his tongue: "This Japanese spell is indeed different, zombies use Escape Technique to ambush."

"Not right!"

Kuai Dayou frowned and approached.

He pulled out a steel rod, twirled it, left hand performed a mantra, suddenly thrust forward.

The steel rod sharply pierced the zombie’s coccyx, its limbs immediately went limp and powerless.

"It’s the Puppetry Technique!"

Kuai Dayou said no more, took out an incense stick from his chest and lit it.

They watched from the side without questioning.

Kuai Dayou’s family skills, very familiar with various puppetry techniques.

If not for the hassles of puppetry requiring arrays for nurture, he would have already made a bunch to follow.

As the incense stick was lit, blue smoke swirled, and everyone immediately saw a thin wisp of black energy atop the zombies’ head, stretching like a thread into the sky, ultimately converging at the top of a distant seaside cliff.

At a glance, it was clear someone was remotely controlling them.

At the same time, the remaining zombies simultaneously attacked.

They burst from the ground, wielding knives and shuttling through the thick fog, constantly using escape techniques without approaching.

In the night sea breeze, the stench of rotting flesh rapidly spread.

Li Yan sniffed twice and frowned, "Be careful, there’s corpse poison!"

Bam!

Sha Lifei’s flintlock gun fired, shattering yet another zombie.

Li Yan, Lv San, and Wu Ba took action as well, killing most of them in an instant.

As for those controlling the zombies on the distant mountain, they were not worried at all.

They saw Wang Daoxuan take out several coffin nails and a mugwort figure.

"Black earth dark, sun and moon irrelevant, invisible shadow dark shroud, illuminating all thieving paths, heaven shroud earth shroud, divine shroud ghost shroud..." he chanted in a low and rapid voice, while using the straw man to capture zombie energy.

It was the "Seven Arrows Secret Technique."

Against remote enemies, using spells was undoubtedly more effective.

"One nail locks the soul, two nails sever the spirit, three nails break the evil..."

As Wang Daoxuan inserted the coffin nails one by one into the straw man.

A piercing scream echoed from the mountaintop in the distance, and the remaining two zombies collapsed on the ground.

The beach returned to silence, only the sound of waves lapping at the shore remained.

The two wooden boxes were still in place, and the "materials" wrapped in oilcloth emitted a foul stench.

Li Yan stepped up and ripped open the oilcloth, revealing a corpse.

It was a woman, her clothes were tattered, her face twisted, dead but not at peace.

Her eyes, filled with blood, seemed to glare at everyone, full of resentment.

Copper nails with embedded talismans were inserted into her head, limbs, and important acupoints.

"Great mercy and blessing, what a sin..."

Wang Daoxuan shook his head slightly, formed a mantra with his hands, and began reciting the "Sutra of Salvation."

The woman clearly suffered inhuman torment before death and even used secret techniques to accumulate resentment.

Such corpses are the easiest to turn into evil spirits, favored by the left path.

Long Yan’er was full of anger in her eyes, "This woman’s yin energy is quite heavy, her Four Pillars of Destiny are unusual, and judging by the number, quite a few were used to create that Artificial Demon God, don’t know how many killings were accumulated."

Everyone examined further and found them to be women and children with extraordinary Four Pillars of Destiny.

Under Wang Daoxuan’s rites, all the corpses were relieved one by one.

Just then, a loud eagle’s cry sounded in the night sky.

Lv San’s ear twitched, and his expression became serious, "Many people are coming!"

As they spoke, torches lit up in a surrounding circle on the coast.

Like stars, the torchlight quickly converged, numbering in the hundreds.

They wore the white hunting clothes or red hakama of Shintoism, wielding Shinra Bells, Imperial Coins, Bow and Arrow, among them were those with deep aura, clearly priests and samurai from Chuyun Grand Shrine and its subordinate shrines.

The opponents obviously possessed secret techniques, having already locked onto them.

Backed against the sea, the customs ship long since escaped.

Everyone exchanged a glance, drew their weapons, and prepared for battle.

Soon, those priests and samurai filled the beach.

Leading them was an old white-haired priest, holding a Nine Ringed Staff, its copper ring gleaming cold in the moonlight.

He looked at the six piles of ashes on the ground, then at Li Yan and the others, his face dark as iron, "Who are you, daring to use spells to kill in the territory of Chuyun Grand Shrine!"

Li Yan squinted slightly, pressing down on the hilt of his sword.

They were uncertain about these people’s relation to Jianmu.

In any case, they were Japanese, just kill them.

Surrounding priests and samurai stepped forward in unison, bowstrings drawn, swords unsheathed.

At this moment, a gentle voice came from the rear of the crowd, "Hold on."

The priests automatically made way.

A middle-aged priest, roughly fifty years old, wearing a purple attire, walked slowly forward.

His face was gaunt, three strands of long beard, wearing a black hat, carrying a long sword still in its scabbard.

The old priest frowned, "Lord Tanui, this is a Shinto matter..."

"They are not the ones causing harm."

The priest called Tanui said calmly, "I have observed the Seven People of the Imperial Court for half a month, long suspecting their connection with certain forces in the Capital City, secretly harming people with evil skills."

"To be honest, these ones were commissioned by me to investigate this matter."

The old priest’s expression changed, then he snorted coldly and waved his hand.

The priests and samurai withdrew their weapons unwillingly but swiftly retreated.

Li Yan and others looked bewildered.

Tanui Nagashige walked up to Li Yan, bowed deeply, and spoke in Japanese, "I am Tanui Nagashige, former vassal of Oda, after the incident at Honnoji Temple, I became a priest at Chuyun Grand Shrine."

He paused, looking at Ah Shi, who was protected behind Long Yan’er, with a flash of complex emotion in his eyes:

"Ah Shi, do you still remember Uncle Nagashige?"

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