The Blade-Wielding Legend

Black Tomb only felt the alcohol hitting harder, his whole body hot and restless; he grabbed the wine pot randomly and took another big gulp, shouting coarse cheers for the battle in the arena.

Soon, the bar was in chaos, tables and chairs overturned, wine flowing everywhere, the moaning ronin being aided by companions to retreat.

Li Yan, disguised as the Blind Warrior, had his bamboo hat hanging low, his bamboo staff lightly tapping the ground with a rhythmic "tap tap" sound, turned and walked away amidst fearful gazes.

"Stop!"

Several samurai under Black Tomb reacted a bit slower, only yelled angrily and drew their swords to chase out as his figure blended into the night outside the door.

The street was dim outside the door, passersby sparse, where was there a shadow of the Blind Warrior?

Only the night wind with a hint of chill rolling through.

"Forget it! Just a blind fool who doesn’t know what’s good for him!"

Black Tomb roughly stopped them, yet inexplicably a feeling of irritation arose in his heart.

The Blind Warrior’s skills were ghostly, and his final departure was so crisp and clean it left him frustrated.

Originally a spectator watching a monkey show in high spirits, yet that "monkey" suddenly withdrew, even sweeping away his face.

He grabbed the half-cooled wine pot on the table, gulped down fiercely, and the spicy liquor couldn’t suppress this nameless evil fire, instead adding to the heat.

"What bad luck!"

He slammed the empty pot heavily on the table, shaking the bowls and dishes jumped around.

Returning to his residence full of anger, Black Tomb lay down and slept.

He usually snored the moment his head hit the pillow, but tonight was full of nightmares.

In the dream were twisted shadows, shrill cries, and the cold bamboo staff tapping on his body, bringing a chilling coldness.

He seemed to be struggling in a sticky quagmire, sinking deeper and deeper.

Outside the residence, two streets away in the shadows, Long Yan’er sat cross-legged, fingers wrapped around a strand of almost invisible blue-black air, twisting lightly like a living snake.

She closed her eyes and concentrated, silently reciting an obscure incantation.

The strand of blue air seemed to receive an invisible pull, pointing towards the direction of Black Tomb’s bedroom.

"It’s done."

She opened her eyes, voice low, "’Soul-guiding Silk’ has entwined his mind. At this moment, his mind is as if trapped in fog, unable to distinguish reality from illusion."

Everyone held their breath waiting.

Not long after, the back door of the courtyard where Black Tomb lived creaked open.

Black Tomb’s tall figure appeared at the doorway, eyes hollow and spiritless, sleepwalking with unsteady steps towards the direction of Long Yan’er.

He was wearing his sleeping attire, barefoot, oblivious to the cold of the deep night, walking straight through the deserted alleys.

When he reached the shadows where everyone was hiding, the blue air at Long Yan’er’s fingertips suddenly condensed.

Black Tomb’s huge body trembled fiercely, knees softening, "thud" kneeling on the ground, head buried deeply, in a posture exceptionally respectful and fearful.

"Kamo... Lord Zhongxing..."

Black Tomb’s voice was hoarse and muddled, like a dream, "Your subordinate... your subordinate deserves to die..."

Li Yan and Wang Daoxuan exchanged a glance, Kong Shangzhao stepped forward, deliberately lowering his voice into a cold tone: "Black Tomb, confess what you know... the location of the High Heaven entrance... Lord Hideyoshi’s method of extending life..."

Black Tomb’s body trembled again, as if listening to divine orders, tremblingly opened his mouth:

"In... in Anma Mountain... deep..."

"The original... the location of the Seal... has been opened..."

"Lord Hideyoshi... every... every three days... needs... needs a pair of ’Pure Yin Life Chart’ boys and girls, presided over personally by Lord Zhongxing... ’Life Exchange and Extension’ grand ritual... extract vitality..."

"...Anma Temple... the back mountain... abandoned ’Monk Soldier Hall’... underground... is... the entrance..."

He spoke haltingly, words fragmented, yet exposed the core secrets of Kamo Zhongxing without mentioning a word about the "Jianmu" organization he evidently could not access at this level, but the key location and method of Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s life extension, and the secret of Anma Mountain, occupied and transformed into the High Heaven entrance, were already clear enough.

"...Very good, return now... let tonight’s matters rot in your stomach..." Kong Shangzhao coldly instructed.

"Yes... yes..." Black Tomb accepted the pardon like a blessing, kowtowed, swayed and stood up, vision still dispersed, sleepwalking back along the original path, stumbling back to his residence’s back door.

Once Black Tomb’s figure vanished, Kong Shangzhao quickly translated and repeated the key information: Anma Mountain, Monk Soldier Hall, three-day festival, Pure Yin Life Chart, ensuring everyone remembered.

"This place is not suitable to stay long, retreat!" Li Yan decisively ordered.

Everyone blended into the darker shadows of Kyoto like ghosts, stealthily heading towards Anma Mountain.

...

Black Tomb muddled back to his bedroom, lay down and slept again, snoring like thunder.

It seemed like all the events just now were merely a deeper nightmare.

However, not half an hour had passed when a hurried knock on the door woke him up: "Lord Black Tomb! Lord Zhongxing urgently summons you! There’s an important matter!"

Black Tomb sat up abruptly, his head aching, hungover yet unresolved, feeling sticky and cold all over, as if he had just been pulled out of water, and the inexplicable irritability in his heart intensified.

He shook his head to suppress the strange sensation, hurriedly donned his outer garment, and followed the visitor quickly to the Observatory at the depths of the Yin Yang Hall.

In the dim hall, the candle flames flickered.

Kamo Tadayuki, his hair and beard all white, dressed in a deep purple Onmyoji hunting clothes, had his back to the door. His skinny fingers were fiddling with a just-lit incense stick, its smoke rising straight up.

"Black Tomb..."

Kamo Tadayuki’s voice was dry like sandpaper scraping, "Come closer."

Black Tomb complied and approached, his heart inexplicably racing.

Kamo Tadayuki slowly turned around, his sunken eye sockets under the candlelight resembling two dry wells, staring at him coldly.

With no extra movements, the incense stick in Kamo Tadayuki’s hand suddenly pointed at Black Tomb’s forehead, its speed not fast but carrying an inexplicable dark energy.

Black Tomb instinctively wanted to dodge, but his body was as stiff as wood and stone, able only to watch helplessly as the lit red ember approached.

The incense tip did not touch his skin, stopping at half an inch from his forehead.

Kamo Tadayuki rapidly recited an incantation, and the smoke from the incense suddenly became chaotic. A faint, nearly dissipating blue-black aura was drawn out from Black Tomb’s forehead by the smoke!

"Hmph!"

Kamo Tadayuki’s eyes gleamed coldly, and with a flick of his fingers, a wisp of deep blue spellfire instantly burned that blue aura into nothingness. "What an exquisite Enchanting Heart Gu from Miaojiang!... It seems the rats have already crawled right under our noses!"

He suddenly looked up, his cloudy gaze seemingly penetrating through layers of buildings, gazing towards the oppressive night sky over Kyoto.

"Longye!" Kamo Tadayuki called out in a low voice.

In the corner, a shadow silently writhed as the female ninja with a polished white mask emerged from the wall, kneeling on one knee: "Master?"

"Investigate!"

Kamo Tadayuki’s voice was resolute, carrying suppressed anger and cold killing intent, "The target has entered Kyoto! Tonight, anyone who came into contact with Black Tomb, especially those... wielding exotic weapons, skilled in Thunder Technique, or carrying peculiar coffins!"

"Mobilize all informants, even if you have to dig three feet into the ground, find them! Permission granted to use the ’Blood Sniffing Dog’!"

"As you command!"

With a flick, the masked female ninja merged back into the shadows, disappearing without a trace.

In the Observatory, only Kamo Tadayuki’s heavy breathing and the subtle sound of burning incense remained.

"L-Lord."

Even Black Tomb, however slow he might be, could guess what had happened, trembling with fear.

Kamo Tadayuki cast his snake-like triangular eyes at him, and when Black Tomb was about to be scared half to death, he finally spoke softly: "Black Tomb, I want you to handle something..."

Black Tomb listened, dumbfounded, "Lord, I...I don’t understand."

Kamo Tadayuki slowly looked towards the Imperial City, his gaze growing fierce:

"In the Central Plains, there’s a saying: ’Those not of our kin are surely of different hearts!’

Outside the window, Kyoto’s night became even thicker and colder.

......

Outside Kyoto City, Li Yan and his group followed the official road away.

The reeds swayed, swallowing the last trace.

The mountain wind wept, stirring up dust.

After a brief silence, a slender black figure appeared on the path leading towards Kyoto.

The female ninja Longye silently landed, her polished white mask glinting coldly under the dim sky.

With a trembling wrist, she led out a fierce-looking hunting dog.

The dog was as large as a small calf, and extremely thin, its protruding ribs supporting dark red rough skin, devoid of any fur.

Its four paws were black and sharp, deeply digging into the soil.

Most horrifying was its head, crudely sewn with three human heads of varied expressions and skin tones, six lifeless eyes grimly rotating, its nose twitched rapidly capturing residual scents in the air.

"Woo..."

The three-headed dog let out a low whimper, the middle head’s nose suddenly sniffed, and it furiously tugged at the leash, its sharp claws digging at the ground, letting out a threatening growl towards the direction of Anma Mountain forest where Li Yan and others had disappeared.

Swish swish swish!

One after another, bizarre-looking ninjas appeared behind Longye, their numbers growing...

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