“Kill!”
After the sacrifice of numerous ninja and the consumption of a precious artifact, the remaining elite ninja finally reached the room of the head of the Oniichi family.
Two Chunin exchanged glances and rushed in wielding their ninja blades.
Clang!
The sound of clashing swords was fleeting, accompanied by sparks, as two heads flew into the air.
“Who dares to die?”
A handsome young man, dressed only in a single-layered robe and wooden sandals, stepped out from the wooden door, holding a samurai sword in hand, blood dripping from the blade.
“Are you the leader of the Oni clan, the one called Oniichi Hōgan, who carries the name of the legendary warrior Kami no Suke?”
The ninja leader stared intently at him. “No wonder you’re a renowned warrior from Izumo, such terrifying power and swordsmanship are rare even among Jonin…”
“Iga ninja? I’ve heard that as long as the price is right, you can be hired by anyone. Now, who is it that wants my life?”
Oniichi Hōgan, manipulated by Wu Ming, said.
“We cannot reveal that information!”
The ninja leader bowed apologetically.
Boom!
At the moment his voice fell, from the rockery and pond in the courtyard, several dark shadows suddenly surged out, hurling numerous blades and toxic smoke toward Oniichi Hōgan.
“Ninjutsu: Great Fireball!”
“Ninjutsu: Thousand Needle Strike!”
“Ninjutsu: Explosive Stream Break!”
…
A series of ninjutsu techniques were unleashed, the dazzling lights almost engulfing Oniichi Hōgan.
Facing this onslaught, Oniichi Hōgan slowly raised his samurai sword.
A one-inch brilliant light emanated from his pupils, instantly paralyzing many lower and mid-level ninja.
“Just by gaze and aura, he has reached the level of ‘Shin no Ippō’…”
The ninja leader recoiled in horror, then saw the samurai sword in front of him radiate a beautiful blade aura like falling cherry blossoms.
Hiss!
Snow-white sword light surged like rolling waves and fierce snowstorms, instantly covering the battlefield.
The ultimate sword technique, combined with the blood energy of a third-level sword master, caused numerous ninja techniques to disperse, and the charging ninja were immediately turned into corpses.
In a flash, a sword beam reached the ninja leader’s face.
Plop!
The blade pierced the body, a puff of white smoke exploded, transforming into a wooden dummy.
Not far away, the ninja leader’s figure reappeared, with a blood plum blossom on his chest. “Even my substitution technique couldn’t keep up… Oniichi Hōgan, indeed as powerful as the rumors say!”
“I am the Iga Jonin—Shimokawa Goemon! It will be my greatest honor to defeat a warrior like you!”
“Defeat me?”
Oniichi Hōgan let out a soft chuckle. After infusing the demon bloodline, Tōgō Fujiisami’s physical strength and regenerative abilities had reached their peak—even surpassing it. Now, as he raised his samurai sword, a demonic phantom shadow loomed solidly behind him. “Secret Technique—”
“It’s over…”
Facing this fatal strike capable of killing him, Goemon’s eyes instead showed a smile. Instantly, he took out a scroll and tore it open.
Boom!
Astonishing power ripples immediately spread outward.
Far away, Wu Ming’s face showed a trace of horror. “This… is the power of the fourth level!”
Golden power concentrated into a line, slicing straight through. Oniichi Hōgan’s expression turned blank, then suddenly a blood line appeared on his forehead, and in an instant, his entire body turned into a golden flame, burning to ashes.
Silence fell around. The burst of power strong enough to kill him didn’t even affect the nearby wooden pavilions, leaving only a long black scar on the ground, representing the ultimate control!
“This… is the power of a deity? Too… too powerful…”
Even Goemon himself was stunned by the result of the battle, his eyes showing boundless greed. “If I could obtain such power…”
“A scroll sealing a fourth-level full-power attack! It must be an item from the Divine Ranking. To deal with me, they must have spent at least ten thousand merits…”
Far away, Wu Ming also became certain. “Too bad… It’s confirmed there are no ambushes around. That authority holder himself didn’t come, but sent an upper ninja as a sacrificial pawn. How cunning!”
Shaking his head, he took a step forward, seemingly teleporting, appearing in front of this ninja.
“You… who are you?”
Goemon was horrified. No matter who it was, seeing someone who had just killed Oniichi Hōgan and then another identical figure appearing in front of them would react the same way.
But he was a battle-hardened Jonin after all. With a wave of his hand, he unleashed a powerful ninjutsu, stronger than that of a Chunin.
Moreover, a burst of purple mist exploded in front of him, clearly indicating his intention to escape.
“Oh? It seems you’ve already exhausted such powerful items, huh?”
The ninjutsu passed through the Oniichi Hōgan in front of him without resistance, creating ripples like waves, revealing it was just an illusion.
The real Wu Ming, however, suddenly appeared behind Goemon, his palm crackling with lightning, instantly covering the top of Goemon’s head.
Goemon shuddered and instantly lost control of his body.
Before he was completely engulfed by the darkness, Wu Ming’s final words faintly reached his ears:
“Just a variation of the Five Elements Escape Technique—how dare you flaunt it before me?”
“Lord Oniichi!”
“My Lord!”
“My Master!”
At this moment, a group of people rushed in. Leading them were Matsushita Shōta and Matsushita Kenichi, who looked furious. Following them were numerous samurai and foot soldiers, including Hayao Sōji and Tachibana Shigehiro, which slightly surprised Wu Ming.
“My Lord, are you alright?”
Many of his subordinates, swords in hand and some still wounded, knelt and asked.
“I’m fine! Kill all these Iga ninja!”
Looking at the still clamorous battlefield outside, Wu Ming coldly ordered.
“Yes, sir!”
Matsushita Shōta and Matsushita Kenichi loudly agreed and charged out like demons…
…
“Hagi Province, the Mōri clan?!”
The follow-up matters in Tomita Maru were naturally handled by Tachibana Shigehiro and Hayao Sōji. Wu Ming, however, was thinking about the intelligence he had extracted from Shimokawa Goemon.
Ever since he had spread his reputation, he had known this day would come, so he prepared a shadow warrior.
It appeared that Tōgō Fujisada had performed his duty admirably, taking a bullet for Wu Ming.
“As for the initial Binding Pearl, I just happened to see it in the main shrine’s exchange, and the scroll that followed was definitely produced in the main shrine space…”
In fact, even Wu Ming himself might have been seriously injured or even killed by that fourth-level scroll.
After obtaining this crucial intelligence, he wasted no time and quickly rode toward the territory of the Mōri clan in Hagi Province.
“According to Shimokawa Goemon’s confession, the person who hired him delivered the payment through the Mōri clan of Hagi Province…”
“Moreover… there is also an Iga ninja base in Hagi Province…”
“Before receiving the news, that cycle user might not leave yet…”
“Or perhaps, hiding within the Mōri clan!”
“Therefore, we must act quickly!”
Hagi Province bordered Izumo Province and was a large province with a rice yield of several hundred thousand koku.
Unlike Izumo Province, at this time, there was no unified daimyō in Hagi Province. Instead, several clans were competing for the position of provincial lord, and the Mōri clan was one of them.
By this time, the Mōri clan had already taken control of three major castles: Yoshida Gunkōzan Castle, Sarukake Castle, and Kagamiyama Castle, with a rice yield of 50,000 koku. They were the most promising daimyō-level force likely to unify Hagi Province.
In a common tavern in Kagamiyama Castle,
“May I ask if the Iga ninja are here?”
It was already late, and several servants had already taken down the curtains and closed the shop doors, but they saw that in the center of the tavern, somehow there was now an extra figure of a white-clad samurai.
“Iga ninja? What are you talking about?”
One of the servants laughed, unaware that the expressions of his several companions had already changed.
“Where did you hear this from?”
The boss of the shop, a female leader, came out with a gloomy expression.
“Shimokawa Goemon asked me to send his regards to you all!”
Wu Ming raised his head and smiled leisurely.
“Chief? No! Wait, everyone be careful!”
The boss’s face changed, and she was just about to pull something from under the counter when, in a flash, Wu Ming had already arrived in front of her. Without mercy, the Wind Demon Blade sliced across her smooth, delicate neck.
Plop!
A large spray of blood splattered like plum blossoms, carrying a tragic beauty.
“Ahh… How can the beauty of falling cherry blossoms compare to this?”
Wu Ming sighed, quickly proceeding with the massacre. Whether they were disguised ninja or servants, they all clutched their necks and fell down in pain, without disturbing the nearby residents.
“Although the Iga ninja are for hire, they were commissioned by others to come after me. It feels somewhat annoying!”
Wu Ming shook his head, wiping the samurai sword with a white silk cloth and casually throwing it away.
“Matters of the dark world should be resolved by those in the dark world… It seems it’s time to start building my own ninja army…”
…
Sarukake Castle.
It was early morning. A samurai with a bamboo hat pulled low over his eyes walked step by measured step into a seemingly ordinary farmhouse in the countryside.
“The main shrine did not give a task completion prompt, but judging by the timing, the action should have started by now… In that case… the Iga ninja mission failed?”
“A bunch of damned bastards, and that damned Shimokawa Goemon, even as a Jonin he could still fail… and even used up the rare item I gave him…”
“But still… I must rely on these Iga ninja to obtain specific intelligence…”
“This opponent is at least a grandmaster of martial arts, a Taoist immortal-level expert… difficult to deal with, and I wonder how much my authority will increase if I kill him?”
With a bit of anticipation and a hint of malice, the man slowly walked into the farmhouse.
This place was a secret base of the Iga ninja and an intelligence trading post, where they had agreed to receive messages daily.
But as soon as he entered, he felt something was wrong: “There’s the aura of a dead soul!”
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