The court lackeys of the eight-hour workday

Chapter 527: Playing in the Gym
Aside from local folk religions, there are only two legitimate religions in Japan that transcend social classes, identities, and regions: Shintoism and Buddhism.

Shintoism is the indigenous religion of Japan, with Amaterasu as its main deity. It is said that all emperors were her descendants. For a considerable period of time, it held an unshakeable dominant position in Japan, but it gradually declined starting three or four hundred years ago.

Buddhism, on the other hand, was introduced to Japan from Goryeo during the Northern and Southern Dynasties period. Initially, it circulated only among the nobility, but later gradually grew and expanded. Currently, it is essentially completely suppressing Shintoism.

Modern Japan can be described as a Buddhist-dominated country.

Nanako was a Buddhist, so when she heard Lu Wushuang relay Li Miao's question, she instinctively didn't want to answer—until Li Miao turned around and glanced at her indifferently.

"It's... Shintoism..."

"And as I just mentioned, that Kaguteda Yasutsugu is a follower of Shintoism..."

Nanako wasn't telling the truth, a fact that both Lu Wushuang and Li Miao could easily discern. For an innocent noblewoman to try and lie to an information broker and a spy chief was simply wishful thinking.

However, neither of them bothered to point it out.

It doesn't matter.

Who to kill first, where to start, and how many to kill are all up to you.

This is the advantage of being in a foreign land, especially a country with whom you have a blood feud. Li Miao is now completely liberated.

Soon, Nanako will realize just how much trouble her lie will cause some people.

As they spoke, the three arrived at the foot of Hirado Castle.

The castles in Japan weren't as large as those in the Central Plains. This so-called Hirado Castle was roughly the size of a county town in Japan. There were no guards at the city gates, and the three of them entered the city without any trouble.

It immediately attracted the attention of almost everyone.

Simply put, Li Miao is too conspicuous.

The Japanese are generally short, with most standing only around five feet tall. Li Miao walking down the street looked like a giant. Furthermore, the lack of a smile on his face amplified his usually concealed fierce aura, sending chills down one's spine with just a glance.

In an instant, chickens flew and dogs barked, and crowds dispersed.

"Which way?"

Li Miao asked casually.

Nanako, standing behind, pointed in a direction with trembling hands.

So Li Miao stepped forward, and after a moment, he saw a courtyard in the distance that was completely different from the surrounding houses. A wooden sign hung outside the gate, which read "Yixin Daocheng" (一心道场), and below the sign was a half-closed gate.

Just as Li Miao stepped onto the stairs, the door was suddenly pushed open, and several young men with wooden swords at their waists and wearing loose-fitting trousers walked out laughing.

Before the young man in the lead could even turn his gaze, he felt as if a wall had appeared in front of him, its shadow completely obscuring him. He turned his head and then looked up again before he could see Li Miao's face clearly.

Because Li Miao's figure was too frightening, his clothing style was unusual, and his temperament was even colder, he instinctively reached out to stop his companion, while his other hand quietly reached for the wooden knife and asked.

"And you are—"

Before he could finish speaking, the man in front of him glanced at him, and then a sharp pain suddenly shot through his chest.

boom!
The young man was struck in the chest as if by a giant hammer, and he was sent flying backward, landing in the middle of the courtyard along with his companions and the gate.

"Ahem..."

The young man spat out a mouthful of blood and tried to get up to fight back, but he was shocked to find that he had no strength left in his body, and even the little bit of "qi" he had honed over the years had disappeared.

It was as if... he had suddenly become a weak, ordinary person!

Just as he was desperately trying to move his limbs in horror and despair, the tall man walked in, his dark cloak like a dark cloud, blocking out all the sunlight in front of him.

There was no demonstration or mockery as expected. The cloak passed him by as if stepping over a pebble, and then she didn't cast a single glance at him again.

As the largest and only swordsmanship dojo in Hirado Castle, and the dojo master being the "Isshin Dojo" of Hirado daimyo's important retainer, it had a large number of disciples.

In fact, most of the samurai in Hirado came from the Isshin Dojo. Even now, when it's not a busy time, there are still fifty or sixty disciples training at the dojo.

Hearing the commotion, they all rushed out.

"Who are you!"

"asshole!"

These people rushed out of the dojo and saw Li Miao walking slowly in the corridor. As they rushed towards him, they shouted curses in unison. Some of the more clever ones turned back and ran back into the dojo, replacing their wooden swords with real swords.

"Go to hell!"

The first person raised his hand and slashed at Li Miao with a knife.

Lu Wushuang was about to step forward to deal with these people for Li Miao when she was suddenly stopped by Li Miao raising his hand.

"grown ups?"

Lu Wushuang turned to look at Li Miao, puzzled.

She had been interested in Li Miao for quite some time, and with An Ziyang tipping her off, she naturally knew Li Miao's personality. She knew he was lazy and arrogant, and extremely picky about his enemies.

These Japanese people before her, in terms of both quantity and quality, and even in terms of the level of disgust they evoked, shouldn't have given Li Miao any interest in taking action. Otherwise, why would she have overstepped her bounds and made the decision?

Before she could answer, Li Miao suddenly raised his hand and gripped the wooden knife that was coming at him, saying calmly at the same time.

"What, didn't Xiao Anzi tell you why I came to Japan?"

Lu Wushuang was taken aback and hesitated before speaking.

"Killing the king and destroying the country...isn't that right?"

Li Miao snatched the wooden sword and cleaved the stunned Japanese man who had been disarmed. Then, with an extremely slow pace, as if he were taking a stroll, he exchanged blows with the next Japanese man.

"Rubbish."

Snapped!
With Li Miao's word "trash," another Japanese man was sent flying, crashing through the wooden wall beside him, leaving only half of his body sticking out.

"Not entirely, it was more like it just happened by chance."

Li Miao strolled in leisurely, casually waving his wooden sword, exchanging a blow with almost every Japanese soldier who rushed at him, and then easily cleaving them away.

“If it were just Japanese pirates, there would be no need for me to come in person. I could just send a few more subordinates. Although the swordsmanship of the Japanese is unique and stronger than that of the martial arts world in the Central Plains, it is still not an insurmountable problem for the Embroidered Uniform Guard.”

"I came for two people and one thing."

As they spoke, the wooden wall on the left side of the corridor was filled with groaning and wailing Japanese men, and only three people remained in front of Li Miao.

Three Japanese men wielding real swords.

These are also the three strongest members of the dojo right now. Li Miao raised his wooden sword and beckoned to the three of them.

"Two people. One is Ji Tianrui, the leader of the Ming Cult. The other, whose name I don't know, may be Xu Fu, the alchemist of the Qin Dynasty, or he may be the strongest person in the world, the one who lived the longest, and the one who was closest to the pinnacle of martial arts."

"As for that one thing... do you know Xuanlan?"

The three Japanese men gritted their teeth and roared!
"Go to hell!"

Three blades flashed simultaneously, tacitly slashing towards Li Miao's head, waist, and thigh.

Li Miao simply shook his head in disappointment.

"The three paths of sexual cultivation have been lost for a thousand years. There are two paths in the world today: Jizhao and Xuanlan. I have mastered Xuanlan, and I am still exploring Jizhao, but I understand it very well."

"It can be said that as long as the opponent's methods are among the five paths I know, I can see through them at a glance. Of the six paths of martial arts, there is only one that I do not yet understand... But I have encountered a few Japanese from Japan before, and I could not see through their methods."

Swish!
The wooden knife in Li Miao's hand suddenly turned into a blur, and when it reappeared, only half of the hilt remained.

At the same time—whoosh!
Three Japanese soldiers wielding real swords slashed at Li Miao, and suddenly a patch of flesh was torn away from his chest to his waist. Wood chips mixed with viscous liquid splashed out.

"Cough!"

Blood spurted from the mouths of the three men, and after a few coughs, the remaining flesh around their waists could no longer support their bodies. They suddenly bent over, fell to the ground, and died.

Li Miao threw the hilt of his sword on the ground, stepped over the corpse, and entered the dojo.

"So either Japan has rebuilt itself over the past few centuries, evolving a martial arts system completely different from that of the Central Plains, or they are practicing the last path of sexual cultivation, which has been lost for a thousand years and has never reappeared in the world."

Lu Wushuang, carrying the nauseous Nanako, followed Li Miao into the dojo, and suddenly realized something.

"I see."

"So instead of directly attacking the daimyo of Hirado Castle, you came to this dojo first and even personally tested the martial arts of these lackeys... You wanted to take a look at what the so-called swordsmanship of Japan is all about, from the basics to the advanced!"

"So the places we're going to this time include not only the castle where the daimyo resides and Kyoto where the emperor resides, but also the Shinto dojo related to Ji Tianrui, and the sword dojo of a famous swordsman from Japan!"

Li Miao nodded.

"That's right... So, could you translate this for me?"

“I will give him ten moves. I will not kill him within those ten moves. These ten moves are his time to save his life. If he fails to satisfy me within those ten moves... then he will die in the eleventh move.”

Lu Wushuang casually tossed Nanako against the wall and walked to Li Miao's side and behind him.

There was one other person in the temple.

The man knelt in the center of the dojo, a wooden sword on his right and a real sword with a beautifully sheathed tucked into his waistband. He was naked from the waist up, sweat trickling down his bulging muscles. His hair was neatly tied back, and below his graying hairline was a calm, slightly stubble-covered square face.

Without lifting a finger, Lu Wushuang already understood.

This person should be the owner of this dojo. He is the same person Nanako mentioned, the senior retainer of the Hirado daimyo and the direct disciple of Yagyu Muneyoshi, the founder of the Yagyu Shinkage-ryu school, named Kaguteda Yasutsune.

Judging from the sweat on his body, he must have just finished sword practice with his disciples. The young men Li Miao encountered upon entering were probably the disciples who had left the dojo first to go home.

He should have heard clearly the commotion when Li Miao breached his dojo and killed his disciple, yet he made no move whatsoever. He remained kneeling in place, as if nothing had happened, until now.

Only after Lu Wushuang finished relaying Li Miao's words did he slowly narrow his eyes.

"Your Excellency is a member of the Central Plains court."

"I wonder what rank he holds, why he crossed the sea to come here, and what business he has in coming to Hirado Castle?"

He was actually asking the question in very standard Central Plains Mandarin.

Indeed, Hirado Port in Hirado Castle was the port where smuggling merchant ships of the Daimyo of Ōsaku were most concentrated. As a senior retainer of the daimyo of Hirado Castle, it is not surprising that Kōteda Yasutsune could speak Mandarin of the Central Plains.

Li Miao raised an eyebrow and suddenly laughed.

"Can speak human language? That's good."

"Take the knife. You only have ten moves."

Kaguteda Yasunori frowned.

"Your Excellency, you are now in Fusang, not Dashuo. For the sake of the Central Plains court, I can forgive your behavior today and will not pursue the matter... as long as you answer my questions truthfully."

Having long held a high position and lived amidst chaos, Kaguteda Yasunori clearly didn't care much about the lives of his disciples. Therefore, he could remain unperturbed by the screams and wails outside.

But that doesn't mean he has a good temper.

He had suppressed his anger in order to find out why no large smuggling merchant ships had docked at Hirado Port for months, and he didn't want to actually kill Li Miao, who was obviously of extraordinary status.

But when he tried to get close to her, Li Miao felt he wasn't worthy of it.

Seeing that Tian Anjing was still going to waste words, Li Miao lost his patience and suddenly raised his hand into a claw, grabbing at the air.

Whoosh!
Before Kaguteda Yasunori's astonished eyes, the wooden sword lying to his right flew swiftly into Li Miao's hand, like a swallow returning to its nest.

Then, with an extremely short stroke.

Wow! ! !

Suddenly, a knife mark several meters long and one foot wide appeared on the floor of the dojo. Fragments flew up and fell sparsely from mid-air to the front of Kaguteda Yasunori.

His gaze became extremely solemn, and his hands, which had been resting flat on his knees, involuntarily gripped the hilt of the knife at his waist.

He misjudged his opponent's strength... It turned out that when his opponent pierced through his disciples, he was forcibly restraining his power! Moreover, that last strike was a completely playful movement, yet it unleashed a blow comparable to that of a Sword Saint!
So... the "ten moves" this man mentioned were not a joke.

I really have to fight for my life within these ten moves!

Having figured everything out, the battle-hardened Kaguteta Yasunori did not hesitate at all. He suddenly drew his sword, but held the scabbard in his left hand. He stood up, and his entire aura changed instantly!
"ah!"

A short, startled cry came from behind.

"The Mirror of Wisdom - Eyes Collapse in All Directions!"

Nanako covered her mouth slightly, unable to suppress a gasp.

She was of noble birth and looked down on the so-called daimyo of Hirado Castle, yet she addressed Gōteda Yasutsune with an honorific title... because she truly loved swordsmanship and even more so, swordsmen!
Now that I have witnessed a swordsman second only to the Sword Saint using the signature move of the Akechi Kagami-ryu school, how can I not be overjoyed!
But the next moment, she saw Kaguteda Yasunori glare at her fiercely.

Nanako suddenly realized that Kaguteda Yasunori had just made a move when she revealed his name. If her opponent knew the techniques of the Akechi Kyoshin-ryu school, wouldn't his foundation be exposed? How could he continue to make a move?
Before she could regret it, Li Miao spoke calmly.

"Eight Directions Collapse? Throwing a scabbard to block vision and then suddenly stabbing is a childish trick. They know how to give it a name."

"You can change your tactics now, but I'm warning you, if your next move is still this kind of trashy trick, you're dead."

(End of this chapter)