The court lackeys of the eight-hour workday

Chapter 549 Successor
The Gu worm in the monk's hand pointed directly at Lu Wushuang's sleeve, where the soft sword that killed the monk was hidden. Although the bloodstains had been wiped away, the smell could not escape the Gu worm's sense of smell.

Arrows rained down.

The burly monk watched expressionlessly, his gaze sweeping over Nanako and Miyoshi Ryota without lingering, pausing briefly on Lu Wushuang before finally settling on Li Miao.

On the surface, the man was pale, still wrapped tightly in a bearskin cloak even in midsummer, and coughed lightly every now and then, looking like he was terminally ill. He didn't seem like a threat at all.

But the burly monk knew that the senses could deceive.

Compared to the pitifully barren five senses of humans, he was more willing to believe in things outside of humans—such as Gu worms.

As Lu Wushuang suddenly thrust out two short swords to block the incoming rain of arrows alongside Miyoshi Ryota, the burly monk moved his hand, pointing the head of the Gu worm in his hand at Li Miao.

Hiss! Hiss!

The worm suddenly let out a shrill cry and abruptly lowered its head to the palm of the hand, just like a human kneeling to worship a god. No matter how the burly monk moved his palm, it never raised it again.

"Tsk."

The burly monk slowly closed his palm, crushing the Gu worm to powder, and pus and blood flowed from between his fingers.

From the time Lu Wushuang killed the monk to when he arrived at the scene, only an hour had passed. The oxcart was slow, but it took him three hours to catch up, because the Gu worms became increasingly ineffective as he got closer.

Now he could confirm that the cause lay with that seemingly sickly man.

"Don't stop."

he said calmly.

So the rain of arrows continued to fall.

He didn't expect the crossbows to achieve any results. For a true master, without the opponent's feigned attack, the arrows fired from ordinary crossbows were hardly a threat.

The burly monk turned and leaped down from the house.

Sure enough, the moment he landed, a chorus of screams and wails erupted from the rooftops. Shikamaru and Miyoshi Ryota charged through the rain of arrows onto the rooftops and began slaughtering the monks armed with bows and crossbows.

The burly monk seemed not to hear, and slowly walked to a distance of one zhang opposite Li Miao, where he stopped, placed his naginata on the ground, and calmly asked.

"Are you from the Kurama school, the Yin school, or the Nian school?"

Li Miao scoffed.

"I don't understand. Can you speak human language?"

Actually, Japanese is similar to Chinese, and if he really wanted to learn it, these few months would have been enough for him to learn most of it. However, before meeting Bodhidharma, he only thought about coming to Japan to wreak havoc and didn't feel there was any need to learn this stuff. In addition, he was lazy and put it off.

Now that Lu Wushuang has gone to kill someone, and Nanako doesn't speak the Central Plains dialect, he really can't get any information out of her.

But the burly monk nodded after hearing his words, and then began to speak in broken Central Plains Mandarin.

"It seems you are a successor of the Yin Stream."

"Shouldn't you be causing trouble for Shintoism? Why are you making things difficult for Buddhism?"

Li Miao narrowed his eyes.

He only spoke a couple of sentences in the Central Plains dialect, and he's already a successor of the Yin Liu sect?
Therefore, among the four schools of original sword techniques, the successors of the Yin School can all speak the Mandarin of the Central Plains... Are they from the Central Plains, or is it that the founder of the Yin School was from the Central Plains?

Li Miao abandoned the idea of ​​directly killing the monk.

Ryota Miyoshi is just a little kid; even if he knows something, it's probably only superficial. It's safer to get some information from the monks and verify it against their statements.

Anyway, I can kill whenever I want.

Li Miao shrugged and said with a smile.

"Shouldn't you know better than anyone why I'm causing you trouble? Why are you asking me instead?"

The burly monk's gaze darkened.

"I am not sure what you mean."

Li Miao chuckled upon hearing this.

He was just making a casual bluff, but unexpectedly, he actually managed to extract something from him. Although the burly monk had no expression on his face, he couldn't hide the seriousness in his tone in front of Li Miao.

“You know.” Li Miao gestured at him from a distance.

“You know very well, even better than I do.”

This is true.

“You waited a long time, on the verge of being discovered.”

Li Miao slowly strolled a few steps to the side, his posture casual, yet he took in every move of the burly monk. His breathing, heartbeat, pupil contraction, finger flexion and extension, even every drop of sweat seeping from every exposed pore, all truthfully told Li Miao what the burly monk was thinking.

So he continued.

"Now we've found it, how about it, are you surprised?"

The burly monk gripped the knife handle tightly and spoke calmly.

"I don't understand what you're saying."

Li Miao smiled.

Do I really have to explain it clearly?

He paused, then suddenly turned to look into the burly monk's eyes. Their eyes met, and he spoke with unwavering conviction.

"Isn't Master Jianzhen's remains at Toshodai-ji Temple? Do you really think we'll be kept in the dark forever?"

It's still a scam.

Ryota Miyoshi's internal energy cultivation shares the same roots as Shaolin, both being based on Buddhism. The other three True Original Intent Sword Techniques should also be the same, which means that the roots of their lineage are either related to Bodhidharma or Master Jianzhen.

Bodhidharma is in the hands of the Shintoists at Izumo Taisha Shrine. Meanwhile, the remains of Master Jianzhen are within the sphere of influence of Toshodai-ji and Enryaku-ji temples, less than a hundred miles away from Enryaku-ji.

So Li Miao took a gamble, betting that this matter was related to Master Jianzhen, and that the monk knew something.

Li Miao smiled as he observed the burly monk.

He made the right bet.

Although the burly monk showed no outward reaction, his pupils visibly contracted and his breathing and heartbeat became erratic for a moment when he heard the name of Master Jianzhen.

For Li Miao, this was no different from a confession.

Seeing Li Miao's smile, the burly monk slowly exhaled. Li Miao had already made his point; there was no point in trying to brush it off with words anymore.

Then he suddenly burst out laughing.

His mouth parted into a grin, revealing sharp canine teeth.

"I see."

He laughed.

"So what if you all know?"

The monk laughed so hard he almost fell over, as if a joke he had kept hidden in his heart for decades had suddenly been told to his face, bringing him indescribable relief and joy.

“Jianzhen has been dead for hundreds of years, and only now do you realize where your lineage came from. You’ve been fighting against Shintoism for hundreds of years in vain. Of the four sword styles that once spread throughout Japan, only a few of you are left as dead survivors.”

"Now that you know, what can you do about it?"

He laughed heartily.

"If you had discovered this five hundred years ago, we probably would have been too scared to sleep... But now, apart from the two of you, where else is there anyone practicing your bullshit swordsmanship!"

"The last successor of Nenryu converted to Buddhism thirty years ago, and all the successors of Kuramaryu died at Hachiman Shrine long ago."

"As long as I kill both of you—"

He suddenly pulled something out of his pocket and stuffed it into his mouth.

"The so-called original sword technique has no successor!"

(End of this chapter)