The court lackeys of the eight-hour workday

Chapter 599 Series Connection
"Nanako is of imperial blood."

“There are many people like her in Kyoto. According to that sword saint, there are probably no fewer than a thousand. Apart from being monitored by Shintoists, they are no different from ordinary people.”

"Even they themselves don't know this."

“Shintoism keeps them like pigs, just waiting for the right moment to slaughter them…that moment is the day when the girls in these families turn sixteen.”

Li Miao raised an eyebrow.

Right.

A descendant of the Emperor, a shrine maiden.

The story Kurama Heihachi told earlier about meeting the shrine maiden named Tachibana actually has a strange twist—if Tachibana is of noble birth, she should be living in the Imperial Palace, and it wouldn't be his place to come to Kyoto to find her based on her letters.

The reason he couldn't find Tachibana's family was because Tachibana and Nanako actually had the same background... They were both imperial bloodlines raised among the common people by Shintoism. When they were sent to the shrine to become shrine maidens, the traces of their families' existence were erased by Shintoism.

That's why Kurama Heihachi couldn't find Tachibana's family until he saw the Emperor's face from afar and realized the truth.

Lu Wushuang continued.

“Once these girls reach the age of sixteen, Shintoists will send them to shrines to contemplate the images of Amaterasu Omikami and brainwash them into becoming shrine maidens who protect the shrines.”

"And their families—"

Lu Wushuang pointed to the priest's corpse on the ground.

"They will also become tools of Shintoism after being brainwashed."

"This practice has been going on for an unknown period of time, and during that time, some of the descendants of the God of God have noticed this and tried to resist. But because the power of Shintoism is too great, these resistances have never succeeded."

"Things took a turn for the better when one person appeared."

Lu Wushuang said, enunciating each word clearly.

"Master Sanfeng".

"After arriving in Japan, he first conquered Kyoto before going to the Ise Grand Shrine. I've always wondered, if the Emperor was a member of Shintoism, why didn't Master Sanfeng simply kill the current Emperor?"

"After all, Master Sanfeng has been a demon slayer for sixty years... He never shows mercy to evil people."

"now I understand."

"The so-called Emperor, and descendants of the Emperor like Nanako, have never been members of Shintoism. On the contrary, Shintoism has been raising them and slaughtering them like pigs."

“When Master Sanfeng met the Emperor, he knew this immediately and left them two methods to fight against the control of Shintoism.”

Lu Wushuang clenched his left fist and swung it, while his right hand mimicked a sword move.

Li Miao smiled as he watched her demonstrate the sword move.

He has seen it.

Just a few days ago, at Hachiman Shrine.

The sword moves that Lu Wushuang demonstrated were the same sword moves that Kurama Heihachi had obtained from Tachibana, used to awaken the Shinto priestess. As for the fist techniques that Lu Wushuang demonstrated with his left hand, although they were merely superficial, it was immediately obvious that they were authentic Tai Chi.

Thus, the origin of this sword move is clear.

Lu Wushuang looked at Li Miao and suddenly brought up a seemingly unrelated topic.

"My lord, when did the tribute mission from Japan to Japan begin and when did it end?"

Li Miao raised an eyebrow, pondered for a few moments, and then answered confidently.

"Paying tribute began in the third year of the Jianwen reign, thirty years after the founding of the dynasty, which was the year before Emperor Chengzu launched his rebellion and ascended the throne. As for the end of the tribute... it should have been around the seventh or eighth year of the Jiajing reign."

"Wait...hiss!"

Li Miao's fingers, which had been fiddling together, suddenly stopped. "It seems like something else has come together."

"The third year of the Jianwen reign...Emperor Jianwen!"

"The Silent Illumination Technique, Shintoism, and tribute from Japan!"

"Father-in-law on the river!"

Since the Battle of the Imperial Mausoleum, Li Miao has accumulated more and more clues about the old man on the river, and now, he is approaching a critical point—and has finally begun to explode in a concentrated manner.

With just a few clues, many scattered pieces of information can be pieced together to form the complete truth about the old man from the river.

Emperor Jianwen possessed two sets of the Silent Illumination Technique: one passed down from Emperor Taizu, and the other obtained from the old man by the river. The latter set of techniques was the very reason he began to reduce the power of the princes.

In other words, during the period between the founding of the Da Shuo Kingdom and Emperor Jianwen's efforts to reduce the power of the feudal lords, Kawakami was not in Japan, but in the Central Plains.

Why did he abandon Shintoism and come to the Central Plains? And why did he pass on the Jizhao Technique to Emperor Jianwen, which involved devouring celestial beings to achieve self-realization and directly led to the decline of the martial arts world in the Central Plains and the disappearance of celestial beings?

Why doesn't he wish for celestial beings to appear in the world?

Let's go back another thirty years.

At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the Taoist master Zhang Sanfeng traveled eastward!
This is why!
The immortal Sanfeng crossed the East alone, broke through the Ise Grand Shrine, and arrived right in front of him!

It posed a substantial and unprecedented threat to him!
The reason why the old man from the river only went to the Central Plains thirty years after Zhang Sanfeng crossed the sea to the east was probably because he was healing his wounds!
He passed on the Jizhao Kung Fu to Emperor Jianwen, using the power of successive emperors of the Great Shu Dynasty to suppress the martial arts masters, essentially to prevent another Zhang Sanfeng from coming to his aid!
And he has likely already succeeded.

The emperor may have eliminated a celestial demon for him.

Ji Tianrui.

The previous leader of the Ming Cult, the lover of the Miao King, the father of Ji Tianrui, and the first Ming Cult leader in a thousand years whose surname was not Yang.

Li Miao's hypothetical enemy before he ventured into the martial arts world.

The method of combining Gu techniques with martial arts, the method of circumventing the five signs of decay in the celestial body and man, and even the Gu worm that Li Miao used to change the emperor's mind, all originated from this person.

It can be said that Ji Tianrui was so difficult to deal with largely because she inherited Ji Tianrui's entire estate. And if the emperor hadn't sent someone to strangle him back then, Ji Tianrui might have been unable to escape his control for the rest of her life.

If he can grow up, he could very well become another peerless prodigy who could threaten the River Elder.

Sadly, he died.

But every drink and every bite is predetermined.

The old man on the river did eliminate Ji Tianrui for him, but he also drew the attention of two more troublesome demons to him.

Li Miao, Ji Tianrui.

As the figure of Kawakami, who had been hidden in the shadows, became clearer, Li Miao couldn't help but smile. He then put the matter aside and turned his attention to what Lu Wufang had just said.

Paying tribute.

time.

Li Miao twirled his fingers and spoke slowly.

"I roughly know what you're trying to say, Little Deer."

"Was it after Zhang Sanfeng's eastward journey that successive emperors, using the methods he left behind, gradually tried to break free from the control of Shintoism?"

"And then the tribute system ended... Was it because the Emperor had another problem?"

Lu Wushuang nodded.

"That's right, sir, that's exactly it."

(End of this chapter)