The court lackeys of the eight-hour workday

Chapter 617 Taste

Chapter 617 Taste
In the ruins of the Emperor's Palace.

The crowd gradually gathered.

The important figures representing the will of the various daimyo were pushed and escorted over by the priests, their hair and beards disheveled and their clothes tattered.

Among them were those with bloodstains on their faces and delirious minds, who had obviously resisted because of their status and were forcibly subdued and brought here; others were barely clothed and still smelled of perfume, who must have been dragged directly from the pleasure quarters.

In short, everyone was in their own mess.

With a large population, there will be no shortage of clueless idiots.

"Do you know who I am?"

The young man, dressed in a women's kimono, tilted his head back, pointed at the priest with his pale Adam's apple, and shouted arrogantly in a high-pitched voice.

"But I am—"

puff.

Cut into the Adam's apple with a tweezer without a tweezer.

The usually respectful and obedient priest suddenly raised his hand, and with a hiltless scalpel, he sliced the young man's head in two along his Adam's apple. Before the body could fall to the ground, he kicked out with a vengeance.

Bang!
The corpse rolled and splashed liquid as it crashed into the crowd, eliciting screams. Some people lost their minds and turned to run away in a chaotic scramble, only to be pinned to the ground by a priest with a knife after just a few steps. They then struggled wildly like pinned eels, vomiting blood all over the ground.

So the crowd gathered together out of fear, like a flock of sheep.

High up, two figures, one old and one young, stood watching as the imperial priests, descendants of the emperor, gradually gathered the crowd and escorted them toward the location of the emperor's body.

"Ah~ah~"

The girl, dressed in a shrine maiden's outfit and wearing an ornate golden mask, chuckled as she spoke.

"It's truly gratifying to see these pigs finally being driven to the slaughterhouse. If Xu Fu hadn't been suppressed by Zhang Sanfeng, this would have been done two hundred years ago."

The elderly man, dressed in a dark blue kimono, frowned.

"Do not speak recklessly."

"It must be Amaterasu Omikami who, for the sake of the people of Japan, transformed herself into a barrier to seal away the Heavenly Demon!"

The girl clicked her tongue in disdain.

"Tch, you know perfectly well what the truth is."

"What kind of bullshit demon is she? She's just a Six Paths Celestial who comprehended the technique on her own. And what kind of Amaterasu is she? She's just a charlatan who was abandoned by her master and is imprisoned in the Ise Grand Shrine."

"Xu Fu, hehe."

The old man's forehead veins bulged, and he instinctively wanted to rebuke her, but remembering the girl's identity, he forcibly suppressed his anger, took a few deep breaths, and then spoke in a deep voice.

"Even if... you are a disciple of Amaterasu Omikami, you shouldn't speak like that."

“I know you were tricked into coming to Japan from the Central Plains Emperor by Xu…Amaterasu Omikami, but since She was willing—”

The girl waved her hand impatiently.

"Okay~Okay~"

"Enough with this nonsense."

"It should be about time."

She turned her head to the side and squinted.

"The demon named Ji Tianrui should have already breached the Ise Grand Shrine, discovered the truth, and is heading this way. However... she is not a threat."

“Her talent is too poor, but her mind is okay. However, all five paths to the Celestial Realm are heretical. A Celestial Realm expert of the same level can kill her in a moment. The gods we left on the path should be able to hold her off.”

"The key is still the other one."

"Li Miao".

The girl chuckled softly.

"No one would have imagined that the descendant whom Zhang Sanfeng risked his life to buy two hundred years of time would turn out to be a ruthless henchman of the imperial court."

The old man followed her gaze.

"Perhaps seven gods could kill it."

"Pfft."

The girl scoffed.

"Are you kidding me?"

“His talent is even greater than Zhang Sanfeng’s. He may be the ‘born with knowledge’ that Master mentioned back then. It is very likely that he mastered the means to break through to the level of a Celestial from the moment he became a Celestial. No one can surpass him in terms of the depth of his foundation.”

"Will he die at the hands of a few mindless puppets?"

Before she could finish speaking, the girl suddenly tilted her head.

"Would you like to make a bet?"

The old man frowned.

"What are you gambling?"

The girl chuckled softly.

“I bet he’ll step onto the steps of the Imperial Palace and come to us within ten breaths… Now, let’s bet on your sword, Murasame!” With that, without waiting for the old man’s agreement, he stretched out his two fair hands and began counting his fingers one by one.

"Ten, nine, eight, seven."

"six--"

Suddenly, the girl's voice seemed to draw out in the old man's ears, and the movement of his fingers slowed down as well, the last syllable sounding strange due to its prolonged tone.

At the same time, the noise, wails, and cries of pain from the crowd, the crackling of the burning ruins, and the fluttering of the priests' robes as they pushed the crowd were all lengthened, dissolved, and became barely audible within a few breaths.

The old man suddenly turned his head and gripped the hilt of his knife.

"Woo-wu—"

The girl's counting continued.

Tick.

tick-

The sound of viscous liquid dripping came from the direction the old man was looking. It was an extremely faint sound, and it should have been greatly attenuated by the distance—yet it seemed to echo clearly in his ears.

"Silent Illumination... The Illusion of the True Mind!"

The veins on the back of the old man's hand, gripping the knife handle, bulged out.

"Hiss—four—"

Crash! —

Although the Emperor's Palace was located at a high place, to everyone present, it appeared as a sea of blood, like the receding tide, spreading towards them and extending all the way to their feet.

The sea of blood seemed to swallow up the sunlight as well; the bright midday sun turned crimson and dim in just a few breaths.

"What! What is that?!"

Some of the powerful and influential people who were being escorted were so frightened that their faces turned pale. They tried to pull their legs out of the sea of blood, but when they did, they pulled up a white spine from under their feet.

"Ah! Ah!"

The screams of terror were stretched out by the hallucinations.

“Hissing—”

Snap, snap, snap.

Footsteps approached, treading on blood.

"two--"

"You won. [Muramasa] is yours after the battle."

The old man turned and glanced at the girl who was still counting by herself, then jumped down from the high place and walked forward through the blood.

"Tch, surrendering is so boring."

The girl pursed her lips behind the mask and then jumped down from the height. While in mid-air, she didn't forget to count to the last word.

"one."

A swaying silver glint emerged from the steps; it was a head of silver-white hair, as white as moonlight. Spots of scarlet blood slid down the smooth surface and fell into the sea of blood.

Then came the broad shoulders, the transparent, hollow chest, the clearly defined abdominal mass, and the dark cloak tied around the waist, dragging through the blood.

"Ah—how should I put it?"

Li Miao slowly stepped onto the last step, his right hand dragging a magnificent sedan chair, while his left hand held a large clump of hair connected to seven heads, swaying precariously.

"It has some flavor, but it's not enough to fill you up... Is it more like an appetizer?"

Raise your hand.

The seven broken heads of the gods were thrown out and rolled to the feet of the old man and the girl.

"However, serving seven portions is quite a show of sincerity... There should be more, right?"

Bang!
Li Miao let go, and the sedan chair fell to the ground.

He squinted at the girl and the old man.

"You're the main course?"

The old man frowned.

"you--"

Woo!
The sound of wind breaking through the air!

Before he could finish speaking, Li Miao's hand loomed larger and larger in his line of sight.

"Sh-don't talk."