The Ancestral Legacy Begins in the Wild West

Chapter 93 Gunpowder Propulsion Device Machinery Bingzi Jiaolin

Zhang Chang'an's pupils contracted sharply because Okita Souji was too fast, and his sword was too fast.

He was almost there; he had barely realized it was him when the knife was already in front of him.

Even with his Death Eye fully activated, it still looked like the speed of a normal adult strong man swinging his sword at full power, not slow at all.

So, he could only turn sharply to the side as he leaped off the wall, and Bingzi Jiaolin came out horizontally.

"clang!"

With nowhere to gain leverage in mid-air, and given Okita Souji's astonishing speed, the blades clashed, and the blade quickly deflected slightly along the Hijiki Shōrin in his hand, grazing his forearm and stabbing out with a "snap!" Okita Souji's sword, Kaga Kiyomitsu, was extremely sharp and best suited for thrusting, instantly leaving a long scratch on the exoskeleton's metal plate.

However, Zhang Chang'an was finally able to take advantage of the momentum and swept out with a kick after a somersault.

"Bang!" With a spinning kick, he instantly struck Okita Souji's side and decisively swung his long sword in the backhand.

"Clang!" Just as he thought, Okita Souji's actual swordsmanship might not be as fierce as Ittosai's, but his reaction speed and power were very well coordinated, which made him even more dangerous.

In the time it took to kick that one leg, he seized the opportunity to counterattack. If Zhang Chang'an hadn't thrown his knife to fight back, he probably would have cut off half of Zhang Chang'an's lower leg.

"Whoosh!" The two kimonos billowed in the wind and landed on their own in the empty warehouse.

The moment Zhang Chang'an landed, he used the momentum to retreat, instantly creating a distance of three zhang (approximately 10 meters), his breathing slightly disordered.

However, he did not intend to run away. After all, judging from the move this guy made when he first entered, unless he had installed a steam propulsion device on himself beforehand, Okita Souji could let him run for a minute or two.

Otherwise, considering his close-range dashes and footwork designed to exploit blind spots in the enemy's field of vision, he certainly wouldn't have been able to escape from Okita.

Okita Souji landed where he had been, slowly sheathing his sword and resuming his signature starting stance. He crouched down, the tip of his sword drooping slightly and tilting to the right, his entire aura resembling a taut longbow.

This is what is known as the "flat-eyed stance".

Combined with the three-stage thrust just now, that's his most classic move, the Nameless Three-Stage Thrust.

"Steam Demon." Okita Souji lowered his body, so the hair on both sides of his shaved head and the braid at the back hung down to his shoulders. The moonlight made his skin look exceptionally pale.

"I've never seen your swordsmanship before. It's completely different from those other swordsmen. Who exactly are you?"

Zhang Chang'an gripped the Bingzi Jiaolin tightly, his gaze sweeping over Okita's chest. The mechanical lung was rising and falling slightly, indicating that he was still gathering strength, preparing to make his move.

"I was never a member of the anti-shogunate faction."

Zhang Chang'an said in a deep voice. Of course he didn't want to fight Okita, but he knew that given the nature of the Shinsengumi members, even Okita Souji, who was his closest friend, would find it difficult to let him go easily because of past friendship: "All those things before were your own misunderstandings."

Okita's lips curled into a faint smile, but unlike any other time, this smile offered no warmth: "You robbed and killed the shogunate's transport convoy and its samurai. Whether you were working for anyone or not, or what the misunderstanding was, it's all irrelevant now."

His gaze passed over Zhang Chang'an and landed on the ground in the distance, on the slightly dead body of the oil refiner, which he had seen in patches.

"That person," Okita said, "was an oil refiner at the research institute. You killed him too, didn't you?"

Zhang Chang'an did not answer. He would not deny killing such a person, especially since it was to get fuel faster.

Okita gripped the knife tightly in his hand: "Your hands are already stained with blood. You still think you're clean."

Zhang Chang'an took a deep breath and readjusted his grip on the knife.

"I never intended to stand aside," he said. "But what about you? At least I'm wielding my sword for myself. What if you go down the wrong path?"

Upon hearing this, Okita naturally remained silent.

Zhang Chang'an had barely finished speaking when he moved.

Ping Qingyan raised his hand, the blade swayed to the left, and he took a step forward with a thud, shooting forward like an arrow in an instant.

Instead of retreating, Zhang Chang'an advanced, and Bingzi Jiaolin raised his sword from bottom to top with a "whoosh!" instantly drawing out a long flash of light.

Ming Dynasty Knife Techniques - Breaking Knife Style: "Clang!" Two knives meet in mid-air, collide violently, and then separate violently.

"drink!"

Okita let out a low shout, and his sword stance changed again, the lower slash aimed straight at Zhang Chang'an's feet.

With a quick shift in his footwork, Zhang Chang'an could instantly glide past the edge of the blade.

Qi Jiguang's "New Book of Effective Tactics": "Hold the knife with both hands, use your body to drive the knife, the knife follows your body's movement, follow the advance, and advance with every follow."

Zhang Chang'an silently pondered these rhymes, muttering to himself, "Using this against the Japanese is really quite fitting."

And this is precisely what he obtained: the section on the knife from the so-called Southern School of Military Martial Arts.

Indeed, this new martial arts style was born by combining techniques from Southern boxing, Ming Dynasty army swordsmanship, and firearms usage.

After receiving the instruction, he practiced for about a day or two. Relying on his solid foundation from before, he managed to integrate the knowledge and skills. Today is the first time he has used it properly.

"Clang clang clang————" Okita and Tang Zhu clashed against the wind, using the Kesa Slash technique repeatedly. The blades flew around them, but neither of them gained the upper hand.

Okita's gaze fell on the sword in Zhang Chang'an's hand. Looking at its shape, which was completely different from that of a Japanese sword, he could roughly confirm that this was the sword that had left the knife mark at the scene when the shogunate's caravan had been attacked.

Little did he know that the Bingzi Jiaolin of today was vastly different from what it was back then.

Zhang Chang'an didn't speak, but simply pressed his thumb lightly on the mechanism on the hilt of the knife.

"Clang clang!" Zhang Chang'an deliberately used a great deal of power in these two attacks. His speed and reaction were much stronger than Ittosai's, but Okita, whose strength was indeed inferior, was immediately pushed back slightly.

At that moment, Zhang Chang'an decisively sheathed his sword and then sharply turned the hilt: "Click!"

The hilt's structure instantly intersected with the scabbard, and the internal mechanism activated in a flash—"Boom—!"

A burst of fire shot out from the scabbard, and Zhang Chang'an swung his hand, sending the Bingzi Jiaolin flying like a meteor straight for Okita's chest!

Okita's pupils contracted sharply, and he dodged to the side at the last second.

"Pfft!" The blade grazed his left arm, cutting a gash in his kimono and leaving a bloody gash on his skin.

Zhang Chang'an remained extremely calm, gently patting the scabbard to dissipate the gunpowder smell.

"Tianwei" is a term often used by the Ming people to refer to firearms. "Night siege" refers to the border troops, and "Tianwei" naturally refers to the Shenji Battalion.

This is precisely the practical means of combining those new mechanical knowledge with the structure of gunpowder.

Specially treated gunpowder is embedded in the excess part of the scabbard. Once the mechanism is triggered, it will detonate the moment the sword is sheathed, propelling the blade out at a speed far exceeding normal limits.

That is, a gunpowder-driven, high-temperature draw slash!