Chapter 91

Uesugi Toru turned on the faucet and rinsed for a good while before picking up one of them to examine.

【Ushi-oni no Kiba】

【Common Quality】

【Effect: Can be used as a general material for refining weapons.】

An utterly ordinary material; now that Zashiki is gone too, I'll show it to Katsumi next time I go buy arm guards and see if he can recycle it.

As usual, he heated up a half-price Tenshin Fried Rice bought from Eleven Convenience Store that Tenshin had never eaten before; Uesugi Toru, finding it tasteless as chewing wax, evaluated it as at least better than the "Reborn in XX Making Fried Rice" from Guochao Takeout.

After a simple mouth rinse, Uesugi Toru lay down on the bed——

Ice-cold, no trembling.

What still filled his nasal cavity was the cold, rotten smell of straw.

A long time had passed since Uesugi Toru first came to Edo Castle, but the interior furnishings of this thatched hut serving as the spawn point remained completely unchanged.

It was simply as if time had frozen.

This time Uesugi Toru didn't need to be overly cautious anymore, not even needing to worry whether opening a door might trigger a door-kill.

With his current strength, dealing with ordinary small monsters in Edo Castle wouldn't pose a major problem; but if he ran into those few famous Oni Samurai on the main quest, there was naturally nothing he could do either.

Uesugi Toru, who had personally been beheaded by a Three-Star Half Oni Samurai, understood that the distance between Half-Star, One-Star, and Two-Star wasn't too far; even some Yokai that were merely One-Star could slay Two-Star or even Two-Star Half Yokai.

For example, him.

But between Two-Star and Three-Star it's not quite the same.

If Half-Star, One-Star, Two-Star are likened to ordinary children, adolescents, and youths, then Three-Star is a "prime adult male who has mastered combat".

Putting on the mask and securing his sword, Uesugi Toru pushed open the loose wooden door.

Pitter-patter.

Fine as thorns, the falling rain dropped from the gray sky; Edo Castle is always like this, as if forever shrouded in a muddy rain curtain.

Outside the door was empty; this is the normal state.

After all, which samurai with nothing to do would stay at the doorway of an ordinary thatched hut all the time.

"By the way, let's see if I can figure out the Identity Promotion Mission."

Uesugi Toru took out the 【Broken Walking Token】, wanting to observe if it had any changes.

The mission required him to deliver this broken token to the "Nameless Sword Saint", but Edo Castle is full of sword-wearing "Nameless" Sword Saints; without a prompt, Uesugi Toru wouldn't know how to find the right one.

But before long, after the raindrops washed away the dust on the surface of the broken token, Uesugi Toru saw it emit a faint glow.

This light was extremely faint; even at close range, if you didn't narrow your eyes to look, you'd mistake it for an illusion.

Uesugi Toru pondered briefly, turned around, and changed direction.

The glow on the token then disappeared.

He turned around again, and the token lit up once more.

Uesugi Toru nodded: "A wayfinding token that only indicates the general direction, huh."

Then, let's just follow the direction the token lights up and walk a stretch.

——Which happens to be the same direction he walked when he first entered Edo Castle.

Draping the black hooded coat over himself, Uesugi Toru still kept a low profile, choosing to advance silently along the edge of the house.

If he got cocky just because he had a bit of small strength in this Edo Castle territory, all sorts of Two-Star Three-Star Yokai would pop out in minutes to teach him how to behave.

Uesugi Toru had absolutely no doubt about this.

——Because just now at the intersection he saw an incomparably beautiful woman wearing a silk kimono encounter a group of disheveled, swarm-type vicious Resentments called 【Homeless Ones】 that pounced to tear and bite at anyone they saw.

Then, the woman gave a bewitching smile, and eight jointed long legs covered in coarse black stiff hair grew from her lower body, effortlessly piercing through all the Homeless Ones and swallowing them whole in one gulp.

Not until this ended did a status window pop up above the head of the woman, who had reverted to a pitifully lovely expression——

【Jorogumo (Three-Star)】.

A Three-Star Yokai, fully qualified to be the hidden Super Boss of Kisaragi Station, was actually wandering casually by the roadside in Edo Castle.

Uesugi Toru thought of how he had actually wanted to go up and greet her, try to communicate and exchange intelligence, and his scalp went a bit numb.

Even though he'd died that many times, he absolutely didn't want to try the feeling of being swallowed whole into a Yokai's stomach and digested together with the other little brothers.

Thinking about it now, he still had to thank those few hotheaded fools called Homeless Ones.

Uesugi Toru was walking when he suddenly felt his foot catch on something.

He lowered his head and saw a slightly familiar headless corpse lying in the mud; the irregular break at the neck was very familiar to Uesugi Toru.

Because that was what he had split with the firewood knife.

Uesugi Toru had obtained the Kiai Technique Fragment from this very corpse; this place could completely be said to be where the dream began.

"If I have the ability later, I'll give him a proper burial."

Thinking thus, Uesugi Toru, who hadn't found where the head rolled off to, lifted his leg over the corpse, and surprisingly saw a black shadow swaying over from not far ahead once again.

The black shadow walked slowly; before long a status window he had seen before popped up above its head——

【Wandering Samurai (One-Star Half)】.

Subconsciously, Uesugi Toru's neck ached faintly.

"Although not the same time, it's the same place."

In the rain curtain, Uesugi Toru grinned cheerfully.

He slowly drew his sword: "Although I don't know if you're the samurai who took my second life, running into me here counts as your bad luck."

"I hold a grudge, you know."

That Wandering Samurai wearing tattered chest armor slowly raised his head, a trace of murderous intent flashing through his lifeless eyes.

He likewise drew his sword, only what he drew was a Tachi much longer than Kaga Kiyomitsu.

When the Wandering Samurai finished his preparation, Uesugi Toru, assuming the Central Stance, let out a low shout: "Good!"

"Let me teach you what the correct, flawless Sword Tendons are!"

Corona Breathing Technique, First Form!

Amidst the sound of Qi bursting, viscous mud spurted toward the sky.

Uesugi Toru neither used his Folding Fan nor utilized terrain advantage, but simply strode upright before the wandering Samurai.

Draw the sword!

The crisp sound of metal clashing rang out, and the wandering Samurai was shocked back two steps by this abnormal giant force, his Tachi nearly flying from his hand.

Just in the moment when his old strength was spent and new strength not yet born, Kaga Kiyomitsu's Sword Blade was about to fall again at the same angle.

The wandering Samurai had no time to Turn Around, and could only hold his Tachi horizontally before him.

Uesugi Toru neither dodged nor leaned back; he strode straight forward, his every Pore spouting bursts of scorching white vapor.

Corona Breathing Technique, Fifth Form!

The blade fell like startling thunder and raging fire!

Severing the Tachi, severing the rotten helmet, then cleaving the wandering Samurai cleanly into left and right halves from top to bottom!

The wandering Samurai's Pupils still held Remnant murderous intent of a desperate struggle, yet his whole body had already been severed at its very center by the blade.

Clatter.

The Samurai's sword and body fell silently into the muddy road.

Uesugi Toru calmly performed Blood Vibration, sheathing his sword.

To kill this wandering Samurai, he used only two strikes.

Just like how the wandering Samurai had taken his head with only two strikes back then.

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(End of Chapter)