Chapter 478: Izumo Taisha

Five days after Li Miao and his party left Hirado City.

Izumo Province, Mount Tsukiyama, Toda Castle.

"Matsuura Takanobu, dead?"

"All the soldiers and samurai in Hirado City are also dead?"

The dim candlelight flickered, making the man's face light and dark. In his left hand, he held a "Haraegushi" resembling prayer beads, twisting them one by one, while his right hand rested on the sword hilt, supporting his arm.

The sword was not sheathed, and with the shaking of his arm, it cast a water-like light onto the face of the person kneeling in front of him.

"Yes."

The person kneeling answered concisely and firmly.

The man was silent for a while and continued to ask.

"Culprit, reason, purpose."

The person kneeling answered concisely again.

"Two Central Plains people with a Fuso girl. Entered the city at noon, left at sunset."

"Hirado Daimyo Matsuura Takanobu, Lord Kotesashi Yasutsune, and two hundred and seventeen samurai in Hirado City, and two thousand and seventy-eight foot soldiers all died, with no one spared."

The man's fingers twisting the Haraegushi stopped.

"Three people wiped out Hirado City?"

He was already shocked enough, but the answer given by the other party was merciless.

"One person."

"According to the residents of Hirado City, only one man took action. After killing more than a thousand soldiers in the dojo, he killed Lord Kotesashi Yasutsune and the remaining soldiers on the street, and abducted Matsuura Takanobu into the dojo, leaving at sunset."

"And, Lord Kotesashi Yasutsune manifested his 'Original Form'."

Swish!

The man grabbed the Haraegushi, his eyes gloomy as water.

"How many people saw it?"

"Three thousand seven hundred and twelve people, all have been 'dealt with cleanly'."

The other party's answer was as relaxed as going out for a walk, and the facts were indeed so. Japanese civilians were naturally thin and short. For someone like him, cutting off more than three thousand heads that would only cry and beg for mercy, under the premise that Hirado City's military power had disappeared, was not a very difficult thing.

The man's expression relaxed slightly.

"Is there any news about the background of that Central Plains man?"

When he asked this question, the expression and tone of the kneeling person fluctuated for the first time, seeming a bit happy, and a bit tangled.

He took a roll of cloth from his bosom and unfolded it on the ground.

"This is the message the culprit left on the dojo wall. I made a rubbing of it. He doesn't seem to want to hide his identity."

The man took a look, his pupils shrank, and he murmured.

"Izumo Taisha, Toshodai-ji, Enryaku-ji, Hachiman-gu. Kyoto... Ise Grand Shrine."

"Li... Miao."

"This is... a route? He wants to tell us that he will walk through these places one by one!?"

"And the next one to come is my territory!?"

The kneeling person answered.

"It seems so, and the other party didn't mean to hide his tracks. After leaving Hirado City, he has been moving in a straight line toward here, killing everyone he meets who carries a sword, without asking for reasons."

"It is estimated that in three days, he will arrive."

The man, or rather, Japanese Daimyo, Danjo-no-Shohitsu, Governor of Eleven Provinces, Izumo Protector Amago Haruhisa, was silent for a moment, his finger pointing at the iron-painted silver-hooked name on the cloth.

"I have an impression of this name."

"The Embroidered Uniform Guard Commander of the Central Plains, recognized by the Central Plains Jianghu as the strongest in the world... and also recognized by the Central Plains world as the man who kills the most and has the most cruel and fierce methods."

"Judging from his past actions, negotiation, threats, bribery, and even deception are all ineffective against him."

The kneeling person nodded.

"That's right, this person is paranoid and arrogant, disdains to cooperate with anyone, and doesn't believe any information given to him... He only believes in his own interrogation methods."