Chapter 493: Descendant

The Gu insect in the monk's hand pointed straight at Lu Wushuang's sleeve, where the soft sword that killed the monk was hidden; although the bloodstains had been wiped away, the scent could not escape the Gu insect's sense of smell.

Arrows fell like rain.

The sturdy monk watched expressionlessly, his gaze sweeping over Nana-ko and Miyoshi Ryota without stopping, pausing slightly on Lu Wushuang, and finally nailing onto Li Miao.

On the surface, this man was pale, wrapped tightly in a bear-skin cloak in midsummer, coughing lightly from time to time, looking like a man dying of illness. He didn't look like a threat at all.

But the sturdy monk knew that senses could be deceiving.

Compared to the pitifully meager five senses of humans, he preferred to believe in things outside of humans—like Gu insects.

While Lu Wushuang suddenly drew two short swords and blocked the incoming arrow rain with Miyoshi Ryota, the sturdy monk moved his palm, pointing the head of the Gu insect in his hand toward Li Miao.

*Hiss, hiss, hiss! —

The Gu insect suddenly let out a shrill hiss, lowered its head to stick to his palm, as if a human kneeling to a god, and no matter how the sturdy monk moved his palm, it never raised its head again.

"Tch."

The sturdy monk slowly closed his palm, crushing the Gu insect into powder, and pus and blood flowed from between his fingers.

From Lu Wushuang killing the monk to him arriving at the scene, not even an hour had passed. The ox cart was slow, but he had spent three hours catching up; the reason was that as he got closer, the Gu insect failed more frequently.

Now he could confirm that the reason was that seemingly weak and sick man.

"Do not stop."

He said calmly.

So the arrow rain continued to fall.

He didn't expect bows and crossbows to achieve any results; for a true expert, without a feint attack from an opponent, arrows shot from ordinary bows and crossbows were not a threat at all.

The sturdy monk turned and leaped off the residential building.

Sure enough, just as he landed, a burst of exclamations and wails suddenly erupted from the roof. Lu Wushuang and Miyoshi Ryota killed their way onto the roof against the arrow rain, beginning to slaughter the monks holding bows and crossbows.

The sturdy monk seemed not to hear, walked slowly to a distance of one *zhang* opposite Li Miao, stood still, planted his *naginata* on the ground, and asked calmly.

"Which school is your Excellency from? Kurama-ryu, Kage-ryu, or Nen-ryu?"

Li Miao scoffed.

"Don't understand, can you speak human language?"

Actually, Japanese was similar to Central Plains speech; if he really wanted to learn, these few months would have been enough for him to learn seven or eight out of ten. It was just that before seeing Venerable Bodhidharma, he only thought about coming to Japan to kill, didn't feel it was necessary to learn this, and plus his laziness kicked in, so he had always put it aside.

Now that Lu Wushuang was killing people and Nana-ko didn't speak Central Plains speech, he really couldn't even probe for information.

But after hearing his words, the sturdy monk nodded, and then began to speak in stiff Central Plains official language.

"It seems your Excellency is a descendant of Kage-ryu."

"Shouldn't you be looking for trouble with Shintoism? Why make things difficult for my Buddhism?"

Li Miao narrowed his eyes.

Just by speaking two sentences of Central Plains speech, he was a descendant of Kage-ryu?

So among the four Original Intent Sword Art schools, the descendants of Kage-ryu all spoke Central Plains official language... were they Central Plains people, or was the founder of this Kage-ryu a Central Plains person?

Li Miao put away the thought of slapping the monk to death directly.

Miyoshi Ryota was a little brat; even if he knew something, it was probably just the surface. Probing for some words from the monk and verifying them against each other was more reliable.

Anyway, he could kill him whenever he wanted.

Li Miao shrugged and said with a smile.

"Why I came to find trouble with you, shouldn't you know better? Why ask me?"

The sturdy monk's gaze sank.

"I don't know what your Excellency is referring to."

Li Miao was amused upon hearing this.

He was just probing casually, but he didn't expect to actually get something out of it. Although the sturdy monk was expressionless, he couldn't hide the hint of gravity in his tone in front of Li Miao.

"You know."