Chapter 581: Forgiveness

*Swish! *

Before the middle-aged swordsman's pupils could fully contract, that cold light had already swept across his throat from the left, dissipating in the air to the right of his neck.

A sharp pain surged into his brain.

"Hiss!"

He retreated with all his might, the strength bursting out between life and death almost tearing the muscles in his calves. Borrowing this strength, he retreated several zhang, raised his hand to cover his throat, and tried to block the gushing blood.

At the same time, he roared.

"Kurama!"

That's right, this move of the old man Uda just now could not be understood by other swordsmen present, but as someone from the Hachimangu Shrine, it was impossible for him not to recognize it.

Kurama style—Ultimate Iai!

"You shouldn't have died long ago!"

He said in shock and anger.

Thirty years ago, he watched with his own eyes as the last Kurama-style swordsman died in the Hachimangu Shrine. At that time, he had just started practicing swordsmanship, and he saw that incomparably powerful Kurama-style swordsman cut in half, resulting in him vomiting all over the ground.

From then on, he became firm in the strength of the Hachimangu Shrine and also confirmed the fact that "Original Intent Sword Art" was weaker than "Venerated God Sword Art."

But how could this be!

The four oldest Original Intent Sword Arts, the successors of the Two Heavens One Style were hiding, the Nen style converted to Enryaku-ji, and the Kurama style was destroyed right in front of him at the Hachimangu Shrine!

How could there still be a Kurama-style swordsman!

He roared, then was stunned for a moment.

No, if his throat had already been cut, he shouldn't have been able to shout... He rubbed his throat hard, but didn't feel any blood or wounds.

He realized and looked at the flesh-and-blood skeleton.

The incomplete right hand was holding the hilt, having moved only a tiny bit compared to before. That katana hadn't been drawn at all.

"So that's it!"

"I was momentarily flustered... You have been injured to this extent, it is impossible for you to operate your breathing method anymore! You risked your life, but you could only put on a show!"

A lingering fear arose in his heart.

The cold light he saw just now was only an illusion condensed from a trace of spirit forced out by the old man Uda before his death. But even this was enough to make him instinctively feel sharp pain.

What if the opponent hadn't been injured?

What if the opponent had been willing to use the Kurama-style moves from the beginning?

He would definitely have lost, would have died!

What made him not want to attack even when injured like this, and what made him suddenly willing to attack?

All changes stemmed from that sentence "It's enough."

The middle-aged swordsman raised his head and asked in an incomparably solemn tone.

"Who are you?"

The interrupting swordsman was stunned for a moment, and after noticing that the middle-aged swordsman's gaze was directed at himself, he pointed at himself extremely slowly and incredulously.

"... Me?"

A large hand grabbed his head and threw him away.

"Get lost."

The tall old man pressed his right hand on the hilt and stepped forward.

"A coward is a coward! This move made at the last moment of life is still so useless!"

"Twenty years! Wasted martial arts, forgot hatred, willing to drink day after day at the foot of this Kamakura, Hachimangu Shrine, and even pawned the sword!"

"If I hadn't come, were you planning to die of old age here!"

While speaking, he walked to the side of the old man Uda, who was covered in blood and hadn't moved for a long time, and glared at him.

"Hiss—"

The old man Uda squeezed a faint sound from his throat, raised his only remaining right eye, and looked to his side.

In the gaze that hadn't wavered even when his facial features were cut off, there was now full of guilt and pleading, and tears mixed with blood gushed out, drawing two muddy lines on his white cheekbones.

"Hmph!"

The old man let out a cold snort and turned his gaze away.

"Of all the disciples I have accepted in my life, you are the most useless one! I should have killed you directly back then, so as not to dirty my eyes!"

The tone was merciless.

"You can die now!"

But the old man Uda's eyes lit up.

The old man scolded him, the tone so harsh it approached an insult, but he squeezed a gasping sound similar to laughter from his throat, and bloody tears flowed from his eyes.

Disciple.

Can die.

Great.

He had finally won forgiveness.

This "ascending the steps" was never meant to ascend the Hachimangu Shrine, but a punishment for his twenty years of avoiding revenge, wasting swordsmanship, and forgetting hatred.

Until before his death, he was finally allowed to use the Kurama-style swordsmanship and was finally re-recognized by the old man as a disciple of the Kurama style... He had finally received forgiveness.

So he could die.

He should have died long ago.

*Thump. * ===== CHAPTER 582 =====