Chapter 582: Proper Business

*Squish. *

The middle-aged swordsman's head was stepped into a pool of meat paste, the excessive force pressing down, violently squeezing the air between the clogs and the ground, so blood splashed out, landing in front of Kurama Heihachi.

At the same time, figures emerged from the end of the passage, stepping onto the passage one after another, and the majestic sword intent gathered into a piece, rolling toward Kurama Heihachi like a tide.

【Sword Saint】.

More than ten 【Sword Saints】.

Grasping the hilts of their swords, they walked toward Kurama Heihachi.

And Kurama Heihachi had no reaction, just locking his gaze fixedly on the figure at the end of the passage who had stepped on the middle-aged swordsman's head.

That person was wearing priestess attire almost identical to Ji Tianrui's, with a light veil covering his face, revealing only a slender, white neck like a swan's, with a crimson katana hanging at his waist, facing Kurama Heihachi, his fingers tapping slowly on the hilt.

"Are you the head of the Hachimangu Shrine?"

Kurama Heihachi grinned and laughed.

The person didn't answer, just raised a hand from afar toward Kurama Heihachi, palm up, as if lifting him in his palm—and then, the palm suddenly flipped.

"Kill!!!"

The swordsmen who had surrounded Kurama Heihachi shouted in unison, and more than ten cold lights rose, slashing toward Kurama Heihachi!

The crowd behind was in an uproar.

"This is not according to the rules!"

"This is not ascending the steps!"

"Lord Uda is dead, this ascending the steps is over, you Hachimangu Shrine cannot attack those who have stepped on the passage again!"

"That's right... even if ascending the steps can be continued by others, you cannot let more than ten people surround and attack!"

Those who gathered here were swordsmen and samurai who had gathered in Kamakura and could not ascend the Hachimangu Shrine, and among them were many who had wasted years or even decades.

"Ascending the steps" was their only hope, and seeing the old man Uda die in front of them, the feeling of "the rabbit dies and the fox grieves" welled up in their hearts, so they temporarily forgot their fear and shouted indignantly.

No one cared.

Even the interrupting swordsman who was standing tremblingly beside Li Miao and Ji Tianrui looked at the indignant crowd around him strangely, and carefully moved to Li Miao's side.

What are they shouting?

Seeking death!

It's already like this, what are they still thinking about "ascending the steps"?

Those are more than ten Sword Saints, not a dozen rabbits; their swords are already drawn, so what the hell kind of rules are they talking about? Is the rule bigger or is the fist bigger!

Besides—he looked up calmly, but happened to meet Li Miao's smiling gaze. He couldn't help but shudder, squeezing out a smile that was uglier than crying.

The one who didn't follow the rules first wasn't the Hachimangu Shrine.

Others didn't know, but he was the one who had been talking to the three people in Li Miao's group by chance... How could he not guess that today's ascending the steps was essentially a declaration of war when one beast stepped into another beast's territory!

For a bug like himself, if he didn't hurry to lick one side, he would dare to bare his teeth at the other side without any reliance... wait for death, you guys!

Thinking of this, the smile on his face became more sincere, his eyes rolled, and he knelt down in front of Li Miao with a *thump*.

"Oh my—my lord, your boots."

He raised his sleeve, used the water in the gourd to wet it, put his face to the ground, leaned over to the sole of the boot, and wiped it carefully.

"Stained with dust, how can this be?"

"You damn dust! How dare you stain the lord's body! Damn it! Damn it! I'll wipe it clean for the lord!"

"I—wipe!"

The last word "wipe," the tone rose sharply.

Blood.

A massive amount of blood fell from above his perspective.

The shouting of the surrounding crowd was suddenly cut off, because the Sword Saints of the Hachimangu Shrine killed them silently, splashing a piece of cold light from a distance of several zhang at the height of their heads, so heads flew up, the shouting was cut off, and the cavities pumped blood and sprinkled it down.

"My lord!"

He squeezed out a scream, took the opportunity to lie down, and hugged Li Miao's calf.

"Help!"

Li Miao didn't care at all, just looked ahead, chatting with Ji Tianrui with a smile.

"Is this the person you wanted to lure here?"

Ji Tianrui nodded with a smile.

"Yes."

"Is she very important?"

"Of course."

"Make a move?"

"Not yet."

Ji Tianrui shook her head with a smile.

"Lord Li, do you know what the biggest difference in our styles of doing things is?"

Li Miao frowned slightly.

"Leader Ji might as well speak directly."

Ji Tianrui chuckled.

"It's not proper business, Lord Li doesn't need to be so serious. It's just idle chat when there's nothing to do."

She pointed her finger at Li Miao.

"Lord Li, you always like to use speed to beat slowness, directly smashing in with absolute strength when the enemy has just opened their net, tearing apart everyone, everything, and every matter related to the opponent's calculations."

"Your martial arts are extremely strong, and you are skilled in investigation and interrogation; the enemy cannot hide from you and cannot block you, so in the end, they can only die at your hands."

Then she pointed to herself.

"As for me, I like to plan before moving. Before the opponent discovers me, I spend a hundred times the time to weave a big net that the opponent absolutely cannot escape from, and then use several times the cost and human lives of the enemy to get the only thing I want."

"I won't kill people I don't have to; I won't take things I can give to others. I am never greedy or overconfident, so I can be invincible."

Li Miao tilted his head slightly.

"What exactly does Leader Ji want to say?"

Ji Tianrui chuckled.

"What I want to say is that the essential difference between you and me actually lies in talent and background."

"Although you are an orphan, you are the adopted son of the Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, which can be said to be half a royal descendant. Your martial arts are extremely strong, your heart is ruthless, and your talent is vertical—"

Li Miao let out a sneer.

"I wouldn't dare to compare my talent with Leader Ji; I hadn't even mastered the Heaven-Man Realm at your age."

Ji Tianrui was not annoyed by being interrupted, just waved her hand with a smile.

"Lord Li already knows how I reached my realm; it's all about taking by force, opportunism, unstable foundation, and hard to use. If I go to the Izumo Grand Shrine, I'm afraid I'll die directly at the hands of Patriarch Bodhidharma."

"Back to the topic just now, Lord Li."

Ji Tianrui looked ahead with her hands behind her back.

"You have the capital to be arrogant, because no one has ever been able to compare to you, and you have never needed to rely on anyone, nor do you need to fear anyone."

"If you want to master the realm above Heaven-Man, you can be sure that you will definitely master it; if you want to kill someone, you can also be sure that you will definitely be able to kill them."

"Just like you want to kill me; if you really put down everything and came to hunt me down day and night, I should have died at your hands long ago, right?"

"But you don't bother to do that; you are waiting for me, waiting to see what kind of trouble I can bring you, preferably the kind that makes you fight for your life—you have never been afraid of fighting for your life; if no one can bring you a life-and-death crisis, you will feel bored instead."

"What drives you to act has always been—interest."

"As for me."

Ji Tianrui smiled and pointed to her own heart.

"It is fear."

"I fear the First Ancestor of Heaven-Man, so I will collect all information about him by any means necessary, and for this, I can sacrifice the Ming Cult, sacrifice my subordinates, and sacrifice everything."

"I fear you, so I left the Emperor, Zheng Anqi Sheng, and Yingzhou all to you, because I don't want to fight you head-on, which would likely lead to my complete death."

"I fear everything, so I have to calculate everything, which is why you think I seem to have a plan for everything; in fact, it's because I'm too timid and have to work day and night to calculate everything into it."

Li Miao let out a sneer.

"Leader Ji is too modest."

"You don't look like you're afraid of death."

Ji Tianrui chuckled.

"I am indeed not afraid of death; what I fear is not being free, fear of being involuntary, fear of being trapped—just like Zhang Sanfeng and Patriarch Bodhidharma."

Li Miao raised an eyebrow.

"Saying so much, it turns out you were waiting for me here... You actually want me to restrain myself a little, value my opponent, and act according to your plan, right?"

Ji Tianrui nodded with a smile.

"Lord Li heard it."

"Your heart and mine are different, and the results we pursue are also different, but the processes and means can be the same."

Ji Tianrui pointed to the end of the passage.

"That person must be captured alive."

"If we make a move now, the Kurama style will be wiped out in vain, and we will also have to kill our way to the Ise Grand Shrine in our current state, facing the opponent or means that trapped Zhang Sanfeng for two hundred years."

"So, I ask Lord Li to be patient for a while and not let your whims ruin the big picture."

Li Miao snorted coldly.

"Earnest, nagging, saying it as if I were an unreasonable brute."

"Hmph."

Ji Tianrui waved her hand with a smile.

"Just treat it as doing me a favor."

Then she pointed forward.

"Look, as long as Kurama Heihachi can kill his way to this person, you and I can make a move."

The two talked as if no one else was around, not caring at all that the Sword Saints of the Hachimangu Shrine had killed their way into the crowd, slaughtering the swordsmen who had followed.

Li Miao and Ji Tianrui used the Blood Clothes Building's breath-concealing and shape-hiding method, which, combined with their Nature Cultivation realm, could make people naturally ignore them. But now that no one was standing around, they could no longer hide.

So the Hachimangu Shrine Sword Saint, who was making up for the dead bodies on the ground, was suddenly stunned, feeling that a shadow had disappeared from his vision, and turned to look at Li Miao and Ji Tianrui.

"Oh no!"

The interrupting swordsman was horrified and shook Li Miao's calf a few times.

"My lord! My lord!"

"They're coming, the Sword Saints are coming!"

"No, if you can move, move! We're going to die, we're going to die!"

Li Miao was chatting with Ji Tianrui, and when he heard this, he didn't look down, clicked his tongue, raised his hand, grabbed his collar, lifted him up to stand, and then pointed.

"You, go kill him."

The interrupting swordsman was on the verge of tears.

"Me?"

Li Miao patted his shoulder.

"Just you."

He casually drew the sword from his waist and stuffed it into his hand.

"You've been strengthened, go quickly."

The interrupting swordsman was in tears. ===== CHAPTER 583 =====