I Was a Swordsman in Ancient Japan

"The number one swordsman in Edo and the demon sword Zena?" Mucun's eyes sparkled with interest, "What is this? It seems very interesting. Miss Aqian, can you tell us more about it?"

Ah Qian shrugged: "I don't know much. When I served them wine just now, I just happened to hear the words 'Edo's No. 1 Swordsman' and 'Demon Saber Zana'."

"And I'm busy right now..."

Ah Qian let out a long sigh.

"If the proprietress sees that I am not doing business and chatting with customers here, I will be scolded."

"That's it, forget it." Mucun smiled, "Then Miss Aqian, you can go on with your own affairs. Ah, don't forget to bring the 2 plates of fennel beans."

"Okay."

As soon as Aqian left with the pan in his arms, Asai turned his attention to Shimada, a native of Edo: "What is the number one swordsman in Edo and the demon sword Zena?"

"Uh... this..." Shimada showed embarrassment, "I don't know very well. Edo has a population of one million, and some rumors of unknown origin are born every day, and I have always been familiar with these rural rumors. Not interested, so never paid attention to it..."

"Then ask the people at that table." Mu Cun grinned, "I happen to be very interested in the number one swordsman in Edo and this demon sword."

"Wait for me for a moment. Ah, I'm asking you to take care of my Odachi temporarily."

After saying that, Makimura, who was not armed with any weapons, picked up two bottles of unopened sake, and strode towards the table of guests who had been making loud noises since just now.

"Guys! Can I be added?"

While talking, Mucun squeezed into the crowd of guests at this table under the gaze of doubtful eyes very familiarly.

For Mucun, who has lived in various places where fish and dragons have mixed up since he was a child, "naturally blending into other people's circles" is simply a trivial matter for him.

Sure enough——At first, he looked at the people at Mucun's table suspiciously and warily, but after a while, he began to chat with Mucun.

Mucun asked about their identities. They were ordinary construction workers who could be seen everywhere in Edo. Almost every night, they would go to various izakayas to have a few drinks together and talk about what they called "big things in the world".

Their behavior of spending a lot of money on drinking every night is very in line with the personality of the Edo people.

Edo people are notorious for not saving money. If they have money today, they spend it today. After spending it all, they make money tomorrow, and then spend it again, and the cycle repeats like this. Therefore, such a saying was born: "'Edozi' does not carry overnight money in his pocket."

The reason why Edo people generally love "today's wine and today's drunkenness" is quite complicated. A very important part of the reason is that Edo's food and entertainment industries are too developed.

Snack bars, restaurants, and izakaya are everywhere. There are countless storytellers and jugglers. There is also Yoshihara, the gold-selling cave that most Edo men dream about.

The over-developed catering and entertainment industries made Edo people dizzy and unable to restrain their desire for enjoyment, so they gradually developed the character of spending as much as they had every day.

After quickly getting acquainted with the guests at this table, Mucun didn't waste much time and got straight to the point:

"Brothers, I just heard what you seem to be talking about'the first swordsman in Edo' and what kind of demon sword. What is this? I am from a foreign place. This is the first time I have heard of 'Jiangsu' when I came to Edo for the first time. The number one swordsman in the household'."

"Oh! This one!" A broad-nosed young man sitting next to Mucun hiccupped heavily, and then continued, "Are you interested in this?"

Makimura nodded vigorously.

"Hey, since you're interested, let me tell you. Brother, do you know Yamada Asemon Fumaki?"

"Yamada Asemon Fumaki?" Mucun raised his eyebrows, "Yes, I heard."

Some time ago, when I accompanied Shimada to his Shimada’s mansion, it happened that Shimada’s father invited people from the Yamada Asemon family to test the knife. It was at that time that Mucun heard about the “Yamada Asaemon Emmon Fumaki" is the name of the person.

"It's the seventh generation head of the Yamada Asemon family." Makimura added.

Broad Nose nodded vigorously: "That's right, it's him, he is the number one swordsman in Edo."

"That Yamada Asemon Fumaki is the number one swordsman in Edo now?" Mucun was surprised.

Broad Nose nodded, but after nodding he smiled wryly and said, "Actually, there have always been different opinions about who should get the title of 'No. 1 Edo Swordsman'."

"However, at this stage, most people think that Wen Xian is the No. 1 swordsman in Edo—at least the few of us all agree that Wen Xian is the well-deserved No. 1 swordsman in Edo."

"Because Wenxian has the most rumors about his strong swordsmanship."

"Brother, do you know how the Yamada Asemon family practiced swordsmanship?"

"I don't know." Mu Cun honestly shook his head.

"The Yamada Asemon family has been responsible for the executioners and sword testers of the shogunate for generations, so in order to practice swordsmanship, the Yamada Asemon family has a very unique swordsmanship training method."

Having said that, Broad Nose patted the back of his neck.

"Brother, you may not know - when beheading someone's head, the best position to enter the knife is between the third bone and the fourth bone counting from the top to the bottom of the back of the neck. From this position, the knife can cut the head Most beautifully cut."

Back when he was Yori in Kyoto, Mucun had heard such cold knowledge from a colleague who was a prison guard.

But in order not to spoil the interest of the broad nose, so that the broad nose can continue to speak, Mucun deliberately pretended to be stupid, and nodded as if he didn't understand at all: "So beheading is still so particular..."

"That's right. So in order to improve the precision of swinging a sword, the Yamada Asemon family created this training method: put two pieces of tatami together, and then swing the knife to split the gap between the two pieces of tatami."

"The gap between the two tatami mats?" Mucun frowned. "The gap between the two tatami mats... the gap is only the width of a few strands of hair?"

"Yes." Broad Nose nodded, "So this training method is simply incredible."

"It is said that every time the knife is used, the knife can be accurately cut into the gap between the tatami mats without damaging the two tatami mats together."

"The Yamada Asemon family has undergone this kind of training for generations, so everyone in the Yamada Asemon family is a savage who is both accurate and fierce with knives. They want to chop off the third bone in the back of your neck and The gap between the 4th bone is definitely the gap between the 2nd bone and the 3rd bone."

"The current leader of Yamada Asemon, that is, Fumaki, is a swordsman who has perfected the accuracy of his sword."

"I heard that Wen Xian can chop off the wings of a flying fly without hurting the fly's body."

"Cut off the fly's wings without hurting the fly's body... This is too exaggerated." Mu Cun couldn't help laughing.

"This rumor may be exaggerated and fabricated, but a real incident related to Wen Xian's powerful swordsmanship just happened recently, and the few of us were talking about it just now."

Wide Nose picked up the wine glass, took a few sips of wine, and then continued vividly:

"Beheading criminals sentenced to beheading at the execution ground has always been one of the main tasks of the Yamada Asemon family."

"Just a few days ago, Wen Xian was invited to the execution ground as usual to chop off the head of a murderer."

"But after pulling back the hair on the back of the murderer's neck, everyone in the execution ground was surprised to find that the five words 'Dongzhao Daquanxian' were tattooed on the back of the man's neck."

"This scares everyone in the execution ground enough. Dongzhao Daquan is now Ieyasu's god name." [Ieyasu: Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first general of the Edo shogunate. As for the name of the god, you can understand it as something similar to a temple name or a posthumous name]

"After careful questioning, I found out—before committing the crime, this guy knew he would be arrested and executed, so he specially tattooed these five words on the back of his neck, so as to disgust the people in the government."

"It's disrespectful to have the tattoo on the back of the Ieyasu Kojin's neck."

"If you want to change the penalty, you have to report it layer by layer, which is very troublesome."

"Just when everyone in the execution ground was at a loss, Wen Xian, who was calm from the beginning to the end, drew his sword."

"Wen Xian is a well-known master of sword drawing in Edo. It is said that his sword drawing skills are so fast that the enemy is beheaded before he realizes that his opponent Wen Xian has already drawn a sword."

"Wen Xian first used his knife-drawing skills to peel off the skin on the back of the prisoner's neck with the five characters 'Dongzhao Daquanxian' tattooed on it."

"The prisoner didn't even have time to scream, Wen Xian swung his knife again and chopped off his head."

"It wasn't until Wen Xian shook off the blood attached to the knife and put the knife back into its sheath that the human skin with the tattoo of 'Dongzhao Daquanxian' fell to the ground."

It has to be said that this broad-nosed man has a talent for storytelling, and he told this short story so vividly that even Mucun was fascinated by it.

"Peel off the skin on the back of a person's neck with a knife drawing technique..." Mu Cun's eyes showed unconcealable astonishment.

Although he didn't have much research on the knife drawing technique, he also knew how difficult it was to use the knife drawing technique to peel off the skin of the back of the neck of a person kneeling on the ground in a standing posture.

"By the way, what I said just now is not a sham." Broad Nose added, "I know a man who works at the execution ground, and Wen Xian is executing this guy with Dongzhao Daquan tattooed on the back of his neck. Before that, my friend happened to be there, and it was a real event that happened just a few days ago."

"What's the matter with the demon sword Zena?" Mu Cun asked.

"Oh, this is the sword passed down from generation to generation by the Yamada Senemon family that we talked about when we were talking about Wen Xian just now."

"The demon sword, Zena, is a family treasure passed down from generation to generation in the Yamada Asemon family."

Speaking of which, Wide Nose drank a few more sips of wine to moisten his throat.

"Zana's full name is 'Vairocana'."

"Vairocana is the saber of the previous head of the Yamada Asemon family: the sixth head of the Yamada Asemon Yoshihito."

"It is said that this knife is a treasured knife made of special steel and special knife-making techniques. It is indestructible."

"Jiheng has always used this precious sword when executing people."

"I heard that until Ji Heng passed away, he used Vairocana to send at least a thousand people into the underworld."

"After Jiheng passed away, he left a family motto: to always pass on Vairocana to the best son of Yamada Senemon's family."

"Vairocana has now been handed down to the current head of the seventh generation: Wen Xian."

"However, Wen Xian is not like his father, Jiheng, who used Vairocana to execute everyone. He only took out this precious sword when he executed warriors, and used ordinary swords when he executed civilians."

"It is said that this knife, which has only been handed down for two generations, has killed thousands of people."

"Because this knife has been bathed in too much blood, gradually everyone calls this knife an evil sword, a demon sword."

"What's more, it is said that only those who are equally murderous can control Vairocana, otherwise ordinary people will not be able to use this knife at all, and will only be eroded by the evil spirit of this knife."

Mucun has always been insensitive to gods and ghosts, so he automatically ignored the absurd statement behind the broad nose that he was "corroded by the evil spirit of the knife".

"I see..." Mucun nodded, "But I don't understand one thing—why did you name this knife 'Vairocana'? Isn't Vairocana the name of the Tathagata in Tantric Buddhism? It's a strange feeling to name a knife specially used for execution as 'Dainichi Tathagata'."

"I don't know about that." Broad Nose shrugged, "I have to ask the sixth-generation master who made this sword, Yamada Asemon. But now even if I want to ask, I can't ask, Yamada Asemon The head of the sixth generation is dead long ago."

"Speaking of Yamada Asemon—" At this moment, the tall man sitting across from Broad Nose suddenly said, "Recently, the quality of the Rendan pills produced by Yamada Asemon seems to be much higher."

"I have a friend who is very rich. His wife has lung disease and must take human gallbladder pills regularly to keep her life alive."

"He told me yesterday: The quality of the human gallbladder produced by the Yamada Asemon family recently is very good, and his wife's complexion has improved a lot recently."

"Hey." Broad Nose sneered, "The bile pills of the Yamada Asemon family are not that easy to use."

"I don't deny the role of their human gallbladder pills in treating lung diseases."

"However, the medicinal effect of Rendan Pills is only effective for a small number of people. The vast majority of people have no effect at all after taking Rendan Pills. Some people even got new diseases instead of being cured after taking Rendan Pills."

"You can't say that." The tall man showed displeasure, "If no one had the guts, my friend's wife would have died long ago."

...

...

A heated argument erupted between the broad-nosed and the tall man over "do gall pills work?"

While they were arguing there, Mucun, who had obtained the information he wanted, had silently returned to Asai and Shimada's side.

After returning, Mu Cun briefly told the two of them what he had just heard.

"Degenerated into a demon sword due to too much blood..." Asai showed disdain, "It's nonsense."

Shimada nodded in agreement.

"Am I right?" Mucun grinned and said, "In the izakaya, you can often hear some interesting things that you haven't heard of before."

Makimura cast a smug look at Asai, who had just said out loud that "I don't understand the fun of drinking in an izakaya".

And Asai pretended not to notice Mucun's gaze, and drank in small sips.

Mucun and the others took what they had just heard about "the number one swordsman in Edo" and "Demon Sword Zena" as common topics of conversation after dinner.

After the three of them chatted on this topic for a while, they naturally turned to the next topic that had nothing to do with swordsmanship or demon swords.

...

...

At this very moment—

"Ah! Mamiya! Look! What's that behind you?"

"Master Yuan... This way of tricking me into looking back and then secretly replacing the chess pieces is really clumsy." Mamiya sighed softly and said helplessly.

In the mansion where Gourd House and the others are hiding, Mamiya and Yuan Yi, who have nothing to do, are playing games.

After Ogata and A-machi left Edo and took Ezochi on their backs, Genichi lived a regular life as before...or drank very regularly.

I drink in the corner every day, and draw for a while when the mood comes.

Unlike Makimura, who likes to drink in izakayas, Genichi likes to drink at home and doesn't like to drink in too noisy environments.

Genichi occasionally played chess, flower cards and other small games with Mamiya and the others as he did now.

At this moment, Genichi, who was playing shogi with Gamiya, was defeated by Gamiya not long after the start of the game.

Despite Genichi's struggles, his pieces were eaten one by one.

finally--

"General."

Following the words of the palace, there was a loud "pop" sound.

Yuanyi scratched his hair, scanned the chessboard a few times, and found that he was unable to recover, and heaved a sigh of relief: "I lost again... Mamiya, your chess skills are really strong."

"After all, I used to learn how to play shogi in Edo." Mamiya said lightly, "But it's not so much my superb chess skills, it's better to say that Minamoto-sama's level is too poor."

"It's really merciless." Yuan Yi grinned, although Gamiya said so, but there was no trace of annoyance on his face.

"Do you want to continue?" Mamiya asked.

"Don't play." Yuan Yi stretched vigorously, "Playing with you is too boring, no matter how you play, you can't win. I'm going back to my room to drink."

After all, Yuan Yi stood up and walked towards his room swaggeringly.

Seeing that Yuanyi didn't want to play anymore, Jiangong didn't say much, and silently packed the chessboard and chess pieces.

At this moment, Lin's voice suddenly sounded behind Mamiya:

"Kuro."

"My lord, what's the matter?" Jiangong turned his head to look at Kinoxia Lin who was walking towards them quickly behind him.

"It's nothing. I just saw that you are alone here and don't know what to do, so I came here to take a look."

Mamiya told Lin about his game against Yuan just now.

"I'm just bored right now." After summarizing what happened just now, Mamiya asked with a smile. "My lord, do you want to play chess with me?"

"No." Lin twitched the corner of her mouth, "I'm terrible at chess, I only like to watch other people play chess, I don't like to play chess with others."

"I see..." Mamiya sighed lightly, then scratched his hair with a wry smile, "Then what should I do now to pass the time... My lord, is there anything I need to do now? "

"I really hope that Mucun and others will take the initiative to ask me for things to do like you." After making a joke, Lin shook her head, "I don't have anything on hand for you to do right now."

Speaking of this, Lin paused.

Then he looked at Mamiya with meaningful eyes.

"...Kuro, since you're bored now, why don't you try going outside?"

Mamiya frowned slightly.

And Lin then went on to say:

"In a few days, we will return to Owari."

"Edo is also your hometown."

"I think you can take a walk and have a look at your long-lost hometown before we go back to Owari."

"Of course—I won't force you."

After finishing speaking, Lin stopped talking, turned around and left quickly.

Only Jiangong was left kneeling and sitting on the spot with a pensive look on his face.

...

...

The next morning, early in the morning—

Oshu, Honan Town——

"Mashima-san, where are we going now?"

As early as last night, Ogata had taught Azuki to call him by his pseudonym "Mashima Goro" in public or in the presence of outsiders.

Ogata, A-machi, and Azuki walked side by side at this time, on the way to leave the hotel where they stayed last night.

The sky had only just brightened, and Ogata and the others picked up their luggage, led their horses, and set off on the road.

"Go to Owari." Ogata said to the ninja who was walking on his right, who was going to act together with them from today, "find a friend of mine who has a lot of connections."

"Looking for your friend?" Azhu raised her little head, looking up at Ogata with difficulty, "Why are you looking for your friend?"

"I'll tell you about this later."

After all, Ogata looked back as if involuntarily, at the hotel behind them where they stayed last night, which was about to disappear from their field of vision.

"What's wrong?" A-cho, who was walking on Ogata's left, asked, "Is something missing in the hotel?"

"...No." Ogata shook his head, "It's nothing, let's go on."

After finishing speaking, Ogata retracted his gaze, lowered the bamboo hat on his head, and continued to move forward.

...

...

Isshiki's grandfather and grandson set off earlier than Ogata's.

When Ogata and the others had just left the inn, Isshiki and the others were about to leave Honan Town.

"It's such a pity..." Naoshu, who was walking side by side with Isshiki, let out a long sigh.

"It's a pity? What a pity?" Isshiki, who had changed back into men's clothes, asked rhetorically.

"What can be a pity? Of course it's a pity that I missed Ogata Yidaosai." Naosuke shook his head with a bit of distress, "I thought hard all night last night, and I couldn't think of a way to keep Ogata Yidaosai ..."

Zhi Zhou let out a long breath.

"Perhaps we and Ogata Isai are destined to have no relationship... We can only let Ogata Isai, whom we met so hard, part ways with us..."

"originally……"

Naosuke turned his head and cast a strange look at Isshiki beside him.

"I also thought about using a beauty trick to win over Ogata Yidaosai."

"Ogata Yidaosai is an indomitable hero, and we happen to have an unmarried beauty who is worthy of this hero."

"But it's a pity——Ogata Iktosai already has a wife."

Naoki sighed again.

"My Isshiki family is also a famous family in Osaka. No matter what, the girls in our family can't demean themselves or be other people's concubines. Even if the other party is the famous Ogata Ittosai."

"As expected, we and Ogata Ittosai have nothing to do with each other... Huh? What's the matter? Isshiki, why do you look so weird?"

"Ah?" Isshiki didn't know the "weird expression" in Naosuke's mouth, what kind of strange way it was, but he immediately raised his hands and rubbed his cheeks subconsciously, "No, nothing..."

Zhizhou mistook Isshiki for making Isshiki show that strange expression just now because of his remark that "I thought about marrying Isshiki to Ogata in order to win over Ogata" just now made Isshiki unhappy.

"Isshiki, why is your temper getting bigger and bigger now?" Zhizhou said helplessly, "I just considered betrotting you to Ogata Yidaosai, but I didn't actually put it into practice, and this idea just happened. If it pops up, I will cancel it myself."

"As I said just now—girls from our Isshiki family, no matter what, we can't demean ourselves to be someone else's concubine..."

Naoshu, who was babbling, didn't notice——Isshiki wasn't even listening to him right now.

While Naosuke was talking endlessly, Isshiki silently turned his head to look at Fengnan Town who had been left behind by them.

There were complex emotions in her gaze towards Honan-cho.

*****

*****

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PS: In this chapter, the "Yamada Asemon family's unique sword training method" and "peeling off the human skin with Tosho Daikon's tattoo" are said to be real deeds.