The man in the fur robe looked towards Deng Tianxiong and asked, "People of the Great Ming?"
Deng Tianxiong's mind buzzed.
The four men with crimson scabbard knives appeared utterly bewildered.
The first to snap out of it was Wang Sheng!
The youth, crouching halfway, lunged forward in an instant. His jaw clenched tightly, the fine fuzz on his lips fluttering slightly, his blade sweeping out like the first thunder of spring, aiming for the man's legs.
"Ah~"
"Eh?"
The room erupted into chaos. A soldier flipped a cast-iron pot, flinging boiling soup into the air. Deng Tianxiong stepped on his long knife, pushing off with his foot, the blade whistling through the air, its tip aiming directly between the man and the Crimson Scabbard Guards!
The sound of the wind dampened the crackling of the fire, the flames wildly twisting and flickering. The room darkened abruptly, casting long shadows of everyone present.
Wang Sheng's blade had already grazed the man's calf. The guard closest to the man, with a crimson scabbard, cried out in an unintelligible bird language. His slender long knife danced a mournful red, but it was blocked for an instant by Deng Tianxiong's blade—too late to save his master.
Wang Sheng's face remained impassive, his grip on the knife tightening further. Suddenly, a chill ran down his neck, an icy, slippery sensation spreading through his body in an instant. The blade, so close at hand, could not be swung.
The others stared wide-eyed, understanding what they saw. A strand of wet, black hair had, at some point, wound around Wang Sheng's neck. The youth's eyes bulged, his grip weakening, and before the knife hilt could fall, a fiery red blade light slashed upwards, aimed at the young man's face!
"Bang!"
The ringing echo lingered, the mournful wail of the blade unceasing, as the warrior staggered back, his hands trembling continuously...
Li Yan, with both hands on his gun, aimed the dark barrel straight at the man in the fur robe. The determined angles of his cheeks were bathed in a fiery glow by the light of the flames.
...
"Your bullets are spent, so why are you still pointing that at me?" the man said composedly.
"Bang!"
A burst of light, and the man's eyebrows twitched, his face registering shock.
The bullet grazed past his hair, the scent of singed strands faintly detectable.
Li Yan's eyes were fierce: "Why don't you guess if I've run out of bullets now?"
The man bowed his head, then suddenly laughed. His pale hand shot out towards Wang Sheng.
"Bang! Bang!"
Bursts of light sprayed out as two bullets whizzed past the man's neck, the smell of gunpowder overpowering the aroma of food.
Not just the man, but even Deng Tianxiong and the others were left dumbfounded.
Li Yan cocked his gun.
"Guess again?"
Deng Tianxiong rushed over to pull Wang Sheng back, yanking off the eerie black hair from his neck and pinching his philtrum desperately.
"There's something off about this man; I was aiming straight for his chest."
Li Yan remained outwardly calm, yet inwardly he was puzzled.
At the moment he fired, Li Yan faintly sensed that the bullet seemed to pass through a dark shadow...
From the first shot, Li Yan had targeted the enemy's vital spot, yet the samurai deflected it with his sword. More precisely, the bullet struck the blade of its own accord.
Even with the Hook Star's blessing, Li Yan couldn't confidently claim he could split a bullet with a sword.
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The subsequent shots were even more bizarre. To others, it looked as if Li Yan was toying with a mouse like a cat, but Li Yan was hardly in the mood for such games; he simply missed and postured with nonchalance.
A Fleeting Glance activated.
The Red Reserve samurai! A special force from Kai Province.
Status: Unarmored (Defense reduced by 70%, Agility increased by 40%)
Expertise: Military Techniques 77%
Skill: True Yin Flow Blade Technique
Spirit of Kai
Strong Army (Group combat effectiveness increased)
Threat Level: Light Red
Threat Level x4: Deep Red
Kobayakawa Masakazu, the youngest of the Kobayakawa Family.
Status: Blood of the Daimyo (Protected by the power of spirits, all damage reduced by 10%, damage from Yan Fu Wanderer reduced by 25%)
Expertise: Ancient Swordsmanship 79% (Divine Dao Unintentional Style)
Skill: Ghost Feeding Technique (Vegetable Ghost Art)
Threat Level: Red
Ghost Feeding Technique?
Li Yan flexed his fingers.
Kobayakawa's look of terror lingered long after: "Has the Great Ming's firearms technology truly advanced to this extent?!"
"Wait!"
Kobayakawa quickly realized something was amiss, as this man's accomplice revealed a look of surprise mirroring his own.
His eyes shifted, coveting the Colt Handgun with unabashed greed.
"Emperor Wanli's troops seem to be quite far from Pyongyang."
He paid no mind to Li Yan's gun pointed at him, speaking leisurely, "Are you part of that Escaped Fish of the Defeated Army?"
Deng Tianxiong spat on the ground disdainfully: "Little Japanese Pirate, you've managed to learn Mandarin quite well."
"Did he take to the mountains to evade our search?" Kobayakawa took two steps forward, Li Yan one, tilting the muzzle of his gun upward slightly. The meaning in his eyes was unmistakable.
Unfazed, the man looked around and cocked his head, "Moreover, your men are not lightly wounded."
Apart from Old Diao and Song Tongyi, the remaining seven, each bearing injuries, found the long trek exceedingly strenuous. Only Deng Tianxiong and a couple of others could possibly hold their own for a few rounds against these vigorous Red Reserve warriors.
"A bullet each, how much trouble could that be?" Li Yan's face was scornful.
"Then why don't you take action?" Kobayakawa asked with a smile.
"Bang!"
Li Yan swung the gun around and fired at the warrior farthest from Kobayakawa.
The bullet struck the man's shoulder, splattering beads of blood.
The warrior cried out in pain, and Deng Tianxiong and the others clearly saw that before the bullet hit the man, a withered hand of unknown origin intercepted it. The bullet passed through the hand, its trajectory skewing as a result.
Realizing something, Li Yan bellowed, "Fall back!" and all the Ming Army soldiers quickly distanced themselves from Kobayakawa.
At the same time, Kobayakawa, with a darkened countenance, motioned for several warriors to draw near him.
The unknown always instills fear, but Li Yan was an exception.
Ghost Feeding Technique, Vegetable Ghost Art—it was essentially no different from the Ba Snake.
When Li Yan fired at Kobayakawa, the Vegetable Ghost Art moved almost too fast to see. Aiming at the more distant warrior slowed it down considerably.
One was a forceful attack; the other was akin to a curse.
The situation became tense and frozen.
Kobayakawa glanced subtly at the rooftop.
On the beam above, an inverted woman with joints twisted backward, dressed in white and with black hair, was slowly crawling towards Li Yan and his group...
"Lord Kobayakawa, let us charge through together!" a warrior whispered.
Kobayakawa looked at him as if he were a fool, his smile not reaching his eyes as he said, "If he fires wildly, I am certain I won't be the one to die..."
"Magistrate Li, there's a haunting on that little Japanese pirate," Song Tongyi whispered low.
Li Yan touched his neck nonchalantly, unaware that the itch had turned into a stinging pain.
Good for nothing when you need it, he cursed silently and, licking his lips, said, "It's already dark; Old Diao should have been back by now."
At the same time, Kobayakawa frowned, "Why hasn't Yamamoto returned?"
Their words fell in unison, and they exchanged surprised glances, their expressions shifting rapidly.
...
The Vegetable Ghost Art had crept over the beams, its form emerging from the wall as if a Mother Spider choosing its prey. Its Resentful Poisonous Eyes, obscured by thick black hair, were fixed intently on Wang Sheng, who stood pale-lipped against the wall. The Withered Claw slowly reached out...
A Pure White Tendril wrapped around the withered palm of the Vegetable Ghost Art, and a face, blooming with beauty, pressed against the black hair of the Vegetable Ghost Art, boldly interposing itself between Wang Sheng and the spectral assailant.
"Ha, hah~"
The woman's eyes before him were gentle as water, smiling sweetly at him.
The Vegetable Ghost Art's mouth opened in a silent roar of rage. Her frame was petite, no more than a fourteen or fifteen-year-old girl, yet the woman before her was ripe with beauty, like a sister in her twenties, taking her into her embrace...
...
Passing the fence, a dark doorway loomed ahead, with what little warmth there was whisked away by the cold wind.
Footprints stamped one after the other in the snow, blood flowing through the gaps of his fingers. A crimson katana was slung over his back, his arms wrapped haphazardly with fluttering strips of cloth, his hair wild and unkempt, his eyes dull and bulging.
His lips, cracked and purplish, were tightly sealed.
"We're almost there."
...
"Wait!" Kobayakawa said, his gaze unsettling.
"We can't wait any longer!" Li Yan gripped the Ring Dragon Han Sword firmly, his teeth clenched tight.
"Click~"
The tension was palpable, like gunpowder ready to ignite, and the sound of boots stepping into the room drew everyone's attention instantly.
Diao the Blind was drenched in blood, his exposed entrails heaving with his breath. His lank hair fell to his shoulders, and his hands, red and cracked, clutched a braid, from which a blood-dripping head swung, its eyes wide open and swaying in the wind.
The old man stood erect, his one eye filled with a bloody haze.
"General Li's Banner, the Japanese pirates have ascended the mountain."
**********
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