I was a swordsman in ancient Japan

"I have already made a decision not to leave Edo if I don't know how to survive the fire." Ogata said without thinking.

"Oh." After a moment of silence, Uncle Qing smiled wryly, "It seems that you really have made up your mind."

Edo, in a remote, dark forest around Shiranui

The foliage of this forest is very dense.

The branches full of leaves are intertwined together, forming a layer upon layer of thick barriers composed of branches and leaves, dividing the sky and the earth.

The moonlight penetrates the gaps between the branches and leaves, casting mottled shadows, bringing weak light to the forest.

Keitaro walked slowly in the dark woods with a blank expression.

His signature weapon, the short gun, is behind his back.

Also on his back was a big cloth bag that he didn't know what was in it.

With only these two things with him, he walked all the way to a certain big tree before stopping.

There is a figure in front of this big tree.

Because he happened to be standing in a place where the moonlight could not reach him, his appearance and figure were blurred.

He could barely recognize the figure leaning against the trunk of the big tree, facing Keitaro.

When Keitaro came to the big tree, to be precise, he walked in front of and behind the figure, and then stopped and knelt down on one knee.

"Ketaro."

The figure facing the kneeling Keitarou and leaning against the trunk of the big tree spoke in a calm tone.

"How's Gokutaro?"

"He's dead. But" Keitaro showed some hesitation on his face, "I didn't kill Master Jitaro."

"Oh?" The figure's calm tone from just now changed slightly.

Keitaro summarized what happened tonight in as concise a sentence as possible.

From entering Yoshihara to kill Guasheng, until Guasheng was rescued by unknown persons, Ji Taro went to pursue him.Huitaro will kill the other ninjas in this mission for the convenience of attacking and killing Jitaro later and concealing others, and then go to look for Jitaro, and finally find the tragic death of Jitaro in a remote street.

"Did Jitaro be killed by someone else?" Shadow muttered, "It's probably a good thing to save that melon-born man."

"Forget it, as long as Kyutaro is dead, it doesn't matter who did it. Have you put away Kyutaro's body?"

"Master Jitaro's body, I have placed it in the place you told me before."

"Keitaro, tonight's task was done well."

"Don't dare to take it." Hui Taro said hastily.

"By the way, did you bring the thing you were asked to bring?"

"Brought it."

After that, Keitaro took off the big cloth bag on his back.

The figure walked slowly towards Keitaro.

After taking the huge cloth bag from Keitaro's hand, he slowly released it.

What is contained in the cloth bag is a gourd of thousands of dollars.

The figure picked up the thousand-tenth gourd and looked at it seriously.

A satisfied smile appeared on his face.

"The people in the shogunate must have never thought of it," the shadow murmured, "After 200 years, thousands of gourds stand tall on the battlefield again."

Even a crude person who can't read big characters must have heard the legend of the thousand-tenth gourd from storytellers or people's word of mouth.

The horse seal is erected next to the general's horse, which is used to exaggerate the power of the army and mark the location of the general of the army.It's almost the same as Shuaiqi.

Sencheng gourd was the horse seal used by Toyotomi Hideyoshi who finally unified all of Japan during the warring states 200 years ago.

On the battlefield 200 years ago, wherever Toyotomi Hideyoshi was, there would be thousands of gourds standing tall!

Chapter 420 The Balrog Sudden Appearance [8000 words]

, I was a swordsman in ancient Japan

Edo, Shiranui

The impact of Balrog's sudden death on Shiranui has not subsided until now.

The Balrog died of poisoning.And it is very likely that when eating and drinking, they ate food or drinking water mixed with poison.

For a while, everyone in Shiranui was in danger.

No one is sure whether it is only the Balrog's food and drinking water that are poisoned.

Everyone is afraid whether what they eat or drink today is also mixed with poison.

Fortunately, so far, no second person has been poisoned and died tonight.

However, the atmosphere of panic still enveloped the entire Shiranui.

In a rather grand mansion, an old man and a young man sat facing each other.

The older one is called "Tutaro", and he is considered a very old senior in Shiranui. He is 58 years old this year.

When Balrog was still alive, he was the second oldest person in Shiranui.

At the moment when the 65-year-old Balrog died suddenly tonight, he is now the first senior in Shiranui.

When he was a young boy, he was already one of the backbone of Shiranui.

Now that he is older and more experienced, he has gained a good status and voice in Shiranui.

The status in Shiranui is probably second only to the "Four Heavenly Kings".

The younger young man sitting in front of Wu Tailang is named "Bun Tairo" and is Wu Tailang's disciple.

Although he is still just a ninja, in terms of talent, he is considered the best among the younger generation in Shiranui.

The body of the Balrog has just been moved to their mourning hall in Shiranui. This mourning hall is dedicated to enshrining those who have made outstanding contributions to Shiranui.

Taketaro and Buntaro, master and apprentice, just went to this mourning hall to take a look at the deceased Balrog, and just returned home, which is the magnificent mansion where the two of them are currently living.

The two of them were very heavy at the moment, and neither of them spoke during the journey from the mourning hall to home.

After lighting the lamp in the living room and the two of them sat down on the tatami, Buntaro asked Taketaro in front of him softly in a whisper-like tone:

"Master, who is the person who killed Lord Balrog?"

The sudden death of the leader who had been leading them came so fast that many people have not been able to adapt to this fact in time until now.

"I don't know." Taketaro sighed, "There are too many people who have the motive to kill Lord Balrog."

As a veteran of Shiranui, Taketaro is only 7 years younger than Balrog, and he is almost the same generation as Balrog.

Although he and Balrog are considered to be of the same generation and have served Shiranui for decades together, the two of them are not friends, and their relationship can only be said to be mediocre.

For Taketaro, if other people who had a mediocre relationship with him died, his mood would not change much.

But it's different for Balrog.

Like him, Balrog has witnessed Shiranui's decades of history with his own eyes. Even if the relationship is mediocre, Taketaro still has a special feeling for Balrog.

Received the news of Balrog's death suddenly tonight, an indescribable sense of sadness welled up in Taketaro's heart

Therefore, Wu Tailang's current mood is far more complicated than that of his disciple Wen Tailang.

"I haven't even seen the face of Lord Yanmo, Lord Yanmo died." Buntaro had a wry smile on his face.

Buntaro is only 15 years old this year, and he officially became a ninja half a year ago.

"The only impression I have of Lord Yanmo," Buntaro continued, "is that he is a gray-haired old man, and he is not a friendly and kind person."

Wen Taro's words made Wu Tailang smile a little more: "Your impression of the Balrog is actually not wrong."

"He's really not a very nice, nice guy."

"But he hasn't always been like this."

After all, Taketaro turned his head and looked at the wick emitting a faint light beside him. Under the light of this faint light, the light of memories reflected in Taketaro's pupils.

"The name Balrog used before succeeding him as the 12th Balrog was Ichitaro."

"He showed amazing ninjutsu talent and swordsmanship talent at a young age."

"Extraordinary strength, coupled with qualified leadership, made him quickly appreciated by the 11th generation of Balrog."

"The 11th generation of Balrog also started to train Ichitaro as the next generation of Balrog."

"I remember it was about 30 years ago. In the year when Ichitaro was 35 years old, the 11th generation of Yanmo died of a sudden illness. He handed over the position of Balrog to Ichitaro. Ichitaro took the name of Balrog and became the present The 12th generation of Balrog."

"In my impression, Ichitaro was a fairly cheerful and approachable person before succeeding as Balrog."

"But after taking over as Balrog, Ichitaro wanted to make Shiranui bigger and stronger in order to live up to the expectations and training of the 11th Balrog and others."

"Then he slowly became less cheerful and less friendly."

"Unfortunately"

Taketaro smiled helplessly.

"Ichitaro seems to lack some related talents."

"In the 30 years since he took over as the Balrog, he has only done two major things."

"The first major event was the all-out war with Fuma no Sato 1 years ago in order to reduce competitors."

"The second major event is to go to the shogunate, cooperate with the shogunate, and become the royal ninja of the shogunate."

"Let's not mention the first major event. In the battle with Fuma Village, we suffered heavy losses. In the end, Fuma Village was not wiped out by us by force, but Fuma disbanded by himself."

"Although we managed to make Fuma no Sato disappear in the end, our situation in Shiranui has not improved accordingly, and the high-quality tasks we can receive are still decreasing year by year."

"That's the second thing Lord Balrog did, and it has achieved certain results."

"After becoming the royal ninja of the shogunate, the shogunate will now allocate a certain amount of funds to us on a regular basis, making us richer than before."

"It's just that we have lost our freedom now, and we have to follow the instructions of the shogunate when making decisions on some major issues."

Speaking of this, Taketaro sighed heavily.

A slight dissatisfaction began to appear in his tone.

"Ichitaro has worked hard for 30 years to revitalize Shiranui, but not only failed to revitalize Shiranui, but Shiranui's strength is getting worse and worse."

"Thirty years ago, when Ichitaro first took over Shiranui, there were seven or eight people in Shiranui that were as strong as Gokutaro and Shintaro."

Buntaro, who had been quietly listening to Taketaro's story just now, smiled wryly and interjected:

"Master, you seem to have a big opinion on Lord Balrog."

"Hehe" Taketaro smiled in a low voice, "I still have some dissatisfaction with Ichitaro."

"After all, under his rule, Shiranui's strength is getting worse and worse. It is a fact that he failed to revitalize Shiranui."

"But I still have a lot of respect for him."

"He may be a little lacking in ability."

"But his determination to revitalize Shiranui is real."

"I have witnessed several times that Ichitaro, who is very old, has not closed his eyes for several nights in order to deal with various urgent matters."

"However, his determination is quite terrifying."

The corners of Taketaro's mouth were pulled down, showing an expression as if recalling some terrible memory.

"I have always felt that revitalizing Shiranui has become a deep obsession of Ichitaro."

"Sometimes the obsession is too deep, but it is very painful."

"So on the other hand, it's good that he's dead now"

"He no longer has to worry about how to revitalize Shiranui."

"Right now he"

Taketaro took a deep breath, and slowly exhaled the air in his lungs:

"Freed up"

Edo, Shiranui, Shuntaro's residence