I was a swordsman in ancient Japan

Shuntaro had already planned to go to bed first.

So much happened tonight.

First, he spent a long time in Edo in order to catch that traitorous ninja.

Then he suddenly heard Balrog's death sentence, hurried back to Shiranui, and then tossed for a long time.

Not only the body is tired, but the mind is also very tired.

And now he can't do other things besides sleeping first and nourishing his energy and physical strength.

At present, even when and why the Balrog was poisoned has not yet been found out, and there is no clue to trace it. It is simply impossible to find the person who poisoned the Balrog.

Shuntaro himself knew nothing about poisons, and he couldn't even deduce what kind of poison caused the death based on the appearance of the poisoned person.

Even if you want to help with the investigation, there is no way to help.

There is nothing to do now, sleepiness and tiredness are slowly coming up, so Shuntaro plans to take a good rest tonight.

He had already planned to sleep.

But just when he was about to untie the two sabers on his back, he suddenly heard a "dong" sound from outside the room that Shuntaro had to pay attention to.

After hearing this sound, Shuntaro's pupils shrank suddenly.

The reason why this sound made Shuntaro have to pay attention is because this sound is so familiar to Shuntaro who has experienced many battles.

This is the sound that the arrow will only make after it is deeply pierced into the wood.

Almost like a conditioned reflex of the body's instinct, Shuntaro pulled out a knife on his back, and then quickly hid in a blind spot where the archers outside the room would never be able to shoot.

Moving within the shooting blind spot.

After coming to the door, Shuntaro did not rush out rashly, but opened the door a gap first, observing the situation outside.

Shuntaro's house is like a lonely cactus in the desert.

Because he likes to live in a quiet place, Shuntaro's home is located in a relatively remote place in Shiranui, and there are no neighbors around.

At this point in time, there is nothing but wind, moonlight, and darkness outside Shuntaro's house, not to mention archers, and there is not even a shadow of a Taoist.

already gone?

There was no human breath outside.

According to Shuntaro's guess, the archer left quickly after firing an arrow at his house.

Shuntaro pulled the door open to allow him to enter and exit alone, and walked outside the room.

As soon as he stepped out of the room, Shuntaro saw an arrow that had penetrated half an inch into the wood on the wooden post next to his room door.

A small cloth bag the size of an adult's fist is tied to the arrow shaft.

Since it can be shot directly with an arrow, it means that the things contained in this small cloth bag are absolutely not heavy.

After pulling out the arrow and untying the small cloth bag tied to it, Shuntaro saw that there were only two things inside.

A letter folded squarely, and a kimono sleeve.

When he saw this sleeve, Shuntaro's first reaction was that it looked familiar.

After unfolding it for a closer look, Shuntaro finally understood why he felt so familiar.

While figuring out why he felt familiar, Shuntaro felt as if his heart skipped a beat out of fear.

Shuntaro quickly put away the sleeves, then spread out the neatly folded letter, and looked at the words and sentences on it at a glance.

Pasha, pasha, pasha

Without any reason to dodge, Shuntaro with a gloomy face stepped on the dead branches and rotten leaves on the ground, holding the kimono sleeve in his left hand and the letter in his right hand, and walked straight towards the darkness in front of him.

Shuntaro is currently in a forest in the northwest of Shiranui-ri that has no name and where no one usually visits.

There is only wind, trees, moonlight, and darkness without light to illuminate it.

After walking all the way to the depths of the woods, there was finally another figure hiding in the shade of the trees that was incompatible with the surrounding wind, grass, trees and other things.

As soon as Shuntaro saw the figure in front of him, the figure walked straight towards Shuntaro, and said softly one step ahead of Shuntaro:

"Master Shuntaro, you are finally here."

When the voice of the figure just fell, he just walked out from the dark shade of the tree and came under a beam of moonlight.

The bright moonlight shone on this figure, illuminating a face that Shuntaro was fairly familiar with.

Looking at this face, Shuntaro's face, which seems to be tense with every inch of skin, has many deep shadows.

In the shadows, there was a bit of astonishment.

"When did you come back, Huitaro? Where's Jitaro? Are you the one who sent me this letter?"

The figure standing in front of Shuntaro is none other than Keitaro.

Standing in front of Shuntaro with a short gun on his back and a big cloth bag containing something unknown.

Shun Taro knew that Ji Taro and Keitaro led a group of ninjas to perform a certain task tonight, although he didn't know what task they were going to perform.

Up to now, there has been no news of Jitaro and the others coming back.

Shuntaro thought that they were still performing their task right now, but now Keitaro was standing in front of him alive.

Shuntaro's biggest impression of Keitaro is that he is the follower of Ji Taro.

He and Ji Taro are inseparable, no matter what Ji Taro does, he will follow.

Ji Taro went to Yoshiwara to have fun every night, and Keitaro also accompanied Ji Taro to have fun every night.

After seeing Keitaro, Shuntaro subconsciously thought that Jitaro was nearby, so he looked around and squeezed the letter in his hand.

"Master Shuntaro." Keitaro said calmly, "I am not the one who wrote this letter. It's just that the person who sent this letter to your door with a bow and arrow just now is indeed I."

Just when Shuntaro was about to yell "Then who wrote this letter", he suddenly heard two unhurried footsteps coming from behind Keitaro.

At the same time, there was a voice that was also quite familiar to Shuntaro, and it sounded along with the two footsteps.

"Good evening, Shuntaro. This seems to be the first time we've met in the middle of a night like this."

After the voice fell, two figures walked out from the dark shadows, and their figures and appearances were gradually outlined by the light.

Looking at the two people who appeared behind Keitaro, Shuntaro couldn't control the expression on his face anymore.

The muscles on his face seemed to be out of control, and he began to show doubts and surprises uncontrollably. With a hoarse voice, he called out the names of these two people: "Shintaro Hannosuke"

Shintaro is usually taciturn and doesn't have much expression on his face.

In Shuntaro's impression, he has never seen "Smiling Shintaro" a few times.

At this moment, this extremely rare picture appeared in front of Shuntaro.

Shintaro, with a gentle smile on his face, walked towards Shuntaro little by little.

Walking beside him was Hannosuke who led the group of Iga ninjas.

Hannosuke was also carrying a cloth bag like Keitaro at this time, but the cloth bag he was carrying was smaller than the one on Keitaro's back.

After Shintaro and Hannosuke came to Keitaro's side, Keitaro bowed respectfully to the two, and then stood behind Shintaro.

After a brief period of doubt and surprise, Shuntaro's face returned to seriousness.

Before Shuntaro could make a sound, Shintaro spoke first:

"The letter in your hand was written by me."

"I know you must be very worried about your husband's safety now."

"But don't worry, Taifu is safe now. There is not even a broken skin on his body."

Shintaro's words made Shuntaro squeeze the sleeve and the letter even tighter.

Just now, after looking closely at the sleeve of this kimono, Shuntaro immediately recognized that it was the sleeve of Furin Taifu's kimono that he would only wear when receiving guests.

This set of kimono is expensive, not in Edo, it should be only Taifu in the whole world can have this set of kimono.

Because Shuntaro joked with Taifu more than once, saying that Taifu wearing this suit is like wearing a quilt on his body, so he was very impressed with Taifu's suit.

Recognizing that the sleeve was a fragment of Taifu's kimono, Shuntaro immediately opened the letter.

The content of the letter is very simple.

To briefly summarize, let Shuntaro go to the woods in the northwest of Shiranui.

At the end of the letter, they also very "intimately" reminded Shuntaro that Fuling Taifu is in their hands.Let Shuntaro go to the woods designated in the letter now, and at the same time let Shuntaro only go there by himself without making any public announcements.

Although the letter did not contain any hostile words, the lines between the lines were full of threats.

"In order to make you believe that Taifu Fengchi is really in our hands now, we specially brought this thing here."

While saying this in a half-joking tone, Shintaro made a look at Hannosuke beside him.

Hannosuke, who understood the meaning of Shintaro's eyes, nodded, then put the cloth bag on his back on the ground, and opened it.

Inside the cloth bag was a set of exquisite kimono without the right sleeve.

It was Taifu Fengling's outfit that he would only wear when receiving guests.

Perhaps it was because from just now, the news that was enough to shake Shuntaro's brain appeared one after another, making Shuntaro numb, but now he calmed down.

"So it is."

Shintaro said softly.

"Shintaro, the Balrog was poisoned to death by you, right?"

This sentence is obviously a question sentence, but the tone is that of an affirmative sentence.

"That's right." Shintaro admitted without hesitation, very straightforwardly, "The Balrog was indeed killed by us."

"We poisoned the wine that the Balrog drank tonight."

"In order to find the right time to poison, it took a lot of our minds."

"Because it was too late to find a chance to poison, the poisoning of the Balrog almost failed tonight."

"When did you guys work together?" Shuntaro's eyes slid across the faces of Shintaro, Keitaro, and Hannosuke one by one.

"It's been from the beginning," Shintaro said.

"Before Iga's ninjas arrive, Shintaro?"

"No." The smile on Shintaro's face became more intense, "Before that."

"Before I don't know how long ago, Keitaro and Hannosuke were my companions!"

"You killed Balrog and kidnapped Chang, what are you going to do?" Shintaro gritted his teeth, "Is it to seize power and become the next generation of Balrog?!"

"Seizing power?" Shintaro's expression was full of satisfaction, "It's for seizing power."

"But I have no interest in becoming the next generation of Balrogs."

Shintaro looked at Keitaro beside him.

"Keitaro, bring that thing here."

"Yes."

Keitaro took down the big cloth bag he was carrying on his back, and handed it to Shintaro.

After Shintaro took it, he threw it to Shuntaro again.

"Shuntaro, open it and take a look."

The thing that Shintaro threw was not heavy.

After Shuntaro untied it, he found that what was contained in this cloth bag was a thousand-tenths gourd.

Shuntaro is a rough man who can't even write Chinese characters very well.

But even a rough man like him knows what a thousand gourds represent.

"Shintaro, what are you doing with Toyotomi Hideyoshi's horse seal?" Shuntaro tightly clutched the thousand-tenth gourd in his hand.

Even a rough man like Shuntaro has heard of the legendary stories created by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who held a thousand gourd and horse seals in the troubled times of the Warring States Period 200 years ago.

"Don't worry, Shuntaro."

Shintaro turned and walked towards a big rock next to him.

After sitting down on this big rock, Shintaro continued to put on a satisfied expression: