Refusing You

Takeda Hisatsuna, who had been standing silently to one side, saw that Pan Yun had nothing to do and immediately pulled Masuda Shinta forward. After bowing respectfully, he asked, "Daoist Priestess Pan, how is the situation at Yamaguchi Hall?"

Pan Yun pointed at the brightening sky. "Their evil formation has been broken."

Takeda Hisatsuna's eyes flickered, and he hurriedly asked, "Then can we continue our attack?"

Pan Yun frowned.

Xue Shao said, "Though we broke their evil formation in this battle, we still have not figured out the Ouchi clan's Shinto strength."

He asked, "The Yamana clan has operated here for many years. Do you know which Shinto priests they have ties with, and what they are capable of?"

Masuda Shinta's smile froze, and he could not help looking toward Takeda Hisatsuna.

After a moment's thought, Takeda Hisatsuna nodded. "We know. Ouchi Norihito's younger sister, Masako Ouchi, was sent to Izumo Taisha to train from childhood. I heard she became an attendant of the mountain god. Aside from her, the Ouchi clan keeps more than a dozen Shinto priests. Masako Ouchi was the one who introduced them; they invited them from Izumo Taisha to guard their household..."

Before Masuda Shinta could stop him, Pan Yun and Xue Shao had already turned cold-faced and demanded, "Since you knew they had so many Shinto priests in their hands, why did you not tell us before we set out?"

Takeda Hisatsuna choked. Only then did he remember that the clan head had deliberately concealed the matter of the Shinto priests, fearing they would abandon their fight against the Ouchi clan after learning of it.

Xue Shao sneered. "Luckily, Daoist Priestess Pan's magic is profound. Otherwise, every last one of us and the great army would have been left in that evil formation as