Mirai picked up the wooden sword and set off with the group. Along the way, he learned through their conversation that the country he was currently in was Musashi.
The old man's village was a small village in Musashi called Many Rivers Village.
After asking around, Mirai learned something that shocked him.
The group led by the old man was actually heading deep into the forest to offer tribute to a powerful old monster named Du Qian Toad—a woman!
Thousands of poisonous toads were incredibly lustful. Ever since they occupied this forest, they had ordered several nearby villages to offer up a virgin every month. If they resisted, their village would be destroyed.
During this time, the villagers had also hired demon slayers to eliminate the poisonous toads, but every attempt had failed. Some people with weaker constitutions had even been killed by her outright, unable to escape.
Although Mirai did not like the dozen or so burly men, his first impression of the old man was fairly good. He wondered if he should let them wait for a while. Once he recovered his strength, he would go find those poisonous toads and kill them.
"Sir, judging by the clothes you're wearing, you're not from Musashi, are you?"
When He Qian saw that Mirai had remained silent, seemingly lost in thought, he noticed that Mirai's clothes were strange and unlike theirs. He asked hesitantly.
"Ah, Musashi?"
Mirai scratched his head, unsure how to explain himself, but the old man smiled again.
"If you don't want to say, then you don't have to. War is raging everywhere now, but it has nothing to do with us. Even if you're a spy sent by another faction, it still has nothing to do with us. To people like us, when one regime falls,