Bai Sui had a plan in mind. He turned back and found Kubota Noriyuki. "Are there any bandits around here? Or any notorious roaming robbers? Ideally, they'd have some distinctive marks we could imitate, so we can pin this on them."
Kubota Noriyuki thought for a moment. "I don't know what's around here in the Land of Fields, but I do know of a few notorious bandits in the Land of Iron. Oh? I've thought of one group we could use: a band of outlaws from the south of the Land of Iron. They caused quite a stir within the country, and before I left, I heard they'd already killed four or five squads of samurai sent to wipe them out.
"The key is that they're outlaws who roam over a wide area. After killing people, they like to string the victims' heads up with their swords and leave them beside the bodies. I actually studied them for a while, hoping to wipe them out, but then I was attacked by ninja and ended up coming to the village.
"I don't know if they're still around, but we can borrow their name. They once had more than a hundred men under them, so even if the group was wiped out, it'd make sense if some escaped."
Bai Sui nodded when he heard this. "All right. I'll deal with them, then I'll leave it to you to arrange the scene."
Now that they had a plan, Bai Sui wasted no time. Armed with nothing but his sword, he waited in their path.
The four samurai spotted Bai Sui almost immediately. They signaled to their foot soldiers to close in and surround him. "Hey! We're samurai from the Daimyo Mansion. Anyone who dares block our way will be killed! Get out of here!"
Bai Sui didn't attack right away. He wanted to let them get closer, in case anyone tried to run, so he moved to the side of the road and made way for them.
As they drew closer, the four samurai were less than ten meters from Bai Sui, while even the farthest of the twelve foot soldiers was only fifteen meters away.
Bai Sui moved. He drew his sword and charged the four men. They had never let their guard down, either. "Haha! I knew something was wrong with you! You're asking for death!" "Kill him!"
Bai Sui rushed forward in a low stance and swept his sword across.
The sword, filled with metal-element qi, cut straight through the nearest samurai's blade and continued on toward his torso.
The four were among the Daimyo Mansion's elite, and years of working together had made them a tight-knit unit. Seeing one of their number about to be cut down, the other three immediately swung at Bai Sui, hoping to force him to pull back and defend himself.
But that was exactly what Bai Sui had been waiting for. As the three men rushed forward to save their comrade, he parted his lips. Three streaks of golden light shot from his mouth toward their faces.
The Qi Swords moved so fast that the three men had no time to react before the golden light pierced their foreheads.
With the three men no longer in his way, Bai Sui's sword cleaved straight into the samurai before him. All four samurai had died in the very first moments of the fight.
Bai Sui didn't stop. He swept past the four men and charged toward the foot soldiers behind them.
The foot soldiers had been watching the samurai attack, shouting excitedly as they prepared to cheer their lords on.
But in the blink of an eye, all four lords had fallen. The man who'd dared raise his sword against them hadn't been killed by the lords; he was charging right at them instead.
For a moment, the men couldn't react. The reversal had been too sudden. Only a few at the rear, who were too far away to see what had happened, were still shouting at the top of their lungs.
That finally snapped the foot soldiers out of their stupor. Some turned and ran; others tried to draw their swords and fight Bai Sui to the death.
But the three Qi Swords hadn't disappeared. Before Bai Sui even needed to use his own sword, the Qi Swords alone cut down all twelve foot soldiers, leaving only the merchant, who was so terrified he nearly fainted and slumped to the ground.
He hadn't run because he knew who the man before him was: the renowned doctor he'd been tasked with leading them to find. He knew he was as good as dead.
Whether or not the man before him chose to kill him, the outcome was already decided. He'd led them here to capture someone, and now all the samurai were dead while he was the only one left alive. The Feudal Lord would never spare him, no matter what excuse he made.
Besides, the man before him had clearly come to silence him. He didn't know how the other man had found out they were here, but there was no way he'd let a snitch like him go.
Bai Sui had no intention of sparing him, either. He hauled the man up from the ground and locked eyes with him, driving his mental energy into the man's mind.
Bai Sui had never used this technique since forming his golden core. He'd only seen it mentioned in the memories of his past life, and this was the first time he'd tried it in this world.
He wasn't very skilled at it, but his mental energy was far stronger than the other man's. It swept through his mind like a wrecking ball, reaching the depths of his memories.
After crudely reading the relevant memories, Bai Sui tossed the merchant to the ground. His brain had been crushed, and he was dead.
Just then, Kubota Noriyuki, who'd rushed over as soon as Bai Sui started fighting, finally reached his side. On the way, he'd seen Bai Sui swing his sword and watched three streaks of golden light kill people as easily as chopping vegetables. At that moment, he felt he understood what Bai Sui had meant by sword cultivation. He understood the path he was about to take.
Without saying much, he quietly began to clean up the scene and fabricate evidence.
About half an hour later, Kubota Noriyuki had finished his professional staging. The scene looked as though dozens of people on both sides had fought a fierce battle. To make it convincing, they even took all the other side's valuables, armor, and weapons.
The two made one last circuit around the area, checking for anything they might have missed. Satisfied, they headed back to the village with their spoils.
After all that trouble, the sun was already close to setting by the time they returned. In the last rays of the evening sun, the village chief, who'd been waiting at the entrance, finally breathed a sigh of relief.
To avoid causing a panic, the chief had only told the villagers that the two men had to go out on an errand. They'd been puzzled but hadn't asked any questions.
But now, seeing the dried, dark blood on the two men's clothes, the villagers were unsettled. As they approached, the stench of blood reached everyone's nostrils.
Bai Sui left Kubota Noriyuki to explain things to the villagers and went back to wash up. Kubota Noriyuki now revered Bai Sui as if he were a god, so he willingly began explaining everything to the villagers.
He only gave them a brief account, but they understood that the two men had averted a terrible disaster. Seeing how tired Kubota Noriyuki looked, the village chief didn't let the others keep bothering him. He sent everyone home to rest, saying they could discuss the matter in more detail the next morning.