Holding his lovely wife, eating oranges, and watching the show as a mad monk slaughtered with golden wheels
The violent tremors traveled down the wooden bars, and Takaichi Nanako's legs went weak, causing her to collapse at the bottom of the cage, her pale body curled up and trembling.
Zhou Yanru's ears were ringing from the shockwave as he watched the night fog thicken outside the courtyard wall.
Looking down at the churning poisonous water, he shoved Shuangxi aside, clung to the wooden railing, and cried out to Gu Moran:
"I'll talk! Your Highness, I'll talk! Leave the iron house to me!"
"Hidden in the reed marshes of Osaka Bay off the coast of Heian-kyō are twelve secret ships built by the Great Yan Ministry of Works!"
Gu Moran raised an eyebrow:
"A hidden ship? Carrying silver?"
"It's not just about money!"
Zhou Yanru wiped the blood from his face and shouted at the top of his lungs:
"The ship is loaded with five thousand Wa of heavy armor made from the finest iron of the Iwami Silver Mine in Japan, intended to be smuggled back to the capital by sea to arm the private army of that fake prince at Cold Mountain Temple for a coup!"
"Furthermore, the ship also contains a handwritten pledge from Emperor Takaichi to the Crown Prince and the remnants of the former Empress, stipulating that if the false prince were to ascend the throne, the Liaodong and Dengzhou Navy defense zones must be entirely ceded to Wa!"
"The token is on the sole of my left boot. I led the prince to destroy that fleet. Please, prince, release me!"
Shuangxi, who was listening nearby, burst into a tirade of curses:
" Zhou Yanru, you bastard..."
Gu Moran raised her hand towards Tuoba Mang.
Tuoba Mang stepped forward, reached through the gap in the wooden railing, ripped off Zhou Yanru's left official boot, snapped open the thick wooden sole with a snap, and pulled out half of a black iron token engraved with wave patterns and a sealed letter with sealing wax from the hidden compartment.
Just as Tuoba Mang took the token into his hand, a series of sharp whistles suddenly rang out from the bamboo forest surrounding the manor.
Dozens of plumes of black, poisonous smoke billowed over the courtyard wall on the night wind, and the warning bells that Zhen Meili had placed on the wall at dusk began to ring incessantly.
Immediately afterwards, hundreds of figures dressed in black and wearing crimson demon masks fell from the wall.
The elite shadow ninjas of Ise Grand Shrine landed silently. Under the cover of the thick fog, the thirty men in the front row simultaneously raised their short bamboo blowpipes, while the seventy men in the back row flicked their wrists, sending hundreds and thousands of kunai and blowpipes coated with emerald green corpse poison flying towards the wooden cage above the hot spring and Gu Moran under the corridor!
The newcomer didn't care whether Takaichi Nanako in the cage lived or died; they immediately used a deadly move to wipe her out!
"Ah! Help!"
Zhou Yanru and Shuangxi were so frightened in the cage that they soiled themselves and covered their heads, trying to burrow under Takaichi Nanako.
Kim Seon-a, standing under the eaves, gripped her sword hilt with her right hand, ready to draw it and advance Gu Moran, however, grabbed her slender waist, pulling her limp body into his arms. He casually tossed a segment of orange into his mouth and gestured towards the shadows outside the courtyard gate.
"What's the rush? There are people who are even more eager to accumulate merit than we are."
Outside the courtyard gate,
Xie Linyuan, who had been standing at the bottom of the stone steps with his eyes closed, holding the golden wheel, opened his eyes at the same time he heard the copper bell ring.
The reddish-gold blood vessels beneath those eyes shone eerily in the darkness.
Facing the barrage of poisonous needles raining down upon him, Xie Linyuan advanced instead of retreating. His tall and imposing figure strode into the courtyard, his left hand raised to his chest, and he uttered a loud, hoarse Buddhist chant:
Amitabha! You wicked creature, how dare you!
As soon as the Buddha's name was uttered, he forcefully swung his right hand forward.
Nine pure gold Dharma wheels hanging on the iron ring roared out, swirling in front of him and the wooden cage to form a golden disc with a diameter of two zhang.
A series of crisp clanging sounds rang out as hundreds of kunai, coated with deadly poison, struck the rapidly spinning golden wheel.
Sparks flew everywhere, and the metal was instantly shredded into countless metal fragments; not even a single poisoned needle managed to touch the edge of the wooden cage.
The leading Shinto ninja landed on a rockery. Seeing that his kunai had failed, he quickly formed hand seals and pulled out two black poison smoke bombs from his robes, smashing them to the ground.
"Baka! He's First Rank martial artist from China!"
Release the carrion miasma to kill the tongues in the cage first, then retreat!
Two muffled thuds echoed as a dark green poisonous mist, carrying a strong stench of corpses, spread through the courtyard. Under the cover of the mist, several shadow ninjas drew their swords and charged at the wooden cage once more.
"The sea of suffering is boundless, why endure so much torment in the mortal realm!"
Xie Linyuan looked at the group of men in black rushing towards him, his face filled with a fanatical piety, and he loudly chanted the Rebirth Mantra:
"Namo Amitabha Night, Duotagadu Night..."
With a heavy stomp of his foot, the bluestone slab beneath his feet cracked open, and he crashed into the dark green poisonous fog, his body glowing with a protective golden light.
Nine golden wheels swept out with the force of the palm strike, grazing the bottom of the wooden cage.
The dozen or so Shadow Ninjas charging at the front didn't even utter a sound as their ninja swords, along with their collarbones and spines, were smashed in two by the spinning golden wheel, which weighed over a hundred pounds!
The cracking sound of bones breaking mingled with Xie Linyuan's loud chanting.
More than a dozen men in black suffered chest injuries, coughing up blood as they flew backward, crashing through a dozen cherry blossom trees in the courtyard before landing on the ground, gasping for breath.
"Tadyatha, Amrita Bhavavi! This humble monk, in a moment of great compassion, sends you and your wives and children to the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss!"
Xie Linyuan chanted scriptures with each step, and a golden wheel appeared with each palm strike.
The leading Jonin from the Jingu Palace had just raised his ninja sword to his neck, intending to use a substitution jutsu to escape,
A golden wheel slammed down right past his face, shattering the demon mask and the back of his skull into a mangled mess.
The remaining sixty-odd Kageshiro of the Shrine were utterly terrified. The monk before them was no high-ranking Buddhist monk at all; he was clearly a madman in monk's robes!
"Retreat! Quickly retreat to Tamba Valley and report the news!"
The surviving Shadow Ninja scrambled over the courtyard wall and fled for their lives into the mountains to the east.
"Why are you running? Slow down on your way to the underworld, lest your wives and children can't catch up!"
Xie Linyuan, carrying the dripping Nine-Turn Golden Wheel, didn't even glance at the corpses in the courtyard. He leaped over the three-zhang-high courtyard wall and, following the trail of blood from the fleeing Shadow Ninja and the marks of broken branches, chanted the Rebirth Mantra all the way as he chased them into the vast night fog.
The mountains and forests echoed with piercing screams and the muffled thuds of bones being crushed by the golden wheel.
Accompanied by Xie Linyuan's resounding chanting that echoed throughout the valley, the pursuit continued eastward for a full thirty miles along the mountain road.
The three hidden agents planted by Ise Grand Shrine along the official road were completely eradicated and wiped out.
At the same moment, in Heian-kyō, two hundred miles away.
The inner palace of the imperial residence was brightly lit, with hundreds of thick white candles illuminating the hall.
Emperor Takaichi, dressed in a pure white sacrificial robe and wearing a tall eboshi hat, stood atop a three-zhang-high altar.
Holding the urgent reports of the fall of the Iwami Silver Mine and the capture of Shōni Sukemoto in his hand, Emperor Takaichi's face was contorted in agony.
He raised his hand and drew the imperial dagger from his waist, slashing his left palm and dripping the blood onto the white silk edict in front of the altar.
Below the altar, a hunched old man, his entire body wrapped in a grayish-brown linen cloth with only his lifeless eyes visible, knelt on one knee.
He is the current successor of Hattori Hanzō, the national guardian ninja who has been enshrined at Ise Grand Shrine for a hundred years.
Behind the old man knelt a hundred elite Onmyoji from the Onmyōryō and a full complement of court officials.
"It's alright Iwami Silver Mine is lost!"
Emperor Takaichi raised his bleeding hand and roared at the audience:
" Gu Moran only has 20,000 cavalry and infantry under his command. He ventures alone deep into the heart of my divine kingdom, which is a major taboo in military strategy!"
He's a prince, with a multitude of beautiful wives and concubines at home; he must be very afraid of losing his life!
The blood-stained imperial edict was thrown in front of Hattori Hanzō:
"The 100 Shadow Ninjas of the Divine Palace can storm Tangshan Manor tonight and wipe them all out!"
"Lord Hattori, I hereby order you to take command of the Onmyōryō and to drag out all the corpse poison, datura powder, and mercury vapor that have accumulated in the Imperial Palace's cellars for fifty years, and to set up Night Parade of One Hundred Demons Illusionary Poison Array for me on the plain in front of Rashōmon and in the moat!"