Volume 5: Kyoto Summer Campaign Chapter 273: Going to Luo! (superior)
After saying that, Ogata poured the hot porridge in the bamboo tube in his hand into his mouth.
After taking a sip of the hot porridge, Ogata's eyes lit up.
"Mamiya..." Ogata put down the empty bamboo tube and said, "Your cooking skills are really good..."
"…Because I once learned cooking from someone in the Mikawa area."
"I knew you would say that." Ogata said unhappily, "Since you are such a good cook, why do you always have to eat some hotpot with others?"
"…For some reason, although I am good at cooking, I don't like it. Do you want to eat more, Ogata-kun? There is still some left in the pot."
"No."
"Then give me the remaining porridge in the pot." Mucun said at the side, "I'm just hungry now."
Mucun quickly left to get his own bowl and chopsticks, then quickly returned here.
Makimura, who was still shirtless, was filling the pot with porridge with his back facing Ogata.
Looking at the red dragon tattoo on Makimura's back, Ogata couldn't help but sigh:
"Makino... the red dragon tattoo on your back is so amazing no matter how many times I see it... it's like there's a real dragon coiled on your back..."
"Thank you for the compliment." Makimura responded indifferently to Ogata's compliment, "Although I am happy that you praised my tattoo, brother Ogata, I actually don't really like this tattoo on my back."
"Hmm? Why?"
"Because I don't think I'm worthy of the dragon behind me."
As soon as Makimura finished speaking, Genichi, who was sitting next to Ogata, said:
"Makino-kun, you are too self-deprecating."
"Give yourself a little more confidence."
"You are worthy of the dragon behind you, and the title of 'Stegosaurus'."
"Stegosaurus?" Ogata asked doubtfully.
"Hmm? Ogata-kun, don't you know? When Makimura-kun was working in Kyoto, he was highly respected and was given the title of 'Stegosaurus' by the people of Kyoto..."
"Master Genichi!" Before Genichi could finish his words, Makimura suddenly shouted, "That's enough... Let's end this topic here...!"
After interrupting Genichi with a loud roar, Makimura grabbed his bowl and gulped down the porridge in it.
After saying "I'm full", Makimura put his clothes back on, picked up his bowl and chopsticks, and quickly left the sight of Ogata and others.
Mamiya and Genichir showed helpless bitter smiles on their faces.
Only Ogata looked confused.
“What happened to Makimura…?” Ogata couldn’t help but ask Mamiya and Genichirō.
"This is a long story..." Mamiya shrugged, "This is Makimura's private matter, so I can't say more. If you are really curious, Ogata-kun, you can ask Makimura later when you have a chance."
"I see... Since this is a personal matter of Mucun, I won't ask any more questions..."
When he moved his gaze back from where Makimura's back disappeared, Ogata caught a glimpse of Sensei Gourd Horse Seal standing in the corner of the yard.
Looking at this thousand-color gourd horse seal, Ogata said softly with a thoughtful look on his face:
"By the way - what a coincidence."
"Two hundred years ago, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, whose original name was Kinoshita Tokichiro, held high the Senshin Gourd Horse Seal and completed his ambition to unify Japan."
"And now, there is another person named Kinoshita who is holding high the Qiancheng Gourd Horse Seal, although she has not accomplished anything..."
The characters "Senari Gourd Horse Seal" and "Toyotomi Hideyoshi" are almost tied together.
Because it was Toyotomi Hideyoshi who first named the Senjō gourd and used it to make a horse seal.
From then on, whenever Toyotomi Hideyoshi went on a march or fought a battle, he would hold high the Senjō Gourd, the horse seal.
The Senjō Gourd also became a nightmare for Toyotomi Hideyoshi's enemies.
In ancient Japan, it was not uncommon for people to change their given names along with their surnames for various reasons.
Many great figures in Japanese history have changed their names many times.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi's original name was Kinoshita Tokichiro.
Later, it was changed to Hashiba Hideyoshi, and finally the emperor gave him the surname "Toyotomi", and finally changed his name to "Toyotomi Hideyoshi".
After listening to Ogata's sentiments, Mamiya smiled and continued:
"This is probably one of the important reasons why our lord chose the Qiancheng Gourd as the symbol of our Gourd House."
"My lord, their family happens to have the same surname as Toyotomi Hideyoshi's original name."
"And our lord also happens to admire Toyotomi Hideyoshi very much."
"Hideyoshi Toyotomi came from such a humble background, but he accomplished such a remarkable feat, which moved and inspired the lord very much."
"In order to show my admiration for Toyotomi Hideyoshi and to show my ambition as a 'Kinoshita' to learn from the 'Kinoshita' of more than 200 years ago, and because I like gourds, my lord chose the Thousand Gourds as the symbol of our Gourd House."
"In order to learn from Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the lord even wanted to change her surname to 'Hashiba'..."
"When Xiaolin said she wanted to change her last name, I scolded her for nearly half an hour before she gave up this ridiculous idea..." Yuan Yi continued, smiling bitterly and shaking his head...
…
…
He carried the dishes back to the kitchen, took a ladle of water to wash them casually, and put them back into the bamboo basket which was specially used to hold dishes for everyone. Then, Mucun quickly ran back to his room.
After returning to his room, Makimura seemed to have exhausted all his strength and lay on his back in a "spread" shape on the tatami.
"Dragon..."
Looking at the ceiling, Makura's right hand seemed to have its own consciousness and reached behind his back...
"Master Jinle..." A trace of bitterness appeared on Mucun's face, "You gave me the 'Red Dragon' tattoo back then... You definitely made a mistake... It would have been better if you had given me a tattoo of a turtle..."
…
…
Before noon that day——
Huluwu base, at the main gate.
"Ogata-kun." Mamiya said softly to Ogata, who was already dressed and wearing a bamboo hat, "Are you really going to leave now and not stay with us for a while longer?"
"I have already done everything I wanted to do." Ogata smiled, "I no longer have any reason or motivation to stay here any longer."
The reason why Ogata came all the way to visit Huluwu was only for two purposes.
1: Ask Genichi Kinoshita whether there is a way to freely enter the state of no self.
2. Ask Genichi Kinoshita for advice and see clearly how big the gap is between you and "the best in the world".
Now that these two goals have been achieved, there is naturally no need to stay in this gourd house anymore.
What’s more, Ogata’s current relationship with Kinoshita Rin is…very delicate.
According to Mamiya and the others, Kinoshita Rin is in charge of all three meals a day at Huluya.
At the same time, I heard from Yuan Yi about half an hour ago that once Mucun made Lin angry, and in order to punish Mucun, Mucun found all kinds of strange things, mainly boogers, in his meals for three consecutive days...
It was not until Makimura apologized to Lin that he finally stopped eating boogers...
Makimura later found out that these boogers were dug by Genichi, Mamiya, Asai, and Shimada in turn for Lin to use...
This made Ogata even more afraid to stay in the gourd house...
If I continue to stay in the gourd house, I might end up eating boogers...
In order to avoid eating boogers, Ogata deliberately chose to leave the Calabash House before eating lunch today...
Because Ogata left so suddenly and without notifying anyone in advance, only Genichirō and Mamiya came to see him off.
"Practice hard, Ogata-kun."
Genichi didn't say anything like "be careful on the road" to Ogata.
"As a parting gift, let me tell you a little trick for entering the state of selflessness before you reach the peak of your Source Breathing."
"Ogata-kun, think carefully back to the moment when you first entered the state of no self."
"Is he obsessed with winning or something?"
Ogata thought back to the moment when he first entered the state of no self - it was just as Genichi said, when he first entered the state of no self, he was only thinking about winning, defeating more than a hundred samurai and taking off Matsudaira Gennai's dog head.
"The trick to entering the state of selflessness before practicing the Source Breathing to its peak is to let your mind only think about one thing."
"Just thinking about winning."
"I just wanted to survive."
"I just want to protect someone."
"In short, just let your mind think about one thing."
"If you only think about one thing in your mind and use the energy of breathing to assist you, you will be able to enter the state of no self more easily."
Speaking of this, Yuan Yimian looked reminiscent.
"When I first entered the state of no self, I was also thinking about winning."
"In my mad desire for victory, I entered a state of selflessness for the first time, and ultimately turned defeat into victory."
Ogata silently took note of the instructions Genichi had just given him, and then bowed to Genichi solemnly to express his gratitude.
After thanking Yuan, Mamiya, who was standing next to Ogata, said to Ogata:
"Ogata-kun, do you need me to take you down the mountain?"
"No need, I remember the way down the mountain."
"Then when you get down the mountain, go to the village at the foot of the mountain, the village that serves as our Huluwu outpost, and tell the villagers there, 'I came to get the horse under the order of Fengjian Palace.' They will return the horse you rode yesterday to you."
"Hmm?" Ogata raised an eyebrow, "Are you going to give me that horse?"
"Just consider it as a parting gift." Mamiya shrugged. "Anyway, horses are not extremely precious to us in Hulu House."
"...Thank you very much." Ogata didn't try to be pretentious and just nodded to express his gratitude.
After thanking him, Ogata made a half-joking comment:
"I really owe you a lot of favors in Huluwu..."
If it weren't for the help of Mamiya and Makimura, it would have been difficult for Ogata to leave that broken place, Choujima.
After leaving Butterfly Island, I have been receiving help from Hulu House in various ways.
First, he learned how to ride a horse from Mamiya and the others, and then today he received personal instruction from Genichi.
Apart from these big helps, there were also a lot of small helps, for example - from last night till now, Ogata has eaten two meals at Huluya for free.
Ogata felt a little embarrassed after receiving so much help from Huluya.
Although the relationship between him and Kinoshita Rin is currently very tense, there is no deep hatred between them.
Therefore, Ogata would not hold a grudge against the entire Calabash House because of such a small matter.
What's more, compared with the help that Huluwu has currently provided him, this little feud with Kinoshita Lin is really nothing.
"Just helping each other." Mamiya chuckled a few times.
Ogata lowered the hat on his head a little and raised the Daishakuten and Daijizai around his waist.
"Then - I'll go ahead. See you again if we're lucky."
"Maybe we'll see each other again soon." Mamiya said in a half-joking tone, "After having breakfast today and reporting to the lord what I saw and heard on Choujima, the lord decided on the next course of action: to go to Kyoto to find the master and apprentice pair of Kazuyo and Kazunao."
After hearing what Mamiya said, Ogata was not surprised - after all, he had long expected that the people from Calabash House would definitely come to find this mysterious master and disciple.
Hulu House has been investigating "immortality" for many years and it is impossible for them to let go of this master and disciple who might know a lot of things.
"Then you should work hard as well." Ogata said in a joking tone, "It is much more difficult for you to find this master and apprentice than it is for me. You are not like me - I have the prescription for this master and apprentice."
"You don't have to worry about this." An intriguing smile appeared on Mamiya's face, "We also have our clues."
"clue?"
"As for what kind of clue it is, please let me keep it secret."
"I don't care what your clues are, as long as you're not following me."
"We won't resort to such low-level methods."
…
…
After exchanging a few final jokes with Mamiya, Ogata walked down the mountain without any hesitation or hesitation.
Ogata slowly stopped walking only after the figures of Genichi and Mamiya completely disappeared from his sight and the base of Calabash House could no longer be seen.
Ogata raised his head and looked towards the top of the mountain where he was currently standing.
The base of Huluwu is located halfway up the mountain, so Ogata is now also located at the mountainside.
Standing on the mountainside and looking up, you can see the mountain top piercing the sky.
The mountain that Ogata was currently standing on was high—but it was not the highest in the area.
Looking ahead, Ogata could see the mountain not far away—its height was much higher than the mountain under Ogata's feet.
But this mountain is still not the highest.
The mountain next to it is the highest mountain within Ogata's current field of vision.
——There must be other mountains higher than this one in the distance...
What Genichi had said to him this morning now echoed in Ogata's mind.
Although more than an hour had passed, Ogata could still hear the words that Genichirō had said.
(Although the sky is thousands of miles wide and the sword is only three feet long, even if you spend your whole life you cannot cut through the sky, but you can still experience the joy of becoming stronger in this small three-foot space. Don't pursue being unrivaled in the world, just think about working hard and enjoying the process of working hard)
After the words that Genichi had said to him echoed again in his mind, Ogata let out a long breath.
Then, a faint smile appeared on Ogata's face.
"Take your time..."
After mumbling this in a voice that only he could hear, Ogata took another step and walked down the mountain with big strides...
