If I were to say who had the most exaggerated reaction and expression, it would naturally be Yuan Yi.
He pursed his lips tightly, then took a few deep breaths before continuing to ask Chu Guang:
"…Do you know Kinoshita Rin? One of our companions named Kinoshita Rin was captured by the Toyotomi army. Do you know where she was taken?"
"She is a girl around 20 years old, very short, about this tall." Mamiya added.
"Kinoshita Lin... I don't know." Hatsumitsu shook his head. "I don't know much about the actions of the Toyotomi army tonight. I didn't see any girls tonight who met the characteristics you just described."
"Tsk... Damn it...!" Asai, who was always foul-mouthed and had a bad temper, kicked a small candlestick next to him away with an unhappy and impatient look on his face, scaring some of the people present.
"Asai, calm down." Genichi cast a calm gaze at Asai, "You won't be able to save Xiaolin if you lose your temper."
Asai turned his head and glared at Genichi, as if he wanted to argue with him, but after opening his mouth, he closed it silently again.
"...Since you don't know Xiaolin's whereabouts, let's change the question." Yuan Yi's eyes narrowed slightly, "Can you tell me how Iga hooked up with the Toyotomi clan?"
"Are the Iga clan and the Toyotomi clan allies or vassal clans?"
"Then... you seem to know a lot about 'immortality'. Can you tell us everything you know about 'immortality'? For example: how did Toyotomi Nobuhide make his subordinates immortal, and how many people in the Toyotomi clan have immortality."
Chu Guang, who had been answering every question raised by Yuan Yi very readily, now had a rare look of hesitation on his face.
She looked up and down at Yuan Yi in front of her with a thoughtful look, and was hesitant to speak.
Yuan Yi saw the hesitation on Chu Guang's face and said softly:
"Chu Guang, I'll tell you this directly."
"We have a terrible fate with Toyotomi Nobuhide."
"Right now, our important companion has been captured by Nobuhide."
"We might even start a full-scale conflict with the Toyotomi clan later... No, we are already in a full-scale conflict now."
"So we want to know everything about the Toyotomi clan."
"I want to know their subordinates and allies."
"I want to know their 'immortality'."
"You just told us: your goal is to destroy Iga."
"Then our goals are the same."
"I can roughly guess that the Toyotomi clan and Iga must have a very close connection."
"We are now in full conflict with the Toyotomi clan, so we will surely fight to the death with the Iga clan."
"So it would be in your interest to tell us everything you know about the Toyotomi clan."
Having said this, Yuan paused for a moment, then added silently:
"Or is it that you are just full of hatred towards Iga, but don't have any ill feelings towards the Toyotomi clan, so you want to protect the Toyotomi clan?"
"How is that possible?" As soon as Genichi finished speaking, Hatsumitsu sneered, "Although our hatred for the Toyotomi clan is not as great as our hatred for the Iga clan, we don't have any good feelings towards the Toyotomi clan at all. As for the Toyotomi clan, we also wish that they would perish sooner."
Chu Guang paused at this point, as if he was arranging his words.
Yuan Yi was not in a hurry and waited quietly.
After a while, Chu Guang's beautiful voice finally rang out from the temple:
"…Iga and Toyotomi were vassal clans."
"I can't remember the exact time, but it was a few years ago that the leader of the Toyotomi clan, Toyotomi Nobuhide, found Yoshihisa, who was wholeheartedly thinking about reviving Iga-no-Sato at the time."
"41 years ago, Iga Village was destroyed by civil strife. Yoshihisa was a survivor of the destruction of Iga Village."
"Wait a minute." Genichi interrupted Hatsukiri, "Iga Village was destroyed by civil strife? Is that what Yoshihisa told you?"
"Hmm? Yes." Hatsumitsu cast a puzzled look at Genichi, "Yoshihisa did tell us that Iga-no-Sato was destroyed due to civil strife."
"...It seems that Yoshihisa is an incredible hero." Genichi's mouth curled up in a meaningful arc, and made a "please" gesture to Chuguang, "Please continue."
Although he was surprised by Genichi's reaction just now, Chu Guang did not ask any more questions. After clearing his throat, he continued:
"Yoshihisa gathered a group of 'survivors of Iga-no-Sato' like himself, and has been working hard to revive Iga-no-Sato for the past 41 years."
"However, due to various reasons such as incompetence, lack of funds, and changing times, Yoshihisa's goal of reviving Iga-no-Sato has always been a long way off."
"Until he met Toyotomi Nobuhide."
"I don't know what Toyotomi Nobuhide and Yoshihisa talked about after they met."
"I only know that Toyotomi Nobuhide promised Yoshihisa that as long as the Iga ninjas could serve him, he would support the revival of Iga Village in the future."
"Iga thus became a vassal of the Toyotomi clan and worked for Toyotomi Nobuhide."
"As for the 'power of immortality'..."
Chu Guang bit his lower lip lightly with his upper teeth.
You can vaguely see - in her eyes, a hint of fear is faintly visible.
"I really don't know where to start talking about this..."
"The 'power of immortality' comes from a strange piece of meat."
"Meat slices..." Ogata, who had been listening quietly on the side, looked a little gloomy.
The meat slices - matched the information I heard from Gennao in Ezo before...
"That Toyotomi Nobuhide got a lot of special meat slices from somewhere. I don't know where these meat slices came from."
"If you eat a small piece of that meat, you will gain the 'power of immortality'."
"'Immortal Power' not only allows a person to have extremely strong recovery abilities, but also greatly improves a person's physical fitness. Strength, agility, and stamina... are all far superior to those of ordinary people."
"However, the 'power of immortality' has a fatal flaw."
"All those who eat that strange piece of meat and gain the 'power of immortality' will vomit blood and die suddenly. The fastest death may be a few hours, and the longest may be a few days."
"The reason is quite simple - the human body cannot withstand such a strong force. It is the same principle as when a person takes too much tonic medicine, the body cannot withstand it."
"So... Toyotomi Nobuhide got a strange pill called 'Henwakamaru' from somewhere."
"The 'Henrakumaru' has the strange effect of suppressing the 'power of immortality'."
"After swallowing the Henrakugan and the strange piece of meat together, the Henrakugan can weaken the 'immortal power' in the body, making it possible for the human body to adapt to and digest the 'immortal power'."
"Therefore, in order to develop the most ideal Henwakamaru, that bastard Toyotomi Nobuhide captured people everywhere for experiments and opened four test sites for developing Henwakamaru."
"So far, Toyotomi Nobuhide has developed four types of Henwakamaru. The four types of Henwakamaru were named 'A, B, C, and D' in the order of their development."
"Among them, the A-Maru has the weakest ability to suppress the 'Power of Immortality', while the B-Maru is slightly stronger, and so on. The D-Maru has the strongest ability to suppress the 'Power of Immortality'."
"Although the Henwakamaru can suppress the 'power of immortality' and greatly increase the success rate of the human body absorbing the power of immortality, whether the ' power of immortality' can be successfully absorbed still depends on the individual's physique, willpower and luck."
"From the perspective of the success rate of digesting the 'Immortal Power', the Dinghao Pill, which has the strongest ability to suppress the 'Immortal Power', is undoubtedly the best."
"The Dinghao Pill allows the person who possesses the 'power of immortality' to digest it almost painlessly. The success rate of digesting immortality is almost 100%."
"But the Dante Maru also has its flaws."
"Because the suppression of the 'power of immortality' is too strong, the 'power of immortality' that the human body can absorb is very little."
"Anyone who relies on Dinghaowan to suppress the 'power of immortality' will only have a strong recovery ability, but will not gain a stronger physical fitness."
"And the resilience they gain will become weaker and weaker over time until it disappears completely."
"So, those who use Dinghao Pills to suppress immortality will be able to return to normal people in a short period of time."
"So, from the perspective of efficacy, Pill C is actually the best."
"Although the success rate of digestion and immortality of people who swallow the C-pill is far lower than that of people who swallow the D-pill, people who swallow the C-pill can gain strong physical fitness and recovery ability that will not weaken with the passage of time."
"That guy Toyotomi Nobuhide only allowed his trusted confidants to possess the 'power of immortality'."
"He asked his nine trusted followers to swallow the most cost-effective 'C-number pill', trying to make these nine trusted followers gain powerful 'immortality power'."
"But as I just said - the Henwakamaru only greatly increases the success rate of the human body absorbing the 'power of immortality'. Whether it can be successfully digested still depends on the individual's physique, willpower and luck."
"When digesting the immortal power, the body will first enter an unprecedented state of weakness."
"If you can survive this, you will gain power that ordinary people cannot achieve."
"If you can't make it... you will die suddenly."
"Of the nine close associates of Toyotomi Nobuhide, only three survived, and the other six all died suddenly because they could not make it."
"And the three people who survived are Yoshihisa, the branded woman, and Saemon whom you met today."
"The three people who successfully digested the 'power of immortality' were the most trusted confidants of Toyotomi Nobuhide. They were collectively called the 'Three Demons' in the Toyotomi army."
"Even with Binghao Maru, the success rate of digesting immortality is not high, and Toyotomi Nobuhide would not let anyone he didn't trust get his hands on the 'power of immortality', so since the three demons, no one has been able to successfully digest immortality."
"Therefore, among the entire Toyotomi army, only four people have successfully digested the power of immortality - Yoshihisa, the branded woman, Saemon, and... Toyotomi Nobuhide himself."
"Nobuhide also possesses the 'power of immortality'?" Genichi's face suddenly darkened, "...Does Nobuhide also rely on the 'Cinghao Maru' to suppress immortality?"
“…No.” Chu Guang lowered his voice a little, “That madman Toyotomi Nobuhide…he is a little different.”
"What that madman ate... was the No. 1 pill."
"...The medicine that has the weakest ability to suppress the 'Power of Immortality'?" Yuan Yi asked.
"Well... A-pill has the weakest ability to suppress the 'power of immortality', so anyone who swallows A-pill, without exception - all dies suddenly, without exception."
"But I don't know what that madman Toyotomi Nobuhide was thinking... He insisted on using this No. 1 Maru, which has never been successful before, to obtain the 'power of immortality'."
"Those who took the C-number pill, such as Ji Jiu and Lao Furen, successfully digested it and became immortal in just over a month."
"But it took Toyotomi Nobuhide nearly a year to finally conquer the 'power of immortality'."
Genichi: "...Since Nobuhide relies on the Koga Maru to digest immortality, doesn't that mean that the 'power of immortality' he possesses is far greater than that of Yoshihisa, the branded woman, and the others?"
"You... guessed right." Chu Guang's hands, which were naturally placed on his legs, tightened slightly, "Because the suppression of the 'immortal power' by the Koga Maru is the weakest, Toyotomi Nobuhide absorbed far more 'immortal power' than Yoshihisa, Lao Furen and others."
"The physical enhancement and recovery ability that Toyotomi Nobuhide has gained are far beyond the reach of Yoshihisa and Lao Furen."
"Hey, hey, hey." Makimura interrupted and made a beheading gesture with his neck, "Don't tell me that Toyotomi Nobuhide is a monster who can grow a new head if his head is chopped off."
"That's not that exaggerated." Chu Guang glanced at Makura, "Whether it's the A-Pill or the C-Pill, the principle is to suppress and weaken the 'power of immortality', making it possible for the human body to absorb immortality."
"So in essence, the immortality that Toyotomi Nobuhide possessed was also an incomplete immortality, but it was much more complete than the immortality of Yoshihisa and the others."
"As far as I know, if we destroy Nobuhide Toyotomi's head or inflict enough damage to Nobuhide Toyotomi, he will die."
"Of course - the prerequisite is that you have to have the ability to hit Toyotomi Nobuhide's head, or to inflict enough damage on him."
"Although I have never seen Toyotomi Nobuhide fight with others, but... I can roughly imagine what kind of monster that madman Toyotomi Nobuhide is."
"People like Ji Jiu and Lao Fu Ren who take the C-grade pill can gain such a strong improvement in their physical fitness."
"Toyotomi Nobuhide, who took the No. 1 pill, must have gained a stronger power than Yoshihisa and the others..."
"Well...it's good that he has weaknesses..." Although Makimura said this, the solemn expression on his face did not relax at all.
"...You just said that Nobuhide built four test sites to develop the Henwakamaru, right?" Genichi asked again after a moment's silence, "Where are those four test sites now?"
"These four test sites were used to develop the four types of Henwakamaru, A, B, C, and D. For the sake of convenience, the Toyotomi Army called the test site used to study the Type A Henwakamaru the Type A site, and so on."
"The A site is located in Ryukyu, the B site is located in Gyeonggi, the C site is located in Ezo, and the D site is located in Kii."
"If you want to go to these four test sites, you'd better give up."
Genichi: "Why?"
"Because these four test sites were destroyed by Toyotomi Nobuhide not long ago."
"The test site was completely destroyed with gunpowder, and all the test subjects captured for the experiment were also killed."
"I don't know why Toyotomi Nobuhide destroyed all the test sites not long ago."
"Only some test subjects from the Ding-Field used for the Ding-Maru test survived."
"Hmm? Why?" Genichi raised an eyebrow, "Why did only some people in the Dinghao Field survive?"
"…Because I managed to save them." After a long silence, Chu Guang slowly spoke, "Although I have no hatred towards the Toyotomi clan, their cruel act of arresting people for experiments is really hard for me to ignore."
"In order to ensure that there are enough test subjects for the experiment, the Toyotomi clan went around capturing innocent poor people."
"In the beginning, we caught those eda whose lives no one cared about."
"When they couldn't catch any more Eta, they started to attack ordinary people."
"They were killed by the Toyotomi clan and used for experiments... there must be at least 800 of them, if not 1,000..."
“I always wanted to help those poor people as much as I could.”
"On the eve of the destruction of all the test sites, I happened to be in Osaka, very close to the Ding-No. 1 site in Kii."
"If we don't think of a way to save them, they will really die."
“So I decided to give it a try.”
"On the day when the D-test site was about to be destroyed, I took advantage of the fact that everyone in the site was busy destroying the site and neglected to guard it, rushed into the site and rescued some of the test subjects."
"Unfortunately... a considerable number of those I rescued were captured and cleared out. Only a very small number managed to escape."
"Test site...save people..." Mamiya, who had been silent until now, seemed to suddenly remember something and said in a deep voice, "I see...the person who saved Azhu was you."
Chu Guang: "Azhu?"
Mamiya selectively told Hatsumitsu about the situation of Takeru, whom he had rescued from his father in Edo.
"Ha...it seems like we are destined to meet..." Chu Guang laughed dumbly, "According to your description, the Ah Zhu you saved should be one of the experimental subjects in the Ding No. Field that I saved."
"Dinghao Field was the last test field built. By then, the Toyotomi clan had already captured almost all the Eta they could."
"So after the construction of the Ding No. 2 Field was completed, we could only capture ordinary people for experiments."
"That Ah Zhu is really lucky. He was able to escape..."
"As I just said, the immortality of all those who swallow the Dinghao Pill will gradually disappear. After a period of time, the girl named Azhu should be able to return to normal."
…
…
Isshikika, who didn't recognize anyone around her except Ogata, Atachi and Hatsumitsu, kept her hands folded in front of her, standing quietly and respectfully in an inconspicuous corner.
What on earth are these people talking about?
This question has been lingering in Isshikika's mind since a while ago.
From the beginning, Isshikika felt like she was in a cloud of fog.
Immortal power, Henrakumaru, testing ground... These unfamiliar words that she had never heard of before made Isshikika's thinking completely unable to keep up. These words were like heavy hammers that made Isshikika feel dizzy.
However, Isshikika couldn't help but pay attention to two things that Chuguang said just now - when digesting the immortal power, the body will enter an unprecedented state of weakness, and those who digest the immortal power will have their physical fitness and recovery ability greatly enhanced.
When hearing this, Isshikika thought of Soemon.
When Ogata was holding Isshiki Ka and fighting against Soemon and others, Isshiki Ka discovered that all the wounds inflicted on Soemon would heal quickly.
When she saw this scene, Isika was so shocked that she was speechless.
At that time, she thought that Soemon was some strange person with the special skill of "rapid wound recovery"...
If she hadn't just happened to see someone with strong recovery abilities, she would have found it hard to believe that there was such a thing as "immortal power" in this world.
After listening to what Hatsukimi said, in addition to recalling Soemon, Isshikika couldn't help but turn her gaze to look at Ogata who was standing not far from her.
For some reason, the scene of Ogata, who was unconscious the moment before, suddenly becoming extremely brave the next moment and defeating Soemon and others with overwhelming strength flashed through his mind ...
Amachi and the others did not see how weak Ogata was before he defeated Soemon, but Isshikika did.
She was the only one among all the people present who saw how weak Ogata was before his final battle with Soemon.
At that time, when she saw Ogata suddenly wake up and show his great power, Isshikika always wanted to ask him: How did you do it?
But because she couldn't find a good time to ask the question, this question had been in Isekaka's heart and she hadn't been able to ask it until now.
——Master Ittosai…
Isshikika became more and more concerned about what Chuguang had just said.
After secretly glancing at Ogata for who knows how many times, she suddenly saw that Ogata, who had been silent and just listening quietly, suddenly walked slowly towards Hatsumitsu.
"...You know more about the 'power of immortality' than we expected." After walking up to Hatsumitsu, Ogata squatted casually on the ground, making his eyes level with Hatsumitsu's, "I also... have some questions to ask you."
"I've never eaten that kind of meat... what's the situation?"
"Also - the Henwakamaru I took earlier... what type of pill was it?"
"What?" Chu Guang was stunned.
While Hatsumitsu was in a daze, Ogata silently drew out the Dajizai from his waist, and in full view of everyone, he cut the palm of his left hand with the tip of the Dajizai.
A bright red line of blood appeared on Ogata's left palm.
"Ayi, what are you doing..." Ating had just uttered half of the sentence "What are you doing" before the rest of the words were stuck in his throat because he was shocked by the scene in front of him.
A-Machi...or rather, everyone present, cast shocked glances at Ogata's left palm.
Especially Isshikika, who knew little about the "immortal power", now covered her mouth with both hands and almost screamed out.
They saw strands of red flesh emerging from Ogata's wound, and in just a moment, these red flesh strands filled the wound on Ogata's palm.
Chu Guang stared blankly at Ogata's intact palm: "Where did you get your 'immortality' from?"
Ogata: “This… is a long story.”