Koyasan, Sengenji Temple——
After running a few steps, Ogata leaped over in one breath, and with the help of gravity, he chopped down the sword he had held above his head, striking a "monk" who had been squatting on the beam and had been attacking Ogata with shuriken.
The "monk" subconsciously wanted to dodge, but his movement speed was far slower than Ogata's sword speed.
Blood splattered.
Ogata fell back to the ground along with the lifeless "monk".
After killing the "monk", Ogata hurriedly ran to a corridor next to him with a knife in hand.
I came to the entrance of the corridor and looked inside - this corridor had three forks, and there was no one at any of the forks.
"Tsk..." Ogata curled his lips, "Did Master Xianyuan escape... This Xianyuan Temple is a little too big..."
Since a while ago, "monks" holding various weapons have been attacking Ogata.
Ogata did not count the number of enemies, but he estimated that there should be at least twenty of them.
These "monks" were certainly no match for Ogata and were basically killed one by one by Ogata's sword.
It’s just that - even though they couldn’t defeat Ogata, they could still buy time for Master Xianyuan to escape.
After all, no matter how powerful Ogata is, it would take at least ten seconds to kill more than twenty enemies.
And Xianyuan Temple happens to be very large.
There were so many forks in the road that Ogata felt dizzy.
It is naturally very difficult to chase someone who is very familiar with the terrain in an area where you are not familiar with the terrain.
Therefore, it is quite regrettable that - with the "monks" buying him time to escape and the complex terrain serving as cover, Ogata can no longer find Master Xianyuan at all.
"Whatever..." Ogata muttered as he shook his sword, "Let him escape... Master Xianyuan isn't that important anyway."
After mumbling, Ogata turned his head and looked around.
All around him lay the "monks" he had just killed.
At this moment, Xianyuan Temple was extremely quiet, forming a sharp contrast with the noise just now.
The roars and shouts of the "monks" as they attacked Ogata, the screams and wails of the normal monks who hurriedly fled out of the temple... these sounds together intertwined to create the noise and chaos just now.
After Ogata broke into Sengen Temple, the news that "thugs attacked Sengen Temple" immediately spread throughout the temple like a strong epidemic.
There are still many normal monks in this Xianyuan Temple.
After hearing that their temple had been attacked, many of them mustered up their courage and ran to Ogata to check the situation and see who dared to be so presumptuous in Xianyuan Temple.
After seeing Ogata's face and seeing him beheading their "companions" like chopping melons and vegetables, and the holy temple being covered with blood, their expressions immediately changed drastically, and they ran out of the temple in panic with looks of fear and panic, running away from Ogata.
At this moment, looking at the extremely quiet surroundings, Ogata guessed that all the normal monks in this temple should have run away.
Those Toyotomi clan members who disguised themselves as "monks" and lurked in Sengenji Temple should have been killed by him, and those who were not killed by him should have escaped.
--alright ……
Ogata tightened the Daishikuten in his hand and said to himself.
——Now... just stay here and wait for the reinforcements from the Toyotomi clan to arrive...
——I wonder how things are going with A-Machi and Genichi-sama…
Snap, snap…
Suddenly, Ogata heard the sound of footsteps coming from behind him.
Ogata, whose nerves had been tense since he entered Xianyuan Temple, quickly turned around with his sword in hand, mistaking it for a new enemy coming to kill him, and following the sound of footsteps, he directed his sharp gaze over there.
However - after looking over and seeing clearly the face of the owner of the footsteps, Ogata raised his eyebrows and his originally sharp gaze immediately softened.
The owner of the footsteps was an old monk with a goatee, a face full of wrinkles, and his entire cheeks looked like a dried orange peel.
The old monk was frighteningly old. Ogata felt that he was at least 80 years old. Not only were his cheeks covered with layers of wrinkles, but even the goatee on his chin was completely gray.
Ogata looked at the old monk carefully. He did not see any weapons on him, but he was holding a small wooden Buddha statue in his arms.
The old monk held the wooden Buddha statue tightly in his arms and walked towards Ogata.
As he walked towards Ogata, he opened his eyes wide and glared at him fiercely with an angry look.
"Ogata Ittosai!"
"what you up to?!"
"Do you know what you are doing right now?!"
"Do you know where this place is?!"
"How dare you attack my Buddhist holy land!"
"You are already an enemy of the dynasty! Now you want to be an enemy of Buddha?!"
The "old monk with a goatee" fired a series of angry shouts at Ogata like a machine gun.
——This old man... should be an ordinary monk from Xianyuan Temple...
Seeing that this man did not seem to be a member of the Toyotomi clan but a normal monk of Sengenji, Ogata silently put down the knife he had raised.
However, he did not completely let down his guard. His nerves were still tense, and he was ready to counterattack at any time if the "old monk with a goatee" planned to do .
"Sir," Ogata said, "please leave here..."
Before Ogata could finish his words, he was interrupted by the "old monk with a goatee":
"I won't leave!"
"Why should I give in to a villain like you?"
"Ogata Ittosai, I am so disappointed in you."
At this point, a hint of sadness emerged in the tone of the "old monk with a goatee".
"Although you were previously listed as an enemy of the court by the imperial court and the shogunate, I do not hate you."
"Not only do I not hate you, I have always respected you."
"I have always seen the corruption of the Edo Shogunate."
"The lives of the common people are becoming increasingly difficult, and the warriors who are supposed to protect the people are becoming increasingly incompetent."
"But due to the power of the Edo Shogunate, no one dared to confront and give the Edo Shogunate a resounding blow - until you showed up!"
"Although your attack on Nijo Castle and your defeat of the shogunate's army were somewhat extreme, I still think you are a hero!"
"A hero who dares to say no to the Edo Shogunate and dares to go against the Edo Shogunate!"
"I have always believed that your presence and your repeated blows to the Edo Shogunate might force the Edo Shogunate to reform! Change the corrupt trend!"
"But who would have thought that you would do something so worse than pigs and dogs today!"
"Let me ask you: How did our Xianyuan Temple and Koyasan offend you?"
"Why would you commit such a brutal act here today? Killing the monks of my temple?!"
The more this "old monk with a goatee" spoke, the more excited he became, and the more passionate his tone became.
As he was about to finish his words, the goatee on his chin was trembling because he was too emotional and excited.
——This old man... turns out to be my fan...
Looking at the old monk who had been glaring at him, Ogata, with a helpless look on his face, continued to think in his heart:
——If I don’t explain it to him briefly, I’m afraid this old man won’t leave…
After letting out a silent sigh, Ogata said slowly:
"Sir... Let me tell you this: a group of brutal criminals are secretly lurking in Koyasan, planning to use Koyasan as a base to commit illegal acts."
"The reason why I came to Koyasan today is to deal with these thugs hiding in Koyasan."
"Master Xianyuan from your Xianyuan Temple is one of the companions of those thugs."
"Take a close look at these 'monks' I just knocked down."
Ogata nodded towards the corpses lying on the ground not far away.
"See those guys they have?"
"Shuriken, wakizashi, kunai, kusarigama..."
"Is this a weapon a monk would possess?"
"Can the monks of your Xianyuan Temple carry so many lethal weapons?"
"These people are the criminals I just mentioned. They disguised themselves as monks and lurked in Xianyuan Temple. They are the real thugs."
"The Master is an accomplice of the thugs? Impossible!" The "Old Monk with a Goatee" refuted loudly without thinking, "I have known the Master for decades! I am very familiar with the Master! How could he be a thug?!"
"Then let me ask you -" Ogata pressed on, "How do you explain that these 'monks' I knocked down were holding so many weapons that monks don't possess at all?"
“…”The “old monk with goatee” fell silent.
He looked at Ogata, then at the weapons held by the "monks" lying on the ground nearby.
The expression gradually became strange.
He just came to confront Ogata with a Buddha statue in his arms, full of anger and passion.
Because he was eager to confront Ogata, and because he was blinded by anger, he didn't notice at all that his "companions" who were killed by Ogata were all holding weapons that a monk couldn't possibly possess...
After being questioned in this way by Ogata in a very calm tone, the "old monk with a goatee" gradually regained his composure and started thinking.
"You don't have to believe me. I don't care what you think of me." Ogata then continued, "Anyway, you better leave here quickly. It's quite unsafe here now."
"In a little while, a large group of people will probably come to attack us... huh?"
Ogata's brows suddenly frowned, and then he sniffed hard.
At this time, the "old monk with a goatee" also made movements that were quite synchronized with Ogata: frowning and sniffing.
At first, Ogata thought it was just his illusion.
But after sniffing hard and trying hard to smell the scent floating in the air, Ogata was sure that he was not mistaken.
The air... was indeed filled with an increasingly strong smell of burning...
Ogata immediately had a strong sense of foreboding and quickly ran to the nearby window.
At this time, the "old monk with goatee" made a move that was very synchronized with Ogata, and ran towards the window with Ogata.
Arriving at the window and looking out - the scenery outside the window made Ogata and the "old monk with a goatee" beside him change their expressions.
fire.
They saw the fire.
A large amount of flames started from the woods behind Xianyuan Temple.
The flames rushed through the woods like a torrent, devouring everything they touched.
In the blink of an eye, a certain big tree was engulfed in the pillar of fire. The sound of wood cracking was heard, as if it was groaning in pain. The tree only held on for a short while before falling down in the flames. A large number of sparks stirred up by the fall of the tree flew into the air.
“It’s on fire…” the “old monk with a goatee” with no blood on his face muttered dully.
After a brief moment of shock, Ogata immediately regained his composure.
"...Tsk." After thinking for a moment, Ogata gritted his teeth and said, "This is it...!"
…
…
Koyasan, where Hasegawa and others were imprisoned——
Hasegawa was sitting cross-legged on the ground with his eyes closed, rubbing his left wrist with his right thumb. Suddenly, he heard a lot of clattering footsteps outside the cell.
He opened his eyes and looked outside the prison. More than a dozen Toyotomi's followers, with anxious expressions on their faces and flintlock rifles in their hands, appeared from the end of the corridor outside the prison.
"Quick! Take them all away quickly!"
A young man with narrow eyes, a pair of katana and wakizashi on his waist, shouted this loudly to the people around him, while taking out a bunch of keys from his waist, then quickly walked to Hasegawa's cell door, pulled out one of the keys, and unlocked the iron lock on Hasegawa's cell door.
As soon as the lock was unlocked and the door opened, four Toyotomi clan followers immediately filed in.
Three of them held Hasegawa down, while the other one pulled Hasegawa's hands behind his back and then tied his hands tightly with a hemp rope.
"What are you doing?" Hasegawa did not resist, but frowned and asked, "Where are you taking me?"
"Don't worry about this kind of thing." The young man with narrow eyes responded impatiently.
While his subordinates were trying to tie up Hasegawa, the narrow-eyed young man used a key to unlock the cell door of Isshiki Naoshu's family. Then, like Hasegawa, the Isshiki family also followed the Toyotomi clan's followers who filed in and tied their hands tightly behind their backs.
"Quick! Take them away!"
The narrow-eyed young man waved his hand.
"Take them all to the coast!"
Toyotomi's followers pushed Hasegawa, Isshiki Naoaki and others out of the cell. They were forced to line up in a column, while the young man with narrow eyes held the knife at his waist and led Hasegawa and others out of the prison like a mother duck leading her ducklings.
"What do you mean by 'coast'?" Hasegawa lowered his head slightly and asked the narrow-eyed young man in front of him, "Are you going to take us to a certain coast to catch a boat?"
"I've already said that." The narrow-eyed young man suppressed his impatience and growled in a deep voice, "Don't worry about this kind of thing! Just follow us obediently, that's all!"
"...What about my subordinates?" Hasegawa asked, "Will my subordinates be taken to a new place like me?"
"I don't know!" The narrow-eyed young man responded rudely, "I am not responsible for your subordinates!"
"Is that so... Well, then I'll go find my subordinates myself."
“Aaaaaaaaa——!”
The sharp scream pierced the eardrum of the narrow-eyed young man like an arrow.
The pupils of the narrow-eyed young man suddenly shrank, and then he turned his head and looked back as if by reflex.
The first thing that caught the eye of the narrow-eyed young man was one of his subordinates who was kneeling on the ground and screaming, holding his forehead from which blood was gushing out. The flintlock rifle that was supposed to be in his hand was nowhere to be seen - the scream just now was made by this man.
The next person who came into his sight was Hasegawa.
To be more precise, it was Hasegawa who was holding a flintlock rifle high in his right hand.
Hasegawa tightly grasped the barrel of the flintlock, raised it high above his head, pointed it at the narrow-eyed young man's head, and swung the flintlock in his hand downward forcefully.
The butt of the gun was getting closer and bigger - this was the last scene that the narrow-eyed young man saw in his life.