Continuing from the last chapter of the book, let’s look back at the gray memory village.
Sun Yixie obviously did not waste the flaw created by the two jonins, Masugi Juzo and Xiaomei Feiyuan. After he successfully broke away from the corpse puppet, he immediately touched the back of Li Gen and decisively used the three-pronged
Ji launched a sneak attack.
Reigen, who had already been stabbed by Juzo, and whose attention was completely focused on the second ninja, was naturally unable to defend himself, and was easily killed by Brother Sun.
As soon as Li Gen died, the corpse puppets that were fighting with Chong Zang and Xiao Mei naturally stopped moving.
However, the three people did not relax after the victory...
First of all, this is the entrance to the enemy's base camp after all. The noise of their fight just now was not small, and it would not be surprising if they were discovered, so they must be prepared for new enemies to come at any time.
Secondly, the relationship between these three people is not that kind of mutual trusting partnership. Although they are basically certain that the evil monks of the Tuxing Sect are their common enemies, they are also wary of each other.
"Sun Sang, we meet again." At this time, the experienced Chongzang was the first to speak, "I have to thank you, my subordinates... are grateful for your care."
Even though it's just two sentences, there are so many twists and turns in them.
These words fell into Sun Yixie's ears. They were both an obvious show of goodwill and a proposal for a "temporary alliance" - I saved you, but before you could thank me, I came to thank you first, and
While thanking you, I pointed out to you information that "A-Zhi is my subordinate" that you probably don't know yet, and also revealed that "I already know that A-Zhi has received your help."
And what about from Xiaomei's point of view? At this moment, Zhongzang directly called out Sun Yixie's surname as soon as he opened his mouth, and greeted him in a tone that seemed to be familiar to him, and mentioned that his subordinates were taken care of by him...
...Then Xiaomei will definitely guess that these two people are acquaintances, or even good friends.
In this way, under the premise that Xiaomei's position is still unclear whether it is an enemy or a friend, Chongzang roped in Sun Yixie to form a kind of deterrent to Xiaomei: If you are a friend, then the three of us are friends.
If you are an enemy, then think clearly... you may have to fight one-on-one.
More importantly, after saying this, Zhongzang didn't reveal any information about himself; his name, the specific number of his subordinates, and A-Zhi's name... He didn't say anything at all, he just mentioned "Sun Sang"
.
In other words, if Xiaomei knows Sun Yixie, then Xiaomei will be more convinced that Chongzang, who can be called "Sun Sang", and Sun Yixie know each other; if Xiaomei does not know Sun Yixie, then Chongzang's words will not make sense.
It was nothing more than exposing some information about Sun Yixie, but not about himself.
"Oh..." Sun Yixie was also very alert. He narrowed his eyes, understood Pin Chongzang's intention in saying this, and then said in deep thought, "So you are their boss..."
Just by saying this sentence, Sun Yixie already understood: it was no coincidence that they met Ma Shan Chongzang at the Shangshan Shrine a few days ago. Chongzang must have personally heard the report from his three subordinates.
They came to find out the details of him and Huang Donglai, but they didn't expect that there were goblins in the shrine, so in the end everyone had to cooperate to escape.
Combined with the information that Azhi said before about "going to Kyoto to perform a mission with two companions", Sun Yixie basically guessed that Chongzang should have followed the traces of his subordinates all the way to find this place.
"Then who is this?" Two seconds later, Sun Yixie moved his eyes to Xiaomei again and asked.
In fact, Brother Sun knew at a glance that Xiaomei and Juzo were not together. Although the two ninjas cooperated quite well when they fought just now, now that the fight is over...the distance between them, their postures, including their eyes...
...both revealed that they were wary of each other.
But for this question, Brother Sun still had to ask it symbolically.
"Are you Sun Yixie and Sun Sang?" As a result, Xiaomei said directly to Sun Yixie before Chongzang said she didn't know him, "I am the 'Xiaomei' you are looking for."
"Humph...which way has more HOs..." After listening to the other party's self-introduction, Sun Yixie said something in Japanese that didn't need to be translated.
Although Brother Sun's expression was quite calm at this time, he was actually cursing in disappointment: "What a bastard, I really got it right..."Xiaomei" is really the name of a man who picks his feet."
"Oh?" Chongzang looked at Xiaomei sideways and asked, "Do you, the Feng Mo clan... have any dealings with people from the Central Plains?"
Please note, at this point, Chongzang no longer needs to pretend to be familiar with Sun Yixie, because he has already understood from the conversation between Sun Yixie and Xiaomei that the two parties are here to connect... so he
He is an outsider, and Sun Yixie will tell Xiaomei this at any time.
In this case, Juzo quickly returned to the position of a third party, and immediately began to spy on what the "Fuuma-ryu" ninja and Sun Huang, two people from the Central Plains, were up to.
"The Fuma Clan?" Xiaomei frowned slightly when she heard this, then quickly smiled and continued, "Ha... this friend of Koga-ryu, you may have misunderstood, I am not a 'Fuuma Clan'.
It’s just that some of the techniques I use are very similar to theirs.”
What Xiaomei said is not false.
It is true that he is not a member of the Fuma Clan, and has never officially become a disciple of the Fuma Clan.
He learned all his ninjutsu from his mother.
Xiaomei's mother was once a member of the Fuuma Ninja clan, but her qualifications for learning Ninjutsu were extremely low, and even third-rate ninjas looked up to her.
When she was seventeen years old, she was injured during a mission. When retreating, she failed to follow her companions and had to jump into a river alone to escape in the face of pursuing soldiers.
In those days, low-level ninjas were all cannon fodder, and no organization would spend resources to confirm the life and death of a third-rate ninja, so the Fengma clan assumed that Xiaomei's mother was dead.
But she obviously didn't die...and after a lot of wandering, she came to Kyoto and became a geisha.
Although she had no talent in ninjutsu, she was quite talented in singing and dancing, so even though she was several years older than the average age for learning this industry, she still managed to survive in the industry.
Soon after, she got a stage name - Xiaomei.
When she was twenty years old, Xiaomei fell in love with a young samurai. I won’t go into details about the love affair between a man and a woman, except that it didn’t last long.
The samurai enlisted and went to the battlefield. Before leaving, he gave Xiaomei a kite and said to her: "When autumn turns to winter, I will fly back to you like this kite."
Everyone should know the consequences of setting up this kind of FLAG...
That winter, the samurai did not come back.
But Xiaomei's belly was bulging day by day.
As winter turned to spring, Xiaomei gave birth to a boy. She named the boy - "Xiaomei Feiyuan".
Xiaomei Feiyuan is different from his mother. He has ninja talents, and can even be said to be a genius.
His mother taught him ninjutsu just to help him defend himself in this troubled world. Moreover, his mother's own abilities were also limited, so what he taught may not be correct and complete... But those incomplete techniques came to him, and he soon perfected them on his own.
,evolution.
Therefore, Mei Hibi's ninjutsu is not so much Fuma-ryu as it is a "go-ryu" ninjutsu that takes Fuma-ryu as its source and relies on his own understanding.
After growing up, Xiaomei Feiyuan buried her mother who died of illness and began to navigate the troubled times alone.
Because he did not join any ninja organization and did not want to join, he became his own boss and started a business called "Ninja House".
Most of the ninja organizations during the Warring States Period in Japan, such as the Koga ninja, Iga sect, Echigo sect, Fuuma clan, etc., all had their own bases and maintained cooperative or even subordinate relationships with some local daimyo.
A pure mercenary like Xiaomei will do things for anyone who pays him, without asking anything else... There are really not many, so his business does have a certain market.
No, this time he received the task of "receiving Shuangxie and assisting them in going to Kyoto to investigate the whereabouts of the Xuanlong Bi" from some people related to the Great Sun Dynasty.
Let’s get back to business, let’s talk about the present…
After hearing Xiaomei's response, Chongzang thought to himself: "The Fengmo clan has always behaved erratically. Even if they really cooperate with the Central Plains people, they will not deny it... Since Xiaomei said this, it means that he may
I'm really not a Fuuma person; besides, it's not necessarily accurate to infer the opponent's camp just through ninja tools or ninjutsu schools. After all, I'm a Koga-ryu person... I'm also working for the 'Tiger of Kai'
."
Thinking of this, Juzo smiled bitterly and said, "Ah... I'm sorry, I was careless." He paused and introduced himself, "By the way, this is the first time we meet, I am Shimasugi Juzo."
"This is Xiaomei Feiyuan." Xiaomei also quickly reported her full name.
"Huh?" At this time, Sun Yixie tilted his face, curled his lips, looked at Chongzang and said, "Last time I asked you, didn't you say your name was Youzang? You changed it after a few days of seeing each other?
"
After he said this, Chongzang realized that it turned out that even with the help of Shuangxie and the others, Azhi did not reveal the information about his boss. If he had known this, he would have continued to report "Yuzang"
"This is a fake name.
But now that the words were out of his mouth, Chongzang could only smile and clarify his words: "Sun Sang is just joking. With your intelligence and wisdom, when I said in that tone, 'You can call me Yuzang.
'When you said this, you actually already knew that it was a fake name."
"That's true." Sun Yixie saw the other person's reaction and thought about it again. He roughly guessed that the other person reported his real name this time and why he reported his real name, so he stopped wrangling and took advantage of the donkey path down the slope, "
Haha... I just see that the atmosphere is a bit tense now, just kidding, let's relax..."
"So, Sun Sang, can I ask what the situation is right now?" Xiaomei tried to bring the topic back to business, "How did you come to this Zhenxing Sect territory? It's quite dangerous here.
"
Then, Sun Yixie also made a long story short, concisely telling what happened after they met A Zhi. The final summary was that they were mainly here to help Xiaozhu today. If there are other children in the Zhenxing Sect, then
He was also rescued. Before leaving, he helped the Zhenxing Sect to wipe out his family, which was considered as doing justice for heaven.
As soon as he finished speaking, Xiaomei immediately said that he could help and would not charge extra money.
The main reason is that Xiaomei sees some reflections of her own childhood in the mother and son, A Zhi and Xiaosuke, and they have a lot of empathy.
Secondly, as a normal person with undistorted views, Xiaomei must not be able to understand Tuan Xingzong; if you ask him to come here alone to fight for his life with Tuan Xingzong, then he has not reached the state of hating evil as much as hatred.
, but there are so many masters here today, so he is willing to contribute.
As for Juzo... his thoughts are more complicated and he needs to settle accounts:
Suppose he doesn't get involved and leaves on his own.
Then he is equivalent to refusing to help Azhi save Xiaosuke, and also refusing to avenge Gengoro... Then whether Azhi and Xiaosuke live or die, it has nothing to do with him, because these two people cannot come back to help
If you serve someone who abandons his subordinates, even if they do come back, Juzo will no longer be able to trust them.
So what if Chongzang, Shuanghe, and Xiaomei join forces to destroy the Xingxing Sect?
The risk of this choice is not small. If it fails, Juzo may not be able to escape unscathed, and may even risk his own life. But if it succeeds, he can bring back his two subordinates and no longer have to worry about the ones he just helped kill.
Will a cadre of the Xingxing Sect cause trouble in the future?
After thinking for a while, Juzo finally chose to help.
Although turning away and going to Kyoto alone to perform the mission is a safer choice. Anyway, he still has many subordinates, so it doesn't matter if he abandons one or two... But he knows that the best way is to eliminate the Zhen Xingzong and rescue the children inside.
What he wanted to do more in his heart.
In this way, after receiving the support of the second ninja, Sun Yixie became more confident, and the three of them rushed to the entrance of the Zhenxing Sect's main altar together.
At the same moment, on the penultimate floor of the Zhenxingzong main altar...
But I saw four minions in the stone corridor, carrying some good wine and food, and walking quickly to Cha Gen'er's room.
At this time every night, Ji Gen'er would have dinner in his room, and the people who brought him meals would rotate, and today it was the turn of these four unlucky guys.
When they came to the corridor outside the sect master's room, the leader saw that the door was ajar and thought that the sect master must have left the door open for them, so he walked to the door, nodded slightly, and rushed
The man inside the door said: "Sir, the food and drinks for tonight have arrived."
As soon as he finished speaking, this person felt something was wrong.
There's a smell in the door...
And this smell is not the same as the rotten smell unique to this layer.
There was another point that made me realize later that I was suspicious: when the sect master usually stayed in the room, he would always leave a few corpse puppets standing guard at the door, but today there was not a single corpse puppet in the corridor outside the door, not even one.
It's weird.
"Sir, Master? Are you okay?" The man raised his voice a little higher and asked several times outside the door.
But the room was still deathly silent.
The minions became more and more uneasy. He turned around and exchanged glances with the other three minions behind him who were carrying dishes. Then he mustered up the courage and opened the door: "Excuse me, Lord Sect Master, we are coming in...