The urban construction patterns of Japan's Warring States Period were similar. The innermost layer was the castle where the castle lord lived. The residential area spread around the castle was called a castle town, and further outside were farmland and pastures.
The place where Lu Xiao first arrived was in the farmland area on the outskirts of Ashina City, a long way from the city center, and beyond that were inaccessible forests, swamps and barren mountains.
The territory of Ashina Country is not large, at least it is much smaller than modern cities. However, in this era, there is no convenient means of transportation such as cars. It would be necessary to travel across the entire Ashina Country with just two feet.
It takes a lot of time.
When you come to a new world, the first thing you need to determine is the current year.
Lu Xiao went straight to the densely populated area of the castle town. The main purpose was to learn the specific time from these residents.
But at this time, it was during the war, and the residents of Weiming Country were very wary of outsiders like him in strange clothes. Most of the questions Lu Xiao asked were not answered by the local people.
As a last resort, Lu Xiao could only go further into the central city and try to get the exact time from the senior officials of Weiming Kingdom.
He succeeded, and when he followed Genichiro's nickname to settle in the city, Lu Xiao asked him the question he wanted to know most.
"The year I visited Longquan? Wasn't that three years ago?"
‘Bingo~’
In the entire game of Sekiro, only when the wolf entered the dreamland memory of three years ago, a half-dead hawk mentioned the issue of the year.
The year Longquan visited the temple was the year the Ashina clan was divided and the Hirata clan was robbed by bandits.
At that time, the Hirata family sent most of their samurai to the battlefield in order to support the master's family in resisting the attack of the inner palace. As a result, the Hirata mansion, which was the core residence of the family, was weakly defended and was overwhelmed by bandits with the help of traitors.
.
In the end, the Hirata family was almost wiped out due to many conspiracies and calculations, leaving only one young child who luckily survived and was brought back to Ashina Castle for adoption.
And this surviving child is Miko, who possesses the power of Dragon Yin, and is the core character of the entire Sekiro storyline - Kuro.
The reason why the Hirata family was destroyed was not simple. Behind it, many forces were involved in the fight for Long Yin's son.
Three years later, the original riots had long subsided, but an internal fight reduced the strength of the Ashina Kingdom again. Having lost a large number of elite warriors, the Ashina Kingdom was gradually unable to withstand the impact of the internal army, and the situation was precarious.
As for the sword master Ashina Isshin, who was the pillar of the Ashina Kingdom and a thorn in the side of the imperial government, he was not only old, but also suffered from a serious illness a few years ago, making it difficult for him to go to the battlefield to kill the enemy in person.
In this situation of internal and external troubles, Ashina Genichiro, as the orthodox heir of Ashina Kingdom, had no choice but to use his crooked brains. He hoped to obtain the power of Dragon Yin given by Kuro to repel the invading inner army.
To put it in a layman's terms, Long Yin's power is the power of immortality.
People who have received Long Yin's blessing can be reunited with their separated bodies even if their heads are cut off. They are truly immortal people.
Clearing the entire plot of Sekiro can obtain relevant information. Ashina, who worships the source of water, has three forms of undead in his country.
One is the parasitic, who acquires immortality through a mysterious parasite that parasitizes in the human body.
Fully grown undead insects cannot be killed by conventional means, and humans as parasites will naturally not die.
The second is to obtain an extremely tough body and strong fighting power by drinking the Bianruo Shui. Some organizations even conduct inhumane research on the Bianruo Shui, trying to further improve the Bianruo Shui with huge side effects.
The above two methods of immortality have great hidden dangers. The insect-possessed person will gradually become inhuman and ghostly under the increasing number of insects, until he eventually loses the ability to move independently and completely becomes a nest of insects.
The eyes of people who drink the water will turn blood red, and their combat ability will be greatly improved, but at the cost, they will lose most of their sanity.
Compared with these two methods of immortality, Long Yin's power is the most orthodox.
But this does not mean that there are no side effects of using Long Yin's power. It is just that the side effects of Long Yin's power will not be reflected in the recipient. Instead, the life force of the people around him will be absorbed to supplement the loss of Long Yin's blessing.
s life.
This is how the strange disease called Dragon Cough was born.
Lu Xiao's first mission is to kill the immortals. According to the literal meaning, it should require him to cut off the source of all immortals in the Weiming Kingdom, rather than simply kill Jiulang and eliminate Long Yin's power.
The second task is relatively simple, without relying on the abilities of other worlds, to defeat the pillar of Ashina Kingdom - Sword Master Ashina Isshin head-on.
The third non-essential task full of question marks was temporarily thrown aside by Lu Xiao.
To complete the first mission, no matter how Lu Xiao plans his route in the world of Sekiro, he must first obtain the most important item - the Immortal Slash.
There are many mutated things in Ashina's country, and if you want to kill these evil things that cannot be killed by conventional means, you must use the special ability of Immortal Slash.
After settling down temporarily in the empty house chosen by Genichiro, the man named Xiao who was responsible for monitoring Lu Xiao stayed at the door of the room and never left.
Lu Xiao didn't pay attention to Xiao's behavior, and sat thoughtfully on the tatami in the room, rubbing his chin.
"There are two Immortal Slashes, each with different functions."
"Among them, the Black Immortal Slash 'Open Door' can open the door to the underworld, and at the cost of one's own life, it can bring the deceased designated by the sacrificer back from another world and give it the power of immortality."
"The red immortal sword 'Weeping Tears' is more like a ceremonial knife that takes tears from Sakura Dragon. Both have their own functions."
Lu Xiao is not very interested in the black immortal slashing the door. He has no hope of resurrecting anyone in this world, and he is not willing to sacrifice his own life to bring someone back from the underworld.
"So, it's just about praying for tears?"
The Red Immortal Sword Tears are sealed in the Kongou Mountain Senhoji Temple outside Ashina Castle, and are kept by the only son of Bianruo who survived the cruel experiment.
"Xianfeng Temple?"
Lu Xiao looked to the north of the city through the open window. Mount Kumgang shrouded in clouds and mist looked somewhat ethereal and fairy-like.
The person guarding Lu Xiao was very wary of his actions. When Lu Xiao stuck his head out to look outside, his hand was always on the handle of the knife at his waist. As long as Lu Xiao behaved abnormally, he would draw his knife at any time.
Xiao launched an attack.
Lu Xiao laughed off Xiao Xing's caution and returned to the house after confirming the location.
"Let's set the primary goal of the first mission to obtain the Tears of Immortality. Then, how to complete the second mission?"
Ashina, who was seriously ill, stayed in the castle tower at the top of the castle. Genichiro arranged a large number of people to guard the castle, and also left a skilled pharmacist to take care of his grandfather's daily life.
Sneaking into the castle was not difficult, but at this time, the sword master Ashina Isshin was no longer the war ghost he was when he was young, with an endless thirst for battle.
Whether he is willing to fight Lu Xiao is still a question, and the pharmacist guarding him obviously will not turn a blind eye to the duel between the two.
If things go wrong, Lu Xiao's action of sneaking into the castle is likely to cause large-scale riots, which will greatly affect Lu Xiao's follow-up plans, and the gains outweigh the losses.
'Let's put aside task two for now. Maybe in the process of completing task one, we will unexpectedly get the opportunity to fight against Isshin.'
…
In the dead of night, Genichiro's nickname was still guarding Lu Xiao's gate dutifully, with his eyes wide open and looking full of energy.
Two bright eyes suddenly appeared in the dark house. Lu Xiao, who absorbed magic power through meditation and nourished his energy, finally opened his eyes.
'It does have magic power, but as the system says, the magic power in the Sekiro world is very thin and cannot be compared to the Marvel world.'
Gently touching the boots of Hermes, Lu Xiao sighed helplessly, 'It seems that you need to be careful when using magic items in this world. Try to use them only at critical moments.'