Watching Genichiro leave surrounded by several warriors, Lu Xiao subconsciously narrowed his eyes.
He didn't think Genichiro really came here specifically to remind him out of good intentions. The main purpose of the young master of Ashina Kingdom was to know his whereabouts.
Thinking about it from another angle, if Lu Xiao were in Genichiro Ashina's position, he would not easily trust a Ming traveler who suddenly appeared in his own country while the war with the inner government was going on.
However, Genichiro had more plans that needed to be executed personally and did not put too much energy into Lu Xiao.
After confirming that he had not left his residence, Genichiro, who looked a little tired, left in a hurry to prepare the next plan.
While touring the castle town, Lu Xiao seemed to have no intention of asking Xiao Xing, who was following him every step of the way: "Yamauchi, what happened last night? Why do you feel that Sir Genichiro doesn't have enough energy?"
The nickname of the person who was arranged by Genichiro to monitor Lu Xiao was Yamauchi, and his nickname was Heiroku. He had not yet been given an official name by the elders in the family.
Faced with Lu Xiao's sudden question, Yamauchi shook his head vigilantly and said: "Nothing, I just executed a traitor who tried to escape Ashina overnight and didn't get a good rest at night."
"Oh? That's right. During wartime, it's normal for some people to be unable to bear the pressure and defect."
In order to avoid arousing further suspicion in Yamauchi, Lu Xiao did not continue to ask questions, changed the topic immediately, and began to ask some questions about the customs and customs of Ashina Country.
Throughout the day, Lu Xiao took Yamauchi around the castle town. On the way, he also visited the ruins of the Hirata mansion that was burned down three years ago. It seemed that he was really just visiting the scenery of Ashina Country.
But in fact, Lu Xiao used his own feet to measure the terrain of Ashina Castle openly. Except for the castle area, which was inaccessible, he already had a general understanding of the structure of the entire Ashina Castle.
Ashina is a mountain city built in rugged terrain, which is easy to defend and difficult to attack. This should be one of the key factors in Ashina's ability to resist the attack of the inner government.
The castle town of Ashina does not surround the castle like a traditional Japanese ancient city, but is built in a mountain col outside the main city.
The castle town that was supposed to be a living area had already entered a semi-militarized state due to the invasion of the inner government. When Lu Xiao was walking around the depressed castle town, he would see patrolling ashigaru passing by from time to time.
The main force deployed by Genichiro was stuck at the entrance from the castle town to the castle area, and was guarded by the leader of Ashina's seven spears, Masataka Onitei Penbu himself.
Looking from the heights of the castle town, Lu Xiao could see that the small battlefield in front of the main entrance was covered with corpses of soldiers from both sides who had not yet had time to restrain themselves.
As Isshin Ashina's condition gradually worsened, the war led by the inner government gradually entered a fever pitch.
Looking at the overall situation, there is no doubt that Ashina's side, which lacked men and food, was at a disadvantage, and could only rely on the steep terrain to barely block the repeated attacks of the inner army.
At noon, Lu Xiao and Yamauchi were sitting on the steps high in the mountain city, eating rice balls, the most common simple outing meal in Japan in this era.
When going out, Lu Xiao is not picky about what he eats, as long as it can fill his stomach, the money he got from the monks at Xianfeng Temple last night.
It has to be said that these thieving monks are quite wealthy. Xianfeng Temple has made a lot of money by selling various Buddhist candies through underground channels.
Early this morning, Genichiro received a report from his spy who had been placed in the Luanbo clan. It seemed that Senfou Temple was completely slaughtered overnight.
Genichiro knew very well what was going on behind the scenes at Senho Temple. He had even secretly cooperated with those monks who had deviated from the teachings of the Buddha. He knew how tempting the wealth of Senho Temple was.
However, when Genichiro personally led his troops into Senhoji Temple to search, the temple's inner treasury, which should have been filled with property, was empty.
After searching the entire Senfou Temple, Genichiro found no trace of money except for a gate behind the main hall that could not be opened no matter what.
This is natural. Lu Xiao looted all the wealth from Xianfeng Temple last night.
He only kept part of the copper coins for his own use and buried the remaining treasure in a secret location in Mount Kumgang.
After finishing the meal, Lu Xiao asked Yamauchi for books on the history of the Ashina Kingdom, planning to return to his temporary residence and perform a golden cicada's escape from its shell.
Although Yamauchi is just a nickname for the time being, he was born into a famous Ashina family after all, and there will definitely be no shortage of books in the family collection.
As long as Lu Xiao can be controlled in the room, Yamauchi can perfectly complete the task assigned to him by Genichiro, and Lu Xiao's request is exactly what he wants.
After returning to his residence in the castle town, Yamauchi immediately asked someone to pick up the books from his house.
Lu Xiao was lying on the tatami leisurely and contentedly. As long as the book was delivered, he would be completely free from Yamauchi's surveillance.
"Haha~ Isn't it a bit too much to coax this simple boy?"
"!!"
Suddenly, the deep laughter coming from the back window of the room made the hair on Lu Xiao's body stand on end.
'How can it be!'
The world of Sekiro is a magical world with ghosts and resentful spirits. Lu Xiao has never relaxed his vigilance since he came to Ashina Country. His eagle vision will be activated every once in a while to detect the surrounding situation.
After returning home, he made sure that there was nothing unusual around his room. Suddenly, a sound coming from the back window made Lu Xiao sweat drop from his forehead.
Lu Xiao turned around from half-crouching on the tatami, took a wary posture, and asked in a low voice: "Who are you? Why are you here?"
"Hmph~ You should take care of your own affairs first and find me at the Ashina Gate Tower within three minutes."
A quarter is 15 minutes, and the mysterious man only gave Lu Xiao 45 minutes, and the Weiming outer city tower...
‘Isn’t it the abandoned castle tower opposite the inner city gate guarded by Onite Masataka?’
The Ashina outer castle tower was violently attacked by the Imperial Army in the previous war and had become dilapidated. Except for some civilians fleeing the war, there were no Ashina soldiers stationed near the outer castle tower.
'Could it be...'
Lu Xiao had a rough guess about the person who invited him, but just like the mysterious man said, he needed to fool Heiroku Yamauchi before taking action.
After Yamauchi moved a stack of books recording Ashina's history into the house, Lu Xiao pretended to read in front of the bookcase for a while. In fact, he was referring to the secret book of Xianfeng Temple that he obtained last night.
Xianfeng Temple is a Buddhist temple after all, and the monks practice bare-handed hand-to-hand combat. These Xianfeng Temple short fights can be roughly divided into two categories, boxing and kicking.
The boxing technique is called Kowtow Fist, and the move itself seems ordinary. It is a boxing technique that uses the elbow and the heel of the palm to launch a series of attacks. The key point is the technique of exerting force.
The kick method is more simple and clear. It is simply called Xianfeng Kick. It is a set of kick combos starting with a flying kick.
Thanks to the learning ability bonus given passively by his race, it didn't take much time for Lu Xiao, who has rich combat experience, to learn these two sets of skills, but using them skillfully does not happen overnight.
The faint sound of turning books inside the house made Yamauchi feel at ease outside the door.
However, Lu Xiao's body had already left the hut a few minutes ago, and what was left behind was only a short-term afterimage created by extracting a small amount of magic power from the Time Stone.
Tightening his hood, Lu Xiao turned on his aura blocker and rushed through Ashina Castle Town. It only took about ten minutes to reach the Ashina outer castle tower where the mysterious man sent the invitation.
The trauma left by the war made the tower look very dilapidated. There were traces of gunfire everywhere. Civilians hiding from the war gathered around the first floor of the tower, lowering their heads listlessly, as if they had completely lost confidence in the future.
.
Bypassing these poor civilians, Lu Xiao quietly climbed up the tower with broken stairs.
Although Eagle Vision did not capture any breath of life upstairs, Lu Xiao relied on his instinctive guess that there must be someone on the top floor of this abandoned tower.
"Well done!"
Just as he stood firm on the top floor of the bumpy floor, an old voice with a bold tone sounded not far from Lu Xiao.
'really.'
A tall, thin old man wearing a Tengu mask stood flawlessly about five meters in front of Lu Xiao, holding an unsheathed sword in his hand.
It was an ancient tachi with a rusty surface and many broken blades. The damaged tachi that should have been thrown into the garbage dump gave Lu Xiao a huge sense of threat when he held it in this person's hand.