The young Taoist priest was stunned. Yuan Shan City was completely destroyed, and his doubts and worries vanished with it.
"Martial Uncle Master! Your swordsmanship is incredible!"
He could shout this without any pressure now! He even scurried out from the rubble, afraid that Ji Xiang would leave him behind. No matter if this black-clad youth was truly his Martial Uncle Master, with such cultivation, calling him so was absolutely worth it!
What power was this!
Although this strike was likely wielded by that divine sword, one first had to defeat a figure at the Pseudo-Immortal realm to obtain such a divine sword, which was impossible for most. When Yuan Shan City was still garrisoned by the Ming army, that old Pseudo-Immortal, with his decaying body, had unleashed a single strike that almost shattered the Ming Dynasty's prestige in Yuan Shan City.
And that old Pseudo-Immortal from the East, scattering his cultivation into three parts and entrusting them to the control of the Japanese forces, choosing the loyal great swordsman Yagyū Munenori as the primary inheritor, was an absolutely correct choice. Barring any accidents, in the near future, when Yagyū Munenori grew old, he would also become a Pseudo-Immortal, living for hundreds of years, existing as the foundation of a new era.
Alas, there are no "what ifs." Accidents are called accidents precisely because they come without warning. Even with divination spells, it's hard to avoid stumbling and falling into a ditch.
They were all people who had gambled with death. Since they had embarked on the path of cultivation, they had to be prepared for death at any moment!
The young Taoist priest stumbled towards Yuan Shan City, knowing that his Martial Uncle Master should be "clearing the battlefield" now!
And for the young Taoist priest, there was also someone he wanted to see die with his own eyes before he could be satisfied!
...
Painful moans involuntarily escaped Shimazu Yoshihiro's lips. His armor was shattered, leaving him bare-chested, and similarly, his lower body was exposed. His clothes had turned into rags and scraps. His hair was disheveled, and his face was smeared with blood and dirt. With great effort, he managed to climb up from the ground, propping himself on his broken katana with one knee bent, a burning pain in his lungs making him extremely uncomfortable.
"Baka yarō!"
When people are extremely angry, they shout loudly to vent their emotions, but Shimazu Yoshihiro found his own voice to be so weak and hoarse. He grabbed his throat, his face turning a liverish color.
When the vocal cords are damaged by strong external force, they rupture and bleed, making the voice sound like one is tearing the trachea. Blood flowed uncontrollably from Shimazu Yoshihiro's mouth. He looked around, and the several corps commanders who had fought alongside him were lying on the ground, motionless.
They were likely dead.
"Hehehe..."
Each sound he made caused him to cough up a mouthful of bloody phlegm. Shimazu Yoshihiro muttered to himself with a self-mocking tone:
"I never thought the overlord of Kyushu would fall to such a state."
His expression was tragic as he looked at Yuan Shan City, now reduced to ruins in the distance.
His emotions had shifted several times in a short period.
Misery, sorrow, anger, rage, wailing and crying, and finally, gasping for breath hysterically, like someone who had been drowning for a long time and had just returned to land.
His lungs were ruptured, making breathing difficult!
"Oh, there's still someone alive. To survive this sword strike means you are quite important."
"You must be one of the corps commanders... Hmm? Shimazu Yoshihiro? What a big catch! Are you the overall commander of the East?"
Shimazu Yoshihiro saw the black-robed Taoist approaching him. The other party seemed to recognize him?
"We haven't met before, have we?" he asked hoarsely.
"Indeed, this is our first meeting," Ji Xiang replied politely.
"Should I say good evening, or farewell? How about surrendering? I guarantee you'll live much longer."
After reading the description of the blank divine tablet, Ji Xiang sensed an extreme peak of hostility from the other party in that instant. This allowed Ji Xiang to know everything about him without even asking for his name.
"The overlord of Kyushu will never surrender to the people of the Great Ming..."
Shimazu Yoshihiro didn't have the time to ponder why the other party understood his words, or why he understood the other party's words. At least, in the current dangerous situation, these were unimportant details.
It must be some kind of minor spell of the other party, nothing to be surprised about.
"The overlord of Kyushu? You mean Kyushu Island... You startled me, I thought you were going to be the overlord of our Kyushu here."
"Hehehe... I had such aspirations, but alas, they were not realized."
"If you don't surrender, do you intend to commit suicide in front of me? Yuan Shan City is destroyed, and it has been taken by us. Or rather, it's no longer important. Surrender, and you can have a dignified latter half of your life. Perhaps, due to your good attitude, you might even be exempted from the death penalty."
"Not important?"
Shimazu Yoshihiro gritted his teeth and spat out a few mouthfuls of bloody phlegm:
"This strategic stronghold has been erased from the map just like that, but it doesn't matter. As long as there are people and reinforcements, it can be taken back again!"
"It's not important because there's a city here, but rather, there's a city here because it's important!"
"Do you know, two years ago in October, I fought a battle in Sacheon City, Korea. The Ming general in command was Dong Yiyuan. We were routed, and several great generals died consecutively. I led only a hundred men to defend the inner city, while you bombarded us with various cannons."
"But the result was that I, with a dozen men, attacked your arsenal and killed twenty thousand of you!"
"Later, I cut off the heads of your dead soldiers and sliced off all their noses. I originally intended to take these spoils of war back with me; they would be my martial achievements and medals!"
"It's just a pity I couldn't go back."
With every sentence he spoke, he spat out blood, looking at Ji Xiang with provocative eyes.
Escape was impossible at this point, and surrender would only lead to greater torment. Therefore, the only way was to enrage the person in front of him and have him kill himself here. This was his best outcome and his best ending. Moreover, if he was lucky, his wish might return to his homeland, which could take as little as a few years, or as long as several decades. Perhaps he could even be reincarnated.
Come, be angry, and kill me!
Shimazu Yoshihiro thought this, and he even wanted to shout it out!
"Don't you want revenge!"
"Come! Come kill me..."
"Kill... me."
"?"
Ji Xiang remained expressionless. Shimazu Yoshihiro was confused: "Aren't you angry?"
"Although you fought well, cutting off the heads of corpses after battle and also slicing off their noses only proves your incompetence. There's no need for me to be angry at someone who can only show off their might against corpses and is filled with impotent rage."
Ji Xiang said dismissively, "And this precisely shows how badly you were beaten back then, otherwise you wouldn't be so angry, or even ashamed and enraged."
"What did you say!"
Shimazu Yoshihiro suddenly became furious, but immediately his lungs ruptured again, his face contorting, and even breathing became difficult.
"Good, good! I'll tell you, after that, I even massacred over ten thousand civilians, laborers, and commoners around Sacheon... In total, there were also your Ming Dynasty's logistics soldiers!"
"Still not angry? Don't you want to avenge them?"
Ji Xiang chuckled, "Revenge will come when you are brought to the executioner's block. Then your head will be displayed publicly for all the world to see, your name passed down through the ages and cursed by all generations. Isn't that a wonderful thing?"
"You, you!"
A surge of frustration built up in Shimazu Yoshihiro's chest. He thought for a moment, then began to move with all his might, adjusting his breathing.
His gaze gradually sharpened, but his head was lowered.
"I, I surrender."
Surrendering was, of course, impossible.
But as things stood, claiming to surrender would make the other party lower their guard. As long as the other party approached, he would... cut off his own head with a single blow!
That's right, cut off his own head!
Attacking the other party would be like hitting a rock with an egg, but cutting off his own head was different. After successfully completing the suicide objective, all that remained was to await reincarnation...
"Fixed."
This was the last word Shimazu Yoshihiro heard.
Immediately after, he stopped moving and thinking.
Then, white smoke enveloped him, and a divine position was stripped from him. Deprived of divine power, the image of a ghost god gradually revealed itself, but it was suppressed and subdued by the demonic energy in Ji Xiang's hand.
"Jiu Jiu Neng Zhi Shen, the god of grain and harvest. No wonder you didn't go to the front lines to fight. Attacking here in advance was indeed the right choice. If you had escaped, wouldn't the logistics be intact?"
"And... your ancestor was a Wara-jin."
Ji Xiang looked at Shimazu Yoshihiro, who was immobilized by the divine ability of 'Fixed.' The inner divine tablet displayed some of his information, mentioning "His ancestor, the Qin clan," but with a question mark afterward.
Wara-jin refers to people who migrated from China and Korea to Japan during the Qin and Han dynasties. Xu Fu's three thousand boys and girls were Wara-jin. And there were a total of one hundred and sixty such Wara-jin clans in Japan.
However, as the saying goes, "Oranges grown south of the Huai River are oranges, but north of the Huai River they become trifoliate oranges." When the Chinese enter the barbarian lands, they become barbarians; when the barbarians enter China, they become Chinese. It doesn't matter where one's ancestors came from after a thousand years. What matters is that he is Japanese now.
*Clink.*
The young Taoist priest arrived not far outside the city, staggering with a weakened body, and witnessed Shimazu Yoshihiro being immobilized.
"Martial Uncle Master, why didn't you kill him?"
The young Taoist priest's face was filled with anger. He wanted to flay Shimazu Yoshihiro alive. Ji Xiang appeased him, "Why is a monk so hot-tempered?"
"Martial Uncle Master! Monks cultivate using fire; if they aren't hot-tempered, what are they called?"
"Uh... that seems like a bit of a twisted logic."
Ji Xiang seriously stroked his chin, "But it's still not time to kill him."
"Originally, if he had been killed by my sword, it would have been over. Since he's not dead, it's good that he's alive."
Shimazu Yoshihiro was the overall commander of the eastern coast. Hanging him on the city gate tower and shouting would definitely bring immense psychological deterrence to the Japanese forces fighting on both the eastern and western fronts.
And after shouting, he could be brought back to the country. Then, under the interrogation of professional torturers like the Embroidered Uniform Guard and the Eastern Depot, more intelligence could be extracted. After that, he would be executed in autumn. Then, the West Market would be cordoned off, and the common people could come to watch the beheading. For one coin, they could buy three eggs or a basket of rotten vegetables to throw, which would generate income and serve as entertainment.
How wonderful!
The young Taoist priest: "..."
"Good, good! As expected of Martial Uncle Master, this move is truly brilliant!"
The young Taoist priest knew that doing so was the right thing, so he didn't object further, but...
"Child, why is your face contorted?" Ji Xiang looked at the young Taoist priest curiously.
"Ah? Martial Uncle Master, my face has been like this since birth. I'm not angry at all."
The young Taoist priest contorted his face and responded obediently.
Having finally suppressed the hatred in his heart, among the corpses whose noses Shimazu Yoshihiro had cut off were fellow disciples from Longhu Mountain. This revenge could not be exacted now, as his beloved Martial Uncle Master intended to make good use of him. It seemed he could only return to the country and, when the West Market in Shuntian Prefecture opened, spend fifty taels of silver to contract the entire West Market's eggs.
To distract himself, the young Taoist priest shifted his gaze to his surroundings and suddenly asked with confusion:
"Martial Uncle Master, that, that monster that looks like a Buddhist Vajra, the Waterfall Spirit King, has he disappeared?"
Ji Xiang glanced around, "Ah, it seems to have escaped."
"This is a bit troublesome. I didn't pay attention to it just now, as it was just a monster. It would be bad if it went to seek reinforcements."
"But it's alright, I just dropped a piece of gold on it."
"I got a lot of gold from a wealthy friend (Silver Bottle Maiden)."
The young Taoist priest: "?"
"Martial Uncle Master, this... are you trying to say you're very rich... or?"
He was unsure what Ji Xiang meant.
Ji Xiang: "Yes, I am very rich."