Capítulo 32: Chapter 32: Condensing Qi into a Blade.
Oda Mansion.
To celebrate the arrival of Zhou Ming, Oda Hirakura held a grand banquet and invited his "officials" to get to know this new "colleague."
Although Zhou Ming had always emphasized that he and Oda Hirakura were in a cooperative relationship, sometimes what you say is not important, it is more important how others believe it.
Therefore, when the officials saw Oda Hirakura's excessive enthusiasm towards Zhou Ming and believed that it was Oda Hirakura's "favoritism," jealousy and dissatisfaction towards this "newcomer" quickly arose among them and quickly fermented.
As a result, challenges and intimidation towards the newcomer followed.
Suddenly, a short samurai stood up from his seat, walked to the center of the hall, and bowed to Oda Hirakura sitting above.
"My lord!" The short samurai said in a muffled voice, "I heard that Lord Zhou is a powerful samurai. Why don't I have a match with Lord Zhou to liven up the atmosphere of this banquet?"
Here it comes!
Everyone's spirits were lifted.
"Um, well..." Oda Hirakura pretended to hesitate and looked towards Zhou Ming, who was sitting on his left. "What do you think, Zhou Kun?"
As soon as he said that, many people had thoughts in their minds. Several discreet glances were exchanged, and a tacit understanding was instantly formed.
Among these people, some knew about what had happened during the day and could guess a bit of Oda Hirakura's meaning. Some did not know, but it did not stop them from wanting to probe Zhou Ming and also see the excitement.
As a result, pairs of eyes fell on Zhou Ming, and the entire hall's attention gradually focused on him.
Zhou Ming stared silently at the food on the small wooden table in front of him.
Everyone in the hall, including Oda Hirakura, was kneeling on the ground, except for Zhou Ming, who was sitting cross-legged. There was no other reason than being uncomfortable!
Oda Hirakura did not say anything about his independent behavior, and of course, no one else would show any expression.
At first, Zhou Ming thought it was just a small problem, a cultural difference, and he could endure it. However, after the food was served, he could not stand it anymore.
Grilled fish, tofu, chicken soup, pickled radish, and tea-soaked rice. That's it...
This kind of meal was acceptable for an ordinary meal, but what kind of place was this, a banquet hosted by the Daimyo!
One could glimpse the level of economic development of an era from the food. With just this one meal, one could see that Tosho Island Country under Nohara Momonosuke's rule was definitely not prosperous.
Even the lord's banquet was so mediocre; one did not need to think about what the daily meals of the common people would be like.
"Nohara Momonosuke, a demon king, a tyrant, haha, the evaluation given by the main god is quite accurate..."
"Zhou Kun? Zhou Kun!"
Oda Hirakura's shouts pulled Zhou Ming out of his contemplation.
"Hmm?" Zhou Ming's thoughts were interrupted, and he raised his head somewhat dissatisfied.
Seeing Zhou Ming's dissatisfaction, Oda Hirakura felt somewhat annoyed in his heart, but did not show it. Instead, he smiled and said, "Zhou kun, tonight's banquet is held for you. As the protagonist, how can you be so low-key? Why not have a match with Nojiri Jun, show off a bit, and liven up the atmosphere?"
"A match?" Zhou Ming finally turned his gaze to the short samurai in the field and squinted his eyes. "With him?"
"Yes, that's me!" The short samurai felt a sense of being looked down upon and suddenly became angry. He patted the wooden sword at his waist and shouted loudly.
For safety reasons, swords were not allowed at this kind of banquet. The samurai wore these decorative wooden swords to uphold the samurai's honor of "the sword is in the man."
"Oh? How do you compare to Takeuchi Shun?"
Takeuchi Shun?
When the short samurai heard this name, he was slightly surprised. He had been a defeated subordinate of Takeuchi Shun, but he was still young at the time, and Takeuchi Shun was already a famous master. After several years of hard practice, he was now confident that he was far stronger than Takeuch Shun.
"He mentioned Takeuchi Shun now, does he know that I was defeated by Takeuchi Shun before and deliberately wants to humiliate me?"
As soon as he thought of this, a nameless anger rose in the heart of the short samurai.
Unfortunately, he was not well-informed and did not know what had happened during the day, nor did he know that Takeuchi Shun was already dead. Otherwise, he would not have had this idea in his heart.
So he shouted loudly, "Takeuchi Shun is nothing but an old man. How can he compare to me? If you think you are inferior to Takeuchi Shun, then there's no need to compare!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the short samurai felt a sense of satisfaction, as if he had already seen the surprised and admiring gazes of his colleagues around him, as well as the recognition of his name... Then he heard Zhou Ming's nonchalant response.
"Alright, let's do it!"
Zhou Ming activated the Shadow Ghost Gu, and his body became like a ghost, flashing in front of the samurai.
The samurai was taken aback and was about to draw his sword to defend himself, but he saw Zhou Ming's index and middle fingers joined together, pointing at his forehead.
"No weapons! Use your hands as swords?" The samurai was stunned for a moment, and a thought flashed through his mind. He suddenly realized what the other person was thinking.
"It seems that he also wants to improve our relationship. Using hands instead of swords, we can exchange a few moves, stop when we touch, and neither of us will lose face. It will be a win-win situation. Hmm, this colleague..."
Swoosh!
The sound of flesh being cut open caused the samurai's thoughts to come to a halt.
He looked at Zhou Ming and at the semi-transparent sword energy extending between Zhou Ming's fingers, and the shock that had just risen in his eyes slowly turned into deathly stillness.
Rank 2 Sword Qi Gu!
Whoosh!
Everyone was shocked!
Some people fell backward, trembling, some leaned forward almost lying on the table, some stood up too quickly and knocked over dishes, and some looked stunned and couldn't believe it.
"Condensing Qi into a blade!"
"The legendary technique of Condensing Qi into a blade, it's actually real?"
"Oh my god, who is this young man, where did he come from?" (This was me speaking.)
Sitting in the center, Oda Hirakura was even more shocked than the others, thinking to himself, "Is this the realm of martial arts where one has no sword in hand but a sword in the heart?"
Compared to the others' shock, his thoughts went further, such as, if Zhou Ming wanted to kill him today, how could he resist this technique of Condensing Qi into a blade?
"He couldn't even take one of my moves, yet he claims to be stronger than Takeuchi Shun?"
Sneering at the small corpse lying on the ground, Zhou Ming ignored the shocked gazes of the crowd and turned back to his seat.
The martial arts experience of a low-level samurai had diminishing returns for his martial arts improvement, just like in a game where the experience gained from killing low-level monsters would decrease.
So, after he had wiped out Daishi Kamikaze-Ryu and found that the martial artists of weaker strength had little effect on his martial arts improvement, Zhou Ming stopped his action of killing them.
Otherwise, he even has the idea of killing until the end of time, like a Ten Li Slope Sword God[1].
Killing this small samurai was also an attempt based on such a thought.
To be honest, the strength of the small samurai was comparable to Takeuchi Shun's, but Zhou Ming took advantage of his surprise, which made him unable to react and be killed by a single sword strike.
The martial arts experience provided by this small samurai was definitely not as effective in improving Zhou Ming's martial arts as Takeuchi Shun's, which confirmed Zhou Ming's speculation.
"It seems that this is also an invisible restriction of the main god. If I want to improve my strength quickly, I must constantly challenge stronger opponents. It is impossible to sit back and enjoy the benefits by just killing low-level samurai."
This banquet ended amidst a noisy atmosphere.
Due to his display of strong power, Zhou Ming became the most dazzling presence tonight.
The death of the small samurai was hardly cared for by anyone, and his body was soon taken away and dealt with. This is the tragedy of a samurai.
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[1]-"Ten Li Slope Sword God" is likely a reference to a legendary figure or character in Chinese martial arts fiction. "Ten Li Slope" refers to a specific location, possibly a mountain or a place where sword fighting takes place. "Sword God" suggests a master swordsman who has achieved a high level of skill and mastery in the art of sword fighting. Even I am not sure If you know please comment!
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