Chapter 239: One Move Short, Defeat Like A Mountain Collapsing! Demons Mock, Shangshan Che Steps In—why Aren’t You Laughing Now?
After a brief gaze, the Apprentice Master shook his head slightly.
Shangshan Che had no objection and did not vie to be the first to take the stage.
After all, from the very beginning when the Apprentice Master came to find him, his positioning was as the “safety net.”
It was to do his utmost to secure victory for the Yagyu Dojo in this wager if neither Tsuchiya nor Akiyama Mei could defeat the three opponents.
“I’ll go.”
Tsuchiya Yu’s deep voice rang out. He smiled respectively at the Apprentice Master and Shangshan Che, took a deep breath, causing the muscles wrapped in his dōgi to bulge entirely.
“My tactic is simple. There’s not much difference between going first and going last.”
He raised his fist gleaming with an iron sheen, grinned, revealing stark white teeth: “No matter what moves the opponent uses, I’ll just smash them all with one punch.”
Shangshan Che glanced at the daito at Tsuchiya Yu’s waist and felt something off about those words.
But he did not dwell on it, merely speaking up,
“The three enemies are famous generals from the Sengoku Period, namely the White Reserves, Black Reserves, and Blue Reserves from the Hojo Clan’s【 Five Color Reserves】. If you go first…”
Pausing, Shangshan Che cut straight to the point: “Lord Tsuchiya, there’s a high chance you’ll meet your end in the fighting arena.”
“Die?”
Tsuchiya Yu slowly shed his loose dōgi, revealing a physique like fine steel cast.
—Undoubtedly, he had progressed much further than Shangshan Che in the Palace of Flesh.
The man who embodied the beauty of the body lowered his head and asked calmly:
“Shangshan Jun, are you underestimating me?”
Tsuchiya Yu said slowly,
“From the very start when the Apprentice Master invited me… or rather, I accepted the invitation and came here precisely to seek the sensation of being pushed to the brink between life and death.”
Sensing Shangshan Che’s puzzled gaze, the man explained helplessly: “To seek an opponent of equal standing, to seek a breakthrough.”
“I’ve been stuck at this bottleneck for far too long.” Tsuchiya Yu’s tone was filled with emotion. “A young prodigy like you could never understand.”
With that, Tsuchiya Yu burst into laughter.
There was no sorrow or self-mockery in the laughter; instead, it brimmed with the pleasantness of glimpsing hope.
Better to die than fail to break through.
Shangshan Che opened his mouth: “Sorry.”
“No, Shangshan Jun, you have no need to apologize at all.”
Tsuchiya Yu turned his head, gazing at the three who made his heart clench and his blood seem to stop flowing,
“Human cognition is shaped by experience. It’s only natural that you can’t feel our bottleneck.”
He lifted his thick calf, stepping step by step across the ancient wood toward the fighting arena, his wistful voice drifting on the wind,
“As a kid, I was just a bit envious of those with better talent than me, envious that they could eat candy faster…
But now, I truly wish I could become that effortless version myself someday.”
Tsuchiya Yu said nothing about having the Apprentice Master or Shangshan Che witness it.
He simply descended dozens of steps and walked alone into the vast fighting arena.
Because this was his own pursuit, a battle where he had staked his life.
Seeing this, Hojo Ujiyasu waved his fan nonchalantly: “Lord Kasahara, you take the first battle.”
“Yes, Lord.”
A rough voice came from behind the Noh play mask.
Kasahara Yasukatsu hooked the iron handle of the kusarigama with his right hand, which had only three fingers left, dragging out a white rope bound to a sharp iron ball fully two zhang long.
“Kusarigama?”
Shangshan Che stared in astonishment: “Can this grass-cutting thing really be used as a weapon?”
The kusarigama consisted of【a hand sickle】—a small scythe about a decimeter long for cutting grass—plus【a chain】 and a heavy weight tied to the chain’s end.
Typically, this was an unusual weapon favored by ninjas.
But those who could truly wield it in actual combat were exceedingly rare.
Kasahara Yasukatsu was a proper noble samurai—how had he learned this bizarre thing?
Shangshan Che glanced again at Tsuchiya Yu, who had also halted in his steps, and sighed involuntarily.
“Lord Tsuchiya, it seems the opponent doesn’t want to clash head-on with you…”
Amid boos from the audience seats, Tsuchiya Yu, with a tachi at his waist, looked up, silently staring at Kasahara Yasukatsu, whose mask revealed a pair of gray-white icy pupils.
—Since the City of Disorder lay between the Mortal Realm and the Eternal World, the vast majority of the audience now seated were beings from the Eternal World.
This was easy to understand, as the Mortal Realm had only recently survived the First Wave and had barely held its ground—no mind to open passages to remote places like the City of Disorder to ordinary people.
Moreover, in terms of the number of supernatural beings, the Mortal Realm paled against the boundless Eternal World.
“No need to mind.”
In the fighting arena, Kasahara Yasukatsu rasped: “They’re just rats daring only to wag their tongues from safety.”
“I like the sound of that.”
Tsuchiya Yu grinned, unfastened the sword at his waist, and bumped his iron-clad fists together.
“Come on!”
Rumble…
The fighting arena was first lifted by twisting, thick ancient wood, then a transparent barrier rose from the edges, completely isolating the two from the outside.
From this moment, only a division of life and death, or one side voluntarily exiting the fighting arena’s bounds, would end the battle.
“Tsuchiya Yu isn’t using a sword?”
Shangshan Che realized only after seeing Tsuchiya Yu, having discarded his tachi and advancing bare-fisted toward Kasahara Yasukatsu.
Tsuchiya Yu was most likely not a disciple of the Yagyu Dojo either, but an external aid sought by the Apprentice Master, just like himself.
Wearing a sword at his waist earlier had just been for show.
Thinking this, he glanced at Akiyama Mei beside him, who was quietly watching the fighting arena—likely the same for him.
This also indicated that the current generation of the Yagyu Dojo was indeed lackluster, at least the small city dojo under the Apprentice Master.
That was normal.
Dojos, unlike Onmyoji Families, valued talent in kendo and breathing techniques more than bloodline inheritance.
In modern times, fewer apprentice disciples came to learn the sword, so naturally fewer once-in-ten-thousand geniuses appeared.
After all, before the tides, whether ancient sword techniques or modern kendo were merely “sports” like basketball or soccer…
Shangshan Che looked down, watching Tsuchiya Yu in the arena, who, without using a blade, moved even more nimbly against the kusarigama.
Seeing him clash his diamond-hard fists directly with the scythe blade, forcing Kasahara Yasukatsu into steady retreat.
For a moment, he held the advantage.
Yet even Shangshan Che was not optimistic about Tsuchiya Yu.
For even the most masterful fist experts had to admit—there was indeed a high wall between empty hands and armed foes.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Fierce winds whipped up by the fists howled in the fighting arena.
“Hahaha! Come on! Fight!”
Tsuchiya Yu laughed, his qi barrier erupting. Even as the scythe blade carved crimson gashes across his body, he paid no heed.
Step by step forward.
He only felt his blood surging wildly within, the qi circulation and physical body linked more tightly than ever.
His instincts had been right!
From the instant Tsuchiya Yu entered the fighting arena and met Kasahara Yasukatsu’s eyes, he knew this was the battle he craved!
One punch, one punch, another punch.
Even as blood flowed ever more, his punch speed only quickened—utterly unreasonable.
Tsuchiya Yu struck the scythe’s back with ever greater precision, and even the mere fist wind brushing past at close range tore at Kasahara Yasukatsu’s armor.
A few solid hits, and the battle would end in an instant.
As the fight progressed, different voices arose from the audience seats, unlike the start.
“Are all Mortal Realm people this brutal…”
“Looks like the Hojo Clan’s first battle is lost.”
“Is White Reserves all this? Can’t even beat an unarmed Mortal Realm person? I say everyone except Yellow Reserves can go home for milk!”
Even the lesser demons who only mouthed off could see Tsuchiya Yu held the upper hand.
“No.”
Shangshan Che frowned: “Kasahara is waiting.”
As an observer with the Eye of Interpretation open, Shangshan Che clearly discerned from the details that Kasahara awaited a moment.
And that moment…
Tsuchiya Yu’s momentum compressed and accumulated punch by punch, until he backed Kasahara Yasukatsu to the fighting arena’s edge, converging into a single point!
Momentum like a rainbow, blazing and radiant!
The breakthrough he had craved for thousands of days and nights arrived!
Shangshan Che’s pupils contracted sharply—yes, that moment!
Kasahara Yasukatsu had patiently waited from the start for Tsuchiya Yu to break through right before him.
Feeling his life level climb after so long, Tsuchiya Yu laughed uncontrollably, raising his fist shining like flowing silver toward the close Kasahara Yasukatsu,
“Lord Kasahara! I must thank you for nearly killing m…”
Kasahara Yasukatsu’s eyes showed no fluctuation.
In that split-second instant, the man called White Reserves drew a short flintlock gun from the darkness of his armor’s gaps, steadily aiming at the open mouth before him.
He pulled the trigger.
After a sharp “bang.”
Tsuchiya Yu’s words, momentum, life—all ceased abruptly.
The headless, muscular corpse swayed twice before crashing heavily to the ground.
The barrier at the fighting arena’s edge vanished.
The audience seats, which had grown rowdy and nearly come to blows, fell utterly silent.
Tamamo’s face paled, her cheering motions frozen.
The Apprentice Master’s eyes remained still as an ancient well.
Akiyama Mei gripped his sword hilt tightly.
Shangshan Che gazed at the scene, silently closing his eyes.
—If Tsuchiya Yu had been just a bit more cautious, the outcome might have been entirely different.
He stared at Kasahara Yasukatsu, who bowed deeply to Tsuchiya Yu’s corpse before departing, and sighed.
Yet the current situation was perhaps precisely what “White Reserves” had orchestrated after seeing through everything about Tsuchiya Yu.
The Hojo Clan’s Five Color Reserves lived up to their fame.
“—As expected, Mortal Realm folk are meant to be kicked to death by us.”
“No eyesore, no eyesore. The outcome was never in doubt!
“If I say so, that big lumbering oaf who went up was decent enough!
Look at the other two: one so scrawny, the other even more a weakling with less qi than our little ones… hehe, who knows how that old man picked them.”
With the outcome set, the lesser demons who had been silenced earlier started crowing arrogantly again—only in the City of Disorder did they dare speak thus.
In the Eternal World, one extra word from this bunch would send them to join their clan kin from a century ago.
Kasahara Yasukatsu slowly returned to Hojo Ujiyasu, whose expression had remained unchanged throughout, and bowed his head,
“Lord, mission accomplished.”
“Well done, Lord Kasahara. Take a seat.” The smiling youth shook his fan, looking toward the shortest old man in black armor. “Lord Tamome, you take the second battle.”
“Heh heh, this old codger obeys.”
The bald old man chuckled dryly, pulled out his iron cane, and limped into the fighting arena.
Then, toward the spot where Tsuchiya Yu had fallen, he spat twice, stomped twice, and mocked: “Brain stuffed full of muscle, the fool—utterly useless.”
Shangshan Che narrowed his eyes.
He knew this was the opponent’s psychological tactic.
Knowing was one thing… but with no blood-red warning label even appearing, Shangshan Che could crush this old man underfoot without drawing his blade.
“Brother Shangshan, let me go.”
A distinct-knuckled hand blocked Shangshan Che. Akiyama Mei met his gaze calmly: “I’ll take Black Reserves’ head and stomp it there twice as well.”
Seeing Shangshan Che about to speak, Akiyama Mei added,
“If it’s untenable, I’ll withdraw myself.”
He straightened, nodding his chin at Shangshan Che,
“Then the real burden will fall on you, Brother Shangshan.”
With that, Akiyama Mei drew the tachi and daito from his waist,
“I’m off.”
“Good luck.”
Shangshan Che watched the resolute back and could only muster those words.
Recalling the resolve in Tsuchiya Yu and Akiyama Mei’s eyes, he lowered his gaze.
Human resolve was truly troublesome…
Without it, he never would have let Akiyama Mei act recklessly.
Now that it was done, he could only watch.
…
Akiyama Mei and Black Reserves · Tamome Mototada clashed for nearly an hour.
The former broke through mid-battle but was inadvertently cut by the latter’s poison-quenched kunai, dragged it out another ten minutes without killing him, and had to exit the fighting arena, conceding defeat.
Tamome Mototada, missing an arm and blind in one eye, laughed maniacally,
“Talked so big before going up, but still fled like a rat?”
The old man feigned realization,
“Ah, a soft-legged shrimp!”
In the fighting arena, Tamome Mototada heedlessly mocked the yet-to-enter Shangshan Che, the last one, with vicious words.
“The stage is big! The stage is big!”
“Hee hee! We’re from the Eternal World, way stronger than the Mortal Realm!”
The lesser demons danced about, expressing joy at the Mortal Realmers’ failure.
A samurai audience member from the Edo Period glanced disgustedly at the lesser demons, silently judging in his mind,
“If it were the young elites of the Mortal Realm’s Three Great Families, maybe a chance to win, but this guy…”
Sensing no strong aura, the samurai shook his head,
“Forget it. These are three of the Five Color Reserves.
If not for their short revival time, they’d probably already be turning into ghost gods.”
In the waiting area.
Shangshan Che yawned expressionlessly: “Looks like this maggot thinks highly of me.”
“That’s his nature—sinister and cautious.”
The Apprentice Master was equally impassive.
The old man exhaled: “Young Friend Shangshan, good thing we chose you back then.”
“Lord Saionji, don’t let Shangshan Jun actually get poisoned to death.” Shangshan Che waved a hand and stepped into the fighting arena. “I’m going.”
Gazing at Tamome Mototada, who lingered to probe Shangshan Che’s strength instead of retreating, the Apprentice Master suddenly grinned coldly,
“Young Friend Shangshan… go show these natives from centuries ago a thing or two.”
“Yeah.”
In two steps, he reached Tamome Mototada, who had been laughing maniacally moments ago but now shut his mouth.
Shangshan Che raised a brow, puzzled:
“What, no more laughing?”
