A Pawn’s Passage

Katsura Yoshiyuki's lower abdomen was now a hollow void.

That arrow had pierced straight through his lower Dantian, shattering his Qihai acupoint.

This left him unable to move for a moment.

Naturally, Qi Xuansu would not pass up such an opening. He flapped his Phoenix Wings and flew behind Katsura Yoshiyuki in an instant, thrusting Green Cloud into his back.

This strike landed precisely where his earlier Omniscient Eyes had marked.

Katsura Yoshiyuki's innate qi scattered rapidly. When lowering his head slowly, he saw the pale green tip of the sword jutting out of his chest.

He had considered that he might die, but he never thought it would be here, nor at the hands of a junior so far beneath him.

Qi Xuansu yanked the sword free and immediately struck the crown of Katsura Yoshiyuki's head with a backhanded palm.

Katsura Yoshiyuki fell through the air, his descent aligning perfectly with the charging path of the Black Robes Heavy Cavalry.

At the forefront, Spirit Guard Jia Chen had already stowed his great bow, replacing it with a pitch-black cavalry lance that was more than 3 meters long.

Naturally, Spirit Guard Jia Chen's steed was no ordinary beast, mixed with dragon blood. Its body was as strong as a Guizhen-stage Martial Arts Practitioner, and its armor was equal to that of a fourth-rank Spirit Guard, capable of channeling divine power.

With Spirit Guard Jia Chen as the rider, his horse charged forward, ahead of the cavalry ranks behind.

At last, Spirit Guard Jia Chen rode to the exact spot beneath the falling Kengo. With perfect timing, he raised his lance and caught Katsura Yoshiyuki cleanly on its tip.

Spirit Guard Jia Chen let out a booming laugh, hoisting his lance high with Katsura Yoshiyuki skewered upon it, while his horse galloped onward.

Since Katsura Yoshiyuki was a Pseudo-immortal, he was not dead yet, even though he was pinned through the chest, with blood dripping steadily from him as his limbs hung limp. His face was looking down, and his eyes were fixed on Spirit Guard Jia Chen's armored body.

Spirit Guard Jia Chen raised his head to meet Katsura Yoshiyuki's gaze, the eye-slits of his helm glowing with a deep, mystical light. "Katsura Yoshiyuki, if those rebels were to see you like this, what do you think their reaction would be?"

Katsura Yoshiyuki's lips quivered, but no words formed.

Spirit Guard Jia Chen sneered, "Katsura Yoshiyuki, isn't it a pity to die like this, given how much effort you've put into gaining this level of cultivation? I'll give you one last chance."

With great effort, Katsura Yoshiyuki raised his Monohoshizao and swung it weakly toward Spirit Guard Jia Chen.

Of course, this could no longer harm Spirit Guard Jia Chen. But that was his answer.

"Since you seek death so earnestly, I shall grant it to you." Spirit Guard Jia Chen flicked his wrist, driving the lance through Katsura Yoshiyuki's chest, no longer skewered on just the tip but upon the shaft itself.

Katsura Yoshiyuki's chest was pierced twice—once from back to front by Qi Xuansu, and now from front to back by Spirit Guard Jia Chen.

His heart was shattered beyond repair.

Both his middle and lower Dantians were destroyed. For a Martial Arts Practitioner or a Diviner, this might not have been fatal, but for a Kengo similar to a Qi Refiner, it was certain death.

Spirit Guard Jia Chen cared for nothing else and urged his steed onward at full gallop.

Before long, Maeda Masao's army could already see from afar Spirit Guard Jia Chen riding alone ahead of the main cavalry, with Katsura Yoshiyuki's body skewered on his lance.

Maeda Masao immediately realized his grave miscalculation—Spirit Guard Jia Chen's heavy cavalry had arrived far faster than he had ever expected.

Though Spirit Guard Jia Chen had ridden ahead, it meant the Black Robes Heavy Cavalry could not be far behind.

It was now clear that Spirit Guard Jia Chen had deliberately restrained the speed of his cavalry earlier, deceiving Maeda Masao into misjudging their arrival time.

But regret was useless now. The only thing that mattered was stalling Spirit Guard Jia Chen, then reuniting with the Sonno-joi reinforcements as quickly as possible.

At that moment, a lone rider broke away from the Sonno-joi ranks and charged straight at Spirit Guard Jia Chen.

Both had separated from their armies, creating the conditions of a duel before the frontlines.

Divine power surged at Spirit Guard Jia Chen's lance tip, bursting into flames. Katsura Yoshiyuki's body was reduced to ashes, scattered by the wind from the galloping steed. His sword, the Monohoshizao, fell to the ground, embedding itself into the earth at a slant, trembling faintly as if whispering its sorrow and solitude.

The approaching rider was clad in armor and wielding a long spear.

This was none other than Fenglin's most famed spear, the Dragonfly Cutter, or Tonbokiri.

Its shaft stretched nearly 6 meters long, with Sanskrit inscriptions engraved upon the blade. Legend held that a dragonfly had once alighted upon its tip, only to be sliced cleanly in two, hence its name, the Dragonfly Cutter.

Its former master was the lord of the Honda clan, who were vassals of the Tokugawa clan. When the Tokugawa clan rebelled in hopes of overthrowing the Toyotomi clan, the Honda clan also rose in arms.

In the decisive Battle of Osaka, the Honda clan fought on Tokugawa's side against the Mori clan, who stood for the Toyotomi government.

At the battle's onset, the Honda forces opened fire first. The Toyotomi army was disadvantaged in firearms. Daimyo Mori pulled his right wing back and concentrated his gunmen on the left, advancing in a crescent formation. When the left wing drew within 100 meters, he ordered a volley, shattering the Honda forces.

At once, Daimyo Mori commanded a shift into the wing formation, his troops smashing into the Honda ranks and throwing them into disarray. Many of Honda's retainers were slain, and their retreat only threw the rear lines into chaos as well.

Daimyo Honda himself was forced onto the field. Even as his soldiers fled, he refused to retreat, fighting valiantly. Yet he was outnumbered and soon surrounded, taking more than 20 wounds. Though he slew over ten skilled opponents in bloody combat, in the end, he lost his head, and with it, the fate of the Dragonfly Cutter became unknown.

Who could have thought it would resurface here?

The man, however, was not a Honda. He was Amemori Unko.

The Sonno-joi ronin, whose ranks were filled mostly by low-ranking samurai, had 13 leaders. Amemori Unko was one of them.

Thus far, four of their leaders had made an appearance: Katsura Yoshiyuki, Maeda Masao, Yoshida Yoshiaki, and Amemori Unko.

Each of these four leaders had his own strengths. Maeda Masao excelled in command; Yoshida Yoshiaki was the strategist; Katsura Yoshiyuki held the highest cultivation; and Amemori Unko was the fierce warrior who led from the front.

Now, Amemori Unko charged straight at Spirit Guard Jia Chen, with the famed Dragonfly Cutter in hand.

In normal circumstances anywhere else, Amemori Unko, being at the Zaohua stage, would have stood no chance against Spirit Guard Jia Chen. Yet here on the battlefield, he had confidence they could fight as equals.

That was because Amemori Unko was a pure samurai, or a Martial Arts Practitioner. As such, he suffered the least suppression on a battlefield, sometimes even gaining strength from the army's blood qi. By contrast, Spirit Guard Jia Chen was reliant on divine power, so he was heavily suppressed by the battlefield aura and unable to unleash his full might.

Thus, they were now nearly even in strength.

The black cavalry lance clashed against Dragonfly Cutter, its clang resounding like thunder.

Amemori Unko first held a spear at the age of ten, completed his training at fifteen, and was unmatched in Ise Province by twenty. Over the next 20 years, he joined the Sonno-joi ronin, fighting the Toyotomi government countless times and killing innumerable foes with his spear. Even the Dragonfly Cutter he now wielded had been seized from a general of the Toyotomi army.

Twenty years ago, Amemori Unko's spearwork was that of the Martial Arts Practitioner, endless in variation and filled with feints and flourishes. But after two decades of battlefield slaughter, he had returned to simplicity, abandoning flourish. Instead, his strikes embodied Sun Tzu's principles—being swift as the wind, steady as the forest, fierce as fire, and immovable as the mountain. His sheer ferocity was unmatched.

To Amemori Unko, his spear was his life.

By contrast, Spirit Guard Jia Chen, like all first-rank Spirit Guards, was a master of all arms, as he trained in every weapon to adapt to all terrains and conditions. Thus, in terms of mastery in spears, he was still a step behind Amemori Unko.

After trading more than ten mounted spear exchanges, Amemori Unko's Dragonfly Cutter caught and twisted around Spirit Guard Jia Chen's lance.

"Let go!" Amemori Unko bellowed.

The cavalry lance flew from Spirit Guard Jia Chen's hands in response.

Amemori Unko then swung Dragonfly Cutter in a sweeping arc.

Spirit Guard Jia Chen leaned back abruptly, his spine pressed flat against his horse, narrowly avoiding the sweep.

However, Amemori Unko's mastery of the spear had reached its peak. He was able to halt his swing mid-motion, stopping the spearhead above Spirit Guard Jia Chen's face before slamming it down.

Spirit Guard Jia Chen caught the spearhead in his armored right hand. Meanwhile, his left hand flicked up, sending three throwing blades that glowed with divine power straight at Amemori Unko's face.

Amemori Unko dared not be careless. He twisted aside to evade the blades. The force behind his spear dissipated, leaving him unable to press down. So he pulled the weapon back instead.

Having discarded his lance, Spirit Guard Jia Chen drew two massive hammers from his magical receptacles. Unlike Spirit Guard Ding Wei's long-handled warhammers, these were short-handled, only about less than a meter in length. Yet their heads were the size of a grown man's torso.

Strictly speaking, Spirit Guards resembled Zhang Yuelu in this respect, each wielding countless weapons. The difference was that Zhang Yuelu relied on her Amorphous Paper for endless transformations of her weapons, whereas Spirit Guards bore the true items, each one capable of unleashing its full might in their hands.

Spirit Guard Jia Chen swung his double hammers to meet Amemori Unko's Dragonfly Cutter once again. The enormous hammerheads were as large as half a shield, suitable both for attack and defense.

Meanwhile, Qi Xuansu swooped down from the skies and stowed Katsura Yoshiyuki's Monohoshizao into his magical receptacle.

This was a meito, which was equivalent to a semi-immortal object.

Yet, it did not suit Qi Xuansu. Though skilled with blades, he was accustomed to short blades. Compared to those, this long blade that resembled a clothes-drying pole was almost an entirely different weapon.

That was why it felt awkward in his grip. Thus, Qi Xuansu intended to trade both Monohoshizao and the earlier-acquired Solar Heaven for a semi-immortal object of his own. That was because Green Cloud had only been lent to him by the Heavenly Preceptor and would have to be returned eventually.

However, there was a complication in this. Technically, Zhang Yuelu had a claim to half of Solar Heaven, while Spirit Guard Jia Chen had a claim to half of Monohoshizao. If Qi wished to claim both weapons, he would have to concede portions of his battle merit. He would have to think carefully about how best to negotiate and balance both battle merit and spoils.