Swallow Return

The guards were adorned entirely in gold and carried golden cross spears.

The haori worn by the samurai and the katana at his waist also appear to be made of gold leaf and gold thread.

Ok……

Compared to this scene, the gold bricks, gold walls, gold windows, and gold tiles in front seem less out of place.

Liu Yun found it utterly ridiculous.

However, the people in the city did not think so.

The clouds just now appeared suddenly in the sky above the city without any warning, and then fell down.

Such an uninvited guest, appearing out of nowhere, naturally attracted people's attention.

Two maids happened to be passing by and were startled. They turned around and ran away screaming, their glittering clothes and headdresses making a jingling sound.

Three guards, each patrolling several dozen paces away in different directions, immediately surrounded the area upon hearing the news. Despite being clad in gold armor, their movements were swift, each step accompanied by a loud thud.

A samurai who had been resting and dozing a short distance away was also startled. He swiftly moved, his feet moving with the speed of the wind, and arrived nearby in an instant. He drew his sword, which had a golden blade and hilt, and demanded, "Who are you? Where did you come from? What do you want? Why have you suddenly come to visit our Hashiba family?"

As expected, it's the Hashiba family.

As expected, this ostentatious display of wealth, recklessly piling up gold, is indeed characteristic of the Monkey King.

Facing the samurai who drew his sword and the guards who raised their guns, Ryuun stood with his hands behind his back, showing no intention of resisting. He raised his head and replied, "Since you are a retainer of the Hashiba family, even if you are a newcomer, you should have heard of the name 'Sasaki Ryuun'."

Upon hearing this, the samurai frowned, his eyes widening as he stared intently at him. He scrutinized him closely from head to toe before turning pale with shock. He hastily sheathed his golden-hilted, golden-bladed katana, prostrated himself in fear, and knelt in trembling respect, saying, "I never imagined you were the greatest warrior in the land, Lord Sasaki! Many years ago, I admired you from afar, but I've never had the honor of receiving your instruction in person..."

The three guards beside him quickly lowered their spears and knelt down as well. The two maids stopped running and peered over with curious eyes from afar.

"Hmm—" Liu Yun smiled reservedly and asked casually, "What's your name?"

"I am... I am Aoyama Saburozaemon Munenobu, greetings to Lord Sasaki." The samurai with the golden katana answered with trepidation.

"Aoyama Saburozaemon Munenobu." Ryuun repeated, nodding slightly, "Duty-bound, not bad. I'll remember your name and courtesy name."

"This...this...this is a great honor!" The samurai was immediately moved to tears, extremely excited.

"Hmm—" Liu Yun felt a little puzzled and embarrassed. Why did a casual polite remark elicit such a strong reaction from the other party? So he changed the subject, coughed twice, and pointed to the castle tower in the city, saying, "Is Prince Hashiba at home? I've come to visit him."

"Yes, yes!" the samurai with the golden feather katana replied, nimbly rolling to his feet and bending down to lead the way: "Please follow me!"

"Thank you for your trouble." Liu Yun thanked him casually and followed.

The guards didn't get up for a while, and then they discussed with the maids things like, "So this is Lord Sasaki Ryuun."

……

A moment later, Liu Yun arrived at the top floor of the castle tower.

Most of the interior decorations of the building were made of gold, the beams and columns were also made of gold, and the stairs were made of pure gold.

What appears to be in front of us now is a tea room.

It is also made of gold.

Pushing open the gleaming golden door, one sees a person inside wearing a gold-leaf robe, holding a gold teapot, and flipping through a gold-paper book on a low gold table. The person has a pointed mouth, monkey-like cheeks, and a short, stocky build.

It was none other than Hideyoshi Hashiba.

He was incredibly happy and content, swaying his head and humming a little tune with his eyes half-closed. His usual alertness and competence had vanished, and he didn't even notice someone entering the room.

He seemed much more relaxed than Tokugawa Ieyasu, who was previously seen soaking in hot springs, playing with falcons, and eating eggplants.

"Big brother, you seem to be enjoying yourself!"

Liu Yun walked to the other side and spoke without any politeness.

"Well--"

Hideyoshi Hashiba slowly opened his eyes, looking bewildered, as if it took him a while to find his focus. He wasn't particularly surprised to see the visitor and said lazily, "Brother Ryuun, you've arrived? Welcome, welcome... I'm truly enjoying myself right now! What in the world is more enjoyable than being surrounded by piles of gold?"

Liu Yun had no time for pleasantries and cut to the chase: "But all of this is fake, wake up!"

"fake?"

Hideyoshi Hashiba showed a hint of surprise and displeasure on his face, then burst into laughter: "Brother, are you kidding me? It's all real gold! Look at this teapot, and look at this table..."

Liu Yun shook his head and sighed, emphasizing, "But gold is just something imagined in a dream."

"A dream...?"

Upon hearing this, Hideyoshi Hashiba seemed thoughtful, but quickly shook his head in disbelief: "Impossible, impossible! Look, it hurts!"

As he spoke, he reached out and pinched his pointed chin hard.

Liu Yun had no choice but to continue explaining: "This pain is just a hallucination in the dream."

Hideyoshi Hashiba frowned: "Brother, what's wrong with you? No matter what the evidence is, you call it a hallucination. Isn't that just sophistry?"

Liu Yun was surprised that the Monkey King in his dream was still so clever. After a moment of stunned silence, he looked around and pointed a finger at the scene, saying, "A golden teapot, a golden table, and even a golden tea room are all fine, but the fact that the entire city is made of gold is just too illogical. Where in the world is there so much gold?"

Hideyoshi Hashiba simply shook his head repeatedly: "Why not?"

Liu Yun thought it was only natural: "This is something that has never happened before in the world, something that has never been heard of."

Hideyoshi Hashiba was immediately displeased: "That's because no one else can do it! But perhaps I can!"

Liu Yun expressed his doubt: "Even the emperors of the Tang Dynasty at most built 'golden houses,' I've never heard of 'golden cities.'"

Upon hearing this, Hideyoshi Hashiba's face darkened, revealing a hint of anger: "Just because the emperors of Tang Dynasty couldn't do it, does that mean I can't either? This isn't just looking down on me, it's looking down on Japan!"

Liu Yun was taken aback.

You try to reason with him about practical logic, and he tries to reason with you about national sentiment... How can you communicate in this situation?

The last time we dealt with Tokugawa Ieyasu, we used violent means, but violent means don't seem to be suitable now.

Because Monkey King is clearly angry, and he might even start a fight with you.

It's really hard to say how a fight would go on in someone else's dream territory.

We had no choice but to find another way.

Looking at the room filled with dazzling golden light, Liu Yun's eyes darted around, and an idea came to him. He smiled and asked, "By the way, Brother Fujikichiro, why do you like gold?"

Upon hearing this question, Hideyoshi Hashiba rolled his eyes and glared at him with the look of someone who pities an idiot: "Nonsense! Piles of gold can buy everything you can buy, and hire everyone you can hire!"

"No, no." Liu Yun shook his head: "You're talking about currency, not gold."

Hideyoshi Hashiba laughed: "What's the difference?"

“Hehe…” Liu Yun said slowly and deliberately, pretending to be profound: “Gold and silver are not naturally currency, but currency is naturally gold and silver.”

"...Huh?" Hideyoshi Hashiba was completely bewildered, as if he were listening to gibberish.

Liu Yun didn't explain, but instead asked, "Brother, you said gold can buy everything?"

"Of course!" Hideyoshi Hashiba nodded decisively: "One tael of gold can buy five koku of pure white rice, or ten catties of freshly picked fine tea, or a roll of the finest silk... The gold I have right now is enough to enjoy a hundred times more!"

"Hmm—" Liu Yun outwardly agreed with this point, then suddenly changed the subject: "But you can buy these things with copper coins too!"

"Are you stupid?" Hideyoshi Hashiba cast a disdainful glance at him: "What you can buy with one tael of gold would cost four or five thousand copper coins! Four or five thousand copper coins weigh thirty catties! Even Yongle coins would weigh six or seven catties!"

"Oh—" Liu Yun feigned realization, then asked like a curious child, "Why is a tiny ounce of gold worth the same as thirty pounds of copper? Aren't gold and copper just minerals? They can't be eaten or worn!"

"Does that even need explaining?" Hideyoshi Hashiba replied without hesitation, "Of course, it's because gold is rare, while copper is..."

He stopped abruptly halfway through his sentence.

Hideyoshi Hashiba's expression suddenly became very complicated.

Doubt, astonishment, confusion, anger... a multitude of emotions arose.

They clearly understood something.

Even in a dream, Hideyoshi Hashiba would never be stupid and would be aware of logical problems.

He was just overconfident before.

At this moment, Liu Yun pointed to the gold that was everywhere around him and loudly questioned, "If you can accumulate enough gold to build such a large city, can gold still be considered rare?"

"This...this..." Hideyoshi Hashiba began to panic and was speechless.

Liu Yun didn't hold back, pressing his advantage with another attack: "I just did the math, and that golden stone wall beneath the castle tower alone is enough to produce tens of millions of kan of gold coins. The entire East Japan, plus Korea, China, and other places, wouldn't have that many gold coins. Not even one percent!"

"Stop talking! Stop talking!" Hideyoshi Hashiba covered his ears, shook his head desperately, and looked pained.

Liu Yun, however, added insult to injury: "Let alone gold coins, all the copper coins in the world combined probably wouldn't even amount to ten million strings of cash. If this weren't a dream but reality, then the gold you have would be cheaper than copper!"

"Wow ah ah ah ah!"

As Toyotomi Hideyoshi screamed in agony, the ground began to tremble violently, and the castle built of gold collapsed with a roar.

The golden luster suddenly became more and more dazzling, eventually gathering together and transforming into a bright and blazing ray that shot rapidly into the sky.

In a flash, the dream vanished, and reality returned.

It's still the Shosoin Repository of Todai-ji Temple in Nara.

Chapter 259 Nobunaga's Ambition

Liu Yun resolved yet another illusion and returned to reality with Hashiba Hideyoshi.

Then he saw that above the "Number One Fragrant Wood in the World," the illusion of the nine-tailed fox was even dimmer and more transparent than before, almost disappearing.

"Lord Liuyun, your skills are truly extraordinary."

The girl's voice, deep and ambiguous, carried a strong allure, and was so soft that it was almost inaudible.

Along with this came the nine-tailed fox's calm and elegant smile.

This great demon seemed completely unfazed.

Liu Yun ignored the elusive nine-tailed fox and looked directly at his teammates.

Hideyoshi Hashiba, who had just been pulled out of the "Golden Castle," had woken up, but his eyes were vacant and his face was full of exhaustion, clearly not yet back to normal.

The situation wasn't much better for the big raccoon.

At this moment, Tokugawa Ieyasu was shaking his head, seeing stars, looking extremely weak, panting heavily, and his body hair was drooping involuntarily.

Upon seeing Liuyun, the fat raccoon immediately shook its head slowly and said weakly, "I did enter the dream of the Prime Minister (Oda Nobunaga) just now, but I didn't have the ability to wake him up. I'm sorry to disappoint you... I can only ask Lord Sasaki to put in a little more effort from now on..."

No sooner had he finished speaking than Tokugawa Ieyasu collapsed to the ground with a thud, falling into a daze.

Oda Nobunaga lay on the ground beside him, his eyes closed and unresponsive, clearly having been asleep for some time.