I assembled the strongest swordsman group.

"You guys are responsible for coming with me to the fire!"

Without any unnecessary words, after quickly issuing the order, Qingdeng decisively turned around and ran straight towards the increasingly bright flames in the distance.

The hem and sleeves of his wine-red haori fluttered in the wind as he ran at top speed.

……

……

Edo, the Office of the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics of Foreign Documents, Katsura Rintaro's office—

"Mr. Katsu! Mr. Katsu! Stop working! Something terrible has happened! A town on fire to the west!"

Outside the room, Umegoro's anxious shouts interrupted Katsura Rintaro, who was still working overtime on translation.

"Fire?" Katsura Rintarou was taken aback for a moment, then quickly put down his brush and ran to the window not far away, sticking his head out the window.

The western sky was illuminated by orange-red light.

Although the intensity of the flames suggests the fire is far from any of the other locations, no one can say for sure whether the fire will spread.

A small spark could eventually escalate into a devastating fire that burned several surrounding towns, or even most of the city, to the ground... Such incidents occurred frequently throughout the Edo period.

"Quickly! Ume Goro! Come with me and move all these important books and manuscripts! Get those who are still studying and working at the Foreign Books Collection Center to come and help!"

With a gloomy expression, Katsu Rintaro took three steps at a time to the bookshelf in the corner of the office and took down some of the books one by one.

"Okay, okay!" Mei Wulang nodded vigorously.

However, in an instant—a series of hurried footsteps came from the first floor of the Foreign Documents Exchange Office, accompanied by the shouts of the guards, which then turned into screams, and then into screams of agony…

Katsura Rintarou, who was frantically moving books and manuscripts, suddenly stopped, tensed up, his eyes narrowed, and he looked down at the tatami mats on the ground: "What's going on on the first floor...?"

……

……

The current "anti-foreign movement" is intensifying. In order to prevent lawless people from causing trouble, the Foreign Affairs Office has increased the number of guards to six.

After Katsurin Taro took over as the head of the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics, he wanted to further increase the number of guards, but the available operating funds were limited, and hiring 6 guards was the limit for their Bureau of Investigation and Statistics.

The first to be attacked were the six guards who, even at this hour, were still dutifully guarding the gate of the Foreign Documents Exchange Office.

"Who goes there?!"

They saw shadowy figures emerging from the darkness shrouded in night outside the gate of the Foreign Documents Investigation Office.

The guards shouted warnings and drew their knives.

However, the shadowy figures had an overwhelming numerical advantage.

In a flash, more than twenty dark figures pounced on the guards, using their numbers to divide and surround them.

"Enemy attack! Enemy attack! Enemy attack!"

The guards fought bravely and fulfilled their duties. While fighting against these "uninvited guests," they also raised their voices to warn the apprentices and staff still inside the Tibetan brochure office.

Swords flashed and blood splattered.

Under the overwhelming onslaught of the shadowy figures, the guards' thin defenses were quickly breached.

After the guards were all killed, more shadowy figures emerged from all directions.

After leaving more than 30 people to surround the Tibetan scribes' office, the remaining 40 or so men fiercely leaped over the office's gate!

As soon as they stormed into the investigation center, they encountered a young man who was very young and wore glasses.

This young man must have heard the strange noises at the gate and came to check it out.

"Heavenly Punishment!"—After shouting this, a dark figure thrust his blade at the youth's head, the tip striking the youth's left eye socket. The blade entered through the left eye socket and emerged from the back of the head, causing the soft eyeball to burst open, spraying red, white... strange liquids of various colors everywhere.

"Heaven will punish you—!"

"May the traitor be punished by Heaven!"

……

The shadows scattered, bringing screams and carnage wherever they went.

Inside the detention center, people either scattered in terror or crouched down and hid somewhere, trembling.

People collide with each other, people with things, and things with each other.

The once peaceful investigation center was instantly turned into a mess and chaos.

These shadowy figures who stormed the Tibetan scribes' office had a very clear division of labor.

One group was responsible for hunting down the apprentices and staff who were still studying and working in the detention center tonight.

Another group of people took bamboo tubes from their waists and poured the liquid inside, which had a very strong, pungent odor, all over the place...

They hunted down the apprentices and staff of the investigation institute like cats chasing mice or hunters swarming their prey.

Only a very few people managed to escape outside the investigation center, but the outside of the center was also controlled by the shadows. Those who managed to escape were killed one by one by the shadows who were responsible for surrounding the center.

"So this is what the inside of the Foreign Documents Collection Office looks like..."

With his hand on the sword at his waist, Kanno strolled along a corridor in the detention center at a pace as if he were taking a walk in his own backyard, looking around as he did so.

Suddenly, his foot kicked a book that had fallen to the ground.

He bent down, picked up the book, and casually flipped through it—the book was filled with tadpole-like characters in some unknown language.

As if he had encountered something extremely filthy, Jinno threw the book back onto the ground with a look of disgust.

"How disgusting... Why should a divine kingdom like ours need to learn the knowledge of those barbarians?"

"This foreign document investigation office is full of disgusting people and disgusting things."

The apprentices and staff of the Foreign Books Research Institute were mostly scholars who knew nothing about martial arts. Faced with the brutal attack by the Expeditionary Expeditionary Group, they were completely powerless to fight back.

The very few who picked up weapons and tried to resist were quickly defeated by the punitive expedition team, which had an overwhelming numerical advantage.

"Ahhh—!" A boy who looked to be only about 15 years old stumbled and tried to escape to the second floor of the detention center.

But his legs, trembling from the sudden change, became uncontrollable and felt as if they didn't belong to his body anymore.

"what!"

The boy kicked a corpse on the ground with his left foot and fell face-first into the dirt.

"You're quite fast, aren't you?"

A "praise" tinged with mockery and sarcasm emanated from behind the boy.

Jinno's confidant—the one-armed samurai—carried a sword and walked towards the boy with a leisurely, limping gait.

The boy, his face filled with fear, tried to prop himself up and then run away.

But her trembling arms couldn't muster any strength...

"Do you...do you know what you're doing?"

Although his body was paralyzed by fear, for some reason, the boy retained the strength and courage to question the one-armed warrior.

"This place is the forefront of our Japanese study and research of Western learning."

"Have you considered the consequences if you destroy this place? We've finally managed to acquire some Western knowledge and technology!"

The one-armed warrior glanced sideways at the boy.

"Of course we know what we're doing right now."

"We came here to destroy this disgusting place."

"What's the point of learning the knowledge of barbarians? We don't need to learn anything from them at all."

"You bunch of traitors who study the knowledge of barbarians, I feel disgusted just looking at you."

Having said that, the one-armed warrior raised the sword he held with his one arm high, the blade aimed at the boy's head.

"Eek...!" The boy clutched his head with both hands, and the amplitude and speed of his trembling became even more terrifying.

Just as the one-armed warrior was about to swing his sword down, he suddenly heard a metallic "crack" sound behind him.

The one-armed warrior's pupils contracted sharply, and he jumped to the side as if by reflex.

boom!

The sound of the pistol being fired was deafening.

A scorching bullet grazed the one-armed warrior's cheek, leaving a burning bloodstain on his face.

The one-armed warrior, looking somewhat disheveled, slipped into a nearby room. Then, with a grim expression, he peeked out from the room, looking in the direction from which the gunshot had come.

A middle-aged man stood at the end of the corridor where the one-armed warrior had just been, holding a blood-dripping katana in his right hand and a revolver with smoke still billowing from its muzzle in his left.

“Katsurin Taro…?!” The one-armed samurai’s pupils contracted again.

This middle-aged man was none other than Katsura Rintaro, whom he had just met with Jinno at noon that day.

"Sho!" Katsura Rintarou yelled at the boy, "Come here right now!"

"T-Teacher!"

The timely appearance and rescue by his mentor deeply moved the young man and also inspired him with new strength.

Feeling that his hands and feet were no longer shaking, the boy scrambled to his feet and ran toward Katsura Rintaro.

"Tsk..." The one-armed samurai curled his lip and tried to rush out to chase after the boy and Katsura Rintarou.

But as soon as he poked half his body out of the room, Katsura Rintaro swiftly fired another shot at the one-armed samurai, forcing him to retreat back into the room.

In the time it took to dodge, Katsura Rintaro had already led the boy far away...

After leading the boy to the stairwell leading upstairs, Katsura Rintaro pointed at the stairwell.

"Ah Zheng! Hurry to the roof! I've already had Mei Wulang set up defensive fortifications on the roof!"

The system of foreign books and records has three levels.

The rooftop that Katsurin Taro mentioned is the third floor of the investigation center.

"Then, teacher, what about you? Aren't you coming to the rooftop with me?"

“There must still be some people who haven’t been killed yet,” Katsuragi Taro said in a deep voice. “I’m going to rescue them all! Don’t worry about me, get to the rooftop quickly!”

"Heaven will punish you—!"