I assembled the strongest swordsman group.

"Ho...ho...ho...ho...ho..."

A tall, burly ronin carrying a large gun with the barrel neatly covered, and a large wooden box on his back, was panting heavily with phlegm in his mouth, swaying and staggering forward with his head drooping.

The ronin's body and clothes were filthy.

His body reeked of a nauseating stench.

Such a poor, shabby ronin has always been a troublesome figure that people try to avoid at all costs.

Generally speaking, those who lose their jobs and have to wander around looking for work are all extremely poor.

They were poor, but what's more, they all carried swords and family-inherited weapons.

To ordinary people, the poor and armed ronin are a group of mobile "bombs." Countless crimes are committed by ronin who have nowhere else to turn, and who knows what kind of trouble they will cause next.

"Uh-huh...!"

Suddenly, the ronin carrying a large wooden box on his back and a large spear in his hand accidentally kicked a protrusion on the ground and fell to the ground.

Just as he was struggling to get up from the ground—

"...!"

The ronin let out a sound of air escaping from his throat, and his expression instantly turned somber.

His hands reflexively moved to his head, gripping it tightly as if he were enduring something.

"Medicine...medicine..."

The ronin reached his trembling right hand into his robes, pulled out a small medicine bottle, and poured out a small, red and purple pill.

After swallowing the pill without hesitation, the ronin's pained expression immediately eased considerably.

But just seconds later, his facial lines tightened again... no, even more intensely!

"Ahhh!"

Suddenly, the ronin let out a strange cry, slumped to the ground, and glared at the empty void in front of him with gritted teeth.

"You bunch of traitors! How long are you going to keep bothering me?!"

*******

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Ms. Okita is such an angel! Actually, attentive readers should have noticed that although Ms. Okita is still very young, only 16 years old, and has a playful and mischievous personality, she is actually very mature and knows how to take care of others.

It's almost the end of the month, so if you still have monthly passes, please vote for this book! (Leopard Waste.jpg)

Chapter 245 The Heroes of the Examination Hall vs. the Descendants of the "Twenty-Four Generals of Takeda" [7000 words]

The ronin's sudden roar startled the passersby.

The ronin's roar continued.

"Damn it! You bunch of damned traitors, are you never going to stop?"

"You disloyal and unjust traitors, you all deserve to die!"

"I have slain you all to uphold justice and to act on behalf of Heaven!"

"What? You're not convinced? Then draw your sword!"

After shouting, the ronin threw the large wooden box on his back to the ground with a loud bang.

The ronin, panting heavily, pounced on the wooden crate and opened the lid—inside was a suit of red and black armor with extremely mottled plates.

The ronin emptied the armor from the box and then skillfully put on the armor pieces one by one.

If there were a sharp-eyed observer present, they would surely notice that this ronin's eyes were terribly red, with the whites of his eyes covered in blood vessels resembling fleshy worms.

"Ah ah!"

"Hey, let's go! This guy seems to be crazy!"

"You dare join in this kind of commotion? Let's get out of here!"

……

The ronin roared hysterically at the air in front of him and pulled out his armor to put it on—such frenzied behavior terrified everyone around him, who scattered and fled.

Of course—there were still some people who, whether they were too full or had something wrong with their heads, stopped and watched with great interest.

"Hey, you! What are you doing?!"

At this time, what was extremely rare was that the police responded exceptionally quickly, unlike in the past when officials would only arrive after the incident had ended.

Four local officials, who happened to be maintaining order nearby and were carrying long sticks, rushed over from the east side of the road and surrounded the ronin from all sides.

"My lord! Please put down your spear! Take off your armor!"

The leader of these four officials—a middle-aged man with very square features and an air of righteous indignation—was holding a...

It is not unusual for warriors who make their living through martial arts to wear armor.

More prestigious martial families would keep one or even several sets of ancestral armor in their collections.

However, having armor at home and taking it out and wearing it are two different things!

"Your Excellency! Can you hear me? Please put down your spear and remove your armor!"

The righteous middle-aged man repeated the sentence three times... but the ronin seemed not to hear it, ignoring it completely. He simply buried his head in putting on his armor in silence.

In the blink of an eye, he had put on the last piece of armor—the right arm guard.

Realizing that the ronin's mental state was worse than he had expected and that he was completely unable to communicate with him, the righteous middle-aged man glanced sideways and gave a wink to the person next to him.

The man nodded knowingly, put away his long staff, and quickly left to call for more people and contact the "Three Returns" warriors.

After assigning his companions to fetch reinforcements, the righteous middle-aged man turned his attention back to the ronin.

“Your Excellency, you…”

The righteous middle-aged man wanted to try to say something to calm the ronin down and buy time for reinforcements to arrive.

However... accidents always happen suddenly.

The upright middle-aged man had barely managed to utter "you" when a huge, cold light filled his vision.

Although it was only for a moment, the righteous middle-aged man still managed to see what had happened—the ronin, now fully armored, swiftly removed the holster from his large spear, revealing the well-maintained blade inside. Then, with a motion as casual as swatting a mosquito, he wielded the spear with one arm and swept the long blade toward him.

The so-called "big-body spear" is, as the name suggests, a spear with an exceptionally long and huge spearhead.

The ronin's spear was almost perfectly straight and of uniform width from the tip to the base, with a total length of nearly 2 meters.

The gun blade, about three fingers wide, occupied 60cm of it...

Such a weapon... would be a top-notch killing machine on the battlefield!

At this moment, the ronin demonstrated the weapon's power with a bloody scene—the spear blade sweeping towards the righteous middle-aged man pierced and sliced ​​through his body without any resistance, like a hot knife cutting through butter.

The spear blade slashed in from his right side, then cut out from his left shoulder...

The upright middle-aged man, his upper body losing its support, flew to the side due to inertia—his eyes filled with bewilderment, confusion, and fear…and then quickly lost their luster.

The smooth spearhead, free of any bloodstains, traced a semi-circle, returned to the ronin's front, and then thrust out a second time.

This time, the sharp spearhead pierced through the body of the clerk standing to the left of the ronin.

The gun barrel, three fingers wide and 60cm long, pierced a horrifying hole that went straight through the man's body.

Immediately afterwards, the ronin swept his spear to the right, shredding clothes, flesh, bones... into dust.

The spearhead, still brimming with power, swept towards the last official who was still standing.

The man reacted quickly, turning to the side and using the long stick in his hand to protect his chest.

The timing of the defense was perfect; the long staff precisely intercepted the shaft of the large spear.

However... their strengths were far too different.

The power and force of the spear were astonishing; the moment it struck the long staff, it bent and cracked the staff.

The official felt an unstoppable force travel from the stick to his palms, arms, and even his whole body.

Crack—the bones in his two hands and arms shattered into more than a dozen pieces, and then the broken stick in his hand slammed into his chest. The huge shockwave penetrated through the stick and his clothes, injuring his sternum and internal organs.

"Cough, cough, cough!"

Cough... no, the official, who vomited a large amount of blood, floated lightly a few steps away like a kite with a broken string. Then, as if he had lost the support of his bones, he collapsed limply to the ground, barely breathing. It seemed he was beyond saving.

In the blink of an eye, the three local officials surrounding the ronin had all turned into corpses of various shapes.

"Come on, you traitors, let's have a good fight. I can kill you once, and I can kill you a second time!"

The ronin casually wiped the blood splattered on his face, then spread his legs wide and held his gun with an imposing air.

"Tada Koemon, come out!"

……

……

Edo, Ryogoku Bridge, somewhere—

"Because it smelled so good, I didn't realize I was already feasting at that squid stand before I came to my senses... Harada, are you an idiot?" Nagakura said irritably, his hands tucked into his sleeves.

"Because you were so engrossed in watching the martial arts performance that when you came to your senses you couldn't find Mr. Tachibana and the others, you have no right to call me an idiot," Harada retorted defiantly.

"Stop arguing! You two are both idiots!" Kondo, who was walking behind Nagakura and Harada, made two chopsticks with his hands and chopped each of their heads with a moderate force.

"I'm so sorry..." Toudou Heisuke said awkwardly, scratching the back of his head. "I'm so stupid, I actually got separated from everyone else in the crowd..."

"Hahaha, don't say that." Inoue, who was walking side by side with Toudou, laughed a few times. "There are indeed a lot of people attending tonight's fireworks display. Even I can't guarantee that I won't get separated by the crowd! Don't blame yourself!"

"Toshi," Kondo turned to look at Hijikata beside him, "you've been laughing disgustingly since just now... What? Have you gotten together with another woman?"

Hijikata, walking alongside Kondo, looked refreshed and in high spirits.

"Hmm...more or less." Hijikata straightened his shirt and tightened his belt. "She's a really nice woman..."

The effort and time required to find Nagakura and the others far exceeded the expectations of Kondo, Inoue, and Saito.

By the time Yongcang and the others were successfully found, the fireworks display had already begun.