"You bitch! You are so brave! You dare to kick my knife with your foot!"
A burly man with unkempt hair and a dirty face. Apart from the long and short swords hanging on his waist, there was nothing about his body that looked like a beggar. He took a step across and blocked the way to Tianzhangyuan.
"What do you want to do?"
Tianzhangyuan frowned slightly, and his eyes without sadness or joy swept across the faces of the wanderers from left to right.
The group of uninvited guests who suddenly burst out of the thorns and surrounded Tianzhangyuan's mother and son all had the classic image of "jobless ronin" without exception.
The tattered clothes were so dirty that their original color could not be seen.
My hair, which had not been washed for an unknown amount of time, was covered with hoarfrost-like scalp and dandruff.
Judging from the hair style, some people used to have beautiful men's hair, but these men's hair, which was cleanly shaved and neatly trimmed in the past, are all grown out because they have not been taken care of for a long time. "There is a layer of short, prickly hair on the top of the head, and the hair on the left and right temples is lush and green, with teeth and claws spread out like a primeval forest."
The dirt on his face was so thick that it was almost caked together. But even so, they still couldn't hide their sallow complexions and slightly sunken cheeks.
】
It can be seen that these people must have not eaten serious meals for a while, and their nutritional intake is seriously insufficient.
As of 1 second ago, Qingto, who was still telling Yae "don't be so nervous", was now frozen in place with a confused look on his face.
Yae on the side raised his eyes and cast a meaningful look at Qingden.
Junior, I promised that "the current public security in Edo is not so bad that you will encounter an accident if you go out" - although she did not say it clearly with her words, Yae used her eyes to convey this message to Qing very well. Deng.
Qingden felt Yae's "deep" gaze... He vaguely felt a tingling sensation coming from his face.
However, embarrassment is embarrassing. No one needed to remind him, Qingdeng knew that now was not the time to care about such trivial matters.
As if they heard the starting gun announcing "It's time to race" at the same time, Qingdeng and the Erzhong sisters stepped forward at the same time, forming a simple human wall between the Tianzhangyuan mother and son and the ronin.
"Huh? Who are you?"
Seeing the sudden appearance of Qingdeng and others, the burly man who had just scolded Tianzhangyuan in a ferocious tone for "how dare you kick my knife with your feet" raised his eyebrows and his face darkened.
"Are you the companions of this bitch?"
"Hey, clean your mouth for me."
Yae's voice was as deep as her face.
"Let me hear the words 'stinky bitch' again, or I'll tear your mouth apart! Tear off your tongue!"
Sae didn't spit out fragrance directly like Yae, but the anger and depression on her face was no less than that of her younger sister.
In the eyes of these two sisters, Tianzhangyuan is the god of this world.
The gods they devoutly believe in are so humiliated by others... How can they not be angry?
Faced with the threat from Yae... the sturdy man was not only indifferent, but also ridiculed him.
"Tear my mouth apart? Huh, huh, huh, huh!"
A sinister laughter burst out from the nose of the sturdy man, and he laughed so hard that his shoulders shook vigorously.
The other ronin were laughing too, swaying with laughter, leaning forward and backward.
"OK!"
The sturdy man had his hands on his hips and his arrogant demeanor, which almost had the word "arrogant" written directly on his forehead.
"Come over here! I want to see how you, a short guy who can't touch my vagina even if you stand on tiptoe, are going to tear my mouth apart!"
After saying that, the sturdy man straightened his waist obscenely.
After Tianzhangyuan, even he was humiliated. Yae's little face was suddenly filled with dark clouds.
She suddenly lowered her waist and spread her hands and fingers.
Just when she was about to give this rude bastard a lesson, a small hand pressed her shoulder from behind.
"Yajou." Tianzhangyuan bent down, put his mouth close to Yaezhong's ear, and whispered, "Be calm and don't be impatient."
Yae turned his head and looked at Tianzhangyuan.
Through Tianzhangyuan's eyes, Yae understood Tianzhangyuan's meaning: they were here for a visit in private, and it would be better to do less than to do more. Don't cause a very eye-catching incident until necessary.
The two sisters have never disobeyed the divine orders given by the "gods".
Therefore, despite all the unwillingness in his heart, Yae still bit his teeth hard, and then slowly released his "fighting posture" while glaring at the tall man.
"Tangerine-kun."
Qingdeng smelled Tianzhangyuan's warm breath and pleasant body fragrance.
Even without looking back, Qingdeng knew that Tianzhangyuan was standing behind him.
"Can I ask you a favor?"
Compared with the two sisters, Aoto, who has been responsible for the security work in Edo for many years, should be better at dealing with this kind of situation - Tenshoin should have this idea in mind before handling the current "emergency" The important task of "accident" should be entrusted to Qingdeng with full authority.
Qing Deng nodded gently without looking back, then raised his chin, looked at the burly man standing directly opposite him, who was half a head taller than him, and said calmly:
"Who we are...this kind of thing is not important. Instead, I want to ask you - what do you want to do? Why are you blocking our way?"
"Hmph! This stinky bitch just kicked my beloved knife!"
The sturdy man raised his big furry hand and pointed at Tianzhangyuan behind Qingdeng.
"I see you also have a sword on your waist. Since you are also a samurai, you should understand what 'sword' means to a samurai!"
The strong man became more and more excited as he spoke, and he smacked a tattered knife on his waist that was about to lose its sheath and handle.
"The 'samurai soul' has been tarnished, I cannot remain indifferent!"
After speaking, as if he wanted to put pressure on Qing Tengfang and others, the sturdy man took a big step forward, in the direction of Qing Teng and others.
His accomplices all stepped forward at almost the same time, greatly shrinking the encirclement net.
At this time, a clear male voice intervened between Qingdeng and the sturdy man who were confronting each other.
"What do you mean by 'the soul of a warrior is tarnished'? Are you being too unreasonable?"
Tokugawa Iemo, who had been silent just now, suddenly spoke up and frowned slightly, with a hint of sullen expression appearing between his delicate eyebrows.
"Your knife was kicked by someone - this is obviously your own problem. You don't even look at where this place is. There are so many people here, but you insist on hanging the knife horizontally on your waist. It's obviously your own fault. Not only did you not reflect on yourself, but you also turned around and blamed others. I dare you to ask what your intentions are for behaving like this?"
The tall man who was suddenly ridiculed was stunned for a moment, and then looked at the sound as quickly as a conditioned reflex.
Seeing that the person who scolded him was just a young prostitute with a very immature face, the sturdy man's mouth immediately curled up, and a strong look of disdain suddenly appeared in his eyes.
"Haha? Who do you think you are? I can wear my sword however I like!"
After saying this plausibly, the tall man raised his chin arrogantly and looked at Tokugawa Iemo through his nostrils.
Verbal ridicule + nose-gazing... Tokugawa Iemo was not angry at being treated so rudely.
He lowered his hands naturally and looked directly into the eyes of the tall man.
The eyes without a trace of waves are like a pool of clear water in an ancient well.
Next, something incredible happened.
"Well……?!"
The sturdy man seemed to have suddenly seen some incredible sight, and blinked his eyes hard several times.
From the perspective of the burly man, he now indeed saw...a bizarre sight that was enough to make his expression change.
The boy in front of Mingming looked like he was only 14 or 5 years old, and he was still a little kid who didn't even have full hair.
It is normal for a young man of this age to be ignorant of the world, young and frivolous, childish in character, and inexperienced.
This is how it should be...
But the amazing thing is that there is no trace of the childishness or evil spirit unique to young people on the face of the young man in front of him.
His eyes... seemed to be filled with an extraordinary magical power...
When he stared at her so straightly, she felt a strange feeling in her heart that made her want to stay away from him and reject his gaze.
In fact, the sturdy man did exactly that.
He belatedly realized that his right foot had taken a step back.
He had no memory of when he retreated.
In an instant, embarrassment and anger dominated the expression of the tall man.
——I was so frightened that I backed away from a look from a kid less than half my age?
"Kyuubi, what's wrong with you?"
The wanderers beside the sturdy man all noticed the strange appearance he had carved.
A bunch of doubtful and puzzled eyes focused on the tall man like a searchlight.
He felt like a burly man being roasted on a stove, and all the blood in his body was rushing to the top of his head.
Just as the burly man was thinking about how to save his face——
"...Say it."
Qingdeng asked slowly with a toneless voice.
"How can you be willing to give up and stop pestering us?"
Aomori's sudden speech inadvertently gave the tall man a step forward - he could easily get over the dilemma of being scared away by Tokugawa Iemo's look.
The burly man cleared his throat vigorously and then limped down the steps and climbed down the slope.
"Let's give up? What nonsense are you talking about?"
The sturdy man stepped firmly on his feet, took a long, deep breath with a hiss, and let his energy sink into his dantian - the next moment, a hurricane-like sound burst out from his throat.
"The warrior's soul has been tainted, how can you tell me to let it go!
"
The thunderous roar of the sturdy man immediately attracted more onlookers.
"What's wrong? What's wrong? What happened?"
"It seems that the woman kicked the rogue's knife, and the rogue is asking for an explanation."
"It's 'Shea Dang'..."
"Are the ronin causing trouble again... Enough is enough. Can't these ronin be a little more peaceful... They keep causing trouble every once in a while."
"Huh? I recognize this group of rogues. They often hang around here. They are habitual criminals who use their 'sheath' to extort people's money..."
"Hush! Hush! Keep your voice down, don't let anyone hear you... Let's go, let's go. It's better for this kind of muddy water to flow less."
…
More and more onlookers gathered, surrounding the two waves of people fighting in three circles inside and three outside.
The sturdy man glanced at the increasingly surging crowd around him, and a hint of guilt flashed in his eyes.
He quickly withdrew his gaze and pretended to be calm and said sternly to Qingden.
"However, I am not an evil spirit with no human feelings at all."
"The bitch behind you didn't mean to kick my saber. I can give you a break."
"But - there must still be necessary punishment."
The sturdy man spread his big palm-like hands toward Qingdeng.
"I'll give you two choices now."
"Either give me 10 taels of gold. As long as you give me 10 taels of gold, I will pretend that nothing happened."
"Either... I'll chop off the feet of that stinky woman behind you! Whichever foot of hers kicked my knife, I'll amputate her feet completely!"
The strong speech of the burly man, coupled with his fierce expression on his face... the intimidating effect was quite impressive.
Many onlookers around him turned pale with fright, and involuntarily tightened their shoulders and necks.
The sturdy man was quite satisfied with his performance just now.
Whether it was the tone used when making threats or the vicious expressions made to enhance the "level of terror", he felt that there was nothing wrong with it.
The feedback he received from the surrounding onlookers also proved that he was not feeling too good about himself.
However, the person he should scare the most... Qingdeng and his party, without exception - all looked at him with expressionless faces.
Be it Aoto, the two sisters, Tokugawa Iemo, or Tenshoin, all of them looked calm and composed at this time.
And... I don't know if it was his personal illusion - he always felt that the look Qing Deng was looking at him... was a bit like he was looking at a funny comedian.
His suspicion was soon confirmed——
"……Ah."
Qingden smiled.
A sneer that makes a "hum" sound through the nose.
Then, Qingdeng turned his head back, looked at Tianzhangyuan, and asked:
"What do you think? What do you plan to do?"
"Hmm..." Tianzhangyuan tilted his head, thinking, "Maomao, what do you think?"
Tenshouin cast his gaze and questions to Tokugawa Iemo next to him.
Tokugawa Iemo thought for a while, raised his head, looked at Qingto and the two sisters, and said word by word:
"... Please do it as quickly as possible. Just injure them, don't kill anyone."
Tianzhangyuan nodded lightly, then turned his gaze back to Qingdeng and smiled sweetly:
"Since even Maomao said so... Then please save me, heroes, and be sure to save my feet~~"
After saying that, Tianzhangyuan playfully put his right foot, which was covered with plain white socks, behind the heel of his left foot.
Qingdeng laughed dumbly.
"I'll do my best."
"Hey!" The burly man frowned. For some reason, he had been having an ominous premonition since just now, "You all keep mumbling over there... Ugh!"
Before he finished speaking, he suddenly saw a knee as big as a bowl, rapidly enlarging within his field of vision.
Before he could react, a sharp pain centered on his face and spread rapidly throughout his body.
