Chapter 279: Collective Deliberation and Direction Setting

Chapter 279: The Direction of the Meeting

After Tokugawa Hiroshi declared the core purpose of this year’s gathering, the projections hovering around the vermilion torii slowly faded away.

For the content of the meeting that followed, the kneeling members outside the shrine did not need to know.

Inside the shrine.

Tokugawa Hiroshi knelt back into his position, and the eyes in the ukiyo-e paintings covering the entire wall also cast their gaze upon his shoulders.

“The three of you, to resist the Empire’s tyranny and restore the Wojin’s prosperity—we have made this decision together. Now that the declaration of war has been issued, there is no turning back. If any of you or your families still harbor doubts or concerns, speak them now. But once we leave this shrine, I do not wish to hear any other voices.”

“Lord Hiroshi, rest assured. The Arai Group’s martial order is fully prepared and ready to deploy at any moment.”

The first to speak was a burly man whose bare skin, visible beneath his open haori, was covered in ferocious divine and demonic tattoos.

He bore no badge of the Arai Group, but instead had three golden dragon scales carved into his brow.

“Even I believe we should strike now—slay the jin-yi-wei in ten cities, and cast all the officials of the Censorship Bureau into the sea, to purge these imperial hounds once and for all!”

These words caused the other three present to nearly simultaneously furrow their brows.

“Arai Ryo, this is a war that concerns the fate of the world. Once we act, it will be like a mountain fire—either we forge a new Eastern Japan, or we all burn to ashes!”

The one who rebuked Arai Ryo was the eastern master of Sanmyo Heavy Industries, Toyotomi Yajiro.

His features were flat, and two silver metallic lines as thick as fingers extended from his eye corners all the way to his neck, converging at his throat and plunging straight into his garments.

Short in stature, his limbs were thick and sturdy. Even now, kneeling, he exuded an aura like a towering mountain.

“Weapons, logistics, intelligence—the complexity of war far exceeds our imagination!”

Toyotomi Yajiro fixed his gaze on the white-haired elder seated at the head, “Though since the rise of prosthetic technology, the Empire’s military focus has shifted from ordinary armies to individuals represented by the martial order, and wars of hundreds of thousands have been replaced by precise decapitation tactics like surgical knives. Yet I believe we must still prepare thoroughly before confronting this sleeping lion of the Empire.”

“Likewise, today’s gathering aims to unify the ideologies of the Four Great Companies, to let all mid-level officials set aside past grievances and hatred, and work together to accumulate strength—not to recklessly launch a war now!”

Toyotomi Yajiro turned his angry eyes on Arai Ryo, enunciating each word, “Before this, any arrogant provocations may invite death upon us!”

Arai Ryo remained defiant, “The martial order needs no weapons, no supplies—only a list of those to slaughter or targets to destroy!”

“When you crushed the entire Empire’s homeland, holding dominion with but one hand, and subdued both the Buddhist and Daoist martial sects that once rode beneath your waist, nearly exterminating the entire sequence! Your Arai family is nothing but a copy grown from their corpses!”

Toyotomi Yajiro roared, “Arai Ryo, what makes you so confident you can withstand the New Donglin Party, the Confucian aristocrats, or even the other two sects and nine streams who might swarm here drawn by the scent of blood to seize resources?”

“Mind your words—we are the legitimate inheritors of the Empire’s martial order, not some imitation!”

Arai Ryo leaned forward, his shadow cast by the lamplight looming over Toyotomi Yajiro.

“Your Toyotomi family has long coveted replacing the Ink Order, sacrificing countless kin to mimic the Ink Order’s heroes, yet you cannot even possess a Minggui! You are the clumsy imitators of the Ink Order!”

Toyotomi Yajiro’s face darkened, his white-streaked beard trembling, “Do you know that because of your words, the Arai Group will forever lose Sanmyo Heavy Industries’ support, and your Arai family’s martial order will never again wear Ink Armor!”

“What loss is there? We never relied on you.”

Arai Ryo sneered coldly, “Minggui Ink Armor—we of the Arai Group can develop it ourselves!”

“A bunch of old fools who can’t even link the Huangliang Dreamscape, discarded by evolution, daring to research technology?” Toyotomi Yajiro, as if hearing a colossal joke, mocked mercilessly, “Do you think we other families don’t know the tricks of your Ink Attack forces? If one could reverse-engineer the entire Minggui realm with a few control cores, the Ink Order would have perished alongside your revered ancestors!”

Arai Ryo’s face muscles twitched, his clenched fists emitting a thunderous crack that echoed through the shrine.

Toyotomi Yajiro regarded his fury with cold amusement.

“I advise you to allocate those research funds to meals instead. After all, laborers like you have hearty appetites.”

Seeing the argument escalate, Tokugawa Hiroshi remained as still as an old monk in meditation.

Even brothers in business would quarrel over profit shares.

Let alone a war deemed ‘rebellion’ under the Great Ming Law, where all participants face execution of their entire clans!

Some contradictions are best laid bare now.

Otherwise, if they erupt at a critical moment, they may become the decisive factor in others’ hands.

Recalling this, a shadow crossed Tokugawa Hiroshi’s eyes.

On this land, the Four Great Companies walk under the sun.

Yet in the darkness where sunlight does not reach, many shadows still stand.

They might be lowly technicians in the Four Companies’ industries, diligent slaves.

Or the owner of a street-side tavern, a courtesan in some brothel, or even a stranger passing by on the street.

Their identities differ, their faces unlike, their life paths never intersecting.

Yet they gather at the call of “Do kings and nobles have inherent status?” to sacrifice themselves for a goal they may not even understand.

“Honghu.”

Tokugawa Hiroshi’s lips moved, uttering the name that haunted him like a nightmare.

At this whisper-like voice, the tense atmosphere in the shrine, sparked by Arai Ryo and Toyotomi Yajiro’s quarrel, suddenly grew heavy.

Arai Ryo clenched his fists, his tiger-like eyes flashing with a palpable, chilling light.

Toyotomi Yajiro, too, no longer felt like mocking him, letting out a long sigh.

“In truth, whether it is the Empire or Honghu, the true core of opposing them lies in the Huangliang Dreamscape that envelops the Empire’s millions of commoners!”

The only woman present, dressed in white robes and crimson trousers like a shrine miko, finally spoke—Meimura Haruhide.

“Only by seizing more permissions can we gouge out those ever-present, ever-watchful eyes that covet us!”

Huangliang Dreamscape.

These four words pressed upon their hearts like a mountain.

If the spread of mechanical prosthetics gave other sequences, especially the Three Teachings, a chance to rise, leading to the ‘division of martial might’ across the realm, then the Huangliang Dreamscape is the blade that severs all rebellious thoughts among the Empire’s guilty subjects.

This pinnacle of technology born in the Empire’s second technological revolution is not merely the ‘White Jade Capital’ spoken of in the Daoist Order, nor the ‘Earthly Buddha Kingdom’ of the Buddhist Order.

It is a net of heaven and earth that tightens around all guilty subjects, suffocating them to death!

“The permissions the Empire grants us are limited to civilian communication and linking some will-destroying desires, even restricting trade to the Wojin region.

We cannot even speak of linking the Daoist Order’s paradise or the Buddhist Order’s Buddha Kingdom. Thus, the Wojin region has almost no high-ranking Daoist or Buddhist practitioners. The pain of this, I’m sure Master Toyotomi feels deeply.”

“Mn.”

Toyotomi Yajiro clasped his hands into his wide sleeves, responding in a low tone, then fell silent.

His eyes seemed distant, occasionally revealing glints of resentment and unwillingness, as if trapped in painful memories.

With wrinkles piled upon his face and eyes dark as a deep spring, Meimura Haruhide continued, “On the contrary, the Empire has relentlessly promoted brain-machine interfaces, even offering free installation policies. Their intent is to leave a control valve in the minds of the Wojin people, so that when the time comes, we ‘our own people’ may fall into isolation and betrayal.”

Arai Ryo crossed his arms over his chest, his bulging muscles straining his clothes, letting out a cold snort, “I proposed long ago to simply kill those Censorship Bureau officials. Would they dare govern if a few more died?”

“If we had listened to you then, the grass on our graves would probably be taller than us by now.”

The best way to rid oneself of suffering is to vent it upon others.

Toyotomi Yajiro spoke with disdain, “Please, use your brain more. The Empire has a saying: ‘use it and discard it.’ Do you understand its meaning?”

“You use your brain so well,” Arai Ryo thrust out a palm as broad as a folding fan, “Then why don’t you fetch me a Minggui Ink Armor? It doesn’t need to be a divine artifact—just an ordinary one. I’ll merge the entire Arai Group into Sanmyo Heavy Industries, and serve you as a beast of burden. How about it?”

“You’re a mimic of a divine soldier, yet you still covet the Ink Order. What, are you trying to figure out how your parents gave birth to you?”

“You” Furui Yujiang blew his beard and glared.

“Enough!”

Seeing the two were about to quarrel again, Kawakami Hiroshi finally couldn’t hold back and spoke to stop them.

With his furious shout, the eyes in the ukiyo-e paintings all turned to stare at Kyo and Furui Yujiang, a bone-chilling cold that made their hair stand on end and their hearts tighten, and they both closed their mouths without a word.

“The Empire has been firmly blocking our permissions. Although the Kurogane Capital has been striving to seize more permissions over the years, but so far, the ‘High Heaven Field’ we’ve built cannot be easily used, only buried deep in the Huangliang dream to remain silent.”

“So to get more permissions, we can only…”

At this point, Akisato suddenly clutched her mouth and let out a violent cough.

Tearing heart and lungs, shocking to the eyes.

“Akisato, how much longer can this body of yours endure? That stench of decay I can smell even sitting here—doesn’t it pain you, having your mind trapped in such a vessel?”

Kyo, no longer the arrogant and domineering figure he was with Furui Yujiang, now asked with concern: “Shall I send someone to the Imperial homeland to buy you a young yin-yang sequence? Even if no one sells, I’ll kidnap one for you!”

Furui Yujiang berated: “Musclehead, can’t you stop causing trouble? Do you believe that if you grab someone, the daoju will use their grand jurisprudence to track you down?”

“What if they find me? Do you think they’d dare come to the Wajin district?” Kyo said nonchalantly.

“Do you know what those people are? They’re a bunch of true lunatics! Even the daoju wouldn’t dare provoke them to desperation, and you still dare to court trouble?”

“Lunatics?”

Kyo lowered his gaze, sneering: “I’ll ask just one thing—did the Wujo defeat them back then?”

Upon hearing this, Furui Yujiang’s expression froze.

“You look like you’re saying they did? If Wujo could do it, then so can the Kyo clan!”

“Actually, the method to accelerate permission acquisition that I wanted to propose aligns with the Kyo clan’s unspoken strategy—targeting the yin-yang sequence’s body.”

Akisato withdrew her blood-stained palm into her sleeve, lifting her gaze to look at Furui Yujiang’s stunned face and Kawakami Hiroshi’s furrowed brow.

As for Kyo, who wore a triumphant grin, she never once met his eyes.

“Seizing by force is always more efficient than theft.”

Akisato said in a low voice: “Now the yin-yang sequence is busy reclaiming permissions from the daoju, continuing to complete that grand plan. With the two factions openly and secretly clashing, this is the time to secretly lure and capture their operatives, strip them of their permissions, and frame the other side.”

Furui Yujiang questioned: “Frame them? With the grand jurisprudence in place, can this dirty water be poured over them?”

“Has the Furui clan head forgotten that the Akisato family is also of the yin-yang sequence? Even back when constructing the ‘White Jade Capital,’ we contributed our share—only for the Imperial homeland to forget our merits and betray our efforts!”

Akisato’s face took on an eerie crimson hue, her aged visage and sharp voice making her all the more unsettling.

“Since Akisato is confident, we’ll proceed as you say. The Kyo Group and Sansan Heavy Industries will handle the captures, Kurogane Capital will strip the permissions, and accelerate the construction of the ‘High Heaven Field’!”

“This matter will be the core mission of our four great companies henceforth. I hope you all set aside past grievances and unite in purpose!”

The white-haired elder sealed the decision, setting the course for this summit.

Kyo wore a sly smile: “Rest assured, I’ll use my fists to show those Imperial homeland dreamers chasing illusory fantasies the reality!”

“Sansan Heavy Industries will fully cooperate.” Furui Yujiang suppressed his lingering doubts, speaking solemnly.

Seeing the two speak in turn, Kawakami Hiroshi finally showed a satisfied smile.

“I’ve received confirmed news. After the new policy is enacted, the Imperial homeland will recall all native officials of the Ministry of Appointments, replacing them with selected youths from the secondary capital Jinling and key regions, stationed in ten cities within the Wajin district. So we must complete all preparations before the new policy is fully implemented!”

“This is a war concerning all our clans and kin. It is the dream we’ve sustained through decades of humiliation and hardship!”

Kawakami Hiroshi rose again, his gaze sharp as he surveyed the three.

“I hope that at our next New Year summit, we no longer hide within this steel-woven cage, but return beneath the blooming cherry blossoms, beneath that sacred mountain peak!”

Today, a two-in-one special.