Chapter 343: Blocked Thoughts, Deviant Sword

Chapter 343: Confused thoughts, the sword veers off the path

In the southern district of Inuyama City, an izakaya.

Snow piled heavy on the roof, and the peach talisman hanging on the door sways in the cold wind.

The usually gentle proprietress, in an unexpected manner, glides from the kitchen, swaying her waist.

The steaming bowl of soup rice she carries emits a hot mist, warming her cool face until it glows like a peach blossom.

“Long time since you visited; after we finish, could you stay a while longer?”

The woman bows, placing the food on the low table, her words barely a mosquito's hum.

Now the tide of thoughts surges in her mind, yet she keeps her eyes lowered, unwilling to meet the silver‑haired youth she daydreams about.

“Mhm.”

Xie Bǎn gave a faint reply.

Though it was but a simple answer, the proprietress appeared overjoyed, cradling a tray with both hands and departing with light steps.

When her silhouette vanished from the compartment, Xie Bǎn drew his gaze back and looked at the kneeling figure of Jǐngǔ in front of him.

The latter buried his head in his chest, unwilling to reveal any interest in the relationship between the two before him.

“Jǐngǔ, you need not be so tense; if I intended to trouble you today, I would not have brought you here.”

“We, the Imperial Guards, are also humans, not cold‑blooded killing tools.”

Xie Bǎn picked up the soup spoon and smiled, “Eat first; we’ll discuss the rest after you’re full.”

“Yes, sir.”

Jǐngǔ’s voice remained stiff, his hands pressed on his knees, unmoving.

Seeing his posture, Xie Bǎn gave up forcing him and ate on his own.

For a moment, only the faint sound of swallowing filled the not‑spacious compartment.

“It’s still this warm food that comforts the heart; the fare produced by the Agricultural Order is not fit for human consumption.”

After a moment, Xie Bǎn set down his soup bowl, his face expressing reflection.

“Each time I eat this, I recall the days in Liaodong; then I was a laborer for an agricultural company under the Agricultural Order, tasked with cultivating native crops.”

“Whenever the harvest season arrives, thousands of li of fields surge with golden wheat waves; the mere scent makes one forget hunger.”

“Alas, though the wheat was sown by my own hands, I cannot afford to eat it.”

Xie Bǎn smiled, “We can only eat the nutritionally synthetic fare that even native pork refuses; the taste, recalled now, is repulsive.”

“Yet such days are envied by all within a hundred li; do you know why, Jǐngǔ?”

“Safety, enough to eat.”

Jǐngǔ offered no hesitation, answering directly.

“You’re right; it lets one eat and stay safe, and if you’re young and strong, you need not undergo mechanical augmentation, nor endure street brawls like a jackal, nor fear being stunned on the street and having your parts stripped for sale.”

“All that’s needed is the most primitive farming, growing the native foods the great ones cherish, allowing one to live peacefully from small farmer to elder, and what could be more enviable than this work?”

Jǐngǔ remained silent, simply listening to Xie Bǎn.

“But back then I was too young.”

Xie Bǎn sighed, “How could I understand that while guarding such vast white mountains and black earth, I cannot eat the living things from the hills and fields? I must eat the cold, dead things that fall from the assembly line? Why, though I till the rice myself, I lack the right to even taste it?”

“Unclear thoughts lead people to veer the sword off course.”

Xie Bǎn's lips curled with a faint smile, “So I rushed into the company’s forbidden mountain zone, tasting everything that couldn’t be devoured; when I finally emerged, a wild boar was still hidden in my clothes.”

“To taste this prized item worth tens of thousands of gold, I spent a whole day learning the most primitive skinning methods. After all, in these times, rawness is the height of elegance.”

Xie Bǎn’s smile broadened, his elbow resting on the low table, animatedly illustrating to the stiff‑faced Jǐngǔ.

“First, you must slowly cut a small opening at the lower belly of the forelimb, insert both fingers of your left hand, spread the abdomen, then use a small knife to pry open the membrane along the seam, avoiding injury to the organs and preventing contamination, requiring patience and finesse.”

“But when you finally peel the skin entirely, you’ll find there’s little meat and the flavor is merely average.”

As Xie Bǎn spoke, Jǐngǔ’s face grew increasingly pale, his meticulously arranged hair bun loosening slightly from sweat, the hair at his temples clinging tightly to his scalp.

As the leader of the sole remaining violent gang, the Jǐngǔ Group, in Inuyama City, Jǐngǔ has killed many enemies over the years, his methods far more cruel and brutal than the skinning Xie Bǎn just described, and such cruelty is everywhere.

Yet for some reason, he now felt his hair stand on end, as if he himself were the beast being skinned in the words.

The one holding the knife was none other than Xie Bǎn sitting opposite him.

“I ate only two legs of that boar, the rest seemed uneconomical, so I took it to the black market to sell; before it could be sold, I was reported, lost my job, and the company boss even wanted to cut off both my legs.”

Xie Bǎn spread his hands, sighing helplessly, “No choice; to survive I must flee.”

Just before leaving, I killed the informant and set fire to every cultivated field under the company, especially the private fields of high‑ranking families’ affiliated lands; I burned them all, turning them into fertile soil, a parting gift to the black earth I had tended for years.

“Unclear thoughts cause the sword to stray; a single misstep can lead to a wholly different outcome.”

Xie Bǎn narrowed his eyes, his handsome face bearing a smile that was not quite a smile, “Jǐngǔ, my experience is your cautionary tale; you must grasp this lesson well.”

At this point, with sweat dripping from his forehead like rain, Jǐngǔ could no longer maintain his kneeling posture.

He wiped his knees on the floor, stepped back two paces, bent his back, and bowed his head to the ground.

“The Jǐngǔ Group has survived in Inuyama City thanks to your grace, sir; I am content, will not covet what is not mine, nor betray you!”

It seems your thoughts are still clear.

Xie Bǎn, satisfied with the effect of this reprimand, nodded and said, “Speak, has any stranger contacted you recently?”

“Yes, the other party claimed to be Matsuyama.”

“Matsuyama.”

“Did your eyes catch the stranger’s appearance?”

“As per your usual arrangement, I have left fleeting impressions of every stranger who contacted the Jǐngǔ Group; however.”

“Jǐngǔ extended his right hand, and a plain face projected forth.”

“That face is clearly a fake; the eyes are likely mechanical, and no corresponding information exists in the Jǐngǔ Group’s intelligence.”

“I apologize, sir.”

Jǐngǔ bowed his head to the ground, trembling, “My abilities are limited; the subordinates I sent were easily brushed aside.”

“You need not blame yourself; if this man called Matsuyama is foolish enough to be found so easily, then he is not the one I seek.”

Xie Bǎn waved his hand,

“He approached your Jǐngǔ Group, asking what he wants you to do for him?”

“He wants to know the patrol and defensive patterns of Inuyama City’s guard troops.”

“The guard bureau’s defenses change not at all; even an old woman sitting at the gate for a few days would discern them clearly. The counselors are equally unvigilant. What he asks of you is simple.”

Xie Bǎn lifted his chin,

What benefit does the other party promise you?

Five million in cash, and after success I will be relocated out of the Wa-min district, to rebuild a Jǐngǔ Group three times larger elsewhere.

“Is that all?”

Xie Bi'an lifted an eyebrow, his voice carrying a hint of surprise.

One must understand that the Kōgu group was a violent outfit he had deliberately left in place, meant to gather the city's lowlifes and ruffians.

Though it could never rise to a great empire, in the city of Inuyama it remained a solitary sapling, and by day it amassed wealth through a few respectable gray‑market ventures, its coffers overflowing.

Hence the fifty million would never move Kōgu, and the pledge to resurrect the Kōgu faction was sheer nonsense.

The distinction between the chicken head and the phoenix tail—Xie Bi'an trusted that Kōgu still understood its gravity.

There is also a seventh‑grade human‑crafted heart, assured to align with my genes and spirit, free from any rejection.

That is, after all, a touch of sincerity, isn't it?

Xie Bi'an laughed, “You haven’t felt a stir?”

“I have felt it,” Kōgu replied, his answer plain as ever.

He sighed bitterly: “After all, you know, I’ve been trapped at rank eight for years, the lure of promotion is indeed great. Yet I am clear that even if I were to lay hands upon this heart, it would serve no purpose.”

You grasp this, and our thinking is indeed promising.

So you declined, and the other party did not become furious?

This remains a mystery to me even now. Those who are accustomed to the consequences of non‑cooperation are doomed to death. Yet this time they did not act so; they merely left me with a single phrase.

“What phrase?”

Kōgu straightened his frame, facing Xie Bi'an’s perplexed look, and spoke slowly, word by word: “He said that I would become his aide, soon.”

When his words hung in the air, Kōgu’s eyes betrayed an undeniable tremor of heart.

Xie Bi'an’s countenance grew unusually grave.