Chapter 355: Unwilling to Be a Swan

Chapter 355: Unwilling to Be a Swan

"The ships departing the Wa District are now moored at the Mokuse River dock. Once this final matter is concluded, you may take the Kadonaka group and leave."

"Thank you, Lord Matsuzaka."

Kadonaka, who had vanished for days, now hunched his frame, trudging through the snow with uneven steps, pulling his collar taut to shield against the biting wind.

"No need for thanks. You, too, are now a swan—these are your due in this transaction."

Matsuzaka fell a step behind, his voice soft, yet his eyes held an unnerving coldness, devoid of any warmth.

Kadonaka seemed oblivious to the presence behind him, his gait unhurried, his head unturned.

"Lord Matsuzaka, I have long harbored a question in my heart. Now that I am departing the Wa District, I seek its answer."

"Ask."

Kadonaka lifted his face, exhaling a plume of white breath, gazing down the endless snow-laden street, his eyes clouded with a hazy, distant light.

"What, pray tell, is a swan?"

The question clearly caught Matsuzaka off guard.

"Why do you ask this?"

"I merely wish to know what I ought to strive for, now that I have become a swan."

Kadonaka smiled faintly. "Even in a foreign land, one must have a purpose, must they not?"

"A swan is fairness."

After a pause, he spoke gravely: "Kings and nobles, in the end, are but mortals. To a swan, there is no hierarchy of rank, no divide of wealth. We are but feathers on the same wing, soaring against the wind, colliding with the rain."

A sneer flickered across Kadonaka's face as he turned away from Matsuzaka.

"Is that so? Is it true?"

"This is the truth."

"How enviable."

Kadonaka sighed, then fell silent.

The rest of the way, neither spoke, their footsteps echoing in the stillness.

At last, they halted before the izakaya, its eaves adorned with a paper talisman.

The howling wind whipped snow into frenzy, the talisman swaying ceaselessly.

"Who would have thought that even now, this second-in-command of Kainan City would find time to drink here?"

Matsuzaka shook his head with a wry smile. "How romantic, to die beneath the peonies and still be a ghost of refinement."

"Perhaps he has yet to realize he has been betrayed."

As they spoke, Kadonaka reached for the shoji door's handle. Just as he pried it open a crack, a warm voice spilled forth.

"Ah, it is you. Welcome."

The shoji slid aside, revealing a radiant smile.

The proprietress, clad in a snow-white kimono, stood with her hands clasped over her abdomen, greeting them with fervor.

"We impose upon you again."

Kadonaka's smile was genuine as he stepped inside.

Boom!

At that moment, a violent explosion erupted from the west—the direction of the Fuzi Temple.

The woman trembled, her face draining of color, frozen in shock by the sudden thunderous roar.

"Lord, I have arrived."

Kadonaka's gaze swept past her shoulder, settling on the figure within the izakaya.

"Then you are here."

Xie Bi'an sat rigidly in a chair, flanked by a gaunt man with arms like an ape's.

It was none other than the second-in-command of Kanagawa, Shan Xiao!

"This must be the third clone's imprint, yes?"

Shan Xiao leaned on a crimson-bladed dagger, his eyes narrowing as he sneered at Matsuzaka. "I've always wondered—when you lot, who imprint multiple clones, indulge in pleasures, is it the original body that enjoys, or the imprinted one?"

Pfft!

A gush of crimson blood splattered across the woman's face, her pupils dilating rapidly as her body convulsed.

In her trembling gaze, a blade pierced Kadonaka's chest!

"Why refuse to become a swan?"

Matsuzaka's gaze fell on the retreating figure, his contemptuous eyes like those of a man beholding an insignificant insect.

"Pfft."

Kadonaka coughed up blood, his trembling fingers clutching the crushed fabric of his collar, rising unsteadily.

"Lord Xie, thank you for your care all these years."

Kadonaka's pierced form could not bow, only tilting his head slightly in deference to Xie Bi'an.

Xie Bi'an's face was grave. "Fear not. So long as I live, the Kadonaka group shall not scatter."

"Thank you."

Kadonaka's dimming eyes strained to meet the woman's, who screamed and staggered backward.

"Thank... thank you for your umbrella."

The words fell, and blood sprayed.

Matsuzaka clenched his fist around Kadonaka's heart, then abruptly released it, fragments of flesh oozing from his fingers.

Bang!

Another flame surged skyward toward the central district.

The cacophony of frenzied music engulfed the snow-cloaked city of Kainan.

Along the long street, Jinyiwei officers from Kainan's second district surrounded the izakaya, sealing it tight.

Matsuzaka shook his arms, flinging away the crimson, and laughed coldly. "A seventh-rank civilian, a seventh-rank soldier, plus a rabble of shrimp soldiers and crab generals—do you think you can corner me?"

"If you were the original, I'd kneel at once."

Shan Xiao spat sideways, stepping before Xie Bi'an, his crimson blade leaping from its sheath with a metallic ring.

"What strength could a mere imprint possess?"

"You've yet to settle your own troubles, yet you meddle in others'. Clearly, Kanagawa has not felt the sting of defeat."

"So it was you?!"

Shan Xiao's face darkened to iron, his blade no longer hesitating, cleaving forward with a scream of fury!

Behind him, Xie Bi'an An could not sit still, spitting out two cold words from his shallow, knife-like lips.

"Begin the formation."

In an instant, a humming arose, and snow fell like rain.

The red cord hanging beneath the lintel, bearing the peach talisman, snapped taut with a sharp crack, then shattered and fell to the ground.

"Mo Xu's Gravitational Formation?"

Song Mountain's body bent, his shoulders bearing the weight of a thousand chariots, every bone in his body creaking.

"Die!"

The mountain demon, now in a hyper-frequency state, its eyes wild with fury, had already slashed forward with a long blade!

In Qiongqi City, the Xuan'ai Si Ya Men.

The bluestone-tiled floor was already a river of blood.

The four great barbarian clans were all in pieces, their heads and bodies separated; countless broken guard corpses were piled and crushed together, a sight too gruesome to behold.

Seeing that no one remained standing, the half-crimson-faced Jinzan Cheng Baihu Qiongqi finally exhaled in relief.

He looked back, his eyes complex as he gazed at the slender figure seated beneath the "Zhen Yi" plaque.

From the start of this assault until now, when the crisis had temporarily subsided, the other party's expression had remained calm and unruffled, showing not a trace of emotion.

Qiongqi inwardly sighed; even he himself could not have voluntarily served as bait to lure out all the rebels hidden within the Xuan'ai Si Ya Men.

He thought to himself that if his own colleagues in the great city had such courage, they would not have died so easily at the hands of Honghu.

"The first doppelgänger appeared in the Fuzi Temple, fighting Fan Wujiu; the second in the middle district's narrow alleys, clashing with Ba Lie Chen Qisheng; the third went to assassinate Xie Bi'an An."

Pale fingers emerged from the vermilion sleeves, gently tapping the table.

"If the deduction from the Xijiao Police Station is correct, this farmer, the Wu Chun Emperor who can slash out the 'Corpse-Descending Three Worms,' should have only the final true body left, right?"

The calm composure in Yang Bai Ze's words made Qiongqi instinctively reply, "That should be the case."

"Then the situation is now clear—capture the main culprit, and the battle is won!"

Yang Bai Ze rose, his gaze drifting toward the flames reflecting half the city.

"Yanjun, the rest is up to you."