Chapter 530: The Boss Got Away Again, So Old Feng's Getting Flamed Into Orbit Again
As night deepened, an earth-shaking cheer erupted in the barbican.
The Big Yōkai had been driven off. For the first time ever, the samurai had driven them off!
Thousands of samurai, their morale through the roof and ready to die, had fought five hundred Big Yōkai and killed at least two hundred of them!
Swords in hand, the samurai cut off the heads of the two hundred Big Yōkai and piled them into a trophy mound in the barbican.
Then they looked at the black-armoured samurai who had given them back their courage and knelt as one.
The samurai at their head said respectfully:
"Lord Minamoto, it was your valour that won back our warrior spirit!
"You've carried so much on your own. Thank you for all you've done!"
Covered in blood, the black-armoured samurai wiped the blood from the Steel-Cleaver with a white cloth and sheathed the sword.
He took off his mask, revealing Hei's exhausted face.
"Please rise, gentlemen. We've killed two hundred Big Yōkai, but the Giant Yōkai and the rest of his band are still alive.
"We still have a long way to go before we've wiped out the demons completely!"
One samurai said loudly:
"Lord Minamoto, as long as we have you, we can absolutely wipe out every last Big Yōkai!"
The others immediately chimed in. With Hei leading them, they'd dare charge up Peach Blossom Mountain and behead every demon there!
Hei was about to say something when he suddenly clutched his chest and began coughing violently. The samurai were alarmed and rushed to hold him up.
"Lord Minamoto, are you all right?!"
"Lord Minamoto, are you hurt?!"
Hei waved a hand.
"The demon caught me in the chest. I'm a little short of breath. A few days' rest and I'll be fine!"
Just then, a samurai ran up to Hei and shouted:
"Lord Minamoto, the Son of Heaven summons you! Bring the two hundred demon heads!!"
The samurai on the spot immediately bagged up the Big Yōkai heads in cloth sacks and went with Hei into the Son of Heaven's palace.
This time, the Son of Heaven came out of his throne hall and received Hei in the open courtyard outside.
He looked first at the demon heads the samurai carried in, then stared at Hei in shock.
"You actually beat the Giant Yōkai, and led the samurai to take this many demon heads?"
Hei knelt before the Son of Heaven and said respectfully:
"Son of Heaven, your subject failed this time. I let the Giant Yōkai get away."
The Son of Heaven said excitedly:
"No matter! You wounded him badly. Your sword went into his neck, and he bled so much that it pooled on the ground!"
Hei nodded.
"Yes. I cut open the Giant Yōkai's elbow and neck. Any ordinary creature would surely be dead.
"But for a demon like the Giant Yōkai, there may still be some chance of survival.
"Either way, he's badly wounded now. If we strike while the iron is hot and send troops up Peach Blossom Mountain, we can surely finish him off!"
The Son of Heaven turned to look at the civil and military ministers behind him.
"Who will lead troops up Peach Blossom Mountain to slay that demon?"
When the ministers heard this, every one of them shrank down.
They had no wish to cross the Giant Yōkai. Badly wounded or not, the Giant Yōkai was the Giant Yōkai, and he still had three hundred terrifying Big Yōkai under him!
When the Son of Heaven saw his ministers shrinking away one after another, he was so angry he cursed them up and down. Then one minister stepped forward and said:
"Son of Heaven, since the Giant Yōkai was wounded by Lord Minamoto, why not have Lord Minamoto lead the troops up the mountain to slay him?"
The Son of Heaven thought that made sense and looked at Hei again.
"Hei, will you lead troops to rid Us of this grave threat and restore peace and light to All Under Heaven?"
Hei clasped his fist in his palm where he knelt.
"Your subject obeys the Son of Heaven's command. But the Giant Yōkai's elbow struck me, and my chest is tight and I'm short of breath. I need at least five days to recover!"
The Son of Heaven said:
"Then you shall have five days. After five days, you'll lead three thousand samurai from the city to destroy every remaining Big Yōkai!"
Hei accepted, then raised another matter.
"Son of Heaven, we were able to take the heads of two hundred Big Yōkai this time because the soldiers gave their lives.
"When the Big Yōkai counterattacked in the barbican, many brave samurai were killed. I ask the Son of Heaven to send people to recover their bodies and grant their families compensation.
"Then in five days, when your subject leads the troops against the Giant Yōkai, the soldiers will be willing to give their lives."
The Son of Heaven nodded eagerly.
"Very well, let it be as Our dear minister says. Open the treasury and compensate the families of the fallen in gold!"
The samurai behind Hei immediately let out a cheer, and the way they looked at Hei changed in an instant.
He wasn't just a fearsome warrior. He was a good general who cared about his men.
"Lord Minamoto!!"
Samurai knelt across the whole courtyard and bowed their heads to Hei.
"Thank you, my lord, for caring for us!"
When the Son of Heaven saw this, his expression shifted slightly. But then he put on a cheerful smile again, as if nothing had happened.
...
Meanwhile, at the temple, Kian had run out of anything of value to find. He asked the old monk:
"After the Great Forgetting, was your Ecclesiarchy really the only one that knew the secrets of the old era? No other group or power kept any information about the Imperium?"
The old monk thought about it and said:
"There is one, actually. Seventy-five kilometres east of Kyoto lies the Snowflake Domain, and in the Snowflake Domain stands a great mountain called Snowflake Mountain.
"There's a saying among the people: when snow falls on the world, it falls first on the Snowflake Domain; when snow falls on the Snowflake Domain, it falls first on Snowflake Mountain.
"At the top of Snowflake Mountain lives a group of ascetics. All of them have three eyes.
"They hold the power of the Asura, and some knowledge passed down from the days of the Imperium.
"They've stayed on Snowflake Mountain apart from the world for more than three hundred years.
"Our Ecclesiarchy exchanges a visit with them once a year, just so each side knows the other still exists."
Kian's eyes lit up. Three eyes? Wasn't that a Navigator house?
The Imperium's Navigators were a special breed of mutant with a third eye in the middle of their foreheads. That eye was the Warp eye, and it could see the psychic currents of the Warp.
Any warship capable of entering the Warp needed a Navigator to guide it.
So the Imperium had many Navigator houses. They worked with all kinds of powers and sent their younger members out to serve as navigators on other powers' warships.
Kian's Sword-class escort had probably been towed to the Forge World by the Crimson Bite for repairs by now.
He needed a Navigator, and this would fill that gap perfectly.
"Quick! I want to see these people. Lead the way right now!"
The old monk agreed, and the old baldy actually started packing a bundle on the spot, planning to take Kian to meet these Navigators himself.
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