"Zhou Ming, get out here! Are you afraid to fight me? You coward!"
Outside Oda Heizo's courtyard, a samurai in full armor was shouting loudly.
At this time, many onlookers had gathered, which made the samurai even more excited, feeling that his prestige was definitely skyrocketing.
Of course, he didn't notice that the onlookers' gazes were no different from looking at a dead pig.
After cursing a few times and finding no reaction from inside, the samurai was about to come up with some even nastier words when he finally heard a cold snort.
"Noisy!"
Whoosh!
A figure suddenly appeared with a speed his eyes couldn't follow, and a flash of light streaked across his vision.
Then, he knew nothing else.
Thud! Roll, roll, roll.
Looking at the headless corpse falling backward to the ground and the rolling head, Zhou Ming said impatiently, "Why are there still such trash disturbing me?"
Matsui Kyoshin, who had been jogging, just ran out of the courtyard and saw the corpse lying on the ground, his eyelids twitching uncontrollably.
"It is my oversight in work, please punish this Great Master!"
He didn't dare to quibble, and immediately stood at attention to admit his mistake.
"Forget it, find someone to clean up the ground and get this place tidied up quickly."
Zhou Ming waved his hand, feeling a bit weary, and walked back into the courtyard.
He couldn't really blame Matsui Kyoshin for this. Ever since his battle with Hirakawa Masamasa and his reputation spread, challenges and assassinations against him had not stopped for a moment.
Initially, many fearless samurai came to challenge him, and he ruthlessly cut them down, which indeed scared off many people. The result was fewer direct challenges and more assassination attempts.
The thirty people Oda Heizo brought, along with Matsui Kyoshin, had all transitioned into a state of high alert, constantly guarding against possible assassinations and the subsequent cleanup work if an assassination failed.
This made Zhou Ming somewhat regretful now. Why did he make himself so high-profile for no reason?
At that time, in order to make his reputation spread wider and more mystically, he had specially hired many people to boast about his supernatural abilities. Now, thinking about it, he wished he could slap himself twice.
Initially, he felt that restricted by Kyoto's rules, it was unrealistic to go around challenging and destroying Dao dojos like he did in Koriyama Castle. So he chose to spread his fame, turning active challenges into waiting for others to come to him.
But he soon realized he was wrong. This was his first attempt to follow the rules after entering this world, and he found that no one else followed the rules with him.
Look at these assassinations day and night, look at these Round Battle challenges, look at this poisoning that changed the color of his food, look at this bottomless seduction... Ah, that can't be said. Anyway, since that day, Zhou Ming, along with the thirty samurai from Koriyama Castle, hadn't had a peaceful night's sleep.
Moreover, the combat experience provided by ordinary samurai was of little help to his sword skills; killing more of them would probably have no further effect.
This plan, no matter how he looked at it, was a losing proposition.
Returning to the courtyard, he saw Oda Heizo sitting under a tree, his eyes gazing melancholically at a patch of lush green bamboo across the pond, the steam from his tea rising faintly, looking more like a poet brewing emotions than a Great Master.
Even the masterminds behind the various assassins sent to kill Zhou Ming had not thought of conveniently eliminating Oda Heizo.
Killing a samurai and killing a Great Master had completely different consequences.
Nohara Momonosuke was not dead, and the world still maintained nominal unity. Especially at this time, no one would voluntarily jump out and prematurely break this fragile balance by killing a Great Master, plunging all the Great Masters into a state of mutual suspicion and attack.
Therefore, perhaps the most leisurely person these past few days was Oda Heizo.
"Zhou-kun." Seeing Zhou Ming sit opposite him, Oda Heizo's hesitation almost overflowed like the pond water.
"At the banquet two days from now, all the Great Masters who have arrived in Kyoto will attend. Do you think I can hold my own against the combined exclusion of the Great Masters then?"
"I should just chop you to death right now!" Zhou Ming almost couldn't resist drawing his sword.
Oda Heizo quickly sat up straight, the melancholy in his eyes completely gone.
"Actually, I was just joking with you." Oda Heizo took out a letter and presented it to Zhou Ming.
"What I'm truly troubled by is this matter."
Zhou Ming suspiciously took the letter, opened it, and read its contents, his brows furrowing slightly.
"Tokugawa Yamato, inviting me as a guest?"
He looked up, his brows furrowing even tighter.
"The Tokugawa Yamato who was once revered as the World's Greatest Swordsman?"
"Not 'once,' he still is. It's just that after Great Master Tokugawa announced his retirement, he no longer fought anyone, so his reputation has declined somewhat in recent years." Oda Heizo's face was filled with worry.
"He also comes from the Tokugawa family. This invitation for Zhou-kun to be a guest does not bode well!"
"The time is two days from now in the afternoon. He wouldn't try to forcibly keep me from attending the banquet, would he?" Zhou Ming put down the letter and said with a faint smile.
"If it's that simple, it would be fine. What if he wants to…" Oda Heizo's words stopped halfway, the rest unable to come out.
"Wouldn't that be even better?" Zhou Ming suddenly said.
"What?" Oda Heizo was stunned, suspecting he had misheard or that Zhou Ming had misunderstood his meaning.
However, seeing Zhou Ming's utterly serious expression, Oda Heizo understood Zhou Ming's meaning.
A hint of dread gradually appeared on his face.
"Time is sometimes worthless, and sometimes extremely valuable." Zhou Ming ignored Oda Heizo's frightened expression and spoke words Oda Heizo didn't understand.
"People's actions are always inevitably influenced by external factors. When a 'deadline' is approaching, I too have to try using some more aggressive methods."
'Because… it's been almost a month.' Zhou Ming didn't say the last sentence aloud, but murmured it in his heart.
The food he had prepared for his Gu worms could only last for one month. After a month, his Gu worms would starve to death in batches.
At that time, with his combat power greatly reduced, the threats he faced in this world would increase sharply.
The problem of food for the Gu worms has always been a challenge that restricts Zhou Ming.
There is no food replenishment in the plot world, so he can only store a large amount in the Gu world. Perishable food cannot be brought, so corresponding Gu worms cannot be chosen.
Zhou Ming had a headache gathering the two sets of Gu worms he currently possessed, carefully selecting them before finally settling on them.
Easy to feed, long food preservation time, and compatible with himself—managing to gather these dozen or so Gu worms had already exhausted Zhou Ming.
And now, the food problem appeared before him once again.
The mission time exceeded his expectations, and the reserves of Gu worm food simply couldn't last until The World's Greatest Warrior Tournament ended.
So Zhou Ming could no longer wait; he had to act in advance.
"It's a good thing this opportunity came knocking. Then, starting with you, let's end the plot of this world!"
Thanks to 'Flying Arrow sn' for the generous tip, adding one more chapter, mwah!