43 Chapter 43: Mentally Exhausted

Zhou Ming, come out and fight me! Are you too scared to challenge me? You coward!"

A samurai clad in full armor shouted loudly outside Oda Hirakura's courtyard.

By now, quite a few onlookers had gathered around, which made the samurai even more excited, thinking that his reputation was surely on the rise. Of course, he did not realize that the onlookers were looking at him as if he were a dead pig.

After shouting a few curses and finding no response from inside, the samurai prepared to come up with more offensive words. But then, he finally heard a cold snort.

"Noisy!"

Swish!

A figure suddenly appeared at a speed that he couldn't even follow with his eyes, and a bright light flashed in front of him before he knew it.

Then, he knew nothing.

Thump! Thump!

Looking at the headless body that had fallen to the ground and the rolling head, Zhou Ming said impatiently, "Why are there still such rubbish people bothering me?"

Just as Matsui Kyoshin had run out of the courtyard, he saw the body on the ground, and his eyelids twitched.

"It's my negligence in my work. Please punish me, sir!"

He didn't dare to argue, and quickly admitted his mistake.

"Forget it. Find someone to clean up and clean this place quickly."

Zhou Ming waved his hand tiredly and walked back into the courtyard.

This incident couldn't be blamed on Matsui Kyoshin. Since his battle with Hirakawa Taisho, his reputation has spread, and the challenges and assassinations against him have not stopped for a moment.

At first, many brave samurai came to challenge him, only to be mercilessly killed by him. It really scared off quite a few people, but then the number of assassination attempts increased.

The thirty people brought by Oda Hirakura, along with Matsui Kyoshin, had all become highly nervous, constantly on guard against possible assassinations, as well as having to clean up after failed assassinations.

Zhou Ming now regretted that he had promoted himself so arrogantly for no reason.

At first, he thought that he was limited by the rules of Kyoto and that it was unrealistic to go around picking fights and destroying dojos like he did in Junshan City, so he chose to spread his reputation and wait for others to come and challenge him.

But he soon realized that he was wrong. This was the first time he tried to follow the rules since entering this world, and he found that no one was following the rules with him.

Look at these endless assassinations, look at these challenging fights, look at the poisoning that changed the color of his food, and look at the shameless seductions... Oh, he couldn't say that. Anyway, since that day, Zhou Ming and the thirty samurai from Junshan City had not been able to sleep peacefully.

Moreover, the combat experience provided by ordinary samurai was of little use in improving his swordsmanship, even if he killed a lot of them.

This plan seemed like a bad deal no matter how you looked at it.

Returning to the courtyard, he saw Oda Hirakura sitting under a tree, looking melancholy at a lush green bamboo forest on the other side of the pond. The tea in his hand was misty, more like a poet brewing emotions than a daimyo.

Even the masterminds behind the assassins who were sent to kill Zhou Ming did not think about killing Oda Hirakura on a whim.

The consequences of killing a samurai and killing a daimyo were completely different.

If Nohara Momonosuke had not been close to death, the world would have remained nominally united, and at this time, no one would have actively intervened to upset this delicate balance and kill a daimyo, drawing all daimyos into suspicion and conflict.

So, perhaps the most leisurely person in these few days was Oda Hirakura.

"Zhou Kun." Seeing Zhou Ming sitting opposite him, Oda Hirakura's hesitation was almost overflowing like the pond.

"In two days' time, all the daimyos who arrive in Kyoto will participate in the banquet. Do you think I can hold my own against the alliance of the daimyos?"

"I'll just cut you down right now!" Zhou Ming almost couldn't help drawing his sword.

Oda Hirakura quickly sat up straight, and his melancholy gaze vanished.

"Actually, I was joking with you just now." Oda Hirakura took out a letter and handed it to Zhou Ming.

"What really troubles me is this."

Zhou Ming suspiciously picked up the letter and opened it to read the contents once, his brow furrowing.

"Tokugawa Yamato has invited me to be his guest?"

He raised his head, his brow furrowing even more tightly.

"That Tokugawa Yamato who was once revered as the number one in the world?"

"Not once, even now. Only after Tokugawa Yamato announced his retirement did he stop fighting with people, so his reputation has declined in recent years." Oda Hirakura looked distressed.

"He is also a person from the Tokugawa family. This invitation to you, Zhou kun, does not bode well!"

"The time is the afternoon of two days later. He won't force me to stay and not attend the banquet, will he?" Zhou Ming put down the letter and smiled lightly.

"That's easy, but what if he wants to..." Oda Hirakura's words stopped halfway, unable to continue.

"Isn't that even better?" Zhou Ming suddenly said.

"What?" Oda Hirakura was stunned, suspecting that he had misheard or that Zhou Ming had misunderstood his meaning.

But seeing Zhou Ming's serious expression, Oda Hirakura also understood what Zhou Ming meant.

A hint of fear gradually appeared on his face.

"Sometimes time is not very valuable, but sometimes it is very valuable." Zhou Ming disregarded Oda Hirakura's frightened expression and continued to say things that Oda Hirakura did not understand.

"People's actions are always inevitably influenced by the outside world. When a 'deadline' is approaching, I also have to try to use some more radical means."

"Because... it's almost been a month..."

The food he prepared for his Gu worms can only last for a month, beyond which batches of his Gu worms will starve to death.

By then, his combat effectiveness will greatly decrease, and the threats he faces in this world will increase rapidly.

The food problem for Gu worms has always been a difficult issue for Zhou Ming. In the plot world, there is no food supplement, so he can only store a large amount of food in the Gu world. Foods that are prone to spoilage and deterioration cannot be brought, so corresponding Gu worms cannot be chosen either.

When he tried to gather the two sets of Gu worms he currently carries, Zhou Ming was already struggling, and it was only through careful selection that he was able to determine them.

Being easy to feed, with a long food preservation time, and able to match his own attributes, the dozen or so Gu worms that he managed to collect had already exhausted him.

And now, the food problem has arisen once again before him. The task has taken longer than expected, and the reserves of Gu worm food cannot support him until the end of the World's Number One Samurai Tournament.

Therefore, Zhou Ming cannot wait any longer and must take action in advance.

"Since the opportunity has presented itself, let's start with you and end this world's plot!"