"The best swordsman in Edo and the demon sword Chana?" Makimura's eyes burst out with interest, "What is this? It seems very interesting. Miss Aqian, can you tell us more about it?"

Aqian shrugged: "I don't know much. I just happened to hear the words 'Edo's No. 1 Swordsman' and 'Demon Sword Zana' when I was serving them drinks."

"And I'm also busy now..."

Aqian let out a long sigh.

"If the lady boss sees me chatting with customers here instead of doing business, I will be scolded."

"That's it, forget it." Makimura smiled, "Then Miss Aqian, you can go on and do your own business. Ah, two plates of fennel beans, don't forget to bring them."

"Okay."

As soon as Aqian left with the dish in his arms, Asai turned his attention to Shimada, a native of Edo: "What are the No. 1 swordsman of Edo and the demon sword Chana?"

"Uh... well..." Shimada looked embarrassed, "I don't know very well. Edo has a population of one million, and there are some unknown rumors born every day, and I have always been interested in these rural rumors.

Not interested, so I never paid attention to it..."

"Then go ask the people at that table." Makimura grinned, "I happen to be very interested in the best swordsman in Edo and this demon sword."

"Please wait for me for a moment. Ah, I will ask you to keep my Odachi for the time being."

After saying that, Makimura, who was not carrying any weapons, picked up two bottles of unopened sake, and then strode towards the table of guests who had been making noisy noises since just now.

"Everyone! Can you add me?"

As Makimura spoke, he squeezed in among the guests at the table with a very familiar look on them, looking at them with doubtful eyes.

For Makimura, who has been crawling and wallowing in a mixed environment since childhood, "naturally blending into other people's circles" is simply a trivial matter to him.

Sure enough - the people at Makimura's table, who initially looked puzzled and looked at Makimura warily, began to chat with Makimura over wine after a while.

Makimura asked about their identities. They were all ordinary construction workers who could be seen everywhere in Edo. They would go to various izakayas to have a few drinks together almost every night, and talk about what they called "big events in the world" together.

Their behavior of spending a lot of money to drink every night is in line with the personality of the Edo people.

Edo people are famously not fond of saving money. If they have money today, they will spend it today. After spending it all, they will make more money tomorrow and then spend it again, and the cycle repeats. Hence, this saying was born: "'

Edozi 'doesn't have overnight money in his pocket'

Why Edo people generally like to "get drunk now" is quite complicated. A very important part of the reason is that the food and entertainment industries in Edo are too developed.

There are snack bars, restaurants, and izakayas everywhere. There are countless storytellers and jugglers. There are also gold-selling caves like Yoshiwara that most Edo men dream about.

The overdeveloped food and entertainment industries made Edo people dizzy and unable to restrain their desire to enjoy themselves, so they gradually developed the character of spending whatever money they had every day.

After quickly getting to know the guests at this table, Makimura didn't waste much time and went straight to the topic:

"Brother, I just heard what you seemed to be talking about about 'Edo's No. 1 Swordsman' and a demon sword. What is this? I'm from out of town. I came to Edo for the first time, and this is the first time I heard something about 'Edo'."

Where is the No. 1 Swordsman?"

"Oh! This!" A young man with a broad nose sitting next to Makimura let out a big belch, and then continued, "Are you interested in this?"

Makimura nodded vigorously.

"Hey, since you are interested, let me tell you. Brother, do you know Yamada Asemon Fumiaki?"

"Yamada Asemon Fumaki?" Makimura raised his eyebrows, "Yeah, I've heard of it."

Some time ago, when I accompanied Shimada to the Shimada family's residence, I happened to meet Shimada's father inviting someone from the Yamada Asaemon family to try out the sword. It happened that Makimura heard about "Yamada Asaemon" at that time.

The name "Emon Fumaki".

"He is the seventh generation head of the Yamada Asaemon family." Makimura added.

Broad-nosed nodded vigorously: "Yes, that's him, he is the number one swordsman in Edo."

"That Yamada Asemon Fumaki is the current number one swordsman in Edo?" Makimura looked shocked.

Broad-nosed nodded, but after nodding, he smiled bitterly and said: "Actually, there have always been different opinions on who the title of 'Edo's No. 1 Swordsman' belongs to."

"But at this stage, the most people think that Wen Xian is the current best swordsman in Edo - at least we all agree that Wen Xian is the well-deserved number one swordsman in Edo."

"Because there are the most rumors about Wenxian showing his powerful swordsmanship."

"Brother, do you know how the Yamada Asaemon family practices swordsmanship?"

"I don't know." Makimura shook his head honestly.

"The Yamada Asaemon family has been responsible for serving as executioners and sword testers for the shogunate for generations, so in order to practice swordsmanship, the Yamada Asaemon family has a very unique swordsmanship training method."

Having said this, Kuan Noi patted the back of his neck.

"Brother, you may not know - when cutting someone's head, the best place to insert the knife is between the third and fourth bones on the back of the neck from top to bottom. From this position, the knife can cut the head

Cut most beautifully."

As early as when he was still a Yuli in Kyoto, Makimura had heard such trivial knowledge from a colleague who was a jailer.

But in order not to spoil the interest of the wide nose, so that the wide nose could continue talking, Makimura deliberately pretended to be stupid and nodded as if he didn't understand at all: "So beheading is so particular..."

"That's right. So in order to practice the accuracy of swinging the sword, the Yamada Asaemon family created this training method: put two tatami mats together, and then swing the sword to split the gap between the two tatami mats."

"The gap between two tatami mats?" Makimura frowned, "The gap between two tatami mats that are joined together... is that gap only as wide as a few hairs?"

"Yes." Kuanbi nodded, "So this training method is simply incredible."

"It is said that it is a great achievement to be able to accurately insert the knife into the gap between the tatami mats every time without damaging the two tatami mats that are joined together."

"The Yamada Asaemon family has been undergoing this kind of training for generations, so everyone in the Yamada Asaemon family is a fierce and accurate swordsman. I want to chop the third bone on the back of your neck and

The gap between the 4th bone should definitely be cut into the gap between the 2nd and 3rd bones.”

"The current head of Asaemon Yamada, that is Fumaki, is a swordsman who has perfected the accuracy of his sword."

"I heard that Wenxian could cut off the wings of flying flies without damaging the fly's body."

"Chopping off a fly's wings without damaging the fly's body... this is too exaggerated." Makimura couldn't help but laugh.

"This rumor may be an exaggerated fabrication, but a real incident happened recently related to Wen Xian's powerful swordsmanship. That's what we were talking about just now."

Kuan Noi picked up the wine glass, took a few gulps of wine, and then continued vividly:

"Chopping off the heads of criminals sentenced to beheading at the execution ground has always been one of the main tasks of the Yamada Asaemon family."

"Just a few days ago, Wen Xian was invited to the execution ground as usual to chop off the head of a murderer."

"But after pulling back the hair on the back of the murderer's neck, everyone at the execution ground was surprised to find that the man had the five characters 'East Photo Daquanxian' tattooed on the back of his neck."

"This scared everyone in the execution ground to death. Tosho Daigover is now the sacred name of Ieyasu Lord." [Ieyasu Lord: Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first shogunate of the Edo shogunate. As for the sacred name, you can understand it as similar to a temple name.

Something like a posthumous title]

"After careful interrogation, I found out that before committing the crime, this guy knew that he would definitely be arrested and executed, so he had these five words tattooed on the back of his neck to disgust the government officials."

"Slashing the back of the neck with Ieyasu's divine name tattooed on it is a very disrespectful act."

"If you want to change the punishment, you have to report it to various levels, which is very troublesome."

"Just when everyone in the execution ground was at a loss what to do, Wen Xian, who had looked indifferent from the beginning to the end, showed his sword."

"Bunxian is a well-known sword-drawing master in Edo. It is said that his sword-drawing skills were so fast that his enemies were beheaded before he realized that his opponent Wenxian had already drawn his sword."

"Wen Xian first used his sword-drawing skills to peel off the skin of the prisoner's neck that had the words 'East Zhao Daquanxian' tattooed on it."

"The prisoner didn't even have time to scream. Wen Xian swung his knife again and chopped off his head."

"It wasn't until Wen Xian shook off the blood on the blade and put it back into its sheath that the human skin with the words 'Dongzhao Daquanxian' tattooed on it fell to the ground."

It must be said that this broad-nosed man has a talent for storytelling. He told this short story so vividly that even Makimura was fascinated by it.

"Use the sword-drawing technique to peel off the skin from the back of a person's neck..." Makimura's eyes showed unconcealable astonishment.

Although he didn't have much research on the sword-drawing technique, he also knew how difficult it was to use the sword-drawing technique to peel off the skin on the back of the neck of a person who was kneeling on the ground in a standing position.

"By the way, what I just said is not fabricated at all." Kuanbi added, "I know a person who works at the execution ground. Wen Xian is executing this guy who has the Tosho Daigon seal tattooed on the back of his neck.

Before, my friend happened to be present, and these were real events that happened just a few days ago."

"What's going on with the demon sword Zena?" Makimura asked.

"Oh, this is the sword that has been passed down from generation to generation in the Yamada Asaemon family when we were talking about Bunxen."

"The demon sword Zena is a family treasure passed down from generation to generation of the Yamada Asaemon family."

Having said this, Kuanbi took a few more sips of wine to moisten his throat.

"The full name of Chana is 'Vairochana'."

"Vairocana is the sword of the previous generation of the Yamada Asaemon family: the sixth generation head of the Yamada Asaemon family, Yoshihiro Yamada Asaemon."

"According to legend, this sword is made of special steel and a special sword-making technique. It is indestructible."

"Ji Heng always uses this sword when executing people."

"I heard that until Jiheng passed away, he used Vairocana to send at least a thousand people into the underworld."

"After Yoshitsune passed away, he left a family motto: always pass on Vairocana to the best disciples of Yamada Asaemon's family."

"Vairochana has now been passed to the hands of the current seventh generation head: Wen Xian."

"However, Wen Xian was not like his father Ji Heng, who used Vairochana to execute everyone. He only took out this precious sword when executing warriors. When executing civilians, he used ordinary swords."
To be continued...