"Ho... that direction you go in... ho ho... it's useless... there are... ho... a lot of dead trees there... that direction... must... ho... it's all on fire..."

The words of the old monk with the goatee made Ogata's figure and expression tremble.

Immediately afterwards, an old monk with a goatee was heard asking Ogata with a stern face:

"Are you...going to find...the Master now?"

"...I have no plans to go find Master Sengen right now." Ogata replied, "I only plan to rescue my companions and friends' families who are being held captive by thugs lurking in Mount Koya."

"...then...ok." The "old monk with goatee", whose breath became much smoother, tightened the wooden Buddha statue in his hand, "I have lived in...Koyasan...for decades."

"I am very familiar with this area..."

"I'm here to help you... show you the way... and tell you... which places are... not easily affected by fire..."

"I just need you...to take me...to the back mountain..."

"I want...to use my eyes...to witness..."

"Is there really evil hidden in the Holy Land...?"

…

…

Mount Koya, where Hasegawa and others were imprisoned

Hasegawa dragged his temporarily disabled left hand and held the knife he snatched from the slender-eyed young man in his right hand, leading Isshiki Naoshu and others through the passage of the prison quickly.

There were no guards visible in the passage, so Hasegawa and his party were able to proceed unhindered.

"Chief, Hasegawa-sama." Naoshu's daughter-in-law, Isshiki Shimizu, who had never seen any trouble, asked in a timid tone, "Do you know how to get out?"

"I don't know." Hasegawa shook his head directly, "But don't worry, I will definitely take you out."

"There is no need to rush out immediately."

"Now try to find my subordinates who were also arrested."

"As long as I find my subordinates, my chances of escaping will be greatly increased!"

Hasegawa, who has always loved his soldiers as his own son, would rather die than "abandon his subordinates".

Toyotomi Nobuhide had previously told him that his subordinates were now well fed and well fed. Hasegawa believed that his words should be credible.

According to Hasegawa's observation and judgment, Toyotomi Nobuhide should really want to take him under his command.

Since he really wanted to win over Hasegawa and take him under his command, then unless Toyotomi Nobuhide was a mentally ill person, it would be impossible for him to do something like "kill Hasegawa and his subordinates".

Hasegawa can only hope that his subordinates are also imprisoned in this place.

In fact, regardless of Hasegawa's compassion, from a practical point of view, Hasegawa and his subordinates must be saved.

Although Hasegawa is quite confident in his skills, he also knows that he is already an uncle who is almost 50 years old.

Physical strength, etc., has declined seriously in recent years.

In an unfamiliar place, dragging an old body and leading three people to escape from a dangerous place alone is extremely risky no matter how you think about it.

Rather than taking such a risk, it would be better to rescue his subordinates first and try to reunite with them.

Military training is one of Hasegawa's most proud strengths.

Under his training and tempering, all members of Huo Fu Thief Kai's command have extremely high combat effectiveness and organization.

This time he brought 23 of his subordinates from Mount Koya.

Although among these 23 people, there are some newcomers who have been specially brought to gain experience and improve their qualifications, the vast majority of these 23 people are still experienced veterans.

If all 23 of his subordinates can be rescued, the chances of escaping from here will undoubtedly be greatly increased.

How big is this place...?

Hasegawa, who was unfamiliar with this place and had to lead Naoshu and others around in the narrow passage like a headless fly, couldn't help but feel this way in his heart.

According to Hasegawa's observation, this place should be an underground prison transformed from a cave.

After connecting the various caves and repairing each cave, a beautiful and spacious underground prison was born.

Hasegawa is actually not afraid of the size of this underground prison.

He was only afraid that his subordinates were not locked up in this place...

After turning into an unknown number of narrow passages, Hasegawa finally heard the faint sound of conversations coming from ahead.

After raising his hand to signal Naoshu and others behind him to stop, Hasegawa held the knife, lowered his center of gravity, and moved forward bit by bit in a posture similar to squatting on the ground.

The sounds of small conversations came from behind the corner in front.

Hasegawa carefully walked to the edge of the corner, pressed his body against the rock wall of the corner, and then poked half of his head out of the corner.

The moment he glanced around the corner and saw the scene behind the corner clearly, a relieved smile immediately appeared on Hasegawa's face.

"Finally...I found you..."

Hasegawa strode away from the corner where he was hiding and walked out.

Behind the corner is a huge prison cell.

This cell was probably transformed from a natural rock cave. The space is extremely spacious. It should not be a problem to accommodate more than thirty people. A wooden fence is built between the cave and the passage. A spacious cell is just like this.

Done.

I saw more than twenty people imprisoned behind this cell.

And these twenty or so people, without exception, are all very familiar faces to Hasegawa.

After Hasegawa appeared from behind the corner, the "residents" in the cell were stunned for a moment, and then they all rushed to the cell door with expressions of ecstasy.

"Hasegawa-sama! Why are you here?"

"Hasegawa-sama, I finally meet you!"

"Hasegawa-sama, where exactly is this place?"

…

Facing these words of "Hasegawa-sama", Hasegawa said helplessly while taking out the bunch of keys he just got from the slender-eyed young man:

"Everyone calm down first."

"Let's escape from here first."

“I’ll talk about these things in detail later.”

After finishing speaking, Hasegawa took out one of the keys from the bunch of keys he picked up from the slender-eyed young man, and inserted it into the large iron lock that tightly closed the cell door of his subordinates.

There are 13 keys in this bunch of keys.

It only takes less than half a minute to try each key.

But after trying every key, Hasegawa was shocked to find that none of the keys matched the lock of the cell.

"Tsk... Damn... it's a waste of my time." After whispering a curse word, Hasegawa threw the bunch of keys at his feet like trash, and then waved to Naoshu behind him, "Mr. Isshiki,

Please give me an iron cannon."

"Ah good!"

Naoshu quickly handed the iron cannon on his back to Hasegawa.

"All of you, stand back."

After roaring like this at his subordinates who were crowding around the cell door, Hasegawa raised his flintlock gun and pressed the muzzle of the gun against the short, thin lock tube, the weakest part of the iron lock.

boom!

Gunshots and ear-piercing crackling sounds exploded at the same time.

The locked barrel that had been shot had dense cracks like broken glass.

After throwing away the empty musket in his hand, Hasegawa grabbed the iron lock and broke it hard. With a "click" sound, the iron lock was finally opened on the physical level.

"Come out quickly." Hasegawa opened the door and waved his subordinates to come out of the cell. Then he turned to Naoshu and the others and shouted, "Mr. Isshiki, please distribute the iron cannons you brought to me.

's subordinates."

Zhizhou: "Yes."

The subordinates were successfully rescued, and none of them were missing. This made Hasegawa's big stone that had been hanging in his heart from just now finally fall halfway.

However... the big stone in his heart had just fallen halfway, and the sound that suddenly reached Hasegawa's ears made the big stone rise back to its original position.

Blah blah blah...

Hasegawa heard a very dense number of footsteps approaching quickly not far away.

His expression suddenly changed, he raised his arms and shouted:

"Hide, find a place to hide!"

*******

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Chapter completed!