Chapter 360: Sakura Nation Shaken! Their National Treasure Has Been Unearthed! (1)
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
“Hahahaha!”
At that moment, Luo Feng, looking at the blade in his hand, wore a smile as radiant as a blooming flower.
“What is the host laughing at? What kind of laughter is that?” “Damn, is he possessed? Why is he behaving so strangely?”
“Master Gu, run, the host seems to be cursed.”
Luo Feng’s laughter was so eerie that it sent chills down everyone’s spine. Late in the night, in an ancient tomb, such laughter was more than enough to frighten people.
At this moment, Master Gu turned his head, looked at Luo Feng and asked,
“Little Luo, what is the matter?”
“Hahaha, I found a great treasure. What other reason could there be?”
Luo Feng’s smile widened gradually as he burst into hearty laughter. Master Gu walked briskly over to him. Anything that Luo Feng would call a treasure had to be something remarkable indeed.
“Little Luo, what kind of treasure is it? To think you’re laughing so heartily because of it?”
“This is the treasure!” Luo Feng raised his hand, pointing at the sword on the table. “A sword!”
“A sword?”
“Yes, Master Gu, look closely!” Luo Feng began to explain, “This is the Myoka
Muramasa.”
“HUH??”
“What kind of sword is it?”
“It sounds Japanese, doesn’t it? Also, why does this sword look like the ancient swords forged in their nation?”
Gu Santong had a pretty good understanding of the Sakura Nation. He looked at the text and the shape of the sword, and immediately made a few acute observations.
“It resembles them because it is one!” Luo Feng firmly stated. After nodding, he picked up the knife by its handle. It was a sword more than a meter long, with the handle occupying one-third of its length.
This style of knife is often seen in anime and television dramas, usually as a sword from the Sakura Nation. “This sword has a widely known name, yes, it is the Demon Blade Muramasa!”
Upon hearing Luo Feng’s words, a look of sudden realization appeared on Gu Santong’s face. He had heard of this name before.
“Damn! Is this the sword from the Sakura Nation? The legendary Demon Blade Muramasa?
“How did a Japanese sword end up here?”
“Host, can you bring it closer, so we can get a better look?”
Upon hearing this, Luo Feng displayed the sword, inch by inch, in front of everyone. “The Lotus Sutra, remember this name well!” he declared. “To understand an artifact, you must know the background of where it comes from, otherwise, you’ll just be left in the dark!”
“Take this sword, for example. It’s clearly from the Sakura Nation, but why is it here? Simple, it was a tribute. During the Tang Dynasty, the Sakura Nation overestimated their strength and sent out a hundred thousand naval forces to attack Goryeo, a vassal of the Tang Dynasty, using Goryeo as a stepping stone to directly attack the Tang Dynasty. But they were annihilated upon landing! Realizing the disparity, the Sakura Nation sent people to learn from the advanced culture of the Tang Dynasty.”
“At that time, the status of the Sakura Nation was quite low, and they were obligated to provide tributes every year. But one cannot deny that this nation had great learning ability. Otherwise, their current sitting posture and clothing wouldn’t be so similar to our ancient times. They simply learned from us.”
After Luo Feng finished speaking, he picked up another sword. “Take a good look, don’t these two swords look alike?”
“Was this also a tribute to the Tang Dynasty?” Gu Santong asked.
“No, this was a tribute or perhaps a gift to the Ming Dynasty. By that time, the
Sakura Nation had learned a lot of the Central Plains’ culture, and the Lotus
Sutra engraved on the sword proves everything.”
It was simple. One sword was a tribute to the Tang Dynasty, while the other was a tribute to the Ming Dynasty. The Tang Dynasty sword was likely passed down from Yuan Zai’s tomb.
“Moreover, you should all know that Muramasa is not the name of a single sword, unlike the Qixing Sword or the Tai’a Sword. It refers to a category of swords! In other words, all swords made by the Muramasa family in the Sakura Nation were called Muramasa! The most famous of them was the Myoka
Muramasa!”
Swords are not demons, they become so through human use. The Muramasa were a family of swordsmiths living in the Sakura Nation. The swords or spears they forged were all named “Muramasa”. The swords of the Sakura Nation, due to their excellent forging technique and a combination of strength and sharpness, hold an important place in the history of world weaponry. Muramasa swords, with their superior quality and frequent use during the constant warfare of the Sengoku period, gradually gained fame. However, due to the widespread use of Muramasa swords, many members of the Tokugawa clan were injured by them, and Tokugawa leyasu believed that the Muramasa held a curse against the Tokugawa clan, and hence ordered a ban on the use and wearing of Muramasa swords. As the Edo shogunate established by the Tokugawa clan gradually stabilized and the Sakura Nation entered the relatively peaceful Edo period (1603-1867), more and more strange stories about people being inexplicably injured by the Muramasa swords appeared, and the Muramasa gradually gained the reputation of being a “demon sword” up to this day.
The most famous of the Muramasa swords today is called “Myoka Muramasa”.
As the content of the “Lotus Sutra” is engraved on its blade, it is named as such (which shows that this sword has a deep connection with the Nichiren sect of
Buddhism in the Sakura Nation, which is also known as the Lotus sect). The “Myoka Muramasa” was likely forged in the 16th century and was the cherished sword of Kato Kiyomasa, the first lord of the Saga Domain..
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