Headscratchers / Sword of the Stranger

• A confusion around the immortality ritual involving Kotarou. For one thing, the Ming warriors are trying to capture Kotarou to perform the ritual before a certain date (possibly New Year's?), which according to Lord Bai-Luan happens only once a year. However, at least in the English dub, Lord Bai-Luan said that Kotarou's soul would leave his body during the ritual, which would mean Kotarou's death. First of all, what part of the "blood of the child" meant straight up killing Kotarou? If they can only get the blood once a year, it seems to like the prophecy was indicating that they could only take Kotarou's blood once a year (as in once a year over multiple years), not just a one-and-done deal (maybe the original Japanese was less ambiguous). And, second of all, wouldn't it have been easier to just take Kotarou back to China with them and perform the ritual there? I mean, they'd have to wait another year to do the ritual, but since the health of the emperor was never talked about, It's assumed that he would be healthy enough to wait another year. It seems like that would have been a better investment than wasting tons of money and troops to build and fortify a temple.
  • Maybe the prophecy said they needed all his blood? A lot of backstory was left really unclear. Like how did they know it was Kotarou specifically? As to the location and going back to China, there was an offhand mention about taking measurements and placing things in certain ways which it could mean the ritual could only take place in certain locations...