I formed the strongest swordsman group

Nearly half an hour passed quietly, and after Qingdeng's game, another eye-catching contest finally appeared on the field again.

The "Three Heroes" are finally on the stage!

The first "Three Heroes" whose name was sung and played first was Tao Taro Morishita of Shigakukan.

For this competition, many spectators regard Qingdeng and the "Three Heroes" who have recently become more and more famous as the favorites who are "most likely to win the championship".

Qingdeng's amazing performance of instantly killing his opponent with a single sword undoubtedly increased the appetite of the spectators.

Many spectators now have quite high expectations for the "Three Heroes" - they are looking forward to seeing the "Three Heroes" who are listed by them as the favorites to win the championship like Qingdeng also show their brilliant performance for them.

After hearing Morishita's name being sung, the spectators in the martial arts seats turned their curious eyes to the arena.

Morishita's appearance... well-deserved reputation - with a beast face that looks like a "pig turned into a human", trying to make people look away.

Many spectators who had never seen Morishita before cast strange glances at Morishita after Morishita played.

Morishita seemed to be accustomed to being looked at by people with this strange gaze. He walked to the arena with a bamboo sword in his hand, changed into his protective gear, and stood and saluted his opponent in an orderly manner. , and then began to compete.

Morishita, who was born in the Scholars Academy, the swordsmanship he uses is naturally the Kagami Akechi who pays attention to the "position" of movements.

A person with such a good-looking man uses Jingxin Akechiliu, who is known as "the most elegant sword technique"...it's a bit weird.

After Morishita switched the sword-holding action to the lower section with unhurried movements, he took the lead in launching the first attack on the opponent in front of him.

Morishita is worthy of being a swordsman with the title of "Three Heroes".

In terms of swordsmanship and superb movements, Morishita is far superior to the opponent in front of him.

At the beginning of the trial cooperation, Morishita launched a unilateral suppression.

It only took 3 swords to disrupt the opponent's rhythm, the 4th sword destroyed the opponent's center of gravity, and finally knocked down the opponent with the 5th sword.

According to common sense, being able to defeat an opponent with only 5 swords in a game is considered a particularly powerful thing-however, after experiencing the baptism of Qingdeng's amazing performance just now, the appetite of the spectators has now been suppressed. Tune up extremely high.

Things like "Morishita's five swords knock down opponents" can no longer ignite the passion of the spectators, so he didn't get much praise and applause when Morishita knocked down his opponent.

Following Morishita, the other two seats of the "Three Heroes" - Hirayuki Oisaki from the Xuanwukan, and Hiroyuki the new wife from the training hall were also sung to their names one by one.

Together with Morishita, these two people who are called "Three Heroes" indeed have excellent strength compared with their peers. However... Neither Kai Saki Hirayuki nor the new wife Hiroshi failed to reproduce the feat of "Qingdeng killing the opponent with a single sword".

The new wife who was closest to Qingdeng's feat also took a full three strikes before knocking down her opponent.

Although the pace of the competition is very fast, because there are a lot of contestants in this competition, there are a total of 112 contestants, so it took a long time. It was not until near noon that the first round was finally finished. knockout.

After a fierce competition, half of the contestants were successfully eliminated, and the remaining half advanced to the second round of knockout.

The second round of knockout matches will be held at 8:00 p.m. (2:00 p.m.), and all spectators will now have a lunch break of about an hour.

After the old samurai who served as the master of ceremonies announced a temporary break, and the competition would not resume until an hour later, many spectators in the martial arts seats left their seats one after another, or they wanted to go home after seeing enough excitement, or wanted to have some lunch casually , and then come back and watch the game again.

Those merchants who set up food stalls in Asakusa after seeing this rare opportunity to make money, immediately welcomed a wave of customers who made them laugh so hard that they couldn't close their mouths.

"Oh, this competition is much more exciting than I imagined."

"I feel a bit regretful. Except for Ju Qingdeng who was the first to play, no other players have surprised me."

"I don't know who will have a chance to win the championship?"

"The person who can win the championship must be either Ju Qingdeng or the 'Three Heroes'?"

"Hahaha, I think Ju Qingdeng has the best chance of winning! Only he can knock down his opponent with a single strike."

"You can't say that, maybe it's just that the opponents that the 'Three Heroes' and the others met happened to be stronger, while the opponents that Ju Qingdeng met happened to be weaker."

...

After the temporary break, the spectators were enthusiastically discussing the game just now.

As the saying goes, "a layman watches the excitement, an insider watches the way".

Most of the spectators are ordinary civilians who don't understand swordsmanship or swordsmen who are not skilled.

In their eyes, Qingdeng, who ended the game with one sword, and the "Three Heroes" who used three or five swords to defeat their opponents should be about the same in strength—one sword and three or five swords...these two are not the same Well! In terms of quantity, it is only a few swords away.

The "Three Heroes" who took a few more swords than Qingdeng to defeat their opponents, their strength is probably only a little worse than Qingdeng-many people think so.

As for those who have certain attainments in swordsmanship...their thinking is completely different from these laymen.

As long as someone has a certain understanding of swordsmanship, after watching Qingdeng's instant kill Adachi's sword, they will never be able to say "the strength of the 'Three Heroes' should be similar to Qingdeng's".

The speed, angle and timing of Qingdeng's sword strike are "Three Heroes"... No, all the contestants in this competition can't match it!

On the seat in the military training hall, the new wife Hiroshi, who was still on the seat, lowered his head, and said hoarsely to Saito Yakuro, who was also still on the seat sitting in front of him:

"Master... Do you think I have a good chance of winning against that Ju Qingdeng...? Please tell me the truth."

When he asked this question to his master Saito Yakuro, the new wife Hiroshi’s expression was extremely gloomy, as if black water would drip out at any time, his lips were tightly pursed, the corners of his mouth were drooping, and the pupils of his eyes and between his eyebrows were full of blood. Strong anxiety, unwillingness, panic and other emotions...

After witnessing the sword that Qingdeng instantly killed Adachi, Hiroshi suddenly realized that the strength of this Ju Qingdeng...was much stronger than he imagined!

If it were him, he would never be able to kill Adachi so neatly and beautifully.

Although he has already realized that Qingdeng's strength is far superior to his, but the new wife Kuan still has a little luck in his heart.

Maybe... After facing Ju Qingdeng, I still have a certain chance of winning——With such a conjecture, after hesitating for a while, Xinwife Hiroshi decided to go to his master Saito Yakuro for verification.

As the owner of the military training hall, "Saito of Power", he will definitely have a clearer and more comprehensive judgment of Qingdeng's strength than his new wife.

He was looking forward to hearing an answer like "You are not completely hopeless" from Saito Yakuro.

If this is the case, he can still ignite his fighting spirit and fight against Qing Deng.

"Hmm..." Hearing this question suddenly thrown at him by his new wife Hiroshi, Saito Yakuro stroked the short gray beard on his chin, then turned his head, and asked his new wife Hiroshi while smiling helplessly, " New Wife-kun, my answer...may not be very pleasant. Even so, do you still want to listen?"

"..." The new wife Kuan gritted her teeth after contemplating for a while, "Master, please answer truthfully."

Seeing that his new wife Kanto had said so, Saito Yakuro slowly paused his hand stroking his beard: "You have no chance of winning against that Ju Qingdeng now."

After that, Yakuro Saito grinned with emotion.

"In the same period, the strength of that Ju Qingdeng can be regarded as the best."

"Looking all over Edo... No, in all of Japan, there should be no one who is at the same age as Tachibana Qingto, who has the strength of Tachibana Ayoto."

After finishing speaking, Saito Yakuro turned his gaze to the direction of the seats of the group in the test hall, and began to stroke the short beard on his chin again with his palm.

"If there are no accidents... the winner of this competition should be Ju Qing Deng."

Ju Qingdeng should be unstoppable in this competition - Saito Yakuro is not the only one who has such an idea.

As early as after seeing the sword that Qingtou instantly killed Adachi, "Momoi of the position" Momoi Haruzang had already smiled wryly.

The same is true of some other swordsmen with certain attainments in swordsmanship. After watching Qingdeng's match, they can all see that—except for some accidents, Qingdeng should be able to crush all the way he meets. All the opponents finally won the first victory of this competition without any effort.

Many sword gym owners even let out a long sigh with regret on their faces. They expected their disciples to try to win a good ranking in this competition. Now that Qingdeng is here, they can only go to Looking forward to their disciples trying to win the second place.

After hearing Saito Yakuro's answer in a firm tone, the new wife Hiroshi's expression froze at first, and then suddenly tightened his hands on his legs.

The unwillingness, annoyance, anxiety and other colors on the face are so intense that they seem to be condensed into concrete entities.

The new wife Kuan subconsciously turned his head and looked at Qingdeng's seat in the distance.

As soon as he looked over, Xinjuhiro's expression froze again - he saw "The Strongest in Edo" and "Chiba of Skill" Chiba Eijiro, talking with Qingdeng very enthusiastically about something...

...

...

After the referee announced a temporary break and the spectators dispersed in twos and threes, Qing Deng stood up expressionlessly and walked towards Zhou Zhu.

"……master."

"How should I put it... I have been deceived by you guys for a long time."

After finishing the first game and returning to his seat, Qingdeng corrected his mentality immediately, and watched the other players' games seriously and carefully.

Quite a few of the contestants have the ability to make you fall into a tough fight—Qingdeng at that time still believed in Zhou Zhu’s reminder that he would tell him once or even several times almost every day during this time.

He wants to watch the game seriously! Try to remember the tricks used by each master so that you can prepare for the next game!

With this in mind, Qingdeng watched the game seriously.

Then he was full of question marks.

The more he went to watch the game, the more he couldn't help frowning.

How come the strength of these players...are so inferior?

When vaguely aware of something wrong, Qingdeng still chooses to trust his master.

The three known as the "Three Heroes" haven't appeared on the stage yet, and the strength of the three of them may not be underestimated. After comforting himself in this way, Qingdeng played the game patiently. Read on.

After finally waiting for the first "Three Heroes" Morishita to stand on the field, Qingdeng immediately lifted his spirits and watched Morishita's every movement with full attention.

After watching the entire process of Morishita defeating his opponent, Qingdeng only had one thought in his mind:

ha? "Three Heroes"... that's it?

Afterwards, after the other two seats of "Three Heroes", Zhui Qi and his new wife came on the field, Qingdeng also patiently watched the match between the two.

If Qingdeng were to use a more polite way to evaluate the strength of the "Three Heroes"...that is, when fighting against them, "Gudan" would not activate.

To put it bluntly, it is completely capable of crushing them.

After seeing the strength of the "Three Heroes" with his own eyes, Qing Deng finally understood - he was played by Zhou Zhu!

"Hohohoho..." After Qingdeng came to "confront" him, Zhou Zhu rubbed his chin while slowly turning his head, and smiled dryly at Qingdeng as if a lie had been wronged, "Mr. Ju... ...We don't call this 'cheat'."

"We call this 'white lie'."

Zhou Zhuyan succinctly explained to Qingdeng why he joined forces with Kondo, Hijikata, and Okita to tell Qingdeng this "white lie".

To put it simply, it was to prevent Qingdeng from becoming arrogant.

They lived under the same roof with Qingdeng, and after Qingdeng had experienced the "Battle of Fanshu Diaoyu", they already knew that with Qingdeng's current strength, in this competition only for newcomers, It was completely random killing.

They worried that if Qingdeng was informed of this fact, Qingdeng would become complacent and complacent, thus neglecting the usual practice and not taking a serious attitude towards this competition

Ever since, Zhou Zhu approached Okita and the others, made peace with them, and took advantage of the poor information that "Qingdeng doesn't know the strength of the newcomers in other sword gyms in Edo" to deceive Qingdeng and make Qingdeng keep going. Thinking that there will be a master who is as powerful as him in this competition, Qing Deng puts all his energy into preparing for the competition.

After listening to Zhou Zhu's explanation, Qingdeng couldn't help twitching the corners of his mouth, and then sighed with a strange expression.

"Tachibana-kun." Kondo, who was sitting next to Zhou Zhu, probably thought that Qingdeng was dissatisfied with Zhou Zhu's "white lie", but he smiled apologetically at Qingdeng, "I'm sorry, we been lying to you."

Kondo wanted to say something more to Qingdeng, but Qingdeng waved his hand first, interrupting Kondo's words: "It's okay, I can understand your good intentions, and I don't mean to blame you."

It's not that Qing Deng couldn't understand Zhou's intention to help them, and he didn't get angry because of it.

After knowing the truth and knowing that there is no player who can match his strength in this competition, Qingdeng only feels a little... regrettable.

He was expecting to face some powerful opponents in this competition, and get a good taste of the style of each genre...

At this time, Qingdeng suddenly heard a magnetic young male voice that was a little strange to him coming from beside him:

"Excuse me—is it convenient for you to take a step?"

Hearing this strange male voice, Qingdeng was startled for a moment, then quickly turned his head to follow the sound - he saw a young man with a soft smile on his face, walking towards him with unhurried steps .

"Eijiro?" Kondo on the side raised his eyebrows.

The young man who was walking towards Qingdeng was none other than Eijiro Chiba.

"What's wrong?" Qingdeng blinked at Chiba Eijiro suspiciously, "Is there something wrong?"

He asked Chiba Eijiro who suddenly appeared and asked him "Is it convenient now?" while looking at this man known as the "strongest".

When the Chiba family finally appeared on the field and joined them in the test hall, Qingdeng hadn't had time to say a word to Chiba Eijiro, and he didn't even have a good look at Chiba Eijiro's appearance. Because Matsudaira and the others came, they had to sit back in their seats and prepare for the game.

I have to say - the genes of the Chiba family are really strong.

The children of brothers Chiba Shusaku and Chiba Dingkichi not only inherited a strong talent for swordsmanship, but also inherited a good skin.

Qingdeng couldn't help wondering whether Chiba Shusaku and Chiba Singkichi had the talent of "easily allowing future generations to inherit excellent genes".

Maybe it's because of his fairer skin. Chiba Eijiro, who is 27 years old this year, looks like he is only 23 or 4 years old.

He is neither fat nor thin, with delicate features, and it is commendable that he did not shave his hair into a confinement head, and did not let the ugly concubine head ruin this rare good skin.

Probably because there was always a soft smile on the corner of his mouth, Chiba Eijiro seemed quite friendly and easy to get along with.

Chiba Eijiro's elegant and easy-going appearance...compared to the unborn great swordsman who was crowned "the strongest in Edo", he looked more like a scholar who was good at learning.

"Actually, it's nothing." Chiba Eijiro smiled when he walked up to Qingdeng, "I just want to tell you: Your match just now was very exciting."

"The timing, angle, and attack position of the sword are all perfect and impeccable."

"What a nice shot."

"Thank you..." Unexpectedly, Chiba Eijiro came to praise his Qingdeng, so he couldn't help being stunned.

"Did you strike out this sword after precise calculation?" Chiba Eijiro asked at this time, "Or did you just strike out based on feeling?"

"Uh... I didn't think about so many twists and turns." Qingdeng spread his hands, "I just thought about making a tentative attack first."

"I didn't expect my tentative attack to end the game directly..."

"Oh... that means you didn't make any careful calculations with this sword..." Eijiro Chiba slightly lowered his eyelids in an imperceptible manner.

Suddenly, Chiba Shigetaro's voice sounded from behind Qingdeng: "Huh? Brother Rong?"

Chiba Shigetaro and Sanako walked towards Qingdeng and the others one after the other.

Zuo Nazi has returned to her usual "Miss status of a famous family" who rejects everyone thousands of miles away, and she no longer sees her previous state of being so shocked by Qingdeng's display of strength. Zhang Cheng made a cute "O" shape, and his expression became dumbfounded.

Chiba Shigetaro looked at Qingdeng suspiciously, and then at Chiba Eijiro: "Brother Rong, what are you talking about with Tachibana-kun?"

"It's nothing." Chiba Eijiro chuckled gracefully a few times, "It's just a simple chat."

"Oh, that's it..." Chiba Shigetaro quietly glanced at Sanako next to him, then glanced at Chiba Eijiro in front of him, curled his lips thoughtfully, and laughed, "Brother Rong, it would be great if you get along well with Mr. Ju."

No one noticed——When Chiba Shigetaro said this, there was an intriguing light in his pupils.

—— Chiba Eijiro He is much easier to get along with than I imagined...

After actually getting in touch with Eijiro Chiba, Qingdeng found that Eijiro Chiba was quite a kind person, obviously a powerful presence who could shake the whole Edo fencing circle with a few stomps, but he didn't have any pretensions.

This can't help but make Qingdeng's favor towards Chiba Eijiro increase greatly.

...

...

The scenes of Qingdeng and Chiba Eijiro's enthusiastic conversation were all seen by the new wife Hiroshi from a distance.

Not only Chiba Shigetaro... even Chiba Eijiro's attitude towards that Tachibana Qingdeng is so sincere...

Unconsciously, the new wife Kuan clenched his palms even tighter.

The ten fingers sank deep into the flesh of the palm, and the palm was red from being scratched, as if blood would ooze out at any moment...

...

...

An hour's lunch break passed in a flash.

At 8:00 pm (2:00 pm) when the game was about to resume, the martial arts seats around the arena became full again.

The old samurai who served as the master of ceremonies stood on the field again, and after briefly saying something that few people would listen to seriously, he began to grab the lottery for the second round of knockout rounds.

Qingdeng felt that his luck today really didn't know whether to say "good" or "bad".

The master of ceremonies took out the first lottery from the lottery holder, glanced at the name written on the signer, raised his head and said loudly:

"Natural Xinxin Flow, try the health hall, orange green board!"

Wow!

As soon as the master of ceremonies finished speaking, there was an uproar in the martial arts watching seats.

In the second round of the knockout round, Qingdeng actually took the lead again... This was really beyond everyone's expectations.

After the master of ceremonies handed Qingdeng's lottery to the assistant beside him, he reached into the lottery tube again and took out a lottery.

After glancing at the name written on this sign, the usually stern-faced master of ceremonies turned weird.

After being stunned for a moment, the master of ceremonies raised his eyes from the sign.

"Kingshin Akechiru, Shixuekan, Morishita Totaro!"

The martial arts seats that had just subsided from the noise broke out again with new waves of sound.

To be able to see it so soon...Ju Qingdeng vs. "Three Heroes"!

Those spectators who were not aware of the strength gap between Qingdeng and the "Three Heroes" immediately cheered up and prepared to watch the next "strong confrontation" seriously.

Only Chiba Eijiro and Saito Yakuro, who have already seen the difference in strength between Qingdeng and other players, looked calm—this kind of match with too large a gap in strength between the two sides is nothing to watch.

Qingdeng regained his composure from the astonishment of "I was the first to go up again", lifted his bamboo sword and stepped into the arena again.

After learning that his opponent in the second round was Qingdeng, Morishita's expression became slightly weird, but he still raised his sword resolutely.

Wearing protective gear, separating the two sides, saluting, and following the referee's "start", the second round of the knockout round officially began!

Morishita tightly clenched the bamboo knife in his hand, and stared at Qingdeng who was in the middle of the pose with a serious face.

Morishita also knows that the current him is not Qingdeng's opponent at all, but even so, he still wants to fight with all his strength to the end!

Qingdeng did not attack immediately at the beginning of the match like he did against Adachi last time.

At this moment, he just quietly placed the knife in front of his body without moving.

Seeing Qingdeng who was not moving at all, Morishita couldn't help muttering in his heart:

——Why is he still not moving?

——Are you looking for my flaws?

—— Or are you thinking about which direction and how to call?

While thinking about the reason why Qingdeng didn't make any moves, Morishita tensed up, guarding against any move by Qingdeng.

I don't know what Qingdeng wants to do, which makes Morishita dare not act rashly, so he can only confront Qingdeng at such a distance.

Morishita and the spectators in the martial arts seats are all nervously waiting for what Qingdeng will do.

Actually... Morishita and the others misunderstood Qingdeng.

The reason why Qingdeng didn't move was not thinking about how to attack, or trying to catch Morishita's flaws.

He didn't think about anything, didn't think about anything.

He was just counting down in his mind the 10 seconds it would take to replicate his talent...

—Seven...eight...nine...ten...

After counting silently for 10 seconds, Qingdeng exhaled all the turbid air accumulated in his lungs.

Then he slowly raised the bamboo sword in his hand and switched to the upper stance.

call--!

Take a step forward and draw your sword!

Exactly the same action as the previous game.

Immediately afterwards, the same scene as the previous scene appeared...

Seeing the rapidly enlarged bamboo sword tip in front of him, Morishita's pupils shrank suddenly, and his arm subconsciously raised, trying to intercept Qingdeng's sword, but his movement was half a step too slow, and Qingdeng's sword hit the top of his head .

Morishita, whose helmet was hit hard, took a few steps back.

Compared with Adachi in the previous match, Morishita's performance was a little better - he was not directly knocked to the ground, and after taking a few steps back, he stabilized his figure.

But this is of no use, and being hit in the vitals is equal to losing.

The two referees immediately stretched out their arms to Qingdeng, loudly announcing Qingdeng's victory.

And the moment Morishita was instantly killed by Qingdeng, a series of system sounds rushed through Qingdeng's mind——

【Ding! Scan to talent]

——Sure enough, he is talented!

Listening to the system sound in his head, Qingdeng let out a cry of joy in his heart.

Talking about the last game, Qingdeng felt a little regretful.

Due to being "deceived in good faith" by Zhou Zhu and the others, I didn't expect Adachi to be so much weaker than I expected. As a result, in this competition with Adachi, I didn't have enough time to copy the talent for 10 seconds. Maybe I missed it. What kind of talent can be copied from Adachi.

Therefore, he learned the lesson from the match against Adachi just now, instead of launching a fierce attack immediately at the beginning of the game, he waited for 10 seconds, and started the offensive after the time required to copy the talent passed.

Although the strength of the contestants in this competition is far behind that of Qingdeng, those who can participate in this competition are undoubtedly the best in each sword gym.

The odds of an outstanding person among his peers like the "Three Heroes" possessing special talents are naturally far higher than ordinary people.

This is indeed the case. After hearing the cold system sound in his head, Qingdeng subconsciously held his breath and listened carefully to what kind of talent he had copied from Morishita.

[Successfully copied talent: "Swordsman\