I formed the strongest swordsman group.

Chapter 955: The Fall of the Sword Master! [Leopard Update 6K]

After just one encounter, the cow ghost was killed instantly... The old man's lightning-fast attack shocked Sukuna and others.

Although Niu Gui is not a martial arts master, he is still much stronger than ordinary warriors.

What's more, he also took "Decisive Battle Sediment".

Even after taking "Decisive Battle Yodo" and his own strength skyrocketing, he couldn't even block a single blow from Otani Seiichirō...!
The shock lasted only a moment.

Because after a moment, the old man spun like a top and attacked Shuten-doji who was a few steps away!
He had no interest in the little ghosts around the big demon.

His goal from the beginning to the end was only one - the head of Shuten-doji!

Seeing that Seiichiro Otani was trying to break away from their entanglement, Sukuna's face suddenly changed and he shouted:
"Stop him!"

Before he finished his words, he rushed forward and slashed at Seiichirō Otani's back with his knife.

After hearing the sound of the sword behind him, Seiichirō Otani didn't even turn his head or look at Sukuna behind him. He simply turned his wrist, held the knife in his backhand, and stabbed backwards with force.

It was as if he had eyes on his back. With a clang sound, the knife he stabbed backwards accurately intercepted Sukuro's attack in mid-air.

Seiichirō Otani continued forward without slowing down.

One step...! Two steps...!
He took two steps closer to Shuten-doji.

"Uh-huh!"

In a split second, Umibozu swung his sword and chopped over.

He adopted the upper-section posture, raised the knife above his head, showing the momentum of splitting Mount Hua with all his might.

The strong murderous aura made Seiichirō Otani subconsciously prepare to fight back.

In the blink of an eye, Umibozu's sword chopped down and instantly reached in front of Seiichiro Otani.

The old man did not dodge - at this critical juncture, any form of dodging would take him away from Shuten-doji, causing the distance that had been narrowed with great difficulty to widen again.

Fighting till now, fighting till the death! Apart from "getting close to Shuten-doji at all costs", the old man had no other thoughts in his mind.

He held the sword diagonally across his chest and deflected Umibozu's attack.

Although he managed to block it, the blade of the ōdachi still cut his shoulder, tearing his clothes and leaving a wound that opened like a shell, with blood oozing out.

The shoulder was cut... Logically speaking, this would more or less affect the action of swinging the knife.

However, what is the scene presented before everyone’s eyes?

Seiichirō Otani didn't even raise his eyebrows, as if he wasn't hurt at all.

This little pain did not affect the old man's movements at all - to be precise, he could not feel any pain at all.

The switch regarding "pain" in his brain seemed to have been turned off.

No matter how the enemies hacked, stabbed, or shot him, he felt nothing.

Seeing that his attack missed, Kaibouzu quickly pulled the sword back to his side, readjusted his stance, and then launched a new attack, slashing for the second time.

This time, Seiichirō Otani did not just defend himself, but took the initiative to attack!

He suddenly lowered the blade, powerful force accumulating at his waist.

The process of accumulating power can be described as "an instant".

In just a moment, all the strength of his body gathered in his arms and on the knife in his palms.

When the knife was swung from bottom to top, the momentum was like a rainbow, as if it was a flying dragon soaring into the sky!
clang! !

The two steel knives collided in the air.

As we all know, in general, "strength" is linked to "size".

The bigger the person, the stronger he is.

On one side is an old man with gray hair on his temples, and on the other side is a tall, muscular and strong man... Just looking at the huge difference in size, anyone would think that the latter's strength crushes the former.

But in the end, the person who gained the upper hand in this round of sword fighting was actually Seiichirō Otani!
The next moment after the two swords collided, it was as if Kaibouzu was scalded by boiling water. He groaned in pain, holding the large sword that was blocked, and took several steps back with "thumps, thumps".

Seiichirō Otani seized this opportunity and took another step forward.

At this time, Sukuna caught up.

He raised the two swords in his hands, with the left sword at the upper end and the right sword at the middle end, just like a mantis with bared fangs and claws, eager to catch prey.

However, it remains to be seen who the prey will be.

Seiichirō Otani steadied the sword in his hand and attacked Sukuna's chest with the Kasumidan sword style that specialized in upper levels.

The two figures crossed each other at a speed that was too fast to be seen.

At the moment of passing each other, two flowers of blood splattered on the ground at no particular order.

Sukuna cut Seiichiro's left arm.

Seiichirō Otani stabbed Sukuna in the neck.

When the opponent's attack was about to hit them, both sides twisted their bodies slightly to protect their vital points.

Neither of them was seriously injured, just some cuts on the skin and a little bleeding.

However, the most thrilling person is Sukuna.

If Seiichirō Otani's knife had cut a little deeper, it would have severed his aorta.

One side was stabbed in the arm, the other side was stabbed in the neck... Anyone with a little common sense can tell which side won in this round of confrontation.

Seiichirō Otani ignored Sukuna and continued forward, taking another step forward.

At this moment, three steel needles attacked from the side with a sharp sound of breaking wind.

Whoosh!Whoosh!Whoosh!
Nune, who had been hiding behind Sukuna and others and wandering on the edge of the battlefield, took advantage of the moment when Seiichiro Otani had just gotten rid of Sukuna's entanglement and had not yet regained his old strength and new strength, and threw the steel needle in her hand with force.

She frowned, her eyes were fierce, and her beautiful facial features became extremely hideous.

After the cow ghost was killed, her emotions became extremely unstable.

In folk legends, the Niu Gui and the Nu Nu are a pair of inseparable good partners.

It is a coincidence that this group of men and women, who bear the names of "Ox Ghost" and "Wet Girl", are also a good pair of partners who have worked together for many years.

Watching her partner die in front of her own eyes...it is not difficult to imagine how Nu Nu felt at this moment.

At the same moment she threw the steel needle, Seiichiro Otani had already sensed the danger with his keen "combat instinct".

At this moment, he once again displayed his extraordinary side as the "Sword Saint"!
At this moment, which did not seem like he had enough time to react, he swiftly swung the knife in his hand, cutting out two arcs of cold light in mid-air.

Ding!Ding!
As two clanging sounds were heard, two steel needles fell.

But... the last steel needle passed through the gap in his knife path and hit his chest, penetrating into the flesh an inch deep!

Seeing this, Nu Nu had an excited smile on her face.

She thought she had succeeded... but little did she know that Seiichiro Otani had deliberately let the needle hit her chest!

In a split second, the old man freed his left hand and pulled out the steel needle from his chest.

Instantly, a stream of blood spurted out from the wound!

So much blood came out...it shows how deep the needle penetrated.

Seiichirō Otani completely ignored the new wound on his chest, slightly tilted his head, locked his eyes on Nunu's position, took a deep breath, and then threw the steel needle in his hand back.

The steel needle flew towards Nu Nu along the same trajectory.

Although he is not as good as Kiyone Kuroda, Seiichiro Otani is also a knowledgeable person with a wide range of knowledge and proficiency in many martial arts.

When talking about Otani Seiichiro, people often use a catchy phrase to summarize his martial arts: "He practices the spear with the Hozoin-ryu, the bow with the Yoshida-ryu, and the sword with the Danno Mahosai, and he has mastered the essence of both."

Although there are huge differences between "throwing" and "archery", there are also many similarities between the two.

The steel needle he threw was far superior to the opponent's in terms of accuracy and strength.

Nu Nu didn't react at all.

Her eyes widened, her pupils shrunk into pinholes, and she stared blankly at the "returned" steel needle.

When she came to her senses, the needle had hit her throat squarely! It had almost completely penetrated, with only a tiny tip of the needle trembling slightly outside.

“Hah…! Hah…! Hah…!”

After shaking a few times, Nu Nu's body fell to the ground weakly.

She moaned meaninglessly, scratched her neck with her left hand, and scratched in the air with her right hand in vain, as if trying to grasp the vitality that was gradually leaving her.

Her struggles were in vain.

In a moment, her eyes bulged forward and her head tilted to the side - she was completely lifeless.

After throwing the steel needle in his hand, Seiichirō Otani no longer paid attention to Nunv and didn't care about her life or death at all.

His gaze returned to Shuten-doji and his feet continued to move forward.

Killing the Ushi-gui, Ryokai-bouzu, quelling Sukuna, and punishing the nun... the process of "The Sword Saint fighting the demons" seems to be very long.

But in reality, everything happened in just a few seconds!
In just a few seconds, Seiichirō Otani broke through the defenses of the demons and killed two of them, completely closing the last bit of distance between himself and the enemy's main camp.

At this point, he finally broke into the enemy's main camp! He attacked right in front of Shuten-doji!

Seiichirō Otani and Shuten-doji - the two are facing each other, and their faces are within reach!

Shuten-doji stood still and drew the sword from his waist quickly and calmly.

At the same time, a strange light burst out from his eyes.

Everything that happened next happened in just a moment.

Seiichirō Otani changed his stance, his sword showed blue eyes, and the tip of the sword pointed diagonally at Shuten-doji's chest.

It is not difficult to see that he intends to win with one strike! Use the "straight stab" to take Shuten-doji's life!

A very correct judgment.

Out of personal preference, Shuten-doji always wears that gorgeous armor.

Although the armor was already an outdated equipment and could not effectively defend against bullets as early as the Warring States Period three hundred years ago, it still had a good protective effect when used to defend against cold weapons.

Given his current state of being covered in wounds, Seiichiro Otani could not guarantee that his next slash would be able to cut through the armor.

Therefore, he decided to use "straight stabbing" - compared to "slashing", "straight stabbing" has a more prominent armor-piercing effect!
He pushed the ground hard, and his feet shoveled the ground like a shovel, trampling out a lot of mud.

The tremendous power was transmitted along his legs to his waist, then from his waist to his arms, and finally flowed into the knife.

He poured all his strength into the knife in his hand, leaving no room for maneuver!

Coincidentally... as if intentionally confronting the opponent, Shuten Douji adopted the same Blue Eyes stance, with the tip of the knife pointing diagonally at Seiichiro Onotani's chest!

"Straight stab" versus "straight stab"... The two men thrust out the knives in their hands and stabbed each other without telling which was the first!
In the sunlight, two figures merged into one——

puff!

The sound of the blade piercing the flesh was like a pause, causing the scene to fall into a brief silence. It was as if all the sounds in the world disappeared at that moment.

Everyone looked over and witnessed the outcome of this duel—

Seiichirō Otani's sword did not pierce Shuten-doji's chest, but only grazed his right shoulder armor.

On the other hand, Shuten-doji…his sword pierced through the chest of Otani Seiichiro, penetrating from the front to the back…

The outcome has been decided.

Because everything happened so quickly, only a few people, such as Katsura Kogoro and Sukuna, saw the details of what happened.

After the two men stabbed out their knives at the same time, the two knife tips collided heavily with each other, like a needle against a wheat thorn.

This is the purest confrontation!
Whoever is timid, whoever is a little weaker, whoever is a little less imposing, will be defeated!

Unfortunately... maybe he was tired, or maybe it was because of his injuries, anyway, Seiichiro Otani's strength was a little weaker...

This half point difference determined the outcome.

Shuten-doji's sword directly pushed away Seiichirō Otani's sword.

The latter's sword path deviated, and was originally intended to stab Shuten-doji's chest, but it deviated to the upper left and only grazed the opponent's shoulder armor.

Shuten-doji's sword pierced through Seiichiro's chest with all its might.

At this moment, neither the person who stabbed nor the person who was stabbed had any special reaction, and both sides had no expression on their faces.

After a while, with a "puff" sound, Shuten-doji twisted the knife in his hand hard, loosened the muscles that were tightly gripping the blade, slowly retracted the knife, and pulled it back to his side.

As air rushed in, Seiichiro Otani's blood loss rate suddenly increased... In fact, he didn't bleed too much.

Because his blood had almost run out.

After shaking slightly a few times, Seiichirō Otani's body slowly fell to the ground.

Seeing the "Sword Saint" finally fall, Sukuna and others breathed a sigh of relief.

But at this moment, something happened that made their expressions change suddenly!

Suddenly, just as he was about to fall to the ground, the old man suddenly raised the knife in his hand and pressed it hard on the ground to stabilize his body!

His action scared Sukuna and others so much that they almost jumped up.

They raised their weapons, took up their positions, and stared at Seiichiro Otani, fearing that the old man would stand up again! Fearing that the old man would swing his blade again!

To their relief, the old man did not make any other moves after using his knife to support himself on the ground.

He did not curse the enemy, nor did he whisper words full of regret such as "I really can't accept this..." or "I'm sorry... everyone... I tried my best..."

He just raised his eyes quietly and looked at Shuten-doji in front of him, and their eyes met.

There was only one emotion in his eyes: a strong desire to fight!
Anyone who saw his eyes at this moment would instantly understand what he was thinking: he still wanted to continue fighting!
Even though he was defeated by a strong opponent, even though his chest was stabbed and all the blood was drained out, he did not feel depressed or unwilling at all, he just wanted to stand up and keep fighting!
Such a gesture, such a look, are worth more than a thousand words!

Many people at the scene were frightened by the look in their eyes and subconsciously took a few steps back to distance themselves.

Then, Umibozu stammered with shock on his face:
"Dead, dead? Is he dead? Master Shuten-doji, is he dead?"

There was a note of disbelief in his tone.

Shuten-doji said nothing and nodded slightly.

The old man leaned on the ground with his knife, leaning his entire body weight on the knife, as if ready to get up, and took his last breath.

The sword master and head of the military school, Seiichiro Otani, died in battle!

He died standing... and at the last moment before his death, he still refused to admit defeat, staring fiercely at the enemy, ready for another fight!
This extremely heroic death left everyone at the scene dumbfounded.

They were speechless, looking at each other - they all noticed strong shock on each other's faces.

From beginning to end, the winner, Shuten-doji, and the loser, Otani Seiichirō, remained silent, not saying a single word.

To be fair, it is really difficult to tell who is the winner and who is the loser.

Seiichirō Otani, Shusuke Kondo, and Kiyone Kubota were all killed in the battle.

But their desperate charge left hundreds of corpses on the ground!
The route they arrived at the charge was a veritable bloody road... the road was covered with blood and broken limbs.

Hundreds of people...Currently, there are only about three hundred soldiers gathered around Shuten Doji.

In other words, with the strength of only three people, Seiichirō Otani and his companions reduced the number of their troops by one third!

Even the two major cadres of the Fazhu Party - Niu Gui and Nu Nu - were unfortunately killed.

What’s even more deadly is that the bloody fight between these three old men directly destroyed their morale!

After they had used up all their bombs and blown up the Koryomon Gate and the Watarugawamon Gate of Akasaka Palace, their morale reached its peak.

They were preparing to use the momentum of "breaking the gate" to capture Edo Castle in one fell swoop.

But in the end... the "Sword Master" and his group used only two swords and a bow to destroy their beautiful plan.

Even with the blessing of "Decisive Battle", one cannot be completely immune to this fear.

Looking around, the soldiers all looked terrified, like frightened birds.

Looking at the tragic battle, Shuten-doji murmured solemnly:
"Everything is going wrong... This battle is becoming increasingly difficult."

Although they have successfully broken through the "Sanjuku Mitsuki", cleared the last obstacle to the attack on Edo Castle, and eliminated the great threat of the "Sword Saint" Otani Seiichiro, but... for the Fachi coalition, unless they cut off Tokugawa Iemochi's head, this battle is far from a victory!

At this time, Katsura Kogoro stepped forward and said in a deep voice to Shuten-doji:
"Shuten-doji, time is running out, give the order to march quickly."

Shuten-doji came back to his senses.

Katsura Kogoro is right, every second counts!

After being delayed by Seiichirō Otani and others, Tokugawa Iemochi didn't know where to retreat to.

We must chase him down as soon as possible! Kill him!
Shuten-doji put away his sword and shouted in full force:

"March! Take down Edo Castle!"

Katsura Kogoro nodded slightly, then retreated and prepared to integrate the remaining forces of the special forces.

After Katsura Kogoro left, Shuten-doji remained silent for a long while.

After a moment, he turned his head and looked at Sukuna.

"Sukuna, go get some wine."

Wine... Hearing this word, Sukuna immediately realized something and his expression changed slightly.

The expression of Kaifangzhu beside him also changed.

Shuten-doji looked solemn and continued the conversation:
"With this army that has lost a lot of its combat power and morale due to the Sword Saint, it is unknown how long it will take to completely capture Edo Castle."

"At this point, we can only adopt the 'final solution'."

Sukuna and Umibozu showed complicated expressions upon hearing this.

"……Understood."

Sukuna took a deep breath and adopted a sonorous and firm tone.

"I'll get the wine!"

……

……

Edo Castle, San-no-maru——

Tenshoin and Elodie supported the injured Tokugawa Iemochi and retreated quickly towards Honmaru.

They planned to use the Ohiroma of Honmaru as the main camp and unify the command of all the troops in Edo Castle.

Suddenly, they heard fierce shouting and killing behind them - not far away.

The defense system of Edo Castle can be roughly divided into three layers: Sanmaru, Ninomaru and Honmaru.

Because there is only one road leading to the Honmaru, the attackers must successively capture San-no-maru and Ninomaru before they can reach the center of Edo Castle, the Honmaru.

The remaining defenders who retreated from Akasaka Gate were all deployed in various locations in Sannomaru, and together with the rest of the defenders of Edo Castle, they formed the first line of defense for Edo Castle.

After hearing the shouts and cries not far from them, Tian Zhangyuan and Elodie were both stunned and paused.

The sound is so close...it means the enemy has already entered Edo Castle.

Since the enemy has entered the city, it only means one thing - the desperate charge of Seiichirō Otani, Shusuke Kondo and Kiyon Kubota has failed...

"..."

Elodie bit her lower lip so hard that it almost drew blood.

She wanted to cry, but a strange "numbness" took hold in her heart, preventing her from shedding a single tear.

In order to cheer herself up, she laughed dryly a few times and said in a nonchalant manner:

"How tragic... The enemy has already entered Edo Castle only half a day after the battle began..."

As soon as she said it, she regretted it.

She wanted to lighten the mood by making fun of herself.

But her words sounded like they were intended to destroy the morale of her own side and boost the prestige of the enemy.

She was about to apologize, but Tianzhangyuan spoke first:
"Yeah, it's too tragic... At this point, if we want to turn the situation around, we can only hope that Shengqing can lead his Shinsengumi to arrive in time."

"But... unless a miracle happens, Sheng Qing will never be able to reach Edo at this time."

Elodie thought her self-deprecation was depressing enough, but she didn't expect that Tianzhangyuan's self-deprecation would be even more effective than hers.

"'Miracle'……"

Elodie chewed on the word gently.

As she muttered, she subconsciously reached for the knife behind her - Vairocana was lying quietly on her back.

Ever since she took on the important task of "keeping Vairocana safe", she has always carried Vairocana on her back.

The purpose is to be ready to return the knife to Qing Deng at any time.

At this moment, Tian Zhangyuan suddenly turned to her and asked:

"Elody, do you believe in miracles?"

Elodie was stunned for a moment, then responded without hesitation:

"I believe!"

Tianzhangyuan curled his lips:
"What a coincidence. I believe it too."

*******
*******
Asking for a monthly ticket! Please vote for recommendation! (Leopard head crying.jpg)

Thanks to yesterday's rest, Leopard Leopard is back to full health! (Leopard Hi.jpg) Leopard Leopard wants to update until the Spring Festival!