I assembled the strongest swordsman group.

With a whoosh, Vairocana drew a breathtaking arc in mid-air, sweeping across the neck of the stone god Shengjing from left to right.

Ishigami Morijei didn't see Qing Deng's sword-wielding action, but he did see the clear blue sky, the rapidly spinning world, and the boundless darkness that followed—his head was chopped off, drawing a beautiful parabola in mid-air before falling to the wasteland five meters away.

[Ding! Talent detected]

[Successfully replicated talent: "Cat Turn"]

[Talent Description: Excellent balance.]

[Ding! Detected that the host already possesses a talent of the same type]

[Ding! Initiating talent fusion]

["Cat Turn +3" ability upgrade - "Cat Turn +4"]

In terms of results, Ishigami Moritsugu performed slightly better than Yamamoto Sakuyuki.

At least he survived Qing Deng's first blow and didn't die until the second.

However, in everyone's eyes, the two of them performed no differently; they were both completely powerless against Qingdeng!

Following Yamamoto Sakuyuki, another general was defeated in a one-on-one duel... The morale of the Choshu army visibly dropped even further.

All that lost morale went to the Shinsengumi.

Cheers erupted once again from the Shinsengumi ranks.

As Qing Deng brandished his sword, flicking away the remaining blood, he turned to look at the Changzhou army in the distance:

"Don't send any more of these small fry! Such an easy victory makes me feel guilty for bullying the weak!"

Qing Deng's words were no longer just sarcasm, but a direct insult!

Sure enough, no sooner had he finished speaking than a fully armed general, carrying a long spear, disregarded everyone's advice, rode out of the formation, and headed straight for Qingdeng with great momentum.

This time, the challengers are no longer young people, but middle-aged people around 40 years old.

The person arrived before the voice.

"I am Akagawa Motosho, a descendant of Akagawa Nobuchika! Tachibana Aoto, take up your spear! I challenge you to a duel in mounted combat!"

Upon hearing the word "horse battle," Qing Deng blinked in surprise.

Equestrianism is an expensive skill, and not everyone is qualified to ride a horse.

Therefore, only those wealthy and powerful families with high social standing could afford to learn to ride horses.

There are very few samurai who know how to ride horses.

As for samurai who could ride horses and were skilled in mounted combat, they were even rarer.

At this moment, Qingdeng suddenly realized that although he had been through many battles, he had never fought one-on-one with a person on the back of a horse (ox).

After a brief moment of surprise and astonishment, Qing Deng shouted:

"radish!"

"Moo moo moo moo!"

Upon hearing Qingdeng's call, Radish immediately started mooing and ran to Qingdeng's side.

Qingdeng nimbly mounted the ox, then pulled out the long spear stuck in the ground beside him, holding the reins in one hand and the spear in the other.

Akagawa Gensho's face darkened. He raised the gun in his hand and stared intently at Aoto.

And so, the two stood facing each other, about eight meters apart, neither of them moving.

In the blink of an eye, Akagawa Gensho kicked his horse's belly, and the horse neighed loudly. The man and the horse pounced on Qingdeng like cannonballs!

"Aaaaaaah!"

He shouted, and using the momentum of his horse's charge, aimed at Qingdeng's chest and thrust his spear forward.

Looking at the other's posture and movements, a hint of admiration flashed in Qing Deng's eyes—this strong waist strength and the skill of combining waist and stance are truly rare!

With the boost from the horsepower, the power and speed of the spear were dramatically amplified.

Faced with such a sharp thrust, even armor would be of no use.

Qing Deng did not dodge. He only glanced at the trajectory of the spear, and then casually swung the spear upwards—with a snap, the two spears collided, directly deflecting the opponent's spear.

Seeing that his attack had missed, Akagawa Gensuke skillfully pulled the spear back to his side.

At the same time, he gently pulled on the reins, urging the horses to move backward and create distance.

After creating a distance of about 10 meters, he shouted again and charged towards Qingdeng once more.

Amidst the fiercely swirling dust, the spearheads flashed, horses galloped swiftly, and the sounds of wind and gunfire were interspersed with short, angry roars.

At first glance, Akagawa Gensho's offensive was extremely fierce, with a dense forest of spear shadows enveloping Aoto from all directions.

In reality, his spear couldn't even touch a corner of Qing Deng's clothes.

All of his attacks, whether thrusts or slashes, were deflected and neutralized by Qing Deng.

Perhaps he was too impatient, Akagawa Gensho gritted his teeth and further urged his internal energy to increase the speed of his spear.

Suddenly, he thrust his spear at Qingdeng again.

In that instant, Qing Deng suddenly spread his arms wide—he stopped defending and instead raised his long spear to thrust forward!

Two slender figures passed each other—a spear and a lance thrusting in completely opposite directions! Both were aiming for each other's chests!

In the blink of an eye... a single move decided the outcome.

The tip of the spear stopped three inches away from Qingdeng's chest.

As for the spear tip... it precisely pierced Akagawa Gensou's heart, going from his chest to his back, a truly "heart-piercing" strike.

[Ding! Talent detected]

[Successfully replicated talent: "Iron Waist"]

[Talent Description: Lower back is less prone to strain, injury, and fatigue.]

[Ding! Detected that the host already possesses a talent of the same type]

[Upgrade from "Iron Waist +5" to "Iron Waist +6"]

"Gurgle...! Gurgle...! Gurgle gurgle...!"

Clumps of bloody foam gushed from Akagawa Gensou's mouth.

His eyes were wide open, as if his eyeballs might roll out of their sockets at any moment.

After letting out a few meaningless groans, his head lolled to the side, and he fell silent.

The lengths of their weapons were actually about the same.

However, the two of them held hands differently.

Akagawa Gensho's gun-holding technique was very ordinary and nothing special.

In contrast, Qing Deng gripped the very bottom of the pole!

In this way, the thrusting range of the long spear can be maximized!

In this way, the tip of the spear can naturally strike the opponent first.

Due to the leverage effect, the weight pressing on Qingdeng's arms was extraordinary.

However, for Qingdeng, who possesses talents such as "skillful hands +5" and "strength and agility +3", this weight is nothing at all.

Qingdeng secretly exerted a fierce force, pulled the long spear out of the opponent's body, and brought it back to his hand, letting the opponent's body slide off the horse.

"Next!"

Qing Deng looked again at the Changzhou army formation in the distance.

This time, the Changzhou army was completely silent... no one went out to fight.

After waiting a short while, no new challengers appeared; instead, a squad of musketeers arrived!

Dozens of musketeers ran quickly to the front of the formation, lined up in a long, serpentine formation, set up their muskets, and aimed their dark muzzles at Qingdeng.

Upon seeing this, Qing Deng not only remained calm but also burst into laughter.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

With a popping sound, bullets were fired one after another.

Qingdeng, which was targeted by concentrated fire, remained unharmed.

Changzhou was the stronghold of the pro-Western faction, and they deeply resented Western things, so naturally they would not possess advanced Western guns and cannons.

Therefore, the muskets they used were still old and outdated matchlock guns!

The flintlock muskets currently popular in the Western world have a very low hit rate; whether or not they can hit a target 10 meters away depends entirely on luck.

If this was true even for flintlock muskets, then it was even more so for the more outdated matchlock muskets!

With just a few broken guns, there's no way they could hit Qingdeng from a distance of hundreds of meters!

This was also one of the reasons why Qing Deng dared to challenge the Changzhou army general to a duel—the distance was too great, and the Changzhou army's musketeers had no chance of hitting him.

Even if one or two bullets were to hit him by chance, Qing Deng was confident that he could shoot them down one by one with his superb dynamic vision and outstanding reaction ability.

As the musketeers of the Changzhou army finished firing a volley and were busy reloading, Qingdeng leisurely pulled on the reins, turned the ox around, and returned to his own army.

As he left, he didn't forget to utter a sarcastic remark:

"Initiating a one-man duel but refusing to admit defeat, sending arquebusiers to save face—is this the so-called 'Spirit of Changzhou'? The people of Changzhou are truly valiant!"

His sarcastic remarks naturally caused a great stir in the Changzhou army.

From high-ranking officers to ordinary soldiers, everyone's face was flushed and filled with resentment.

The Soul of Changzhou – Although no one can clearly define what the “Soul of Changzhou” actually is, that doesn’t stop the people of Changzhou from being proud of it and boasting about it.

Qingdeng's behavior and words have truly trampled on the face of the people of Changzhou!

"Shoot! Shoot! Kill him quickly! Don't let that guy get back!"

Someone was angrily directing the musketeers, as if he wanted to personally load the muskets.

These musketeers have already done a great job.

But by the time they finished loading their bullets and were ready to fire again, Qingdeng had already moved to a much more distant position, making it even less likely that he would hit him...