I assembled the strongest swordsman group.

Having said that, Harada spread his legs and pointed the wooden gun, the tip of which was wrapped in a large cloth, diagonally at the ground in front of him.

"I'm ready! We can start anytime!"

Standing next to Harada, Todo also raised his bamboo sword and assumed a mid-stance: "I'm ready too!"

Todo's bamboo sword tip trembled lightly like a wagtail—a characteristic of the Hokushin Itto-ryu style.

Gently shaking the tip of the sword is one of the most classic movements of the Hokushin Itto-ryu style. Doing so has an advantage: it prevents the tip of the sword from becoming stiff, making it easier to respond quickly to enemy attacks, and making it harder for the opponent to guess one's intentions.

Seeing that the two people opposite him were ready, Qing Deng turned to look at Saito beside him.

Noticing the look that Aoto was giving him, which seemed to be "talking" to him, Saito clenched his right hand tightly a few times, then nodded to Aoto.

Qing Deng let out a long breath and held the bamboo sword in front of him: "Then... let's begin!"

With Qingdeng's words "begin," the atmosphere in the courtyard instantly became more somber and serious.

"I'm going!" Harada shouted, grinning widely, and stepped forward, initiating the first attack!

The spear's extremely wide attack range meant that Harada only needed to take one step forward to put Aoto and Saito within his attack range.

Harada thrust the gun in his hand forward, aiming at Aoto, who was directly opposite him.

The gun barrel, wrapped in a white cloth, rapidly magnified within Qingdeng's field of vision.

Qing Deng has considerable experience in fighting spearmen, especially those who use the Hozoin style.

After all, his first all-out, blood-pumping battle was against a spearman using the Hozoin-ryu spear technique.

Unaware of Harada and Todo's exact strength, Aoto opted for a more conservative approach.

Instead of taking the blow head-on, he used his "eagle eye" to sidestep and dodge Harada's thrust.

At this moment, Todo also started to move.

Toudou is small in stature, but who knew his speed... no, to be precise, his leg explosiveness is astonishing!

He crouched slightly, then slammed his hind foot into the ground! His foot scraped away a layer of dirt, and his short body sprang forward like a broken string! He lunged at Saito, who was positioned opposite him!

Todo's explosive power caused Aoto, Saito, his partner Harada, and Nagakura, who was watching from the sidelines, to change their expressions slightly.

Because the Senjiya had already checked Harada and Todo's strength beforehand, Kiryu and Kinoshita Mai remained calm.

"Hiss..." Nagakura murmured, stroking his chin as he watched Todo lunge at Saito. "This guy's leg strength is pretty strong..."

Todo's explosive outburst caused a slight look of surprise to appear between Saito's brows—but this surprise only lasted for a moment before disappearing, and Saito's expression returned to his usual indifferent and emotionless demeanor.

Saito nimbly stepped back, creating space for the fight, then raised his sword to parry Todo's slash.

With unstoppable momentum, Todo raised his sword again, ready to continue his attack. He stomped his feet on the muddy ground, his short body pressing down on Saito like a mountain.

Power originates from the ground—this is an eternal truth in the martial arts world.

Therefore, "strong leg explosive power" means it is easier to launch an attack with amazing force.

With his legs possessing explosive power, Toudou continuously unleashed attacks of a force far beyond what someone of his size could produce.

Saito took another step back, wielding his bamboo sword with impenetrable force, blocking every single one of Toudou's attacks.

Meanwhile, the competition between Aoto and Harada intensified.

This person's strength should be comparable to that of Suehiro Moritoyo—this was the first thought that came to Yu Qingdeng's mind after a brief exchange of a few moves with Harada.

Harada's strength far exceeded his expectations... Aoto felt overjoyed, but his expression became even more serious.

In the two months since his death battle with Suehiro Moritoyo, Aoto has been training with extreme self-discipline, hardly slacking off for a single day. In addition, he has gained many new and powerful talents compared to before.

In terms of strength, he is no longer the same person he was in that "chaotic battle on a snowy night".

Even so, when facing Harada, whose strength was almost equal to that of Suehiro Moritoyo, Aoto did not show the slightest carelessness or relaxation.

After several tentative attacks, Harada's offensive became increasingly sharp.

The wooden spear, its tip wrapped in thick cloth, thrust forward again, its momentum so fierce that no one dared to be complacent.

In the blink of an eye, Harada's spearhead was right in front of him again. The angle of his attack was quite tricky, and it would be too difficult to dodge it. So Qing Deng flicked his bamboo sword upwards to block the spearhead, which then darted past Qing Deng's side.

As soon as he managed to deflect Harada's gun, he returned it to its original position, still assuming the stance with the tip pointing diagonally at the ground.

When the spearhead thrust at him again, Qing Deng dodged it this time, and at the same time took a tentative step forward, assuming a stance that wanted to get close to Harada.

Seeing this, Harada took a half step back with ease, aimed his spear at Qingdeng, and suddenly flicked it upwards, trying to force Qingdeng back.

Qing Deng stopped his charge, swung his sword and deflected Harada's spearhead. As if he had been bounced away, Qing Deng jumped back to where he had been standing.

The four fought fiercely, with neither side gaining any significant advantage—at first glance, that seems to be the case.

But anyone with even a slight understanding of martial arts could see at this moment that Aoto and Saito were now completely in control.

If Harada and Todo don't come up with a way to break the deadlock soon, it's only a matter of time before they are defeated by Ao and Sai.

Harada and Todo are mainly inferior to Aoto and Saito in two aspects.

The first area where they are inferior to Ao and Sai is that neither of them can withstand Saito's strength.

"Hey, hey, hey..." Harada glanced at Saito out of the corner of his eye, muttering to himself in surprise, "What's up with this guy...?"

Todo's offensive was fierce, like the torrential rain and strong winds of a typhoon.

But no matter how he swung his sword or tried to force Saito to reveal a weakness, Saito calmly dodged or blocked each of his attacks.

Saito's body seemed glued to the ground, supple yet perfectly stable, without the slightest flaw.

After noticing that Todo seemed to be no match for Saito, Harada tried to provide support for Todo.

However, every attack he launched at Saito in support of Todo was either deflected by Aoto or blocked by Saito himself.

While dealing with Todo, Saito was also able to spare time and energy to support Aoto.

Now that the battle has progressed to this point, Todo, who is facing Saito, is already out of breath and struggling to catch his breath.

In contrast, Saito's breathing remained steady and long, without the slightest sign of disorder.

Saito's composed demeanor left no doubt that even without Aoto, he could still defeat Harada and Todo on his own.

With his breathing becoming erratic, Fujido's attacks gradually lost their momentum, no longer displaying the fierceness and sharpness of before.

Saito's counterattack has officially begun.

He took half a step forward and swung his sword upwards towards Todo's left shoulder.

Todo hurriedly raised his sword to defend, and the bamboo swords clashed with a clang. He barely managed to block Saito's attack, and Saito's bamboo sword grazed past Todo's temple with a whoosh.

Saito's change of tactics was extremely fast. After Todo blocked his attack, he quickly changed his stance and slashed at Todo again.

Seeing out of the corner of his eye that Saito had begun to launch a counterattack, Qing Deng only thought for a moment before immediately adjusting his strategy: assist Saito in defeating the exhausted Todo!

Aoto took half a step toward Saito, and while continuing to keep an eye on Harada's movements, he joined forces with Saito to attack Todo from both sides.

Harada was well aware that if Todo were to lose, he would be left to fend for himself.

However, this leads to the second area where the two of them are inferior to Ao and Saito – their level of understanding is far less than that of Aoto and Saito.

This is understandable, since Harada and Todo only just learned each other's names and had no idea what kind of fighting techniques each of them was good at.

In contrast, Aoto and Saito had a life-or-death relationship.

Having fought side by side and shared life and death, the two had unknowingly developed an extremely high level of tacit understanding.

Because Harada and Toudou have almost no chemistry, Harada's support is often inadequate, and sometimes even backfires on Toudou.

Harada's gun is a threat that cannot be ignored, and we can't leave him hanging for too long, so Aoto gave Saito a look—take care of Toudou Heisuke quickly!

Saito, having understood the meaning in Qing Deng's eyes, exhaled a breath of turbid air, and his swordplay grew sharper!

Saito slashed at Todo with his sword, then quickly swung his bamboo sword back to the side, deflecting Harada's thrusting spear. In blocking Harada's attack, Saito barely even glanced at the tip of Harada's spear.

After launching a series of ineffective attacks on Saito, Todo's arms are now extremely sore and numb.

After narrowly blocking Saito's slash, Todo was unable to resist the immense force due to the exhaustion of his arms. He could only stagger back two steps, clutching the bamboo sword that had been deflected.

Qingdeng then leaned closer, just like Mo Yin!

Fujido, whose form has declined drastically, is full of weaknesses.

With a leap, Qing Deng's bamboo sword soared into the air, drawing an arc as it slashed down from above towards Teng Tang's left shoulder.

Todo tried to dodge or defend—but his movements were ultimately too late.

This was, after all, just a sparring match for the purpose of assessment, so when the bamboo sword was about to strike Fujido's shoulder, Seido stopped in time.

Snapped!

The sound of the bamboo sword striking Toudou's shoulder was loud, but because Aoto had held back his strength, it only made Toudou feel pain, and did not injure him.

Todo clutched the spot where he had been hit and stumbled back several steps.

If it were a real sword fight... Todo would already be dead by then.

Knowing he was now "dead," Toudou, though unwilling, smiled bitterly and sighed softly before retreating to the edge of the courtyard, carrying his bamboo sword.

Just now, when Qing Deng saw that Toudou's legs had outstanding explosive power, he secretly wondered: Could this person have a talent like "strong leg explosive power"?

Unexpectedly, Qingdeng was right!

The moment Toudou left the stage, a series of system notifications flashed through Qing Deng's mind:

[Ding! Talent detected]

[Successfully Replicating the Talent: "Leading the Way"]

[Talent Introduction: Extraordinary explosive power in the legs]

As the system notification faded, streams of warmth emerged from Qing Deng's lower abdomen and flowed down to his legs.

Enveloped in this warm current, Qingdeng felt a tingling sensation in his legs.

As the warm current subsided, Qingdeng tightened the muscles in his legs.

The muscles in my legs...are firmer and stronger than ever before!

—Good luck!

Feeling the changes in his legs, Qingdeng couldn't help but grin with joy.

Qing Deng wanted to savor the joy of acquiring a new god-level talent a little longer, but the ongoing battle clearly made it impossible for him to have that luxury.

Todo has left, leaving only Harada.