I assembled the strongest swordsman group.

It's not just the Chiba siblings and others who have "rich" expressions now.

On the field, Qing Deng, who is still in a sword-drawing posture, has a rather interesting expression on his face.

—What's going on...?

Looking at Adachi struggling to get up from the ground, Aoto blinked, completely bewildered.

He was trying to recall what had just happened.

Wanting to test Adachi's true strength, they decided to strike first with a probing attack.

He stepped forward, drew his sword, and then... nothing happened...

Adachi, whose strength was said to be second only to the "Three Heroes," couldn't even defend against or dodge his probing attack, and didn't even get the full 10 seconds needed to use his copy talent... This was truly something that Qing Deng hadn't expected.

—Isn't Adachi one of the few people my master and the others said whose strength was comparable to mine?

While Qingdeng was still bewildered, the referees had already made their rulings.

The two referees standing on either side of Aoto and Adachi probably didn't expect that this first match would end so quickly.

After standing there stunned for a moment, they finally came to their senses and simultaneously stretched out their arms in Qingdeng's direction:

"The victor—Tenzen Rishin-ryu, Shieikan, Tachibana Aoto!"

Adachi, who had already gotten up from the ground, touched the helmet that Qing Deng had just stabbed him with, staring blankly at Qing Deng with a complicated look in his eyes and expression.

"Thank you for your guidance..." Adachi took several deep breaths, then suppressed the complex expression on his face and bowed to Aoto.

After quickly returning the greeting, Qingdeng hurriedly removed his protective gear at the referee's instruction, making room for the next group of contestants, and returned to his seat with his bamboo sword.

When he returned to Okita and Sanako's side, Aoto was still in a daze, not yet fully recovered from the great victory that had gone much more smoothly than he had imagined.

"Tachibana-kun! Congratulations! A great victory in the first battle!" After Aoto returned, Okita was still clapping vigorously like a seal.

"Thank you." Aoto smiled slightly, amused by Okita's "seal clapping" gesture.

"Tachibana-kun..."

At that moment, Chiba Jutaro's voice came over.

Following the sound, he saw Chiba Jutaro casting a bewildered look at him.

Sanako, whose seat was next to Aoto, had now recovered from her earlier shock and returned to her usual elegant and aloof demeanor.

However—after Qingdeng returned from the competition, she couldn't help but look at him with surprise, just like her brother.

Chiba Jutaro remained silent, staring intently at Aoto. He seemed to want to say something to Aoto, but didn't know how to begin.

After a long while, he finally managed to stammer out, "You... your strength has increased a lot..."

Faced with Chiba Jutaro's praise, Aoto was momentarily at a loss for words. He could only chuckle awkwardly a few times before softly replying, "Thank you..."

Qing Deng's instant kill of his opponent with a single sword strike undoubtedly changed many people's impression of him and their assessment of his strength.

Those who previously thought they were no less capable than Qingdeng and that if they were placed in Qingdeng's position, they could achieve even better results in the series of actions against the "Expel the Barbarians" now seemed guilty, lowering their heads, sweating profusely, and keeping their eyes down.

In the training hall, Hiroshi Niizuma stared wide-eyed at Aoto, who had returned to his seat between Okita and Sanako.

The color drained from his face rapidly, and he looked as if he had lost his soul.

……

……

This competition adopts a "one-round elimination" format.

If a player is directly hit in a vital area such as the head or chest, they are immediately eliminated, so the pace of the game is quite fast, and a match can usually be completed in less than a minute.

One contestant after another was eliminated, while one contestant after another qualified to advance to the second round of the competition.

Back in his seat, Qingdeng watched the other contestants' matches intently.

The more he looked, the stranger his expression became...

Although it might be a bit blunt to say this... Qingdeng felt that the skills of these contestants were all rather poor.

Basically, in Qing Deng's eyes, almost every player was poor at attacking, weak at defending, had loose footwork, and slow reaction.

If Qing Deng were to take his place, he felt he could easily defeat every opponent he had faced so far with a single sword strike.

—Is this the competition my mentor told me about, which has many strong up-and-coming talents participating...?

Qing Deng frequently glanced at Zhou Zhu, who was sitting not far in front of him, with a strange expression...

********

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Please vote for me! Please vote for me! (Leopard crying.jpg)

Today's chapter has 9300 words, let's call it 1 words! I'll add the remaining 700 words tomorrow, and I'll try to update 1.1 words tomorrow!

For the third consecutive day, I've released 10,000 words of content!

Today's big update is to make up for the missed update owed to the 3rd Alliance Leader: [L5? ?].

The author still owes 15 chapters of 10,000-word updates.

I'll continue trying to update 10,000 words per day tomorrow, and see if I can keep doing it until the end of this sword tournament storyline.

Please give this book more monthly votes, considering how hard the author has worked!

The first annual character popularity poll has successfully concluded in the book club!

The result was as I expected—

[This is a great victory for Miss Sanako!]

The book club has 339 members, and a total of 100 people participated in the vote.

Among them, Miss Sanako received nearly a quarter of the votes: 23 votes.

Okita came in second with 20 votes.

Kinoshita Mai came in third with 19 votes.

Chapter 144 Another Instant Kill!

After nearly half an hour had passed quietly, following Qingdeng's match, another eye-catching contest finally took place on the field.

The "Three Heroes" have finally made their appearance!

The first of the "Three Heroes" to be called by name and the first to take the stage was Morishita Tōtarō of the Shigakukan Academy.

Many spectators consider Qing Deng and the "Three Heroes," who have recently gained fame, as the favorites to win the championship.

Qingdeng's stunning performance of instantly killing his opponent with a single sword strike undoubtedly whetted the appetite of the spectators.

Many spectators now have high expectations for the "Three Heroes"—they look forward to seeing the "Three Heroes," who, like Qing Deng, are considered favorites to win the championship, also put on a brilliant performance.

Upon hearing Morishita's name called, the spectators in the stands turned their curious gazes toward the arena.

Morishita's appearance... lived up to its reputation—he had a beastman face that looked like a "pig turned into a human," making people want to look away.

Many spectators who had never seen Morishita before cast strange glances at him after he came on stage.

Morishita seemed to be used to being looked at with such strange eyes. He walked to the arena with his bamboo sword, changed into his protective gear, stood properly opposite his opponent, bowed, and then began the match.

Morishita, who came from a samurai academy, naturally used the Kyoshin Meichi-ryu school of swordsmanship, which emphasizes the "position" of movement.

It's rather strange that someone with such an appearance would use the Kagami-mei-ryu style, which is hailed as the "most elegant swordsmanship."

Morishita calmly switched his sword stance to a lower stance and launched the first attack on his opponent.

Morishita truly deserves the title of one of the "Three Heroes" among swordsmen.

In terms of swordsmanship and the finesse of his movements, Morishita far surpassed his opponent.

As soon as the trial began, Morishita launched a one-sided attack.

He disrupted his opponent's rhythm with just three strikes, the fourth strike broke his opponent's balance, and finally the fifth strike brought him down.

Normally, being able to defeat an opponent with only 5 strikes in a match is already considered a remarkable feat—however, after experiencing Qing Deng's stunning performance just now, the audience's expectations have been raised to an extremely high level.

The idea of ​​"Morishita defeating his opponent with five sword strikes" no longer ignites the passion of the spectators, so when Morishita defeated his opponent, he did not receive much praise or applause.

Following Morishita, the other two members of the "Three Heroes" – Osaki Heiyuki of the Genbukan and Niizuma Hiroshi of the Renbeikan – were also called out and took the stage.

These two, who were known as the "Three Heroes" along with Morishita, indeed possessed exceptional strength compared to their peers. However... neither Tsuizaki Hirayuki nor Niizuma Hiroshi were able to replicate the feat of "Aoto instantly killing his opponent with a single sword strike."

The new wife, whose feat was closest to Qing Deng's, also had to use three sword strikes to defeat her opponent.

Although the pace of the competition was fast, it took quite a while because there were a lot of participants in this competition, a total of 112, and the first round of elimination matches was finally completed close to noon.

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

The second round of elimination matches will be held at 8:00 AM (2:00 PM). All spectators will now have approximately one hour for a lunch break.

After the old samurai, who was in charge of the ceremony, announced a temporary break and that the competition would resume in an hour, many spectators in the stands left their seats, either because they had seen enough of the excitement and wanted to go home, or because they wanted to grab a quick lunch and then come back to watch the competition.

Those merchants who seized this rare opportunity to make money and set up food stalls in Asakusa were immediately greeted by a surge of customers that made them grin from ear to ear.

"Wow, this competition is much more exciting than I expected."

"I actually feel a bit disappointed. Apart from the first contestant, Tachibana Aoto, none of the other contestants impressed me."

"I wonder who will have the chance to win?"

"The winner must be either Tachibana Seito or one of those 'Three Heroes', right?"

"Haha, I think Tachibana Seiden has the best chance of winning! He's the only one who can take down his opponent with a single sword strike."

"That's not how it works. Maybe the 'Three Heroes' just happened to have stronger opponents, while Tachibana Seito just happened to have weaker ones."

……

After the temporary break, the spectators enthusiastically discussed the match that had just taken place.

As the saying goes, "The layman sees the spectacle, the expert sees the details."

The vast majority of onlookers were ordinary civilians who knew nothing about swordsmanship or swordsmen with poor skills.

In their eyes, Qing Deng, who ended the match with a single sword strike, and the "Three Heroes," who took three or five sword strikes to defeat their opponents, should be roughly equal in strength—one sword strike and three or five sword strikes...aren't they about the same? The only difference in quantity is a few sword strikes.

The "Three Heroes," who defeated their opponents with several more sword strikes than Qingdeng, were probably only slightly weaker than Qingdeng—that's what many people thought.