I assembled the strongest swordsman group.

As for those who have a certain level of skill in swordsmanship... their thoughts are completely different from those of these laymen.

Anyone with even a basic understanding of swordsmanship would never say, after witnessing Aoto's instant kill of Adachi, that "the strength of the 'Three Heroes' should be roughly the same as Aoto's."

The speed, angle, and timing of Qing Deng's sword strike were unmatched by the "Three Heroes"... no, by all the contestants in this competition!

At the training hall, Niizuma Hiroshi, still seated, lowered his head and spoke in a hoarse voice to Saito Yakuro, who was also still seated in front of him:

"Master... what do you think my chances of winning are against that Ju Qingdeng...? Please tell me the truth."

When Niizuma Hiroshi asked his master Saito Yakuro this question, his expression was extremely gloomy, as if black water might drip from it at any moment. His lips were tightly pursed, the corners of his mouth were drooping, and his eyes and brows were filled with a mixture of intense anxiety, resentment, and panic...

After witnessing Aoto's sword strike that instantly killed Adachi, Niizuma Hiroshi suddenly realized that Aoto's strength was far greater than he had imagined!

If it were him, he simply couldn't have defeated Adachi so decisively and beautifully.

Despite realizing that Aoto's strength far surpassed his own, Hiroshi Niizuma still harbored a sliver of wishful thinking.

Perhaps... I still have a certain chance of winning against Tachibana Aoto—with this thought in mind, after hesitating for a while, Niizuma Hiroshi decided to seek confirmation from his master, Saito Yakuro.

As the head of the training hall, Saito of Power would certainly have a clearer and more comprehensive assessment of Aoto's strength than Hiroshi Niizuma.

He hoped to hear something like "You are not entirely without a chance" from Saito Yakuro.

If that's the case, he can still muster the fighting spirit to fight Qingdeng head-on.

"Hmm..." Upon hearing Niizuma Hiroshi's sudden question, Saito Yakuro stroked his short, graying beard and turned around, a helpless smile on his face, as he asked Niizuma Hiroshi in return, "Niizuma-kun, my answer... might not be very pleasant to hear. Even so, do you still want to hear it?"

"..." After pondering for a while, Shinjiro gritted his teeth and said, "Please answer truthfully, Master."

Seeing that Shinzawa Hiroshi had said so, Saito Yakuro's hand stroking his beard slowly stopped: "You have no chance of winning against that Tachibana Aoto now."

After saying that, Saito Yakuro grinned with a look of emotion on his face.

"Among his contemporaries, Tachibana Aoto's strength can be considered to be far ahead of the competition."

"Looking across the entire Edo... no, the entire Japan, there probably isn't anyone from the same generation as Tachibana Aoto who possesses the same level of strength as him."

After saying that, Saito Yakuro turned his gaze to the direction where the group from the Shieikan were seated, and began to stroke his short beard again.

"If nothing unexpected happens... the winner of this competition should be Tachibana Aoto."

Tachibana Aoto is unstoppable in this tournament—and it's not just Saito Yakuro who thinks so.

Even before he saw Qing Deng's sword strike that instantly killed Adachi, "Momoi of the Position" Momoi Haruzo had already shown a bitter smile.

Other swordsmen with considerable skill also realized the same thing after watching Qing Deng's match—unless something unexpected happened, Qing Deng should have been able to crush all his opponents and win the first victory of the tournament effortlessly.

Many sword masters even sighed with regret. They had hoped that their disciples could try to achieve a good ranking in this competition, but now that Qing Deng was there, they could only hope that their disciples could try to win second place.

Upon hearing Saito Yakuro's confident reply, Niizuma Hiroshi's expression froze for a moment, then he abruptly tightened his grip on his hands, which were resting on his lap.

The resentment, frustration, and anxiety on his face were so intense that they almost seemed to solidify into a tangible form.

Shinzaku Hiroshi subconsciously turned his head to look at Aoto's seat in the distance.

The moment his gaze fell upon them, Hiroshi Niizuma's expression froze again—he saw "Edo's Strongest," "Chiba of Skill," Chiba Eijiro, chatting enthusiastically with Aoto...

……

……

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

"……master."

"How should I put it... I've been fooled by you guys for so long."

After finishing his first match and returning to his seat, Qing Deng immediately adjusted his mindset and watched the other players' matches very seriously and carefully.

A significant number of the participants possessed the strength to put you in a tough fight—at that time, Qing Deng still believed in Shusuke's reminder, which he had mentioned to him almost every day during this period.

He wanted to carefully observe the matches and try to remember the signature moves of each expert, so he could prepare for the upcoming games!

Qing Deng watched the game attentively with this in mind.

Then he was completely puzzled.

The more he watched the game, the more he couldn't help but frown.

Why are all these players so badly skilled?

Even when he vaguely sensed that something was wrong, Qingdeng still chose to believe his master.

The three hailed as "Three Heroes" haven't even made their appearance yet, and their strength might not be underestimated at all—after comforting himself with these thoughts, Qingdeng patiently continued watching the match.

After finally seeing the first of the "Three Heroes," Morishita, step onto the field, Aoto immediately perked up and focused intently on watching Morishita's every move.

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

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

Afterwards, when the other two members of the "Three Heroes," Osaki and Niizuma, took to the court, Aoto patiently watched their match.

If Qingdeng were to use a more polite way to describe the strength of the "Three Heroes"... it would be that when fighting against them, "Lone Wolf" would never be activated.

To put it bluntly, we could completely overwhelm them.

After witnessing firsthand the true strength of the "Three Heroes," Qing Deng finally realized that he had been outmaneuvered by Zhou Zhu!

"Hehehe..." After Qing Deng came over to "confront" him, Zhou Zhu rubbed his chin and slowly turned his head to give Qing Deng a dry laugh as if his lie had been exposed wrong. "Tachibana-kun... this is not called 'lying'."

“We call this a ‘white lie’.”

Shusuke succinctly explained to Aoto why he, along with Kondo, Hijikata, and Okita, told Aoto this "white lie."

Simply put, it was to prevent Qingdeng from becoming arrogant.

Those who lived under the same roof as Qingdeng already knew, after Qingdeng experienced the "Battle of the Foreign Documents Investigation Office," that with Qingdeng's current strength, he could easily dominate this competition that was only open to newcomers.

They worried that informing Qingdeng of this fact would make him arrogant and complacent, causing him to neglect his daily practice and fail to take the competition seriously.

So, Shusuke approached Okita and the others, and after discussing it with them, he took advantage of the information gap that "Aoto has no idea about the strength of the newcomers in other sword schools in Edo" to deceive Aoto, making him believe that there would be a very strong opponent in this tournament, which made Aoto put in a lot of effort to prepare for the tournament.

After hearing Zhou Zhu's explanation, Qing Deng couldn't help but twitch his lips, then sighed with a strange expression.

“Tachibana-kun.” Kondo, sitting next to Shusuke, probably thought that Aoto was unhappy about Shusuke’s “white lie.” He gave Aoto an apologetic smile and said, “Sorry, we’ve been lying to you.”

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

Qing Deng could understand Zhou Zhu's intentions, and he wasn't angry about it.

After learning the truth and that there were no competitors in the competition who could match his strength, Qing Deng only felt a little... regretful.

He had originally hoped to face some formidable opponents in this tournament and truly appreciate the unique styles of different schools of martial arts...

At that moment, Qingdeng suddenly heard a slightly unfamiliar, magnetic young male voice beside him:

"Excuse me, is it convenient for you right now?"

Upon hearing the unfamiliar male voice, Qing Deng was startled at first, then quickly turned his head to look in the direction of the voice—he saw a young man with a gentle smile on his face walking towards him with unhurried steps.

“Eijiro?” Kondo raised an eyebrow.

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

"What's wrong?" Aoto Asahi Chiba Eijiro blinked in confusion. "Is something the matter?"

As he spoke up to Chiba Eijiro, who had suddenly appeared and asked him "Is now convenient?", he sized up the man hailed as the "strongest".

When the Chiba family finally appeared at the arena and met up with their Shieikan, Aoto hadn't even had a chance to say a word to Chiba Eijiro, or even properly look at him, before he had to sit back down and prepare for the match because Matsudaira Katamori and the others had arrived.

It has to be said that the Chiba family's genes are really strong.

The children of the brothers Chiba Shusaku and Chiba Sadakichi not only inherited their exceptional swordsmanship talent, but also their good looks.

Aoto couldn't help but wonder if Chiba Shusaku and Chiba Sadakichi possessed a talent that made it easy for their descendants to inherit excellent genes.

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

She has a good figure, neither too fat nor too thin, and delicate features. What's remarkable is that she didn't shave her head into a messy bun, thus avoiding ruining her rare good looks with that horribly ugly hairstyle.

Perhaps it was because of the gentle smile that always graced his lips that Chiba Eijiro appeared quite approachable and easy to get along with.

Chiba Eijiro's refined and easygoing demeanor... compared to the unparalleled swordsman crowned "Edo's Strongest," he seems more like a scholar skilled in learning.

"Actually, it's nothing." Chiba Eijiro smiled slightly as he walked up to Qing Deng. "I just wanted to tell you: your match just now was very exciting."

"The timing, angle, and position of the sword strike were all perfect and impeccable."

"That was a beautiful strike."

"Thank you..." He was taken aback, not expecting that Chiba Eijiro had come to praise his Aoto.

"Was that sword strike executed with meticulous calculation?" Chiba Eijiro pressed, "or was it simply a strike based on intuition?"

"Uh... I didn't think about all those complicated things at the time." Qing Deng shrugged. "I was just thinking about launching a probing attack first."

"I never expected that my probing attack would end the match so easily..."

"Oh...so you mean your sword strike wasn't calculated carefully..." Chiba Eijiro lowered his eyelids slightly, almost imperceptibly.

Suddenly, Chiba Jutaro's voice rang out from behind Qing Deng: "Hmm? Brother Rong?"

Chiba Jutaro and Sanako walked towards Aoto and the others, one after the other.

Sanako has returned to her usual aloof and distant "young lady" persona. Gone is the adorable "O" shape she had before, her red lips parted in shock at Aoto's display of strength, her expression blank.

Chiba Jutaro looked at Aoto with a puzzled expression, then at Chiba Eijiro: "Eijiro-nii, what are you and Tachibana-kun talking about?"

"It's nothing," Chiba Eijiro chuckled lightly, "We just chatted for a bit."

"Oh, I see..." Chiba Jutaro glanced at Sanako beside him, then looked at Chiba Eijiro in front of him, pursed his lips thoughtfully, and then laughed, "It would be good if you and Tachibana got along well, Eijiro-kun."

No one noticed that when Chiba Jutaro said those words, a meaningful glint appeared in his eyes.

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

After actually interacting with Chiba Eijiro, Aoto found that Chiba Eijiro was quite kind. Despite being a powerful figure who could shake the entire Edo swordsmanship world with just a few stomps, he was completely unpretentious.

This greatly increased Aoto's fondness for Chiba Eijiro.

……

……

The scene of Aoto and Chiba Eijiro's enthusiastic conversation was witnessed by Niizuma Hiroshi from afar.

Not just Chiba Jutaro... even Chiba Eijiro's attitude towards that Tachibana Aoto was so enthusiastic...