I assembled the strongest swordsman group.

However... joy was accompanied by sorrow.

Qing Deng has lost count of how many people have asked him, "Hey? Has your voice gotten better?"

In response, Qing Deng would always brush it off with "Huh? You must have misheard?" or "No, I've always had this sound."

Fortunately, although Qing Deng's voice is much better than before, the difference is not too huge, so Qing Deng's tricks are still quite effective.

Of the six challengers, only one of the strong men was truly formidable, causing Qing Deng considerable trouble.

He was a tall, muscular man with a burly build, who seemed to have grown up on some kind of food. He was a disciple of the Wushi School, and when he wielded his knife, he was fast and fierce, relying on brute force to overcome any skill.

Qingdeng barely managed to defeat him only when he activated all his buffs, such as "Lone Warrior" and "Gathering Spirit".

After the battle, Qing Deng copied the "Bear Waist" technique, which enhances the explosive power of the waist, from this muscular man.

Thus, "Bear Waist" became Qingdeng's fourth talent to be integrated and enhanced.

Besides "Bear's Waist," Qing Deng's other two talents that have recently been fused are "Eagle Eye" and "Bodybuilding," and their origins are relatively simple.

Qing Deng's high reputation and the various contributions he made after becoming a disciple of Shiwei Hall led to the Shiwei Hall's rising fame and booming development.

As the reputation of the sword club continues to grow, some promising young talents have finally begun to emerge within the club.

These new apprentices are all excellent candidates for replicating talent.

Therefore, every newcomer to the Shieikan has a similar experience—on the very day they officially join the Shieikan, they are dragged over by Aoto under various pretexts to compete and spar with him...

Qing Deng copied "Eagle Eye" and "Bodybuilding" from two juniors who had joined the Shieikan for less than a month, thus merging these two talents.

The innate ability of "Body Strengthening" is to "speed up wound healing," so its improvement effect cannot be directly felt.

However, "Bear's Waist" and "Eagle Eye" are different.

After both entries were marked with a "+1" suffix, Qingdeng clearly felt that his dynamic vision and waist strength had been significantly improved!

When an insect flies past his eyes, Qingdeng can see more clearly how its wings vibrate.

When the sword is raised high above the head and brought down with the strength of the waist, the power of the strike increases dramatically.

Just a "+1" and the talent ability has such a huge improvement...

Qingdeng boldly guessed—

When "Eagle Eye" is upgraded to "+5" or "+6", you might be able to see the trajectory of bullets.

When "Bear's Waist" is upgraded to "+5" or "+6", you might be able to easily cleave a person in half with a normal slash using your waist strength.

Only the top-tier "+8", "+9"... Qingdeng couldn't quite imagine what kind of power it would be after the talent was upgraded to this level.

After more than two months of talent gathering and arduous training, Qing Deng himself was unsure of the extent to which his current combat strength had improved.

Getting back to the main point—after Aoto gave a brief self-introduction with neither arrogance nor servility, Kanazawa Tadashi, the captain of the Second Division, who was beloved by the people for his approachable personality, stepped forward first, revealing a warm smile.

"Hahaha! Mr. Ju, I've heard so much about you! Hehe, Qin is absolutely right! You really do have a handsome face!"

"Xiaoqin?"

Kanazawa... Koto...

When this surname and this given name are combined, the talent of "photographic memory" quietly activates.

"Ah...you are Miss Jinze Qin's brother?"

"Hehe, that's right!"

Kanazawa Tadashi grinned, put his hands on his hips, and burst into laughter.

"What a surprise! You actually remember my younger sister, Tachibana-kun! According to her, you and she only had a brief sparring session once and were not very close!"

Qingdeng smiled slightly: "It's hard to forget a woman as outstanding as your sister."

Kanazawa Koto – the only female samurai in the Chiba Sword Hall besides Sanako who practices swordsmanship.

In early August of this year, when Aoto had to fight the heroes of the Little Chiba Sword Hall because someone who admired Sanako came to cause trouble, he had a fight with Kanazawa Koto.

Despite being a woman, she possessed swordsmanship skills and a fighting spirit that most male swordsmen could not match, thus leaving a very deep impression on Qing Deng.

At this moment, Qing Deng belatedly recalled: he seemed to have heard before that Jin Zeqin's elder brother was a high-ranking official in the Fire Thief Bureau.

"Orange."

At this moment, a deep male voice, neither warm nor cold, neither salty nor bland, interrupted the conversation between Qing Deng and Jin Zezhongfu.

"Ah, Mizushima-kun."

Fourth Division Captain Mizushima Ninzaburo nodded expressionlessly to Aoto.

"Yes, it's been a long time."

"Mitsushima-kun, thank you so much for your swift and decisive assistance that night."

What Qing Deng was referring to was, of course, the fact that when Qing Deng was engaged in a life-or-death battle with the Extermination Group in the Westerners' settlement, Mizushima and his Fourth Division were the first to arrive at the battlefield and provide Qing Deng with timely and powerful support.

"I was just doing my duty. There's no need for thanks," Mizushima said calmly.

The only people who responded to and greeted Aoto were Kanazawa and Mizushima.

The rest remained unmoved.

Kimura Kazuma, the captain of the Fifth Division who firmly believed in the "theory of bloodline," gave Aoto a disdainful look before looking away, never glancing at Aoto again.

Sixth Division Captain, Hisaka Genzo... This jealous "red-eyed monster" was also attracted by Aoto's pleasant voice and glanced at Aoto before quickly looking away and then stealing glances at Aoto with a jealous look.

Upon seeing Aoto's exceptionally smooth, wrinkle-free skin, which was so youthful, Hisaka's eyes blazed with undisguised jealousy.

Tsuchida Masayoshi, the captain of the 7th Division and a lackey of Kimura, hurriedly pledged his loyalty to Kimura—he glared at Aoto with ill intent.

Although Nobuyoshi Kazama, the captain of the 3th Division, did not show such blatant hostility towards Aoto as the three mentioned above, he did not treat Aoto with any enthusiasm either.

After Kanazawa mediated and calmed down the conflict between Mizushima and Kimura, he quietly returned to his seat, looking down at his nose and indifferent to his own thoughts.

Qingdeng silently scanned the expressions of everyone in the hall, then thought to himself:

—The situation is really clear... It's obvious who dislikes me and who is friendly to me.

Only my grandson, Kanazawa, and Mizushima were friendly towards Aoto.

The other four... hehe.

Since Kimura and the others treated him coldly, Qing Deng had no interest in trying to win their favor.

If time permits, Qing Deng would like to chat more with my grandson, Kanazawa, and Mizushima, since they are colleagues who will be working together in the future.

Unfortunately, the council chamber doors were once again flung open with a "whoosh".

Two middle-aged people walked through the opened hall door one after the other and entered the hall.

Even without any introduction, Qing Deng could tell at a glance that they must be the current commanders of the Fire Thieves: Kurosawa Atsuyuki and Okubo Tadashi.

Ironically, the two had the exact same body type—boobs that looked like they were seven months pregnant, and chins with three distinct creases that were clearly visible even without looking down.

"Oh? It seems everyone's here." Kurosawa glanced around the room and smiled. "No one's late, very good!"

As soon as Kurosawa finished speaking, Okubo, who was standing next to him, added:

"The meeting is about to begin, so stop standing around and get back to your posts!"

Splash...

In an instant, Kanazawa and Mizushima, who had gathered around Qingdeng, dispersed.

"Tachibana-kun. Come with me~ Your seat is right next to me."

My grandson beckoned to Qingdeng with his finger, thoughtfully pointing out his seat for him.

There are specific seating arrangements in the council chamber; you cannot sit anywhere you like.

Those with odd-numbered squads sat on the east side of the hall.

Those with even-numbered squads sat on the west side of the hall.

Qing Deng belonged to the Third Division, and his seat was sandwiched between "one" and "five".

In other words, Aoto sat between my grandson and Kimura Kazuma.

As soon as Aoto's bent legs landed on the soft mat, he caught a glimpse of Kimura Kazuma sitting to his left, shifting his position away from him out of the corner of his eye.

A faint look of disgust could be seen on Kimura Kazuma's face.

Seeing this, Qing Deng let out a silent sneer, completely unconcerned.

……

……

This simple "welcome party," which was hastily convened to welcome Qingdeng, is nothing special.

There were no gifts, no flowers, and no rousing congratulatory messages.

At the request of Kurosawa and Okubo, Aoto gave another self-introduction in front of everyone.

Following that, Kurosawa pointed out to Aoto, one by one, some key points that needed to be paid more attention to during the fire-fighting thief reform.

Finally, Kurosawa and Okubo jointly announced to everyone: Although the Extermination Group had been destroyed, many remnants were still running rampant. Although the bad trend of "brainless and irrational expulsion of foreigners" had been effectively curbed, it was not yet time to relax... and so on.

In short, this is a warning to everyone to work harder in the future and not to slack off.

After completing the above series of steps, this simple "welcome party" came to an end.

Atsuyuki Kurosawa and Tadashi Okubo were the first to leave – both of them spoke softly and were not at all annoying, so Aoto's first impression of these two superiors was acceptable.

However, Aoto had not forgotten the advice his grandson had just given him: Okubo Tadashi owed Kimura Kazuma's father a great favor.

Therefore, Qing Deng did not lower his guard against Tadashi Okubo because of a good "initial impression".

"Ugh~ 'It's not time to relax yet,' 'Everyone must be dedicated to their duties'... It's always the same old lines, I'm so tired of hearing them!"

After Kurosawa and Okubo's footsteps faded from the council chamber, my grandson stretched vigorously and stood up lazily.

"Tachibana-kun, do you have any plans for later?"

What other arrangements could there be?

Qingdeng shrugged.

"I'm going to my Third Division's base to meet with my subordinates... Hmm? What's up? Is there something you need?"

Aoto suddenly felt the light beside him dim, and when he looked up, he saw Kimura Kazuma staring down at him expressionlessly.