I assembled the strongest swordsman group.

At this moment, Qingdeng seemed to sense something and his body stiffened.

Noticing his unusual behavior, Ebina quickly stopped talking and changed the subject, asking:

"Your Highness, what's wrong?"

Qing Deng silently raised his head, glanced around, and after a long while said indifferently:

"They're here."

Whoosh whoosh whoosh!

dong dong dong dong!

Thump thump thump!

Suddenly, a cacophony of noises from all directions poured into Aoto and Ebina's ears like a torrential downpour!

The sound of legs moving, the sound of footsteps on the wooden corridor, the sound of swords clashing...

In the blink of an eye, the factory became exceptionally noisy, much like the Kanda Market in the early morning.

Before long, figures entered the field of vision of Qingdeng and Haibining.

These "uninvited guests" quickly formed a formation, surrounding Qing Deng and Haibina completely, ready for battle.

Ebina frowned, turned his body to the side, and pressed his back against Aoto's.

Qing Deng didn't react excessively. He calmly moved his gaze to observe the situation.

The number of attacking enemies was not large, around a hundred.

However, Qing Deng recognized many familiar faces among them.

"Blood Tiger" Shigetaro Sakurai, "Dual Gunner" Mantaro Kishishima, "Oni Nagano" Binjiro Nagano, "Spear Eisuke" Eisuke Kusunoki, "Sendai's Fierce Bull" Rozaburo Ozeki...

All the elite soldiers and generals of the Shimizu clan are here!

"Ju Qingdeng, you really came."

A middle-aged man's voice, devoid of joy or sorrow.

Qingdeng looked in the direction of the sound. A tall, middle-aged man stood at the very front of the battle formation, his hands behind his back, parting the crowd.

"Long time no see, Shimizu Eiichi."

Qing Deng responded with a cold, indifferent laugh.

"Ju Qingdeng, I didn't expect you to actually find your way here... You're really something. Even though you're my enemy, I have to show you my respect."

"Don't give me that. Being praised by you makes me feel worse than hearing someone slander me as a lecher."

As he spoke, Qingdeng shrugged.

"Where is Rakshasa? Where is Rakshasa? Isn't he here?"

"You don't need to know about this."

"So... you anticipated that I would come here, so you deliberately laid an ambush here?"

"This is Lord Rakshasa's wise consideration."

"It's Shimizu Eiichi," he said calmly.

"Lord Rakshasa saw through your purpose of capturing our clan's cadres everywhere, so he began to make multiple preparations."

"First, we pretended to amass a large force at the Shimizu residence, partly to protect other officers, and partly to make you mistakenly believe that we have concentrated all our combat power at the Shimizu residence."

"Next, the important task of 'killing King Ren with a hail of arrows if he comes to the door' was entrusted to Phoenix House Yataro, and a group of archers with superb archery skills were lent to him."

"Finally, we will secretly lay ambushes here with the majority of our elite troops, waiting for you to come to us."

"If you were to die in a muddle in Phoenix House Yataro's mansion, that would be the best thing ever."

"Even if Phoenix House Yataro's sneak attack fails, we still have a real killer move waiting for you here."

"Even if you end up doing nothing, going nowhere, neither attacking the Shimizu residence nor going to the Phoenix House Yataro's mansion or this factory, it doesn't matter."

“We declared war on you in public, yet you avoided the fight—this alone is enough to damage your reputation.”

"Whether you fight or flee, we can all benefit from it."

Upon hearing this, Qing Deng scoffed.

"Goodness, you've prepared such a grand 'welcome ceremony' especially for me? You guys really went all out. Not only did you lay an ambush in that fat pig's mansion, you've also spared no effort in setting traps here."

"After all, your opponent is you."

Shimizu Eiichi put on a stern face.

“With Nioh as our opponent, we can never be too careful.”

Qing Deng let out another cold laugh.

"Is this really a good idea? This is your factory where you create Illusionary Elixir. Aren't you afraid I'll break through the encirclement and reveal the secrets of this factory to the outside world?"

"Don't worry, you have no chance of escaping."

After saying that, Shimizu Eiichi waved his hand.

Instantly, the sounds of swords being drawn and bowstrings being pulled rose and fell in waves!

“Ju Qingdeng, my statement that I have ‘deep respect for you’ is absolutely true.”

"Your recent extraordinary performance has truly amazed me."

"I have lost count of how many of my men have died at your hands."

"Besides causing us heavy casualties, you have also successfully located the production site of the Illusionary Acid."

At this point, a faint look of regret appeared on Shimizu Eiichi's face.

"It's such a pity. If possible, I sincerely hope you can become our companion."

"Well... it's too late to say all this now."

Shimizu Eiichi gradually concealed the regret on his face, reverting to his usual cold and unsmiling demeanor.

"Ju Qingdeng, may you rest here forever!"

In an instant, countless gazes and bursts of killing intent locked onto Qing Deng!

The formation formed by Shimizu Eiichi's troops was a very typical battle formation: melee fighters in front and ranged attackers behind.

It is easy to see from the archers' standard and steady bow-holding movements that they are all seasoned veterans who are well-versed in the art of archery.

Their breathless, focused expressions left no doubt that if Qingdeng made the slightest suspicious move, they would immediately riddle him with bullets!

Even though Qing Deng managed to dodge the archers' barrage, there were still the well-fed and heavily armed "Blood Tiger" Sakurai Shigetaro and others lurking nearby.

They resembled bloodthirsty beasts, always ready to engage in a bloody battle to the death with Qingdeng. They might not be able to kill Qingdeng, but they could more than give the archers the opportunity to aim and fire arrows from a distance.

On the other hand, Qing Deng had no other companions beside him except for a middle-aged man who was over forty years old.

From any perspective, Qingdeng is already in dire straits and cannot escape his fate.

However... even so, he remained calm and composed.

Perhaps it was Qing Deng's calm demeanor that made many people, including Shimizu Eiichi, wary.

"To rest here forever...?"

Suddenly, Qing Deng said softly.

"If you can do it, then give it a try!"

Like boiling water suddenly overflowing, Qing Deng drew his sword with a "choke".

"You set a trap...and I wasn't unprepared either!"

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

The instant Qing Deng finished speaking, dozens of kunai pierced through the windows and shot into the factory from the outside! Broken window frames and paper were scattered all over the ground like shrapnel!

"Ah ah ah ah ah!"

"Woohoo!"

"Ugh! Ugh ugh ugh!"

In the blink of an eye, more than a dozen enemies collapsed to the ground, some clutching the spot where the kunai had hit them, groaning in pain, while others simply died.

Immediately afterwards, the already riddled windows were vandalized again.

This time, it wasn't kunai that broke the windows, but rather one living, breathing person after another.

The first person to break in was Sanako.

Following them were Souji, Ichinose, Ebina, Sae, Yae, the old man Amakura Owl, and the other members of the new Oniwaban... a total of more than thirty people.

As soon as they arrived, they stepped forward and started killing without hesitation!

Both in terms of their "appearance method" and "time of appearance," Sanako and the others were like a descent from the sky, which naturally threw the Yakuza, led by Shimizu Eiichi, into disarray.

Shimizu Eiichi truly lives up to his reputation as the leader of the Shimizu clan; his composure and temperament are unmatched by ordinary people.

He quickly regained his composure... however, his expression did not return to normal.

He frowned, turned his head, and cast a sharp gaze at Qing Deng, who was not far away, as if trying to pierce through his body.

"Tachibana Aoto... Killing you won't be so easy after all..."

"Ebina, are you alright?"

Ichinose, accompanied by Akutsu, rushed to Ebina's side.

"Yes, I'm fine. You arrived just in time."

At the same time, Aoto's surroundings became lively—Sanako, Souji, and the Nie sisters nestled beside him.

"Youngsters! Let's go!"

"Mr. Tachibana, the number of enemies is much smaller than we expected."

“Sashige, don’t be careless. There are many outstanding martial arts masters among the enemies.”

At this moment, Shimizu Eiichi tilted his head back and shouted:

"Don't panic! Calm down!"