I assembled the strongest swordsman group.

Gyeonggi Province, somewhere —

This is a slightly dimly lit yet exceptionally clean corridor.

The kappa knelt on one knee in the center of the corridor, facing the simple door in front of him, patiently waiting for a reply from inside.

The candles placed on either side of the door illuminated the kappa's expressionless face with flickering light.

In the midst of this tranquility, a calm voice, devoid of sorrow or joy, suddenly rang out from behind the door.

"Oh... Rakshasa is dead... cough! cough cough cough! cough cough!"

The rapid coughing brought a breath of fresh air.

The kappa's expression was instantly filled with panic.

"Orochi-sama? Orochi-sama? Momoi! Tao..."

"Kappa... wait... no need to call Momoi over, I'm feeling pretty good today, no need to worry."

Despite his hesitation, the kappa complied with the serpent's request.

"Yes, Lord Orochi! I wish you good fortune, happiness, and lasting health!"

"Thank you, Kappa. Your report is appreciated. You can go and rest now."

"Yes!"

The kappa lowered its head, bowed respectfully to the door in front of it, and then crawled away on its knees.

With the departure of the kappa, the deep corridor was once again enveloped in silence.

Approximately 3 minutes later, a new sound was produced:

"Rakshasa... even you have left me..."

The murmurs turned into sobs.

The sobbing turned into wailing.

Heartbreaking cries echoed through the corridor.

The crying lasted for quite a while before gradually subsiding.

The wailing turned into murmurs.

"Orange...green...Deng..."

call!

Suddenly a strong gust of wind came and blew out the candles on both sides of the door.

With the only source of light gone, the entire corridor instantly became incredibly dark.

Apart from the cracking sound of clenched fists, there was no other sound around...

……

……

Volume 2, "Soaring to the Heavens"—The End!

The man who shattered the darkness and ascended to the heavens is named [Minato Aoto Moriharu].

*******

*******

Foreword to Volume 3, "The Rise of the Dragon":

As the clouds rise and the dragon soars, he will become a king or lord!

Epilogue of Volume 2

Fire Thief, reassigned as the captain of the 5th Division, Kimura Kazuma.

Hisaka Genzo, captain of the 6th Division of the Fire Thieves.

The person mentioned above was sentenced to beheading for framing a colleague and for treason.

……

……

Fire Thieves, now the captain of the 7th Division, Tsuchida Masayoshi.

Nobuyoshi Kazama, the former captain of the 8th Division of the Fire Thief.

The person mentioned above was reinstated to his original position.

……

……

The captain of the Fire Thieves Division, Abiko Chutaro—through the clandestine machinations of the Great Salt Party and the secret assistance of Aoto—was recognized by the shogunate as "dying in the line of duty" and was entitled to a grand funeral and the highest level of compensation.

……

……

Kitahara Kōnosuke and others, who were captured alive by Aoto, were secretly executed by Tenshōin.

……

……

One day, a maid whose name contained the characters "Yae" secretly revealed to Aoto that the widow turned pale with fright when she learned that Aoto had single-handedly stormed into the Shimizu residence that night.

When the news of "Seido's great victory and the destruction of the Shimizu residence" arrived, she sat blankly on the tatami mat, remaining silent for a long time.

When Aoto was hospitalized, the widow, who was restricted from moving around freely in Edo due to her status, asked the Nie sisters to visit Aoto on her behalf.

The vase of flowers that the two sisters brought when they visited Qingdeng was personally selected and pruned by the widow who was an expert in flower arrangement.

……

……

March 15——

On a day when the cherry blossoms were just beginning to bloom, a long-awaited worshipper arrived at the cemetery of a temple in Edo.

He unsheathed the ancient sword with its dark purple hilt from his waist, offered incense before the stone tablet inscribed with "Tomb of the Tachibana Family of the Genji Clan," and stood there for a long time.

The incense burned quietly before the grave, its pale blue smoke rising and swirling into the distant clear sky.

This chapter is free.

A whole 500 words of free chapter... It hurts so much! (Like a leopard crying.jpg)

********

There will be an afterword for Volume 2 later~~

Postscript to Volume 2

(<ω<)⌒★Ciallo~

This is Somu, a novelist who's recently become obsessed with Yuzuriha games and has to go into the game every day to have a romance. She's practically turned into a Yuzuriha fan!

自2022年9月28日开启第2卷《势冲晴天》的连载以来，经过足足近11个月的漫长连载，总算是顺利完结此卷啦！

Volume 2 contains approximately 180.5 million words... making it the longest volume Leopard has ever written since his debut.

Overall, Leopard was quite satisfied with the quality of Volume 2.

From beginning to end, there is not a single wasted word, nor any completely useless chapter.

Whether it's the fireworks festival at the beginning of the volume or the campaign against the mountain bandits in the middle of the volume, both are based on incredibly rich foreshadowing.

Especially the fireworks display; I have no idea how much important information and foreshadowing was hidden in it.

It can be said that the plot of Volume 2 is intricately linked, with each link connected to the next, and the loss of any link would render the subsequent plot invalid.

The final battle at Shimizu Mansion unleashed a torrent of pent-up emotions.

While it may sound arrogant to say this, the plot and description of the Battle of Shimizu-dori are simply amazing!

It's so amazing that when I reread it, I still can't figure out how I wrote it so well.

The quality of "Battle of Shimizu Mansion" also earned it the reward it deserved—the number of monthly votes surged in those few days, raising the book to 31st place on the light novel monthly vote chart.

Okay, that's enough about Volume 2 for now. Let's talk about the future development of this book.

First of all—congratulations to all the readers who have made it this far!

finish watching

Yes.

That's right.

【Prologue】.

What you are seeing now is merely the prologue to this book.

It's roughly similar to the Straw Hat Pirates crossing Reverse Mountain and entering the Grand Line in One Piece; Team 7 defeating Zabuza Momochi in Naruto; and Xiao Yan defeating Nalan Yanran in Battle Through the Heavens, fulfilling their three-year promise...

By the end of Volume 2 of this book, the timeline has only reached 1861.

Those familiar with the history of the late Edo period know that Japan did not begin to experience a period of great upheaval until after 1863.

The August 18 Incident, the Ikedaya Incident, the Kinmon Incident, the First Choshu Campaign, the Second Choshu Campaign... any one of these historical events involving war could be written in hundreds of thousands of words.

Astute readers should have already figured it out—Qingdeng is practicing "dual cultivation," pursuing both the "path of a swordsman" to hone his swordsmanship and the "official career" to "get promoted, get a raise, and gain higher rank."

This "path of advancement" destined him to be swept up in the tide of history and become a player in the game.

I'm actually quite looking forward to it; scenes of warfare using cold weapons have always been Leopard's forte.

Leopard's debut work was a war novel, and he has a wealth of experience in writing about scenes of warfare using cold weapons.

Starting from Volume 3, Qing Deng will no longer be just a swordsman. He will start building his own power, he will start farming, and he will lead his troops into battle.

His battlefield will shift from corridors and tatami mats to blood-soaked plains and mountains.