Female Swordsman Training Dojo

"Never mind." Qingxin interrupted him. "I know, we have to follow the rules and finish off the disciples first. But I'm in a hurry, so you can all come at me together."

Inhale...exhale...exhale—

The muffled breathing sounded again, and Harunobu's intense gaze swept over the remaining three masters of the Hosho Dojo, and he announced his name once more: "Tenten Seishin-ryu, Third Master, Taira Harunobu."

Chapter 46: Would you like to become my disciple?

Harunobu's arrogant words echoed in the Hosho Dojo, but this time no one refuted him. The three remaining Okuden raised their wooden swords, pointing them at Harunobu in a triangular formation, both ashamed and angry, and took turns announcing their names.

"No Outer Stream, Ultimate Transmission! Ito Shoichi!"

"No Outflow, Ultimate Legend! Shinsuke Hakutsuru!"

"No outsider flow, the ultimate legend! Hizen Natori!"

As the three announced their names, Harunobu suddenly sensed a hint of danger, just like the one he had felt from Hayashi Uemon before, but much weaker and not quite the same.

His gaze flickered, passing over the three people before finally settling on Ito Shoichi, who was facing him directly. The source of that sense of danger seemed to emanate from this man.

As Harunobu's gaze fell upon Ito Shoichi, the expressions of the three of them changed slightly, but they quickly tensed up again and took a step forward in unison.

The empty dojo amplified the sound of the footstep, breaking the silence of the confrontation and eliciting an even louder thunderous roar. The figure, as swift as lightning, reappeared and arrived in front of Ito Shoichi in the blink of an eye, the wooden sword, as solid as a single piece, slashing towards his chest.

Unlike Ito Ranzo, who possessed a genetically mutated physique, Ito Shoichi would be rendered incapable of fighting after being slashed like that.

At this critical moment, Ito Shoichi did not dodge, but gripped the wooden sword in his hand and, with a shout of breath, thrust it forward suddenly.

Snapped!

Harunobu's horizontal slash of wooden sword collided with Ito Shoichi's thrust of wooden sword. Incredibly, the immense power Harunobu unleashed with Thunder Breathing was actually stopped by this thrust! Harunobu's charge was even halted for a moment.

This is a person, not a monster!

In the brief moment when Harunobu's movements faltered, such a thought flashed through his mind, but he quickly dismissed it, as the other two men's knives were already slashing down.

Blocking from left and right, a kasaya slash from top to bottom!

As if they were absolutely certain that Harunobu would stop at this moment, they swung their wooden swords early on, striking Harunobu, who had stopped due to the impact, at just the right moment.

The two consecutive ki attacks overlapped in the empty dojo, even suppressing the thunder. Ito Ranzo, who had just woken up, excitedly waved his arms, but Hosho Ichijo, who was behind him, sighed and leaned close to his ear.

Two swords struck Harunobu's shoulders, the immense force tearing his kendo uniform open and revealing his already bruised shoulders. However, both men who were successfully hit, along with Ito Shoichi, looked extremely grim.

Because the lightning was already close.

Thunder Breathing, Second Form: Rice Spirit!

Five, no, eight bolts of lightning were formed in an instant. Four of them hit Ito Shoichi, while the other two were each hit by two bolts.

"Impossible...you bastard..."

Before Ito Shoichi collapsed, his eyes were wide open as he stared intently at Harunobu, as if he had seen some kind of monster.

In fact, that was pretty much the case. After personally taking two stabs, Harunobu roughly understood why he had been stopped by Ito Shoichi earlier.

"I didn't expect that Mugai-ryu was actually Nen-ryu." Harunobu stretched his shoulders, the burning pain making him grimace. "It's about imbuing the sword with the absolute power to stop and defeat the enemy—that's probably what it is, right?"

"Unfortunately, although my body is at the level of an ordinary swordsman, my family's swordsmanship also has some effect on my body." Harunobu stopped moving his shoulder after getting used to the pain. "So, unfortunately, your plan has failed."

"So, who's next? Ms. Hosho Amu from the teacher training program, or will you, Hosho Ichijo, come yourself?"

Amu Hojo, who had already drawn her wooden sword, immediately stepped forward: "I—"

"Step back, Amu!" Hosho Ichijo coldly rebuked, "Our Hosho Dojo hasn't reached the point where we need a woman to take action, and besides, your strength is not even as good as Shoichi's."

With her right foot dangling in mid-air, Amu Hojo gritted her teeth and managed to squeeze out a short sentence: "I'm no weaker than him!"

Baosheng's face darkened. He would never show his daughter a bad attitude, but this was different. There were outsiders present, and precisely because he loved his daughter, he was even less willing to let her go up and get beaten. Besides, didn't he know that his daughter was just studying on her own at the dojo? Having a middle school diploma was already quite an achievement.

At this moment, Harunobu's voice rang out: "Hosho Ichijo, you really are getting old and blind. Your daughter is much stronger than your disciples, both in terms of current strength and talent in swordsmanship."

He wasn't talking nonsense. In the entire Hosho Dojo, apart from Hosho Amu, the person with the highest talent was Hosho Ichijo himself, plus Ito Shoichi and Ito Ranzo—both were R-rank, which meant they were not even in the same league as Hosho Amu.

Moreover, when Amu Hosho was about to make her entrance with her sword, Harunobu did indeed feel a stronger sense of danger than Ito Shoichi, as if a real knife was right in front of his throat—and Harunobu didn't feel anything at all before Amu Hosho made her move.

In every aspect, Amu Hosho completely outclassed Shoichi Ito.

With Harunobu's interruption, Amu Hosho's right foot finally touched the ground, but Ichijo Hosho still spoke coldly: "Amu, come back!"

"Father!"

Amu Hosho turned to Ichijo Hosho, "Let me fight. At least it can wear him down. His swordsmanship is clearly a burst of energy that consumes a lot of stamina—"

Baosheng looked at his daughter expressionlessly, and her voice naturally lowered and eventually disappeared completely.

"What a show!" Qingxin interjected again. He genuinely felt that he had watched a good show, and it seemed that there was something good to be done.

"By the way, Hosho Ichijo, you didn't teach your daughter swordsmanship at all, did you? Otherwise, you should know how talented she is... Hmm, could I have really guessed right?"

Harunobu was amused by the indignant look on Hojo Amu's face and the look of Hojo Ichijo on his face, as if his mother had died.

"Would you like to become my disciple, Miss Hosho?" Harunobu ignored Hosho's suddenly more hostile gaze and said to Hosho Amu, "Our Aozora Dojo specializes in recruiting female disciples. You also have classmates studying at our dojo, and you should be able to see their progress, right?"

Of course, Amu Hosho could see that Nana Hanazawa, that lazybones, had recently become noticeably more dashing in her movements, and Yoko Saten was even beginning to show signs of becoming a swordsman. In such a short time, their progress was simply too exaggerated!

"And although it's not nice to say it like this, their talent is incomparable to yours. You've met my top disciple, and you're definitely no worse than her, in terms of talent."

Harunobu ignored Hosho Ichijo's increasingly dark expression and continued to persuade Hosho Amu, who was clearly beginning to waver. This attitude made Hosho Ichijo completely unable to tolerate it.

"Draw your sword, Taira no Harunobu!" Hosho Ichijo, enraged, took the sword from Ito Ranzo. "I want a real sword fight with you!"

Chapter 47: The True Sword Battle

Clearly, Harunobu's act of poaching her from his side completely enraged Hosho Ichijo. Although Hosho Amu was often a leaky little darling, she was still his only daughter. Even if she really wanted to learn swordsmanship, she would never learn from an outsider like Harunobu!

Moreover, he was only forty-five years old, not old yet, and not blind. He could see the special atmosphere between Hiraharu and that Hirako. How could he allow his precious daughter to get close to a guy who would even lay hands on his own female disciple?

Since things have come to this point, the only option is to completely defeat Hiraharu Shin, make his daughter understand that he is not worth learning from, and also make him understand that there are some people he should not get involved with.

At this moment, Hosho Ichijo felt that his will had never been so strong, and his physical and mental strength, which had declined due to his age, seemed to have returned to its peak.

No, this is his true peak!

As Hosho Ichijo solidified his resolve, his expression grew increasingly sharp. Harunobu, who had originally wanted to discuss tuition issues with Hosho Amu, finally turned around and looked at Hosho Ichijo directly under the pressure of this thorn in his back.

"That seems a bit too much..." Harunobu thought to himself. Of course, his behavior just now was partly due to his genuine desire to take on a disciple, but more importantly, he wanted to provoke Hosei Ichijo and distract him. After all, judging from Ito Shoichi's previous performance, these people become stronger the more focused they are.

The Mind-Based Sword Technique is truly heaven-defying.

However, it seems like things have backfired. If you value your daughter so much, why don't you teach her swordsmanship? Are you crazy?

Amidst his turbulent thoughts, Harunobu dropped the wooden sword in his hand, gripped the katana at his waist, bowed slightly, and took a deep breath.

Questions and answers are useless; only the sword can be drawn.

The muffled, thunderous breathing grew more intense as Harunobu lowered his upper body. Hosho Ichijo drew the sword that Ito Ranzo had given him and tossed the scabbard to his burly disciple.

"No outflow, all transmission without permission! Baosheng, one rule!"

"Natural Harushin-ryu - Third Generation Master! Taira no Nobu!"

As the high-pitched yet steady chanting filled the air, lightning struck again! Far faster than ever before, the violent lightning unleashed a torrent of sound and light, so intense that many could hardly look directly at the dazzling spectacle, turning their faces away and covering their ears.

Qingxin immediately used Divine Speed!

As the blade flashed, the smooth sound of a sword being drawn echoed from his previous spot, piercing through the thunder and reaching Qingxin's ears, causing him to suddenly twist his body and shoot out to the right.

So fast, yet it failed?

Harunobu was somewhat incredulous, but he did not lose focus. Instead, he quickly moved to another position, dodging another slash from Hosho Ichijo. He flashed around the dojo like lightning, but no matter where he went, Hosho Ichijo always caught up in time, and his attacks always missed, as if his intentions to attack and move had been seen through in advance.

Is this Nen-ryu...?

Harunobu silently noted down the feeling at that moment, then took a sudden step forward and swung his katana forward with force, creating a frenzied roar several times louder than the previous thunder—Fourth Form: Distant Thunder!

Baosheng, who was pressing him closely, couldn't help but pause in the face of such a powerful momentum and cautiously chose to dodge. This naturally allowed Qingxin to regain his composure and unleash another thunderous strike.

"Again?" Baosheng snorted coldly, and without pausing, charged straight into the surging airflow. He swung his katana forward, tearing apart the invisible, high-temperature airflow and revealing a road leading directly to Qingxin.

Despite being the more threatening Fifth Form: Heat World Lightning, it was destroyed without any hindrance, and judging from Hosho Ichijo's expression, he seemed to think that Harunobu was using the same old trick again.

As expected, Nianliu is ridiculous.

They were already able to disregard certain objective factors and influence the world subjectively, which is why they were able to treat the more destructive thermal lightning as a distant lightning and ignore it, without even their clothes being ignited.

It's just one of the three major sources. Although I feel that learning too much of it would turn me into an extreme fanatic, it is indeed very powerful. However, Harunobu already has a way to win it over.

Harunobu watched as Hosho Ichijo charged towards him, gripped his katana tightly, and aimed at Hosho Ichijo's limbs. Mugai-ryu relies on the power of the mind to become stronger, but it is by no means something that can be achieved simply by thinking about it. It mostly requires combining theory with practice. As long as Hosho Ichijo is injured, the thought that he has become weaker will naturally appear in his mind.

The more he thinks this way, the weaker he becomes; this is simply the nature of idealism.

“One more swift attack shouldn’t be a problem…” Harunobu aimed at Hosei’s right leg. The latter was maintaining a mid-stance, with a tighter defense on his arm. Although cutting off his hand could quickly weaken his combat power, there was also the possibility of being injured by a counter-attack. It would be better to cut off his leg and slow down his strange high speed!

Having made up his mind, Harunobu made no attempt to hide his gaze. When facing such idealists, one should appear more confident than them, rather than cautious. The former might not make them doubt themselves, but it was better than the latter, which would certainly boost their confidence!

"madness!"

Baosheng sneered, his tone extremely contemptuous. Not only that, he even raised his katana and charged at Qingxin in a high stance, as if he was certain that even if he left himself wide open, Qingxin could not defeat him.

Despite the huge opening in Hosho Ichijo's defenses, Harunobu still aimed at his right leg and relentlessly charged up his power. In this way, Hosho Ichijo brought Harunobu into his attack range.

"Haaah!"

A loud snort suddenly rang out, even piercing through the thunder for a moment, but then Harunobu burst out with an even louder sound, kicking through the soft tatami mat and the solid wooden floor, and the already close distance was swept away in less than the blink of an eye.

The gleaming blade slashed towards Baosheng's right leg.

Then a crisp sound, like metal snapping, rang out.

Harunobu's eyes widened as he watched the broken blade of his katana spin backward, while Hosho Ichijo's sword followed closely behind, slashing horizontally towards his neck.

"Your sword is terrible"—Harunobu seemed to hear Hosho Ichijo say this. Although there was no time to speak in the swift exchange, Hosho Ichijo's slightly upturned lips and smug expression seemed to convey this sentiment.

No wonder.

Harunobu suddenly realized why he wanted to engage in a more dangerous real sword fight—because he had a fine sword that gave him the confidence that he could cut through Harunobu's attacks, or even his weapon!

That's why he was able to be so confident in leaving such a huge opening, because he was certain that he could cut off Harunobu's weapon!

However, Harunobu has an even better one!

Chapter 48: The Mastermind

Harunobu loosened his grip on the broken katana, and a stream of light gathered between his outstretched fingers, quickly condensing into a peculiar katana with a reverse-blade design!

Reverse Blade Sword - True Fight!

The sudden change made Baosheng open his eyes wide. His smug smile was suppressed and dispelled by the undeniable anomaly. Then, he saw five sword lights.

Thunder Breathing, Second Form: Rice Spirit!

Baosheng Yitiao's katana was knocked away by three consecutive blows, and three obvious dents appeared on the blade. He stubbornly gripped the weapon until the last moment, when his tiger's mouth burst open and blood gushed out. But even more dangerous were the bruises on his right calf and thigh. The loud sound of bones breaking even pierced the thunder and reached the ears of everyone in the dojo.

It was an undisputed victory. If Harunobu's five slashes hadn't been wasted on Hosho Ichijo's sword, he could have easily severed his head and pierced his heart. Even if he had wasted three of those slashes, the remaining two slashes wouldn't have changed their target. The fact that he had one leg crippled was enough to declare victory in the sword fight.

After all, a swordsman who loses his mobility is basically no different from dead. In battle, even losing an arm is better than losing a leg, at least you still have a leg to run away.

"……I lost."

Hosho Ichijo remained silent for a while, until Harunobu finished his Zanshin and sheathed his reverse-blade sword, Shin-uchi, before dejectedly admitting defeat.

But then, somewhat unwilling, he asked with a mix of emotion and inquiry, "I didn't expect that even using the Storm Cutter wouldn't be enough to defeat you. Was that sword a magical artifact?"

Harunobu had already prepared an excuse for taking the sword out of thin air, and said in a serious tone, "It's a spell. A priestess cast a one-time invisibility spell on this sword."

If Hosho Ichijo were to press further, Harunobu was planning to say it was that strange shrine maiden at the Amaterasu no Meishi Shrine near Yoshiwara... wait, what was that girl's name again?

Forget it.

Harunobu looked at Hosho Ichijo, who was sitting on the ground looking rather disheveled. His previous composure and sharpness had completely disappeared, and he looked rather pitiful.

But Harunobu had no intention of pitying him. He gripped the hilt of his sword and scanned his surroundings. This time, wherever his gaze fell, all the Hosho Dojo disciples except for Hosho Amu lowered their heads. Some were terrified, some were gritting their teeth, but undeniably, they all lowered their heads.

Even the dojo's instructors were defeated without any controversy. They have completely lost their confidence in fighting against Harunobu and Aozorakan. For Nenryu, this is a fatal danger. If they cannot overcome this mentality, no matter how strong they are, they will find it difficult to defeat Harunobu or even the disciples of Aozorakan.

Harunobu was quite satisfied with this, but also a little disappointed... It seems that the Hosho Dojo is now completely the best place to farm monsters, and he can no longer happily beat up challengers to farm points.

The absurd idea was interrupted by cheerful footsteps. Harunobu looked at the little cat running happily towards him. The brat, whoever had some strength, had run all the way to Harunobu's side while carrying the signboard at the entrance of the Hosho Dojo.