I assembled the strongest swordsman group

The reason for this is that, with the blessing of "Sword Prodigy," the feeling of being able to improve rapidly is simply too addictive.

Why were games so addictive in my past life? Because the positive feedback from games came just too quickly.

By defeating monsters, you can gain experience points and see your experience bar increase. After leveling up, you can use the points gained to strengthen yourself.

Such quick and direct positive feedback leaves memorizing vocabulary and texts far behind.

You diligently memorize vocabulary words, but in the end you still don't remember them—such a terrible positive feedback loop is bound to be addictive.

The strong positive feedback from being recognized as a "sword prodigy" made Qing Deng so obsessed that he stayed in the Shiwei Hall to practice swordsmanship diligently.

Qingdeng stayed in the Shiwei Hall from morning until dusk.

……

……

The setting sun, about to sink below the horizon, weakly cast its dim yellow light through the windows into the dojo of the Shieikan.

After a day as a coach, Okita glanced at the sunset outside the window and clapped his hands vigorously:

"Alright! That's all for today's practice!"

Okita's shout caused everyone in the arena to put down their bamboo swords, and it also brought Aoto, who was wholeheartedly practicing drawing and sheathing his sword, back to reality.

—Hmm? Is it already this late?

Qingdeng looked at the sunset outside the window with a surprised expression.

Because he was so focused on practicing his sword, Qingdeng didn't even realize how late it was.

Kondo had previously told Aoto that the Shieikan Museum opens at 8:00 AM and closes close around 6:00 PM.

Qingdeng observed the sky outside the window—in about half an hour, the sun would completely sink below the horizon.

"That's enough practice for today!" Okita said, hands on his hips. "Everyone, let's quickly tidy up the dojo and go home! Things aren't very peaceful lately, so don't go home too late."

As Okita finished speaking, everyone in the dojo responded with a "Yes!" and put down their bamboo swords. They then brought out rags, buckets, and other cleaning tools and began cleaning the dojo.

This is one of the rules of the dojo in this era—unless a few students have not practiced swordsmanship in the dojo all day, the students who remain in the dojo when the dojo closes are obligated to stay and clean the dojo together, mainly by wiping the floor.

Besides Qing Deng, there are currently a total of 9 apprentices still remaining in Shieikan.

Since Qingdeng is a newcomer today, all the apprentices in the entire Examination Hall are currently Qingdeng's senior brothers.

Qingdeng followed his fellow disciples, picked up a rag, and lay down on the ground to wipe the temple floor, which had been "moistened" by the sweat of many people all day.

Okita also joined in cleaning the dojo.

Not only did he participate, but he was also the most efficient one. He wiped one-fifth of the dojo floor by himself, and he did it extremely well.

After successfully cleaning up, Okita stood with his hands on his hips in front of the Shieikan building, like a homeroom teacher standing at the gate of an elementary school, watching each of his students leave.

Goodbye, Okita-kun.

"Okay, goodbye. Remember to practice your vocal cords more in private when you get back. You still need to strengthen your vocal cords."

"Goodbye, Okita-kun. I'm going back to my hometown starting tomorrow, and it will probably be a few days before I can come back to the kendo hall to practice again."

"Okay, good. Your basic vibration also needs improvement. You should practice it more often."

……

At this moment, Okita reverted to his usual cheerful and smiling self, and the fierce and menacing expression he had displayed while teaching swordsmanship was nowhere to be seen.

Qingdeng was the last person to leave the museum.

"Goodbye, Tachibana-kun." Okita smiled and took the initiative to say goodbye to Aoto. "You must be very tired after training all day. Remember to get some rest when you get back."

"If conditions permit, it is best to set aside some time each day to practice the basic vibration."

"Suzhen is the most basic skill among the basic skills, so you must practice it a lot, often, and hard."

"Okay." Qing Deng nodded vigorously. "Goodbye, Okita-kun. You should go home and rest early too."

“I don’t need to go home.” Okita smiled and pointed to the ground with his right index finger. “I live right here.”

"Okita-kun, you used to live at the Shieikan?" Aoto was taken aback.

“To be precise, we were staying at Kondo’s house,” Okita explained. “Our Shieikan dojo is a typical example of a dojo where the master’s house and the dojo are one and the same.”

“Look, that house connected to the dojo is where Kondo and his family usually live.”

Okita pointed to a simple house connected to the dojo behind it.

“Our Okita family and the Kondo family have a very good relationship, almost like one family.”

"To make it easier to practice swordsmanship, I moved here shortly after joining the Shieikan and lived with Kondo and the others."

"Staying directly in the sword hall...that's really convenient," Qing Deng remarked sincerely.

When Qingdeng was in middle school in his previous life, he envied those who lived very close to the school.

He was the kind of student whose home was a bit far from school.

Every day on his way to school, he has to pedal his bicycle vigorously for half an hour.

Every time Qingdeng recalls those days when he had to pedal like a cyclist every day, a chill runs down his spine...

“I remember Kondo told me that his father and mother happen to be out today.” Qing Deng then adopted a half-joking tone, “and Kondo is also temporarily out due to other matters.”

"So, in that case, you'll be the only one living in that big place today?"

“Yes…” Okita smiled helplessly, “Tonight, I’ll have to do everything myself, from cooking to heating the bathwater…”

"I'm too lazy to cook tonight, so I'll just eat something simple."

“Ah, speaking of Kondo-kun…” Aoto paused for a moment, as if remembering something. “Okita-kun, may I ask a question related to Kondo-kun?”

"Hmm? What do you want to ask?"

“I heard Suzuki-kun say today that our master is already 68 years old this year,” Qing Deng said slowly. “I’m a little concerned about that… there seems to be quite a big age difference between our master and Kondo-kun. Is Kondo-kun our master’s adopted son?”

Today, while listening to Suzuki introduce the "Five Great Warriors" of Shieikan, Aoto became quite concerned about the age difference between Kondo and his son.

According to Suzuki-kun, their mentor, Kondo Shusuke, is 68 years old this year.

Kondo Isami, the son of Kondo Shusuke, looks to be only around 25 years old.

An age difference of over forty years... it doesn't seem like a normal age difference between a father and son.

“Oh, this…” Okita, whose expression turned slightly strange, raised his hand and played with the slender high ponytail at the back of his head. “You guessed right.”

“Kondo-nii is the master’s adopted son.”

“Kondo was originally the son of a wealthy farmer in Tama, and his original name was Katsuguro.”

"My master never had any children of his own. By sheer chance, he met Brother Kondo."

"Master really likes Kondo's personality, and he is also very pleased with the swordsmanship talent that Kondo has shown."

"So, when Kondo was 16 years old, he was officially adopted by his master into the Kondo family."

Having said that, Okita let out a long sigh.

A hint of sadness crept into his eyes.

"Kondo has always been under a lot of pressure because of his identity as a former farmer and an adopted son."

"In order not to disgrace the names of 'Kondo' and 'Tengen Rishin-ryu', I have always worked harder than anyone else."

"But even with all that effort, there are still many annoying guys who cling to the fact that Kondo is a 'former farmer'..."

"Even Kondo's mother..."

At this point, Okita abruptly stopped speaking, shut his mouth, and then shook his head vigorously, causing the thin ponytail at the back of his head to fly up.

"Forget it! Let's not talk about these unlucky things!"

Seeing that Okita seemed unwilling to discuss the topic any further, Aoto wisely kept quiet and did not delve into the previous discussion.

"Okay, let's stop here for now. You should hurry home too."

Okita waved to Aoto.

"It's almost completely dark now. In these times, it's best to avoid walking at night."

"Remember to come here often to practice your swordsmanship. There are no other unorthodox methods in swordsmanship; there is only one path—diligent practice."

“If I could, I would like to come here to practice my sword every day…” This time, Qingdeng smiled helplessly. “However, my current circumstances do not allow me to do so. Starting tomorrow, I will have to go to work again… ah, no, to serve in the government. I can only wait until I have another holiday to have time to continue practicing my sword.”

……

……

After chatting with Okita for a few more minutes, Qing Deng, supporting the sword at his left waist, quickly set off on his way home.

Okita stood there, silently watching Aoto leave.

Only after Qing Deng's figure had completely disappeared from sight did Okita turn around and return to the building.

As Okita closed the sword-making hall's door from the inside, he muttered to himself with a hint of smugness:

"Next time we fight those guys from the Genbu Hall and the Chiba Sword Hall... we'll finally have a chance to turn the tables on those bastards...!"

……

……

As Qingdeng walked home, a faint smile appeared on his face as he walked along the gentle breeze.

Today's harvest was so plentiful and significant that Qingdeng was unable to suppress the upturn of his lips.

"A Sword Prodigy"—this powerful talent acted like a strong reassurance, calming Qing Deng's troubled mind, which was torn by the death threats from the anti-foreign faction and the property threats from the Yakuza.

Today, in between sword practice, Qing Deng chatted with Okita and the others from time to time.

During their casual conversation, Qingdeng gained a much better understanding of the sword school he had recently joined.

According to Okita, Shieikan currently has 43 apprentices.

The number of apprentices... can only be described as desolate.

Judging from the number of apprentices alone, Shieikan is a typical small to medium-sized sword school, with the number of apprentices being less than a fraction of that of large sword schools such as Genbukan, Kochiba Sword School, and Renbeikan.

With few apprentices, naturally not many people come to practice swordsmanship every day.

As of now, the Shieikan (a sword-making hall) is closed, and apart from Okita, only 14 other apprentices have come to practice swordsmanship there.

Qing Deng's only regret today is that, apart from Okita, he has not been able to replicate his talent from anyone else.

With the mindset that "maybe I can replicate some amazing talent," he used all sorts of methods and excuses to invite each of his fellow students he met that day to spar.

Qingdeng is undoubtedly the focus of Shiekan today.

Everyone who came to the sword-making hall to practice today knew that they had gained a junior disciple with extremely high talent, who was highly praised by Kondo and who even the "devil coach" Okita found difficult to find fault with in his sword training.

Some people were quite enthusiastic about this new, talented junior brother, while others were quite indifferent.

Therefore, some people readily agreed to Qingdeng's invitation to exchange skills, while others coldly declined.

Of the 14 apprentices who came to the sword-making hall today, only 8 agreed to spar with Qing Deng.

Although he couldn't spar with all the senior brothers he met today, Qingdeng didn't care much. After all, his mentality was "I'll bring as many people as I can to spar with."

Because his current swordsmanship level is still quite poor, his record in sparring with those 8 senior brothers is not very good—3 wins and 5 losses.

In the three matches he won, Qing Deng relied mainly on the footwork and fighting skills he had accumulated in his previous life to achieve victory.

In all eight battles, without exception, the talent could not be replicated...

Fortunately, obtaining the "Sword Prodigy" talent today is already a great surprise.

Compared to this huge surprise, this little regret is insignificant.

Besides being recognized as a "sword prodigy," Qing Deng also gained something else today: through his sword practice, he deeply felt that his current physical abilities urgently needed to be improved.

With such a light bamboo sword, after just a few swings, my arm started to ache and my breathing became unsteady.

Whether it's endurance or the muscles in their hands and feet, in Qingdeng's eyes, they can only be described as "horrible".

By ordinary standards, this body's physical abilities are passable.

However, for Qingdeng, whose personal safety and property are now insecure, such physical strength is simply insufficient to cope with the threats posed by the anti-foreign faction and the Yakuza.

"Practicing martial arts without internal training is a waste of time in old age"—this is a saying that Qing Deng has always regarded as a profound truth.

No matter how well you practice your moves, if you don't improve your strength and speed, you might not even be able to touch your enemy.