I assembled the strongest swordsman group.

"Alright, forget about the commander."

"Mr. Tachibana, you've come at the perfect time today."

"I've arrived just in time? What do you mean?" Qing Deng looked puzzled.

“Father… ah, that is, our master, returned yesterday,” Kondo said with a smile. “I have already told him about you.”

"My father has been saying since yesterday that he wants to meet you as soon as possible, my new apprentice."

"I thought you would have to wait a few more days before you could come here to practice your swordsmanship."

"I didn't expect to see you again so soon."

The current owner of this Shieikan is Kondo Shusuke. Aoto had long heard of him, but had never met him.

Two days ago, when I first came to the Shieikan, I missed him because Shusuke was out and happened to be away from the sword hall.

Qingdeng was quite curious about this master whom he had never had the chance to meet.

"Kondo-kun, now that Master is back, where is he now?"

Qing Deng had just asked this question—

"Hehehe, so you're Tachibana Aoto?"

The aged voice, reminiscent of a withered branch, suddenly drew Qingdeng's attention.

Qingdeng quickly looked in the direction from which the old man's voice came, that is, behind him.

As soon as his gaze turned to the figure behind him, a hint of surprise appeared between Qing Deng's brows.

Standing behind him was a hunchbacked, rather short old man.

The old man had his hands behind his back and was looking at Qingdeng with a warm smile.

"Father!" Kondo quickly took a few steps and ran to the old man's side.

Meanwhile, the students practicing swordsmanship in the dojo all stopped what they were doing, bowed to the old man, and greeted him one by one with "Good morning, Master."

To be called "father" by Kondo Isami, and "master" by the apprentices at the dojo... there is only one person who receives such titles from them.

Realizing who the old man was, Qingdeng quickly followed suit, bowing respectfully to him and loudly answering Zhou Zhu's question:

"I am Tachibana Aoto!"

While bowing and greeting the old man... namely Kondo Shusuke, Aoto secretly glanced at his master out of the corner of his eye.

—This person…is Kondo Shusuke?

At first glance, the first impression Kondo Shusuke gave him was... that he was short.

However, his "shortness" only appears shorter compared to tall men like Aoto and Kondo Isami, who are close to 1.8 meters tall.

Compared to most men of his time, Kondo Shusuke's height was within the normal range.

And the second impression... was his small eyes.

This was the first time Qing Deng had ever seen such tiny, squinty eyes that made it impossible to tell whether he was open or closed.

As for the third impression... it's that the person seems very gentle.

His lips were always slightly upturned, and he had a warm smile on his face, making him look like the kind of person who was easy to get along with.

Zhou Zhu raised his hand, signaling the people around him to dispense with formalities, and then smiled as he looked Qing Deng up and down.

"Hehehehe... You must be Tachibana Aoto, you're really tall."

Zhou Zhu stood on tiptoe and, in a slightly comical gesture, raised his hand to compare the height difference between himself and Qing Deng.

Seeing Zhou Zhu's somewhat amusing actions, Qing Deng couldn't help but chuckle.

“I already heard about you from Yong yesterday.”

"Ting Yong said: You are not only exceptionally talented in swordsmanship, but also very proficient in unarmed combat."

"I wouldn't dare to claim expertise," Qing Deng said modestly.

After chuckling a few times, Zhou Zhu put his hands behind his back.

"Although Yu already tested your strength on your first day at the test hall."

"But I haven't yet seen how strong you are as my new apprentice."

"If it's convenient, could you let me see how strong you are now?"

Qingdeng paused for a moment, then quickly replied, "Of course, no problem."

Shusuke nodded: "Then... I'd like to start by looking at your unarmed combat skills."

"You want to see my unarmed combat skills?" Qing Deng was surprised.

“In this day and age, samurai skilled in unarmed combat are very rare,” Zhou Zhu smiled. “I’d really like to see just how good you are at unarmed combat. Is that alright? If you don’t want to, I won’t force you.”

"Of course," Qingdeng nodded quickly. "I'd be more than happy to."

To test his strength, Qingdeng should naturally compete with others.

Being able to have a fair fight with others, especially using his best unarmed combat skills—Qing Deng couldn't think of any reason to refuse such an exciting opportunity.

“Alright, then—Yoo.” Shusuke glanced at Kondo standing beside him. “You’ll fight Tachibana.”

"Me?" Kondo was startled and pointed at himself.

"Right now, you're the only one here who knows a little bit of unarmed combat," Kondo Shusuke said calmly. "If we don't send you, who will we send?"

"Okay... I understand."

When Shusuke sent Kondo onto the field, Aoto was delighted.

He couldn't be happier to be able to compete with Kondo.

Two days ago, because Kondo had to rush back to Tama to visit Hijikata Toshizo, Aoto was unable to spar with Kondo and lost an opportunity to see if Kondo had any talent within him.

Now that he could make up for this regret, Qingdeng couldn't help but beam with joy.

The students in the dojo retreated to the side of the dojo to make room for Aoto and Kondo.

Meanwhile, Shusuke sat cross-legged on the head seat of the dojo, watching with great interest the two who had begun to bow.

After bowing, Kondo took a deep breath and then spread his legs.

—Jiu-jitsu, huh…?

Having been passionate about unarmed combat in his previous life and possessing some knowledge of various unarmed combat techniques, Qing Deng recognized the martial art Kondo was using just by glancing at his stance.

Aoto not only immediately recognized that Kondo's martial art was jujitsu, but also realized that his jujitsu skills were not very good.

Given this awkward stance, Aoto speculated that Kondo's jujitsu was probably only at a rudimentary level.

If it were a swordsmanship contest... then Qing Deng felt that he would definitely be utterly crushed by Kondo, the instructor of the sword school.

But if it's a hand-to-hand combat...

Qing Deng let out a long breath, raised both hands, and assumed a grappling stance.

Confidence shines through every gesture!

"Drink—!" Kondo shouted with an astonishingly powerful breath as he glided toward Aoto.

Although Kondo is nearly 1.8 meters tall and has a strong build, he is not so strong that his "weight" directly exceeds that of Aoto by a whole weight class.

Therefore, when faced with Kondo rushing towards him, Aoto did not dodge, but boldly dodged to the side, then stepped forward and hugged Kondo tightly.

Kondo reacted extremely quickly. After Aoto grabbed him, his jujitsu skills were only at a "dabbling" level, and he immediately began to struggle, trying to break free of Aoto with brute force.

Kondo's strength, like his physique, was indeed far superior to Aoto's.

However, the difference in strength and weight between the two was not so great that Qing Deng could not make up for it with skill!

Aoto took a deep breath, and as if performing a masterful magician, he waved his hands and used a grappling technique to lock Kondo's arms in one breath.

Kondo struggled instinctively, but to his surprise, he found that he could not use his strength at all.

The harder he tried, the more he struggled to break free of Qingdeng's control over his arms, the more intense the pain became, spreading throughout his body.

He felt that if he forcibly broke free of Qingdeng's control, his arms would definitely dislocate.

Seeing that Kondo was subdued by Aoto so quickly, Shusuke raised his eyebrows in surprise.

Immediately afterwards, a smile appeared on his lips.

"Alright, that's enough!"

Hearing that Shusuke had called for a stop, Aoto quickly released Kondo's arms.

And at that very moment—

[Ding! Talent detected]

[Successfully replicated talent: "Lone Wolf"]

[Talent Introduction: The greater the number and strength of the enemies, the more fervent the fighting spirit will be, and the more exceptionally strong one will be able to unleash their abilities. (Note: There are limits to this exceptional performance.)]

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Chapter 46 Ju Qing has mastered Zhuge Liang's ultimate skills!

"Whoa whoa……"

"Impressive...beautiful technique..."

"What kind of martial art is this? It doesn't look like jujitsu."

……

As Shusuke just said, there are very few samurai in this era who are proficient in hand-to-hand combat.

Samurai of this era were generally keen on learning the use of weapons such as swordsmanship, spearmanship, and archery, and did not place much importance on unarmed combat.

After Aoto swiftly subdued Kondo, the students sitting on the edge of the dojo, who rarely saw such high-quality karate combat, exclaimed in amazement and discussed among themselves.