【8100】

Edo, somewhere, the residence of Hiroshi Arizuma——

The bedding had been laid out in the bedroom early, and the new wife lay on the bed, tossing and turning.

As soon as he closed his eyes, the scenes he saw in the swordsmanship competition today would flash before his eyes.

Aoto, who was originally thought to be only between his brothers in strength, actually showed powerful sword skills that were far superior to him. Adachi, Morishita and Oizaki, who were as famous as his new wife Kan, were not Aoto's equals.

All the enemies were instantly killed by Qingden with one sword...

Qingdeng, who has the most outstanding performance today, every time he plays in a game, bursts of excitement and excited commotion will erupt in the spectator seats...

Chiba Jutaro, who was usually very cold to him, and Chiba Eijiro, whom he had never met before, showed a warm attitude toward Aoden that he had never shown to him before...

Every time he recalled the scenes he had seen today, Xin Zhi's teeth would clenched unconsciously, and he felt that the big stone blocking his chest became a little heavier.

Although he was reluctant to admit it... he confirmed that he was extremely jealous of Qingdeng.

Since he started learning swordsmanship, people around him have always commented on him as "genius" and "excellent talent"...

And with his excellent talent, he never slacked off in practicing swordsmanship.

He practices swordsmanship diligently every day, and he is confident that he has put in as much effort as anyone else in his swordsmanship.

Both talented and very hard-working, Hiroshi Niizuma's strength has always been the most outstanding among the swordsmen practicing swordsmanship in Edo at the same time. Even Morishita and Oizaki, who were also known as the "Three Heroes" with him,

The strength is slightly inferior to him.

During the same period, I have never met anyone stronger than him - until today...

The three swords that Aoto used to instantly kill Adachi, Morishita, and Oizaki today... Every time Hiroshi Arizuma thinks about it, he gets a creepy feeling in his heart.

He couldn't help but think - what would he do if he were the one to pick up these three swords from Qingdeng?

No matter how much he deceives himself and others, Shinzuma Kuan can only admit painfully: The strength gap between him and Qingdeng is too big. Even if he takes the first sword, he probably won't be able to take Qingdeng's second and third swords...

——Damn! Damn! Damn!

Nitsuma Kan turned over in bed angrily, then kicked the quilt covering him away, and kept shouting out all the curse words in Japanese to vent his frustration.

No matter what, he doesn't want to lose in this swordsmanship competition!

With the Chiba family and so many feudal lords coming to watch such a grand competition...under the current national conditions, it is already a rare event!

Since the country's gates were opened under the threat of gunboats from the great powers, the political situation in Japan has been in a state of rapid change.

In order to concentrate their energy and financial resources to meet a series of possible challenges and political changes in the future, many large vassal states stopped funding large-scale martial arts competitions.

In other words, I missed this swordsmanship competition held by Lord Aizu. If I want to encounter a competition of this scale next time, I really don’t know how long it will have to wait.

Nitsuma Hiroshi originally participated in this competition with the goal of "showing his strength to the Chiba family and the world."

Before today's competition officially started, after seeing so many famous people from the feudal kingdom sitting on the "VIP table", he became even more determined in his goal.

No matter what, he didn't want to miss this rare stage where he could show his strength to the Chiba family and everyone.

However... because of the appearance of Tachibana Aoden, his goal has now become extremely far away.

Except for Qingdeng, he is not afraid of any of the remaining contestants, including Xin Zukuan, so as long as nothing unexpected happens, he will definitely have a battle with Qingdeng tomorrow.

Xin Zukuan could even imagine what tomorrow's game would be like.

There will definitely be many spectators in the martial arts gallery discussing with great interest "How many swords will Qingdeng need to kill him?" There will definitely be many people who are just watching for fun and want to see how his new wife Kuan will be Qingdeng.

Watch the match between him and Qing Deng with the mentality of how to kill him.

Regardless of the extremely practical and utilitarian reasons of "wanting to show strength to the Chiba family", the strong self-esteem that his new wife Kuan had cultivated during the same period of time without encountering an opponent made it really difficult for him to accept that he was in the public eye.

He was defeated miserably by Qingdeng.

Uncontrollably, he imagined in his mind that tomorrow he would be like Morishita, Oizaki and the others, being killed instantly by Qingnobo with a sword... Niizuma Kan felt that the boredom accumulated in his chest had increased a lot.

As the boredom worsened, another emotion arose in Xin Zhikuan's heart - hatred.

Hatred for Qingdeng.

——Damn...! It would be great if this Tachibana Aoden didn't participate in this competition!

——As long as he does not participate, the winner of this competition will definitely be him!

——Damn it! Damn it!

The new wife rolled over in bed angrily, and then kicked the quilt further away from her feet.

——Is there no... way to defeat that Tachibana Aoden...?

Don't want to lose.

Whether it was for utilitarian reasons or for his own pride, Nitsuma Kuan did not want to lose to this guy who came from a little-known dojo and only suddenly became famous in the past two months!

Click...

At this time, Nitsuma Kuan suddenly heard a "click" sound as the window was pushed open.

Then he felt the cool night breeze blowing on his exposed skin.

Was the window blown open by the wind? The new wife turned around, opened her eyes, and looked at the window on the side.

The next moment after his eyes glanced in the direction of the window, Nitsuma's wide eyes suddenly widened, and a layer of cold sweat quickly broke out on his back.

He saw a young man sitting on the sill of his bedroom window with great dignity.

Tonight is a clear full moon night.

The bright moonlight shines through the open window and shines into the room like light dust.

From time to time, wisps of night wind blew into the room, causing the young man's hair and the hem of his clothes to sway slightly.

The young man did not wear a wakizashi on his left waist, only a red-handled katana.

Because his back was facing the moonlight, Nitsuma Kuan could only vaguely see the young man's face - he was very young, with a faint smile on his face.

After being shocked for about a second by the young man who suddenly appeared in his room, Nitsuma Kuan immediately grabbed the knife placed beside his bed like a conditioned reflex, and then sat up like a carp rolling around.

"Who?" While staring at the young man with vigilant eyes, Nitsuma Kuan put his right hand on the handle of the knife and pulled out the knife a few inches.

"Oh..." The young man put his right elbow on his right leg, raised his right arm, supported his face with his right palm, moved his eyes with interest, and looked at his new wife, "You are wider than I thought.

You need to be much calmer, I thought you would be so frightened that you would scream after seeing me suddenly."

"But this is just fine. I don't like people yelling in front of me."

Seeing the young man's calm and defiant look, Xin Zukuan's face became more gloomy, and the hand that grabbed the knife gripped the handle of the knife harder.

"Who are you? Do you know that this is the residence of Hatamoto Arizuma's family?"

"Of course I know this is the mansion of Hatamoto Arizuma's family." The young man shrugged, "After all, I'm here just for you."

Before the new wife Kuan even had time to show doubts about the young man's words "I'm here for you", the young man straightened up and continued to talk to himself:

"Anyway, I'd better introduce myself first."

"You can call me... Rakshasa. The Rakshasa ghost who specializes in eating human flesh and blood."

"It was quite cold sitting by the window, so I just got straight to the point."

The corners of Rakshasa's mouth slowly opened, revealing a set of silver-white teeth, and the faint smile on his face turned into an intriguing smile that contrasted well with the blue-white moonlight around him.

"Shinzuma-kun, I have a way to give you a chance to defeat Tachibana Aoden in tomorrow's competition. Are you interested in finding out?"

"What?" The new wife's wide pupils shrank slightly, and her hand on the handle of the knife loosened slightly uncontrollably.

The Rakshasa then continued:

"You must really not want to lose to Tachibana Aoden in tomorrow's competition, right? So I think it is very necessary for you to listen carefully to my deal."

After a brief moment of astonishment, Nitsuma Kuan clenched the handle of the knife with his palm again, and cast an even more wary look at Rakshasa.

"...I don't remember telling anyone that I wanted to defeat Tachibana Aoto in the competition."

Rakshasa chuckled a few times: "You really haven't mentioned this matter to anyone."

"But my eyes have seen that you hate Tachibana Aoden, and you don't want to lose to Tachibana Aoden."

Rakshasa stretched out his hand and pointed at his eyes.

"I watched the entire swordsmanship competition held by Lord Aizu today."

"Just this morning in the first round of the match, when you were exiting after defeating your opponent, I noticed that you glanced at Tachibana Aoden on the spectator stand with jealous and resentful eyes."

"Although your little movement is very subtle, I was lucky enough to capture it."

"After that, I have been paying attention to your status."

"Throughout the whole day today, you have been secretly looking at Ju Qingden with jealous and resentful eyes."

"Although I don't know if you have any issues with Tachibana Aoden, but you frequently look at Tachibana Aoden with such eyes... then this means that you must be quite disgusted with Tachibana Aoden, right?"

"You who hate Tachibana Aoden so much must not want to be easily defeated by Tachibana Aoden like those people today, right?"

From just now, the look of astonishment on Xin Zhikuan's face couldn't stop appearing.

"...Ha. You are really interesting." After a moment of silence, the new wife twitched the corner of her mouth and sneered, "You just noticed a few looks in my eyes and concluded that I hate Tachibana Aoden?"
To be continued...