"No, unclean...! Chiba Sanako, what are you thinking about...!"

Sanako closed her eyes tightly and shook her head vigorously, as if she wanted to shake all the distracting thoughts out of her head.

"Chiba Sanako...haven't you already made up your mind not to marry for the rest of your life, but to study the art of swordsmanship wholeheartedly...?"

After saying that, Sanako retracted his head, and with a "pop" sound, he hid his whole delicate body into the deepest part of the tub.

The bathroom returned to silence.

Only a series of cute bubbles were spit out of the water.

Under the water, a faint red glow is faintly visible.

…

…

Edo, Koishikawa Kohinagayanagicho, trial defense hall, dojo——

"Ji Jun, it's so late at night, aren't you going to rest?"

The voice of Genzaburo Inoue came from behind.

"Well... I recently figured out a new trick, so I want to practice it more in the dojo."

Qingden turned around and smiled at Inoue who was standing at the door of the dojo.

"That's it... then you should pay more attention to your time. Although diligence is a good thing, you must also pay attention to the balance between work and rest."

"Well, okay. I have an idea."

After watching Inoue leave, Qingden moved his gaze back to the front of him, gathering his mind and attention again.

"Okay... let's continue..."

Qingdeng closed his eyes and held the bamboo sword in the middle position.

Relying on the extraordinary memory given by the gift of "photographic memory", in just a moment, Qingdeng's vision, which was completely black due to closing his eyes, was able to outline a vague outline of the world, stroke by stroke.

Immediately afterwards, the contour lines became clear and splashed with color - a deserted, dusty path, and a man in black holding a wooden knife high above his head, "appeared" in front of Qingdeng.

Soon enough, the man in black "appeared" and waved the wooden sword in his hand without any explanation.

"All things" are attacking Qingdeng again!

Although the memory is not as good as the reality, it still shocked Qingdeng a lot.

Thinking back to a few hours ago, after the man in black beat Qingdeng violently and left, Qingdeng lay on the muddy ground for more than ten minutes before he regained his composure.

After finally regaining the strength to get up and move around, Qingdeng immediately chased the man in black in the direction he left, trying to find the figure of the man in black.

Qingdeng's tracking was not without effort, but the result was still regrettable - nothing was found.

After searching all over to no avail, and having no choice but to return to the trial defense hall, Qingteng hurriedly rushed into the dojo.

From the time he returned to the Trial Guard Hall to now, Qingteng has almost lived in the dojo.

He tirelessly recalled the sword of the man in black.

On the one hand, he wanted to find out the secret of this move. He used everything in the forest to attack... Whether it was the power or the visual impact, Qingdeng was stunned and full of curiosity. What on earth did this mysterious old guy do?

Did it?

On the other hand... it was because of the eerie familiarity this move brought to Qingdeng that he couldn't get rid of it in his mind.

So familiar...so familiar...

But Qingden still couldn't figure out why he felt familiar.

It's like grabbing the moon in the water - the "moon" is clearly right in front of you, but no matter how hard you grab it, you can't catch it in your hands...

"Sure enough...it looks so familiar..."

Qingden slowly opened his eyes, put down his bamboo sword, and raised his hand to ruffle his hair in frustration.

"Where does this feeling of familiarity come from...?"

…

…

After the wedding of Kondo Isamu and Matsui Tsune, Aoto had some free time without any important activities for the first time in a long time.

During this period of time, Aoto's life was very regular - he went to five places in succession, namely, the Imperial Guard Hall, the Chishiya, the Little Chiba Sword Hall, the Foreigner's Residence, and the Tsukinomiya Shrine.

Practice swordsmanship in the Trial Guard Hall.

Practice the sword-drawing technique in Qianshiwu.

Visiting Radish at the Little Chiba Kenkan.

Serve as a role model for others in foreign settlements.

Practice cloud-ryu ninjutsu at Tsukinomiya Shrine.

Every day is busy and fulfilling.

With the collapse of the anti-barbarian group, Qingdeng fell into confusion, not knowing what to do next, and losing the direction of his efforts - but now, this worry has completely disappeared.

After expressing his determination to Mai Kinoshita and Sanako, which seemed a little arrogant in the eyes of outsiders, Qingto now has a very clear goal and plan for the future: to make the parents of the two girls accept him and recognize him!

Allow him to marry his second daughter!

Fighting for women... Although this reason may seem a bit unserious at first glance, Qingdeng was determined.

What's more, in terms of difficulty, Qingden's ambition is not much easier than ideals such as "opening a dojo of his own" and "becoming a high official and making a lot of money".

Qingto has never met Kinoshita Mai's relatives until now, so he doesn't have any idea about the character and outlook of this Nizi's family members.

Therefore, for the time being, Kinoshita Mai will not comment on this, and let’s talk about Sanako’s side first – Sanako is the most famous sect in the martial arts world: the jewel in the eye of the Chiba family.

One can imagine how difficult it is to marry a woman of this level, and to marry another woman at the same time as her. One can imagine how difficult it is.

On the day Aoto confessed her love, Sanako made it clear to Aoto: Chiba Sadaki and Chiba Jutaro would not allow her future husband to have a group of wives and concubines.

Although if he wants to fulfill his ambition of changing the surnames of the two girls to "Tachibana Mai" and "Tachibana Sanako", it is bound to take a difficult and thorny road, but Qingteng is full of fighting spirit.

Now that I have made up my mind to marry the second daughter, I can only muster up the energy to do it!

By the way, after expressing his "grand ambition" to the two girls, Qingdeng no longer kept his feelings hidden and completely let himself go - he was more active than before and took the initiative to start a relationship with the two girls.

contact, communicate.

Therefore, Radish has been having a very happy time recently - Aoden's visits to the Little Chiba Sword Hall have become much more frequent.

Carrot swept away his previous melancholy and became more clingy, and his "moo moo" cry became much clearer.

When the two women faced Qingdeng, they showed two completely different changes.

When Kinoshita Mai got along with Aoto, she became more shy and blushing - maybe it was because Aoto made it clear that he also liked her.

As for Sanako, she treats Qingden as a friend as always - but she always subconsciously dodges her eyes when she looks at him.

All in all, the relationship between the two girls and Qingdeng was destined to become untidy and chaotic after that afternoon on the river embankment.

In addition to "marrying two daughters", Qingdeng actually has a "small goal" for the future.

After witnessing the unparalleled slashing attack of the man in black, Qingdeng's worldview... to put it bluntly, was directly refreshed.

The sword in the palm merges with the heaven and earth... Is this still human?

Qingdeng has been trying to understand these days, trying to understand how the man in black did this sword, and where the unreasonable familiarity with this sword came from, but he still got nothing.

.

However, it planted a seed in Qingdeng's heart.

It turns out... there are such powerful warriors in this world...

When he thought of this, Qing Deng, who had always loved martial arts, felt an emotion called "longing" and a strange power in his heart.

Under the influence of this wonderful power, Qingden has been practicing his sword skills more diligently recently.

Can he reach the level of the man in black in the future? Only God knows this.

But having one more target to look up to is not a bad thing.

…

…

The first year of Wanyan (1860), September 10th——

Today is the day when Aoto goes to Tsukinomiya Shrine to practice the cloud-ryu ninjutsu.

As soon as he entered the shrine, Aonto met Saege and Yae sisters who were sweeping the floor.

"Junior! You came early today too!"

"Mr. Orange, good morning. You are here just in time. Master Yu Du has just given us an order: If we see you coming to the shrine, we will take you to the archery range to see her immediately."

"Archery range?" Qingdeng was startled.

"Ah, speaking of which..." Yae patted his forehead, "Junior, it seems you haven't been to the archery range of our Tsukinomiya Shrine yet."
To be continued...