After moving into the Trial Guard Hall, Qingdeng’s days became leisurely for a long time.

Qingdeng originally thought that if something as serious as "the anti-barbarian thugs gradually gained momentum and openly attacked foreign businessmen" happened, someone from the upper echelons would summon him, who was... arguably the most important party, within a few days.

Ask him for detailed information about that "snowy night battle".

But who would have known: the government office was... extremely quiet.

Qingdeng has not been summoned for a long time, nor has he made any big moves.

There has been no official response to the public, which has already spread throughout Edo.

Everything is going according to plan...as usual.

Although he didn't know why the government was so quiet, since the government hadn't summoned him for a long time, Qingdeng was happy to be at ease.

February is the month when the Nanban Office is responsible for managing Edo. The officials of the Northern Office do not need to go to work this month. As long as nothing unexpected happens, Aonto and the others can spend one month of paid leave leisurely.

, will not resume work until March.

When the time came to February 1st, Qingdeng's body was finally completely healed with the blessing of the gift of "physical fitness".

All the wounds on his body had healed, leaving only shallow scars.

The injury has healed and he is on paid leave. He no longer needs to be disturbed by official matters for the time being - Qingdeng can finally concentrate on practicing and improving his current strength.

The destruction of his own mansion... This incident was a wake-up call for Qingdeng: the "mysterious force" who failed to murder Anthony and others would definitely not let him off so lightly.

The fat man who was captured by Aoshito and Okita was taken to the prison and imprisoned in a prison cell. The Ginmi side officials immediately began to severely torture and interrogate him.

Ginweifang: The department responsible for the investigation and review of referees.

No matter which country or period they are in, all feudal regimes have one thing in common: they have outstanding imagination in designing methods of "how to torture human beings".

The Fengxing Institute has a large number of torture methods that can make people unable to survive or die.

In just a few days, the fat man's appearance changed to that of his own mother, and she might not even be able to recognize him.

However, even though he had been tortured to the point where he looked like a human being or a ghost, the fat man still kept his mouth shut and refused to let go. He actually had a bit of backbone.

The officials at Yinweifang were not anxious or annoyed - they had seen too many prisoners with such a bit of backbone.

They have extremely abundant means and time, and extremely sufficient confidence, and they gradually wear away the fat man's fighting spirit.

Although the fat man still refused to say anything until now, Qingdeng concluded that this fat man was most likely a member of the "mysterious force" who came here specifically to retaliate against him and burn down his home.

Otherwise, how could it be such a coincidence? As soon as Seito returned to Edo, several arsonists immediately appeared and burned down his house.

What is the name of this "mysterious force", who are its members, and who is its leader... Qingdeng and others currently know almost nothing about this "mysterious force".

However - Qingdeng guessed: this "mysterious force" is most likely a group of lunatics who regard him as a "national traitor" and have assassinated him three times.

That night, when fighting Suehiro Moriyo, Suehiro Moriyo recognized him, called him by name, and called him a "national thief"... If we talk about this "mysterious force" and the one who holds the head of Aoden

Those lunatics have nothing to do with each other, Qingdeng will never believe it.

All in all - regardless of whether the two parties are in the same group or not, there is no doubt that Qingdeng has completely offended this "mysterious force".

On the night when Aotobo returned to Edo, he impatiently set fire to his home... This "mysterious force" told Aotobo through actions: We will not let you go!

Since the other party has issued a "war declaration", Qingdeng naturally has no reason to remain indifferent.

In order to better cope with the retaliatory actions that the "mysterious forces" would most likely launch again in the future, Qingdeng immediately restarted his swordsmanship practice and physical exercise after recovering from his physical injuries.

Now that he has moved into the Imperial Guard Hall and lives under the same roof as Kondo and others, Aoto's sword training has become more convenient.

There is a very spacious dojo available for use.

There are a lot of practice tools.

If you encounter any swordsmanship theory or swordsmanship technique that you don't understand, you can immediately ask Zhou Zhu and others for advice.

After restarting his practice, Qingdeng immediately told Zhou Zhu and others that he needed less sleep, so he was used to getting up before dawn to practice, so he asked Zhou Zhu to allow him to use the trial gym in the early morning.

of dojo.

After learning that Qingden also had such a characteristic of "short sleep time", Zhousuke waved his hand very proudly: You can enter the dojo to practice swordsmanship anytime you want! Anyway, the door connecting the dojo to their home is never locked.

These days, Qingden spends most of his time in the dojo.

Practicing swordsmanship and training your body hard, although it is hard work, you will never get tired of it.

While concentrating on practicing, Qingdeng did not forget to make full use of his system - Qingdeng took advantage of this great opportunity that he could stay in the training hall for a long time, and went to the dojo to practice swordsmanship with everyone. He had also done it before

Those who have not sparred with him have all competed again.

The result was a bit dismal... I couldn't successfully copy the talent from any of my senior brothers.

Although the teaching staff of the Trial Guard Hall is strong, Shusuke, Kondo, and Okita all possess extremely powerful talents.

But the quality of the apprenticeship...is a little bit poor.

Qingdeng has now competed with almost all the apprentices who often come to the training hall, and it turns out that no one has special talents...

However - although he was unable to copy the talents from the apprentices at the Trial Guard Hall, Qingdeng was able to copy three brand-new talents from three visitors in the past few days.

These three visitors are none other than Arima, Inoya, and Ushiyama.

All the officials at the Beifan Office are now on paid leave - horses, pigs, and oxen are no exception.

The three of them happened to have no urgent cases on hand, so the three of them were able to have enough time to visit Qingdeng, who now had no home and could only live in the trial defense hall.

The three of them came to visit Qingdeng together on February 2.

This day happens to be an important festival in Japan: Setsubun.

Setsubun, as the name suggests, is the day that distinguishes the seasons. The day before the beginning of spring, the beginning of summer, the beginning of autumn, and the beginning of winter are all called "setsubun". Spring is the first of the year, which is especially important. Therefore, in Japan, "setsubun" specifically refers to the beginning of spring.

the day before.

In ancient Japan, people believed that evil spirits were most vulnerable to invasion during the changing seasons, so in order to drive away evil spirits, the traditional activity of "throwing beans to drive away ghosts" was gradually born.

On Setsubun, people take out fried beans and scatter them everywhere inside and outside the house according to specific rules.

On the day of Setsubun, Aomori and others also participated in the "beans-throwing" activity.

Qingden followed Zhou Zhu and others, shouting "Ghosts out, blessings in" and scattering fried beans everywhere in the trial defense hall.

At the beginning, everyone was still "spreading beans" as usual.

But at the end of the activity, Okita, who was becoming more and more playful, grabbed the fried beans that had not yet been scattered in his hands, and led Aoto and Kondo to play a "bean throwing contest" to see who could throw the beans farther.

.

Seeing this, Shusuke not only did not stop Okita, but he also joined the game despite his somewhat naughty temperament.

As expected, Qingdeng and the others were severely punished by Abi.

"Who do you think worked hard to fry these beans?! Don't use them as toys! Pick them all up for me!"

Abi's roar made Qingdeng's eardrums feel a little painful even now...

After the "beans-throwing" was held and the time came in the afternoon, the horse, pig, and cow came to the trial defense hall to visit Qingdeng and see how Qingdeng was living in the trial defense hall.

Qingdeng was very happy when he saw the horse, pig and cow coming.

First, he was happy that the elders cared so much about him and were so attentive to his affairs.

The second is that they are happy that they have finally encountered the opportunity to test whether they have talents.

Qingdeng has already "coveted" these three elders.

He had long wanted to try to see if he could copy any talents from them.

But it's a pity - they had to go to work and everyone was very busy, so it was only now that Qingden finally had the opportunity to copy the talents of these three people.

If he directly said to Arima and others: I want to learn swordsmanship with you, it would be very abrupt and would make Arima and others feel very strange.

Because horses, pigs, and oxen don't know much about swordsmanship. If they suddenly tell them that they don't know swordsmanship and want to learn swordsmanship with them, they will definitely be confused. They don't know what Qingdeng is doing and why he is looking for them.

Someone who knows nothing about swordsmanship practices swordsmanship?

So Aoto used the same trick he used to "deal with" Saito -

Snap! Snap!

Qingden pulled hard on the hemp rope in his hand several times.

"Master Arima, Mr. Inoya, Mr. Ushiyama, you are here just in time. I have recently practiced a new rope-catching technique. Can you be my sparring partner and help point out the shortcomings of my new technique?"

It was natural and reasonable to come to Arima and the others to “discuss” with him on the pretext of “helping teach him new rope-catching techniques”.

Arima and the others, as official envoys from the Sadauchi dynasty, have good attainments in the rope-catching technique. Aonto asked them to "practice the rope-catching technique", and Arima and the others would not be surprised or confused.

Qingdeng was actually not lying - he had indeed learned some new rope-catching techniques.

He incorporated some grappling techniques from his previous life into the rope-catching technique, and Qingden also intentionally found someone to test the power of his new technique.

The horses, pigs, and cows happily agreed to Qingdeng's request to "practice the rope-catching technique" and "discussed" with Qingdeng one by one.

Judging from the results...the results are quite gratifying.

Arima, Inoya, and Ushiyama all have talents. After competing with the three of them, Qingden got three new talents in one breath!

It's just that...the three new talents Qingden received...are all a little subtle...
To be continued...