Footsteps agile, darting left and right, the sword’s shadow flickers.
The three battle into a tangled mess, striking back and forth, unable to gain an advantage.
“...There is one.”
At this moment—
“If it continues like this, it seems Mr. Tachibana’s team will lose...” Chiba Shigetarou crossed his arms tightly, frowning slightly.
The current strength is far inferior to Chiba Daisaburo—this is an undeniable objective fact. Aoto doesn’t deny it, nor finds it a shameful thing.
Correction. It wasn’t just Chiba Dingji.
“My nephew has a very fatal weakness,” Chiba Dingji said, “Using dual swords means the consumption of physical and arm strength is more than twice that of ordinary people.”
Before finishing, Chiba Dingji abruptly stopped talking, his eyes widening slightly as he cast a surprised gaze toward the stage.
Teaming up with Toshisuke, Kondo, and others, even with five against one, they have been beaten to this state.
“Indeed...” Chiba Shigetarou replied admiringly.
“Huff... huff... huff... huff... huff...” Aoto’s breathing is rapid.
“Haah... haah... haah... haah... haah...”
Realizing that pure aggression alone cannot defeat the two remaining opponents, Chiba Daisaburo sweeps his blade, forcing Aoto and Toshisuke to dodge, and uses this moment to retreat.
“A secret strategy to break the stalemate, huh...”
Facing a master of Chiba Daisaburo’s caliber, both psychological pressure and physical endurance are greatly tested.
“Look, my nephew is already gasping for breath.”
“Of course!”
Chiba Shigetarou, Sazanoko, and the other disciples of the Little Chiba Sword Dojo, like Yamanaka Keisuke, quickly turned to focus their gaze on Chiba Dingji, who had suddenly spoken up.
As for Toshisuke, her condition is even worse than Aoto’s.
If it came to a one-on-one with Chiba Daisaburo, he might be treated like a punching bag.
“Brother San has grown even stronger...” Sazanoko murmured.
Toshisuke’s state causes Aoto to worry if she has enough energy left to continue fighting, prompting him to ask:
Even with “Strong Essence” and the newly acquired “Iron Lung,” such exhaustion is hard to withstand.
“Toshisuke, can you still keep going?”
Aoto gazes expressionlessly at Chiba Daisaburo opposite him, a subtle gleam in his eyes.
Even before fighting Chiba Daisaburo, he had already expended much stamina battling the swordsmen of Xuanwu Hall in succession.
Speaking of this, Toshisuke’s tone turned slightly serious.
With Kondo and others out, the favorable “5 against 1” situation is entirely lost; both Aoto and Toshisuke are already gasping and exhausted... even someone entirely unversed in martial arts can see how dire Aoto’s current situation is.
Faced with Chiba Daisaburo’s deliberate withdrawal, Aoto and Toshisuke do not pursue — instead, they seize the moment to catch their breath and carefully consider how to defeat Chiba Daisaburo.
...
Seeing Toshisuke’s beaming face, Aoto’s lips involuntarily curl into a slight smile.
“...Their current situation isn’t optimistic, but they aren’t without a chance to turn the tables.”
With a high-explosive combat style and far from abundant stamina, Toshisuke excels at unleashing tremendous power in a short time to crush opponents, but struggles with protracted battles requiring sustained effort.
He retreats a dozen or so steps before finally steadying his pace.
“Hahaha...” Toshisuke chuckled softly, speaking half-jokingly, “As if having my help would let us defeat Chiba Daisaburo. Mr. Tachibana, in this situation... do you have any secret strategies to break the stalemate?”
Her labored breathing forms an overwhelming sound barrier, drowning out all other noise around her.
“Is that so... then good. If you couldn’t fight anymore, I’d be in trouble; I can’t defeat Chiba Daisaburo on my own.”
The siblings hadn’t seen Chiba Daisaburo in full force for a long time.
As Aoto’s words fell, Toshisuke immediately tilted her cute face upward, wiping sweat from her chin with the back of her left hand, and smiled brightly at Aoto without hesitation:
“Honestly—if we don’t quickly rack our brains for clever tactics or secret skills, we will likely lose this battle today...”
...
“So ‘unable to maintain high combat power for long’ has always been my nephew’s biggest weakness.”
Toshisuke has to gasp with her mouth wide open, inhaling through both mouth and nose to ensure her body gets enough oxygen.
“My nephew’s swordplay is not as sharp as it was at the start. If Mr. Tachibana’s team can seize the opportunity, they may not... oh?”
So witnessing the fierce combat power Chiba Daisaburo displayed on the stage, Sazanoko and Chiba Shigetarou, like the ordinary spectators around them, showed expressions of amazement and shock.
Upon hearing Chiba Dingji say this, everyone quickly looked up to the stage — indeed, just as Chiba Dingji said, Chiba Daisaburo’s breathing was very rapid, his chest heaving like a bellows.
The audience seating, the Little Chiba Sword Dojo group’s seats—
Sazanoko, Chiba Shigetarou, Yamanaka Keisuke, and the crowd from Shiwei Hall... in short, everyone who knew Aoto in the “audience” focused their astonished eyes on the stage at this moment.

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