My Gang of Swordsmen

Chapter 634: Chapter 4: The Female Chokata Toshisuke

Upon hearing the ”ding” sound in his mind, Aoto instinctively held his breath and focused, attentively listening to the system’s voice.

When the system finished introducing the kind of talent Aoto had copied again, he couldn’t help but silently praise it.

——Strong Essence... It’s a great talent...!

The rapid recovery of energy and stamina... yet another top-tier talent that countless people would envy.

Aoto was secretly delighted at having acquired another powerful talent, and he sighed to himself:

——Indeed, the disparity in quality among Shiwei Hall’s apprentices is quite vast...

Not long after joining Shiwei Hall, Aoto noticed a very obvious flaw—the disparity in quality among the apprentices was too large.

Those standing at the pinnacle of Shiwei Hall... that is, Kondo, Chokata, Hijikata, and Inoue, all had very high comprehensive qualities.

Not only were they strong, but they each possessed top-tier talents.

Lone Brave, Sword Genius, Ghost Heart, Strong Essence... the talents of these four were extraordinary one after another.

However, the other apprentices below these four, those who were at middle to lower levels in Shiwei Hall, their overall qualities were basically indescribable...

Not to mention their strength, let’s just talk about talent.

It’s been almost 8 months since Aoto entered Shiwei Hall.

Among so many people in Shiwei Hall, Aoto has so far only successfully copied talents from Zhouzhu, Kondo, Chokata, Hijikata, and Inoue in all this time.

Not to mention divine-level talents like ”Ghost Heart” and ”Lone Brave,” Aoto wasn’t expecting to wholesale such extremely exceptional talents.

Even a more common talent like ”Swordsmanship amplification by X times the average person,” none was found among the other apprentices of Shiwei Hall.

The overall quality of Shiwei Hall’s apprentices... is evident.

The reason for this phenomenon is not hard to guess—it’s just that the quality of the recruits is suboptimal.

Though Shiwei Hall’s reputation is much better than it was before, a Sword Dojo, like a brand, cannot be built in a day.

Like the Xuanwu Hall, Training Hall, and Shixue Hall, these three great Sword Dojos gained their fame and became strong over time through hard strength and a lot of time.

Compared to Shiwei Hall, which had been derogatorily called ”Taro Dojo” not long ago, those with high overall quality, the prideful talents known as ”prodigies,” naturally prefer to go to those long-established great Sword Dojos for training.

”That’s enough!”

After Aoto knocked Inoue down with a single sword strike, Zhouzhu, serving as the referee, quickly walked between the two and gestured towards Aoto standing on his right, indicating that Aoto had won this bout.

”Well done.” Aoto placed the bamboo sword back at his left waist, and ceremoniously bowed to Inoue.

Inoue, who had fallen to the ground, deftly rolled like a carp and quickly stood up again, returning a bow to Aoto while removing his mask with a candid laugh.

”Mr. Tachibana, a brilliant strike!”

Inoue’s elderly face beneath the mask was drenched with sweat... this wasn’t sweat from fatigue.

Anyone who has worn such a protective mask knows how stuffy and uncomfortable it is to wear, even just standing without any intense movement, one would sweat profusely.

Wearing such a mask in the summer... is practically torture.

Not to mention Inoue, Aoto’s face was also covered with sticky sweat from being trapped inside the mask.

”Truly impressive, you had me completely suppressed, I exhausted every offensive strategy I could think of, but to no avail.”

”It’s been a long time since I lost so convincingly.”

Inoue, who spared no words of praise for Aoto, had no negative emotions on his face like displeasure or frustration at losing to a younger generation like Aoto.

His dark, old face bore only a big smile.

A very genuine smile.

It seemed as if losing to a younger like Aoto was something to be happy about.

The spar between Aoto and Inoue just now lasted a little over 3 minutes.

To an outsider, it looked like the two were engaged in an intense fight, neither backing down.

But to an insider... like Chokata and others who were watching from the edge of the dojo, the spar between Aoto and Inoue wasn’t that intense.

Because Aoto dominated Inoue the entire time.

Though they were indeed fighting fiercely, with the bamboo swords clashing ”pop pop,” if you examined closely, you’d find Aoto kept a firm grip on the pace and initiative of the battle.

No matter how Inoue attacked, his bamboo sword couldn’t touch Aoto’s body.

Since he couldn’t land a hit on Aoto at any cost... losing was just the inevitable outcome.

According to Aoto’s own estimation, Inoue’s strength was slightly inferior to Shinno.

Two months ago, on that night, even with a fatigued and severely injured body, he managed to forcefully kill Shinno.

In the present, two months later, having accumulated a wealth of combat experience from a decisive battle with the Anti-foreigner Group, further elevated his strength, and acquired a new powerful talent ”Bear’s Waist,” even though his body had become sluggish after two months of rest, there was still no reason he would lose to Inoue.

”Gen.” Zhouzhu slowly approached Inoue, ”Your step technique compared to before has indeed improved significantly. Not bad, not bad.”