A person in Japan, a sword that soars to immortality.

Yamada Asaemon's head family, the samurai family's house.

Two days have passed since I returned to the Yamada family home from Kanagawa.

In his own Japanese-style room, Taiichi sat on a futon and disassembled all his katana for maintenance.

He first picked up a white cloth that had been prepared beside him, put it in his mouth and bit it, and then took out another piece of cloth.

Then wipe off the old oil from the knife, and then tap the blade with a powder ball.

"Looks like I need to get a new knife." He picked up the knife and examined the blade closely, discovering that it was covered with tiny, intersecting serrations and fine cracks.

These damaged marks are the scars left by Taiichi when he severed the Iron Demon's neck.

"Although it's pretty much what I expected, the essence and blood energy values ​​of ordinary ghosts are between 100 and 200."

"But my victory wasn't so easy."

Although his strike was swift, it was not unavoidable.

Besides his own health points temporarily increasing to over 100 through a secret technique, another important reason why he was able to hit the Iron Demon was the momentum generated by his breathing technique.

The Yanglong's Roar, a breathing technique that can manipulate the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, undoubtedly adds a natural layer of suppression to opponents who can only mobilize their own blood and qi.

"However, winning in this way is still somewhat risky."

“Once my opponent successfully dodges my attack and engages in a war of attrition with me, I simply cannot afford to drag it out.”

"Therefore, attribute values ​​are the core of victory."

With that in mind, Taiyi checked his attributes again.

[Sword Control System]

Name: Yamada Asaemon Taichi

Age: 20

【Lifespan: 53】

[Energy: 75.5 (+)]

Qi and Blood: 17.5 (+)

[God Soul: 11.2 (+)]

[Breathing Techniques (+): Roar of the Yin Tiger (+), Chant of the Yang Dragon (+)]

[Additional effects: Rapid recovery; Possession burning;]

[Martial Arts: Test-Sword Style Secret Sword Modified (+)]

【Title: Nameless Ronin (When facing enemies, the only thing they'll notice about you is your good looks)】

[Common points: 10]

"Alternating between the two breathing techniques is quite troublesome. I happen to have 10 general points, so why don't I..."

"Add points, system."

Taiyi added 3 points this time, but nothing happened.

My heart skipped a beat, my scalp tingled, and a deep frown appeared between my brows.

"Don't mess with me..."

"System, add 2 points!"

Including the previous one, all 5 attribute points have been invested in the breathing technique.

Last time, I used 5 points to obtain the Yanglong's Roar Breathing Technique. This time, I'll use 5 points again. Even if nothing new appears, it would be fine if the words just appear!

However, sometimes, the greater the hope, the greater the disappointment.

"Damn it!" Taiyi slapped his thigh hard, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath to calm his agitated emotions.

"These are universal points that I risked my life to obtain!"

"After adding 5 points, nothing happened. No, no, we can't do it like this."

Taiyi shook his head, then stood up and began pacing back and forth in the room.

"This way of allocating attribute points is a real waste of them."

"The biggest problem that prevented me from succeeding was that my understanding of breathing techniques was not deep enough."

"Where can I get more information about breathing techniques...?"

Taiyi suddenly stopped, his eyes narrowing and opening repeatedly, as if he had thought of something.

"We can't rush this. We don't have enough strength yet." Pulling open the paper sliding door, Taiyi stroked his chin and pondered to himself as he looked at the scenery in the courtyard.

"The samurai of the Demon Slayer Corps are trained from a young age. It's not very realistic for a samurai like me, who has ties to the shogunate, to directly approach them and ask for breathing techniques, and not just one."

"Unless I can demonstrate my sincerity, for example... the head of one of the Twelve Demon Moons?"

hiss~

As Taiyi was contemplating his plan to become stronger, a gasp of cold air suddenly came from not far away.

Looking in the direction of the source, he saw Fu Zhizheng walking past his door with his head down, clutching his shoulder, and limping.

"Fu Zhi, you're injured? What happened?"

Taiichi still admired this boy who only reached his chest, liked to rub his tea leaves, and only liked to deal with corpses all day long.

In the end, he did not blame Shujian for cutting him, nor did he let the Stegosaurus die; instead, he chose to sacrifice himself.

Taiyi didn't want to comment on whether this behavior was worthwhile or not; he only respected it.

"Ah! It's Brother Taiyi." Fu Zhi looked up, and upon recognizing the speaker, immediately removed his hand from his shoulder. Even though the muscles in his cheeks were still twitching, he still managed a smile.

"I'm fine. I just accidentally bumped into something while practicing kendo."

"Accidentally?" Taiyi walked out of the tatami room, put on his shoes, and hopped from the covered walkway into the courtyard. He came up to Fuzhi, looked him over carefully, and said, "How did you practice? This was obviously hit by a bamboo sword. Who did it?"

"No......"

"Stop talking nonsense and speak quickly."

"Really not..."

"Ok?"

Looking up at Taiyi's serious face, Fu Zhi's Adam's apple bobbed involuntarily. After hesitating for a long time, she finally lowered her head and said weakly, "It's Kiyomaru."

"Come on, follow me to the dojo."

After Taiyi finished speaking, he walked towards the direction of the dojo.

Seeing this, Fu Zhi hurriedly followed and said quickly, "Kiyomaru has already apologized to me, there was really no need, Taiichi-nii."

"Apologize?" Tai turned his head to look at Fu Zhi, who was following behind him on the left, and sneered, "If you can apologize, then you're not Kiyomaru."

Seeing that the other person was about to explain again, Taiyi decided to speak first and continued:

“I know you respect Shuken, but you can’t extend that feeling to others. Just because Shuken values ​​Kiyomaru, does that mean you’re just going to swallow your anger?”

"Senior Brother Taiyi!" Fu Zhi's voice rose instantly as she strode up to Taiyi, opening her arms to block him. "You're being too subjective in how you describe me. I didn't swallow my anger!"

"Oh, that's fine."

Taiyi pursed his lips and stopped walking.

But in fact, Fu Zhi did endure it.

Before Taichi, Senta, and the others appeared, it was always Shuken who cared about him.

Therefore, Fu Zhi cares deeply about Shu Jian himself and the people he values.

"Hmm, Taiyi-ge, let's go have some tea... Oh, why are you going to the dojo?"

Fu Zhi withdrew his arm, and just as he revealed a squinty-eyed, obedient expression, he discovered that Taiyi had already bypassed him and continued walking towards the dojo.

"This is no longer your business, but my personal feud with that brat Kiyomaru."

"After all, a few days ago, when I was testing the sword for Lord Aoki, he spoke rudely to me."

As they were talking, Taiichi had already stepped into the dojo and saw Kiyomaru instructing a samurai dressed in a kimono on how to wield a sword.

And coincidentally, Taiichi also knew this samurai; he was a fellow samurai from the Eastern Magistrate's Office—Fujinami Rantaro.

"Lord Rantaro, I am quite confident in my swordsmanship. Would you be interested in giving me some pointers?"