CHAPTER 516: CHAPTER 350: FIRST DAY OF THE PRELIMINARIES_2

Weak? No, they won’t be weak.

The first day is the Group A competition.

Representing different dojos are Kenji Style, Chiba Style, Kurama Yoshi Style, and Yoshin Yin Style.

If you take a serious look at their professions, you’ll find that some people only treat Sword Dao as a form of practice.

Among them are transportation staff, electricians, and renovation workers.

Can you say they are weaker than the disciples who practice full-time in the dojo?

Mostly no, because many of them have experience in school clubs.

In Japan, clubs aren’t just for fun; they have formal competitions with prizes and rankings.

You can use it as a career starting point.

This is enough to show that if you learn earnestly, you can also acquire useful skills.

Perhaps, any random electrician staff once crowned the Jade Dragon Flag’s fiercely contested championship during their high school days.

They are older, but their strength lies in their rich experience.

For young people aspiring to advance to the national competition, they are a barrier.

Uesugi Sakura plans to watch the first day’s match and sits in the audience.

"Aren’t your seniors coming to watch?" Uesugi Shio glanced at Uesugi Sakura sitting beside her.

"They’re not coming."

"Indeed, they’re a group of proud people."

The staff signaled for the players to start entering the stage.

The positions in the five-person match are: forward, second leader, middle guard, deputy general, and general.

Three out of five wins.

If the opponent is strategic, they will use the weaker against the stronger and the stronger against the weaker, akin to the strategy of Tian Ji’s horse racing to gain an advantage.

But in this first match, there was no positional game.

Forward against forward.

Tochigi Prefecture Yoshin Yin Style against Chiba Prefecture Chiba Style.

One young, one middle-aged, they put on their protective gear, holding bamboo swords, barefoot they walk to the competition arena.

Around the arena, three referees with graying hair each hold small flags in their hands.

At the referee’s signal, they bow to each other, then to the audience, and retreat, holding their wooden swords and performing the squat salute.

At this moment, they have already begun observing each other’s movements and details.

Both are holding the sword from the middle position.

They simultaneously stand up, ready.

Instantly, at the referee’s command, with a wave of the flag, the match begins.

"Ha——!!"

The middle-aged man’s pupils widen inside his mask, he shouts loudly, stepping forward, his entire body thrusts sharply forward.

At the same time, his middle-position sword stance changes to an upper-position stance.

Step by step, each swing strikes continuously at the opponent’s head.

The assault is swift, full of momentum.

Because he was preempted in attacking, the young man can only defend passively, diagonally lifting his bamboo sword held in the middle position, while turning sideways for defense.

The opponent’s attack is fierce, but his defense is equally sturdy.

This is the advantage of starting in the middle position; it can attack and defend.

Against an opponent whose mind is hard to read, this is the trickiest starting stance.

"Head!!"

With a booming shout echoing from the middle-aged man’s mask, the bamboo strips made a loud, resounding impact, heard around the venue.

This move indeed had considerable power.

The young man defended, but the opponent was undeterred, with continuous strikes disrupting his posture and making his breathing rhythm chaotic.

"Head! Head!"

Two more strikes.

The young man had no choice but to hurriedly withstand the blows, and as he turned sideways, the middle-aged man spotted a flaw, halting his steps and executed a stop-and-pivot upper-position attack.

A very insightful move.

The young man’s pupils contracted, shock filling his mind.

"Body!!"

With a loud crack, the bamboo sword struck his protective gear over his abdomen.

The bamboo slats vibrated in the air, creating a puff of dust, and then the whistle sounded, the referee’s flag fell, the middle-aged man took a step back, maintaining a Residual Heart state.

Behind the mask was a face of utmost seriousness.

It seemed like a simple win, but actually, before making a move, he had already contemplated the opponent’s possible strikes, hypothesizing over a dozen methods, and finally chose the forceful attack.

Taking a point decisively.

A no-debate point.

Audience seating.

Uesugi Sakura understood, and Uesugi Shio sitting beside him understood too.

A typical killing swordsmanship, a strong attack preventing the opponent’s blade from maintaining a fixed direction, thus disrupting the opposing formation, leaving no concerns. Then pressuring again, breaking through the opponent’s techniques, finding the flaw, and striking for the point.

"They all advanced from the county-level competitions, so care should be taken." Uesugi Shio looked toward the young man in the competition arena.

"Still finding his groove, huh?" Uesugi Sakura also turned his gaze towards the arena.

Uesugi Shio said: "Next time, that person will be on guard, and the uncle will have to think of another way to attack."

One bout concluded.

The young and the middle-aged man retreated again, bowed, and after the referee’s signal, the match resumed.

This time.

Almost at the moment the referee’s voice fell, the young man’s body pressed forward.

Thrust.

Very clever.

High risk, but a sudden move.

But just as it seemed like it would hit the opponent’s throat, the uncle, as if prepared, suddenly lifted his sword to defend and deflected the thrust away.

Almost instantly, the sword tip flew over his shoulder, as the uncle managed to defend against the attack.

The uncle returned the force against the opponent’s attack, and the young man exerted force simultaneously, their bamboo swords quickly clashing against each other.

The following seconds with the crossed bamboo swords were almost probing, but neither side could find an opportunity.

The referee signaled for the two to separate.

Uesugi Shio: "The next round will decide the outcome."

...

The two set their stances and confronted each other again.

Their sword tips probing, swaying back and forth testing each other.

The uncle, quick in eye and hand, attacked the opponent’s wrist as their sword tip swayed from below to above.

Scored again.

Uesugi Shio saw the referee’s flag fall and said softly: "The difference in experience, but the person from Chiba Prefecture isn’t bad."

Perhaps proving her point, the uncle won the forward battle with a three-to-zero absolute advantage.

When he removed his mask, his forehead was covered with sweat.

...

The match order for both teams is decided before the match begins.

They must submit the match order to the referee before the competition.

Based on both sides’ arrangements.

Next is the middle guard against the deputy general.

The deputy general, the strength just below the general.

Chiba Prefecture’s team was clearly tricked by the uncles from Tochigi Prefecture, and after a fierce confrontation, they lost again three to one, losing another round.

Having lost two bouts already, one more loss would put them in the loser’s bracket.

Unfortunately, they arranged a second leader for the third match.

While on Tochigi Prefecture’s side, they arranged the general for the third match.

They originally thought their forward and middle guard would win, at the very least duel against the opponent’s general, but unexpectedly, the opponent sent in the deputy general, and they lost two consecutive rounds.

The order was arranged in advance.

Helplessly losing again, regrettably eliminated.

Various spectators in the audience vividly remembered the scene.

Uesugi Shio looked at Uesugi Sakura: "So, the match order arrangement in team competitions is also very important. Winning just one bout is an advantage, and the rest is strategy. The general of Chiba Prefecture was clearly not inferior to anyone from the other side, but lost before even getting a chance to compete because information on the opponent’s strength was crucial."

Uesugi Sakura asked: "During that time in the Capital City, was it to such a strategy that Shio lost?"

"Yes, learn from it."

——————

Before the match ended, Uesugi Sakura left early.

He initially thought there would be his match today, but unexpectedly, he was drawn to a Group C, scheduled for tomorrow afternoon.

He specifically checked the battle information on the match chart.

Jinsha Shindo Style’s Divine Sect Dojo versus their One-Mind One-Sword Style’s Bushin Dojo.

Kasumi Shinto Style.

Uesugi Sakura particularly researched and watched several online videos of this style.

He discovered that most of them start with an upper-position stance, with a peculiar attack approach, some direct, some suddenly shifting downward for a bottom-up diagonal strike.

The demonstration in the video was a white-haired Fan Shi.

His movements were steady, but slow, probably just a demonstration video.

Speaking of strength, it is still those at the age of a father-in-law who are most powerful, with both experience and stamina.

Young people’s Sword Dao rarely defeats someone of that age.

Uesugi Sakura also gradually understood why those two reporters were so surprised to hear he was only 18 years old.

Because in the Kendo world, he was still in the high school league.

But actually... it doesn’t really matter.

Uesugi Sakura continued sitting by the window seat of the train, scrolling through his phone. By chance, on a related video posted two years ago, he saw a rather familiar name—his master senior, whom he had only met once, Fujimaki Chidori.

The title read: [Unbeaten Legend, Reiwa Year 2, Reiwa Year 3 One-Mind One-Sword Style Wins All Championships]