Chapter 323

The moment he equipped the 'Decayed Wooden Sword'.

In Natsume Chikage's mind, it was not specific knowledge that flooded in, but rather a mysterious, indescribable, and wonderful feeling that suddenly emerged.

It was as if an invisible veil had been quietly lifted, and his perception of "swinging" and "trajectory" throughout the entire world became unprecedentedly clear and sharp.

It made him almost unable to suppress the urge to immediately draw the wooden sword and swing it heartily in an open space.

Even more strangely, before he had even made any movements, a large number of "thoughts" or "intuitions" about how to mobilize his muscles, adjust his center of gravity, and control the angle to optimize the swing of the wooden sword automatically surfaced in his mind.

He subconsciously swung the wooden sword in his hand, slashing randomly at the air.

The moment the action was completed, he immediately "felt" that the timing of his wrist rotation was a fraction of a second too early, the connection of his forearm's force was somewhat stiff, and the rotation of his waist had not fully kept up.

These subtle flaws were as clear as error prompts popping up on a screen.

He stopped, focused for a moment, and recalled those "correct" methods that had spontaneously emerged in his mind.

Then, from the same starting angle, he swung lightly once more.

This time, he deliberately followed those emerging "intuitions": slowing down the initial movement of his wrist, letting the power rise from his heels, conducting it through his waist and abdomen, and then smoothly pouring it into his arm.

"Whoosh—"

A sound of wind breaking, shorter and sharper than before, rang out.

Even though he hadn't increased his strength much, the speed of the swing and the stability of the trajectory had improved visibly to the naked eye!

A sense of control welled up spontaneously.

Behind him, Fujiwara Aoi, West Garden Temple Nanase, and Snow Village Lingyin were following silently.

The club activities had already ended, and they had no reason to continue staying in the empty clubroom.

Although they were still somewhat annoyed by Natsume Chikage's rash decision to agree to the match, the die was cast, and complaining further would be of no use.

As for letting him go find Near-guard Hitomi to renege?

That was even more of a fantasy.

The other party was a Near-guard of the "Yutang Family," and they knew the weight of that very well.

Thus, the three of them simply kept a half-step distance from him in unison, as if using this silent "isolation" to express a wordless protest.

Soon, they stepped onto the long cherry blossom path.

The sunset glow grew thicker, and pink-white cherry petals drifted down in the evening breeze, like a gentle rain.

Natsume Chikage's gaze followed a few petals falling leisurely, and the urge to swing his sword welled up in his heart once again.

Almost unconsciously, he swung the wooden sword in his hand, "tapping" five times extremely lightly and quickly in the air at different positions.

The movement was as light as brushing away dust.

The falling cherry blossoms were already small and light, and their trajectories were even harder to grasp due to the influence of air currents.

However, those five petals he had "selected" seemed to be drawn by an invisible force, precisely and successively "colliding" with the spot pointed to by the "tip" of the wooden sword in his hand, and even miraculously stacked together, lingering at his fingertips for an instant.

Natsume Chikage himself seemed somewhat surprised, then flicked his wrist, gently scattering the small stack of cherry petals, letting them continue to drift away.

This seemingly casual "five-hit combo" deepened his understanding of "distance," "timing," and "micro-force control" by another layer.

He could even feel that if he were holding a baseball bat right now, facing a ball flying at high speed, he already had several clear "feelings" in his mind about how his body should adjust and how his arm should swing.

He remembered that Zhongdao Wushi's fastest pitch speed was 140 kilometers.

It seemed he needed to find time to go to those indoor baseball batting centers with automatic pitching machines to experience that speed of ball in person. If he could stably capture the trajectory and react, his chances in the match a month later would be much greater.

This scene was caught exactly by Shanshan Ying-shu, the head of the Jiandao Force, who happened to be passing by after school.

He seemed to have been hit by a freezing spell, instantly stiffening in place, his gaze locked tightly onto Natsume Chikage's hand, which had not yet fully retracted.