He had originally planned to give him two Mechanical Puppets and call it a day.
But seeing how eager he looked, Xia Xi softened.
Finally, after looking through the list for ages, Xia Xi managed to scrape together two people and hand them over to Tengen Uzui.
Obanai Iguro and Murata.
The former's panel stats had improved considerably over the past six months of actual combat.
Although his derived [Viper Breathing] had yet to reach [Constant], his stats were already approaching those of an Elite Swordsman.
Energy level: 157.
After a month or so of training with Mr. Flashy, he would probably be even stronger than Kazami Old Geezer.
As for the other one, Murata...
Honestly, Xia Xi was a little puzzled himself.
Despite having the strongest stats, he was gradually falling behind Sabito and Giyu, who had started alongside him.
His energy level could hardly be called lousy.
But it was still well short of Xia Xi's expectations.
Xia Xi figured that, with all the extra private training he had given him, his energy level should at least have been a little over 200.
Yet now, it was barely 129.
He had not mastered Constant in his Breathing Style, either.
Under the old system, he would have been Middle Rank at most, or a subpar Kinoe who had scraped his way up through merit.
Could this Murata be not just an ordinary late-game character... but an ultra-late-game hero?
Or perhaps...
Had his interference caused Murata to miss out on certain fortunate encounters?
So Xia Xi decided to change his strategy.
Rather than having him train desperately at the Northern Borderlands Dojo, he might as well send him straight to one of the Nine Hashira to gain actual combat experience.
He would improve his strength through life-and-death trials.
Of course,