Some of Shu's men return with food they got from attacking one of Souther's supply convoys. However, it turns out the food is poisoned, and Kenshiro has to save one kid by hitting a pressure point to stop the effects of the poison. Shu takes Kenshiro outside to where there are many graves -these are all the graves of children who died serving the Holy Emperor. Kenshiro decides it is finally time for him to confront Souther, and he soon stands before him.

Their fight begins, but Kenshiro notices Souther is not taking a stance. Souther tells him that his style, Nanto ho-oh ken (South Star phoenix fist) has no stance, as that implies defense -his style is purely offense only. Souther uses a move called kyokusei juji ken (command star cross fist) which Kenshiro narrowly avoids. He sees that Souther is extremely fast, but not fast enough to avoid one of his attacks -Kenshiro hits Souther with a rapid series of strikes and tells him that he hit his jinchukyoku pressure point, giving him just three seconds to live.

Souther thinks this is interesting and casually counts the seconds down. Kenshiro is surprised when Souther doesn't die, but instead, he receives a large, cross shaped wound to his chest -Souther hit him earlier without him even realizing it! Souther says that the North Star divine fist has no effect on his body at all -what can Kenshiro do now?!

Manga Differences

-The scene where Shu explains about Souther is set inside in the manga, but outside in the anime.

-Shiva is introduced early in the anime, in the manga, he is not seen until the equivalent of the next episode.

-In the manga, Ryo dies. Ken hits a pressure point on him, but he realizes it is too late to stop the poison.

In the anime, this was changed so Kenshiro is able to save Ryo in time.

-The scene with the children's graves was not in the manga.

-Flamethrower man kills more people in the anime than he does in the manga.

-The fight with Beji and Giji is a lot shorter in the manga. They never manage to hit Kenshiro either.

Notes

-The first few minutes or so of this episode have an extremely brief recap of everything that has happened so far in the third chapter, using clips from the previous four episodes. Someone noticed the Galzus and new recruit clone error (see the previous episode) as when the clips are played in this episode, the shot cuts before the clones appear. There are also a few other differences -click here for details.

-Flamethrower man appears in this episode. For some reason he's got quite a following with fans, but his famous line from the manga -"sterilize the filth!" -isn't said in the episode. You can get his sunglasses though!

-There are a couple of shots in this episode where the frame breaks up into sections and kind of looks like a comic book -an interesting technique I would have liked to see more of occasionally, but this is the only episode which does it.

Errors

-Suddenly there is this city all around the pyramid. It wasn't there before.
-There are a few instances in this episode where Kenshiro's black arm band is colored brown.
-During this shot, Kenshiro's shoulder pad is colored blue instead of gray.
-The blades Beji and Giji used are silver with brown handles, but during certain shots, they're completely silver.
-When Beji gets hit, the background changes between shots.
-Between Kenshiro saying Souther has three seconds to live and Souther saying "three" in his countdown of the three seconds, around 25 seconds have passed.