Two people were running speedily across one of the tunnels inside the giant water tank. A long black-haired man was leading in the front and with a gorgeous, long white-haired girl following behind him closely.

Adori was quite surprised when Liu Guanyi could find her in the dark tunnels without the help of any observers or lighthouses. Now, she had witnessed it herself of how well he could travel the darkness without any devices.

Did he already master shinsu sensing?

Adori herself already grasped some of it since she had trained it before she was chosen as a regular. However, she understood that it was because of her extreme talent and the king's blood that she could do it very quickly.

Now, a normal regular on the 2nd floor not direct descendants of the ten great families could as well?

Not only that, his footsteps almost made little to no noise as he sprinted across the tunnel, which meant he was an expert in martial arts or body techniques on top of his skill in swordsmanship.

Even if he trained extremely hard to master those skills, it was clear to her how talented Liu Guanyi was. The only shortcoming he had was his physical strength and shinsu control.

'He is very unique, even those direct descendants are nothing compared to him.' Thought Adori deeply.

Adori stopped her musing as she suddenly heard a noise just right ahead. There, she saw some regulars from group A that were fighting against two sharks.

Their body wasn't big, only around one meter long, however, their body wasn't the strong feature nor its teeth. It was their razor-sharp pectoral fins.

The regulars were centered on the light bearer in a circle position. When she looked more closely, the lighthouse seemed to contain a few fish. No wonder the knife sharks attacked them. If this went on, they wouldn't be able to hold on for long.

However, they were lucky as Liu Guanyi moved to interfere and attacked one of the sharks with his body boosted by shinsu from its blind spot.

Surprisingly, the shark sensed him and dodged it quite easily even with his fast speed. With his failed ambush, Liu Guanyi didn't continue to pursue the shark. Probably it was only to probe their capability, Adori thought.

The shark didn't take the aggression laying down and retaliated as it sped through him with its razor-sharp fin. Liu Guanyi managed to block it with his sword, however, its attack did something as a chip appeared on the sword.

The other shark abandoned its former target and supported its fellow mate by attacking Liu Guanyi from his flank. As he was engaging with the shark, Adori didn't waste this chance and launched her needle forward with the reel inventory.

She launched it by anticipating the shark's movement as it was busy fighting against Liu Guanyi. The needle almost managed to pierce the shark when its mate suddenly struck it away with his tail, deflecting the needle in a close call.

The sharks apparently read the situation had turned worrying and decided to run away from the two strong humans. Liu Guanyi and Adori quickly ran after them, paying no heed to the shocked regulars nearby.

After tailing them for a while, they realized that their current speed wasn't enough to catch up to the sharks as long as they were adamant about running away.

At least, that was the case for Liu Guanyi.

Knowing this wouldn't go anywhere he turned to the princess. "Princess Adori, I know that you haven't used your basic Body Enhancement. Why you do not use it to catch those sharks?"

Adori was silent for a moment before she finally spoke. "If I use it, this contest will not be a contest anymore. Won't I will win if I catch the sharks?"

Liu Guanyi nodded at her words. "Indeed you will win." Then he smiled. "On the pretext that you manage to do it, of course."

Adori was a bit confused by this. Liu Guanyi didn't have the speed to catch the sharks not to mention to prevent her after she had caught up to the sharks.

The sharks were very fast compared to the regulars, even to them. But if the speed factor could be ignored, they would become a literal fish on a chopping block.

Adori would only need a second or two to capture the fish after catching up to them and he would lose, or did he have something up his sleeve to have such confidence?

Or was it just a bravado? Or was it just a trap to catch her off guard?

Considering and thinking this for a moment, Adori finally decided to take the bait. She was quite interested in what Liu Guanyi had up his sleeve and was confident that she could easily take on anything he would dish out.

Suddenly, Adori burst out with immense velocity as the ground below her cracked.

She shot like a flying arrow and closed dozens of meters instantly, and caught up to the shark in the rear and stabbed her needle. she managed to pierce its body but she quickly stepped back, dodging the sword passed through her previous spot.

It continued to fly through and pierced the shark, nailed it on the ground.

When she looked back, she saw Liu Guanyi moving much faster than before heading toward the shark. There were red hues on his skin as his blood vessels looked much more pronounced.

Seeing him, Adori was quite surprised. It looked like he used some secret martial technique to increase his speed to double!

Double might not seem a lot, but if this technique could be used by any fisherman on top of the shinsu strengthening, it could boost their speed, strength, and defense to an incredible degree!

Liu Guanyi exploited this moment to dash rapidly toward the nailed knife shark, and with Adori being caught off guard, he managed to get very close to the fallen shark.

Unfortunately for Adori, she didn't have the time to stop him even if with the physical boost from shinsu since he was already got the shark at this point, no… not yet.

Actually, she still had one skill that could turn this situation around.

However, Adori was reluctant to use it since it was too overwhelming if she used it and this challenge wouldn't be as interesting. However, it seemed that she was forced to use it this time if she didn't want to lose.

Adori drew her untouched blade from its sheath on her hips. She focused shinsu to gather and wrap around the sword.

Her sword suddenly began to shine in a bright white and it quickly became a blinding white light that shined and pierced through the darkness of the tunnel.

Holding her sword that was covered with the white, shinning shinsu, Adori held the sword with both her hands and brought it down, slashing the sword in the air, unleashing the beautiful white light as it cut through the darkness of the tunnels!

Arie Sword Style: One Fallen Rose Petal!

A single white sword slash pierced the darkness and flew extremely fast toward Liu Guanyi. He was shocked as he didn't expect such a thing. Reacting quickly, he pulled the shark and put it in front of him to block the sword slash.

Smokes came out from the ground from the powerful impact. When it settled down, the shark could be seen sliced smoothly into two while Liu Guanyi was standing shakily with a horizontal shallow wound stretching from his arms to his chest.

Adori was quite surprised to see it. She had expected a lot more damage than just a long and shallow wound even when she had held back with her attack and the shark served as a meat shield. It looked like that his shinsu resistance was really spectacular.

His body was even tougher than those direct descendants that she had previously met!

Liu Guanyi huffed as he spoke. "So… it is a draw, then?"

Adori sensed the surroundings and didn't sense the other shark. It most likely had already run away when they were busy fighting and trying to catch the shark.

"Yes, it seems that we have to see in the future." Adori spoke with a slight smile on her face.

"True, that is if we have another chance." Said Liu Guanyi with a smile.

Then, Liu Guanyi stretched his hand toward her and casually said something that managed to catch her off guard. "You don't have a team right? Would you like to join us to climb the tower together?"

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Yep, Adori Zahard learns the Arie Sword Style and is an expert in it so I will absolutely display that ability, though it was only a glimpse of it. We will learn more about her power in the future.