Chapter 16: Chapter 16- The Bait is Taken
It had been a month since Liu Guanyi first arrived on the floor of tests. After the reel inventory class, he maintained his usual routine with the addition of training his control of reel inventory in the river at night.
Since he now could afford to eat more food, he had been increasing the intensity of his training to restore his strength faster. Fortunately, with the boost coming from Shinsu, he could progress at much faster rate than what he expected.
In the night on the floor of tests, the light coming from the artificial stars shined through the darkness.
On an open area not far from the chosen regulars' temporary residence, a yellow-haired boy and a long black-haired young man could be sighted facing off each other under the stars' light.
The boy, with his stance up looked visibly nervous as his legs were shaking a little while the young man didn't put up his stance and merely calmly observed the boy.
Then, he strolled carefreely into the boy's attack range still without his guard up. Seeing the opening, the boy dashed forward launching a left power jab to his unguarded abdomen.
He avoided it with ease by weaving and stepping to the side. However, he didn't retaliate even after having the chance.
The boy retreated back to safety after his failed attack, not in a hurry to attempt further attacks though he was nervous as the black-haired man observed him once again.
This time, he was the one running ahead as he launched a quick barrage of jabs, straights, and hooks as the young man dodged the attacks.
Then at some point, the young man had an awkward posture after dodging one of the barrage of attacks.
Not wasting the opportunity, the boy flowed shinsu in his body to strengthen it and launched a much more powerful and faster strike to his solar plexus!
Without the time to fix his posture and dodge, the young man could only cross his arms together to guard his chest. His arms shook as he was slightly pushed back by the punch, yet, he seemed calm as he had a smile on his face.
"Good work, Xin!" He congratulated the boy.
"No, it's all thanks to you, Mr. Liu." Xin shyly replied as he scratched his head.
"Now, let's change to swords!" Liu Guanyi said as he threw a sheathed sword at Xin.
Xin merely nodded as he caught the sword and drew it. He had a serious expression on his face as he stepped forward to deliver an overhead slash with his enhanced body.
Liu Guanyi simply deflected the slash to his side as he stepped forward, making Xin unable to retract his sword before a sword was already placed at his neck.
"Let's try again." Said Liu Guanyi calmly.
They trained for a few hours until midnight. Liu Guanyi was trying to teach basic swordsmanship to Xin since he was a complete beginner.
However, after thinking for a while, he probably would never teach him advanced swordsmanship. Because it seemed to be irrelevant or even dangerous to the sword user in the tower.
Because here, there were many techniques that outright made such techniques obsolete such as body enhancement and other shinsu controls, unlike his previous world. Hence, having the body to instinctively react with certain moves could backfire terribly.
For example, if Xin blocked Adori's slash instinctively, even though he performed the correct block, he could be easily cleaved in half.
That was why Liu Guanyi only taught Xin the basics of the basics and he sparred with him to increase his experience so he could develop his own style along the way since it was much better this way.
It had been two weeks since he had been teaching Xin, and though he wasn't that talented and the result was rather mediocre, Liu Guanyi liked the boy's perseverance.
With his experience on the Martial Path, he understood well that talent wasn't everything. Talents only gave someone a head start. The head start might differ from each other, from nonexistent, small, big, and even extremely massive.
However, one's own efforts to persevere through the hardest and harshest challenges could make one eventually be able to catch up to those talented ones.
Liu Guanyi had seen many of the so-called "talented ones" in the past backed off from hardships, stopped to improve, and eventually being surpassed by the ordinary and untalented, yet determined ones.
Seeing Xin was sitting on the ground seemingly exhausted, he said. "It's enough for today, let's return."
"O-ok." Xin spoke intermittently, out of breath.
Liu Guanyi helped Xin to stand and walk together slowly toward their lodgings.
However, unknown to them, a beautiful long white-haired girl was watching them from afar since the beginning, or was it?
. . . . . .
"Today, we are going to test your improvement on using the reel inventory!" Borc explained loudly.
All of the regulars were standing on the edge of the riverside each with their reel inventory ready. Most of them had nervous expressions, looking not ready for the test.
"I will only give you five chances to shoot within ten minutes. If you catch a fish you will earn five hundred points. So take your opportunity well. Observe the fish movements first, then shoot your needle if you are sure to hit them!"
"Now, let's begin!" He shouted as the timer turned on.
Paying attention to the Ranker's advice none of them were in hurry to shoot their needles, except for Adori as she paid no heed to the advice and casually shot her needle without waiting for the fish to surface.
Soon, she pulled the reel back and revealed a fish that was stabbed and stuck on her needle.
Seeing her success, the stupid ones tried to replicate it while the brighter ones simply shook their heads seeing the idiots.
Liu Guanyi also tried his best. He stayed far from the other regulars to avoid their disruptions as he waited patiently for any fish to surface to shoot his needle.
When he was done, the result wasn't too bad. From the five shots, he managed to get four right. At least, his hard training in two weeks bore fruit.
. . . . . .
The test was now done. Only less than a handful of regulars managed to catch a fish so it was clear who was going to pass and not. Adori had the best result even surpassing his expectation.
She didn't catch five fish but six!
Liu Guanyi didn't know how she did it, but one of her shots must have caught two in a row. With her talent, if he could make her a loyal friend, not only he would have a strong backer, but also an extremely capable ally.
"Sigh… I have done my best, it's now up to fate if she will respond it or not.' Liu Guanyi let out a sigh as he started to walk toward the cafeteria.
However, before he walked far, he stopped in his tracks as Adori suddenly appeared and blocked his way.
"Liu Guanyi, wasn't it? Can you show me your sword style?" Adori asked casually.
Seeing this, a meaningful smile appeared on Liu Guanyi's face. "Well, that's ok Princess Adori but I need your help on some other things. If you don't mind, of course."
'Borc is not a good fisherman as he thinks he is, a good fisherman knows how to place a bait!' Liu Guanyi thought as he controlled his smile from changing into a smirk.
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