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Liu Guanyi ignored her rather flashy entrance and quickly started to explain everything and show her the problem. After getting the gist of it, Adori nodded and moved to have a look at the square.
"So, it's a just Sudoku? I can't believe you two can't even solve such a simple puzzle, especially you, Liu." Adori said with a hint of disappointment.
"So that's the name. Well, not everyone can be good at everything like you, princess Adori, even me." Liu Guanyi said with a wry smile.
Adori didn't waste more time talking and started to work the Sudoku around, trying to fill the blank boxes with numbers. In just a couple of minutes, she had finished figuring out all the numbers as a click sound resounded in the room.
"Thank you, princess, you really save us this time." Xin thanked her sincerely.
Adori merely glanced her eyes at him and returned to focus at the gate. "Let's not dilly dally here any longer, the time is ticking."
"Now that you say it, I have just realized it." Liu Guanyi looked at his pocket watch, the hour hand pointed at five, indicating that the night was almost upon them.
Although the monsters didn't pose any threat or challenge to them, there was still the problem of the changing room and sections. If the night descended, it would be too late for them to move.
Even what was behind the gate would change place, meaning that it would be worthless since it wouldn't lead them to its original destination.
"Alright, let's see what's behind the gate they put a very hard puzzle for." Adori could only wordlessly stare at Liu Guanyi as he spoke that shamelessly with a straight face.
It wasn't because the Sudoku was hard by any means, it was only average. It was just him and Xin who were so bad at it.
Adori pushed the massive gate open using her delicate hands with little to no effort, showing her rare display of strength as she always used her sword on every single occasion.
They entered the gate and continued walking, though not at a slow pace.
The room was almost identical to the previous sections they had passed, at least that was the case until they had walked for quite a while as they found themselves seeing something incredible.
It was a titanic figure of flesh and blood with stone-like brown color. Its head and upper body hunched over forward, covering its lower body. The giant appeared to be sleeping with its body slouched as it didn't notice the three approaching it.
"Another guardian of the Hell Train, huh? This one seems special with its gigantic body. Also, its skin must be quite tough from its look, and considering its massive size, its heaps of muscle and fat layers are most likely incredibly thick, bolstering its robust vitality with a good defense, a tough enemy."
"So, who wants to go ahead?" Asked Liu Guanyi with a thin smile.
"May I?" Xin offered to go himself.
"Alright, go ahead, but we will interfere if you take too long to finish it." Said Liu Guanyi.
Xin nodded and stepped forward slowly, not alerting the giant. Once he was close enough, he flowed shinsu into his legs and dashed toward the exposed neck of the giant.
Three bangs of shinsu gathered on his arm and merged to form a long blade-like extension on his hand.
Using his speed and velocity, Xin pushed his bladed hand at the giant's neck, intending to sever its artery and end its life in a single strike.
The giant was alerted when Xin speeded forward and knew that it was in grave danger, and instinctively put his hand over his neck.
The blade stabbed and cut deeply into its flesh. However, since the giant managed to cover its vital area, Xin only damaged its hand, which was in no way a lethal damage with the giant's massive size.
The giant flared in anger at the sudden attack and smacked its hand to crush Xin.
Xin leaped away in time, dodging the fate of being crushed into a mush.
Now, however, the giant was fully awake as it stared at the trespassers with unadulterated fury.
With its body standing tall, its gigantic size was finally displayed clearly as it stood more than twenty meters tall with enormous muscles all over its body, even the spacious room seemed to suddenly feel cramped.
Even with his strong body and endurance from his constitution and training, Xin knew that a single hit would be fatal just like when he sparred with Liu Guanyi, though the giant had a weakness that Liu Guanyi didn't, its overly big size and slow speed.
Xin rushed to the giant and immediately move to the side, evading a crushing foot smash, and slashed his blade across the giant's foot as he slid on the ground, drawing a long horizontal wound.
The giant responded quickly as it stomped the ground, rocking the whole room.
Unfortunately, it was too late as Xin promptly jumped to its back, latching tightly as he stabbed its thick muscle as an anchor.
He pulled out a needle with his free hand and started stabbing its back repeatedly. The giant felt pricking pain and tried to smack the annoying tiny fly on its back.
Xin, however, proved to be more slippery and agile than what the giant could handle. Every time it tried to smack him, he would have already anticipated the angle and the speed, and moved away before the attack managed to land, making the giant hurt itself and feel more pain.
Xin continued stabbing the giant for a while, creating more and more wounds on its body. Although its vitality was robust and its defense was great, making his deadly attacks weren't as effective, they were still wounds and blood was continuously trickling from them.
And added with the fact that there were dozens of stab and slash wounds, even its strong vitality would be weakened as blood was drained from it, draining away its life force at the same time.
Soon, Xin could feel that the giant's attacks became slower as its movements became clumsier, the giant had started to become weaker.
It was natural since it always responded to Xin's attacks with a wanton rampage that worsened its wounds, a weakness that wild beasts usually fall upon, falling into a rage when they couldn't solve a complex issue due to their undeveloped intelligence.
As the giant became continuously weaker, Xin became bolder and bolder in delivering his attacks. He climbed to the upper part of its back, dragging his shinsu blade as he moved around, creating many deep gashes on its shoulders.
The giant desperately tried to stop him as it used both of his hands to crush him. It understood that if Xin was let free to continue his slaughter, it would definitely meet its maker.
Xin leaped in the gap between the incoming gigantic fingers and kicked one of them to push him out of the way of another incoming gigantic hand that would crush him.
Without the obstructions of the two hands, Xin quickly ran to the giant's neck, circling it as he dragged his blade across, creating a deep, fatal laceration on its neck.
As the giant covered its neck to try to stop the blood from pouring like a waterfall, Xin climbed to its face as he stared into the giant's eyes, looking at the dying soul with a calm face.
He didn't waste any words or time to plunge his blade deep into its eye, causing the giant to scream out a deafening cry.
Xin didn't stop there as he dismantled his shinsu blade and manipulated his shinsu, creating five bangs that converged into a single big spherical ball on his palm.
Shinsu Control Amplification Style: Great Current Blade!
Your powerstones, please?