"Not so fast!"

The red-haired youth suddenly appeared in front of them. A whirlpool of dark icy water rushed towards them.

The twins lifted their hands simultaneously, creating a gust of wind so strong that it seemed to push Van's whirlpool away.

Dark blue clashed with white as the two martial arts clashed.

Van grit his teeth. The slowing effect of the icy qi was minimal as it was unable to come into contact with their skin. He had to do something, quickly!

A giant black axe appeared in his hand just as the whirlpool dropped away.

[Heavy Axe Art!]

A heavy and overpowering sensation filled the air. The twins were too close and could only dodge abruptly to the side. However, this small amount of time was enough for the two Captains of the Guard to catch up.

Cordelia and Daphne were trapped between Van, two 8th rank Ghost Guards and two 9th rank Captains.  

Cordelia panicked until she saw Daphne's fearful face. The stronger twin gritted her teeth, "Forgive me, sister!"

Cordelia stuck her hand into her waist pouch and withdrew a talisman.

Van's eyes narrowed – it was a powerful teleportation talisman!

Daphne's face paled, "Sister…!"

Cordelia's face hardened, "This talisman would be powerful enough to carry the two of us 10km away in an instant, but 20km if it carries only one person. Remember what Aunt said – victory here is the most important!"

Daphne's lips moved up and down silently. After a moment, she hung her head but her heart was filled with resentment. The talisman could carry them both to safety but her sister was selfish and only wanted to use it for herself. Did she not consider Daphne's feelings? If she was eliminated here, she would not be able to gain any treasures or benefits, greatly stunting her future growth.

Daphne's expression soured.

This selfishness was just so typical of Cordelia.

[Why did I ever expect anything different? I am her sister but she treats me like a lacky and does not care for me at all. I have to always cater to her needs without any complaint, because she is the golden child – not me!]

In the milliseconds that pa.s.sed since Cordelia spoke these words, Van was watching the two sisters like a hawk. When he heard the righteous hypocrisy that Cordelia spouted and Daphne's unwilling expression, he couldn't help but snicker.

The sound of Van's laugh was like a lightning bolt striking Daphne on the head. She grits her teeth and her hand suddenly shot out, grabbing the talisman from her sister's unsuspecting hands.

Cordelia paled, "What are you doing!?"

Daphne smiled sadly, "Looking out for myself without regarding anyone else – I learnt it from you!"

FLAs.h.!.+

A bright white light filled the treasury. When the light dimmed, Daphne was nowhere to be found.

Van saw Cordelia's wide eyes and her pale complexion and laughed again, a deep throaty laugh that came from the bottom of his ribcage.

"Do you understand now?"

The young girl looked up at him with a somewhat lost expression. She acknowledged that she treated Daphne badly, but she never expected that…

Van raised his palm, the Ghost Guards and the Captains surrounded Cordelia but did not attack. He had a few words for this pompous little girl.

"Whether it was leading a battalion or trapping me today, your greatest downfall is your overinflated ego and lack of empathy. Your skills may be good and your talent sky high, but without these skills the events of these last few rounds will repeat again and again. You are only young; it is not to late to learn some emotional intelligence. To push your sister, who is patient and self-sacrificing into this kind of action…" Van sighed.

With every word he spoke, Cordelia shrank in on herself. She was obviously still sh.e.l.l-shocked by her sister's betrayal.

Van saw her expression and shook his head. Cordelia clearly planned on sacrificing Daphne, why was she so surprised when her sister intended the same?

"Any last words?" Van said in jest.

Cordelia looked back at him, her dark eyes were dull at first but the longer she looked upon him the brighter they got with anger. In her heart she still felt that the person who had caused her and Daphne the most problems was this red-haired youth in front of them.

It couldn't be helped, for such an arrogant person to admit they're wrong and wanting to change is extremely hard.

"Just do it!" She shouted.

"Captains!" Van pointed at Cordelia, "Kill her."

The gleaming golden Ghost Guards rushed forwards. Despite her talent as a top genius she could not last long against to 9th ranked Ghost Guard Captains. Within a few exchanges, she was thoroughly defeated.

Weng!

Van watched her body being teleported out of the battlefield.

A few moments later, he remembered the fact that he was in a room filled with priceless treasures. He scanned the area but there were just too many things to take in at once – weapons, armour, clothing, books – making it difficult for him to pick just one out of several hundred.

There was another problem too. Each treasure was encapsulated within an array more complex than the Firestorm Abyss Entrapment Array. Due to his spiritual sense he was able to see through the arrays easily, seeing that some were empty due to having been dismantled by previous generations of disciples.

Van hissed suddenly, feeling his spiritual sense being sucked into a high-level array.

[These arrays are not so simple to solve. With your current mastery of your spiritual sense you will not be able to solve these lest you risk losing your mind. Your best bet is brute force – these small arrays are more complex but require less energy to be maintained. If you attack the array and drain its energy slowly you can probably attain the treasure within] Jet explained.

[Looking at the average level of these arrays, they should take 2 days of persistent effort to crack open.]

Van scanned all of the treasures once more with his spiritual sense before landing on a desirable target.