After indulging in fantasies for a while, Song Jie simply pulled his attention back, constantly reassuring himself. No envy, no jealousy.
But just as he had finally adjusted his mindset-
That bastard Jiang Hao hooked another fish.
This time, though, Heaven finally opened its eyes: Jiang Hao actually lost the fish.
"Good, it got off the hook. I thought you really were invincible. Turns out you aren't all-powerful after all."
Song Jie spared no effort in mocking him.
Jiang Hao smiled calmly at his words. He put down his fishing rod, found a fairly flexible branch, and attached his prepared landing net to it. Now he would no longer have to worry about fish slipping off the hook.
Next came the moment of slaughter.
The moment Jiang Hao securely scooped up a fish with his landing net, everyone finally understood. All those preparations hadn't been because he wanted to coast along. The bastard had been charging up his ultimate move!
Setting down the landing net, Jiang Hao took a woven fish bag from his backpack, put the live fish inside, and lowered it into the water. This way, the fish could neither escape nor die.
One fish.
Two fish.
Three fish.
As Song Jie's composure exploded, Jiang Hao caught more and more fish.
At that moment, the spectators were stunned-and went wild.
Without comparison, there was no pain. Look at everyone else, spending most of the day catching a single fish, while he didn't even need ten minutes. If he said he was cheating, they would believe him.
Compared to Song Jie's envy, jealousy, and resentment, Wen Ruxue and the other two felt only envy.
The teammate they had thought was coasting along had turned out to be a hidden expert. The title of fishing master belonged to him, no question.
Such astonishing results even alerted the Referee Panel.
When the Referee Panel heard there was a godlike angler upstream with heaven-defying results, two referees hurried over carrying a water tank to collect his fish.
When Jiang Hao laboriously hauled the fish bag out of the water, the referees stared at a bag packed with Snow Spirit Fish, their eyes nearly popping out.
"Contestant, did you use drugs? That would be cheating."
Jiang Hao grinned. "If drugs could catch this many fish, wouldn't Snow Spirit Fish have gone extinct long ago?"
After the joke came the count. Good grief-thirty-eight fish! That was the highest number of Snow Spirit Fish anyone had ever caught in human history.
Thirty-eight points. In just one day, Jiang Hao had pinned every other contestant to the ground and rubbed their faces in the dirt, leaping from zero points straight into first place.
Second place belonged not to Song Jie, but to a contestant from Competition Zone One named Wei Zihan.
He had thirty-six points, only two behind Jiang Hao.
Competition Zone One was also the capital's competition zone. He was unquestionably a scion of an official family.
The capital, also called Shenzhou City, lay in the eastern part of the Shenzhou Kingdom, near the Endless Sea, humanity's largest forbidden zone. It formed a triangle with Primordial City and Wuji City. West of Primordial City lay the Cangling Kingdom, while to its north lay the Wuji Mountains and the North Sea Kingdom.
Primordial City was not considered a large city in the Shenzhou Kingdom, with a population of only a little over three hundred thousand. Yet it was the first line of defense holding the Cangling Kingdom in check, and its strategic importance rivaled that of the City of Eternity.
Back to Wei Zihan-he was no ordinary person. As the son of the cabinet's chief minister, he was a favorite to win this Beast Pet Tournament. His beast pet was a rare Battlefield Brute Bear, a descendant of the Titan Giant Bear, just like the Earth Bear King.
Jiang Hao's sudden rise immediately drew plenty of attention, including Wei Zihan's.
Wei Zihan had caught sixteen Snow Spirit Fish in three days. He was a born child of fortune-even the son of the god of luck would feel inferior. Now someone had actually outdone him. It would be a lie to say he wasn't annoyed.
"Brother Zihan, I've found out about that guy. He's two kilometers upstream. Apparently, he caught thirty-eight fish in a single day. At this rate, your championship won't be safe!"
A fair-skinned young man, only a hundred and sixty centimeters tall, came panting up to Wei Zihan. Wei Zihan was the very picture of tall, rich, and handsome, the most dazzling person wherever he went. His fangirls at Shenzhou Academy could have formed a reinforced regiment, but he kept every woman's affections at arm's length. Only one woman's image had ever occupied his heart. In his eyes, the only woman in the world worthy of his status was the lofty Princess Han Qing.
"Do you know what method he's using?"
The fair-skinned man tried to recall. "I can't really say. His fishing rod and bait are both pretty unusual. I've never even heard of them. Oh, right, hardly any of his fish get off the hook. Apparently, he uses a net to catch them. Anyway, his success rate is incredibly high. Should we find a net to scoop up fish too? What do you think?"
Wei Zihan gave him a sidelong glance and said flatly, "Where would you find one? Go back to Wuji City? The moment you leave Snow Spirit Lake's boundaries, you're deemed to have forfeited. Understand?"
"Then what do we do?"
"What else? We'll go take a look tomorrow. Why don't we just buy his net?"
"Great idea! Why didn't I think of that?"
Wei Zihan wasn't the only one eyeing the landing net. Song Jie was too. Watching Jiang Hao win every battle with that net in hand, he wished he could snatch it straight from him.
He had thought Jiang Hao was useless before, but looking at him now, the man was practically divine. This sort of meticulous planning left others utterly hopeless. Reluctant as he was to admit it, Song Jie had already come to admire Jiang Hao from the bottom of his heart.
Others might not know, but he had witnessed it firsthand. After watching Jiang Hao pocket one Snow Spirit Fish after another, he felt he needed to have a talk with him.
After wrestling with himself all night, Song Jie finally decided to act the next morning.
Before he could speak, someone called out first. "Brother Hao, lend me a net! I saw you weaving nets these past few days. So you'd planned this all along! Hmph, you kept it under wraps and wouldn't tell us."
Jiang Hao chuckled, turned around, and fetched a finished landing net from his tent to hand over. Its handle was plenty long. He had deliberately made it longer because they used different hooks.
Chubby hefted the landing net a couple of times and immediately got a feel for it.
"Thanks, Brother Hao! This time, I'm definitely going to beat you."
Song Jie said, "I..."
"We want them too!"
Before Song Jie could speak, Gongsun Qianxun and Wen Ruxue ran over to ask for landing nets.
Song Jie shut his mouth and stood to one side, at a loss.
"I prepared yours ages ago."
Jiang Hao took another two out of his tent and gave them to the girls. Only after they left beaming did he notice Song Jie standing nearby. Puzzled, he asked, "Did you need something?"
Song Jie...
What the hell was this? I finally worked up the nerve to swallow my pride and ask for a landing net, and you just ignored me.
Are you fucking doing this on purpose?
Just then, Chen Xiaolin came up beside Song Jie and spoke for him.
"Jiang Hao, could you give us one too? You seemed pretty handy with it yesterday. We're all classmates, after all. We should help each other out."
Now you remember we're classmates.
Jiang Hao gave an "Oh" of feigned realization, then said, "So you're here for a landing net. I can give you one, but... you'll have to pay."
Chen Xiaolin flew into a rage. "Why? I just saw you give them to Chubby and the others without asking for money. You're doing this on purpose, aren't you?"
"Exactly. I'm doing it on purpose. Take it or leave it."
With that, Jiang Hao made to go fishing.
Though Song Jie was angry too, he held back the indignant Chen Xiaolin and asked Jiang Hao, "Name your price. How much will you sell it for?"
"Now that's more like it. Not much. Since we're classmates, I'll give you a friendly price-ten Low-Grade Beast Crystals."
"What? Ten? Why don't you just rob us?" Chen Xiaolin was furious. This was blatant robbery. Ten beast crystals for a lousy net-and Low-Grade Beast Crystals at that!
Jiang Hao shrugged. "Too expensive? Forget it, then."
"Wait. Ten Low-Grade Beast Crystals? We'll take it."
Just then, two unfamiliar men, one tall and one short, appeared before Jiang Hao.
The speaker was the fair-skinned short one.
The newcomers were none other than Wei Zihan and his companion.
Chen Xiaolin sized them up and said unhappily, "Who are you? Don't you understand first come, first served?"
The fair-skinned man didn't even look at Chen Xiaolin. His face full of contempt, he said, "Where did this country bumpkin come from? If you haven't got money, scram. Stop making a fool of yourself here. Hey, you're Jiang Hao, right? We'll take that landing net you just mentioned."
His arrogant, holier-than-thou attitude made people want to punch him.
Chen Xiaolin had never imagined that someone would one day call him a country bumpkin. Who could stand that?
"Who are you insulting? You want a fight?"
Although he had called Chen Xiaolin a country bumpkin, his eyes had been on Jiang Hao. That look left Jiang Hao deeply displeased.
You dare point at the mulberry tree to curse the locust? Watch me fleece you dry, you bastard.
With that thought, Jiang Hao took a landing net from his tent and said casually, "Stop arguing. There's only one left. Ten high-grade beast crystals. Whoever wants it can take it."
The fair-skinned man said, "What? Ten high-grade beast crystals? Did I hear that right? That's not what you just said."
Chen Xiaolin said, "Wait, Jiang Hao, have you gone money-crazy?"
"Forget it if you don't want it." Jiang Hao turned to put the landing net back in his tent, but Wei Zihan spoke up. "Ten high-grade beast crystals, right? We'll take it."
"Brother Zihan..."
So he's Wei Zihan.
Jiang Hao sized up the tall man. Aside from being just a tiny bit taller than him, his looks were only so-so.
Wei Zihan readily handed Jiang Hao ten high-grade beast crystals, took the landing net from him, and left without looking back.
But before they had gone far, Jiang Hao took another landing net from his tent and called to Song Jie, "Hey, Song Jie! Do you still want one?"
At those words, all four turned to look at the landing net in Jiang Hao's hand.
Song Jie: ???
Wei Zihan: Didn't you say the one I'm holding was the last one?
The fair-skinned man's face darkened. Pointing furiously at Jiang Hao, he cursed, "You're fucking playing us!"
Jiang Hao raised the landing net and asked Song Jie, "Ten Low-Grade Beast Crystals. No bargaining."
This time, Wei Zihan's composure shattered completely.
To hell with fucking decorum. Who could stand being fleeced like a sucker? He stared coldly at Jiang Hao, a flash of killing intent crossing his eyes.
Looking at Jiang Hao now, Chen Xiaolin and Song Jie suddenly felt he wasn't so hateful after all. In fact, he was strangely endearing?
It's only ten Low-Grade Beast Crystals. Here!
Song Jie readily handed the beast crystals to Jiang Hao. As he turned away, he muttered something, and Jiang Hao faintly caught a word of thanks.
Wei Zihan withdrew his gaze and growled through clenched teeth, "We're leaving."
Damn you, Jiang Hao. Just you wait. This score won't be settled so easily.
Before you continue