The scene made for riveting viewing for the livestream audience.
Primordial City studio
"Now that's talent! He sold two nets for that many beast crystals. No, I've got to hurry home and start weaving nets."
Some viewers seemed to have discovered the combination to a safe and could hardly wait to show their stuff and rake in a fortune.
Just then, an observant viewer asked curiously, "Have you noticed something? Didn't Jiang Hao also weave a strange big net? What do you think that one's for?"
"Yeah, if he can earn that much from two lousy little nets, how much could he sell the big one for?"
"Brother, you're thinking too small. That big net is obviously for catching more fish. Think how many points he could rack up! If he takes first place by catching fish, how much do you think a top-grade beast crystal is worth? Not to mention the military post of deputy commandant waiting for him."
"Wow, you've got a point! I never imagined Jiang Hao was hiding so much up his sleeve. Doesn't that mean he's bound to win?"
"."
In an instant, the betting odds in the studio underwent an earth-shaking reversal, and the number of people betting on Jiang Hao to win grew exponentially.
Back at the competition site
With landing nets, the success rates of both Chubby's trio and Song Jie, Wei Zihan, and the others improved considerably.
Song Jie, who had previously felt that spending ten Low-Grade Beast Crystals was a loss, was now beaming. Watching one Snow Spirit Fish after another fall into his hands, he grinned almost from ear to ear.
Only after the fifth day ended did people discover that the points leaderboard had undergone a massive change at some point.
1 Fifth Competition Zone, Jiang Hao: 79 points
2 First Competition Zone, Wei Zihan: 51 points
3 Fifth Competition Zone, Song Jie: 47 points
4 First Competition Zone, Hou Dashan: 44 points
4 Fifth Competition Zone, Wen Ruxue: 43 points
5 Fifth Competition Zone, Gongsun Qianxun: 41 points
6 Fifth Competition Zone, Guo Dundun: 39 points
7 Fifth Competition Zone, Chen Xiaolin: 36 points
8 Competition zone two
9 Third ```
Fifth Competition Zone had actually claimed six places in the top ten. Most notably, Jiang Hao had emerged out of nowhere to take first place, leaving everyone in the dust with 79 points in just two days.
While others were still fretting over catching only one or two fish a day, this fellow had taken just two days to achieve the equivalent of forty fish a day. What an enormous gulf!
Had a Projection Fly not been monitoring every contestant, even the Referee Panel might have thought he was cheating-or had simply claimed the Snow Spirit Fish as relatives.
There was no elimination system in this second-stage fishing competition, aside from the few people who lost patience and voluntarily withdrew. Prizes started at five hundredth place, so among the thousand contestants, you had a chance as long as you knocked out half the field.
Still, there was no denying that the fishing competition could directly determine your ranking in the later events. The more fish you caught, the greater your chances of winning.
The true test, then, was the third-stage Wilderness Survival Competition. Some contestants had never left home, making survival on their own an enormous challenge. Only those who truly made it through this stage were the talents the Shenzhou Kingdom wanted.
You could also think of it as patching the roof before the rain came.
Early on the sixth morning, Jiang Hao already had fish roasting-and more than one. Of all the contestants, only Jiang Hao was "rolling in wealth" enough to insist on eating Snow Spirit Fish every day. To the others, Snow Spirit Fish meant points, and every point was precious. How could they bear to eat them?
They eked out their days gnawing on the dry rations they had brought. Of course, some contestants could not stand it and went hunting to improve their meals, but that wasted considerably more time.
Once the grilled fish was ready, Jiang Hao called out, and his three companions eagerly trotted over to mooch a meal. They had brought food too, but compared with steaming, fragrant grilled fish, who wanted to gnaw on cold, dry rations?
Watching Jiang Hao and his three companions feast on fish and meat every day left Song Jie and Chen Xiaolin next door practically weeping with envy.
They wanted to join in too, but simply could not swallow their pride. Instead, they ate their dry rations while sniffing the drifting aroma of fish, imagining that what they were eating was delicious grilled fish.
Ah, delicious!
"Come here, Phoenix."
Jiang Hao let Big Hen out and fed her the remaining half-plus portion of grilled fish. After feeding her over the past few days, he discovered that a subtle telepathic connection had actually formed between them. He could sense faint traces of Big Hen's emotions-happiness, joy, gloom, and so on.
It was extraordinary.
Hearing the name Phoenix while eating her grilled fish, Gongsun Qianxun immediately asked curiously, "Hey, Jiang Hao, is your beast pet really a phoenix?"
Jiang Hao grinned and kept her guessing. "Take a look. Does she look more like a chicken or a phoenix?"
"Hmph, you make it sound so convincing. I watched your match. You think I don't know she lays chicken eggs?"
"What chicken eggs? Those are phoenix eggs. Have you ever seen a chicken egg use a skill? No, right? That's the wondrous thing about a divine beast, understand?"
You make it sound so real, I almost believed you.
Gongsun Qianxun was speechless.
So she changed the subject and asked about something else that had piqued her curiosity. "By the way, Jiang Hao, you clearly haven't been using Snow Spirit Tree Leaves as bait. Why are you catching more fish than all of us?"
Chubby and Wen Ruxue nodded together. They had been holding that question in their hearts for a while too.
Faced with three pairs of eyes brimming with curiosity, Jiang Hao readily took out his artificial lure and waved it before them. "Look, doesn't this resemble a little fish?"
All three nodded.
So did many of the viewers watching the livestream. They were equally curious to hear Jiang Hao's explanation.
Jiang Hao smiled faintly. "You should all know that Snow Spirit Fish are extremely hostile toward other creatures. This is an artificial lure I made from wild boar bone, so naturally it carries the boar's scent. I soaked it in boar blood to make the smell stronger, then cast it out and reeled it in like this, mimicking a little fish swimming through the water. That makes the Snow Spirit Fish think there's an intruder, so they attack. Understand?"
"Oh!"
"So that's it! I get it now. How did you think of that? It's incredible! Why didn't we think of it?"
Jiang Hao thought that he had hardly come up with it himself. All the credit belonged to the videos in the Survival Simulator. In the end, Earth's people were the clever ones.
"You should've told us sooner! There's still time to make a fishing rod like that, right?"
Jiang Hao nodded, smiling without a word.
Go ahead. By the time you're done, I'll be bringing out the big guns to rule the roost.
Chubby and the two women hurried off to copy the new fishing rod. Not far away, Song Jie and Chen Xiaolin secretly rejoiced. They, too, had overheard the combination to the lock. Next came seeing how they would open that safe full of riches.
Watching the busy figures on either side, Jiang Hao stood and stretched. Time to get to work.
He then took the Hand-Cast Net from his tent and went to the lakeside to practice.
Casting a net was a technical skill. Getting the net to spread open in midair was not as simple as casually tossing it out.
First, he held the net's casting loop and about a third of its mouth in his left hand; this was called opening the mouth. Then he hooked the casting loop over his right thumb, the most important step, since the thumb caught the loop during the cast to help spread the opening. Next, he gripped the remaining portion of the mouth, keeping his hands a comfortable distance apart for the motion. Twisting right from the left side of his body, he cast with his right hand, released the mouth in his left hand with the motion, and let his right thumb guide the loop before releasing it at the proper moment.
A poor student like Jiang Hao would not even have known where to start had he not watched instructional videos all night.
Even after grasping the essentials, putting them into practice remained difficult. Either he misjudged the force and the cast net failed to open, or the throw went crooked and missed the intended spot.
The livestream viewers did not know he was practicing. When they saw Jiang Hao take out the Hand-Cast Net, they grew excited, thinking he was finally about to make something happen. Instead, the net he cast came back empty.
"That's it? Can he actually do this or not?"
"Exactly! What a disappointment. I thought he could catch fish, but he didn't get so much as a hair. Looks like our genius Jiang has run dry."
"He should just stick to fishing. He can get dozens a day, at least. Stop messing around with these flashy gimmicks."
Only when they saw Jiang Hao dutifully put down the Hand-Cast Net did the viewers relax. Now that was more like it.
Jiang Hao took the bottle of pig blood from his backpack. It had been sitting there for several days, and now it finally had a use.
The moment he unscrewed the lid, a bloody stench nearly finished him off. It went straight to his head. Pinching his nose, Jiang Hao broke up the congealed wild boar blood, then walked a few meters upstream and tossed the clots into the water. This was called chumming.
After his outstanding performance over the past two days, the Referee Panel had taken notice of this contestant's fishing skills. Thus, as Jiang Hao focused all his attention on the lake, two referees were already waiting quietly with water tanks on their shoulders.
They watched Jiang Hao's every move with curiosity.
The blood clots drifted slowly with the current, while Jiang Hao promptly picked up the Hand-Cast Net and stood ready downstream.
Barely ten seconds passed before splashes suddenly erupted across the lake's surface, as though some monsters beneath the water were fighting fiercely over something. The battlefield was downright brutal, and large quantities of fresh blood welled up.
Under everyone's puzzled gaze, Jiang Hao finally aimed at that spot and cast the Hand-Cast Net.
Slap, slap, slap!
Caught beneath the net, the Snow Spirit Fish struggled violently to escape, throwing spray more than a meter high.
Jiang Hao hauled hard on the line. As viewers watched him labor to drag the net in, the livestream audience instantly fell silent. Everyone quietly watched this contestant, whose efforts they had just dismissed as futile, shatter their understanding with his own hands.
The moment the Hand-Cast Net was dragged ashore, cries of "Holy shit!" rang out one after another.
"That many! How many fish is that?"
No one answered him.
Seeing this, the two referees could no longer hold back and stepped forward to help. After all, the more Snow Spirit Fish, the better. They might not care how many or how few points the contestants earned, but catching so many fish was a good thing. At the very least, it gave the soldiers fighting on the front lines another layer of protection, did it not?
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