Salt, chili powder, and garlic paste were one thing, but he had even brought sesame oil, ginger, and sugar cubes. This was going way too far!
Chubby could not resist commenting, "Hao, if you brought all this, why haven't I seen you use it before?"
Jiang Hao shot him a look that told him to shut up. Why do you have to butt into everything? Can't you see I'm busy?
Even Han Qing's teammates could not help marveling at the sight. There was far too much meaning packed into this gesture.
After accepting Jiang Hao's gifts, Han Qing thought for a moment, then came to a difficult decision. "Jiang Hao, whenever you come to Shenzhou City, I'll treat you to a meal."
"Great, it's a deal!"
"We'll get going, then. See you at Wuji Peak Summit."
Jiang Hao was delighted, but someone else was utterly miserable: Wen Ruxue. If she still could not understand what Jiang Hao's attentiveness toward Han Qing meant, she would hardly be a woman.
Bitterness and disappointment filled her heart, leaving her listless no matter what she did afterward.
Before meeting Han Qing, she could still tell herself that she simply had not done enough to move his heart. But now that she had seen Jiang Hao being so attentive to another woman, claiming she was not jealous would have been a lie!
The grilled meat that had once tasted heavenly now felt like wax in her mouth. Looking at its seasonings brought back every scene of Jiang Hao fawning over Han Qing. Annoyed, she threw down her skewer, turned, and went back to her tent.
Jiang Hao: ???
Song Jie: .
Chen Xiaolin looked at Song Jie, while Chubby, utterly clueless, asked Gongsun Qianxun in bewilderment, "Qianxun, what's wrong with her? Why throw away something this delicious? What a waste."
Eat, eat, eat. That's all you ever think about. Aren't you afraid you'll eat yourself to death?
Gongsun Qianxun glared at Jiang Hao. "Ask him."
So Chubby asked Jiang Hao, "Hao, what did you do to upset her? Look, she's so angry she won't even eat."
Jiang Hao gazed up at the sky at a forty-five-degree angle and sighed. "Hopefully, this will help Wen find happiness of her own!"
"Pfft, scumbag!"
Jiang Hao took offense.
"Hey, Miss Gongsun, just how am I a scumbag? You have to take responsibility for what you say."
Song Jie ate his meat skewer with evident schadenfreude while commenting, "You really are pretty scummy. If you'd made your position clear and rejected Ruxue sooner, you wouldn't have given her any hope. If you'd made her give up earlier, she would have noticed that someone else right beside her treats her well, too."
That someone you're talking about is yourself, isn't it? Hmph!
Jiang Hao said, "You can't force feelings. A melon forcibly plucked from the vine won't be sweet, understand?"
He seemed to be talking about Wen Ruxue, but no matter how Song Jie listened, it sounded like a jab at him.
Furious, Song Jie flung his meat skewer to the ground, stood up, and pointed at Jiang Hao. "Jiang Hao, what are you trying to say? Spell it out!"
The sight of the meat on the ground made Chubby's heart ache. He rose angrily. "Hey, what is wrong with every one of you? Don't you know wasting food is shameful? Everyone worked hard and risked their lives to get this food. Can't you appreciate the fruits of your own labor? If you don't want to eat it, give it all to me. I don't even mind your saliva getting on the meat."
Gongsun Qianxun shifted away in disgust. "That's disgusting."
Chubby instantly put on a cheeky grin and retorted, "Not at all. If you're willing-"
Before he could finish-
"Get lost!"
After that interruption from the two clowns, Jiang Hao lost all desire to fire back.
Wasn't a moment of restraint another way to defuse a crisis within the team? As captain, if he was the first to stir up resentment among the other members, he would be unfit for the role.
Chen Xiaolin also stepped in. "Jie, you're still injured. Don't let your emotions get the better of you. Instead of having a pointless argument here, why not move someone with your actions?"
With that, he stuffed a freshly grilled skewer into Song Jie's hand and gestured with his lips toward Wen Ruxue's tent.
Song Jie reconsidered. That's right. When a woman has been hurt, she needs care and affection more than ever. Jiang Hao had unintentionally broken Wen Ruxue's heart. Didn't that give me an opportunity?
From that day onward, Wen Ruxue changed her usual behavior. Not only did she treat Jiang Hao coldly, she actually began growing closer to Song Jie. This delighted him so much that he waited on her hand and foot like an even bigger fool.
A man's tenderness was displayed to its fullest in Song Jie. He was afraid she would break if he held her in his palm, and afraid she would melt if he held her in his mouth-nothing could have described him better.
And so a strange scene unfolded in the six-person team. Up front, Chubby insisted on carrying Gongsun Qianxun's backpack. Of course, his idea of helping was to hang both enormous backpacks on his beast pet, Brown Bear. Brown Bear bore his master's attempts to woo a girl without complaint, patiently doing all the work.
At the back, Song Jie carried two enormous packs and panted like a dog, yet a happy, contented smile remained on his face. Not a complaint or regret!
With bickering up front and cheerful chatter behind, the two single dogs in the middle, Jiang Hao and Chen Xiaolin, had nothing to say to each other. They wanted to exchange a few words to ease the awkwardness, but could not find a suitable topic.
For example:
Jiang Hao: "Xiaolin, what are we eating today?"
Chen Xiaolin: "Hao, what else can we eat besides grilled Divine Eagle meat?"
Jiang Hao: "Oh, right!"
The first topic ended.
Jiang Hao: "Xiaolin, where's your hometown?"
Chen Xiaolin: "Hao, my family has lived in Primordial City for generations. Primordial City is my hometown."
Jiang Hao: "Oh, ⊙⊙!"
The second topic ended.
Jiang Hao: "Xiaolin, I heard you like Wei Lin from our class. Is that true?"
Chen Xiaolin: "No, Hao. Who told you that?"
Jiang Hao: "Oh, Old Wang next door."
Chen Xiaolin: "Don't listen to his nonsense."
Jiang Hao: "...Oh."
The third topic fizzled out.
Jiang Hao: "Xiaolin."
Before Jiang Hao could continue, Chen Xiaolin could take no more.
Chen Xiaolin: "Hao, I was wrong to target you so much before. I'm sorry. After spending this time together, I think you're a good person."
So please stop tormenting me, okay?
Xiaolin, I didn't mean anything else. I'm still a patient with several broken ribs, after all. I just wanted you to help carry my pack.
Inexplicably handed a nice-guy card, Jiang Hao was left speechless and finally forced to end this awkward conversation.
Since everyone's injuries had yet to heal fully, the team had to stop and make camp to recuperate after covering only a short distance. Traveling in fits and starts like this, they took a full month to cross the Mountain Ridge Region.
By this stage of the competition, everyone who should leave had finally left. For those who remained, the real competition was only just beginning.
Now they were competing not only in survival, but also in patience and perseverance.
The true test was the boundless expanse of snowy mountains before them.
Not only was the cold here bone-deep, but the air was thinner as well. Staying too long could even cause snow blindness.
"Honestly, the Referee Panel doesn't consider us at all. Choosing a frozen wasteland like this for the competition-isn't that just putting people in harm's way?"
"Stop complaining. They must have their reasons for choosing this place. Did you think a military post would be that easy to earn? Come on, get moving!"
Complaints like these were everywhere.
Yang Qingliu was among the top ten contestants on the second-tier points leaderboard in the Fourth Competition Zone. The Fourth Competition Zone combined a dozen or so small cities in the south of the Shenzhou Kingdom and bordered Primordial City in the west. There were hardly any respectable academies in the entire Fourth Competition Zone. Compared with the hugely populous First Competition Zone and the vital frontier stronghold of Primordial City, the entire south was essentially a wilderness.
Unlike the contestants who came from academies, she came from a poor family, and even becoming a Beast Tamer had happened by accident. Having loved small, furry animals since childhood, she had happened to rescue a tiger cub.
At first, she had thought it was merely an ordinary wild animal. But as she raised it, she gradually discovered that the tiger could understand human speech. After that, she often took the little tiger into the mountains to hunt small animals to sell.
As time passed and her savings grew, she began considering forming a contract with the little tiger. Only after the contract succeeded did she discover that she had struck gold. The little creature she had thought was an ordinary tiger was actually a rare-quality demon beast cub: a Fangtooth Tiger!
Before Yang Qingliu could even celebrate stumbling into becoming a Beast Tamer, word of it somehow spread throughout Yang Family Town. The mayor, who had always wanted his son to become a Beast Tamer, practically wept with envy.
Unfortunately, his son, Yang Ergou, spent his days eating, drinking, and amusing himself, with no interest whatsoever in becoming a Beast Tamer. The old mayor was beside himself with worry. Upon hearing that Yang Qingliu had actually become one, he immediately brought betrothal gifts to her family's home. Those gifts were undeniably lavish: five thousand taels of silver alone, not to mention the jewelry and other valuables.
Yang Qingliu's parents had never seen anything like it. That much money was enough to support them for the rest of their lives.
They agreed on the spot to marry their daughter to Yang Ergou, regardless of what a scoundrel he was.
Kept in the dark the entire time, Yang Qingliu only realized what had happened when she was shoved into Yang Ergou's room.
I'd been sold!
In the past, as a weak young woman, she certainly would not have been able to resist. But things were different now. As a Beast Tamer, how could she let others carve her up as they pleased?
That night, when Yang Ergou staggered through the door drunk, she knocked him unconscious. Then, then she fled Yang Family Town. Afterward, she lived a wandering life, hiding here and there for three years. Only when the Beast Pet Tournament arrived did she find a glimmer of hope. As long as she held a military post, she believed Mayor Yang would be powerless against her.
What she wanted was actually very simple: to live the life she wanted, without anyone controlling her-not even her own parents.
But after entering the competition, she discovered that she had overestimated herself all along.
She passed the preliminary round and achieved a respectable result, but in the Fishing Competition that followed, she scored a big fat zero because she could not afford a Snow Spirit Tree Leaf.
Naturally, with results like that, no one invited her to join their team. If she still could not find a team upon reaching Wuji Peak Summit, she would be eliminated outright even if she made it through the third stage.
Before you continue