Survival Match (16)

Success or failure hinged on this one move!

Jiang Hao gritted his teeth and unleashed the Wind Orb and Fireball combo again without hesitation!

Boom, boom, boom!

The instant the Wind Orb and Fireball struck the Snow Wolf King, everything fell silent.

Was it dead?

That was what concerned Jiang Hao most. He had staked everything on this, including the fate of his entire squad. Whether they stayed or left depended on this strike. If it failed to finish the enemy, all that awaited them was the ringing of the Safety Bell!

No one could withstand the explosive damage of three six-shot Fireball volleys-over thirty thousand damage-unless they were a purely defensive demonic beast.

The Snow Wolf King collapsed, unwilling to accept its fate.

To confirm whether it was truly dead, Jiang Hao deliberately opened the Survival Simulator.

When he heard the notification chime he had not heard in so long, he could not help giving himself a thumbs-up.

Ding! Your Beast Pet has slain the Snow Wolf King. You have gained 14 attribute points and skill points.

Ding! Your Beast Pet has slain a Mountain Moving Realm Snow Wolf King. You may obtain one of the following skills.

Blood Enhancement: Active skill. Greatly increases strength and speed.

Blood Dominion: Passive skill. Doubles the dominion effect.

The latter skill, Blood Dominion, seemed similar in effect to Bloodline Power. His Beast Pet had already awakened Bloodline Power, so choosing it would be redundant. Meanwhile, he was allocating his Beast Pet's points toward strength and agility. Wasn't Blood Enhancement a pillow delivered just as he was getting sleepy?

He decisively chose Blood Enhancement.

Ding! Your Beast Pet, Big Hen, has learned Blood Enhancement. Increases strength and agility by 30%. The higher the level, the greater the attribute increase. Current level: 1. Maximum level: 3. Cooldown: one hour.

Ding! You have upgraded Blood Enhancement to level 3. Increases strength and agility by 50%. Current level: 3, maximum level. Cooldown: one hour.

Ding! Your Beast Pet has slain a Mountain Moving Realm Snow Wolf King above its level. It has successfully advanced to level 44.

Beast Pet owner: Jiang Hao

Beast Pet: Ice Crystal Phoenix (hen)

Realm: Golden Body (level 44)

Level 1 Bloodline Power

Rapport: 95

Combat power: 441

Attribute points: 0

Skill points: 19822

Strength: 373

Endurance: 28

Defense: 44 (60%)

Agility: 52

Critical hit rate: 0

Critical strike: 0

Skills: Hen and Eggs in Ruin (passive), Shadowless Clone (passive), Thorn Armor (level 3, max-level passive), Fireball (level 6, max level), Lure (level 5, max level), Wind Orb (level 3, max level), Eagle Strikes the Sky (level 3, max level), Blood Enhancement (level 3)

This was Big Hen at her best. Looking at those 373 points of strength, Jiang Hao smiled in complete satisfaction.

With that strength, that combat power, and those max-level skills, if he activated Blood Enhancement as well, wouldn't nearly 560 strength let her one-shot the heavens, the earth, and divine beasts alike?!

The moment the Snow Wolf King was slain, the snow wolves lost their backbone and descended into turmoil. Some wanted to avenge their king, but seeing that even their leader had died, how could they dare cross the forbidden line?

A few snow wolves realized the situation was hopeless and turned to flee. With someone taking the lead, the others finally began retreating.

At a time like this, letting a pack of snow wolves that had already lost its fighting spirit escape would not be Jiang Hao's style.

"Chubby, Ruxue, take care of Qianxun and Song Jie for now. Qingliu, you have the fewest points. We'll help you kill these snow wolves. Rack up as many as you can."

Points were awarded for landing the final blow. All they needed was for Chen Xiaolin to help trap the snow wolves, then let her finish them off.

Yang Qingliu did not decline this time. She had too few points. Even if they reached the Wuji Peak Summit and won the team competition, she would not make the top twenty. Without a top-twenty finish, there would be no military rank reward.

For the entire night, the Frozen Canyon was a pot of boiling chaos. Jiang Hao was practically out of his mind. Nearly suffering another team wipe had sent his rage soaring. To root out any future trouble, he led Chen Xiaolin and Yang Qingliu on a bloody sweep through more than half the canyon all night long, until they had killed every snow wolf that had surrounded them. Of course, they also encountered plenty of startled snow rabbits along the way and dealt with those as well.

The battle continued until the first light of dawn appeared. Yang Qingliu gained a full seventy-eight points. Added to the twenty points she had earned in the preliminary round, she had nearly a hundred, but that was still not enough to put her in the top twenty.

After all, Jiang Hao had rented out his Hand-Cast Net to rake in money earlier, directly raising the competition's difficulty to an absurd level. Many contestants had caught large numbers of snow spirit fish using his Hand-Cast Net. Without over a hundred points, you could not even make the top hundred on the leaderboard.

The three dragged their exhausted bodies back to camp.

Wen Ruxue had already cleaned up the previously chaotic campsite, and Gongsun Qianxun and Song Jie had awakened as well.

Yang Qingliu took out seventy-eight beast crystals from snow wolves and snow rabbits and handed them to Jiang Hao. Most were only middle- or low-grade beast crystals. The stronger the beast, the better the quality of its beast crystal.

Whenever they hunted together, the spoils were distributed by him as captain. Each person's reward matched their contribution; that was the squad's rule.

Aside from these seventy-eight beast crystals, what everyone looked forward to most was the Snow Wolf King. One rare beast crystal and a valuable Snow Wolf King hide were their greatest haul.

Jiang Hao still took the lion's share. There was no helping it-he was the one capable of killing a Mountain Moving Realm demonic beast. If luck had played a part in his previous kill of the Fog Capital Divine Eagle, this time his victory over the Snow Wolf King was solid proof of his strength.

This time, even Song Jie, who had resisted him the most, was thoroughly convinced. It also made him recognize the gap between himself and Jiang Hao. He could not withstand even one strike from the Snow Wolf King, while Jiang Hao could kill it. That was a fact.

Since the competition began, his gains under Jiang Hao's leadership had far exceeded those of the other contestants. If they won the competition as well, he would have made a name for himself.

As for Jiang Hao, he had taken the lion's share of two rare beast crystals, earned over five thousand Low-Grade Beast Crystals by renting out the Hand-Cast Net, obtained a Water Python Hide, and doubled his points by killing demonic beasts far stronger than himself. Most importantly, Big Hen's strength had increased dramatically. Strength was the greatest wealth; no amount of rewards could compare to an improvement in his Beast Pet's strength.

Chubby could not stop complaining. "Didn't they say they'd already cleared out most of the powerful demonic beasts? Why did we run into two Mountain Moving Realm demonic beasts in a row?"

"Shut up," Gongsun Qianxun said. "You said it yourself: most of them. Besides, that was before the competition. So much time has passed that it's normal for these demonic beasts to have come back, isn't it? Instead of complaining here, you'd be better off thinking about how to strengthen your Beast Pet. If Jiang Hao hadn't turned danger into safety twice, we'd have been eliminated long ago."

After speaking, she looked at Jiang Hao curiously. "Jiang Hao, I used to think I had a fifty-fifty chance against you. After these two experiences, I've realized your Big Hen really keeps her abilities hidden! Tell us the truth. What breed is she, exactly? Is she really a mutated phoenix, or some descendant with phoenix blood?"

In front of the live broadcast screen in the studio.

The viewers listened intently, eager to hear Jiang Hao personally reveal the truth.

The battle last night had been so fierce that these people could not bear to leave the studio. They wanted to see whether Jiang Hao's squad could turn danger into safety as they had last time. Only thrilling battle scenes like these could truly catch the viewers' eyes.

The moment Jiang Hao killed the Snow Wolf King, the vast majority of the viewers felt happy for him, though a few ill-intentioned people secretly muttered curses at him.

Jiang Hao gazed up at the sky at a forty-five-degree angle. The morning glow lit up the snow-white world, draped in silver. A beautiful day began with proving himself.

"I'll only tell you guys the truth, so don't spread it around. My Beast Pet is called the Ice Crystal Phoenix. She's a descendant of the ancient divine phoenix clan."

"Brother Hao," Chubby said, "didn't you admit before that your Beast Pet was Big Hen?"

Jiang Hao glared at Chubby. "Nonsense! When did I ever admit that? Besides, have you ever seen a chicken that can fly? Have you ever seen a chicken use skills? Have you ever seen a chicken defeat evil demonic beasts?"

"All right, a phoenix it is," Chubby said. "Why get so worked up about it?"

"I'll emphasize this one more time," Jiang Hao said. "She's an Ice Crystal Phoenix, a mutated phoenix. If you don't know anything, stop spouting bullshit!"

Gongsun Qianxun pursed her lips. "Enough. Hurry up and pack. We need to take more food with us to the Wuji Peak Summit. I don't want to go hungry for another three or four days."

After killing so many snow wolves and snow rabbits in one night, they had more food than they could eat. In the end, everyone decided to turn the meat into smoked meat and carry as much as possible, so long as it could sustain them until they climbed to the Wuji Peak Summit.

Three days later.

The squad was fully packed and ready to depart. Not long after they left, contestants began arriving at the Frozen Canyon one after another. These people all shared one trait: they were as thin as starving refugees, nothing but skin and bones.

They wandered around the Frozen Canyon for more than half a day without seeing so much as a strand of snow rabbit fur.

"Didn't they say the Frozen Canyon was teeming with snow rabbits and snow wolves? Why haven't I seen anything?"

"Forget the snow wolves, but they could've at least left us a few snow rabbits! What bastard swept through the entire canyon? Look, isn't this blood? Here-there's rabbit fur here too. Fuck, someone really did beat us here!"

"Damn it! If I find out who did this, I'll skin him alive!"

"It's over. Without food, I can only withdraw. What a rotten bastard!"

"We're screwed. Withdraw. Everyone should just withdraw! What's the fucking point of competing when we're about to starve to death?"

Jiang Hao still had no idea that sweeping through more than half the canyon to vent his anger had once again forced numerous contestants to withdraw helplessly.

The viewers burst out laughing at the sight of these contestants cursing Jiang Hao. People were just like that: seeing someone worse off than themselves, suffering more than they did, was one of life's great pleasures.

They were the classic sort who delighted in others' misfortune and could not stand seeing anyone do well.

Yang Pucai was one of them. After today, his son Yang Di would leave school and enlist.

With the fighting in the City of Eternity growing desperate, the Shenzhou Kingdom had begun its first nationwide recruitment drive. Beast Tamers who met the enlistment requirements were immediately sent to the front lines to fight.