Chapter 85
The square was in an uproar, which only subsided after the large screen in the square displayed the new rankings.
Xingyi Technology - Hunting Tournament Ranking 3.0:
Outside the rankings: Sun Liang (B-Rank), withdrew from the competition.
First place: Xue Ping (B-Rank), 141032 points.
Second place: Ren Yin (B-Rank), 110009 points.
Ninth place: Lü Bo (B-Rank), with 92,040 points.
10th place: Wu Jiangshui (B-Rank), 88,000 points.
The square fell silent for a moment, then burst into cheers.
"Oh my god, Sun Liang, he actually got disqualified!"
"Is the rumor true? Did that guy surnamed Sun really get knocked out with a single blow? Haha! He's so fragile! His points from the previous two days were probably just luck!"
"Where are those brainwashed fans of that son of a bitch? Why are they so quiet now? Where did they go?"
"They've already sneaked off! They're slinking away like that, tsk tsk!"
"Speaking of which hero actually took down that bastard Sun Liang? If it wasn't Yu Wei and Miao Qiao, is there some unknown master hiding in this competition?"
"Yes, I think so. Look, it's been three days, and Yu Wei and Miao Qiao are still ranked outside the top 1000. That's considered hiding their strength, right? It's just that their reputations are already high, so they've been noticed. With people like them, it's not surprising that there are also hidden, nameless masters. Perhaps the thoughts of masters are always strange."
"Ahhh, I really want to know which hidden master rid the people of this scourge!"
Meanwhile, a hidden master was eating breakfast without any appetite. The master's thoughts were not surprising; in fact, they were always very open and honest, aiming for 5 million. The master made no attempt to hide his intentions.
The expert is now questioning herself, wondering how she could have ever thought her superpower was just luck. Reality is telling her she's far from lucky!
The expert is listless.
Ye Jiang slowly arrived at the entrance of the wilderness area and walked to the bracelet collection point. The boy was squatting there, his cat-like eyes pleading. As soon as Ye Jiang came over, his eyes were glued to her. Ye Jiang didn't look at him and took her bracelet according to the procedure. After getting the bracelet, she walked directly into the wilderness area. The ignored boy slumped his shoulders, opened his mouth as if to call out to her, but swallowed his words back.
Ye Jiang arrived in the wilderness when a shadow suddenly fell upon her. The shadow was unique, like a crescent moon with a small hole in it, enveloping only her. Ye Jiang stopped and looked up. A bowl with a chipped corner hung high above her. As she looked up, the broken bowl tilted and flipped towards her, splashing as if she could hear water. Clear water poured out from the crack in the bowl, then transformed into countless transparent birds that scattered with a roar, filling the sky with transparent birds.
A bird flew timidly toward Ye Jiang, wanting to get close but not daring to approach.
Ye Jiang stared for a while, then reached out her hand. The transparent bird immediately flew over and perched on her hand, nuzzling it affectionately.
Ye Jiang turned to look behind her, and there she saw the boy Dong Zhen following her, his eyes filled with tenderness.
The bird in Ye Jiang's hand flew away, landing lightly on the boy's head. The boy's eyes were only on Ye Jiang, and he asked softly, "Sister, are you feeling a little better?"
Ye Jiang didn't speak. A clump of thatch grew silently at her feet, then spread out in patches, instantly reaching the horizon. A gust of wind came, and the soft thatch needles fell with the wind. The moment they fell, the green turned into the scorched color of autumn. Transparent birds took flight in the wind, together painting a vast and desolate scene.
"And now?" the boy asked again, for the illusion was created for only one person.
He said, "Sister, don't be angry with me."
Ye Jiang remained silent, a hint of doubt slowly creeping onto her expressionless face.
"Angry?"
Why is she angry?
Dong Zhen understood her emotions and was momentarily stunned. "Isn't my sister angry with me?"
"No."
"Then why are you ignoring me?"
Ye Jiang asked in bewilderment, "I'm going to hunt down Polluted. You can't identify Polluted levels, so should I invite you to come and observe?"
She wasn't angry, just a little annoyed, and that annoyance was directed at the competition results, not at the boy who had helped her for no reason.
Dong Zhen: "..."
He breathed a huge sigh of relief, "You scared me! I thought my sister was angry with me, and I was even thinking about whether I should sell boxed lunches to make it up to her!"
Ye Jiang: "..."
That's unnecessary.
Ye Jiang looked around at the scenery, a glint of light in her eyes. "Are you that illusionist?"
The boy's eyes crinkled into a smile, a silent agreement.
Ye Jiang's frustration vanished instantly; this was the decorator she had always dreamed of! She stared at the young man and asked, "Can your illusion magic last?"
The boy shook his head. "No."
Ye Jiang: "..."
What a waste of your time!
Dong Zhen asked her, "Is there anything I can help you with, sister?"
Ye Jiang, with a blank expression, said, "It's gone now."
The puppy Dong Zhen, hung its head and said, "Sister, I'm so useless."
Ye Jiang: "..."
"Sister, although I'm useless, I can give you a backpack and use illusion magic to make you happy anytime, anywhere, so..." Dong Zhen's eyes sparkled, "Let me continue following you!"
Ye Jiang thought it was unnecessary, but the boy rushed over, eagerly took the backpack from Ye Jiang back, adjusted it, and looked up at Ye Jiang: "Sister, when do we leave?"
Ye Jiang: "..."
Has she been stalked by some stray dog?
Ye Jiang now has a little tail following her. When she fights the Polluted, the little tail helps her cut off the Polluted ' characteristic tissues. It's so obedient that Ye Jiang got used to it and didn't want to chase it away.
Ye Jiang didn't go looking for her flying car. She had become a bit passive in the competition and didn't want to compete for efficiency anymore. She and her partner wandered around the wilderness area, stopping to look at beautiful scenery when they came across it, and staying to study interesting things when they found them. They would fight off any Polluted they found, but didn't force it if they didn't.
They came to a pond and saw a patch of wild lotus roots with lotus pods. The two of them even stopped fighting the Polluted next to them and ran to pick the lotus pods.
"Wow, these lotus seeds are delicious! They're so sweet! Sister, you should try some!"
"Um."
The two trained from competitors into lotus seedpod killers.
A superhuman arrived at the pond and saw a lone Polluted by the edge. Overjoyed, he immediately took action. The Polluted and the superhuman were of similar level, and after a fierce struggle, the superhuman successfully subdued the Polluted. Wiping his sweat, the superhuman was about to dismember the Polluted's corpse when he suddenly heard a rustling sound.
Is it dangerous?!
The superhuman turned around alertly, only to be caught off guard by... two pairs of human eyes. Two fellow humans were sitting by the pond, their bottoms resting on lotus leaves, eating lotus seeds, their eyes clearly gleaming with the light of someone watching a show.
Superpowered Person: "..."
His eye twitched. "What are you two doing here?"
Dong Zhen broke off a lotus seed, cracked it between her front teeth, and mumbled, "Don't worry about us, my sister and I are just resting."
Superpowered Person: "... Oh."
He couldn't help but glance at them.
That day, many contestants with superpowers spotted a strange pair in the wilderness. The two young people, a man and a woman, were carrying huge backpacks. They were picking wild fruits from trees, racing against birds, and most famously, they were smashing things into a pool of water. Just when passing contestants thought there was some vicious Polluted hiding in the pool, they smashed up a big fish, and the two of them carried the fish away.
"I also saw them having a picnic with grilled fish in the woods. So that's where they got the fish from!"
The contestants, emerging from the wilderness, chatted.
What are these two doing? Don't they want to play anymore?
"They probably played passively because they knew they had no chance of winning."
Does anyone know the names of these two oddballs?
"I know that female contestant; she always carries a huge bag. In fact, she was already in trouble on the first day because she brought back the entire 'Polluted'."
She became a minor celebrity among the contestants. I happened to be nearby when she received her wristband once, and I overheard a staff member verifying her name.
"Oh, I remember now, it's her! Pfft, she's so funny! What's her name?"
"I think her name is Ye Jiang."
Ye Jiang became famous once again. This time, her story spread from the contestants to ordinary citizens. Many citizens knew that there was an oddball among the contestants who had secured a place in the hot topics by being unconventional. Of course, everyone was more focused on the strong contestants and just laughed off the oddball among the contestants. It wasn't until the fourth time the results of the Hunting Tournament were updated that the citizens noticed a name that was both unfamiliar and familiar in the top ten.
Xingyi Technology - Hunting Tournament Ranking 4.0:
Not ranked: Sun Liang (B-Rank), has withdrawn from the competition.
First place: Xue Ping (B-Rank), 173032 points.
Second place: Ren Yin (B-Rank), 130006 points.
Ninth place: Lü Bo (B-Rank), 102340 points.
10th place: Ye Jiang (D-Rank), 102010 points.
As the competition has progressed, the top 100 are basically fixed, all of them being somewhat well-known contestants. The same is true for the top 10. Unless there are major changes, the rankings only fluctuate within a small range. Major changes refer to cases like Sun Liang's, or Wu Jiangshui's, who was injured and unable to compete. The former withdrew directly from the competition and was removed from the rankings, while the latter fell from third place to outside the top ten.
Ye Jiang?
This name... seems familiar.
"Ah, isn't that the contestant who was sandwiched between Yu Wei and Miao Qiao in the first ranking? She's already ranked tenth?!"
"Not only that, if it's not just a coincidence of names, then this name came from that oddball among the contestants, right? The one who compared the competition to a picnic!"
"..."
"..."
"This contestant wasn't just an eccentric oddball, but a master of eccentricity..."