Chapter 1296: Reel In a Ruthless Haul! (Asking for Monthly Ticket, Two-in-One)

"Done."

Water currents parted, and Liang Qu vanished and reappeared, his figure emerging from the scattering silver bubbles with such speed that the Jiao people hadn't even finished handing over the goods.

"What did you get? And it's packed in treasure wood too, that's not cheap." Long Eying glanced at the two treasure chests that had appeared under Liang Qu's arms.

Liang Qu knocked on the wooden box: "Two portions of inferior-grade Creation Great Medicine. There should be more treasures coming later, though I'm not too sure what they'll be."

Long Eying froze for a moment, stringing her thoughts together: "Given by the Skate King."

"Smart! He said it was an apology, telling me not to hold a grudge because of the Sea Fangzhu's removal. He claimed he had no choice either. One portion for Bai Yuan, one for me."

Long Eying was baffled: "Since it's an apology, why is there more coming? Apologize twice?"

"Heh—who do you take me for?" Liang Qu grinned, extending his index finger to tap his temple. "Wisdom, the power of wisdom."

Long Eying rolled her eyes.

Anyone could figure it out with their toes — it was definitely the trap he'd set for the fish just now. In matters like this, Liang Qu possessed a talent that left everyone in the dust, and he easily gave people a sense of security, as if no matter the predicament, as long as he knocked on his own head, he could always come up with a solution.

She looked around, then stepped forward to block the treasure chests.

"You took them, so why didn't you put them in your Qiankun Bag?"

"No need, it was intentional." Liang Qu lightly patted Eying's lower back, then patted the wooden box. "The Skate King did this sneakily. Two portions of Creation Great Medicine, and he actually sent two yaoguai to deliver them, not afraid of them being robbed halfway.

That guy definitely wants both face and substance, giving it secretly behind someone's back — don't know if it's hidden from the Jiao King or the Whale Emperor, or someone else. In short, it can't see the light of day, he didn't dare make a big show of it. I'll leave some traces; they might come in handy later, as a backup plan."

"

"

"What is it what is it?" The Third Prince rushed over in a flurry, whooshing over to coil around Liang Qu's arm, spreading his dragon claws to hug him, eyes wide. "Big Bro, did you find something good? Just looking at this box, it's extraordinary. Worthy of my Big Bro! Wherever you go, you have eyes for finding treasure. You're really, really, really amazing!"

"No kindness without ulterior motive." Liang Qu gave him a sidelong glance. "What, lost in a thicket of flowers, bought too much stuff, short on pocket money?"

"No way—" The Third Prince coiled around Liang Qu's arm, rolling vigorously, rubbing his head against him. "Morning attendance, evening service at your side, Big Bro."

Liang Qu remained unmoved, continuing to count the bolts of Long Lingxiao on his own. "Pocket money has a fixed monthly allowance. When you're short on cash, don't you always go to Eying and my mother? What did you come to me for today?"

"I said it's not about money, Big Bro. You always look at me like this, it makes me so sad."

Long Eying thought for a moment: "The sea merchants don't take silver. The silver I and my foster mother gave can't be used. All the treasure fish are in Tatu's Qiankun Bag, and Tatu only listens to you, not me."

"So it's not a money problem, it's a fish problem?"

"Hehehe."

Liang Qu laughed loudly, flicking a finger against a dragon horn. "Go get them. Ten mid-grade treasure fish for you."

"Mmph." The Third Prince covered his head, seeing no one was watching, secretly delighted, and manifested his dragon horn again. "For real?"

"Late and there won't be any. Ten, nine—"

"Love you Big Bro, love you Eying Jie, love you Foster Mother, love you love you love you." The little Shenlong flew off, dragon claws forming a heart. "Wuhu!"

Long Eying asked: "What trap did you set for the Skate King?"

"Set a trap? What trap? You look at me like that? Am I that kind of person?"

"Mhm."

"Eying, you always look at me like this, it makes me sad."

"Every single water beast learned from you, learned to be bad."

"How can you slander an innocent person out of thin air? Also, Eying, you've changed. Before, when I said I was sad, you'd always comfort me."

"Want a hug in Jiejie's arms?"

"Tsk tsk tsk." Madam Xu shook her head as she passed by.

Long Eying's face flushed red.

"Hey, go back and hug, go back and hug. Really didn't set any big trap. Just had the Skate King move around a bit, operate a bit, let it feel like it profited, and incidentally achieve my goal. Win-win. You'll know at the morning audience tomorrow."

Long Eying's face flushed as she opened her mouth, then suddenly closed it and fell silent. Liang Qu's mind stirred, and he turned his head away.

Han Su swam forward: "Your Highness."

"What is it?"

"The Long Lingxiao is all here. I wonder—"

"The quantity is fine. Trouble you to move all the cloth onto the ship. It's right on the dock, just my one ship, shouldn't be hard to recognize."

"Not hard, not hard. Southern Zhili, Southern Zhili." Han Su beamed with joy.

Jiao people often make Jiao silk and Dragon silk, because ordinary scales shed naturally every year, and Jiao people also need clothes. But Long Lingxiao is rare, because the special colored scales on the lower abdomen grow slowly, production is complex, costs are high, mostly only enjoyed by nobles within the clans. Due to cultural and historical reasons, they're also not very willing to sell to humans.

This much Long Lingxiao right now was actually prepared earlier during the honeymoon period of trade with Great Shun, when Hai Fangzhu persuaded the major tribes to prepare it. Later the situation became turbulent, and it stayed backlogged. Never expected to find a chance to sell it all in one go.

The Jiao people interrupted, and Long Eying didn't pursue the question further.

The entire first afternoon at Cloud Heaven Palace, Liang Qu led his family and friends to experience the East Sea's fengshui fish sentiment, casting once to catch a thousand fish, while he himself, led by the Jiao Han Su, went around touching things everywhere, accumulating Water Marsh Essence.

Treasure Coral, Jiao Tears, Great Treasure Pearls—

When returning to Cloud Heaven Palace for the banquet.

Madam Xu, Eying, and the other female relatives picked out their favorite Jiao Tears, various pearls and jewels; Wen Wen Shi Yun showed off a little colorful butterfly fish that could do somersaults to her classmates; Xu Zishuai held a few volumes of fragmented martial arts—

Except for the old toad with his two webbed feet empty, frog eyes darting around, looking like he bought nothing, everyone else returned fully loaded, big bags and small bags. Lu Gang even pulled back several carts of ore, and was still continuing his big purchasing spree. Liang Qu had already spent treasure fish and treasure plants worth nearly 14 million silver, the bulk of which was those 100-plus bolts of Long Lingxiao. Fortunately, they were all valuable assets, easy to liquidate and generate hard silver, so they wouldn't affect territory development. And his white-gained results from touching things left and right were equally astonishing.

【Water Marsh Essence: 7,580,000】!

Treasure Coral, 300,000-plus; 100-plus Jiao Tears, 300,000; remaining various other organic jewelry just under 100,000. Altogether touched out 750,000 essence, and after the banquet, it rose another 100,000.

【Water Marsh Essence: 7,680,000】!

These several hundred thousand, enough for a water beast to evolve once.

Sometimes Liang Qu truly envied water beasts — eat and drink, wait for him to earn essence.

But this little one million, was just the appetizer for coming to the East Sea.

The Whale Emperor insisted he come to the East Sea, so he'd have to reel in a ruthless haul!

Candlelight flickered dimly.

Liang Qu finished reading the compiled opinion booklet Long Eying had organized, pinching its thickness between his index finger and thumb.

"Still a bit thin; rushing the timeline does carry risk after all."

This booklet was a collection of inspirations he had squeezed his brain dry to produce, rushing against time; it wasn't that it was unusable — by and large it held up — but it wasn't quite perfect, and would make him look either incapable or like he didn't attach special importance to it, showing a lack of respect.

The former was still acceptable; the latter did not match the reaction a Fledgling Dragon should have to earn a Crucible's esteem — it counted as a minor flaw.

Normally one should be rushing to lick boots, pulling out all the stops; where would there be such cold indifference?

"Then what do we do?" Long Eying was anxious; she had already done her best to expand the content. "I don't have a brain that works as well as yours; why don't we get Senior Brother Xu and the others to brainstorm together now? There are still a few hours left; I'll work hard to expand it ————"

"That would be too hard on you, and mobilizing a crowd like that — if Cloud Whale sees it, wouldn't that just reveal we're cramming at the last minute?" Liang Qu pondered for a long while, saw the stacked documents on the desk, and his eyes lit up. "Got it — bring another booklet over."

Long Eying handed over a blank booklet.

A so-called booklet was actually a rectangular document similar to a memorial; two hard covers, held in one hand, inside a single sheet of white paper folded up — cheap ones coarse, expensive ones fine, even fireproof and waterproof; whatever page you wanted you could flip to the top, extremely convenient.

*Snap! *

Liang Qu stacked the two booklets together, overjoyed.

"Good, now it's not thin anymore — content doubled!"

Long Eying: "?"

The next day.

He climbed out of bed, put on the Grand Shun King's robes, wore the Grand Shun King's seal; Liang Qu in full formal attire, led by Yun Bo, passed through thin clouds and walked toward the grand hall.

He looked back at the little path they had come by.

Mist swirled, the winding path led to seclusion; one after another, Demon Kings swam out from the water, coming to queue for audience — noticing Liang Qu's gaze, some nodded, some ignored him.

"Cloud Heaven Palace doesn't resemble an imperial palace; it's more like a temple. This road of ours is just like the little path between a hanging temple and its halls."

"Our Emperor often roams the clouds and has no great volume of affairs — unlike the Dragon Lord in the Jianghuai, commanding myriads of water clans. Human temples are more quiet and secluded, so naturally it leans toward a temple style."

"I see — it has atmosphere ————"

"Your Highness need not queue; please enter." Yun Bo stepped aside.

Liang Qu raised his head to look at the towering great gates.

Immortal islands on clouds, dragon palaces, imperial capitals — adding today's Whale Emperor's Cloud Heaven Palace; he had eaten and seen enough, wasn't that surprised. Before all the demons' eyes he strode in; Yun Bo followed behind.

However ————

His footsteps froze mid-air, pupils dilated. Liang Qu tilted his head back slightly, scanned a circle, swallowed saliva, forcibly suppressing the urge to turn around, go out, and look all over again.

Back in the Jianghuai days, he had once seen the Whale Emperor's peerless colossal body, stretching who knew how many hundreds of li, so huge it challenged human cognition. He had assumed that inside the palace it would be a small avatar of the Whale Emperor — but the result was ————

A sea of clouds!

A boundless, endless sea of clouds!

As if there were no roof; stepping into the grand hall, the sky had no sun, yet it was truly like a clear day's deep blue; white clouds vast and mighty, covering heaven and blotting out the sun. Clearly no aura leaked out, yet visually alone it was enough to give a person intense oppressive pressure.

Beneath the cloud layers, the Skate King and the Twenty Jiaoren King were performing the annual offerings; behind them more Demon Kings and Greater Demons queued to worship — the scale of the worship was truly grand. And in this worship-offering queue, only Liang Qu was here to negotiate, and also invited to reside in Cloud Heaven Palace — truly eye-catching; several snake demons were even grinding their teeth in envy.

Liang Qu stared dumbfounded.

No, how did this fit inside? The whole Cloud Heaven Palace isn't even this big, right?

Small outside, big inside?

Yun Bo noticed Liang Qu's odd expression, a trace of pride: "Prince of Huai need not be surprised; don't humans also have strange stones used to open up space? Cloud Heaven Palace's interior is the same principle — except Our Emperor uses no strange stones, does not sever heaven and earth, but relies solely on his own magnificent power to achieve it."

"I see — lost composure, lost composure." Digesting and accepting reality, Liang Qu collected his bearing, took a deep breath, faced the imperial throne, and bowed respectfully: "Shun — Huai King Liang Qu, requests audience with the Whale Emperor!"

"I recall our first meeting, you were still in the Master realm; unexpected that in a flick of time you have already ascended to the Wu Sheng position. Time flies like lightning, yet your talent and capacity stretch so far — worthy of sighs and envy." White clouds drooped down, settling on the hall's long bench, transforming into a white cloud giant, vertical stripes on its body.

Seeing this, all Greater Demons and Demon Kings simultaneously halted their movements and bowed respectfully.

"Before the Whale Emperor, I dare not speak of talent and capacity. Entering Zhen Xiang three hundred, Fledgling Dragon eight hundred; a thousand years later, all become smoke and clouds. Between heaven and earth, only sun and moon and immortals endure eternally."

"Haha." The cloud giant laughed loudly. "Watching the Huangzhou Grand Hunt back then, the idea lingered unfulfilled, so I copied it and held the East Sea Grand Hunt. Originally wanted the Huai King to contribute more ideas; didn't expect nearly two years with no reply either — so I had to invite you here."

"Immortals endure eternally, undisturbed by mundane affairs, roaming between heaven and earth. We ordinary mortals, for a few scraps of silver, run east and west. But whatever the Whale Emperor entrusts, I never dare forget; in occasional leisure I take up brush and record it."

"May I have a look?"

"Naturally no problem." Liang Qu pulled out the corner of the two booklets from his sleeve; without waiting for Yun Bo beside him to take them, he bowed again: "Merely, commoners contend for days, physicians contend for moments, sages contend for breaths. I dare not waste an immortal's time.

Before flipping through, I have one question: regarding the East Sea Grand Hunt the Whale Emperor is organizing, is the emphasis on competitiveness, or on entertainment?"

"Oh." The Whale Emperor was curious. "What do you mean by competitiveness? What do you mean by entertainment?"

Liang Qu tucked the two booklets back, cupped hands and answered: "Competitiveness means establishing a set of precise, repeatable measuring standards. Its primary — even sole — purpose is comparison! Using extremely professional methods to select experts in a certain talent — just like a martial arts arena challenge: literature has no first, martial arts has no second; it distinguishes high and low, decides life and death.

If the focus is just first and second place and the rest of the contestants don't matter, then run a pairwise elimination in groups. If it's for more efficient, more precise ranking, then run multi-round, multi-stage point-based tournaments. Advantages: high intensity, simple, fast, strong professionalism.

Disadvantages are the same: because the participation threshold and psychological pressure are extremely high, the process can be monotonous and cruel, and long. It may shrink the audience — whether participants or spectators.

Many low-stage Martial Saints — for example, me — because of age and low realm, purely from strength, simply cannot reach the top thirty. Or they fear competing, worry about injury, weigh costs, and out of regard for the Whale Emperor's face, don't just go on stage and admit defeat directly — but fighting a perfunctory match, grabbing a few Sea Cores and leaving isn't impossible either."

As these words fell, many Greater Demons and Demon Kings nodded repeatedly, resonating.

Able men emerge in the world; pairwise duels expose trump cards, let people beat each half to death — somewhat humiliating.

The Whale Emperor shook his head: "Same old boring competitions; uninteresting. I've seen Grand Shun's martial examinations — extraordinary importance, but fun far inferior to the Huangzhou Grand Hunt."

"Then what the Whale Emperor seeks must be entertainment."

Liang Qu rested his index finger on the booklet's corner, tilted and pressed out the two booklets, then right before everyone's eyes gently let go, put one back, took only one copy, held it up with both hands, and presented it respectfully.

Yun Bo received it and passed it on to the Whale Emperor.

A booklet not even fingertip-sized — the body-size gap was somewhat comical, but it didn't hinder reading. The Whale Emperor controlled it to float suspended, reading seriously.

The grand hall was excessively vast, like a boundless grassland, so that even though it was empty, no echo lingered.

"So-called entertainment means reducing competitive intensity, using rules and systems to increase the event's contingency, unexpectedness, fluke factor — not directly using strength high or low as the judging standard. The benefits of doing so are obvious ————"

Yun Bo cut in: "Just like the Huangzhou Grand Hunt — even if strength differs somewhat, if luck is good they can still have a chance to rank at the top and get rewards?"

【119】 "Exactly! Raising the event's entertainment value can expand the participant pool to a huge degree, letting even mediocre people dare to try — doubling numbers, effortlessly. The key is avoiding direct head-on confrontation as the first objective; by selecting a third method beyond combat to judge performance and determine the winner."

"Exactly! Raising the event's entertainment value can expand the participant pool to a huge degree, letting even mediocre people dare to try — doubling numbers, effortlessly. The key is avoiding direct head-on confrontation as the first objective; by selecting a third method beyond combat to judge performance and determine the winner."

Yun Bo suddenly understood: "So the Huangzhou Great Hunt isn't about direct martial contests, but seizing flying birds, running beasts, and swimming fish? Capturing flying birds and running beasts is the third method?"

"Exactly. Because everyone has a chance to plant, everyone wants to gamble on it. The manor leans against the East Sea; as long as there's no unbearable loss, people always think they're the exception, the special one, smarter than everyone else."

"So the Huangzhou Great Hunt forbids killing?"

"Right! There's contingency in the regional rankings — the strongest person might end up fourth or fifth. But under the premise of seizing, with martial force not excluded, it won't produce a complete reversal of error, letting a galloping horse win the championship."

"Everyone has a chance to plant, everyone is willing to stake it all. All these methods created the customs in the Huangzhou and Chizhou region where commoners all participate, warriors rub their fists and wipe their palms ready for action, and the folkways are fierce."

"Vertical and horizontal alliances, betrayal, traps, ambushes, vile environments — turning the single longitudinal coordinate axis of pure strength into a multi-dimensional coordinate axis, making the parameters more numerous, the outcomes more varied. Everyone has a chance to plant, yet needn't worry about suffering massive losses to their planting."

"Regional rankings," "third method," "measuring ruler," "coordinate axes" —

One term after another made the demon beasts who came to pay homage feel novelty, yet they weren't incomprehensible.

Liang Qu originally didn't want to use these strange terms, but each additional novel term could make the demons vaguely feel awe, highlighting his "professionalism," establishing authority, and gaining more support.

The Skate King among the enshrined shifted his gaze, leaning toward the Shark King, "whispering in a measured voice": "Shark King, have you heard of the Huangzhou Great Hunt?"

"Never heard of it before. After the East Sea Great Hunt, I naturally looked into it."

"Originally thought it was nothing special. Just now after listening, I feel this Huangzhou Great Hunt indeed has two brushes — no wonder the Whale Emperor takes interest in the Great Hunt."

The Shark King nodded, but still didn't understand what the Skate King wanted to say.

"Going by this logic, Huangzhou uses seizing fish and seizing birds, so we also need to think of a way. I feel Shark Tears would work — let everyone seize Shark Tears, it can represent the East Sea, and also ————"

In the span of a single craft, the Shark King's heart also stirred, his heart involuntarily speaking the second half of the sentence.

Help the Whale Emperor!

"Shark Tears?" Liang Qu stroked his chin, pondered a moment, "Indeed not bad. But I feel, with the Huangzhou Great Hunt as a template, Treasure Fish would be even better."