Chapter 564: Eighty!

*Snap! *

Wood chips shattered, arrow feathers vibrated sharply.

The spirit sparrow rushed out of the fallen leaves, flapping its wings to escape.

Within the vast and boundless Chishan Ridge, the disciples of each family showed their divine abilities.

Galloping on horseback, shooting willow branches with bows.

The prey had just escaped, their tracks were everywhere, and sometimes they would even panic and rush past people.

It was truly a great opportunity.

After a few hours, the spirit beasts would calm down and learn to hide, making them far less easy to catch than now, so it was necessary to seize the initiative!

"What a clever spirit deer!"

A large hand grabbed the spirit deer's neck, flicked a finger to knock it unconscious, tied it with a special rope, and fastened it to the side.

On both sides of the steed.

One bird and two deer hung upside down, swaying and colliding.

Chi Ang felt that his luck was really good; less than two quarters of an hour after the start, four live spirit creatures were in hand, totaling twelve points.

A good omen!

This year's Great Hunt had strong strength, with two other Hunting Tiger Great Martial Artists, making the competition fierce.

But even so.

At this very moment.

He should be first, right?

"Eighteen tails, well done!"

The river gurgled, washing over the reefs.

The fresh blue-backed dragon carp struggled hard, its tail fins splashing water foam.

Confirming the number was correct, Liang Qu shook the leather bag and reached into the river to wash off the fishy smell.

The first wave of fish-delivery vanguard, the fat catfish, had caught a total of eighteen blue-backed dragon carp, temporarily ranking first among all beasts!

Refreshing!

To balance the number of prey in each river, the Huo family did not choose one point to release all three hundred spirit fish.

Not just spirit fish, spirit deer and spirit sparrows were all released at ten locations with Yulan Peak as the center, using wolf smoke as a signal to open the cages and release the beasts at the same time.

Catching more than half at one pool opening was quite impressive!

However, the fat catfish was still not satisfied, raising half of its body, bulging its abdomen, and panting incessantly, as if it wanted to spit something out.

Seeing the gaze of the Heavenly God.

The fat catfish flicked its long whiskers.

"Swallowed a fish by accident?"

Liang Qu was surprised.

But he saw the fat catfish retching hard.

"Forget it, if you ate it, you ate it..."

*Plop! *

A section of pale green log washed down from the upper reaches of the small river.

Rolling a few times in the water dam, "Cannot-Move" flicked its tail, pushed out a vortex, paddled its four limbs, swam close, and opened its mouth to spit out fish.

Liang Qu's spirit was lifted.

Second wave!

*Whoosh. *

Fish fell into the bag, sparse and scattered.

Alright.

Not too surprising; for "Cannot-Move"'s mouth shape to swallow live fish, it was truly difficult. It had to open and close together, with sharp teeth; it swallowed three, leaked one, and killed one.

A total of nine.

Three dead fish, six live fish.

Seeing that the confidant enemy was so sluggish, the fat catfish immediately stopped retching, swam over, flicked its long whiskers, pointed and gestured, and circled around.

Cannot-Move glanced sideways, shook its tail, and remained calm.

Just as A-Fei was feeling proud.

The small river surged, and more than thirty river dolphins split the waves and chased the current, crowding the river channel in an instant.

The third wave of fish-catching vanguard arrived!

General Round-Head!

Liang Qu had high hopes.

The fat catfish swam two tails back, as if facing a great enemy.

Round-Head passed A-Fei, took the lead in spitting out a blue-backed large carp, weighing more than ten *jin*, and then flicked its fins.

The subordinates lined up in order, stepped forward to spit out fish, one fish per head, totaling thirty-six blue-backed dragon carp.

All alive!

Liang Qu was overjoyed.

With many dolphins, there was great strength. Round-Head led the group, squatted at two points, and was not greedy for more, one fish per head, steady and stable, without missing a single one!

The fat catfish ran silently to the corner and continued retching.

*Da, da, da. *

Eight feet crawled, piercing into the rock.

One after another!

Fist stepped on the rock, Otter-Otter-Open sat on its shoulder, and it carried two large fish baskets ashore.

"Fist, twenty-one, two dead."

Otter-Otter-Open hurriedly stood up straight, rummaged through the fish basket, dragged out the largest one inside, and repeatedly pointed its claws at itself.

Liang Qu understood.

"Fist twenty, two dead, Otter-Otter-Open one! Alright, A-Fei, stop spitting, if you ate it, you ate it, even if you spit it out, you're still third, just take it as a reward."

The fat catfish turned out its white belly in desolation, drifted with the waves, and was rolled into the rolling water dam formed by the river's height difference, rolling incessantly.

"Well done!"

A total of eighty-four blue-backed dragon carp, five dead, seventy-nine alive, earning two hundred and forty-two points!

At the beginning of the hunt, nearly one-third of the three hundred spirit fish were in the bag.

Eating them all and absorbing the essence would be nearly ten thousand!

A victory at the start!

"Replacing one-third, it's more than two hundred points."

Liang Qu tied the bag and pondered.

Water, land, and air beasts.

Spirit deer were the easiest to catch, followed by spirit sparrows. All spirit sparrows had parts of their feathers clipped by the Chi family to ensure they wouldn't fly too far or even escape Chishan Ridge, so the spirit fish fleeing along the river were the hardest to catch.

Given the pairing gameplay.

It was entirely possible to use spirit fish to exchange for other spirit beasts, and because spirit fish were hard to catch, they occupied a dominant position of supply falling short of demand.

One for two was not quite there.

But four for five, or even two for three, was not impossible.

"Continue." Liang Qu encouraged the beasts, "Whoever catches the most will be rewarded with an enlightenment after the hunt!"

The fat catfish twisted its body, swam out of the rolling water dam, and pointed at Round-Head's thirty-plus subordinates.

"Alright, Round-Head has many dolphins, let's count the fish-catching number as half."

In an instant, the two beasts were equal.

The fat catfish was overjoyed, and its fish-catching ranking rose to second place.

"However, Cannot-Move also has flaws, let's count it as double."

The fat catfish was shocked and calculated slightly.

Fist was first, Cannot-Move, Round-Head, and the fat catfish were tied for second!

The fat catfish slapped its abdomen with its fins, probed its long whiskers into its mouth, and vigorously urged retching.

As long as it spit it out, nineteen alive, it would definitely leap to first place!

The other beasts had no goods in their bellies and rushed out to catch fish against time.

The fat catfish looked at the Heavenly God, then at the backs of the few beasts, struggled for a while, and couldn't care about retching, hurriedly following.

The lively riverbank returned to calm.

The bag was tied tight, Liang Qu packed all the fish and tied them to both sides of the saddle.

More than eighty treasure fish, the weight of a thousand *jin* was nothing to Chishan, but the volume was truly expanding violently, bulging and inconvenient.

The spirit fish were handed over to the water beasts.

Liang Qu held the Abyss Wood, rode his horse and wandered, shaking out half a mile.

In the forest.

A two-zhang-high wooden house was hidden in the canopy, shadowy, with figures flashing through the windows.

A wooden house?

Liang Qu approached curiously.

"What is that wooden house for?"

On the top of Yulan Peak, Huangzhou Prefect Magistrate Xu Wanxing pointed to the wooden house at the foot of the mountain.

"Replying to the Prefect Magistrate," the steward bowed and answered, "It is a sentry post in the forest. This year's Great Hunt uses Yulan Peak as the center, with a sentry post built every three miles, guarded by three to five Four-Pass Martial Artists. If any accident occurs, they can react and arrive in time, and it makes the hunt more exciting."

"More exciting? How so?"

"Hunters encounter a small house, voluntarily register the number of hunts, and for every time the number of prey exceeds five, one point is added.

Secondly, by spending one live spirit beast, a small house can store prey once for five hours, during which others cannot snatch it.

Lastly, for every spirit beast a hunter consumes, they can also exchange for information on who is storing the spirit beast, in other words, the storer must bear the risk of ambush after the storage time."

"That's interesting."

"The Great Hunt is held every year, so there should always be some new tricks; it's not good to be unchanging."

Xu Wanxing laughed.

The Great Hunt.

A business that the Xu, Huo, and Chi families made a steady profit from every year; he could roughly guess the purpose of this move.

On one hand, the sentry posts in the forest were conducive to knowing the situation of each contestant, adjusting the odds in advance, and avoiding losses.

On the other hand, it seemed convenient, but it was actually deliberately inducing competition; the more variables, the higher the intensity, and the more it stimulated others to bet.

Sure enough.

Half an hour after the start.

On the mountain and at the foot of the mountain, two large boards were erected at the same time.

According to the ranking order on the Dragon-Tiger List, it was divided into a hundred rows and six columns, with the first column containing the names of the contestants, the next three columns being the number of spirit beasts obtained, the fifth column being the small house registration score, and the sixth column being the total score.

As time passed, sporadic prey records were added to the list, causing an uproar.

A few silver fragments were slapped down.

"Bet on number five for third!"

"Number five for third, odds one to one point two, are you sure you want to bet?"

"Wait, what the hell, I said bet on number five, Crossing-River Dragon for third!"

The young master pointed to the name of the Crossing-River Dragon.

"That's right, odds one to one point two."

"Betting on third isn't one to eight? I'm not betting on fifth!"

"You're a step late. Half a quarter of an hour ago, number five was second at one to twenty-six, and third at one to eight. Now third is one to one point two."

"Why?"

The young master was confused.

The steward pointed to the board.

A moment later.

A clerk brought a ladder and used soapstone to add a big eighty to the fifth row, fourth column.

"???" ===== CHAPTER 565 =====