Chapter 273: King of Anglers

Chapter 273: King of Anglers

Translator: TYZ Editor: CakeHermit

Old Gao’s Three Leaves Bamboo Cart was a cheap, two-seater model. In his hands, however, it was unusually lithe.

Not a single bit of the upward thrust force generated by the high-speed spinning clover on the cart’s roof was wasted. As the body of the cart leaned forward slightly, the cart flew forward like a dragonfly skimming across a pond.

Old Gao did not gather with other people and flew toward the upper reaches of the river.

Ai Hui noticed that a Three Leaves Bamboo Cart was following behind them. The people on the cart were the unfamiliar ones from earlier, but he did not really care about them. Ever since he became the King of Anglers, there would be people following him whenever he was angling for artifact remnants. Some felt that he was lucky while others felt that he knew where all the good spots were. Hence, they thought that nothing could go wrong as long as they followed him.

Ai Hui did not really mind these people following him. After all, he did not own the river and the river was so huge. Where they wanted to go had nothing to do with him.

After a few times, however, these ‘stalkers’ realized that their profits did not increase much and so the number of people following Ai Hui decreased significantly.

This must have been the first time that these unfamiliar-looking youths had come to Peace City. The rumors about Ai Hui must have piqued their interest. Ai Hui knew their driver, Old Li, who was a well-known blabbermouth in the area. The quality of his bamboo cart was much higher than Old Gao’s, but his driving techniques were inferior.

Ai Hui withdrew his gaze after taking a glance. He was happy to see these kinds of spectators. People like them were usually potential buyers. They were willing to part with their money and would buy anything that piqued their interest.

They were getting closer to the sea discharge. The deafening roar of the sea discharge resounded through the river, masking all other sounds.

"Get ready!"

Old Gao yelled at the top of his voice.

Ai Hui remained silent. All the distracting thoughts in his head disappeared in an instant.

At this moment, the people on Old Li’s cart broke out in discussion.

"If you all want to watch people angling for artifact remnants, it’s much better to do it in Silver City. Such a small wave, it’s so boring," grumbled a youth that was around fifteen years old. As he grumbled, he rolled his eyes as well, revealing his impatience and arrogance.

"Shut up, you’re the only one who grumbles. If you don’t want to watch, then get lost," an older guy berated that youth.

The youth quickly shut his mouth. Clearly, he was afraid of this older guy.

The leader of this group was a girl. She was beautiful, graceful, and gentle-looking. Like a bright moon surrounded by a myriad of stars, she sat in the center of the group of people. She spoke gently with a smile on her face. "As compared to the elders in the family, we are of very little value. If we know of any way to help the family, then we should do it. There are so many talented individuals hidden in this world. Wouldn’t it be a good thing to serve our family?"

"I can’t see anything special about this guy," the youth continued to grumble, refusing to admit his mistake.

"Peace City is located at the lowest part of the river’s lower reaches. This is where the number of artifact remnants in the river is at its smallest. Despite this, that person is still able to obtain the nickname ‘King of Anglers’ and is known by many as an extraordinary talent. If we can hire him and bring him to Silver City, how big of a haul would he have? If we bring him to the Silver Mist Sea, how big of a haul would he have? It’s easy to obtain blood crystals, but it’s difficult to obtain artifact remnants. Tell me, did your weapons and armor drop from the sky?" The girl laughed softly, not feeling annoyed at all.

The youth was speechless. After a while, he then apologized. "All right, I was wrong."

A look of admiration appeared on everyone’s faces.

The girl continued, "In chaotic times like these, we are like a boat sailing against the current. If we don’t forge ahead, we will be driven back. If we don’t strengthen and distinguish ourselves from the rest, we will be eliminated and devoured by society. There are many reputable talents in this world, and it’s very difficult to hire them. These extraordinary individuals keep a low profile, which is actually good for us. Good preparation is the key to success. The elders are racking their brains for the family. We, as the younger generation, should do everything to the best of our ability and not slack off."

"Big Sister is right!"

A look of embarrassment appeared on everyone’s faces.

The girl chuckled when she saw everyone’s reactions. At that moment, Old Li cast a glance at them and blurted out, "I can tell that all of you are the descendants of prestigious families. However, it’s not that easy to hire Brother Wang."

Upon hearing this, a few young ones among the group became unhappy. The girl, however, did not show any sign of anger. On the contrary, she asked with curiosity, "Oh? What do you mean by that?"

Old Li remained silent.

Upon seeing Old Li’s reaction, the older guy immediately understood what was going on. He threw an elemental energy bean that was worth 500 points at Old Li and said, "You better not entertain us with some rumors you heard from other people."

While controlling the bamboo cart, Old Li turned around and caught the bean, appearing as if he had eyes in the back of his head. Following which, he chuckled. "I definitely wouldn’t dare to do that. Let’s see, everyone in this area knows about Brother Wang. Of course, today isn’t the first day that everyone knows him as the King of Anglers. Previously, there were a lot of people trying to hire him. Reportedly, betting on anglers is getting popular among the cities in the upper reaches, and a lot of people from those cities took an interest in Brother Wang’s angling skills. They were willing to pay him 200,000 elemental energy points per month, on top of which there would have been a red packet for every artifact remnant that he hauls up. Even outsiders like us were green with envy when we saw what was being offered to him."

"He rejected them?" Astonishment flashed across the girl’s eyes. For an elementalist that had merely attained elemental internalization, a month’s salary of 200,000 elemental energy points was a huge amount. Such a salary was enough to hire a veteran elementalist who had attained elemental externalization.

It was very difficult for an elementalist who had merely attained elemental internalization to draw such a salary.

There were many elemental-internalized elementalists who earned more than 10,000 points. The average starting salary for an elemental-externalized elementalist was around 80,000 points. For those elementalists who were veterans or had unique skills, they could draw a monthly salary of 200,000 points. Some powerful individuals could even draw a monthly salary of more than 500,000 points.

"He rejected them." Old Li shook his head and looked somewhat proud. "He comes here once every month and every time he has a haul. If he’s lucky, he can make around tens of thousands of points off the artifact remnants. He has a training hall and a workshop, so he doesn’t need to put himself under that kind of restriction."

"That’s true." Not only did the girl not retort to Old Li, but she also nodded her head in agreement. Then, she changed the topic and asked, "He has a training hall?"

"Yes, he opened his training hall before Peace City became so prosperous; it was actually the first training hall in the city, but he doesn't really put much effort into it. The enrollment fee is expensive, so he doesn’t have many students." Old Li sighed. "Even though he doesn’t take my cart, I’m not angry with him. There’s nothing I can do about it. After all, Old Gao has better driving skills than me. Brother Wang is a nice person. Oh? He’s going to start soon."

Old Li’s words caught everyone’s attention. They shifted their gazes in unison toward the front.

They were still skeptical of the rumors about Ai Hui.

Old Gao’s driving techniques were extremely good. He could fly the cart very low and still maintain its stability. The surging metal elemental energy in the Silver Mist River was razor-sharp. As the cart got closer to the surface of the river, the metal elemental energy’s effect on the cart would become stronger, significantly increasing the difficulty of controlling the cart.

Ai Hui was wearing very weird-looking gloves on his hands. On every one of the glove’s fingers, there was an extremely fine silver thread. The silver threads were very long and all of them were rolled up. The tip of each silver thread was split into five hooks, resembling a soft claw.

Wearing the gloves, Ai Hui began to throw down the silver threads.

Ai Hui was extremely focused as the ten silver threads entered the river. At this point in time, the height of the sea discharge was less than 100 meters.

The bamboo cart was flying extremely low, appearing to be level with the peak of the sea discharge.

On Old Li’s cart, the older boy nodded his head and said, "He’s snatching the peak. He’s rather skillful."

The peak of the sea discharge had the biggest impact and contained the most artifact remnants. However, the metal elemental energy at the peak had the highest volatility, so the difficulty of hauling artifact remnants out of it was also extremely high.

Those who dared to "snatch the peak" were usually skilled anglers.

Ai Hui was fully concentrated as the sea discharge was about to crash into him. The razor-sharp metal elemental energy was like numerous daggers whizzing in the air. The bamboo cart was almost level with the sea discharge and looked as if it would be hit.

If they were to get hit by the sea discharge, they would definitely die.

Only those whose base levels were above the Master level would survive a fall into the Silver Mist River. The razor-sharp metal elemental energy could easily shred one to pieces.

Boom!

The shiny sea discharge resembled a tidal wave of countless knives that were dazzling in the light. It brushed past the bottom of Old Gao’s bamboo cart with a distance of merely a few centimeters.

Ai Hui did not lose the slightest bit of his concentration. He was extremely confident in Old Gao’s driving skills.

Suddenly, the 10 silver threads that were connected to his gloves tightened as an enormous force passed through them. Ai Hui’s hands remained motionless.

Within the sea discharge, the hooks on the tip of each silver thread spread open and transformed into powerful claws. The ten claws were very close to each other, lining up in a row. Ai Hui slowly channeled his elemental energy into the silver threads. The spread-open hooks on the tip of every silver thread resembled the flexible tentacles of an octopus.

Suddenly, one of the tentacles made contact with an object. The silver thread the tentacle belonged to immediately shot upward with the claw tightly holding onto the object.

Following this, another silver thread made contact with an object and Ai Hui instantly reacted to it, grabbing it with the claw of that particular silver thread!

Boom!

The sea discharge whizzed past Old Gao’s cart. After waiting a while longer, Ai Hui did not haul up anything else.

After procrastinating for a while, Ai Hui flicked his wrists upward and the 10 silver threads rolled back up to him. Two artifact remnants were caught by the silver threads.

"Haha, two red packets!" Old Gao whistled.

Ai Hui took a look at the artifact remnants in his palms. Both of them were not really huge, around the size of his thumb. One was bronze-colored while the other one was black. Ai Hui shook his head and said, "The artifact remnants are getting smaller and smaller."

"It’s considered not bad that you still managed to haul up some artifact remnants," Old Gao replied. "It’s getting increasingly difficult to collect artifact remnants these days. In the past, they used to be rubbish that no one wanted, but now they have become so expensive. If this goes on, I think that all the artifact remnants in the river and the sea will be gone. Reportedly, people are throwing metal elemental ores into the Silver Mist Sea. How can that be compared to artifact remnants?"

Ai Hui carefully put down the two artifact remnants and threw two elemental energy beans toward Old Gao. The color and luster of these elemental energy beans were different from the usual ones. These beans were dazzling with a golden radiance. These were the elemental energy beans that were worth 10,000 points each.

Before the blood catastrophe, elemental energy beans were rare objects that could only be exchanged with Heaven Merit Points.

As the war progressed, the supply of elemental energy beans was completely used up. The Elders Guild spent a huge amount of manpower and resources into developing the technology to mass-produce elemental energy beans. Even though they did not manage to develop consumable elemental energy beans in the end, they did manage to develop elemental energy beans that could store energy.

This type of elemental energy bean could not replenish elemental energy simply by eating it; however, they could store elemental energy that had been refined. The elemental energy in these beans could then be transferred into one’s body through the Circulatory Cycle Revolution when he or she was training or resting.

Even though the beans could not be used directly during battles, they were still very practical. Initially, a lot of elementalists channeled their elemental energy into the beans during peacetime and then used the beans to replenish their elemental energy when they rested during battles.

Eventually, everyone began to use the beans to exchange for items. Eventually, this practice was popularized and the elemental energy beans became a form of currency in the world of elementalists.

Old Gao was grinning from ear to ear. He’d made 20,000 elemental energy points in a day, an achievement that everyone would be envious of.

"Let’s go back now."

"Alright!"

The people on Old Li’s cart were dumbstruck.

How could it be possible?

The girl was also shocked. Angling for artifact remnants was seen by many as a job that required a lot of patience. Before one could have a haul, he or she must wait for a long period of time.

Given Ai Hui’s speed… was he snatching the artifact remnants?

The girl could not help but take a look behind her. On both river banks, densely-packed anglers had not even started angling, and yet, Ai Hui had already gone home.

King of Anglers!