After Eighth Prince showed off his skill, those who followed him on stage all tried to imitate him.
However, whether it was Little Bean or the other Imperial Princes and Princesses who possessed cultivation, it was very difficult to replicate Eighth Prince's one stone, two birds technique.
There was no need to mention the Three Little Ones.
But even the Seventh Princess and Eighth Prince, who were at the seventh and eighth ranks, couldn't do it; occasionally, someone would successfully imitate it, but they would knock down one red and one black bamboo shoot-shaped wooden pillar, which resulted in no points.
To be able to precisely bypass the black bamboo shoot-shaped wooden pillar like Eighth Prince, and continuously knock down two red ones, scoring two points with one ball, was clearly not an easy feat, even for a martial artist.
Fifth Prince walked off the stage with a sigh, and came to Eighth Prince's side, asking:
"Eighth Brother, how did you make that shot?"
"Why can't I learn it?"
Fifth Prince was more cautious; he first used the first four balls to steadily secure four points for himself, and then used the last ball to attempt Eighth Prince's technique.
Although he also knocked down two bamboo shoot-shaped wooden pillars, unfortunately, they were one black and one red, which didn't earn him any points.
But four points were enough to put Fifth Prince high in the rankings.
Of course, winning the competition was completely out of the question, as Eighth Prince had achieved an absurd score of ten points with five balls.
Ten points was the maximum score for wood shooting, and there was no way to get a better score than that.
Therefore, no matter whether the final score was five points or four points, it was merely a foil for Eighth Prince.
"Since you are sincerely asking for guidance, then I shall give you some pointers."
Eighth Prince immediately put on airs, adopting the demeanor of a master.
As soon as he spoke, the Imperial Garden clearly quieted down a lot; everyone was clearly perking up their ears, wanting to eavesdrop on Eighth Prince's secret technique.
As a result, Eighth Prince beckoned to the few people around him, and they immediately gathered in a circle.
Eighth Prince mumbled a few inaudible words, then nodded, straightened up, and said:
"If you do as I say, there will definitely be no problem."
After hearing this, Ankang Princess immediately gave Eighth Prince a strange look.
"So that's how it is, is that really the principle?"
"Alas, if I had known Eighth Brother was so generous, I would have asked you before going on stage!"
Fifth Prince looked full of regret.
Seventh Princess yawned boredly.
Ankang Princess and Yuan'an Princess looked at the two brothers speechlessly.
Li Xuan silently buried his head in Ankang Princess's arms, trying hard to suppress his laughter.
"Damn it, they really are biological brothers."
Li Xuan couldn't help but inwardly complain.
Just now, Eighth Prince hadn't spoken at all; he had merely made faint rustling sounds with his mouth, pretending to be giving pointers to others.
As a result, Fifth Prince immediately understood and cooperated with Eighth Prince, putting on a convincing act.
Ankang Princess and Yuan'an Princess felt speechless at their childish behavior.
Seventh Princess, on the other hand, was sleepy and thought she hadn't heard clearly.
But she didn't care about the competition anyway; she was just there to join the fun, gather with everyone, and chat.
After the competition, she still had to rush back to catch up on sleep.
Seventh Princess had observed an unprecedented star last night and excitedly watched it all night, staying up all night like the Three Little Ones.
Seventh Princess remained excited until dawn, and only when she arrived at the Imperial Garden did she begin to feel drowsy.
"Hey, Third Brother, Fourth Brother, you're here."
Eighth Prince turned his head and found Third Prince and Fourth Prince not far behind them, greeting them with a smile.
Third Prince coughed dryly and quietly walked away, ignoring Eighth Prince.
Fourth Prince, however, joined them without batting an eyelid, asking curiously, "Seeing you always getting along so harmoniously, Fourth Brother is very pleased, so I came over to take a look."
"By the way, what were you just talking about?"
As soon as Fourth Prince said this, a snorting sound came from Ankang Princess's arms, and everyone looked over curiously.
Ankang Princess subtly pinched Li Xuan's buttock, then smiled and explained to everyone:
"My cat caught a bit of a cold last night and keeps coughing incessantly."
Ankang Princess's words really fooled the others.
"Is that how a cat coughs?"
Everyone was puzzled, but unable to tell the truth, they could only stop thinking about it.
Only Fourth Prince thought more deeply.
"How can a cat with such strong legs catch a cold?"
"Is this a flaw of such rare and exotic beasts?"
He didn't care whether Ankang Princess was telling the truth or not; he silently kept this matter in mind and immediately felt that coming over was an incredibly wise decision.
"Knowing yourself and your enemy, you will never be defeated."
"It seems I need to get along well with them in the future."
Regardless of whether they could get along well, at least they had to maintain appearances.
Only then would there be an opportunity to extract information.
Just like before, a casual remark from Ankang Princess had allowed Fourth Prince to notice some information.
But now he had more important information to extract.
"What were you just talking about?"
"You were talking so happily, let Fourth Brother hear it too."
Fourth Prince had a kind smile, as if he had a very good relationship with the younger siblings in front of him.
"Oh, it's nothing, it's just that I was..."
Eighth Prince was about to say something smugly, but was stopped by Fifth Prince at his side.
"Actually, it's nothing, just idle chat."
"Don't mind it, don't mind it."
Fifth Prince repeatedly waved his hands and gave Eighth Prince several winks.
Fourth Prince immediately straightened his face and questioned, "What? Are you treating Fourth Brother as an outsider?"
"This..."
Fifth Prince and Eighth Prince both looked troubled.
"After all, it concerns the competition, and we are in a state of mutual competition, so it's not good to say, not good to say," Fifth Prince immediately put on an appearance of wanting a fair competition.
"Hey, Fifth Brother, what you said is wrong." Fourth Prince again showed a kind smile and began to persuade, "Eighth Brother has already scored a perfect ten points, who else can beat him? Since the outcome is already decided, what are you still afraid of?"
"No, no, I was also thoughtless just now. If I teach the apprentice and starve the master, and someone else learns my unique secret technique and also scores a perfect score like me, wouldn't that be bad!"
Eighth Prince belatedly realized, a wave of fear washing over him, and he shook his head repeatedly:
"No, no, I still won't say it."
Seeing that Eighth Prince seemed unwilling to speak, Fourth Prince was a bit anxious, but he didn't show it on his face and continued to patiently persuade him:
"Oh, it's fine."
"At most, it's a tie for first place; it's not like it hasn't happened before."
"Eighth Brother, have you forgotten?"
"We even bathed together before."
Prompted by Fourth Prince, Eighth Prince also seemed to recall this matter.
As a result, Ankang Princess also got excited.
"Eighth Brother, you're confused!"
"How can you so easily teach others the unique secret technique you've studied for years?"
"And in such an important competition?"
"Our brother-sister bond is not something others can casually compare to."
Ankang Princess rarely got so emotional; seeing her reaction, Fourth Prince became even more interested in Eighth Prince's unique secret technique.
"Ankang makes sense."
"Eighth Brother, come with me."
After Fourth Prince finished speaking, he pulled Eighth Prince aside.
Ankang Princess and the others immediately looked as if they were about to stop them, but Eighth Prince waved his hand dismissively and said casually:
"Don't worry, I'll see what he wants to say."
With that, the two found a corner and started whispering.
Ankang Princess and the others were "angry" and stomped their feet.
Not long after, the two in the corner happily separated, so close that they almost called each other brothers and swore an oath on the spot.
Of course, they were already biological brothers, so they could skip that step.
When Eighth Prince returned, he grinned and secretly showed everyone two large gold ingots.
Everyone chuckled, snorting with laughter, never expecting the usually shrewd Fourth Prince to fall for such a blatant trick.
"That's not right, Fourth Prince has always been cautious, he wouldn't be so easily fooled, would he?" Yuan'an Princess immediately asked, puzzled.
"This gold isn't fake, is it?" Fifth Prince also found it hard to believe.
"I just bit it, it's real!"
Eighth Prince excitedly showed everyone the teeth marks he had just left on the gold ingot.
"I feel like Fourth Prince is much more impatient today than usual," Ankang Princess commented, looking in the direction Fourth Prince had left.
Although Fourth Prince's expressions and actions were no different from usual, Ankang Princess still keenly sensed a difference in his emotions.
"I heard that Qingshu Hall's monthly expenses were already considerable, and this reduction in monthly allowance will likely affect them the most."
"Fourth Brother helps Consort Zhang manage many affairs in Qingshu Hall, so he probably wants to find an opportunity to make up for this shortfall as soon as possible."
Eighth Prince weighed the gold ingots in his hand, explaining to everyone.
"You little rascal, were you waiting to bait Fourth Brother from the start?" Fifth Prince scolded with a laugh.
Just now they were calling each other older and younger brothers, but now they were back to calling each other Fourth Brother and Eighth Brother.
"No way!" Eighth Prince vehemently denied it, but then added with a sly smile, "Whoever gets caught, gets caught."
The competition continued, and later on, it became rare for anyone to score five points.
Everyone, spurred on by Eighth Brother, started taking risks, trying to imitate his one stone, two birds technique, but without his skill, more and more people ended up with negative or zero scores.
The difficulty of Eighth Brother's technique lay in his precise control and feel, which required a large amount of practice to form muscle memory.
Even if others could imitate this technique, it was difficult to maintain stability and achieve a perfect score of ten.
But not getting a perfect score meant being destined to lose the competition, leading to more and more players giving up later on.
As long as the first ball didn't score two points successfully, they would directly start throwing randomly, which greatly sped up the competition's progress.
Soon, it was First Prince's turn to go on stage; his turn was just before Ankang Princess.
When Fourth Prince came to talk to them earlier, First Prince was the only one of the three siblings who hadn't finished his competition.
It was very clear who Fourth Prince was spending money to buy a secret technique from Eighth Prince for.
Seeing First Prince go on stage, Yuan'an Princess immediately asked curiously:
"Eighth Brother, did you teach him the real thing just now?"
"Of course, you're not unaware of Fourth Brother's intelligence; a fake wouldn't fool him. If he found out, wouldn't he come and block my door?"
The First Prince and his two siblings had always been united; if it came to three against one, Eighth Prince would definitely get another beating.
He had been beaten for no reason before, so he naturally wouldn't suffer this loss again.
"However, although the real thing is real, it's not that real."
The technique Eighth Prince told Fourth Prince was not fake, but it was very limited.
Eighth Prince only said how to do it, but he didn't mention any technical details that needed attention.
It's like how in basketball shooting, some seemingly irrelevant body joint exertion and hand details can greatly increase shooting accuracy and stability.
These technical details, unless one is proficient in the art, one would not realize their importance.
And Eighth Prince naturally wasn't kind enough to tell Fourth Prince these details.
But when First Prince made his first shot, Eighth Prince, who had been smug, was instantly stunned.
"Thud, thud."
After two dull thuds in succession, the two red bamboo shoot-shaped wooden pillars on the stage fell in response.
First Prince successfully replicated the one stone, two birds technique, scoring two points with his opening shot.
Ankang Princess silently looked at Eighth Prince.
"Just a fluke, right?"
Eighth Prince immediately began to feel uneasy, and the two gold ingots in his hand no longer felt as good.
If he really shot himself in the foot today, it would be a huge joke.
He had just been confidently explaining his calculations to everyone, but suddenly he had a premonition that he was about to become a laughingstock.
Ankang Princess and the others were just watching the show anyway, and instead began to anticipate that scene.
"Oh, First Brother is quite pitiful; it's actually quite good to let him win once or twice."
Fifth Prince suddenly felt pity for First Prince.
But his expression, waiting to see a joke, had already betrayed him.
Eighth Prince immediately glared furiously, but then quickly turned his head to look at the stage, fearing that First Prince would fluke a few more times.
"Thud, thud."
"Thud, thud."
"Thud, thud."
"Ah--"
Eighth Prince, with a large hand clutching a gold ingot, tightly held his head, letting out a painful roar that drew everyone's attention.
First Prince actually hit eight targets in a row, scoring eight points with four balls, exactly the same as Eighth Prince before him.
The most infuriating thing was that only Eighth Prince could tell that First Prince's shots were all lucky shots, with no skill involved, but simply by some inexplicable luck, the wooden balls haphazardly knocked down the red bamboo shoot-shaped wooden pillars.
How could this not make Eighth Prince furious.
Seeing Eighth Prince's reaction, Ankang Princess and the others around him all laughed heartlessly.
After Eighth Prince scored a perfect score, they had all thought they had no hope of winning, but they didn't expect Eighth Prince to thoughtfully provide them with such entertainment.
Fourth Prince merely sneered when he saw Eighth Prince's behavior.
He knew Eighth Prince was definitely holding back, but as long as the technique was useful, he didn't mind spending money to buy it.
However, Fourth Prince also didn't expect First Prince to be so impressive today.
"Heaven help us, don't let us lose on this last ball."
Even Fourth Prince, who was usually not very superstitious, couldn't help but silently pray.
The greatest pressure on the field was still on First Prince himself.
He tightly gripped the wooden ball; this last throwing opportunity made him involuntarily hold his breath.
Those four previous shots had slowly given him a feel for it.
First Prince cleared his mind of distractions, aimed at the target, and surrendered his body to that mysterious sensation to control.
"Thud, thud."
Another two dull thuds, the second to last red bamboo shoot-shaped wooden pillar had already fallen, and the wooden ball bounced precisely to land on the last red bamboo shoot-shaped wooden pillar.
The last red bamboo shoot-shaped wooden pillar began to shake violently, and after struggling a few times, it crashed to the ground.
Also collapsed on the ground were Eighth Prince's powerless knees.
"No!!!"
Eighth Prince roared to the sky, his heart filled with unwillingness echoing throughout the Imperial Garden.
Ankang Princess and the others pointed at the exaggeratedly reacting Eighth Prince, each of them bending over with laughter.
"Hahahahahahaha..."