Although everyone didn't know what exactly happened, seeing the previously arrogant and smug Eighth Prince in such unbearable pain, they couldn't help but feel a sense of schadenfreude.
After the First Prince on stage received a perfect score, he silently clenched his fist, and after confirming his score was valid, he immediately ran off stage to celebrate with Fourth Brother and Sixth Princess.
"That's great, Eldest Brother!"
"It's finally our turn to win!"
Fourth Brother and Sixth Princess said happily.
The First Prince also nodded vigorously: "Thanks to the technique Fourth Brother told me."
"Haha, Eighth Brother probably regrets it so much his guts are turning green now."
The First Prince and his two siblings looked at the Eighth Prince, who was still kneeling not far away, endlessly wailing "No--", and laughed with immense joy.
Not only did the First Prince get a perfect score, but there was also such entertainment to watch; today was truly wonderful.
"Damn it!"
Some were happy, some were sad.
The Third Prince, who had only scored five points earlier, felt a surge of indignation seeing the First Prince and his two siblings so smug.
His turn was relatively early, so he only got five points.
It wasn't until the Eighth Prince appeared later that he learned about the 'killing two birds with one stone' technique.
But by that time, the Third Prince was left with nothing but to watch the show.
It was already depressing enough that his hopes of winning today's competition were dashed early on, but he never expected that after the Eighth Prince, the First Prince would also achieve a perfect score.
And even he could tell how lucky the First Prince's perfect score was.
Unlike the Eighth Prince's precise control, the First Prince's wooden ball tumbled and bounced throughout, almost knocking over black bamboo shoot-shaped wooden pillars several times and risking deductions, yet he somehow got incredibly lucky and stumbled into a perfect score.
Losing to the Eighth Prince, the Third Prince accepted.
But losing to someone like the First Prince, who relied on luck, the Third Prince was truly unwilling.
"What a foolish competition!"
The Third Prince couldn't help but curse.
"Third Brother, watch your words!" The Ninth Princess beside him quickly advised, startled.
If such words were overheard by someone with ill intentions, it could lead to trouble.
The Third Prince also realized his slip of the tongue and closed his mouth, saying no more.
However, the displeasure in his eyes was unconcealed, almost spitting fire.
After missing out on this month's competition, the Third Prince only had one more month of competition left.
He had returned to the Imperial Palace full of ambition, thinking that dealing with these pampered Imperial Princes and Princesses would be effortless.
But up until now, the Third Prince had not only failed to win any competition, but the impression he left on everyone was entirely negative.
Even today, he somewhat regretted his decision to return to the Imperial Palace and participate in the competition.
"If I hadn't come back, at least I wouldn't have made a fool of myself in public."
The Third Prince closed his eyes in pain, wishing he had died on the battlefield long ago.
That way, he could at least have a good reputation.
After laughing at the Eighth Prince for a while, Ankang Princess and the others also began to comfort him.
"Eighth Brother, at least you earned two gold ingots, so it's not too much of a loss."
"Even if it's a tie for first, you're not at too much of a disadvantage."
Ankang Princess's words, instead, stung the Eighth Prince even more.
"Can we please stop talking about the gold?"
The Eighth Prince finally stopped his wailing and silently put the two gold ingots into his embrace.
He was annoyed just looking at these two gold ingots now; it was better to be out of sight, out of mind.
But the others weren't so kind; they were still snickering and laughing at the Eighth Prince, and even the Seventh Princess had sobered up quite a bit, chuckling beside him.
Being laughed at by his companions, the Eighth Prince became even more enraged and embarrassed.
But when he saw the smug First Prince and his two siblings not far away, nodding and smiling at him, his face flushed even more.
The Eighth Prince turned to look at his companions beside him.
Currently, only Ankang Princess and the Seventh Princess had not yet gone on stage to compete.
Yuan'an Princess had gone on stage early and achieved an impressive record of negative five points, unrivaled by anyone.
The Eighth Prince looked at the Seventh Princess, who could barely keep her eyes open, and immediately turned to Ankang Princess and said:
"Ankang, come here!"
With that, the Eighth Prince leaned into Ankang Princess's ear and whispered to her.
This time, the Eighth Prince wasn't pretending to talk; he was truly imparting all of his techniques.
Li Xuan was in Ankang Princess's embrace, hearing everything clearly.
"Hmm? What is Eighth Brother trying to do?"
Another person scoring a perfect score would simply mean another person tied for first place.
Would that make Eighth Brother feel better?
Li Xuan couldn't quite guess Eighth Brother's thoughts, especially since this guy was even teaching Ankang Princess technical details he hadn't told Fourth Brother earlier.
"Spin, you must add spin."
"For beginners, adding right spin is easier. Later, you'll start by throwing from the leftmost side."
"Remember, the arc of your throw must be high!"
"Ankang, I believe you can do it!"
Seeing the Eighth Prince enthusiastically cheering her on, Ankang Princess couldn't help but feel a bit confused.
"Oh, oh."
"Got it, Eighth Brother."
Meanwhile, the Seventh Princess beside them asked with some dissatisfaction, "Eighth Brother, why are you only teaching Ankang and not me?"
The Eighth Prince impatiently waved his hand, as if shooing away flies.
"Why are you joining the fun? Finish the competition quickly and go back to sleep."
"Someone who can't even keep her eyes open wants to learn my secret technique."
The Seventh Princess immediately let out a dissatisfied snort.
But the Eighth Prince's bad attitude was understandable; when the Seventh Princess spoke just now, her eyes were closed longer than they were open.
The competition continued, and it was soon Ankang Princess's turn to go on stage.
Li Xuan was left below the stage. Yuan'an Princess took this opportunity to try and get close to Little Cat, but as soon as she approached Li Xuan, he would run. When she stopped chasing, Li Xuan would also stop moving.
Yuan'an Princess was unwilling to give up and tried every possible way to chase Li Xuan, resulting in her being led in circles by Li Xuan below the stage.
Seeing that she couldn't catch Li Xuan no matter what, Yuan'an Princess was so angry she almost cried out loud.
The Eighth Prince watched from the side, shaking his head.
"This cat is more cunning than a human; it would be a miracle if Yuan'an could catch him."
However, Yuan'an Princess didn't get discouraged. If force didn't work, she would try gentleness.
She took out a few dried fish from the small pouch at her waist and tempted Li Xuan:
"Li Xuan, look what this is?"
"I have delicious dried fish here. Do you want to eat them?"
But before Yuan'an Princess could say anything more, her hand suddenly felt light, and the dried fish in her hand instantly disappeared.
Li Xuan, not far away, was chewing on something, his mouth moving slightly.
Yuan'an Princess felt strange, thinking they had fallen to the ground, but she looked down and couldn't find them.
Confused, she reached into the pouch where she kept the dried fish, but when she pulled her hand out, it was still empty.
Yet, she had clearly felt the dried fish in the pouch just a moment ago.
Looking at Li Xuan again, he was still two or three steps away from Yuan'an Princess, crunching away endlessly.
"Huh?"
"What's going on?"
Yuan'an Princess continued to feel for the dried fish at her waist, but she couldn't find the pouch containing them.
Yuan'an Princess reached around her waist, still couldn't find it, then looked down and saw the pouch hanging right there on her waist.
"Oh my, what's wrong with me today?"
"Could it be that I'm too excited to see Li Xuan?"
Thinking this, Yuan'an Princess felt a sweet warmth in her heart.
But when she reached into the pouch, she found nothing.
Yuan'an Princess immediately untied the light pouch and tilted it into her hand, only to find that not a single dried fish was left inside, not even a crumb.
She looked up at Li Xuan in front of her and saw that his mouth was stuffed full, and the tail of a dried fish was peeking out from the corner of his mouth.
"Li Xuan, give me back my dried fish!"
Yuan'an Princess cried out in anger.
She didn't feel bad about the dried fish; she only felt bad that all her dried fish were gone, and she hadn't even touched Li Xuan once.
"This silly child."
Li Xuan chewed on the fragrant, savory, delicious dried fish, shaking his head at Yuan'an Princess's silly and obedient demeanor.
Then he resumed playing a chasing game with Yuan'an Princess, who charged at him, drawing glances from the crowd.
On stage, Ankang Princess had already begun her throw.
She followed the method the Eighth Prince taught her, adding spin while throwing the wooden ball.
"Bang, bang."
With two dull thuds, two red bamboo shoot-shaped wooden pillars fell.
And it was not hard for everyone to see that compared to the First Prince, Ankang Princess's technique was clearly much more stable, comparable to that of the Eighth Prince.
Ankang Princess was delighted; she herself hadn't expected it to go so smoothly.
Her companions below the stage were also happy for Ankang Princess and cheered her on.
"Eighth Brother, what's the point of teaching Ankang to get a perfect score?"
"At most, it'll just be three people winning."
The Fifth Prince shrugged, thinking that the Eighth Prince was merely locking the stable door after the horse had bolted.
But the Eighth Prince smiled mysteriously and said:
"That's not necessarily true."
"Ankang's talent is much better than some others, and with me as a good teacher..."
The Eighth Prince didn't finish speaking, suddenly pointing excitedly at the stage: "Look!"
"Bang, bang, bang."
Three dull thuds came from the stage. Ankang Princess's second throw actually knocked down three red bamboo shoot-shaped wooden pillars at once, directly earning her three points.
A commotion also erupted below the stage.
The Eighth Prince's 'killing two birds with one stone' earlier was already incredibly skillful, but no one expected Ankang Princess to be able to 'kill three birds with one stone'.
The Fifth Prince's eyes also widened, and he turned to the Eighth Prince and asked:
"Did you teach this too?"
"Of course!"
The Eighth Prince said without modesty.
In truth, the Eighth Prince himself couldn't consistently achieve this 'killing three birds with one stone' technique; he could only manage it once or twice when he was in good form.
However, he had shared his experience with Ankang Princess earlier, telling her to try it if she felt confident.
But even the Eighth Prince hadn't expected Ankang Princess to attempt it on her second throw.
After all, if the attempt failed, she might not get a perfect score, thus losing the possibility of tying for first place.
But judging from the current results, Ankang Princess was quite impressive.
While Li Xuan was leading Yuan'an Princess in circles below the stage, he was also paying attention to Ankang Princess on stage.
After hearing the techniques imparted by the Eighth Prince, he was not at all worried about Ankang Princess's competition results.
Ankang Princess's extraordinary physical constitution, coupled with her innate intelligence, meant mastering the Eighth Prince's techniques was a piece of cake.
The only question now was how many times Ankang Princess could achieve 'killing three birds with one stone'.
On stage, one red bamboo shoot-shaped wooden pillar after another was knocked down, and the audience below unconsciously fell silent.
Ten points!
Ankang Princess also achieved a perfect score.
Not only that, she even had one wooden ball left in her hand.
"Thirteenth Princess, four balls, ten points!"
When Zhao Feng announced Ankang Princess's final score, everyone's hearts tightened.
Previously, when Zhao Feng announced scores, he only stated the final points and never mentioned how many balls were used.
Of course, all previous contestants had used up all five opportunities; Ankang Princess was the first to still have an opportunity left.
The First Prince and his two siblings immediately felt uneasy, while the Eighth Prince smiled smugly.
"Ten points with four balls is definitely more impressive than ten points with five balls, isn't it?"
The Fifth Prince suddenly realized, only then understanding that the Eighth Prince was gambling on this possibility.
But this kid was also ruthless; if that truly was the judging standard, wouldn't he have lost his own first place?
Seeing the First Prince and his two siblings looking at him angrily, the Eighth Prince burst into laughter, completely unconcerned.
This time, the smile finally returned to his own face.
After her score was confirmed, Ankang Princess skipped off the stage.
"Ankang, you're so amazing, even stronger than Eighth Brother."
The Seventh Princess barely opened one eye, sleepily telling Ankang Princess.
"Cough, cough, what nonsense are you spouting?"
"It's all because I taught well."
The Eighth Prince was displeased when he heard this.
"Yes, yes, yes, Eighth Brother taught well," Ankang Princess said with a smile.
After all, the Eighth Prince had helped her achieve such a good score, so it was only right for Ankang Princess to give him some praise.
As soon as Ankang Princess came down, Li Xuan darted into her embrace with a whoosh.
Ankang Princess didn't even need to look; she subconsciously caught Li Xuan, holding him steadily.
Yuan'an Princess was a few steps behind, running over breathlessly, panting heavily, utterly exhausted.
"Yuan'an, where have you been?"
"Why are you so disheveled?"
Yuan'an Princess at this moment was disheveled, with messy hair and a dirty face, completely different from how she looked before Ankang Princess went on stage; she was almost unrecognizable.
Yuan'an Princess waved her hand, too out of breath to utter a single word, huffing and puffing like a large bellows.
"This silly child has such poor physical endurance; she needs to practice more," Li Xuan thought to himself.
Most of the Imperial Princes and Princesses in the palace practiced martial arts, but Yuan'an Princess was an exception.
She was the same age as Ankang Princess but had never engaged in cultivation.
One should know that Li Xiong, who was much younger than her, was already practicing an eighth-grade cultivation method.
Seeing Yuan'an Princess so exhausted, Ankang Princess helped her find a place to rest.
It was also fortunate that Yuan'an Princess had already completed her competition; otherwise, in her current state, she probably wouldn't even be able to throw a single wooden ball.
And after Ankang Princess, there were only a few contestants left.
In a short while, everyone had gone on stage and completed their competition.
Zhao Feng immediately announced the final competition results.
"In today's competition, three Imperial Princes and Princesses achieved a perfect score of ten points."
"But Thirteenth Princess used only four balls, surpassing the First Prince and Eighth Prince who used five balls."
"Therefore, today's top spot goes to Thirteenth Princess."
As soon as Zhao Feng finished speaking, someone below the stage shouted:
"I..."
Before the word "protest" could be fully shouted, Zhao Feng interjected: "The final interpretation rights of the competition belong to His Majesty. Anyone with objections may appeal to Ganlu Hall."
At this, applause instantly erupted below the stage, praising the fairness and impartiality of today's competition, and everyone cheered in unison:
"His Majesty is wise!"