In the next two days, Lin Yang had not gone fishing again, but toured around the area of Lijiang with Yue’er and the others.
Yongning Dam, Yongning Hot Springs, Mudiqing, Mosuo Ancient Village, Zha Mei Temple, Zhashi Manor Ruins, Khubilghan’s Southern Expedition Ruins at Riyuehe, Zhebo Sajia Temple...
Whether it was the natural scenery or the historical sites, there were countless attractions, all incredibly beautiful.
Due to the limited time, the three of them had a quick look at each place.
On the last day, they visited Gemu Goddess Mountain near Lugu Lake, and the group also witnessed the unique beauty of Lugu Lake: "water fairy blossoms."
This name might lead to misunderstandings, suggesting some romantic locale, but in actuality, it was one of the natural beauties of Lugu Lake.
Every year from April to September, the surface of Lugu Lake would bloom with pure white flowers. These flowers were clean and elegant, with three white petals surrounding a yellow stigma.
The tiny flowers, like clusters of white clouds, floated on the water, swaying with the waves and shimmering under the sunlight. This was the famous spectacle of Lugu Lake, the "water fairy blossoms."
...
The third day.
Lugu Lake.
Today was the fourth and final competition of the Yunnan Province Travel Fishing Tournament.
After this competition, the top ten fishing teams would be decided, and each team would receive corresponding cash prizes, with the champion team directly receiving a grand cash prize of 300,000 yuan!
Actually, this prize was not exceptionally high for this tournament, given that the event had already brought in millions in tourism revenue to Yunnan.
However, Lin Yang and his peers were not there purely for the prize money, for him, the opportunity to fish in Yunnan’s four major lakes was worth far more than the 300,000 yuan prize.
From the initial 300 teams, only 15 remained.
Based on the current rankings, the teams likely to win the championship or make the top three were primarily several well-known club teams, and the Energy Girl Team, which had been consistently among the top contenders and had once been within the top three overall, was definitely one of the seed teams, with no doubt about their comprehensive strength being in the top ten or even top five of all teams.
Unfortunately, the last time at Fuxian Lake, they met an accident by catching a Large Scale Whitefish, which should have been good luck, and the three members of the Energy Girl Team, especially Xiao Ai, had indeed benefited from catching the Large Scale Whitefish, at least in terms of increasing their popularity, but their competition score suffered.
After catching the Large Scale Whitefish, they didn’t catch other fish, causing their ranking to fall to just outside the top ten after the last round.
This position allowed them to advance to today’s finals, but seizing the championship or even earning one of the top three rewards was not going to be easy.
Lin Yang’s team currently ranked eighth in total points, with a gap of just over 100 points from the first-place team.
With a bit of luck in catching several of the highest-scoring fish species, they could potentially turn the tables, as the gaps in ranking and scores were extremely close among the leading teams.
This possibility for ranking changes at any moment also made the event thrilling for the audience, watching a battle of the titans was truly exciting.
As the competition was about to start, the female host on stage was also enthusiastically introducing some details to the audience.
"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the final showdown of this Travel Fishing Tournament. Like the previous three competitions, we’re using a fish species scoring system, and the exclusive fish in this round worth 10 points is the last of the four famous fish of Yunnan Province – the Lugu Lake Split Belly Fish.
The Lugu Lake Split Belly Fish is unique to Lugu Lake, unavailable elsewhere, and due to years of protection and continuous restocking, it has a relatively substantial population now, so it can be predicted that this competition will indeed be a high-scoring one, presenting a great opportunity for teams aiming for the championship or a better ranking.
I also want to reiterate here, the first-place team in this competition will take home a cash prize of 300,000 yuan, second place..."
As the host continued to announce and explain the rules and rewards of this competition, ten minutes later, with the signal from a tournament staffer, today’s competition officially began!
The format of today’s competition was similar to the previous three, still based on different fish species for scoring, with no changes to the scoring rules.
However, there was one change in the fishing rules for this round, allowing walking fishing!
The reason for allowing walking fishing was simple: Lake Lugu was very large, and the conditions along the shore were complex and variable. If each team were assigned a fixed fishing spot, there would be a great deal of chance involved.
Teams with good spots naturally had a big advantage, while strong teams with poor spots might not catch many fish.
Furthermore, another reason was the 10-point fish species, Lugu Lake Split Belly Fish, a species that liked to wander in the rushing currents. If fishing from a fixed spot, it was possible that none of this fish would be caught.
According to the program team’s efforts beforehand, the number of Split Belly Fish in Lugu Lake should still be sufficient. If due to the fishing spots some teams couldn’t fish for this high-scoring fish, it might cause those teams to protest, deeming the competition unfair. Thus, the program team decided to allow walking fishing with the new rule.