BXBX NOVEL Chapter 233: 230 Great Grandmaster
He could sense the stormy waves diminishing.
The hardest moment had finally passed!
With the storm gone, it was now his turn to take the upper hand!
With his immensely strong arms, he battled the icy waves time and again. Bi Fang felt like an arrow slicing through wind and waves, unstoppable by anything—the waves, the storm, hunger, even Nature itself—because he was sharp enough!
Bi Fang suddenly flung open the tent, breathing in the normal air once more, and found the piercingly cold air so sweet.
He turned to look back, seeing a vast expanse of darkness, no islands, no continents, just an endless ocean supporting their orange life raft.
The unmanned drone in the storm was no longer visible, surrounded by nothing but dark, undulating waves, but the waves were much smaller than they had been minutes before.
Victory was almost assured.
The viewers’ hearts, almost leaping from their chests, gradually began to settle. Was this intense half-hour battle with the storm finally coming to a close?
Of course not!
Bi Fang clutched his jacket and laboriously knelt on the life raft. Even though the waves had halved in size, this didn’t make the raft stable. The three-meter-high waves, coupled with Bi Fang’s excellent balance, meant that, should he dare to stand, a single wave could instantly topple him into the sea.
Opening his jacket wide with the hem facing the heavens, Bi Fang tried to collect the cold rainwater.
This was the simplest and fastest method to collect water, but it also had significant downsides. Without the shelter of the tent, Bi Fang’s body was completely exposed to the rain.
Piercingly cold beyond measure.
The rain quickly drenched him; his soaked inner layer clinging tightly to his body, defined muscles soft and graceful under his skin. Water dripped from the tips of his hair—he ran his hand through it, pushing his iron-gray hair neatly back, revealing his pale cheeks, handsome and distinguished, undeniably sexy.
Even the international audience had to acknowledge Bi Fang’s allure, with female viewers frantically taking screenshots, almost drooling—oh, or perhaps they were already drooling, only that no one knew.
It was hard to understand whether it was for Bi Fang the person or Bi Fang’s story that they watched the show.
But Bi Fang felt no joy for the cheers of the audience, he was utterly indifferent. Not a trace of happiness crossed his face; a lonely cold wind swept through, flaying the heat from his body with razor sharpness, and then his whole body shuddered as if in spasm.
The cold, extreme cold, oozed from skin to muscle, from blood to bone marrow, inch by inch gnawing at a body that seemed almost perfect.
Due to hypothermia, his body quickly showed adverse reactions. Pain gripped his lower abdomen like a venomous snake unwilling to let go; the severe agony made Bi Fang tremble even more, but he held on without letting go.
He needed water, water was necessary.
There wasn’t even a rack on the life raft. Without using his hands to prop up the jacket, it was impossible to catch the rain pouring down from the sky, but this also meant he was necessarily exposed to the rainfall.
Bi Fang had thought of other ways, such as propping up the tent, then pulling the middle down to make it funnel-shaped so that the rainwater could naturally gather, and then punching a small hole at the top for collection. However, this idea was quickly dismissed as being too unreliable.
“`
Setting up the tent to collect water would make it impossible for Bi Fang, sheltered beneath, to observe the situation closely, and with the rise and fall of the waves, most of the rainwater would inevitably be lost, not to mention the splashing spray, which becomes useless as soon as it mixes with the seawater.
No one knew how long the rain would last, and once missed, it might be another five or six days before it rained again. If Bi Fang had to rely on distillation to drink, he could endure, but his status at that time would certainly be unimaginably poor, and he could not possibly do that.
The mission goal was to survive for twenty-one days. How long could he hold on, ten days? Twenty days?
Bi Fang needed not just water, but also food. Choosing to distill water for twenty-four hours might keep him going, but what would he rely on to find food?
This was an unsolvable dilemma, choosing water or body temperature?
Comparing the two, Bi Fang finally chose to go out and collect water.
With a physique score reaching fifteen points, such a number was already quite high, and could even be considered robust, making catching a cold a rare occurrence in daily life, a gamble worth taking for Bi Fang.
The waves were becoming smaller, but the deluge of rain continued, falling on the life raft and turning into numerous droplets, like mist rising up.
Bi Fang could feel the clothes in his hands getting heavier. Of all his clothes, only his jacket was water repellent, and fortunately, it was waterproof.
Very few articles of clothing are completely waterproof, except for professional sports gear.
Although the kidnapping attack came out of the blue with no preparation, Bi Fang genuinely preferred to wear sports attire since he had to train extensively every day. He could pull out a professional piece from his wardrobe at any given moment, and having money, he naturally bought good quality goods.
He tightened the cuffs and zipped up the zipper. If all went well, such a piece of clothing might bring him over eight liters of potable freshwater, almost half a bucket of purified water!
Even at one liter a day, it would cover the drinking water needs of an adult man for over ten days, allowing him to focus all his energy on searching for food.
In order to make the most of the rainwater, Bi Fang even opened his mouth to the sky and caught rainwater with his mouth, garnering a little more use from the collected rain.
After drinking a couple of mouthfuls, Bi Fang finally got a chance to speak to the viewers, “When collecting rainwater, be very careful of the waves at sea. Once seawater gets into your container, the freshwater you’ve collected could all be for naught, so we must store up as many containers as possible.”
“In addition, you can drink your fill when it rains, but do so slowly. As I’ve said before, drinking too quickly when you’ve been dehydrated for a long time can cause vomiting.”
Just as he was talking, Bi Fang suddenly shivered, but he still persisted in speaking.
“If the rain is too heavy and floods the deck, don’t panic, because water itself is a good ballast. Even if the water has risen to the deck, you can still keep afloat.”
“Look, the water has already covered the tops of my feet, but I haven’t been dealing with it, it can even help wash the salt off the Horsetail Kelp, though with the waves constantly coming in, it might not be very effective, but it’s somewhat useful.”
The camera switched to the inside of the life raft, and viewers noticed that Bi Fang’s feet were indeed mostly submerged, with the Horsetail Kelp tied up nearby starting to drift just as it did in the sea waters initially.
[Damn, why is Old Fang shivering as he talks?]
[No shit, he must be freezing. I’m cold just looking at this rain, and the wind is fucking strong too]
[I thought things would be safe once the storm lessened, but I didn’t expect the real difficulties lay ahead]
A lot of viewers nodded in agreement with this comment. They had thought the same, but the real challenge turned out not to be the storm, but how to collect the rainwater.
“`
“`
Ah, if it were near the equator in the Pacific Ocean, it would have been cool after the rain. Not like now, where the water is like poison, causing continuous damage on contact.
Master Fang was already freezing when he first appeared, and now it’s been three days. Can he still hold on with his condition deteriorating?
Some fans expressed concern, but most people still had full confidence in Bi Fang. He had survived the storm, and things would start to get better from here.
[Hey, doesn’t anyone think Old Fang’s clothes are awesome? Such good waterproofing?]
[It’s obviously a high-end brand.]
[Not sure, but a good shell jacket costs at least several tens of thousands. It has all the necessary features, not to mention waterproof. I’ve heard some can even withstand fire…]
[Master Fang has always had good equipment, and he is a real big deal, a rich dude.]
[What to do if you’re broke]
[Envious, truly earning money through skills. Isn’t that better than those internet-famous pretty boys? Old Fang could take on ten of them!]
[Ten? That’s modest. Guys who cry over a scratch, no offence, but it’s more like a hundred.]
The direction of the conversation in the comments often strayed under the manipulation of the Shuiyou, and it wasn’t long before they started discussing what to eat for dinner.
Bi Fang, who was holding up his arms, was struggling to keep it up. He was already exhausted from struggling against the wind and waves while clinging to the life raft. Now, holding up his arms was making them go numb from fatigue.
With no other choice, Bi Fang’s arms weakened, and he placed the jacket that had been collecting water on the life raft to relieve his arm fatigue. Nevertheless, he kept a vigilant watch on the surrounding waves to prevent seawater from contaminating the freshwater, which was crucial for his survival and could not be compromised.
Finally, after nearly half an hour of collecting water, Bi Fang filled his jacket. He hurriedly tied off the bottom of the jacket with a towel. Using extra clothing to tie it off was also meant to increase the jacket’s volume. If he used the jacket’s own hem, the capacity would be much smaller.
After finishing all this, Bi Fang quickly set up the tent again, then drained all the rain and seawater from inside the raft. He dried off the remaining water with clothing, wrung it out, and then curled up inside the life raft.
“Ha!”
He placed the water bladder off to the side, and his whole body trembled. His face was pale and colorless as he continuously exhaled warm breaths, trying to warm his stiff hands.
The waves were not too high, so Bi Fang did not have to worry about capsizing without his control, but hypothermia almost brought his thinking to a halt.
[Damn, just looking at that makes me cold]
[It’s only because Master Fang has a strong physique. If it were me, I’d have frozen to death by now]
[Hey, why doesn’t Old Fang just stay in the tent and hold the jacket out to catch the water? That way, only his hands would be cold, right?]
[No way, didn’t you hear that he has to prevent the rain from getting contaminated by the waves? How can you watch for the waves if you’re in the tent? If it gets contaminated, all his efforts would be wasted. Moreover, as soon as you open the zipper, water will definitely get in.]
“That’s right.”
Seeing the comments, Bi Fang nodded with a shiver. If he collected water while the tent was set up, it would create a blind spot in his field of view, and he wouldn’t see which direction waves were coming from, risking freshwater contamination.
“`
On the other hand, while the wind had died down a bit, it was still strong. If I kept the zipper open without fully securing the tent, it could have been blown away entirely, which would have been a serious loss.
“But it was all worth it, at least for the next ten days, I won’t have to worry about fresh water.”
Bi Fang curled up in a corner, continuously rubbing his skin trying to warm up.
“The sea conditions must have reached level four by now, stronger than when I first arrived. At this point, the waves on the sea still have a clear shape, with many crests breaking up, forming whitecaps everywhere and occasionally sprinkling sea spray. So, I can’t make any big movements yet; that would still be quite dangerous.”
The audience was a bit shocked to hear this. What did he mean?
The danger hasn’t been lifted?
“No, it’s been lifted,” Bi Fang shook his head, “Danger is present, but not high. Under level four sea conditions, normal fishing boats just experience significant rocking and need to reduce sail somewhat, there’s no need to sail fully unfurled. As long as we don’t make big movements, the danger is already far away from us.”
Bi Fang then briefly introduced the classification of sea conditions.
Sea condition levels are classified by what can be visually observed at sea. Levels 1-9 are called calm, light ripple, small wave, moderate wave, large wave, huge wave, violent wave, tempestuous sea, and raging sea, respectively.
Waves higher than 20 meters are classified as stormy waves, which are rare and not an official classification.
It is generally only from level five and above that poses a significant threat to ships. The storm Bi Fang had faced earlier even reached level six, which was the most dangerous, especially for life rafts.
After hearing Bi Fang’s explanation, the audience was even more thrilled. Damn, that’s impressive, level six sea conditions where fishing boats dare not leave the harbor, and yet Old Fang got through it safely—he truly lives up to the name Master Fang!
Mulenga had to admit Bi Fang’s courage. Whether or not one deserved fame was one thing, but he certainly was no impractical scholar, after all, the camera doesn’t lie. This wasn’t make-believe hunting; it was a real storm confrontation.
The live broadcast room once again exploded with a surge of comments and gifts, most of which were bones and meatballs, accompanied by messages saying they wanted to make him soup to warm his body.
Bi Fang gladly accepted, and seeing the screen filled with gifts, he suddenly felt not so cold anymore.
Even Jerret from the program team received a message from the channel. The leadership praised Jerret’s arrangements over the phone, and the Explore Channel’s ratings had spiked to 3.2%, the highest of any program broadcast on the channel this year.
A 3.2% rating might not seem high, but compared to a decade ago when ratings of anything less than ten percent were insignificant, times have changed. Today, even just over 3% is cause for the channel leadership to treat the director like royalty, with constant attention and care, and those in lower positions hardly have a chance to participate.
Seeing this excellent performance, the leadership immediately made a call, urging Jerret to work hard to stabilize the high viewership—nowadays with the general economic downturn and fewer people watching television, seizing such an opportunity was crucial. They promised to offer a raise upon their return.
Faced with this call, naturally, the program team was ecstatic—who doesn’t love cold hard cash?
And having worked on such a program, you’d have an impressive resume for the future. No one would dare to underestimate you; you wouldn’t even have to worry about job-hopping.
In light of this situation, even Jerret couldn’t remain calm. Although he was the number one director at the Explore Channel, the television industry had been generally struggling, and he hadn’t had a hit in a long time. Having produced a show that hit 3.2% viewership, with the potential to reach even 4%, was naturally a cause for celebration.
And all of this, Jerret and Pondy were well aware, was largely thanks to Bi Fang. He was the one who brought the concept of Wilderness Survivalist to the public, making people realize.
Oh, so that’s what Wilderness Survivalist is like, and you can play it like this?
Placed in Huaxia, like a Great Grandmaster founding a school, surely worthy of respect that lasts a lifetime. Even carving a wooden statue to be worshipped, well, that might be an exaggeration. But creating a figurine to put on a desk wouldn’t seem out of place at all.