Clown Float-Commune's 【Commune Hall】 was right next to the public granary, a low-slung shack pieced together from salvaged ship planks.
During the day, commune residents came here to mend nets and rest; whenever major commune affairs arose, they closed the doors and held their discussions here.
A "seat" among the Seven Seats belonged first to a float-commune, which then dispatched a representative to sit in the Anchorage Association.
If Clown could Seize a Mast, they would claim one of those seats; these elders who managed daily affairs in the Commune Hall would become the advisory team for Clown's seat.
Several elders who had not gone to the Maritime Affairs Office had already lit an oil lamp and placed seven chipped, coarse-porcelain bowls upside down on a long table, discussing Ugly Stone while waiting for news.
One elder pressed his hand against a dog-eared page of the 《Seven-Masts Covenant》: "Destroying a stone or permanently altering a Commune Stone's purpose is an irreversible act. Marine affairs like this require the joint seal of all Seven Seats—not a single one can be missing."
"In past years, people proposed unsealing Sea-Calming Stones too, but they could never gather all Seven Seats. Yet this time, it actually passed."
"They sure are united this time."
The elder beside him used a charcoal stick to write on the turned-up bottoms of the seven bowls: 【Unicorn】, 【Twin Pillars】, 【Three Peaks】, 【Fist】, 【Boot】, 【Old Man】, and 【Bamboo Hat】, then pushed all seven bowls together under the lamp light.
These seven insignias on the bowl bottoms represented the seven float-communes currently occupying the Seven Seats.
A flurry of footsteps sounded outside the door.
Lu Guizhou pushed the door open and entered, with An Youyu following behind carrying the old flag.
Old Chaotou and Old Knobby squeezed over the threshold as well, with Tie Liangzi trailing at the back, reaching behind himself to pull the door shut.
An elder near the door pushed himself halfway up against the edge of the table. "You're back! How did it go?"
"Halfway successful."
Lu Guizhou walked over to the long table and briefly recounted the outcome at the Maritime Affairs Office.
"The slot is secured for now, but we still have to go to Seven-Masts Anchorage tomorrow to draw lots. If we can't pass the New Residency donation later, it'll still be voided."
"New Residency donation?"
Lu Guizhou pulled up a wooden stool and sat down by the table. "Within expectations."
Old Chaotou squeezed up to the table and slammed a palm down onto it. "That fellow actually said we were entering the Tide Battle just to play sparring partner!"
Old Knobby added, "It really makes my blood boil."
Lu Guizhou straightened the coarse-porcelain bowl that had been jolted crooked. "We won't know what the donated materials are until we draw lots. For now, let's discuss our Tide Battle strategy."
Old Chaotou dragged a wooden chest filled with records of past Tide Battles out from under the table. When he set aside the oilcloth bundle on top, a waterlogged, collapsed floating boot—bleached pale by seawater—was revealed inside.
Everyone in the room recognized it.
Two years ago, Clown spent seven days searching along the sunken undercurrents, but in the end, only recovered this single boot belonging to A'Man.
None of the elders spoke in detail about A'Man's cultivation back then.
Yet An Youyu had long pieced those events together from the lingering echoes of old items.
After A'Man mastered the 《Floating Spring Ray Register》 at age fourteen, Lu Guizhou had arranged his cultivation and materials according to the complete fish register; by the elders' estimates at the time, A'Man would have Formed a Current by age sixteen, with a Current Base of at least Five Hundred Pressure.
With a foundation like that in past Tide Battles, he would have easily contended for the top seven; if he hadn't gone missing two years ago, it would have been his turn to take the stage this year.
Old Chaotou moved the floating boot to the corner of the table and pulled several volumes of old records out of the chest. An Youyu, carrying the old flag, leaned against the table as well.
The drooping corner of the flag happened to rest beside the boot. As he reached out to gather the fabric, the pad of his finger accidentally brushed against the boot shaft.
Splash.
The sound of rushing water burst into his ears.
This was...
The "lingering echo" inside the boot.
"A'Man!"
"Grab the rope ladder!"
Rapid panting mixed with the noise of water.
Click.
A faint metallic snap.
"Who's there?"
The sound of water faded away.
The moment the lingering echo cut off, An Youyu's shoulders and back went taut.
Old Chaotou stopped turning pages. "What's wrong?"
"It's nothing."
An Youyu did not release his grip.
He had previously served as a Patrol Scout and a water scout for the Yan Clan, using diving gear in the black waters to hook ships and bind people.
He was intimately familiar with that faint click.
That was the exact soft click made when a 【Closed-Mouth Submerged Hook】 clamped onto a boot buckle and its jaws closed.
A veteran water scout set hooks with extreme precision—the teeth locked onto the eyelet without scraping the boot surface, leaving not a single scratch behind afterward.
Could it be that what swept A'Man away wasn't just an undercurrent after all?
That cry of "Who's there?"... was shouted at the murderer!?
But A'Man hadn't even Formed a Current yet—who would target him so early?
Drawing on his years of experience as an inquisitor, An Youyu reached a tentative judgment.
The Tide Battle was held only once every three years, and competitors had to be under twenty. Any commune's promising seedling maturing in a given cycle could be calculated simply by counting their age.
If one of those communes had long earmarked A'Man as a competitor for Seizing the Mast in this cycle, striking before he Formed a Current was naturally far easier than waiting until he stood on the Mast Platform.
Would someone truly strike down a youth two years in advance just for a single mast?
An Youyu had seen far more ruthless acts than this.
The current lingering echo wasn't enough to "close the case," so he would fix that shout of "Who's there?" in his mind first, then pursue it further once he found the next clue.
An Youyu smoothed out the crease he had pinched into the boot shaft with his thumb and released his grip.
Old Chaotou spread open the old records, and several white-haired heads gathered around the table.
"Sky Ray has its way of fighting, and Salamander Swim has its way of fighting."
"Among the Eight Delicacies Paths, Salamander Swim is the best at enduring. If you can't win head-on, avoid fighting. Seizing the Mast only cares about who remains standing on the platform when the final bell rings; even One Hundred Pressure might have a shot."
An Youyu had originally intended to listen to a few sentences before heading back to cultivate, but he hadn't expected the elders to get more animated as they spoke, even bestowing a formal name on this temporary squad on the spot: "Mast-Seizing Tactical Task Force."
The tactics that followed were finalized one by one.
The core strategy boiled down to a single concept: 【Lay Low】.
To make this "laying low" strategy work, they first needed the other twenty-seven communes to view him as the absolute weakest link.
One Hundred Pressure, New Residency, scattered force not yet Formed a Current—the worse these entries looked on the competition roster, the less inclined others would be to move against him first.
During the twenty-eight-person free-for-all phase, he would avoid drawing attention, letting the seated communes and the challenger communes wear each other down first.
They discussed everything from free-for-all positioning to the timing for claiming the platform, reviewed past dirty tricks and potential temporary alliances among the twenty-seven communes, and even began debating whether to split off an "Alliance Lobbying Squad" from the "Mast-Seizing Tactical Task Force" to seek out non-Seven-Seats float-communes that genuinely wanted to challenge for a Mast Seat, creating more rivals for the current Seven Seats...
An Youyu touched the temporary pass inside his lapel several times, wanting to speak up, excuse himself, and hurry back to cultivate, but in the end, he swallowed his words.
It was rare to see them regain their spirit for Seizing the Mast—why ruin their mood?
More importantly, perhaps he shouldn't cultivate tonight anyway.
Resident officer Xu Jian had just warned that if tomorrow's re-verification differed too much from tonight's verbal record, it would be handled as a false report.
If he continued circulating his fish-swimming method tonight and his Fish Aspect happened to repair itself back to Three Hundred Pressure, not only would it contradict the verbal report, but this cover of a low profile would vanish as well.
Skipping a single night of cultivation wouldn't hurt; once his results were verified and recorded tomorrow, it would still be in time to recover.
An Youyu put aside tonight's cultivation for the moment and continued listening to the elders' tactical deductions.
Unfamiliar with the place and its people, hearing more of their experience was always beneficial.
By the latter half of the night, An Youyu let out several yawns in succession.
Yet Lu Guizhou, Old Chaotou, and Old Knobby remained gathered around the long table, still arguing back and forth, none of them willing to call it a night first.
The oil lamp was refilled twice more.
Day broke.
...
Rate on N.U.
