The Maritime Affairs Office was not far from the commune monument.
Lu Guizhou pushed open the wooden door and led An Youyu inside.
Sitting behind his desk sorting newly received dossiers, Xu Jian did not even look up. "Here to register?"
"How did you know?"
"The shouting over by the commune monument could be heard across the entire float-commune."
Xu Jian turned the dossier on the desk halfway around, pressing his fingertip against the name at the top—An Youyu.
He looked up along the name, his gaze falling upon the face of the youth behind Lu Guizhou.
The more he looked, the more familiar he seemed.
Who did he look like again...
A'Man.
The youth who had mastered the 《Floating Spring Ray Register》 at age fourteen, whom the entire commune believed would become the next flag-bearer—two years ago, on his very first voyage to sea, he was swept away by an undercurrent and had not been heard from since.
An Youyu and A'Man indeed shared a seventy-percent resemblance; no wonder Ning Cang had been willing to press his thumbprint into the guarantor column.
"You're An Youyu?"
"Yes."
"And you're the one Seizing the Mast for Clown this term?"
"That's right."
Xu Jian turned the intake roster back one page.
The rescue account consisted of only a few lines: 【Over a month ago, Clown's salvage boat rescued An Youyu from the sea...】
Whomever the twenty-eight communes accepted into residency was entirely up to each commune; once a name entered the commune registry, residency took effect.
Tonight, the Maritime Affairs Office was only responsible for filing back-dated records and verifying his origins.
There were no flaws to be found in An Youyu's background. Most of Clown's ancestors were refugees rescued from the sea; taking in those in distress was an old custom passed down by this float-commune.
But seventeen years old, First-Transformation, Salamander Swim, and filing right on the day late registration closed... looking at these points alone, it almost looked as if Clown had used their old custom of taking in refugees as a pretext to recruit a strong contender for Seizing the Mast from the outer seas.
The procedures were complete and the actions did not violate any rules, so Xu Jian had no reason to withhold the nomination document.
What was more, once No Renewal Upon Expiry and Unchaining and Stone Unsealing were carried out, nearly a hundred households of Clown's residents would have to dismantle the commune and leave their home.
A weak commune still had to survive. He could mock them verbally, but he wouldn't go so far as to personally crush Clown's very last ray of hope.
The fine sand in the sandglass at the corner of the desk had nearly run out.
"Fortunately, midnight hasn't passed yet."
Xu Jian opened the narrow cabinet behind him, retrieved the resident seal and the current late-registration roster from an oiled-cloth wooden box, and set them under the lamp together.
"We'll record your strength first. Answer truthfully."
"King Path?"
"Salamander Swim."
"Transformation count?"
"First-Transformation."
"Fish-swimming force?"
"Currently One Hundred Pressure."
The tip of Xu Jian's brush froze over the initial verification column.
"How... how much?"
Lu Guizhou added on An Youyu's behalf, "One Hundred Pressure, scattered force that hasn't Formed a Current yet. I personally verified it today."
"One Hundred Pressure, scattered force that hasn't Formed a Current..."
Xu Jian repeated in a murmur.
He had originally thought that the person Clown snuck in on the final day would at least have a decent shot at Seizing the Mast, but he never expected only One Hundred Pressure.
With only twenty-eight days left until the Tide Battle, no matter how much he trained, how much could he possibly gain? Entering the battle arena with a mere One Hundred Pressure, he wouldn't even manage to kick up a splash.
His interest vanished instantly. Relaxing his shoulders, he leaned back against his chair and moved the tip of his brush down the table to the next column. "Register origin?"
"No register origin."
"Where did the Aspect-Fixing Recipe come from?"
"Wild embryo."
"Fish-swimming method?"
"Fumbled it out myself."
"Master or lineage?"
"None."
Xu Jian wrote each item down.
【Register Origin: Unrecorded】
【Fish Roe: Wild Embryo】
【Fish-Swimming Method: Unrecorded】
【Lineage: None】
Having recorded his strength, Xu Jian filled in 【New Residency】 in the status column according to this morning's residency date.
"Anyone registered for less than a year is marked as New Residency on the Tide Battle roster," Xu Jian explained as he filled out the adjacent column. "Late registration for New Residency requires an extra step: a donation."
"Why does New Residency require an extra step?" An Youyu asked.
Xu Jian pulled out the Tide Battle supplementary register from the corner of his desk, flipped to the New Residency terms, and slid it toward An Youyu.
"The rule prevents float-communes from taking in people only right when the Tide Battle arrives."
"You only registered your residence today and turned right around to apply for the Tide Battle, falling squarely under the New Residency terms. By rule, you must complete the donation before your temporary late registration can become official."
"What needs to be donated?"
"That depends on what you draw."
Xu Jian said, "There are some buy requests on the Maritime Affairs Board that have been posted for years without anyone delivering the items. The office picked twenty-eight items from them and turned each into a slip. This is called the 【New Residency Donation Pool】."
"Whatever you draw, you must gather before the specified deadline."
"And if I can't deliver it?"
"If you fail to turn it in within the time limit, you lose your eligibility for this Tide Battle."
"A donation is a donation, but the registration fee still must be paid as usual. Once the acceptance seal is stamped, there are no refunds."
Xu Jian closed the thin booklet. "You've heard all the rules clearly. Are you still registering?"
"Registering."
Lu Guizhou grandly drew an old fish-skin coin pouch from his robes and placed it on the desk along with the payment slip.
The coin pouch hit the wooden desk, the shell coins inside clinking together with a series of crisp, light sounds.
Off-white shells were ground into thin, roughly equal-sized ovals, drilled at the narrow ends, and strung together one by one with fish-tendon cord.
The edges of the few sticking out of the pouch's opening had already been polished smooth and glossy by fingers.
This pouch of shell coins had not been scraped together tonight on short notice.
Ever since the last Tide Battle ended, Clown had been putting coins away into the old commune flag chest little by little, originally intended for the next nominee.
Later, when A'Man vanished and the commune no longer had a suitable candidate, these shell coins were never used for anything else.
Xu Jian glanced at them.
"Have you thought this through?"
"His name is already carved into the commune monument. Of course we've thought it through," Lu Guizhou said.
"That's not what I'm asking."
Xu Jian flipped the payment slip over and pointed at the fixed amount on the back.
"In the last battle, among twenty-eight competitors, even the weakest was at Three Hundred Pressure. Clown relies on a single Fish Rain just to settle its Sea-Calming Rent, yet now you're willing to throw away a full registration fee just to send a One Hundred Pressure onto the platform."
"If you were adding someone to fight for a mast, I could understand. But adding a One Hundred Pressure Salamander Swim—how is that any different from paying money to hire a warm-up sparring partner for everyone else?"
Sparring partner?
Lu Guizhou laughed out of sheer annoyance, slamming his palm down onto the pouch of shell coins.
"Because I feel like it!!"
Xu Jian's lips twitched.
"Fine. The 《Seven-Masts Covenant》 doesn't state that a One Hundred Pressure cannot compete. Since you're willing to pay this fee, the Maritime Affairs Office will accept it according to the rules."
He pulled the registration fee onto his desk, picked up the resident seal, dipped it into the inkpad, and pressed it down onto the acceptance section of the nomination document.
Snap!
The red seal left its mark.
He then pushed the document toward An Youyu, his index finger pressing on the 【Self-Reported Strength】 section.
"However, let me make one thing clear first. Tonight is only an oral dictation on record. Whatever you report, I record as is, with Lu Guizhou acting as guarantor."
"Whether it's true or false will be tested tomorrow when you arrive at the Anchorage Association Office."
"They will test your fish-swimming force on the spot and accept only the measured number. No one can fake it. If it differs too much from what you reported tonight, it will be handled as a false report."
Lu Guizhou sneered. "False report? I only wish this One Hundred Pressure were a mistake on my part."
Xu Jian filled out a temporary pass, stamped it, and pushed it to An Youyu while giving instructions for tomorrow's procedures as well.
Tonight only secured his late-registration slot; tomorrow, as soon as the sea route opened, An Youyu would still have to take the pass to the Seven-Masts Anchorage Office to complete his official registration.
Outside, darkness had fallen completely, but Old Chaotou and the others were still crowded in the narrow hallway.
The moment the door to the Maritime Affairs Office opened, they swarmed over together.
"Did it go through?"
...
Rate on N.U.
