Chapter 69 Broken Horn

Late at night, He Yanjia took out an amber-shaped black broken horn from the depths of his family's treasure vault.

The cut at the broken corner was as smooth as a mirror, making it look as if it had been severed by a single sword strike from a peerless divine weapon.

The broken corner is over a foot long and three inches thick, and feels quite rough in the hand.

"Splash, splash!"

He Yanjia reluctantly took out a silk cloth and wiped it, the sound almost like the sound of ocean waves.

"Qingsheng is right!"

He Yanjia held the broken corner and examined it carefully, but still couldn't see anything special about it.

Finally, he sighed. Even if it was a treasure, it was no longer meant for the He family. He carefully put the broken horn away in the jade box. At this moment, He Qingsheng walked in from outside and saw the jade box at a glance. He immediately said excitedly.

"Father, have you made up your mind?"

He Yan shook his head helplessly and said.

"Xu Yuanlang comes from the Xu family, which has reached the Foundation Establishment stage. He certainly wouldn't care about ordinary spiritual objects. Hopefully, this unknown broken horn will satisfy him."

"Dad, please don't take offense if I speak harshly."

He Yan glared at him, but he still spoke.

"The broken corner that you cherish is probably not even worthy of other people's attention."

"You brat, if you keep talking nonsense, I'll beat you to death."

"I'm telling the truth, Father. If we can win a fishing ground this time, we can earn at least a thousand spirit stones over ten years."

"Is your broken horn worth thousands of spirit stones?"

His son's words, though rough, were reasonable. He Yanjia made up his mind and slammed the jade box.

"Alright, anyway, the final match is for the late-stage Qi Refining stage. If our family can win the first two matches, we won't need him to participate, and we can keep the broken horn."

"For Qingsheng's birthday, you and Wenyi need to show your true abilities."

"Just you wait and see!"

A few days later.

On the shore of Nanshui Lake, several small boats darted back and forth like arrows. These boats were large at the top and small at the bottom, and their sails were unfurled against the wind. Some of them were so fast that their upper parts even flew out of the water.

Some small boats even come head-on, narrowly avoiding each other at the last second. Skilled individuals can even make a small boat jump over the bow of another boat.

"Okay, okay!"

The cultivators on the shore cheered incessantly. If it weren't for the several arenas set up along the lake, Xu Yuanlang would have thought it was a bustling market.

"Fellow Daoist, this is just a warm-up event. The purpose is to showcase the strength of each family. If you want to eat at the South Lake, your family's strength must be formidable."

These small boats are like our hands and feet. If our hands and feet were disabled, we would have no way of begging for food on South Lake.

This step is to weed out smaller families that lack strength, because if they don't have enough boats and the skills to operate them, even a large fishing ground won't help.

Only those who remain at the end will have a chance to enter the arena. According to the rules, if several families have their eyes on the same fishing ground, then a competition is necessary.

He Qingsheng explained the situation to Xu Yuanlang, and he felt proud to see the lively scene.

"Customs are indeed different."

Xu Yuanlang discovered that compared to those near Wuliang Mountain, the families around Nanshui Lake lacked some of the fierceness and ruthlessness.

If this were on their side, a fight would have broken out long ago. But then he realized that this was Cao's territory.

Their control is much stronger than in other places, so their style of doing things is much milder than that of families far away from the Cao family.

After the warm-up, each of the families took out a map made of animal hide. Xu Yuanlang stood on a high place, and with his sharp eyesight, he could clearly see that these animal hide maps seemed to be changing.

"Esteemed clan leaders, let's merge the map!"

The head of the Bai family, located in the core area, was named Bai Jingxiu. He appeared to be a middle-aged man. As he spoke in a stern voice, all eight families and a total of ten maps aligned simultaneously.

Xu Yuanlang could see clearly that the Bai family and the He family among the eight families each had two maps. He understood that the He family's strength was probably even greater than they had described.

A golden light flashed, and the original cuts mysteriously merged together.

The ten maps eventually merged into a single map over ten feet in size, with patterns appearing on it. Some represented schools of fish, some represented undercurrents, and some represented underground mountains.

Each of the eight families held a corner of the fish, their eyes rapidly searching for the pattern on the fish.

"I want this fishing ground!"

"Me too!"

The two families each threw fishbone darts, each engraved with their family crest, into a fishing ground.

Neither of them was surprised to see the other's actions, and their eyes flashed with murderous intent.

"Get into the ring!"

The Bai family patriarch, acting as the arbitrator, spoke with practiced ease.

"yes!"

Each map represents a fishbone dart, meaning that apart from the He family and the Bai family, other families can only choose one fishing ground at most.

Moreover, although the animal hide map shows the fish schools on the shore of South Lake, it is not entirely accurate. In the end, they still have to rely on their eyesight and experience to make the selection.

If they make a mistake or choose a substandard fishing ground, their income for the next ten years will be greatly affected.

Even worse, their entire family might disappear on the shores of South Lake.

Therefore, everyone was staring intently at the fishing grounds that flashed across the map.

"Chief Bai, why don't you hurry up and choose a fishing ground? If you're too slow, you might come back empty-handed."

He Yan looked at the Bai family patriarch and suddenly spoke with a smile.

"Isn't Chief He the same? The best fishing grounds are the last to appear. If I don't even have this much patience, how could I have been elected as the chief of the Bai family?"

"Haha, the younger generation is truly formidable."

"You are the one who is still vigorous despite your age."

The two exchanged pleasantries with smiles, but their eyes were fixed on the animal hide map, like two anglers quietly fishing, sensing the movement underwater.

Suddenly, a fish pattern representing a large fishing ground flashed by, and the two of them moved at the same time.

"Clang clang!"

The fishbone dart representing the Bai family was still vibrating at the end, but there was only one stuck in the fish farm.

All the clan leaders were stunned, then looked at the location of the other dart, where there was a large fishing ground of comparable size.

"Ah, thank you for acknowledging my prestige. I'll have to go to the more distant place instead."

He Yanjia cupped his hands in greeting to the crowd, who cursed him as an old fox who had deliberately acted as if he were competing with the Bai family patriarch for the fishing grounds, thus attracting everyone's attention. Then, when he made his move, he suddenly changed direction, catching everyone off guard.

"Haha, I knew Elder He was still going strong."

The Bai chieftain smiled, and just then, they felt the animal skin map in their hands suddenly tremble, and a pattern of a giant school of fish suddenly appeared.

"This is a top-notch fishing ground!"

Someone exclaimed in surprise. The others were about to make their move, but two of them were faster. Their two fishbone darts landed on the map almost simultaneously.