Arthur asked her, "How many times have you done this before?"
She replied absentmindedly as she stuffed pills and weapons from the storehouse into her space ring.
"Six, maybe seven times. I'm not sure about the seventh one because we didn't plan it. Technically it wasn't supposed to be a fishing game, but it became one later on."
Elder Battle Furnace chuckled and said, "I know the one you were referring to. It escalated to the extent that many sect leaders were alarmed. We really went wild."
Elder Storm Hawk nodded in agreement. "Technique it wasn't supposed to be a fishing game and the way it spiraled out of control also doesn't fit the definition of a game."
Elder Blood Spider also sighed and said, "I thought for sure that it would lead to a sect war. That would have been our fault. Fortunately, it didn't happen."
Arthur didn't know what they were talking about, but he said, "I see."
He too was busy stuffing space rings with everything he laid his eyes on. It was difficult work, but he still had the presence of mind to chat. This text is hosted at novelꜰire.net
He asked in confusion, "Who even came up with the idea for the fishing game?"
Elder Storm Hawk chuckled and said, "I don't know. But I know that the fishing game has an ancient origin. The fishing game is practically ancient culture of the Blood Skull sect."
"I remember the first time I participated in the fishing game. I was used as bait. My job was to act beautiful and weak to one young master of a family so that he would try to force himself on me."
Arthur asked, "Did it work?"
She glared at him and asked, "What do you mean by asking that? Do you mean that I could have failed in seducing that young master? Are you saying that I am ugly?"
Arthur meant some of what she said, not all of it. He didn't mean that she was ugly, so he hurriedly explained to her, "I meant that the young master might have been a good person or a prideful person who is unwilling to force himself on a woman, thereby making you fail."
But she didn't buy his excuse. She continued to glare at him, which made the other two elders snicker and grin to themselves.
Their reaction made Elder Storm Hawk turn her attention to them and glare at them as she asked, "What's so funny?"
Elder Battle Furnace replied meaningfully, "You know what's funny."
Elder Blood Spider also grinned and said, "Yeah. Don't make things difficult for the boy. He wasn't there, so it wasn't his fault."
Arthur didn't know what they were talking about, so he had a look of confusion on his face while they exchanged banter.
Eventually, I lost the argument with the other two. This caused her to snort in dissatisfaction.
Arthur asked her, "So what happened?"
But she was unwilling to say more, so she kept quiet.
Fortunately, there were two other people around who knew what happened, and these two people didn't care about hurting Elder Storm Hawk's feelings.
Elder Blood Spider chuckled and said, "Don't mind her. She is still sore about the whole thing even though it happened almost a hundred years ago."
Arthur looked at Elder Storm Hawk's face cautiously before he asked, "How bad could it be?"
Elder Blood Spider couldn't reply because he was busy laughing. It was Elder Battle Furnace that said, "Very bad."
When Elder Blood Spider finished laughing, he said, "Get this. The young master didn't rape her because he thought she was a boy. She was just too manly for his taste."
Arthur winced and said, "Ouch."
Elder Battle Furnace cut in and said, "But there's more. The young master didn't want her, but he knew an elder of the family who liked young feminine boys. So in order to curry favor with this elder, the young man captured her and offered her to the old elder."
Arthur's face began to cramp because he wanted to laugh, but he was forcing himself not to laugh. The effort to maintain a straight face made the muscles of his face twitch in pain and resistance.
The worst part was that he could understand why a young Elder Storm Hawk would have been mistaken as a boy because even now, as an adult, she didn't possess any obvious secondary female characteristics.
So he had good reasons to laugh, but he couldn't laugh. He just didn't dare, even though Elder Storm Hawk's face was calm as if she didn't care if he laughed or not. Only the rolling energy within her hinted otherwise.
But the other two didn't have any qualms about laughing. They bellowed without a care in the world. This made Arthur envious of them.
Elder Storm Hawk couldn't take it anymore. She said, "Enough messing around. We have work to do."
After admonishing the two of them, she turned to Arthur and said, "What matters is that I still did well as bait. In fact, I did better than expected."
Elder Battle Furnace nodded and said, "That's true. We were only aiming for a young master, but they gave us an elder. We ate well that day. It was one memorable fishing game."
What he said reminded Arthur of the situation of the Milton family. The person they were aiming for was an elder of the family, but they got more than that.
If the supreme elder hadn't shown up, she would have been able to give the excuse that the people who chased Arthur acted on their own. The best that the fishermen would have gotten was some financial benefits.
But they got more than some random elders, partly due to the secret work of publicizing Arthur's inheritance that Elder Storm Hawk and the other two have been doing these past few days.
Rumors didn't need their help to spread, but these three did a lot of work to spread the rumors and turn Arthur into a target that must not be missed. This is just another confirmation that this wasn't their first time playing the fishing game.