Chapter 124: A Last-Ditch Struggle (Please Vote Monthly)

“Silence, all of you! Are you trying to anger the City Lord to death?” an elderly man roared.

Everyone immediately fell silent, trembling like cicadas in winter. Seeing Lord Min kneeling at the shore, his face deathly pale, a spirit sword clutched in his hand, none of them dared speak recklessly again.

“What are we supposed to do now?” a cultivator asked anxiously. “Unless we seize the Ye family’s broken ship, we have no way to leave Red Fire Island.”

“Huh? Seize a ship? Exactly! Let’s go and take Ye Village’s sea vessel!”

“Take it, my foot! Their ship hasn’t even come ashore. We have no flying spirit beasts—how are we supposed to seize it?”

“The Ye family is still on the island. They’ll certainly be boarding the ship. Hurry and chase after them! Don’t let them get aboard and escape!”

“Right! As long as we capture Lord Ye, all our troubles will be solved. We outnumber them, and our cultivation is also stronger. They’re no match for us. We still have a chance to turn things around!”

The crowd was thrown into panic, but at last someone regained his composure and thought of a possible solution.

“Right! Let’s capture that fellow Ye!”

Lord Min’s spirits lifted. He abruptly raised his head, awakening from his dejection and overwhelming remorse, and shouted excitedly, “Move!”

The cultivators of Min Village desperately ran toward Ye Mo and the others.

But to their despair, all the cultivators of Ye Village had already raced to another beach on Red Fire Mining Island.

They watched in horror as Ye Mo and the other cultivators and warriors boarded several small boats. The boats had already traveled nearly a hundred yards from shore and were swiftly heading toward the Ye Village sea vessel anchored in the distance.

Lord Min could only stare bitterly at the small boats disappearing into the distance.

Before long, the boats carrying the cultivators reached the Ye Village vessel.

Ye Mo led the cultivators aboard, and everyone erupted in an excited cheer. Their safe return to the Ye family’s sea vessel meant that they had achieved a complete victory.

This had been the first naval battle between Ye Village and Min Village, and without a single cultivator being injured, they had utterly defeated the Min family’s Immortal Village.

This battle also meant that Min Village no longer possessed the slightest capital with which to compete against Ye’s Immortal Village for the profits of the small ore vein on Red Fire Mining Island.

Chang Fei and the sailors came forward together to welcome Ye Mo and the others.

“Master, Ashui has completed her mission. The Min family’s sea vessel has been sunk.”

Ashui hurried to Ye Mo and knelt on one knee, reporting her accomplishment. Her delicate face held no trace of arrogance; as always, she remained calm.

“Excellent, Ashui. You performed beautifully. You were indispensable to this battle. I’ll record a great merit for you.”

Ye Mo laughed heartily and helped her to her feet.

In the naval battle between Ye Village and Min Village, Ashui’s fatal strike from atop the three-headed spirit eagle had been the most crucial factor.

The three young eagles also came crowding around as though seeking praise. They rubbed their heads against Ye Mo, “claiming credit” for themselves. The three little fellows had already grown quite strong, and Ye Mo was nearly knocked off his feet by them.

“All right, you deserve credit as well, and there will be a reward. Today, you’ll get an extra hundred pounds of spirit grain. Eat your fill.”

Ye Mo stroked the heads of the three young eagles and laughed.

The three little fellows could already understand human speech. Upon hearing Ye Mo’s words, they immediately began chirping excitedly and opened their beaks, demanding food.

Ye Mo had someone bring out a wooden basin filled with spirit grain. The three young eagles gathered around the basin, which held dozens of pounds of spirit beans, and happily began to eat on the deck.

“Hahaha!”

Everyone burst into laughter.

“My lord, Ashui set the Min family’s sea vessel ablaze and burned it beneath the waves. Many of the warriors and sailors aboard fled. Most of them swam back to the island, but we also captured a few prisoners. They’re locked in the cells below deck. How should we deal with them?”

Even Chang Fei’s usually composed face was flushed with excitement after such a complete victory.

“Prisoners?”

The word sounded strangely familiar to Ye Mo. He recalled the time when Feng Xiongchang had locked him in a cell, and said, “Leave them there for now. Once I’ve dealt with the Min Village cultivators on the island, we’ll handle them together.”

Ye Mo turned his head and looked toward Red Fire Mining Island, now distant. A group of Min family cultivators stood along the shore, shouting and cursing loudly.

A cold smile touched his lips.

It seemed Lord Min had no intention of surrendering yet. Let’s see how many days they can endure after being trapped on Red Fire Island.

The cultivators and warriors of Min Village trudged along one after another, their spirits crushed and their expressions dispirited.

Without a sea vessel, they could think of no other way to leave Red Fire Mining Island. They were unwilling to surrender, so they could only find a place on the island to make camp, lest they be ambushed by Ye Village’s cultivators.

Halfway there, they encountered two cultivators—the very men who had been lying in ambush aboard the Min family’s sea vessel. Behind them came the ship’s master and a group of sailors, all drenched and looking utterly wretched.

The ship’s master was soaked from head to toe. The moment he saw Lord Min, he threw himself to the ground and burst into loud sobs.

“My lord, that fellow Ye is fiendishly cunning, and his methods are vicious! He sent men riding three-headed spirit eagles to pour a whole barrel of fire oil over the sails. Then they used cotton torches to set them alight. Your subordinate and the sailors did everything we could to put out the flames, but we couldn’t stop the fire from spreading throughout the vessel.

“My lord, the Min family’s sea vessel was burned to nothing before our eyes. Some of our brothers were too late to jump into the sea while trying to fight the fire, and were burned alive. I originally intended to sink with the vessel as atonement, but remembering that I had yet to repay your great kindness, I could only continue living in shame. I failed to protect the ship. Please punish me!”

Tears streamed down the shipmaster’s face as he repeatedly struck his head against the ground. His voice was choked with sobs, each word forced through clenched teeth. The overwhelming hatred in his heart was unmistakable.

“That fellow Ye! You and I are sworn enemies!”

Lord Min felt the same hatred burning within him. The resentment he had suppressed flared up again, and he howled furiously.

The sailors in the crowd, however, secretly cursed the shipmaster in their hearts.

What a master of shifting blame. He had been the first to run, snatching a small boat and abandoning ship to save himself. No one had died because of him, but several men had been captured by Ye Village.

Still, with Lord Min consumed by rage, it was best to muddle through the matter for now. Otherwise, punishment would certainly be unavoidable.

“My lord, the most urgent matter is deciding what we should do next.”

The elderly man watched coldly from the sidelines. Only after Lord Min had vented for a while did he finally speak.

“I refuse to admit defeat like this! All of you, offer your suggestions. How can we respond?”

Lord Min’s expression was ferocious, but his mind was in chaos, and he could think of no solution.

“We haven’t truly been defeated yet. We must find a way back to Min Village, send another sea vessel here, sink Ye Village’s ship, avenge this humiliation, and seize Red Fire Mining Island.”

A cultivator spoke through clenched teeth.

“Exactly. We need to find a way back to Min Village. Our village still has another sea vessel. Once we return, we can regroup and beat the cultivators of Ye Village into complete submission!”

“Their surprise attack with spirit eagles and fire oil can only work once. Now that we’re prepared, we can assign more than a dozen water-element cultivators to protect the vessel and extinguish any flames immediately. Their scheme will never succeed again!”

The cultivators no longer had the heart to flatter Lord Min. They truly hated Ye Mo to the marrow.

Most of those present were members of the Min family.

Although their standing within the family varied, and many were members of collateral branches, they had all lived pampered lives and rarely endured hardship.

This defeat had left every one of them humiliated and disgraced.

“But how are we supposed to return to Min Spirit Island?” someone asked.

“There is a small amount of jungle on Red Fire Island. We can cut down spirit trees and build rafts. This island lies roughly one hundred and fifty or sixty miles from Min Spirit Island. There are aquatic beasts in the sea, so we can’t swim back. At the very least, we need spirit-wood rafts.”

The speaker was a purple-robed cultivator.

“Yingtang is right. Then build the rafts. Yingtang, these people are all under your command. Construct them as quickly as possible. We’ll return to Min Village after nightfall.”

Lord Min’s eyes brightened, and his spirits rose at once as he gave the order to the purple-robed young man.

“Yes, my lord. I’ll have ten rafts built immediately.”

Min Yingtang was overjoyed. He loudly acknowledged the order and began shouting for everyone to cut wood.

More than twenty cultivators and thirty or forty warriors from Min Village, together with the sailors who had escaped back to Red Fire Island, set to work cutting and binding rafts. With seventy or eighty people working at full strength, they progressed extremely quickly.

What they failed to notice was a small fire crow perched in the treetops of a nearby forest, watching their every move.

By dusk, piles of spirit wood had accumulated near the forest on Red Fire Mining Island, bound into ten rafts.

After a full day of work, they did not immediately leave the island on the rafts.

They ate a little of the food they had found on the island, then sank into deep sleep.

Only a portion of the cultivators remained on watch.

After resting for two hours, night had grown deep.

The people of Min Village had all recovered their strength. At the thought of leaving Red Fire Mining Island and returning to Min Village, they felt secretly excited.

Lord Min led everyone, carrying the spirit-wood rafts to the shore of Red Fire Mining Island. Together, they pushed the rafts into the sea.

“It’s more than one hundred and fifty miles by sea. Put your backs into it! We can return to Min Spirit Island before dawn, change to the sea vessel, and launch another attack. We’ll catch the cultivators of Ye Village completely off guard!”

Lord Min spoke with bitter hatred.

Under the cover of darkness, the cultivators and warriors climbed onto the rafts and took up the wooden oars they had prepared. With loud splashes, they rowed with all their strength toward Min Spirit Island.

The rafts had traveled some distance from Red Fire Mining Island when a warrior, rowing with his back to their direction of travel, happened to look up.

Far across the sea, a huge vessel was cleaving through the still water, surging toward them through the waves.

“Look over there! A sea vessel is coming!”

His expression froze in astonishment, then he shouted in terror.

More than a hundred people turned around. When they saw the battered Ye family sea vessel, their faces filled with terror and despair.

“Row faster! We can’t let them catch us, or we’ll all be taken prisoner!”

Lord Min’s face stiffened. Imagining the consequences of being overtaken by the Ye family’s vessel, his expression instantly twisted into something savage, and he roared furiously.

Everyone began paddling the wooden oars wildly.

“It’s useless. The sea vessel is at least three or four times faster than these rafts. No matter how hard we row, we can’t match its speed.”

The shipmaster’s face was filled with despair.

The sailors also looked utterly powerless. They understood all too well the difference between a sea vessel and a wooden raft.

Reality confirmed their fears. Even with everyone on the rafts rowing together, the Ye Village vessel behind them continued to surge forward like a dark monster breaking through the waves, clinging tightly to the rear of the fleeing rafts.

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