Chapter 149: Night Raid! Maritime Ambush!

The ten large sea-going ships of the ten-village alliance, including those of the Min and Gao clans, finally completed their mobilization across a range of over a thousand miles, gathering at the port of the Gao Clan Immortal Village. Gathered together, the imposing fleet of large ships was undoubtedly the most powerful force of cultivators within a thousand-mile radius.

Night had fallen.

The ten village lords gathered together.

"Everyone, night has just fallen. Why don't we take advantage of the cover of darkness and launch a night raid on the Ye Village?"

Village Lord Gao surveyed the sky and suddenly suggested.

"A night raid?"

Several village lords were surprised.

Their original plan was to complete the gathering of the ships today, rest for the night at Gao Clan Immortal Village, and then set out at dawn the next day to launch a surprise attack on the Ye Clan Immortal Village.

Since their strength far exceeded that of the Ye Clan anyway, setting out half a day earlier or later made no difference at all.

As for a night raid, it was not part of their initial plan.

"The way of warfare emphasizes using the orthodox for the frontal engagement and the unorthodox for victory. Launching our ten large sea-going ships into battle already guarantees absolute victory. A night raid, however, can reduce our losses to the absolute minimum."

Village Lord Gao smiled with a trace of complacency.

"That's not a bad idea."

Village Lord Min mused, "Under the cover of dark night, the visual range of the Ye Clan's golden eagles will also be restricted, and their scouting capability will be greatly weakened. This will be advantageous for our offensive."

The other village lords also expressed their agreement one after another. Only then did Village Lord Gao say, "Very well, everyone, return immediately and prepare to set sail."

Before long, the sea-going ships set sail one by one.

Village Lord Gao invited Kong Zhonghai and Village Lord Chen, saying, "Since the few of us are traveling together, why don't you both come aboard my ship to observe the battle?"

"This... might not be appropriate. When a naval battle begins, I must also command from my own flagship."

Village Lord Chen said hesitantly.

Kong Zhonghai's expression remained unchanged, but a cold sweat was breaking out inside him. He had, after all, betrayed the Gao clan and the others. If he boarded Village Lord Gao's ship, once the battle started, wouldn't he be walking right into a trap?

"Haha, Brother Chen worries too much! This night raid of ours is a sure victory. It's questionable whether the Ye Clan's spiritual island even has ships capable of leaving port. Besides, in the event of a true naval battle, could Brother Chen possibly command the ship personally? Isn't there a captain for that?"

Village Lord Gao laughed loudly. Inviting the other village lords onto his flagship also stemmed from a selfish motive; gathering them together would highlight his own commanding prowess.

The ultimate spoils of this battle would depend on the degree of contribution from each party, and commanding in battle naturally counted as a form of contribution—precisely Village Lord Gao's strong suit, which he naturally wanted to emphasize as much as possible.

"This..."

The men hesitated.

At that moment, a message bird suddenly flew in from the horizon, fluttering down to land on Kong Zhonghai's shoulder.

Kong Zhonghai looked startled. He took a small slip of paper from the bird's leg, and upon reading it, his expression instantly turned one of astonishment.

"Brother Gao, an elder of my clan has arrived at my immortal village, and I must return personally to welcome him. I'm afraid I cannot travel with you all this time. The Kong clan's sea-going ship will be commanded by a trusted confidant of mine; Village Lord Gao may issue orders to him directly."

With that, Kong Zhonghai handed the note in his hand to Village Lord Gao.

The content on the note was very simple, stating only that an elder of the Kong clan had come to inspect the development status of the Kong Clan Immortal Village, and ordering Kong Zhonghai to return immediately to receive him upon receiving the message.

"This..."

Village Lord Gao hesitated for a moment.

Clan disciples were all kept in check by elders above them and dared not show the slightest negligence, lest they incur the displeasure of their family elders and find it difficult to obtain resources from the clan.

Understanding this all too well, he sighed and said, "Very well. Shall I send someone to escort you back?"

Kong Zhonghai quickly shook his head. "There's no need. I can just take a fast boat back. I happen to have a small boat there. Brother Gao, Brother Chen, I leave this battle in your hands. I shall await the good news of our ten-village alliance's great victory back in the Kong Village."

"Rest assured, Brother Kong."

Village Lord Gao nodded, exchanged a few parting words with Kong Zhonghai, and allowed him to leave.

Only after departing did Kong Zhonghai finally breathe a sigh of relief, feeling a profound sense of release in his heart.

Fortunately, he had prepared in advance and kept a backup plan to extricate himself at a critical moment. Otherwise, had he been dragged onto the Gao fellow's ship and unable to leave later, it would have been deeply troublesome.

Kong Zhonghai returned to his own large sea-going ship.

Soon, a small boat several zhang long was lowered from the Kong family's ship. Standing on the boat was a cultivator dressed in lavish robes, whose physique was strikingly similar to that of Kong Zhonghai.

From afar, Village Lord Gao watched the small boat depart, then gave a grand wave of his hand and ordered the fleet to set sail.

The ten large sea-going ships left the port and headed in the direction of Ye Village.

The Kong family's sea-going ship brought up the rear. From within the cabin, a message bird flew out, silently vanishing into the dark night.

An hour later, an urgent piece of intelligence reached Ye Mo's hands.

Ye Mo immediately ordered three golden eagles to enforce a low-altitude blockade over the entire dock, strictly preventing any enemy cultivator scouts from lurking near the spiritual island and transmitting intelligence outward via message birds.

Soon, one pirate ship and four light armored warships belonging to the Ye Clan Immortal Village—five ships in total—quietly sortied from the port, vanishing into the night as they hurried toward the pre-selected ambush waters.

The ten large sea-going ships sailed across the boundless expanse of the sea for two hours. Four of them continued forward to blockade the Ye Village's main island, while the other six split up to launch surprise attacks on the six secondary islands.

Seventy to eighty miles away from the Ye Clan Immortal Village, the engagement was still far off, and the cultivators aboard each ship had not yet entered combat readiness.

Inside a luxurious cabin aboard Village Lord Gao's flagship, several village lords sat around a table, enjoying fine wine and conversing excitedly.

"Haha, if Ye Mo wakes up tomorrow morning and suddenly finds his main island surrounded by us, what kind of expression do you suppose that fellow will wear?"

Village Lord Min laughed heartily.

"What other expression could he have? Even with boundless abilities, he would only have a waiting game left to play."

Village Lord Gao gave a shrewd, calculating smile and shrugged. "Village Lord Min has dealt with Ye Mo before; you must have been looking forward to this moment for a long time, right?"

Hearing this, Village Lord Min's face turned somewhat unsightly.

Having been defeated by Ye Mo was already a deeply humiliating matter, yet Village Lord Gao persistently prodded the sore spot.

"Heh, let's not talk about him then. We'll see him soon enough anyway. As for that fellow Kong Zhonghai, returning to welcome a clan elder at such a crucial juncture means he'll miss witnessing the moment of Ye Mo's agonizing surrender."

Village Lord Gao chuckled. Sensing the unnatural expression on Village Lord Min's face, he dropped the topic and stopped dwelling on it.

Before Min and Chen could reply, a flurry of hurried footsteps suddenly sounded from outside the door.

"Village Lord, something is terribly wrong!"

As the words fell, a middle-aged cultivator in his forties or fifties rushed through the cabin door without even knocking, his expression fraught with panic. He was none other than the captain of this Gao clan sea-going ship.

"Panicking like this, what kind of decorum is this? Don't you see I am entertaining distinguished guests?"

Village Lord Gao's expression instantly darkened as he slammed his wine cup onto the table and chided sternly.

"V-Village Lord, we just passed near an island, and suddenly five sea-going ships emerged from behind it, tailing us at a distance of less than three li. Visibility isn't very clear in the night, but from their silhouettes, they appear to be light sea-going ships from the Ye Clan's spiritual island. They will be able to catch up with us very soon!"

The middle-aged cultivator could no longer care about etiquette and blurted out in a panic.

As a captain with rich naval combat experience, he knew all too well that once an enemy bit onto the rear of your sea-going ships, it was an extremely perilous situation. It meant they would be reduced to passively taking blows.

"What? Five ships from Ye Village? Where on earth did Ye Village get five ships? Didn't they only have three? Could they have other allies? But that's impossible—the ten immortal villages closest to us within a thousand-mile radius have all allied with us!"

Village Lord Min's right hand trembled, and the wine cup he was twirling between his fingers slipped, smashing onto the floor with a loud *clatter* into pieces as an expression of sheer disbelief crossed his face.

"With these waters being so vast, how could they possibly know we would pass through this area and lie in ambush behind that island? Could it be that he has been continuously dispatching spirit eagles to monitor us?"

Village Lord Chen's expression also changed drastically. Remembering the inexplicable ambush he had suffered previously, he asked with lingering fear.

"Impossible! The night is pitch black and visibility is dim; even spirit eagles cannot locate our position out here in the vast sea. If there were spirit eagles above our heads, we would have discovered them long ago."

Village Lord Gao was startled. He abruptly stood up and said sternly, "Enough. The most urgent priority is not to search for reasons, but to prepare for battle immediately!"

As the frontline commander, he naturally knew what mattered most.

Without getting bogged down in wild speculations, Village Lord Gao and the other village lords strode out of the cabin, hurried onto the deck, and went to the stern to look out.

Sure enough, they saw five hazy black figures cutting through the waves in pursuit from behind.

The speed of those five massive black shadows was evidently faster than their four large sea-going ships, and they were rapidly entering the firing range of the Ye Clan's bronze cannons.

"They really are light sea-going ships! The enemy is fast, and we cannot shake them off. Signal all ships to slow down and turn around—quickly!"

Village Lord Gao's expression turned icy as he barked the order.

The captain immediately sprang into action. The lookout flashed signals using lanterns, and the captains of the other three surrounding ships instantly made corresponding maneuvers.

"If we slow down now, won't that just let them close the distance even faster?"

Village Lord Chen furrowed his brow.

"What other choice is there? Are we supposed to just keep fleeing? The bronze cannons are mounted on the bows; if we run tail-to-head like this, we'll just keep taking blows without any way to retaliate. Turning around is inevitable—sooner is better than later."

Village Lord Gao retorted unpleasantly.

Village Lord Chen fell silent, rendered speechless.

The five light sea-going ships in the rear closed in, drawing within about two hundred zhang of the large ships and entering the range of the bronze cannons.

*Boom!*

*Boom!*

Deafening roars echoed from behind as several dark iron cannonballs came whistling through the air, carrying thousands of catties of violent force to slam heavily onto the deck of a neighboring large sea-going ship.

"Damn it! They're concentrating their firepower to attack the ship on our left!"

Village Lord Gao frowned deeply.

This was a standard naval warfare tactic, and he had no particularly brilliant countermeasure for it.

Before the four large ships could turn their bows around and return fire, they had no choice but to act as stationary targets and suffer two or three rounds of unbridled bombardment in vain.

His only hope now was that one of the large sea-going ships could stubbornly endure all the dark iron cannonball attacks while the remaining three large ships completed their turns and sank all five of the Ye Village's lightly defended ships.

Large sea-going ships were bulky and cumbersome; slowing down and turning around consumed a considerable amount of time.

Village Lord Gao's face turned livid.

He had calculated every single angle and planned every aspect in detail, even devising countermeasures for various adverse combat situations.

Yet, he simply hadn't anticipated the scenario of being ambushed midway.

In truth, ambushing a few enemy ships across hundreds or thousands of miles of boundless ocean was an extremely difficult feat. With the seas stretching in all directions, who could possibly predict where the enemy would pass?

On a pitch-black night, this difficulty multiplied, as a cultivator's line of sight extended no further than a few hundred zhang. At a distance of a thousand zhang, things were barely visible at all, let alone staging an ambush on the open sea. Even spirit eagles could not see very far in such darkness.

He had deliberately chosen to launch his raid at night precisely to avoid being detected in advance by the Ye Village's spirit eagles.

Unless a traitor had leaked the battle plan in advance, allowing Ye Mo to learn of their operational route!

Yet, within the ten-village alliance, rooting out a traitor was by no means an easy task.

Extremely furious, Village Lord Gao wore a dark expression as he issued his command: "Pass down the order: instruct the two ships on the flanks to ensure their bows face outward when turning, and not to expose their sterns, lest the enemy seize the opportunity to latch onto us relentlessly. Even if we have to sacrifice one large sea-going ship, we will still have three left capable of sending their five weakly defended light ships to the bottom of the sea."

Village Lord Min's face turned somewhat pale as he suddenly recalled the wretched incident when his own fleet had been consumed by burning oil. Every single one of Ye Mo's attacks defied conventional tactics, snatching victory through unorthodox means. Would he really be so unlucky this time as well?