Chapter 152: Pressing the Advantage

After winning this naval battle, Ye Mo spent a considerable amount of time securing the numerous prisoners, appearing unhurried and composed.

However, Kong Zhonghai was extremely anxious.

Although three large sea vessels of the Ten-Village Alliance had been sent to the bottom of the sea, another six large sea vessels had headed toward various subsidiary islands and remained intact.

These were hidden troubles.

If these sea vessels were not eliminated, Kong Zhonghai would not be able to sleep or eat in peace.

After all, he was the one who had been lurking as a spy within the Ten-Village Alliance. If the Ten-Village Alliance did not completely collapse, he, the traitor, would undoubtedly face retaliation from the other nine immortal villages.

Only by thoroughly defeating the Ten-Village Alliance could he finally sleep soundly.

Eagerly boarding Ye Mo's vessel, Kong Zhonghai bypassed all pleasantries upon meeting him and hurriedly said, "Brother Ye, there are still six other sea vessels attacking the six subsidiary islands. Shouldn't we rush over to hunt them down?"

"Naturally. One of their sea vessels went to the nearest sea-demon reef, and we are heading that way."

Ye Mo glanced at Kong Zhonghai, guessing the worry in his heart, and then gave a few brief instructions to Chang Fei.

Chang Fei nodded and arranged for the fleet to set sail.

Soon, five of Ye's light sea vessels, along with Kong's large sea vessel, sped swiftly in the direction of the sea-demon reef.

While they were underway, an immortal guard from Ye's ship hurried over to report, "City Lord, that City Lord surnamed Min in the brig is clamoring to see you."

"Oh? The one surnamed Min wants to see me?"

Ye Mo was surprised, then turned back to say to Kong Zhonghai, "Brother Kong, let's go take a look together."

"Hm, this Min is the mastermind behind this Ten-Village Alliance plot. Let's see what he has to say."

Kong Zhonghai nodded.

Accompanied by a dozen followers, Ye Mo and Kong Zhonghai descended to the narrow brig corridor in the hold of the pirate ship.

In these cells, over a hundred cultivators and martial artists were locked up. Covered in injuries and bruised all over, they were bound like rice dumplings with tough beast tendons and jammed tightly into the cells.

The three immortal village city lords were confined in separate cells; due to their special status, their treatment was naturally different.

City Lord Chen sat resignedly in a corner, his back pressed against the cell wall, letting out long sighs.

City Lord Gao wore a dark expression, lost in thought.

Only City Lord Min looked extremely anxious, pacing back and forth restlessly inside his cramped cell and frequently glancing toward the doorway of the corridor in the hold.

As soon as he saw Ye Mo leading people in, City Lord Min rushed up to the spirit-wood prison bars and cried out excitedly, "City Lord Ye, I never made a move against you! There is an agreement between us, and I have never offended you. You have no right to detain me!"

"Ha!"

Ye Mo almost laughed out loud. "City Lord Min, you are the one who violated the Two-Villages Agreement! Why did you end up on City Lord Gao's sea vessel?"

"City Lord Gao invited me to visit his immortal village as a guest! I merely hitched a ride on City Lord Gao's sea vessel, and from beginning to end, I never made a move against Ye Village. I didn't even bring my spirit sword!"

Min Cong blurted out hurriedly.

"Oh, is that so? Then what about that sea vessel and the numerous Min Village cultivators? How do you explain that?"

Ye Mo pointed toward the other cells holding the captured Min Village cultivators.

"No! They are not people from Min Village at all! They are registered cultivators of Xu Immortal Village. If you don't believe me, you can check their village registry!"

Min Cong was somewhat panicked, clinging desperately to this point without loosening his stance in the slightest.

He had signed a formal non-aggression pact with Ye Mo, stamped with his city lord seal. Such a formal agreement could never be violated; otherwise, if Ye Mo reported him to the Immortal City Alliance, the consequences would be extremely grave, even resulting in the revocation of his city lord status.

Min Cong by no means wanted his city lord position stripped away and reduced to an ordinary, lowly cultivator.

Ye Mo sneered, "Is that so? In that case, even if I were to kill all these prisoners, City Lord Min wouldn't feel a pang of heartache, right?"

"Come! Drag all the Xu Village prisoners up to the deck and chop them down to feed the sea fish. I imagine City Lord Xu wouldn't care too much about the lives of these captives either."

Ye Mo waved his hand.

"Understood!"

The five earth-servant guards behind Ye Mo immediately nodded, drew their spirit swords, and walked toward the cells holding the Min Village cultivators.

Inside the cells, all the Min Village prisoner cultivators turned pale with fright.

"No!"

"City Lord, save us!"

Many of them were direct and collateral descendants of the Min family clan.

Even if they had temporarily registered under Xu Village, it could not change the fact that the blood of the Min family flowed in their veins.

"Wait!"

Min Cong was instantly stunned, his face twisting in bitter agony as he hurriedly cried out, "City Lord Ye... I was muddle-headed just now! It was my fault. I will redeem them! How many spirit stones do you want? I can give them to you. Even if I cannot produce them immediately, I can write an IOU and pay you back slowly over time!"

"You can't even protect yourself, yet you're still thinking about ransoming them?"

A faint, cold smile hung on the corner of Ye Mo's mouth. "Do you think you can escape unscathed by playing these petty tricks of changing village registries? Even though I haven't caught you dead to rights, I won't let you off easily either."

At last, Ye Mo turned to Kong Zhonghai and said, "Brother Kong, do you have anything to say to them?"

Kong Zhonghai gently shook his head. "There are still six fellows we haven't caught. Once we round them all up, I'll lecture them together."

The sky remained pitch black. An hour later.

The five light sea vessels of Ye Immortal Village and the large sea vessel of Kong Immortal Village had arrived in the vicinity of the sea-demon reef.

This cluster of sea-demon reefs spanned several dozen miles in radius, and those unfamiliar with the area could easily lose their bearings.

A large sea vessel of the Ten-Village Alliance had reached these sea-demon reefs and prepared to rest, intending to search for Ye Village cultivators across the reefs the next morning at daybreak and claim the islands as their own.

Ye Mo released his fire crow and golden eagle, quickly scouting the precise location of the enemy's sea vessel.

Shortly after, the fire crow fluttered its wings and landed on Ye Mo's shoulder.

"These fellows actually moored their sea vessel right next to a reef!"

Ye Mo smiled coldly, pulled out the navigational chart, pointed at a spot on it, and said, "The sea vessel is here. Let's move in."

Once the six sea vessels arrived, they directly pounded the large sea vessel anchored near the reef to the bottom of the sea.

The cultivators aboard that sea vessel had no idea what was happening. Struck by a barrage of bombardment, they leaped into the water one after another and fled onto nearby reefs.

Following that, Ye Mo dispatched several small boats to herd the more than one hundred prisoners from the three villages onto that reef, which measured several hundred feet wide, leaving them to fend for themselves.

Aside from a sparse amount of seaweed, the reef consisted only of bare rocks. Build a raft? There were no materials.

This place was far too far from their islands; swimming away was out of the question.

Want to swim back to their respective immortal villages?

The prowling sea saber-fish would make their lives a living hell.

Of course, escaping by riding spirit birds was also impossible, as all spiritual items on their person had been confiscated.

Afterward, the six sea vessels of the Ye and Kong factions pressed on toward the next subsidiary island.

City Lord Fei, boarding a sea vessel with his Fei Village cultivators, headed spiritedly toward Crimson Fire Mineral Island.

Crimson Fire Mineral Island was the most valuable among the six subsidiary islands.

City Lord Fei had long since obtained intelligence, knowing that this island possessed a crude little pier. He steered his sea vessel straight toward the dock. Upon arrival, however, they all noticed something amiss.

"Strange, why is there not the slightest sound here? Not even a single campfire?"

A trusted cultivator muttered in puzzlement, "According to intelligence, there should be quite a few Ye Village villagers active on the island."

City Lord Fei froze for a moment, then said, "They must all be inside the canyon on the island, I suppose. Let's go ashore and take a look."

The sea vessel docked, and over twenty Fei Village cultivators went ashore.

City Lord Fei waved his hand and shouted, "Leave five cultivators to guard the sea vessel. The moment anything happens, fire the signal flare immediately! The rest of you, come with me onto the island and take the mine under the cover of night."

City Lord Fei had staked everything this time, bringing along a full twenty cultivators and dozens of martial artists for the battle, leaving only five behind to guard the ship.

Less than an hour later, their party arrived at the outer perimeter of the canyon mine.

At the entrance of the canyon mine, quite a few spirit-wood defensive walls and arrow towers had been constructed. Unsure of the enemy's strength, City Lord Fei dared not launch a reckless attack.

City Lord Fei dispatched a cultivator to cautiously approach the canyon and reconnoiter the defensive situation.

That cultivator returned swiftly, his excitement tinged with confusion as he reported, "City Lord, there's no one inside. No cultivators, and no mining slaves. It's been cleaned up thoroughly; not a single thing was left behind, and the spirit-wood walls and arrow towers have even been burned down!"

"Hm? That's not right. Could the Ye Immortal Island have received word in advance? Have all their people fallen back to Ye Immortal Village?"

City Lord Fei grew suspicious.

"City Lord, regardless of whether they received word, since we've already occupied this island, it should belong to Fei Village now."

"Indeed! This subordinate also thinks we should immediately repair and build up the defenses while sending men back to our immortal village to bring more reinforcements over. No one can snatch this away from us!"

The cultivators said excitedly.

"Haha, that is the exact reasoning!"

City Lord Fei grew animated. "Never mind what the Ye family is planning, even if they pulled back their forces. And never mind the Ten-Village Alliance—let's just occupy this place first! You, hurry back to the ship, send men on a small boat back to the island to summon people, and also call over all the martial artist guards from the island to build spirit-wood walls!"

Disregarding the darkness, City Lord Fei led his subordinates in undertaking massive construction projects within the canyon of Crimson Fire Mineral Island, chopping down spirit-wood to build wooden walls with the intent of holding the territory long-term.

By the time Ye Mo arrived at Crimson Fire Mineral Island with his six sea vessels, City Lord Fei and his men had already felled a substantial amount of spirit-wood.

The fire crow soared high above the canyon.

Ye Mo immediately activated his Spirit-Foresight Eye, taking in everything before him.

"This City Lord Fei is rushing to construct defenses overnight. It seems he is dead set on seizing this Crimson Fire Mineral Island."

Ye Mo could not help laughing out loud.

Withdrawing his secret technique, Ye Mo recounted what he had witnessed to Kong Zhonghai and the others standing beside him.

"This fellow Fei is greedy; he would certainly pull off something like this."

Kong Zhonghai paused for a moment, then couldn't help saying, "However, with over twenty cultivators and dozens of martial artists guarding the canyon and relying on favorable terrain, I'm afraid it won't be easy for us to capture them. Brother Ye, are you planning to make a move?"

"Never mind the ones on the island for now."

Ye Mo shook his head. "Their sea vessel is over there, with only a few cultivators left aboard. We'll capture their ship directly!"

"Capture the ship?"

Kong Zhonghai was startled, but immediately understood. Realizing that Ye Mo wanted to acquire an intact large sea vessel, he nodded instantly and said, "With only a few cultivators left, that's not a problem at all. Rest assured, leave that ship to me. We'll take it in one fell swoop!"