Chapter 154: Sweeping Through the Nine Villages!

The burly man was stunned for a moment, then hesitated and said, "This... is this really a good idea? To attack an ally's warship out of nowhere—if the City Lord finds out, he'll likely be furious, and the other immortal villages will retaliate against us."

"What is there to fear? Afterward, we'll just say we mistook it for an attack by the Ye Village's warship and were forced to sink it in self-defense."

Steward Fei snorted, cutting him off, "Besides, the Ten-Village Alliance was formed solely to deal with the Ye Immortal Village. Now that the Ye Immortal Village is about to finish, this alliance will soon dissolve. Next, won't it be the ten of us fighting each other directly to contend for resource islands? Sinking a ship from another immortal village now simply reduces a fraction of the enemy's strength. Once we occupy this Scarlet Fire Mineral Island, my Fei Immortal Village will develop rapidly. What could possibly be more important than developing the immortal village?"

"This—"

The burly man fell silent. Reasoned that way it might be, but it was ultimately far too lacking in honor.

Steward Fei looked at the burly man with a trace of disappointment. This man was one of City Lord Fei's trusted confidants—his cultivation level was not low, and his competence in other areas was decent, but at critical moments he lacked decisiveness and was far too soft-hearted.

Not long after, the Fei warship they were on approached Scarlet Fire Mineral Island, and the banners on the two warships moored at the pier became clearly visible. One bore the Fei banner, and the other bore the Kong banner.

"So it's a Kong warship."

After getting a clear look from afar, Steward Fei sneered, "The weakest fellow in the Ten-Village Alliance. I heard the Young Master mention long ago that this Kong Zhonghai has a cowardly personality, and even during the alliance, he never dared to fight for his own interests. Subduing him will be a piece of cake."

"Light the fuse of the bronze cannon and blast that Kong warship to pieces for me!" Steward Fei ordered the gunner on the deck, still unsatisfied.

"Boom!"

With a deafening roar, a profound iron ball hurtled toward the Kong warship.

Steward Fei's warship struck a direct hit, blasting a massive hole in the deck and sending wood splinters flying in all directions.

"Counterattack! Counterattack! Bastards, they actually made the first move!"

Kong Zhonghai had been preparing to lure this Fei warship into a trap, never expecting that the Fei warship would suddenly open fire. Having his warship shelled caught him completely off guard, and he cursed furiously.

The cultivators aboard the Kong warship scrambled in a panic, desperately adjusting the bronze cannons and frantically repairing the gaping hole in the deck.

"Boom!"
"Boom!"
"Boom!"

Suddenly, from the thin mist behind and on both sides of the Fei warship, five colossal vessels surged out, simultaneously unleashing a barrage upon the Fei warship. Five profound iron balls struck almost at the exact same moment.

These profound iron balls rained down on the Fei warship, blooming destruction from all directions.

Every cultivator, sailor, and martial artist aboard the Fei warship was left utterly dazed by this violent bombardment. The profound iron balls crashed onto the deck, blasting out five huge craters and sending countless splinters of spiritual wood flying everywhere. Even the cultivators aboard could not dodge in time, and a chorus of miserable screams rang out.

"This... what is going on?"

Steward Fei demanded in sheer panic, flattening himself against the deck.

"Those ships are all flying the Ye banner!"

"Oh no, we've been ambushed! This is a trap—a trap that was laid out long ago!"

The burly man finally snapped to his senses, frantically waving his arms at the sailors and shouting in terror, "Turn the helm around immediately! Break through the encirclement and flee! We only have two large warships; if this one sinks, we won't have any ships left."

Steward Fei grew frantic: "The City Lord is still on this island! We cannot run..."

Without even looking back, the burly man roared furiously, "If we don't run, are we just going to let them sink us? The City Lord is either captured or trapped on the island anyway. Let's escape first, and then figure out a way to rescue the City Lord!"

Steward Fei opened his mouth, unable to squeeze out a single word.

A surreal sense of absurdity welled up in his heart. Just a moment ago, he had accused the burly man of lacking decisiveness, but now that the burly man was making a direct decision, it was he himself who had become indecisive.

"We can't break through!"

"We've been completely surrounded—a full five Ye warships and one Kong warship! Even that other Fei warship is firing upon us; that ship must have been captured long ago!"

"The hull is taking on water, and we can't plug the leak!"

The cultivators and sailors were gripped by extreme panic. That initial round of frantic bombardment had nearly scrambled their wits.

A single round of wild shelling had completely battered the Fei warship beyond recognition, and seawater was already pouring into the hull.

Steward Fei turned his head to look back, and upon seeing the full seven warships sealing off every escape route, a profound sense of despair took hold: "It's over... We walked right into a trap."

"Damn it! How could this be? Didn't City Lord Gao, City Lord Min, and the others take four warships to besiege the Ye Immortal Village? Why are the Ye Village's warships appearing here?"

With a complexion ashen and completely unable to comprehend what had happened, the burly man slammed his fist heavily against the ship's railing.

The violent sounds of cannon fire echoing across the sea tore through the tranquil sky.

City Lord Fei and the twenty Fei Village cultivators stationed in the central canyon mine of Scarlet Fire Mineral Island were also startled awake.

They had been rushing to construct spiritual wood walls and arrow towers at the mouth of the canyon to bolster the mine's defenses, but at this sound, they stopped in their tracks and turned their gazes toward the source of the commotion with expressions of shock.

"What is that sound? One blast, five blasts, two blasts... a total of eight cannon shots! How is that possible?"

Hearing the dense barrage echoing from afar, City Lord Fei was left entirely dumbfounded.

Any cultivator familiar with the performance of bronze cannons knew that such spiritual weapons had a very slow rate of fire, taking nearly a quarter of an hour to launch a single profound iron ball.

This also meant that a total of eight warships had just been exchanging cannon fire with one another.

However, how could such a large number of warships possibly appear around Scarlet Fire Mineral Island?

The four large warships belonging to Gao, Min, Chen, and Kong had gone to the Ye Immortal Village, while the large warships of the other six city lords had each headed to different outlying islands.

It was utterly impossible for eight warships to gather near Scarlet Fire Mineral Island.

"Could it be that all of them had their eyes on Scarlet Fire Mineral Island and never went anywhere else?"

"Not good! Our warships are over there! Hurry, let's go take a look!"

Overcome with dread, City Lord Fei leaped to his feet.

Leading more than twenty Qi-refining stage cultivators, City Lord Fei sprinted all the way to the coastline and the pier.

Five Ye warships, one Kong warship, and even one Fei warship were fiercely shelling yet another trapped Fei warship.

As he watched that slowly sinking Fei warship alongside the numerous cultivators desperately swimming through the water toward the shore, City Lord Fei was frozen in absolute shock.

It was over.

Both Fei warships were completely ruined. One had undoubtedly been captured, while the other had been sunk.

"How could this happen? No—!"

With wide, vacant eyes, City Lord Fei let out a heart-wrenching roar. With a heavy plop, he sank weakly to his knees on the shoreline, still gripping his spiritual sword. He had successfully "occupied" Scarlet Fire Mineral Island, but the price he paid was the complete loss of his only two warships.

Standing aboard his warship, Ye Mo looked toward City Lord Fei on the shore.

He had no intention of landing. Although he had brought a considerable number of cultivators from both Ye Village and Kong Village, subduing City Lord Fei and twenty Qi-refining stage cultivators would likely still incur casualties.

"City Lord Fei, you are a smart man. Either surrender, or remain trapped on Scarlet Fire Mineral Island. Don't expect the other immortal villages to come save you—they can barely protect themselves right now."

Ye Mo stated calmly.

With a rigid expression, City Lord Fei glared fiercely at Ye Mo and Kong Zhonghai, then slowly stood up and turned to lead his subordinates back toward the canyon.

He refused to surrender.

Of course, he had no way of leaving Scarlet Fire Mineral Island either; he could only hold the canyon and wait for the situation outside to change. Perhaps—just perhaps—the other immortal villages would manage to defeat Ye Mo.

"It seems this City Lord Fei still hasn't given up."

Kong Zhonghai sneered coldly.

"No matter. He no longer has the capital to keep fighting us; he's simply refusing to face reality. Leave one warship to keep watch around this island. If anyone tries to leave on a raft, sink them without exception."

Ye Mo commanded coldly before setting off immediately with the remaining six warships toward the next outlying island.

There remained one spiritual field island and two spiritual wood islands.

Kong Zhonghai had already tasted success and grown fond of the spoils of victory.

Upon arriving at each location, he would swagger in under the guise of an alliance city lord to get close to the defenders, followed by launching a thunderous surprise attack that caught them completely unprepared.

Without paying any real cost, they had consecutively wiped out two more warships.

The final spiritual wood island was under the jurisdiction of City Lord Gong.

This city lord, who had faced a severe shortage of spiritual wood the moment he arrived in the Aolai Sea, discovered upon reaching the island that there were no Ye Village cultivators present.

City Lord Gong did not go ashore to occupy it. Instead, after hesitating for a moment and sensing something was amiss, he chose to turn back and leave.

When Ye Mo, Kong Zhonghai, and their fleet arrived, all that awaited them was a completely deserted island.

"Hah, that fellow Gong is quite cautious; he actually turned right back."

Kong Zhonghai said, quite surprised. "What a pity we let that bastard slip away."

"Missing one doesn't matter. Since he didn't suffer any losses this time, we can simply give him some special attention."

Ye Mo shook his head.

"Brother Ye, what should we do next? In this battle, we've sunk six warships, captured one, and let one escape. The Ten-Village Alliance's naval forces for this expedition are practically wiped out."

Kong Zhonghai expressed some worry. "However, they don't only have this much strength; several other immortal villages still have warships. Once they regroup and gather four or five large warships, they can still barely put up a fight against us. They might even turn the tables."

Until those nine immortal villages were thoroughly beaten down, Kong Zhonghai couldn't shake his lingering sense of unease.

"For that, we'll need your help."

Ye Mo pondered for a moment, then looked at Kong Zhonghai.

"How can I help?"

Kong Zhonghai asked in confusion.

"Send your men to deliver messages to those immortal villages. Tell them the battle is critical and intensely fierce, that both the Ten-Village Alliance and the Ye Immortal Village have suffered over half casualties, and that reinforcements are urgently needed. Tell them victory or defeat hinges entirely on the speed of their reinforcements, and order them to rush to our aid immediately. Warn them that failing to provide timely support, leading to the failure of this campaign, will result in severe punishment from the City Lord."

Ye Mo patted Kong Zhonghai's shoulder and smiled.

This time, he intended to inflict pain on all nine immortal villages, sweeping them clean so they would completely lose the ability to retaliate.

"Right! Those immortal villages probably don't know the exact battle report of this engagement yet. I'll send men to their villages, ordering them to dispatch their remaining warships to the battlefield immediately. We'll wait outside, and the moment their warships rush out to reinforce, we'll swarm them and wipe them out!"

"Why didn't I think of this trick? Brilliant, let's do it! I'll immediately send men to deliver the intelligence, call for reinforcements, and lure their warships out. The moment they hear this, they're bound to take the bait!"

Kong Zhonghai paused for a second, then suddenly slapped his forehead in wild delight.