Chapter Sixteen: Apprentice at the Weaponsmith's Forge (Part Two)

“Not only do I have to guard against the sea demon beasts that may appear on the island at any moment, but I also have to watch out for other hostile martial artists on the island, find more body-tempering and healing herbs, strengthen my physique, hurry to practice martial techniques, reinforce the spiritual wood palisade of this cave camp, and do my utmost to survive on this island… The tasks are truly daunting!” Ye Mo felt stretched thin, almost overwhelmed by the workload.

A martial artist’s camp could hardly function properly without several capable people to help. Ultimately, it was a matter of manpower—just a few more martial artists sharing the burden of building the camp would make things much easier.

About half an hour later, the two seriously injured martial artists finally woke up. In the medicinal broth Ye Mo had prepared for Mo Ling, there was sophora root, an excellent herb for treating internal injuries and nourishing the blood. The externally applied herbs were also effective, quickly staunching the bleeding.

After Mo Ling fed them the medicinal broth, their conditions improved markedly, and they regained consciousness. Seeing Mo Ling holding the medicine bowl, the two immediately realized she had saved them, and for a moment, they failed to notice Ye Mo standing behind her.

“My name is Wang Hu. Thank you, miss, for saving my life!”

“I am Yang You. My gratitude, miss!”

The two hurried to express their thanks.

Mo Ling felt rather awkward, desperately signaling with her eyes for them to look behind her.

When they finally turned their heads, they saw a very young martial artist in the cave. Noting Mo Ling’s gaze, they realized he was the one truly in charge. In an instant, they understood the situation and stood there, somewhat embarrassed, not knowing what to say.

“Where are you both from?” Ye Mo asked, unconcerned.

“My name is Wang Hu. I’m twenty-two, an apprentice at a weapons shop in the royal city of Donglai, a junior martial artist. My companion is my junior apprentice; I am the senior,” Wang Hu replied heartily and straightforwardly.

“Yang You, junior apprentice, seventeen,” said the young martial artist in blue, who seemed rather taciturn.

“You’re from Donglai?” Mo Ling smiled, her tone warmer.

“She is Princess Mo Ling of Donglai,” Ye Mo said, nodding toward her.

“Ah! Your humble servants pay respects to Princess Mo Ling!” The two were clearly taken aback, but did not doubt her identity. As commoners of Donglai, they quickly knelt and paid their respects.

“No need for formality. Tell me how you ended up outside this camp,” Mo Ling said.

“After our ship broke apart, my brother and I were washed ashore by the waves. For the past few days, we’ve been gathering herbs and searching for food, encountering quite a few martial artists on the island. We then ran into some vicious brutes who forced us to hand over our herbs and demanded we pick more for them. When we refused, they chased us down. We fled for our lives, got lost in the dense forest, saw a palisade ahead, and collapsed. When we woke up, we were here.”

The gray-clad young man did most of the talking; the one in blue remained quiet.

Listening to their disjointed account, Ye Mo silently nodded. They didn’t seem to be lying, and he gleaned a good deal of useful information. On this island, at least sixty or seventy miles in length, there were more martial artists than he had previously seen. There were various groups of different sizes, all survivors from the sunken merchant ship, washed ashore by the ocean.

The backgrounds of these martial artists were complex—several nations were involved, with scions of noble families, sons of generals, as well as humble commoners, merchants, and laborers. After landing, they naturally formed groups based on their national and familial backgrounds. Fierce conflict would break out over the island’s scarce spiritual herbs and food, sometimes at the risk of their very lives.

Recently, Ye Mo had been preoccupied with preparing for a possible assault by sea demon beasts, leaving him no time to seek out other martial artists. It seemed not all the island’s inhabitants were aware of the coming tide of sea demon beasts at month’s end; many were still fighting over herbs.

Now, Ye Mo felt a mounting sense of danger, not only from the impending beast tide but also from the other martial groups on the island.

Thinking of the other martial artists, Mo Ling couldn’t help but look at Ye Mo anxiously. She herself had been robbed before, only escaping with her herbs by sheer luck.

What disappointed Ye Mo was that these two were merely apprentices at a weapons shop who hadn’t devoted much time to martial training—their skills were weak. They had ended up in this state simply for resisting when a group tried to rob them of food and herbs.

There were already quite a few martial groups on the island, many with considerable numbers. According to Wang Hu and Yang You, some of them were quite formidable.

As for his own camp, he was the only high-level martial artist; Mo Ling was intermediate, and with Wang Hu and Yang You, both juniors, they had just four people—probably the weakest group on the island.

“You’re weapons shop apprentices? You know how to make weapons?” Ye Mo’s mind leapt to something.

On this island, besides the shortage of herbs and food, there was another critical lack—weaponry.

In his imagination, blacksmiths were always burly men, but these two looked like ordinary martial artists, making it hard to associate them with a weapons shop.

“We’ve only been learning for five or six years and haven’t mastered the craft yet. We can’t forge top-tier weapons, but we can make standard ones,” Wang Hu replied quickly.

“What sort of weapons can you make?”

“We can make simple knives, swords, spears, bows, and crossbows. But we don’t have the necessary materials—no iron ore, coke, or sinew. I haven’t found any iron on this island,” Wang Hu said, looking a little crestfallen.

Though they could make weapons, the lack of materials left them with no way to use their skills.

“We don’t need ore—just use wood. What weapons could you make from that?” Ye Mo pointed out some leftover spiritual wood from the palisade to them as they stepped outside to the open ground. Mo Ling followed as well.

“Wooden weapons? What use is that? Wooden arms can’t withstand a single blow from iron, perhaps not even a fist,” Wang Hu said quickly, though disappointment showed in his eyes.

Ye Mo seemed to read their thoughts. He borrowed Mo Ling’s Mo Mei sword and handed it to Wang Hu. “Try chopping through this wood.”

“Chop wood? Easy enough!”

Though puzzled, Wang Hu took the sword, stood before a length of spiritual wood nearly a zhang long, took a deep breath, and swung down hard.

Clang! A clear, ringing sound.

The rebound almost knocked Wang Hu back a step; his arms went numb and he nearly dropped the sword. Both he and Yang You were stunned. Though only a junior martial artist, Wang Hu had over a hundred pounds of strength, and this was a top-quality sword. Yet the trunk only bore a shallow mark, not split apart as he’d imagined.

“What kind of wood is this? Ironwood? It’s as hard as iron!” Wang Hu exclaimed in disbelief, his shock quickly turning to delight.

“This is a special spiritual wood from the eastern sea islands. It’s only first-grade, but weapons made from it are hard enough—ordinary armor won’t stop them,” Mo Ling said with a smile.

“With wood this tough, it’s perfect for making spiritual wood throwing spears! Such spears would be as hard as iron, lighter, and better for long throws!”

“We could also make spiritual wood shields!”

Wang Hu and Yang You exchanged a look, their eyes alight. To them, good weapon materials were even more enticing than body-tempering herbs.

“Long-range attacks?” Ye Mo’s expression changed. The thought of range gave him an even better idea—a short wooden arrow tower.

For small camps, the best line of sight and range came from an arrow tower.

“Good! Use this spiritual wood to craft spears and shields. And let’s build two short arrow towers, three zhang high, inside the palisade. The towers can be made from ordinary wood. From atop, you can keep watch or throw spears at enemies two or three dozen zhang away. If the camp is threatened, two can defend the palisade up close, while the other two attack from the towers. Our defenses will be greatly improved!”

“Great idea! With two arrow towers, no one will approach easily!”

“No problem!” The group was delighted.

They then divided the tasks in detail. Ye Mo split and cut the spiritual wood into arm-thick lengths. Wang Hu and Yang You went to work, crafting ten sharp spears, several shields, and building two short arrow towers.

Mo Ling helped the two, gathering necessary materials.

When Ye Mo finished his part, he went into the nearby forest to search for more healing and body-tempering herbs and food, tending to Wang Hu and Yang You’s injuries.

To survive on this eastern sea island and weather the tide of sea beasts at the end of the month, they had to seize every possible moment.