Chapter Fifty-Nine: Charging Toward the Second Deck

Ye Mo led the impassioned captives as they surged from the lowest deck toward the second level of the ship. The bottommost hold was a prison for the slaves, while the second housed the pirates themselves. Between these two decks stood a sturdy spiritwood barred gate.

By now, the uproar below had already alerted a number of pirates on the second deck. Fifteen or sixteen fierce-looking men rushed to the gate, peering down to see the commotion.

“How dare you revolt! All of you, down on the ground! I’ll count to three—anyone who dares move, I’ll come down there and hack you all into mincemeat!” roared a middle-aged pirate captain, his eyes wide with rage, though he had no idea what was happening below.

Ye Mo did not spare him a glance. He strode to the barred gate, gathered his strength, and drove his foot into it with all his might.

A thunderous crash echoed as the solid gate shattered beneath his kick, splinters flying everywhere. One sharp shard shot straight toward the pirate captain’s face.

The captain’s expression twisted in horror as he hastily raised his hand to block. But the spiritwood fragment, propelled by the brute force of Ye Mo’s kick, bore hundreds of pounds of momentum—how could mere flesh withstand it?

The splinter pierced through the captain’s hand, leaving a bloody hole. Before he could even register the pain, it buried itself deep in his cheek, almost to the hilt.

The captain was a tough man; despite the gruesome wound, he didn’t cry out. He tried to wrench the wood from his cheek with his left hand, but the searing pain nearly made him faint.

Blood gushed from his face and hand, a ghastly sight that made even the hardiest shudder.

The dozen or so pirates stared, dumbstruck, at Ye Mo as he emerged from the wrecked gate. Panic and disbelief surged within them.

“This prisoner shattered the spiritwood gate with a single kick? How much strength would that take? Is he even human?”

“Maybe the gate was rotted from age?”

“That gate is made of spiritwood! Even the shipmaster with a weapon couldn’t break it in one blow, let alone a prisoner with his bare foot!”

“Yes, it must’ve been decayed for years!” they told themselves, clinging desperately to any explanation.

Finally, the agony overcame the captain and he let out a bloodcurdling scream—a pain so fierce he hadn’t felt in many years.

“I’ll kill you!” he howled, madness and disbelief twisting his features as he stared at the gaping wound in his hand. Reason abandoned him in his torment; he no longer wondered how a mere splinter could hurt him so grievously.

He was the leader of the night watch, a master at the seventh stage of Body Refinement, ranked among the top fighters on a ship of over a hundred pirates. Yet here, before his men, he’d been maimed by a prisoner’s splinter.

“Die!” the captain shrieked, brandishing his broadsword and charging at Ye Mo.

“Captain, no! This prisoner destroyed the gate with a single kick—his strength is unfathomable! Shouldn’t we report to the shipmaster and let him handle this?” a pirate behind him cried out.

“You’d bother the shipmaster over this? Are we just here to eat and do nothing? Even if he’s a peak Body Refinement fighter, unarmed, he’s no match for us! That gate must have been rotten. Brothers, together—cut them down!” another pirate retorted.

“That’s right! Even a peak fighter can’t stand against a dozen of us!”

“Kill them!”

Emboldened, the pirates raised their blades and surged toward Ye Mo and the other captives, their target clear—the man at the front.

The armed pirates bore down on them, and fear flickered across the captives’ faces; some even retreated in terror. Only a few dared remain behind Ye Mo.

Among the captives, many were only at the initial stages of martial cultivation, or ordinary folk with no skills, and all were unarmed. Against these savage pirates, they’d fall within moments.

Ye Mo didn’t look back or blame those who shrank away. He understood their weakness—following him now would only mean senseless death.

He gripped an iron sword, standing at the fore of several hundred captives, his gaze icy as he strode toward the oncoming pirates.

“Die!” The crazed captain was the first to reach Ye Mo, slashing down with a flash of steel.

Ye Mo strode forward, then suddenly exploded into motion, feet driving him ahead in a blur. In an instant, he was upon the captain. A cold gleam of swordlight flashed—the captain’s eyes went wide with disbelief as the blade plunged into his chest.

Too fast. Far faster than a peak ninth-stage Body Refinement fighter—far beyond the captain’s reach. There was no contest of technique; sheer, overwhelming speed had already decided the outcome.

Blood sprayed three feet.

The captain didn’t even have time to scream before he collapsed.

“C-captain!” someone gasped.

“No—that’s impossible! The captain is a seventh-stage master—how could a prisoner be this strong?”

The remaining pirates recoiled in horror, halting their charge as they stared at Ye Mo, sword in hand, fear etched on their faces. They hadn’t even seen how he struck; their strongest leader had already fallen, his chest run through.

All courage drained from the pirates—they could no longer delude themselves. The captain had paid for his rashness and arrogance with his life.

“We can’t beat him!”

“Run! Quickly—run!”

The pirates turned to flee in terror.

“Trying to escape?” Ye Mo sneered, darting after them.

At the sound of his voice behind them, the pirates nearly collapsed from fright.

“Vortex Slash!”

A burst of sword energy erupted in a cold arc, sweeping out to cover a ten-foot radius and engulfing the narrow corridor.

Blood spattered wildly, staining the walls and floor in an instant.

The scene was brutally bloody—some of the more timid captives couldn’t bear to look. Several female fighters, catching just a glimpse, retched violently; never had they witnessed such carnage.

But for Gao Jian, Lin Zhi, and the others who had survived the island, such bloodshed was nothing new—their battles with sea beasts had been far more horrific.

Now, with the captives rebelling, the struggle with the pirates had become a fight to the death. No one dared hold back; defeat meant utter slaughter, without mercy.

“Distribute these pirates’ weapons to our strongest fighters!” Ye Mo commanded, after finishing off the last few pirates.

Gao Jian nodded, seizing the pirates’ weapons and handing them to the most capable among the captives.

Gao Jian, Huang Yi, Mo Ling, Li Ruofeng, and the other skilled fighters each received a blade. Their confidence surged—armed, they could now face the pirates head-on.