Chapter 101: Mass Elimination

After nightfall, the surviving teams of candidates on the wild island all began searching for a safe place to make camp and rest.

Every candidate for city lord had undergone strict training, and all of them naturally understood the importance of a secure campsite.

There were also those whose luck was truly poor, who, after landing on the island, had failed to find a suitable place to pitch camp. With no proper cover nearby, they could only make do with a concealed spot in the woods for the night.

"Young master, shall we light a fire? The ground in this forest is rather damp," a sturdy cultivator in his thirties asked with concern from a small clearing he had just tidied in the woods, speaking to a young cultivator in fine robes.

The young master had always lived in luxury at home and had never once spent the night on a desolate island like this. The burly man worried that he might not be able to sleep comfortably.

"Without cover, the light would carry far. What is there to light a fire for? We will make do for one night. Handle the rest as you see fit. I am a little tired."

The richly dressed young cultivator had exhausted himself over the day. He set his spirit sword aside and leaned directly against the roots of a great tree, closing his eyes to rest.

"Very well."

The burly cultivator nodded and arranged the night's accommodations. At his insistence, no fire was lit, and everyone ate dry rations with plain water.

The burly cultivator stood watch himself, while the others rested in weary silence among the trees.

Small groves like this could be found everywhere on the wild island, which stretched for hundreds of miles in all directions.

Deep into the night.

"Young master, there are people fighting over there!"

Suddenly, the burly cultivator stirred the other four awake in a hushed voice. After listening for a moment, he pointed toward the southeast edge of the grove and whispered to the others.

"People fighting? Let's go take a look and see whether we can pick up a bargain! When they've exhausted themselves in battle, we strike. Opportunities like that are the easiest to seize."

The young cultivator in his finery instantly brightened, excitement flashing across his face.

He signaled to the others.

The burly cultivator and the rest all nodded, equally stirred.

The five of them crept through the darkness toward the scene of the battle.

Several miles away from the grove, two teams of cultivators were locked in fierce combat.

One team clearly held the upper hand. It was obvious they had launched the ambush.

"Liang Fang, just admit defeat! I've been watching your movements for half the day already. I struck while you were at your most unguarded in sleep, and two of your men are already injured. You are no match for me. Hand over your token now, and tonight I can still send you away safely so you may return to the great ship and sleep in comfort!"

A young cultivator with an aquiline nose brandished his spirit sword, which split into streaks of afterimages as he attacked the fair-faced young man before him in a狂 storm of blows, laughing all the while.

"Zhu Ren, ever since I landed on the island, I've concealed my trail with the utmost care. How did you discover where I was hiding?"

Liang Fang struggled to fend him off, crying out in alarm.

"Haha. Long before we boarded the sea ship, I quietly sprinkled colorless, odorless scent powder on you, and on more than ten other candidates as well.

The scent mouse I keep can track your trail with ease. Even if you buried yourself ten feet underground, it would be useless. The rules of the assessment never said I could not use such a thing."

Zhu Ren laughed triumphantly.

Perched on his shoulder was a little demon mouse with a red nose. It kept bobbing its head about, its clever little eyes scanning the surroundings, its red nose twitching at the air.

"Despicable and shameless, using such low tricks! How could I possibly admit defeat? Zhu Ren, even if you win, I will make you pay for it!"

At last Liang Fang understood what had happened, and he cursed furiously.

He felt some regret. He had interacted with Zhu Ren aboard the sea ship and had not noticed when Zhu Ren secretly scattered the scent powder on him.

For a moment of carelessness, he had been set upon.

Otherwise, Zhu Ren was no more than his equal; whenever he saw Liang Fang, he would normally keep his distance and would never dare meet him head-on. But now, after this sudden ambush in the dead of night, two of Liang Fang's men had been wounded in an instant, and the rest were utterly incapable of withstanding the five-man assault.

"When I seize the assessment tokens of ten teams, I will be a legitimate city lord of the Immortal City Alliance. Would I fear your revenge? Hahaha!"

Zhu Ren laughed.

A short while later, another of Liang Fang's subordinates was gravely wounded. Seeing that the rout could no longer be reversed, Liang Fang was forced to surrender. After activating his assessment token, he reluctantly handed it over.

Zhu Ren snatched up five tokens, then immediately stopped, unwilling to waste any more time. "Brother Liang, thank you for the tokens. Farewell!"

He waved, and swiftly led his men away. The robbery of Liang Fang had taken some time and caused quite a commotion; he feared it might draw the attention of other teams of candidates.

They had only gone a few dozen yards when—

"Go!"

The richly dressed young cultivator, who had been waiting for ages, his eyes already bright red with excitement, immediately swung his hand and led his four subordinates charging out from the hidden shrubs and grass.

"Who is it?!"

Zhu Ren turned in alarm at the rush of wind.

A dazzling flash of spirit sword light from the noble cultivator had already engulfed him, leaving him nowhere to flee.

To defeat Liang Fang, Zhu Ren and his men had spent a great deal of strength and spiritual power. They were already exhausted and had only just relaxed. Under this sudden and violent attack, they collapsed almost in the blink of an eye.

Zhu Ren was struck down by a sword and collapsed to the ground. Looking at the noble cultivator, his face was utterly dejected, and he was forced to surrender all his tokens.

"Hahaha, Zhu Ren! So you have a day of misfortune as well! You ambushed me, and now someone else has ambushed you. Truly karma!"

Liang Fang had not gone far when he discovered the ambush erupting behind him. Seeing Zhu Ren suffer a crushing defeat in an instant, he could not help but gloat and laugh mockingly.

Zhu Ren's defeat had come so swiftly that Liang Fang had played no small part in it.

Throughout the entire wild island, the night was almost never quiet.

Tracking and countertracking, ambush and counterambush played out everywhere on the island. At least a dozen fierce bloody battles took place.

Because food was limited, only enough for three days, many candidates chose to strike quickly and decisively. Not even the dead of night could halt their movements.

All night long, Ye Mo and Lin Zhi remained in the woods near the cliff, felling spirit wood.

They cut away the branches and hauled the trunks directly up to the cliff.

Lin Zhi also hollowed out several thick logs, each half a zhang high, and turned them into large barrels for storing fresh water from the forest stream, solving the five men's drinking needs.

The cliff was a high ground more than a thousand feet above the surroundings, ideal for defense. Even with more than a dozen cultivators, it would be difficult to assault.

But if enemies surrounded it from below with superior numbers, it would become a place of death. There would be no escape, no water, and no other supplies; all they could do was sit and wait for surrender.

Its advantages were obvious, but so were its flaws.

Fortunately, this assessment would not last long. It tested the ability to survive in chaotic battle over a short span of time. As long as they held firm, opportunities would come later.

As for how to hold it, Ye Mo, Lin Zhi, Mo Ling, Wang Hu, Yang You, and the others had ample experience and naturally knew the routine.

Aside from Yang You and the Fire Raven standing guard on the cliff, everyone was busy, working flat out to produce spirit-wood shields and spirit-wood javelins. These were consumables for defending the cliff, and naturally the more they stockpiled, the better.

In addition, they needed to set up fences, spikes, and even rolling logs at various points along the cliff to keep enemies from quietly climbing up.

"I wonder how those guys on the island are doing!" Wang Hu sat on a rock, chopping spirit wood with his sword as he sighed in regret. "Isn't this place a little too remote? No one has come to attack us at all!"

"Isn't that a good thing? Do you actually want someone to come?" Mo Ling was making spirit-wood shields and smiled as she spoke.

"Of course not. If they all slaughter one another and leave only nine city lords standing, that would be ideal!" Wang Hu chuckled.

"There is no such good fortune. Those fellows aren't fools. They will discover us sooner or later. Once they set their sights on us, we become a fixed target that cannot move, and they can attack us to death."

Mo Ling rolled her eyes at him, unconvinced.

"We are holding this cliff, avoiding the early chaos, and stockpiling as much as we can! If we can survive the first three days, half the candidates for city lord should be eliminated. Survive five days, and more than seventy candidates will be out. Survive ten days, and there should only be a dozen or so of the strongest candidates left on this island."

Ye Mo nodded and said calmly.

He was very clear-headed.

Eliminating some ordinary candidates was easy, but eliminating the top dozen or twenty was far harder.

"While no one has discovered that we've set up camp here, we should gather enough food, water, and spirit wood for at least ten days. Make sure the javelins are ready, and keep reinforcing the cliff's defenses.

No one should be able to take this cliff. What concerns me is that once someone discovers us, they may set an ambush in the woods and strike when we go there to gather water and spirit wood."

Lin Zhi said.

"Not a problem. Before each trip to the woods, I send the Fire Raven ahead to scout. If they try to set an ambush for all five of us at once, they won't fool the Fire Raven's eyes. It possesses a natural fire sight and can see through all manner of low-grade stealth arts!"

Ye Mo laughed.

"Fire-sight that can break stealth techniques?" Lin Zhi, Mo Ling, and the others were all astonished.

After the three most chaotic days at the beginning of the wild island ordeal, nearly half of the city lord candidates had already been eliminated through all manner of ambushes and counterambushes, with their tokens and food taken from them.

The remaining dozens of candidates and their followers had mostly established solid camps throughout the island, gathering as many of the island's scarce resources as they could and trying every means possible to strengthen themselves.

But this did not mean danger had passed. On the contrary, the fighting had not eased at all; it had only become more targeted.

In the early stage, much of the fighting had been random. If you met someone, you fought, and no one knew what kind of opponent they might encounter.

But now that things had stabilized, everyone had gained some understanding of the competitors around them and could strike at an enemy's weakness. Alliances, hostility, and neutrality had all become options. Everyone had grown more restrained. Either they did not move at all, or they struck with a lethal ambush.

Ye Mo and the others remained stationed on the cliff at the edge of the island, waiting for the island's chaotic situation to evolve.

The cliff had already suffered one probing attack from another team of candidates, but that team was relatively weak. After one attempt, they realized they could not deal with Ye Mo and the others. So they stood off with them beneath the cliff for several hours before soon giving up and leaving in disgrace.