Chapter 123: The Crushing Defeat at Min Village! (Please Vote with Your Monthly Ticket)

On Redfire Mine Island, Ye Mo and a group of cultivators and warriors from Ye Village hurried toward the island’s edge.

“It’s a pity the fire isn’t mine to set. If I could personally smash the oil barrels overboard, I’d be ecstatic,” Wang Hu said enviously as he watched the three-headed spirit eagle soaring into the sky.

“With your build, do you think a spirit eagle could carry you? If you were lighter than Ashui, the task of sinking the Min clan’s sea ship would have fallen to you,” Yang You laughed.

Everyone burst into laughter upon hearing this.

Among all the cultivators from Immortal Village, Ashui was the lightest, barely able to ride a spirit eagle. Moreover, Ashui was calm and agile, making her the most suitable for such a mission.

“Let’s move to the shoreline first. The guys behind are catching up fast; there’s no need to fight them head-on. If we manage to sink their sea ship, we can capture them all without lifting a finger,” Ye Mo sneered as he spotted the Min Village cultivators pursuing from afar.

On the island, Min Village cultivators were desperately chasing after Ye Village’s people.

At sea beyond the island, Min Village’s sea ships were chasing after Ye Village’s vessels.

The owners and sailors aboard Min Village’s ships were pushing themselves hard to close the gap, determined to sink Ye Village’s ship in the ocean.

Min Village’s large sea ships had a clear advantage: their hulls were tall and sturdy, far more capable of withstanding cannon fire than Ye Village’s ships.

In a naval battle, Min Village’s ships were bound to win.

Therefore, from the captain to the sailors and the warriors left on board, everyone was relaxed, even taking pleasure in toying with the struggling sailors of Ye Village.

“Your city lord is finished. Abandon ship and surrender. When you become miners for Min Village in the future, we’ll make sure you get extra food so you won’t starve,” the warriors on Min Village’s sea ship jeered loudly.

“You keep acting arrogant. Soon, you won’t have the chance,” Chang Fei shouted angrily from Ye Village’s ship deck.

Redfire Mine Island.

Min Village cultivators were in hot pursuit of Ye Mo and his group.

“Look at the sky! What’s that? Three-headed demon eagles? Wait, on the lead eagle there’s someone riding—not demon eagles, but spirit eagles, with cultivators mounted, flying over the sea,” a cultivator in the group suddenly looked up and exclaimed in shock.

“Where?”

“Which Immortal Village cultivator is that?”

Min Village cultivators looked up in surprise.

Flying spirit beasts were a coveted treasure for many Qi Refining stage cultivators.

With flying spirit beasts, Qi Refining cultivators could enjoy the convenience of flight much earlier.

Whether for long journeys or battles, everything would be completely different.

However, very few Qi Refining cultivators could own such beasts. The reason was simple—they could afford to buy them but not to feed these ravenous creatures. Raising a raptor spirit beast consumed as much as feeding ten cultivators of the same stage.

More importantly, the cultivation period for these beasts was lengthy. Ordinary spirit beasts took decades to show initial results; some required centuries to fully mature.

Immortal Villages simply couldn’t afford to raise such beasts, and even Immortal Towns rarely could. Only Immortal Cities commonly had them, typically owned by ancient cultivator families with centuries of history.

These were true luxuries.

“Flying spirit beasts? Which Immortal Village do they belong to?”

The Min City Lord paused and looked up, frowning.

He was currently locked in a fierce battle with Ye Village over Redfire Mine Island and did not want other Immortal Villages interfering at this critical moment.

“Could those be the spirit beasts from Ye Village?”

“No way. If Ye Village had flying spirit beasts, they would have deployed them earlier. Why only now?”

Everyone voiced their doubts.

“Which direction are they flying? There are still a few cultivators hidden on our sea ship. Would they dare attack it?”

The Min City Lord’s face darkened.

“They’re heading towards our sea ship. They seem intent on attacking us and are getting very close. This is bad—they’re Ye Village’s spirit eagles!”

A cultivator ran up to a nearby hill and shouted after spotting the distant sea.

“What?”

“Ye Village’s spirit beasts?”

Everyone’s expressions changed drastically.

“Our Min clan sea ship has dozens of high-level warriors and sailors equipped with spirit wood spears and spirit wood shields. We even have two hidden cultivators on board. Ye Village’s one cultivator and three spirit eagles can’t possibly take our ship quickly. City Lord, don’t panic. We can send reinforcements; it’s not too late. The captain is a calm man; he knows the best course of action is to dock and await support,” an elder said firmly.

“That makes sense,” the Min City Lord shouted, clutching at this lifeline. “Head immediately toward the sea ship to reinforce it!”

The cultivators turned around and sprinted furiously toward the shore.

They all understood what losing the sea ship meant—it would trap them on Redfire Mine Island.

Ashui, riding the great golden eagle, carried two spirit eagles and a barrel of fire oil, heading straight for Min Village’s sea ship.

The three spirit eagles cried out sharply as they dove from the sky.

“Hurry!”

“Spirit eagle attack! They’re targeting our sea ship! Form up! Everyone prepare spirit wood spears and shields to repel the Ye Village cultivators’ assault!”

“Bring the ship close to Redfire Island. Prepare to receive the city lord on board.”

Chaos reigned on Min Village’s large sea ship.

The spirit eagles had yet to land.

Dozens of warriors were organized by a towering man nearly seven feet tall, all pointing their spears skyward. When the spirit eagles descended, they would fight to the death.

These high-level warriors radiated a fierce killing intent.

Two Qi Refining cultivators hid their presence, lying in ambush near the sailors and warriors on the ship’s concealed side.

Even though Ashui was a Qi Refining cultivator, if she alone landed with three spirit eagles amid these warriors fighting desperately, she would gain no advantage.

“Great Gold, stop. Little Gold, Third Gold, drop the fire oil!”

Ashui looked down and sneered.

The three spirit eagles circled a hundred feet above the large ship, not descending.

Ashui stabbed the barrel of fire oil with her Black Iron Spirit Sword, creating a large hole. A torrent of fire oil poured out.

With a splash!

A barrel of fire oil cascaded onto the ship’s sail.

Chaos erupted aboard Min Village’s ship.

“This is bad! That’s fire oil!”

“She’s not trying to seize the ship—she intends to burn it!”

The sailors on board panicked. The sail would catch fire easily, and soaked in fire oil, it would ignite at the slightest spark.

The two hidden Qi Refining cultivators on board were dumbfounded, unsure of what to do.

“Don’t panic! Act quickly! Lower the sail!” the ship owner shouted, sweating profusely, trying to salvage the situation.

The fire oil drenched the entire sail, making it impossible to extinguish with seawater.

Once the fire started, the whole ship would be doomed.

“This naval battle is over,” Ashui said calmly, a faint smile on her gentle face. She pulled out a strip of cloth soaked in gunpowder tied to a spirit wood block, lit it to make a torch, and threw it down forcefully.

Boom!

A massive flame burst from the ship’s sail.

The sail, soaked in fire oil, ignited instantly.

The fire spread wildly, burning the sail, which began to fall in flaming pieces onto the ship’s deck.

The mast, now ablaze, creaked ominously, swaying as it threatened to collapse.

“No!”

“We’re finished! Our ship is doomed! Escape!” the sailors screamed in terror.

The entire large sea ship was made of spirit wood, which was poorly fireproof. With the assistance of fire oil, once ablaze, it was impossible to extinguish.

Only many water-element Qi Refining cultivators working together to cast a wide-area spirit rain could douse such a fierce blaze.

“Abandon ship! Abandon ship immediately!”

The Min Village ship owner screamed, leaping from the side of the ship onto a small boat tied alongside. At this moment, the small boat was their only hope of escape.

The sailors scrambled frantically for the few small boats, which had limited capacity.

Those who couldn’t get on a boat had no choice but to jump into the sea.

“Shoot to sink it!”

Chang Fei shouted viciously.

Having been badly beaten by Min Village’s ship earlier, he was filled with pent-up anger and didn’t want to wait for their ship to sink naturally. He wanted to accelerate its demise with cannon fire.

The gunners on Ye Village’s ship were extremely accurate, with an error margin of only one or two yards.

Two consecutive Black Iron cannonballs struck below Min Village’s ship’s hull.

The ship shattered in large pieces, seawater pouring in, slowly sinking.

At the same time, a small fast boat at the rear of Min Village’s ship quietly slipped away, heading toward the other side of the island.

When the Min City Lord and his cultivators reached the shore, the large sea ship was engulfed in flames, sending up thick smoke.

The bow tilted, already beginning to sink.

Many sailors paddled desperately toward the island to avoid being pulled under by whirlpools caused by the sinking ship.

“How could this happen? How did it turn around so fast?”

The Min City Lord roared in fury.

“This is over. What do we do now?”

“Trapped in this godforsaken place—are we going to live like savages?”

Min Village’s cultivators stared dumbfounded at the sinking ship, their faces pale, unable to believe the reality.

Half an incense stick’s time ago, they had total advantage. But in just a short while, Min Village’s sea ship was sunk by Ye Village cultivators.

A second-tier spirit wood large sea ship destroyed by fire.

“We were tricked. From the start, they pretended to be weak and lured us into chasing them, drawing us off the ship onto the island. Otherwise, why didn’t they flee to Ye Village’s spirit island? If they had retreated, we would have honored the Immortal Alliance treaty and not attacked Ye Village’s spirit island, nor left our ships to pursue them ashore.”

“City Lord Ye deliberately escaped to the island to lure us into a trap, then used three spirit eagles carrying fire oil to set our ship ablaze.”

“By leaving the ship, we couldn’t reinforce or extinguish the fire in time. Otherwise, with our water-element cultivators, we could have cast spells together to put out the flames.”

“Now, we’ve fallen into their trap and are trapped on Redfire Mine Island.”

Min Village cultivators slowly realized the bitter truth.

With each word, the Min City Lord’s face grew paler. It was a slap to his pride. Finally, he spat a mouthful of blood, wielded his spirit sword, and knelt by the shore, his expression despondent.