Chapter 135: The Gong Clan’s Envoy

To the west of the Ye clan’s main island, several dozen miles away, lay a small island abundant with spiritual wood. The island was cloaked in dense forests and lush vegetation. Mo Ling and Lin Zhi often ventured into the woods, discovering several high-grade spirit herbs and poisonous spiritual plants. This discovery greatly excited both of them.

Yet, the most valuable resource was the island’s plentiful spiritual wood.

Ye Mo had established a spiritual wood harvesting site on the island, overseen by the earth slave guard Amu, accompanied by two cultivators and over a dozen martial artists who felled the spiritual wood there. Every two days, Chang Fei would steer a sea vessel to collect a batch of spiritual wood from the site and transport it back to Immortal Village for Wang Hu and Yang You to use in forging tools and in shipbuilding at the dock.

At this moment, three swift boats were docked along the island’s shore. Three Qi Refinement stage cultivators, accompanied by over a dozen martial artists, disembarked and surrounded a logging area just a few hundred yards from the coast. The logging site was placed near the shore to facilitate loading the wood onto the boats.

In charge was a slender black-clad cultivator who surveyed the island with a satisfied expression.

He had been dispatched by Lord Gong to find a suitable spiritual wood island for establishing Immortal Village, and he had just found this small island.

Others from different Immortal Villages were already harvesting wood here and had built a fenced logging area.

That was no problem; he intended to seize it. There were not many Qi Refinement cultivators in the logging site anyway.

“This island belongs to the Gong Immortal Village. Those in the logging site should leave immediately, or don’t blame me for being ruthless,” the black-clad cultivator said coldly, resting his hand on the spiritual sword at his waist as he shouted from outside the fence.

“You want this?” Amu, standing inside the logging site, retorted icy coldly. “This is the territory of the Ye Immortal Village. Are you looking for a fight?”

“So what if it’s Ye Village?” The black-clad cultivator’s eyes narrowed with disdain as his expression darkened. “Brothers, prepare for orders.”

He raised his right hand, and behind him, cultivators drew spiritual swords while over a dozen martial artists brandished spiritual wood spears, aiming them at the logging site.

“Attack!”

Amu did not wait for the order and immediately launched the attack.

In an instant, over a dozen spiritual wood spears and two massive spiritual wood arrows shot out explosively from inside the logging site.

The three cultivators from Gong Immortal Village hadn’t expected the Ye cultivators to strike first. Hastily, they raised their spiritual swords to block.

Two of them casually deflected the incoming spears, but the black-clad cultivator struggled slightly as two massive spiritual wood arrows, fashioned from the sinews of demon eagles and propelled by heavy crossbows with a force of seven or eight hundred pounds, were aimed at him.

He managed to cleave the two arrows with a single sword strike but was pushed back several steps by the tremendous force, his hand numb. One of the deflected arrows pierced straight through a martial artist behind him, killing him instantly.

“Damn it! Kill them all!” the black-clad cultivator roared in frustration.

“Hold your ground and wait for reinforcements!” Amu wielded his crimson-fire spiritual sword and, along with two other Ye cultivators, defended the fence, keeping the Gong cultivators outside.

All the martial artists behind the fence hurled spiritual wood spears at the enemy.

“Attack quickly! I want to enslave all those inside for mining and logging labor!” the black-clad cultivator shouted fiercely as he clashed swords with Amu.

Soon, they broke through the fence and charged into the logging camp, engaging in chaotic battle with the cultivators and martial artists of Ye Immortal Village.

At that moment, an eagle’s cry pierced the sky, resounding across the island.

“Haha, the lord of the city has come to aid us! Gong Immortal Village scum, prepare to become mining slaves!” The cultivators and martial artists inside the logging camp were instantly invigorated and rejoiced.

Looking up, the black-clad cultivator saw three golden spiritual eagles approaching and was shocked. He shouted, “Three-headed spiritual eagles! This must be Ye Immortal Village, the same one the city lord encountered that day!”

“Damn it! Retreat! Retreat immediately!”

The three Gong cultivators reacted swiftly, running dozens of yards to several swift boats by the sea.

The following martial artists were startled, dropping their spiritual wood spears and fleeing.

The logging camp was several hundred yards from the shore, but the three cultivators fled quickly, reaching the boats and frantically rowing away.

More than a dozen Gong martial artists were intercepted by Amu and others, unable to escape; they cowered on the ground, heads bowed, unwilling to resist further.

Those three cultivators seemed to forget that even if they escaped to the sea, the three-headed golden eagles could still pursue them.

The two larger golden eagles and the smaller one swooped down on the swift boats, rocking them violently but without causing mortal harm.

Ye Mo, together with the largest golden eagle, attacked the boats, easily overwhelming the three cultivators’ combined efforts and knocking them into the sea.

Even Qi Refinement stage cultivators could barely wield their full strength in the water.

“These dozen or so martial artists will become mining slaves. You three, scram,” the large golden eagle circling above the ship declared.

Ye Mo looked coldly at the black-clad cultivators struggling in the water for a long moment before speaking.

In truth, Ye Mo wished to keep these three as prisoners.

But the circumstances had changed.

There were over ten Immortal Villages surrounding Ye Village.

Ye Mo did not want to offend other villages too severely and provoke open conflict.

While detaining martial artists as punishment was acceptable, capturing cultivators risked harsh retaliation from other villages.

A warning was enough to make them restrain themselves.

The black-clad cultivators stared fearfully at Ye Mo in the sky, then quickly climbed aboard a swift boat and fled.

Only after traveling dozens of miles did they finally exhale in relief.

The other party was a city lord; even if they were killed, it would not violate Immortal Alliance rules—this was their source of fear.

“What now? We lost over ten martial artists. The city lord will surely be furious.”

“Return and report to Lord Gong first. He encountered this city lord before and was helpless. We can’t do anything either. It’s best not to provoke him.”

Ye Mo assured the martial artists, instructing Amu and others to continue harvesting spiritual wood, then departed with the golden eagles.

Recently, many small-scale disturbances had occurred on various branch islands.

He had to ensure he could support all affiliated islands at any time and not linger too long elsewhere.

Several hours later, Chang Fei arrived at the spiritual wood island by sea vessel, transporting a batch of spiritual wood while taking the dozen or so Gong Immortal Village captives to the Crimson Fire Mining Island as mining slaves.

Compared to logging, mining was far more difficult and laborious—such work was naturally suited for captives.

The next day:

“City Lord, a swift boat has arrived at the dock. The Gong Immortal Village envoy is here to visit and wishes to purchase spiritual wood. Lord Chang is currently receiving them. How shall we proceed? Please advise, City Lord,” reported an Immortal Guard.

“Gong Village? Already sending someone?” Ye Mo frowned. “We barely have enough spiritual wood for ourselves; there’s none to spare for them. I’ll go see them.”

He waved the guard away and left the city lord mansion, flying on the large golden eagle toward the harbor.

Ye Mo landed directly at the dock.

A tall, thin cultivator in his thirties was speaking with Chang Fei; upon seeing Ye Mo, he immediately stood.

“I am Gong Yi, envoy of Gong Immortal Village. Greetings, City Lord Ye.”

Gong Yi bowed.

“If I’m not mistaken, Gong Village’s people attacked my logging site just yesterday,” Ye Mo said flatly as he scrutinized the cultivator.

“Ah… My city lord had dispatched several teams to various islands searching for spiritual wood. Unfortunately, they clashed with Ye Village’s forces, unaware it was your property and thus offended you. Please forgive us.

My city lord has no intention of fighting Ye Immortal Village and specially sent me to explain. He is very grateful for your leniency in releasing those three cultivators,” Gong Yi awkwardly explained.

“No need for thanks. But if Gong Village’s people set foot on my branch islands again, I will detain them all as mining slaves,” Ye Mo said, shaking his head.

“Of course, of course,” Gong Yi carefully watched Ye Mo’s expression and added, “Our Gong Immortal Village is under construction and urgently needs large amounts of spiritual wood. Besides sending me to explain, my city lord hopes you might sell some spiritual wood to us. Price is no issue.”

“I’m building sea vessels and have other needs; spiritual wood is in short supply and can’t be spared. Here’s some advice: keep your Immortal Village small at first, establish it properly, or when the tide of demon beasts comes, you’ll be in trouble,” Ye Mo immediately refused.

Resources in the Ao Lai Archipelago were scarce; using some meant less for others. Spiritual wood took decades or centuries to grow. He naturally wouldn’t sell any.

He also needed spiritual wood for shipbuilding, alchemy, and forging in his village.

Ye Mo smirked inwardly. Gong Village’s lack of spiritual wood would only hinder their development.

Without further discussion, Ye Mo dismissed Gong Yi.

Gong Yi left the Ye Village harbor with a dark expression, boarding a swift boat back to Gong Immortal Village. He was deeply troubled.

Gong Village faced a serious problem—lack of spiritual wood.

The spiritual island chosen by Lord Gong was a flat island with limited spiritual wood.

Lord Gong had ambitiously planned a large Immortal Village spanning over ten miles without carefully calculating the island’s resources. Only halfway through construction did they realize the shortage, leaving even the spiritual wood walls incomplete.

With the village unfinished, Lord Gong was forced to eye nearby small islands, seizing several branch islands.

But luck was not on their side.

The nearby branch islands also had scarce spiritual wood, forcing them to search farther afield.

Yet the five-month deadline was nearly up.

Among the thirty-six great main Immortal Cities, all 360 city lords had basically arrived in the Ao Lai Archipelago.

Immortal Villages were scattered across the islands.

Unclaimed islands were rare.

They were either main Immortal Village islands or branch islands.

Lord Gong’s scouts had clashed with many villages around but still hadn’t solved the spiritual wood shortage.

He dared not rashly start a war with other villages.

Villages were still incomplete, and manpower was tight. A sudden war would drain cultivators and hinder the villages’ development, with Lord Gong himself suffering the consequences.

Thus, Lord Gong had to consider purchasing spiritual wood from other villages.

Gong Yi was not the only envoy sent.

Several nearby villages had dispatched envoys.

Though Gong’s spiritual island was 300 miles by sea from Ye’s island, the distance was not far for the swift boats carefully modified by East Sea cultivators.

Before nightfall, Gong Yi returned to Gong’s spiritual island.

As his swift boat docked, a sturdy martial artist greeted him.

“Master Yi, the city lord ordered you to come to the city lord’s mansion immediately upon return.”

Gong Yi, in low spirits, nodded and stepped forward, then turned back to ask, “Are the other envoys back?”

“Yes, Master Yi. Including you, five envoys went out today. Three have already returned, and all three look rather grim.”