Chapter Thirty-Four: The Grand Assault

In just two days, dramatic changes swept across the martial artist factions on the island. The young Marquis of Zheng, Zheng Yiqing, led by Zheng’s foremost expert He An, Steward Cao, Adviser Hou, and over a dozen skilled warriors, pressed their campaign after subduing Gao Jian’s group and two other smaller camps. Relentlessly, they launched assaults against the remaining camps scattered across the island.

Under the absolute might of He An and the cunning machinations of Adviser Hou, each martial artists' camp fell in succession to Zheng Yiqing’s conquest. Even the group of poison masters was captured and forced into servitude by the young Marquis. The strongest captives were compelled to fell spiritwood, build spiritwood rafts, and toil at hard labor. The wounded were sent to forage for food and herbs, relegated to lighter tasks.

The number of martial artist captives under Zheng Yiqing’s control rapidly swelled to fifty or sixty, among them five or six in the late stage of physical cultivation. By the sea, a grand spiritwood camp was erected.

Inside the camp, the captives labored under the watchful eyes of supervisors: a gaunt martial artist with only one hand and a burly man with a thick beard, both wielding vine whips and monitoring the prisoners closely.

“Get to work!”
“Thinking of slacking off? Do you have a death wish?”

Their shouts echoed through the camp, and anyone caught idling would receive a harsh lash of the whip. The prisoners dared not protest. Their weapons had been confiscated, and only a handful retained inferior iron tools for chopping spiritwood. Those few with iron tools were no match for Zheng Yiqing’s martial artists.

Without weapons, even a crowd stood no chance against the armed followers of the young Marquis. Just the night before, they had witnessed He An’s sword strike—three shadows, nearly a thousand pounds of force cleaving a giant sea serpent in two. Such fearsome power could only be wielded by a peak martial artist, a legendary warrior.

Furthermore, the captives themselves were a loose collection of individuals, with disparate backgrounds and motives. Leaderless, they lacked the cohesion to resist the forceful dominance of Zheng Yiqing, compelled each day to chop spiritwood, weave sails, and hasten the construction of a large raft.

Escape was not an option. At least within the captive camp, Zheng Yiqing’s formidable guards ensured safety—his group the strongest on the island. Outside, the island was fraught with danger; unarmed, with no stronghold to defend, they risked falling prey to savage sea beasts in the night. Thus, servitude in the camp was, in a sense, a path to survival.

For these two days, the captives labored to build the large raft. Soon, the martial artists realized a troubling truth.

“This big spiritwood raft only holds a dozen people! They never planned to build a second one!”
“It’s obvious what Zheng intends—once the raft is ready, his group will escape, leaving us behind on this cursed island!”

Though their dissatisfaction simmered, the fierce glances from the two supervisors kept their complaints to whispers, never spoken aloud.

Zheng Yiqing was well pleased with the progress on the raft. He had no desire to spend another day on this desolate island. Yet one matter continued to vex him: despite searching most of the island, he had not found the young martial artist with whom he had clashed. That young commoner had shown no respect for the Marquis of Zheng, brazenly severing Jiang Yingwei’s wrist.

Unfortunately, a juvenile demon crab had appeared at that moment, forcing Zheng to withdraw in haste—a humiliation and blemish upon his honor.

“Boy, you’d better not let me find you again. If I do, you’ll beg on your knees for mercy before I am satisfied!” Zheng Yiqing muttered as he inspected the raft-building captives, his expression darkening at the memory of his encounter with Ye Mo.

After pondering a moment, he summoned Adviser Hou and explained his thoughts, asking him to devise a solution.

“A commoner martial artist on this island? That’s not hard. Among the fifty or sixty captives, surely someone has seen him. With a generous reward, someone will speak,” Adviser Hou said, stroking his thin mustache, his eyes darting cunningly.

“Excellent idea!” Zheng Yiqing exclaimed, delighted.

He promptly gathered all the captives and publicly announced that anyone willing to disclose the whereabouts of “a young martial artist, seventeen or eighteen years old, dressed in coarse cloth, practicing the Wave-Cleaving Technique, and wielding a Green Edge Sword,” would be rewarded with a premium healing herb.

The captives were instantly elated. Many were wounded and desperate for medicinal herbs, yet all the high-grade healing herbs belonged to Zheng Yiqing’s faction.

“Is the young Marquis serious?”
After a moment’s hesitation, a black-robed martial artist stepped forward and bowed.

“Of course! My word is no jest,” Zheng Yiqing replied coldly.

“I once encountered a seventeen or eighteen-year-old in coarse cloth, wielding a Green Edge Sword. I didn’t fight him, so I can’t say if he practices the Wave-Cleaving Technique. But most of his traits match what you described—most likely the one you seek,” the black-robed man said.

“Seventeen or eighteen, coarse cloth, Green Edge Sword—then it must be him! Where is he now?” Zheng Yiqing asked eagerly.

“Well...”
The black-robed man looked troubled.

“What, you don’t know?” Zheng Yiqing’s impatience showed.

“I don’t know exactly where he is, only a general area. I didn’t want to make an enemy, so I didn’t follow him. But if we search that area carefully, we should find him,” the black-robed martial artist recalled.

“Very good. When we find him, I’ll reward you handsomely!” Zheng Yiqing laughed. He was determined to overwhelm Ye Mo’s group with absolute force, to make Ye Mo kneel and beg for mercy before him.

“Thank you, young Marquis,” the black-robed man replied, lowering his head to conceal his disdain. If not for the premium healing herb needed to save an injured comrade, he would never bother with this blustering Marquis of Zheng.

“He An, assemble ten men—no, twenty, and bring some captives as well! I want to find the one who stole my herbs. We set out now and destroy him, to vent my anger!” Zheng Yiqing ordered swiftly.

“Yes, young Marquis,” He An replied calmly.

In short order, a team of martial artists gathered. Not knowing how many followed Ye Mo, Zheng Yiqing, worried about manpower, added over a dozen captive experts, equipping them with crude spiritwood weapons as substitutes for iron.

Led by the black-robed martial artist, the group marched toward Ye Mo’s cave camp.

Among the twenty, six were late-stage physical cultivators, including He An, the peerless expert, Steward Cao, and Adviser Hou. Among the captive experts were Gao Jian, Huang Yi, and the poison master Lin Zhi.

This formidable force was more than enough to sweep away any martial artist group on the island.