Cultivating immortality in the seas, I created an immortal island of eternal life.

The tide was crashing not far away, and the night wind carried a salty, fishy smell, coming in gusts.

As Old Ma lay crouching behind the rocks, he felt his heart surging upwards with the tide, almost bursting out of his throat.

His hands, gripping the harpoon, turned white from the pressure, and the wooden handle was slippery from the sweat. He dared not blink, staring intently at the two increasingly close, dim yellow halos of light.

The two disciples did not walk very fast.

The shorter one, carrying a lantern, muttered to himself, seemingly complaining to the taller one about the arduous task of night patrol.

The tall man didn't say much, but kept looking around, his hand always on his waist.

There was something bulging there, I wonder what was inside.

The two walked closer and closer, until they were only about ten feet away from the pile of rocks.

Someone swallowed, their Adam's apple bobbing. The sound wasn't loud, but it was exceptionally clear in the quiet night.

"Who's there!"

The short disciple suddenly stopped and raised the lantern high.

The dim yellow light swept across the rocky beach, swayed, and settled on the edge of the shadow where Old Man Ma was hiding.

It was discovered!

Old Ma's mind went blank, but his body moved faster than his thoughts. With a sudden push of the harpoon in his hand, he sprang out of the shadows of the reef like a swordfish leaping out of the water.

Under the moonlight, the harpoon tip left only a white streak as it pierced straight towards the tall disciple's waist.

He was fast, and the two disciples on night patrol were not slow to react either.

The shorter disciple made his move almost the instant Old Man Ma suddenly attacked.

Instead of drawing his weapon, he formed a strange hand seal with his right hand and uttered a single word:

"Royal!"

A palm-sized, light blue water shield suddenly appeared at the tall disciple's waist.

With a muffled thud, the harpoon's thrust was barely blocked.

The water shield rippled a few times but didn't disperse; it just became much dimmer in color.

The tall disciple was both shocked and furious. He threw the lantern at Old Man Ma's face, while simultaneously pulling a yellow talisman from his waist with his left hand.

With a flick of his fingertip spiritual power, the talisman burst into flames, transforming into three fist-sized fireballs that hurtled towards Old Man Ma.

The heat wave hit him hard, and Old Man Ma felt a chill run down his spine, knowing he couldn't take it head-on.

His experience was invaluable; he twisted his waist and turned to the side, managing to tumble and roll in a clumsy yet effective manner, narrowly avoiding the fireball.

The fireball slammed into the rocks behind him, sending shards of rock flying and burning his back.

At this moment, the other six people behind the reef also rushed out.

There were no words spoken, only heavy breathing and the clanging of weapons cutting through the air.

The man with the missing ear wielded a gleaming cleaver, its blade swift and fierce, aimed directly at the short disciple's head.

The hunched old woman moved with surprising speed, clutching two thin, long bone darts in her hands, aiming them at the tall disciple's lower body like a venomous snake striking.

The battle escalated in the blink of an eye, devolving into the most brutal close-quarters combat.

The two outer disciples were clearly not expecting that there were as many as seven ambushers, each of whom was fearless and ruthless.

Although their cultivation was superior to the others, they were still only a minor realm below them. Two fists could not fight against four hands, and their opponents only attacked and did not defend. For a time, the two were overwhelmed and gradually felt exhausted.

The short disciple made another hand gesture, and several pieces of gravel flew up and smashed towards the charging, earless man.

The man with the missing ear neither dodged nor evaded, taking the blow head-on with a muffled groan, but his momentum with the cleaver did not diminish at all, and he slammed it down on the hastily raised scabbard.

Sparks flew everywhere, and the short disciple was forced back two steps by the brute force, his arm going numb.

The taller disciple was in an even worse situation. He had just used up some of his spiritual energy by activating the talisman, and he was also forced into a frantic state by the old woman's strange fish spears. His robes had already been pierced in several places.

Panic flashed in his eyes, and he gritted his teeth, reaching for the talisman again. A young fisherman wielding a harpoon seized the opportunity and thrust the harpoon straight at the tall disciple's ribs.

"Watch out!" the shorter disciple cried out.

The tall disciple managed to turn sideways, the harpoon grazing his ribs and leaving a trail of blood.

The excruciating pain made him pause, and the old woman seized the opportunity to throw her harpoon, which pierced his thigh with a soft thud.

The tall disciple screamed and staggered.

"Take him down!" Old Man Ma roared, getting up from the ground and thrusting his fork at the shorter disciple again, preventing him from having a chance to help.

The scene was extremely chaotic.

Spiritual energy surged, weapons clashed, and muffled groans and cries of pain mingled.

The two outer disciples were struggling to stay afloat, and soon they had several wounds on their bodies, their light blue robes stained with blood.

But even cornered beasts fight fiercely. After all, they were cultivators at the mid-stage of Qi Refining, and their talismans and minor spells were endless. A water arrow shot out from the short disciple's sleeve, piercing the throat of a fisherman who lunged at them.

The fisherman, clutching his bleeding neck, groaned twice, stared wide-eyed, and fell backward, becoming the first casualty.

However, the death of their companion did not deter the remaining people; instead, it aroused the ferocity in their bones.

The man with the missing ear had bloodshot eyes, and his cleaver flashed like a bloody blur as he attacked relentlessly, focusing solely on offense and relentlessly entangled the shorter disciple. Meanwhile, the old man and woman, along with another person, surrounded and fiercely attacked the wounded, taller disciple.

Finally, the short disciple made a careless move, and the man with the missing ear used his shoulder to knock the sword away. The cleaver then slashed down, leaving a deep, bone-revealing gash on his back.

The shorter disciple cried out in pain and fell to the ground, struggling to get up, but several harpoons were already pressed against his vitals.

On the other side, the tall disciple suffered a severe thigh injury and lost too much blood, and his spiritual power was almost exhausted. In the end, he was pinned to the ground.

The sound of the tide seemed louder, drowning out the heavy breathing.

Old Ma leaned on his harpoon, his chest heaving violently, the pain from his wounds piercing him; he had completely forgotten about it during the fight.

He looked around and saw a corpse, four wounded companions holding down two prisoners, a man with a missing ear bleeding from his back, an old woman with a cut on her arm, and himself covered in bruises.

It actually worked?

A surge of mixed fear and unbelievable elation made Old Man Ma's head spin.

He spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva and walked up to the tall disciple who was being held down. The young man's face was contorted with pain and fear, and there was no trace of his usual arrogance.

"Speak!" Old Man Ma coughed twice, his voice hoarse, "Where exactly did your Yunxiang Sect take the people you kidnapped? Are those who went missing dead or alive?"

The tall disciple's eyes were filled with terror, his lips trembled, but he clenched his teeth.

"You won't talk, huh?" The man with the missing ear walked over, carrying a blood-dripping knife, his face twitching with menacing fat. "I have plenty of ways to make you talk."

He crouched down, pressed the tip of the knife against the other man's other intact leg, and slowly increased the pressure.

"No... I'll talk! I'll talk!" The fear of death finally overwhelmed everything, and the tall disciple broke down. "It's the Shadow Puppet Pavilion! I really don't know anything else! I'm only in charge of outer sect affairs; I don't have access to other secrets!"

Shadow Puppet Pavilion?

Old Man Ma and Old Woman exchanged a glance, both seeing the surprise and chill in each other's eyes.

There was definitely something deeper going on behind this!

"Where is the Shadow Puppet Pavilion? How do I get in?" Old Ma continued to press.

"It's...it's in the back mountain of the main island, there's a restriction! Only a specific token or an elder's decree can be obtained..."

Before he could finish speaking, a sudden change occurred.

Suddenly, the tall man's eyes, which had been filled with fear, lost all their luster and became empty.

Immediately afterwards, his body and clothes quickly turned grayish-white and flat, as if fading, and the texture became strange, as if they had become a piece of paper that had been soaked in water and faded.

"What happened?"

The fisherman who was holding him down was so frightened that he let go.

To everyone's astonishment, the tall disciple floated up lightly, his limbs hanging limply down, like a piece of clothing drying in the sun, or a puppet in a shadow play.

At the same time, the shorter disciple next to him also underwent the same change.

"It's a trap!" the old woman screamed, her voice trembling.

Two shadow puppets moved erratically in the air without wind, their blurred features seemingly still bearing a half-smile.

Immediately afterwards, a few soft sounds suddenly came from the tall shadow puppet's waist pouch.

Several dark figures flew out, landed on the ground and grew in size upon exposure to the wind, instantly transforming into five shadow puppets that looked no different from ordinary people, but were lifeless.

They emanated clear spiritual energy fluctuations, all of them being at the late stage of Qi Refining. As soon as they appeared, they rushed towards Old Man Ma and the others.

His movements were so fast they left afterimages, and every move he made was a killing blow. His spiritual energy was far superior to that of the two disciples.

"run!"

Old Man Ma was so frightened that he only managed to utter one word before a figure struck him in the chest with a palm strike.

puff!

He felt as if he had been struck by a heavy hammer, and his whole body flew backward, crashing heavily into a pile of rocks several meters away. His vision went black, and he felt as if his internal organs had shifted out of place.

Through his blurred vision, he saw the man with the missing ear roar and swing his knife at a shadow puppet. The blade struck the puppet's shoulder but only penetrated halfway into the flesh, producing a sound like metal clashing against stone.

The shadow puppet grabbed the man with its backhand and sent the man with the missing ear flying.

The old woman screamed and plunged a fish spear into the abdomen of a shadow puppet, but the puppet was completely unaware and knocked her down with a slap, its fate unknown.

The crowd, who had just been basking in the joy of a narrow victory, were as fragile as sea foam in the face of this absolute power.

Old Man Ma, with strength he didn't know he came from, took advantage of the chaos and the darkness to scramble and crawl.

Relying on his familiarity with the terrain, he dragged his nearly broken body and desperately tried to squeeze into the area where the tide was louder. The screams and curses of his companions behind him, the sound of bones breaking, were like a death knell, relentlessly pursuing him.

He dared not look back; his lungs burned with anguish, and every friction against his broken leg brought excruciating pain.

The icy seawater washed over his body, and he slid into the sea, holding his breath and curling his body tightly under the darkness and the seawater.

I don't know how much time passed.

Maybe it will be a long time, or maybe it will only be a short while.

The screams outside finally subsided completely, leaving only the ceaseless rushing of the tide.

Old Ma was like a real floating corpse, soaking in the cold seawater, not daring to move.

Only after confirming that there was no further disturbance outside did he grit his teeth and slowly climb back to the shore.

He coughed violently, coughing up seawater mixed with blood and foam.

He struggled to sit up and looked towards the mudflats.

The cold moonlight shone down, and the shadow puppet and everyone else disappeared.

Only the lantern that had been knocked down lay forlornly in the distance, its flame long since extinguished.

As far as the eye could see, he was the only one left.

No, there are still people.

A rustling sound came from not far away.

Old Ma's heart stopped, and he stiffly turned his head.

Two figures stood up shakily from behind another rock.

It was that man with the missing ear, and another skinny fisherman who didn't do much.

The two were soaking wet and their faces were deathly pale, clearly having escaped into the sea to avoid disaster.

The three men were injured, their eyes filled with the fear of surviving a disaster and a bewildered despair; none of them spoke.

After a long while, the man with the missing ear, panting heavily, his eyes darting around, finally settled on Old Man Ma.

"Why...why would there be an ambush? How did they know we'd be coming tonight? And why did they prepare this...this weird thing beforehand?" His voice was hoarse, filled with barely suppressed fear and suspicion.

The skinny fisherman also looked over, his eyes darting around: "Uncle Ma... only a few of us know about this."

The words were left unsaid, but the meaning couldn't be clearer.

Once the seed of doubt is planted, nourished by fear and death, it can sprout instantly and grow into a ferocious vine.

They need an explanation, and even more so, an outlet to take responsibility for this crushing defeat and the deaths of their comrades.

Seeing the growing suspicion in their eyes, I felt that the excruciating pain from the slap earlier paled in comparison to the coldness and bitterness rising in my heart.

Old Man Ma knew that Gao Yao was a smart kid and must have guessed something, but he chose to avoid him.

Avoiding someone and informing on them are two different things.

He didn't believe Gao Yao would do such a thing.

Old Ma opened his mouth, wanting to say something in his defense, wanting to say that Gao Yao might not know their specific plan, wanting to say that there might have been a problem in some other aspect...

But the words stuck in my throat.

But now, looking into the anxious eyes of his surviving companions, filled with grief, fear, and anger, he suddenly realized that any words offered to exonerate outsiders would be pale and powerless, and might even backfire.

The tide gradually reached our feet.

"Let's get out of here first." Old Ma's injuries made him grimace in pain. "It's getting light; the patrols need to be changed."

The three of them, supporting each other, staggered and disappeared behind the pile of rocks.

The tide came in, slowly washing over the mudflats, diluting the bloodstains and erasing the traces of the fight.

It was as if nothing had happened.

But when a person dies, they are truly dead.

......