Grinding EXP From a Demon Hunting Ship

The darkest hour of the morning.

A time when night was receding, but day had not yet broken.

It was the hour when those who had stayed up all night were most prone to fatigue.

The Copper Drum Bay artillery platform.

It was a two-story tower of mixed stone and wood construction, capable of housing a garrison of at least twenty men.

Of course, the Shu Family, currently short-handed, would not be so extravagant as to fully staff an artillery platform in a "peaceful" area.

Only ten cultivators were stationed in this artillery platform!

"Aah-woo..."

The Shu Family cultivator standing watch on the top floor, monitoring the harbor entrance, let out a groggy yawn.

Unconsciously, his eyelids drooped shut. He dozed for a few breaths before jolting awake, instantly on alert as he looked out over the harbor entrance.

The sea was calm.

Forget the Luo Family fleet; he couldn’t even see a single bird.

"Whew..." The Shu Family cultivator sighed in relief, his guard dropping. ’I was just being paranoid...’

’Right,’ he thought. ’It’s the middle of the night. Even those Luo Family dogs have to sleep...’

’Just have to hold on a little longer. In an hour, at most, my shift will be over.’

He stood up, stretched, and worked the stiffness out of his limbs.

After a whole night on watch, even while leaning inside the sheltered sentry post, his body had grown stiff.

Worried he might fall asleep again, he decided to go downstairs for a cup of hot water to warm his stomach.

"Zhong, is there any hot water left...?"

However, the moment he got downstairs, his body went rigid!

CRASH.

The glass cup fell to the floor and shattered to pieces!

A few round droplets splashed out, landing on the grayish-white stone floor and instantly forming a dark patch.

There, on the first floor of the artillery platform, in the main hall.

Seven or eight bodies lay scattered haphazardly on the ground, already lifeless!

A dozen or so formidable, skilled figures stood in the hall, all turning to look at him at the sound!

"You... You’re... the Luo..." The Shu Family cultivator’s legs felt weak.

SHHNK!

A spear shimmering with silver light instantly pierced through his skull, pinning him to the stone wall behind.

CRUMBLE.

Dust and plaster trickled down from the wall.

"You guessed correctly. The prize is one talismanic artifact~"

Su Ye snapped his fingers, a cruel, cold smile on his face.

With a wave of his hand, the Frost Thorn Spear let out a HUM and returned to his grasp.

Su Ye strode up to the highest floor of the artillery platform.

There, he saw three ballistae, a large bundle of Crossbow Arrows, and...

A look of curiosity in his eyes, Su Ye used his Frost Thorn Spear as a lever to pry open one of the stacked wooden crates!

Inside, it was filled with palm-sized red pottery jars. A slight shake produced the sound of a viscous liquid sloshing within!

"Fire-oil clay pots!"

Made with a special pottery technique, they were extremely sturdy and wouldn’t break under normal circumstances.

Of course, being tied to a Crossbow Arrow and fired at supersonic speeds hardly counted as "normal circumstances"...

For spirit ships, these pots filled with flammable fire-oil were undoubtedly a nightmare.

’Thankfully, I wasn’t arrogant enough to attack Copper Drum Bay directly before...’

Su Ye was secretly glad, but then he smiled.

’But now, they’re all mine!’

And that smile grew even brighter when he saw the prearranged fire signal light up from the artillery platform on the opposite shore.

’A large flame for one second... out for six seconds... a small flame for four seconds...’

’The signal matches!’

The other small team, led by his first mate, had also successfully captured their artillery platform!

Now, both of Copper Drum Bay’s artillery platforms were under Su Ye’s control!

"Relay my orders. Light the signal fire and respond to the other shore."

"Order them to adjust their artillery positions along with us and aim at... the harbor!"

Su Ye bared his white teeth. In the firelight, his smile held an indescribable cruelty!

"Gentlemen, I want to see the world burn!"

"Yes, Captain!"

...

Fire! Fire! Fire!

A boundless inferno surged forward, threatening to swallow him whole!

In his terror, he suddenly felt someone behind him grab him.

He whipped his head around!

What he saw was a terrifying face, its flesh charred black and torn apart.

The roots of his teeth were mostly exposed, and the blood spewing from his mouth seemed to be on fire!

"Little Rui, you have to live..."

BOOM!

"Tian!"

Shu Rui jolted awake, drenched in a cold sweat.

He clutched his blanket, trembling for a long while before he finally calmed down.

He waved his hand, summoning a water mirror.

The youthful face in the mirror was marked with the hideous, terrifying remnants of burns!

"Wooo..." Shu Rui sobbed, tears streaming down his face.

Every new recruit harbors a special delusion.

They think they’re special, that they’ll live forever and, like the heroes of epic poems, achieve great things...

But that fantasy usually shatters like a bubble after their first serious injury.

And so it was for Shu Rui.

It was just that the price he’d paid was a bit too steep.

The hellish flames spewed by the Yunjin had destroyed his face and stolen the elder he trusted.

All that remained was a shattered will and a lingering Nightmare...

And just then...

WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!

A piercing whistle tore through the air outside his window!

Shu Rui’s expression filled with horror.

Without even stopping to put on his shoes, he bolted out of the room in a few quick strides.

CRASH.

The sound of a clay pot shattering was piercingly clear in the quiet night.

A raging fire instantly swept through a section of the harbor!

The orange-red firelight reflected on Shu Rui’s face. Nightmare and reality overlapped, and his entire body began to tremble.

"AHHHHH!!!!"

...

The harbor was in chaos.

A sea of fierce flames raged, and thick smoke billowed!

As far as the eye could see, there was nothing but terrifying firelight!

The Shu Family cultivators stationed at Copper Drum Bay were in a panic.

After a long moment, they finally organized themselves and began using Magic to try and extinguish the flames.

At that moment, a spirit ship with its sails raised high, catching the full force of the wind, charged into the harbor with unstoppable momentum!

The Sea Crocodile!

First, take the artillery platforms, then advance by sea and land to conquer Copper Drum Bay!

This was Su Ye’s strategy!

The Shu Family cultivators were certainly brave, trying to defend their spirit ships.

But under the combined firepower of the Sea Crocodile and the artillery platforms, their attacks were easily repelled, one after another!

They left behind only a field of corpses, licked by tongues of flame that gave off a smell of charring flesh.

Seeing this, Shu Fenglin forced himself out of his room, his eyes nearly splitting with rage as he shouted to stop them.

"You idiots, stop running to the docks to die!"

Shu Fenglin was currently the only Late-stage Qi Refining cultivator in Copper Drum Bay!

His head was wrapped in a white cloth bandage, covering his left eye.

Several days ago, Shu Fenglin had suffered a severe head injury on the battlefield of Jade Valley.

Although he was lucky to have survived, the intense, persistent pain in his head caused him to vomit repeatedly and suffer from sleepless nights, leaving him weak and listless.

However, he was a Late-stage Qi Refining cultivator, after all. Even in this state, his strength surpassed that of an average mid-stage cultivator.

Therefore, the short-staffed Shu Family had ordered him to fall back and garrison Copper Drum Bay.

The previous Late-stage Qi Refining cultivator who had been garrisoning Copper Drum Bay had been dispatched to the front lines.

"Stay away from the docks! The enemy doesn’t have many men. They won’t be able to sail away with five spirit ships in a short amount of time!"

"Follow me! We’re taking back the artillery platforms first!"

A savage glint appeared in Shu Fenglin’s bloodshot eyes!