Chapter Three: The Terrifying Juvenile Demon Crab

Noon.

The sun blazed mercilessly over the entire island, scorching everything beneath it. Even the sand on the beach was hot enough to burn bare feet.

After finishing his cultivation in the seawater, Ye Mo walked up onto the beach. Sweat streamed down his body, soaking his martial tunic so thoroughly that it was impossible to tell whether it was wet from seawater or perspiration.

He shook his head fiercely, flinging off the sweat, then wiped his face with his sleeve. Driven by the persistent hunger gnawing at his stomach, he began searching along the shore for seabird eggs, quickening his pace.

Rustle... rustle...

Suddenly, a faint sound drifted from behind him.

Ye Mo’s instincts made his hair stand on end. As an intermediate-level martial artist, his sense of hearing was exceptionally keen.

“That’s not the sound of waves breaking on the sand.”

He cast aside all other thoughts, spun around swiftly, sword in hand.

Several yards behind him stood a massive sea crab, more than two feet tall—bigger than a child’s bathing tub. Its shell gleamed a tender yellow, and it had just been washed ashore by a wave. As the tide receded, its body was fully exposed on the sand.

Ye Mo was startled, but his surprise quickly turned to joy. “This East Sea crab is enormous! But its shell is still soft—it must be a juvenile, not yet matured. If I kill it and roast its meat, I won't have to worry about food for days. Ha! Seems I won’t starve on this island after all.”

The young sea crab, for its part, seemed equally startled to encounter a human. People were utterly foreign to it.

It immediately froze, its round eyes bulging as it raised a pair of golden pincers, each three feet long, leveling them at Ye Mo warily.

“Please don’t scuttle back to the sea!” Ye Mo gripped his Azure Edge Sword tightly, advancing slowly, intent on slaughtering the juvenile crab for a meal. In his mind’s eye, he already pictured the giant crab transformed into a delicious, roasted feast.

Sensing Ye Mo’s hostility, the young crab grew agitated and angry.

With a furious wave of its massive claws, it charged towards him, determined to show this intruder it was not to be trifled with.

Ye Mo was surprised by the aggression and hastily leapt aside, narrowly dodging the crab’s attack. “It doesn’t flee, and even attacks people! The crabs on this island are remarkably bold!”

Missing its target, the young crab seemed even angrier. Its golden pincers flashed dazzlingly in the sunlight as it swept them at Ye Mo in a wide arc.

This time, Ye Mo did not dodge.

“Wave-Cleaving Slash!”

He swung his sword, a cold gleam slicing through the air and striking one of the crab’s raised pincers.

Clang!

The impact was immense—the force rebounded instantly. Ye Mo staggered back several steps under the powerful shock, barely managing to steady himself by thrusting his sword into the ground.

“What incredible strength!”

“And what astonishingly hard claws!”

Ye Mo stared at the golden crab, waves of shock surging in his heart.

“As an intermediate cultivator at the sixth stage of Body Refinement, my slashing power exceeds two hundred jin. Yet this juvenile crab’s force easily surpasses three hundred jin—stronger than even late-stage Body Refinement warriors!”

“And this is a top-grade Azure Edge Sword, a superior weapon for martial artists, capable of slicing ordinary iron in two. But even when I struck its pincer, only a faint mark was left—not even a wound. Its claws are unbelievably tough!”

“This is no ordinary sea crab! This juvenile is stronger than me, a martial artist with ten years of training. Its attack and defense both exceed mine!”

In an instant, Ye Mo weighed their strengths and realized with dismay that he was no match for the young crab.

“And it looks like it wasn’t even going all out—just testing me. Damn it, what kind of crab is this? Such a huge creature is unlike any crab I’ve ever seen in the rivers of Wu Kingdom. Could all the sea crabs on these Eastern Sea islands be this enormous and formidable?”

A sense of foreboding washed over him.

“Competing in strength or defense will only put me at a disadvantage. I must find its weakness!”

Ye Mo gripped his Azure Edge Sword with both hands, swiftly adjusting his stance. “Those huge pincers are probably its toughest part. If it has a weak spot, it must be its eight legs at the sides—they’re much thinner. If I can sever a few, its movement will slow drastically, making it far less dangerous!”

The young crab waved its claws threateningly at him, seemingly excited by their earlier clash and eager for another exchange.

Ye Mo darted forward, then twisted to the left, slipping around to the crab’s flank.

“Whirlpool Slash!” he shouted.

A cold arc of sword-light shot from his blade, striking the joint of one of the juvenile demon crab’s legs.

Splurt!

A deep gash, an inch thick, appeared on the smaller leg—but the limb was not severed as Ye Mo had hoped.

“No good—the second move of the Wave-Cleaving Art still isn’t enough!”

“If only I’d reached the late stage of Body Refinement and mastered the third move, ‘Stacked Wave Slash,’ I could probably cut through its leg!”

He was shocked by his opponent’s resilience.

The young crab shrieked in pain at the wound on its leg. It whipped its claws toward Ye Mo in a frenzy.

With no time to dodge, Ye Mo could only meet the attack head-on. The massive claw struck him, sending him flying several yards away. The sensation was excruciating.

“Luckily, this is soft sand—at least I can still stand. If I’d hit rocks, I’d be coughing blood for sure!”

Rolling to a stop, Ye Mo wiped blood from the corner of his mouth. “I’ll need several more strikes like that to sever one of its small legs and slow it down!”

He was about to spring forward to attack when he suddenly froze in horror.

The young crab did not pursue him. Instead, it stood at a distance, eyes blazing red with fury, its mouth opening wide. A dense mist formed there, then coalesced into a crystalline water arrow about a foot long.

Wounded and enraged, it unleashed an attack it was not yet mature enough to use—a move that could harm itself, but it no longer cared. All it wanted was to finish the challenger before it.

“What is this? Some kind of demon magic? Could it be a sea demon?!”

Ye Mo stumbled back, his face draining of color, barely able to grip his sword.

It was beyond belief.

A powerful terror enveloped him.

Slow as he sometimes was, Ye Mo finally understood.

This giant sea crab was not an ordinary crab—it was a juvenile demon beast.

Before setting out to sea, he’d heard other warriors speak of the terrifying demon beasts in the Eastern Sea—monsters whose bodies spanned miles, capable of stirring up storms, swallowing ships whole, riding clouds and mist. Only cultivators could match such power.

Back then, Ye Mo hadn’t paid much heed. He thought the chances of encountering such a monster were slim, and that such beings would never bother with a mere martial artist like him.

He had never imagined that such a fearsome demon beast would appear before him now. And this juvenile crab, only a few feet across, was far smaller than the sea monsters he’d imagined—so much so that he hadn’t considered the possibility until this moment.

“Run!”

Terror seized Ye Mo’s heart, extinguishing any thought of continuing the fight.

He would risk his life against any wild animal. But faced with an utterly alien demon beast, only a nameless dread filled him—he had no idea how to cope.

The power of a sea demon was not something a martial artist could contend with.

Gripping his Azure Edge Sword, Ye Mo fled blindly into the depths of the island’s forest.

He heard no sound of pursuit from the young demon crab.

But intuition screamed at him not to stop—the water arrow forming in the crab’s mouth was deadly.

Whoosh!

Suddenly, a piercing shriek split the air behind him.

The water arrow shot from the demon crab’s jaws.

Bang!

He hadn’t made it twenty yards before it felt as if a massive hammer weighing hundreds of pounds had smashed into his back.

Hidden inside his clothing, a mysterious ancient painting flashed with light.

Ye Mo was hurled through the air, crashing face-first into the sand. Agony seared his back, and an icy chill enveloped his entire body.

“Am I to be killed by the demon crab’s sorcery?” Terror gripped him as pain lanced through his back.

No—I cannot die! I still have so much left undone—my grand estate, my fine steed, my beautiful wife! I have yet to become a master martial artist, have yet to find the Immortal Village and become a cultivator! How can I die here?

Gritting his teeth, Ye Mo forced himself to stand.

The young demon crab let out a series of shrill, triumphant laughs, exulting in having bested him so easily.

Still immature, it had strained itself to launch that water arrow and could not muster another spell. It scuttled sideways toward Ye Mo, intent on finishing him off with a deadly blow from its massive claws.

I will not die here!

At the brink of life and death, Ye Mo’s mind was crystal clear.

“Demon crab—die!”

Hearing the frantic skittering behind him, he spun around.

The demon crab was less than a yard away, pincers raised high.

With a fierce cry, Ye Mo dodged to the side and slashed his sword at the wound on the crab’s injured leg.

“Double Stacked Wave Slash!”

The Azure Edge Sword vibrated with force, splitting into two streaks of cold light that struck almost simultaneously at the wounded joint.

Splurt!

A spray of yellowish-red, foul-smelling liquid erupted as the small leg was severed.

The demon crab shrieked in agony, whirled around, and scuttled frantically toward the sea. Overwhelmed by pain and fear, it abandoned its attack, fleeing for its life.

Ye Mo dared not linger, let alone give chase.

Clenching his teeth against the searing pain in his back, he sprinted towards the island’s forest.

In that desperate moment, he had miraculously managed to execute the “Double Stacked Wave Slash,” the third and most advanced move of the Wave-Cleaving Art—a technique he had never succeeded with before. But now, he was nearly spent, his strength all but gone.

He could not perform the “Stacked Wave Slash” again, nor even the “Wave-Cleaving Slash.” He had to escape the shoreline as quickly as possible, for if the demon crab shook off its pain and returned to pursue him, it would surely mean his death.