Chapter 3

At noon.

The scorching sun baked the entire island, and the sand on the beach was hot to the touch.

After finishing his cultivation in the seawater, Ye Mo walked onto the beach. Sweat dripped uncontrollably from his body, and his martial artist's robe was completely soaked, making it impossible to tell if it was from seawater or sweat.

He shook his head vigorously to fling off the sweat, then wiped his face with his sleeve and began searching the beach for seabird eggs. The hunger gnawing at his stomach forced him to quicken his pace.

"Rustle...!"

Suddenly, a faint sound came from behind him.

Ye Mo's hair stood on end instinctively. As a mid-rank martial artist, he had an extremely keen sense of hearing.

"This isn't the sound of waves hitting the beach."

Ye Mo instantly cleared his mind of distractions and quickly turned around, sword in hand.

A few dozen feet behind him stood a giant sea crab, over two feet tall and larger than a child's wooden bathtub. Its shell was a tender yellow. It had just been washed onto the beach by a wave, and as the tide receded, the crab's body was completely exposed on the sand.

Ye Mo was startled and immediately showed a look of joy, "This East Sea crab is actually so big! However, its shell is still quite tender, so it must be a young crab that hasn't fully matured. If I kill this young crab and roast it, I won't have to worry about food for several days. Ha ha, it seems I won't starve to death on this island!"

The young crab seemed just as surprised to encounter a human on the beach. Humans were very unfamiliar to it.

It immediately stopped moving, bulging its round eyes and raising its two golden pincers, each over three feet long, to glare at Ye Mo warily.

"Don't run into the sea!"

Ye Mo gripped his green saber tightly and slowly approached the young crab, preparing to kill it and roast its meat. He could already imagine the giant roasted crab.

The young crab clearly sensed Ye Mo's "hostility" and became angry.

It waved its large pincers high and quickly crawled toward Ye Mo, determined to show this stranger that it wasn't to be trifled with.

Ye Mo was surprised and quickly sidestepped to avoid the young crab's attack, "It doesn't run away, but actually attacks! The sea crabs on this island are quite bold!"

The young crab, failing to hit this unfamiliar creature, seemed even more enraged. Its large pincers gleamed in the sunlight as it swept them toward Ye Mo.

This time, Ye Mo did not dodge.

"Wave-Cleaving Slash!"

He swung his sword, which glinted with a cold light, and instantly struck one of the young crab's large pincers.

"Clang!"

A massive force rebounded.

Under the impact, Ye Mo staggered back several steps. In a panic, he plunged the green saber into the ground to steady himself.

"Such powerful force!"

"Such hard pincers!"

Ye Mo was shocked, his mind racing as he looked at the golden young crab before him.

"As a mid-rank martial artist at the sixth level of Body Tempering, my slashing force is about two hundred pounds. This young crab's strength must exceed three hundred pounds, even stronger than a late-stage Body Tempering martial artist!"

"Moreover, this is a high-quality green saber, a top-tier weapon for martial artists, capable of cutting through ordinary iron. But when I struck its pincers, it only left a faint mark, not even a wound. Its pincers are incredibly hard!"

"This is definitely not an ordinary young crab! This young crab is stronger than me, a mid-rank martial artist who has trained for ten years. Whether in attack or defense, it surpasses me!"

In an instant, he assessed their relative strengths and was shocked to realize he was no match for the young crab.

"It seems it didn't use its full strength just now; it was only a probing attack. Damn, what kind of crab is this? Its size is unlike any crab I've seen in the rivers of the Martial Kingdom. Are the sea crabs on this East Sea island all so large and powerful?"

Ye Mo had a bad feeling.

"Matching it in strength and defense is a disadvantage. I must find its weakness!"

Ye Mo gripped his green saber with both hands, quickly adjusting his defensive stance. "Those large pincers are probably the hardest part of its body. If it has a weakness, it should be its eight legs on the side, which are much smaller. If I can cut a few of them, it will move much slower and be less threatening!"

The young crab waved its large pincers at Ye Mo. The previous clash seemed to have excited it, and it was eager to continue the fight.

Ye Mo, gripping his green saber with both hands, suddenly lunged forward, then quickly shifted to the side of the young crab.

"Whirlwind Slash!"

Ye Mo shouted.

A circular arc of cold light shot from his hand.

The green saber struck the joint of one of the young crab's legs.

"Thud!"

A clear, one-inch-deep wound appeared on the young crab's leg, but it did not break as Ye Mo had hoped.

"No good, even the second move of the Wave-Cleaving Technique can't cut it!"

"If I had broken through to the late stage of Body Tempering and mastered the third move of the Wave-Cleaving Technique, 'Wave-Stacking Slash,' I could have cut off its leg!"

Ye Mo was startled.

The young crab, feeling the intense pain in its leg, let out a scream and wildly swung its large pincers at Ye Mo.

Ye Mo, unable to dodge in time, had to clash with it head-on. He was instantly knocked several feet away by the pincers. Being flung like that was not a pleasant experience.

"Fortunately, this is still a beach; at least I can stand up. If I had hit a rock, I would have been spitting blood!"

Ye Mo rolled a few times on the sand and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. "I need to strike a few more times to cut off one of its legs and slow it down!"

Just as Ye Mo was about to charge forward, he suddenly stopped, horrified.

The young crab did not attack him again but stood a few dozen feet away, its red eyes bulging in anger. It opened its mouth, and a dense mist condensed into a crystal-clear water arrow about a foot long.

It was injured and thoroughly enraged. As a young crab, it was not suitable to release this water arrow, as it could severely harm its body. But it was determined to eliminate this human who dared to challenge it.

"What is this? Sorcery? Is it... a sea monster?!"

Ye Mo stumbled backward, his face turning pale, and he almost lost his grip on the green saber.

Unbelievable!

A strong sense of fear enveloped him.

Even if he had been slow to realize it, Ye Mo now understood completely.

This giant crab was not an ordinary crab but a young sea monster.

Before setting sail, Ye Mo had heard other martial artists talk about the terrifying sea monsters in the East Sea, with bodies several miles long, capable of causing tidal waves and swallowing entire ships. Only cultivators could contend with these powerful sea monsters.

At the time, Ye Mo had not taken it seriously, thinking the chances of encountering such a terrifying sea monster were slim. A large sea monster would not bother with a small martial artist like him.

He never imagined that such a terrifying sea monster would appear before him. Moreover, this young crab was only a few feet tall, much smaller than he had imagined, so he had not considered it a sea monster at first.

"Run!"

Ye Mo was terrified and had no courage to fight anymore.

He could face any wild beast in a life-or-death struggle.

But facing an unfamiliar sea monster, he felt an inexplicable fear and did not know how to deal with it.

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

Ye Mo, in a panic, fled into the dense forest of the island, saber in hand.

He did not hear the young crab chasing him.

But his instincts told him not to stop; the water arrow the young crab had formed in its mouth was extremely terrifying.

Whoosh!

Suddenly, a sharp, piercing sound came from behind him.

The water arrow shot out from the young crab's mouth.

"Bang!"

Before Ye Mo could escape ten feet, he felt as if a heavy hammer, weighing hundreds of pounds, had struck his back.

The ancient painting inside his clothes glowed briefly.

Ye Mo was blasted by the water arrow and fell hard onto the sand, his face pressed into the sand, feeling a piercing pain. A bone-chilling cold enveloped his entire body.

"Am I going to be killed by the young crab's magic?"

Ye Mo felt intense pain in his back and was terrified.

"No, I can't die—! I still have so many things to do, my mansion, my fine horse, my beautiful wife! I haven't become a top martial artist, and I haven't found the Immortal Village to become a cultivator! I can't die like this!"

Ye Mo struggled to stand up.

The young crab seemed to emit a few sharp laughs, apparently pleased with its easy victory.

It was still young, and forming a water arrow was already its limit; it could not use any more magic. It quickly crawled toward Ye Mo, intending to deliver a fatal blow with its large pincers.

"I can't die like this!"

Ye Mo trembled, his mind crystal clear in the moment of life and death.

"Sea crab, die!"

Hearing the rapid approach of the crab, Ye Mo suddenly turned around.

The young crab was less than a yard away, its large pincers raised high.

Ye Mo let out a fierce cry, shifted to the side, and swung his green saber at the wound on the young crab's leg.

"Wave-Stacking Double Slash!"

"Clang!"

Ye Mo's green saber vibrated, and in an instant, two cold flashes appeared almost simultaneously, striking the wound on the young crab's left leg.

"Thud!"

A thick, yellowish-red liquid splattered, and the leg was severed.

The young crab let out a piercing scream and quickly turned to flee into the sea. The intense pain in its leg filled it with fear, and it abandoned its pursuit of Ye Mo, fleeing into the sea.

Ye Mo did not dare to stay or pursue the crab.

He gritted his teeth, enduring the intense pain in his back, and fled into the island's forest.

In the critical moment, he unexpectedly succeeded in using the "Wave-Stacking Double Slash," the third advanced move of the Wave-Cleaving Technique, which he had never successfully used before. However, he had little strength left.

He could not use the 'Wave-Stacking Slash' again, and even the 'Wave-Cleaving Slash' would be difficult to perform.

He had to quickly escape from the beach; if the young crab regained its senses and pursued him again, it would surely be the end of him.