The midday sun grew fierce, yet it couldn't penetrate the pervasive mist of water and sand.
Broken stone piles stood like stakes in the mud, while the water plants rooted in crevices were left with no choice but to drift away with the gentle ripples.
The whole underwater scene, under the fierce battle of Liang Qu and his companions, turned into chaos akin to an undersea earthquake.
"Ho!" Liang Qu burst out of the water, gasping for air, his head tilted upward.
His tongue felt parched to the point of cracking, and his chest heaved violently.
Beads of water dripped from his drenched hair, mingling with cold sweat as they cascaded down his chin, creating splashes in the water below.
The tide bore him up and down, surrounded by dazzling ripples.
He constantly took deep breaths, drawing in great gulps of air like a bellows, his heart laboring to deliver oxygen throughout his body.
His flushed face rapidly returned to its normal color as his numbed brain regained vitality.
The crab monster's unyielding assault had drained his oxygen rapidly, far exceeding his usual consumption in such a short span of time.
Lowering his head, Liang Qu glanced at his waist, where a wound spanned almost as wide as his hand.
It slashed from three or four inches beside his navel all the way to his lower back.
A whole patch of skin was torn away, the edges exuding a pale yellow fluid, while the center bared the raw crimson of muscle, fresh blood gushing forth, causing him to break into a cold sweat and shudder with lingering fear.
Fatty Catfish surfaced, pulling the clothes Liang Qu had left on the boat.
Clenching his teeth, Liang Qu took the garments, tore them into strips, and bandaged his waist, finally finding relief from the stinging pain as the wound was no longer scoured by the flowing water.
The rapid pounding of his heart at last began to ease.
Water waves crashed against his chest as he pulled out the broken half of a lance, the jagged end with several long wooden spikes protruding.
If only he had an iron trident, he wouldn’t have gotten injured.
Liang Qu snapped off the protruding wooden spikes, smoothed the break, and gripped the short spear anew, taking a deep breath before diving again.
The crab monster, though severely injured, was still alive.
He couldn’t let it find a chance to recover.
The second round, begin!
Underwater, the previously swirling dust had settled to about two meters, yet there was no trace of the crab monster.
But with Fatty Catfish and Pig Dragon searching, its whereabouts were soon uncovered.
When Liang Qu spotted the crab monster again, his eyes burned with rage!
The crab monster was crouched in a lotus root field, its pincers gripping large sections of lotus roots, devouring them wildly, nearly swallowing a segment with each bite.
As it feasted on the abundance of lotus roots, its regenerative power kicked in, the severed limb stumps sprouting new growths, even new tendrils emerging from its eye sockets.
The regenerative abilities of crustaceans were incredibly strong, and Liang Qu dared not let it consume more, or all his efforts would be in vain.
Moreover, those were his lotus roots!
Liang Qu charged once more, landing hard.
At the moment of impact, the crab monster’s new tentacles twitched and turned toward him.
However, its vision hadn’t returned yet, rendering it unable to see Liang Qu's actions, relying solely on the vibrations sensed by its limbs to gauge the approaching threat.
Typically, when a crab’s eyes and stalks are destroyed, they can’t grow back, leaving only a tendril to grow in the eye socket.
But Liang Qu couldn’t be sure if the crab monster before him abided by such common rules.
He had to finish it before its eyes regenerated!
He realized earlier that when under attack, the crab would shift its target, showing that it wasn’t smart.
A critical weakness.
In a flash of thought, Liang Qu struck the rocks with his short spear.
Almost instantly, the vibrations sent the crab monster into a rage, its four limbs thundering as it charged at him with all its might.
Liang Qu held his ground, ready for the onslaught.
The crab swung its amputated limb, charging like a battle chariot.
The water churned violently, like standing at the mouth of an erupting volcano.
Liang Qu leaped, manipulating the water flow to create a disturbance to the side.
The giant claw struck with certainty toward the water disturbance, slicing through the flow but hitting nothing.
The crab monster swung its massive claw aside, opening its front defenselessly, revealing the soft white of its underbelly.
Now is the time!
Liang Qu dropped back down, gripping the shortened spear with hawk-like focus fixed on the point, aiming at the pale navel.
Every usable muscle, from wrist to elbow, waist, and thigh, tensed, contracted, then snapped back with explosive force.
He stomped down, kicking up dust, the enduring stance training making his foundation as solid as a rock, thrusting forward with precision.
The slightly chipped spear tip vanished from his sight, teeth clenched, the blood seeping through his waist wrappings trailing long lines of red, dispersed as he advanced.
In the instant Liang Qu landed again, the crab monster reacted, turning its massive claw, but it was too late.
The over-meter-long spear, angled upward, drove whole into the crab monster’s navel, slicing through its most vulnerable and fatal point.
“A female crab,” he mused, noting the round abdominal plate.
Arthropod crustaceans have three main neural centers, with the most fragile located at the navel, containing reproductive glands and the neural center, the part most sensitive besides the joints' membrane.
When handling crabs, just pressing a chopstick into the navel can bring instant death, sparing the creature any pain.
Boom!
The giant claw above dropped slowly with the support of the water, brushing over Liang Qu’s head, thudding into the mud on both sides, raising a great cloud of dust, rising like stone walls.
Nearby, Pig Dragon and Fatty Catfish gaped, bewildered.
They couldn’t fathom how such a huge spirit beast could be taken out by Liang Qu.
Just moments ago, they had seen him fleeing in panic.
Their awe grew, truly seeing him as the celestial being who awakened their wisdom.
Liang Qu’s body felt weak, but he rose slowly, emerging from the enveloping dust clouds just before they swallowed him, breaking the surface and collapsing onto the small fishing boat, panting heavily.
Having delivered the finishing blow, he felt dizzy and lightheaded, as if his entire being was enveloped in numbness, a profound emptiness leaving him drained.
The wound on his waist bled incessantly.
Drifting into a blurry state, he dared not sleep, fearing excessive blood loss would prevent him from ever waking again.
He lay for a while until the dizziness subsided, his tired body regaining some strength.
Liang Qu grasped the boat’s edge, his slender arm trembling as it supported his upper body, leaning gently against a partition, gulping for air.
The wind stirred the waves, inexhaustibly lapping against the boat, shining with gleams of light as low-flying hawks swooped down, snatching small fish breaking the water's surface.
The cold breeze carried away the damp mist, his wet hair swaying with the rhythm of the wind.
"Ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha!"
Suddenly, Liang Qu laughed, his laughter echoing along the Marshland River waves.
In that moment, he felt invincible, truly remarkable! He had actually slain such a formidable spirit beast!
A spirit beast!
A creature that had sent countless fishermen fleeing in terror was vanquished by him, Liang Qu! Names like Scabby-head Zhang and the Wang brothers suddenly seemed trivial, like children’s games not worth acknowledging.
His chest swelled with new confidence, seeing no further obstacles on his path ahead. (Chapter ends here)