A thin young man used a sturdy wooden bucket to scoop out four young iron claw crabs from the pool, sealing the top of the bucket with a few small holes for ventilation. Lu Xuan handed him eighty spirit stones and took the bucket home.
On the way, the bucket made clanging sounds as the crabs inside thrashed around. After a while, he arrived home, and the Cloud Stepping Leopard jumped gracefully from Lu Xuan's shoulder into the spiritual field.
Lu Xuan brought the bucket to the edge of the spiritual spring pool and opened the lid. The most aggressive crab jumped out, waving its large pincers as if showing off, seemingly protesting being kept in the closed bucket. The other three followed closely behind, all acting tough.
The sides of the bucket showed various deep scratches, proving how fierce these iron claw crabs could be.
"I'll leave them to you. First, tame them well and let them know the rules of the Lu residence," Lu Xuan said to the Cloud Stepping Leopard.
The leopard walked slowly and elegantly to face the four crabs. The crabs showed no fear, raising their long, dark pincers and charging at the leopard's paws, trying to pinch hard.
The leopard swiftly slapped down, pinning the most aggressive crab to the ground. The other three crabs attacked, trying to pinch the leopard's paws and tail. The leopard leaped lightly, evading their attacks and struck down on each crab one by one until they were all subdued.
Finally, the four crabs realized their situation and lay down obediently, though their eyes still darted around, showing they weren't entirely calm.
Lu Xuan picked up the still crabs and tossed them into the spiritual spring pool. Once nourished by the pure spring water, the crabs became lively, scrambling around in the pool.
Lu Xuan focused his mind on them, and a thought flashed through his mind.
"Iron claw crab, a first-grade spirit beast, aggressive with hard and sharp pincers. When raised, their shells can be used to make defensive artifacts. They are omnivorous and can be fed with spirit beast meat, spirit rice, and aquatic plants. They are domineering and will pinch anything!"
Information about the iron claw crabs flooded into Lu Xuan's mind.
"Pinch anything? If you dare to pinch my Pure Snow Lotus, I'll deal with you," Lu Xuan snorted and used the Earth Summoning Technique to surround the Pure Snow Lotus with soil.
After getting familiar with the spring pool environment, the most active crab started to get restless, climbing slowly up the stone wall of the pool with its pincers.
"Being this restless, you’ll escape sooner or later," Lu Xuan called over a straw puppet and commanded, "When you patrol the spiritual field, come by the spring pool often. If you see any iron claw crabs climbing out, throw them back in."
The straw puppet, now back to its original state, nodded with its large gray head, ready to follow orders.
As night fell, one of the young iron claw crabs struggled to climb up the stone wall of the spring pool, finally reaching the edge and getting onto the shore. Its bulging eyes spun around, observing its surroundings in the dim light.
Seeing everything was quiet, the crab, which had been tormented during the day, felt relieved. Its eyes began to spin faster, clearly excited. It quickly crawled on the ground, searching for an escape.
Suddenly, a gray-black grass rope silently appeared behind the young crab, slipping under its belly.
The crab sensed something was off and adjusted its steps, raising its pincers high, trying to slice whatever was attacking it in half. The gray-black grass rope, though slow, stayed hidden behind the crab, occasionally wrapping around its pincers.
Soon, the young crab was tightly bound by the grass rope. The straw puppet, with its large head, slowly pulled the rope tighter and approached the crab.
It left a short length of rope to hold onto. Then it reached the edge of the spring pool, extending its arm, and the rope spread out. Once it reached above the center of the pool, the binding rope instantly loosened.
With a splash, the young crab fell into the spring pool, and the water droplets landed on the pure white lotus flowers surrounded by earth walls, rolling off the lotus leaves.
The next morning, Lu Xuan woke up early to start his daily routine as a Spiritual Plant Cultivator. He first checked the spiritual field, using the Spirit Rain Technique and Wood Growth Technique based on the plants' growth conditions.
After finishing everything, he went inside and grabbed a handful of spirit rice, scattering it into the spring pool. The rice sank to the bottom, catching the attention of the four young iron claw crabs. After a night of thrashing, they skillfully picked up the plump grains of rice with their pincers, stuffing them into their mouths.
"Since you can pinch so well, I’ll give you some work to do," Lu Xuan thought as he watched the crabs eat.
Once the crabs were full, he looked at their large, knife-like pincers and had an idea. He took the most aggressive crab out of the pool and retrieved a fist-sized piece of iron ore from his storage bag, placing it under the crab's pincers.
Seeing something was offered, the crab immediately opened its pincers, clamping down hard on the iron ore, and it split in two.
"Keep going," Lu Xuan said, taking one of the pieces and placing it back under the crab's pincers.
The crab clamped down again, breaking the piece apart.
"Again!" Lu Xuan brought another piece.
This continued, and soon a fist-sized piece of iron ore was reduced to hundreds of small pieces, the edges of the crab's pincers starting to turn white from the effort.
Each time Lu Xuan placed a piece under the pincers, the crab couldn't help but clamp down hard.
"Haha, keep it up!" Lu Xuan laughed heartily, using his spiritual energy to create a small pile of iron ore in front of the crab.
The crab's pincers trembled with excitement.
Lu Xuan then took out the other three crabs from the spring pool, setting them to work as well.
"The broken iron ore needed for the Copper Bone Bamboo is finally well taken care of. With these iron claw crabs, I won’t have to do it myself anymore," Lu Xuan thought happily. The Copper Bone Bamboo needed iron ore to grow quickly, and smaller pieces were easier to absorb. Previously, he had to cut the ore with the Silver Splitting Blade and Red Cloud Needles, which was time-consuming and labor-intensive.
Now, it was much easier.
He looked at the iron claw crabs still working hard to break the ore and said, "Don’t slack off! Pinch hard, a hundred times, a thousand times, ten thousand times! That’s how you’ll push your limits, and your pincers will get stronger. Once you become powerful, you can attack alongside me!"
Whenever a crab seemed to relax, Lu Xuan would encourage it from the side. The sound of the pincers breaking the iron ore was continuous and pleasing to the ear.
(End of Chapter)