When Liang Qu finished laughing, he was left gasping for breath. Blood seeped from his wound, making the pain flare up once more.
Catching his breath, he sat up straight and untied the strips of cloth wound around his waist.
"Hss!"
The corners of Liang Qu's mouth twitched.
The coarse linen was soaked through with blood, which had hardened rapidly in the chill breeze and adhered stubbornly to the scabbed wound.
Peeling it away meant tearing open the freshly formed scabs by force.
Yet leaving it be was not an option. The rough cloth held not only crusts of dried blood but also plenty of grit and silt stirred up during the fight, now ground deep into the fabric.
That was precisely why he had bound the wound first instead of eating lotus root earlier—there was grit inside the laceration, and consuming the lotus root would have caused his flesh to knit around the stones.
Back then, he had simply lacked the time to clean the wound properly and pick out the pebbles.
Peeling away the bloody cloth, Liang Qu tossed it into the water.
Only after washing the wound once more did he gnaw through two segments of lotus root, watching the injury slowly knit back together.
*Still too poor,* Liang Qu lamented to himself.
If he could afford fine silks and satins, he could have used them as gauze. Rough linen was simply too coarse, readily adhering to flesh and blood.
Fortunately, it had only damaged some muscle and skin, nothing truly severe, and the lotus root took effect quickly.
After waiting about a quarter of an hour, the raw red muscle tissue was nowhere to be seen. A fresh dermal layer had fully regenerated, bleeding had ceased, and a thick scab had formed over the surface, leaving behind only a faint ache and an intense itch.
The fierce, prickling itch gave Liang Qu a strong urge to peel the scab off, but knowing this was proof of cells dividing rapidly to mend the wound, he held back. He merely scratched at the surrounding skin to relieve the itch.
In any case, an itch was far better than pain. With no agony assailing his brain, Liang Qu felt comfortable all over.
It was like a severe stomach cramp abruptly vanishing; though his body had merely returned to normal, the contrast brought an indescribable sense of relief, making him feel light as air, drifting on clouds.
With the wound mostly healed, Liang Qu could not wait to rise and dive back into the water.
If asked what he looked forward to most after this battle, it was without question the harvest—just as he had envisioned from the very beginning.
Just how much essence of the waters could a spirit creature provide?
In his past life, he had lived twenty-odd years in vain, never having tasted king crab, let alone seen one with his own eyes. Now, right off the bat, he was about to feast on a colossal crab taller than a man—his mouth couldn't help watering.
Back on the riverbed, the two beasts were guarding the crab monster's carcass like watchdogs, one perched on the nearby rocks and the other crouched in the silt.
Seeing Liang Qu return, they rose and shook off the sediment, looking equally thrilled.
According to past routine, their heavenly master always bestowed upon them whatever scraps he did not want. With a crab this massive, there would surely be plenty of scraps.
Yet the two beasts had guessed wrong.
Liang Qu intended to share the succulent crab meat with them—not out of sudden generosity, but simply because this crab monster was far too huge!
Before it spoiled, he could never finish all the meat by himself.
One human and two beasts set to work butchering the giant crab monster.
Liang Qu pulled out the broken spear impaled in the crab monster's body, detached the flint tip from its end, and sliced through the articular membrane connecting the giant claws.
Below, Cannot Move clamped its jaws onto the crab legs, performing death rolls to sever them one by one.
The Fat Catfish, meanwhile, retrieved the two crab legs that had been knocked off earlier. Its bite was not as powerful as Cannot Move's, so it couldn't butcher a thing; it could only hover nearby, cheering them on while waiting to eat.
Having removed both massive pincers, Liang Qu cut along the membranes of the carapace, reached under the crab monster's large upper shell, and pried upward with all his might.
It was brutally difficult—harder than hauling steel beams on a construction site.
Liang Qu's face flushed crimson as bubbles rose from the corners of his mouth. Putting his entire strength into the effort, he pried it open bit by bit.
*Crack, snap.*
The internal flesh and connective tissue tore away from the carapace, the resistance easing with every inch. At last, Liang Qu mustered a final burst of strength, heaved violently, and pulled the shell completely free.
Instantly, an immense mass of crab roe—as long as a man's arm and as wide as a human head—greeted his eyes. The sheer sight left Liang Qu dazzled.
Drool leaked from the two beasts' mouths. Cannot Move even forgot what it was supposed to do, remembering to report only after Liang Qu shook himself out of his stupor and began gathering the roe.
"Hm? Cannot Move, what did you find?"
Liang Qu caught the message transmitted through their spiritual link and halted what he was doing.
The Sow Dragon hovered half-upright, pointing its short foreclaws toward the crab monster's lower abdomen.
Looking where Cannot Move was pointing, Liang Qu discovered that tucked beneath the crab monster's abdominal apron were more than a dozen translucent spheres, each roughly the size of a fist.
*Crab eggs?*
Liang Qu was astonished. He hurriedly pried open the apron and took out one of the spheres to examine it closely.
The egg was huge, the size of an adult's fist, translucent and amber-orange, reminiscent of a Dragon Ball from *Dragon Ball*. Because it was so large, one could clearly see a fully formed miniature crab monster curled inside.
Crabs were different from fish. Fish underwent external fertilization, laying eggs before fertilizing them, whereas crabs fertilized before brooding; as long as the crab was carrying eggs, they were all developing fertilized embryos.
The miniature crab monster looked virtually identical to the adult: an upright upper torso and six legs on the lower body, resembling an indomitable chariot, only its shell was a milky white.
Normal crabs carried tens of thousands of eggs, but here there were only thirteen. Liang Qu guessed this was because the crab had become a spirit creature.
Upon growing stronger, the crab monster had naturally shifted from an r-strategist—an opportunist betting on quantity—to a K-strategist, investing heavily in quality and cherishing every single offspring.
Otherwise, millions of crab monsters would have overrun Zeye Marsh long ago; how could humans have survived?
*Come to think of it, could I dominate one of these crab eggs?*
A daring thought crossed Liang Qu's mind.
Dominating the adult crab monster directly had been out of the question—the mental backlash alone would have overwhelmed and crushed his mind. But an unhatched hatchling should pose no problem, right?
Liang Qu's capacity for spiritual links was roughly equivalent to two or three Cannot Moves. The Fat Catfish was somewhat stronger than Cannot Move; having dominated both, he had only about 0.2 to 0.3 of a Cannot Move's worth of capacity remaining.
While that margin was slim, dominating a fertilized egg shouldn't be an issue.
"No rush. Let's set them aside for now and deal with them after I finish the crab meat."
Having rushed out of the martial hall that morning straight to Zeye Marsh without eating lunch, Liang Qu was already starving.
Taking the crab roe and a crab leg, he returned to the sampan, set up the stove, and boiled water. Once the pot was rolling, he dropped in the roe and crab meat.
When cooked through, he scooped them out and shaped them into two meatballs of equal weight.
Aquatic creatures decomposed rapidly after death, especially crustaceans. With abundant internal bacteria and fluids, once the body's internal balance collapsed, the meat would spoil entirely within a few hours.
Liang Qu's stomach had limited capacity, so he had to prioritize the most valuable portions and consume them as quickly as possible.
Eating the two meatballs one by one, he found the golden crab roe rich, mellow, and intensely fragrant, while the snow-white crab meat was savory, fresh, and sweet.
【Essence of the waters +0.9】
【Essence of the waters +0.5】
The first prompt came from eating the roe, and the second from the meat.
The roe was indeed more valuable, but the numbers gained were staggering—scarcely different from consuming half a treasure fish!
Having confirmed the results, Liang Qu's eyes lit up with feverish excitement. He immediately dropped more crab roe into the pot and tossed the remaining crab meat down to the two beasts.
【Essence of the waters +1】
【Essence of the waters +1.1】
【Essence of the waters +1.2】
*Fusion! Fusion! Pour it all into raising my fusion!*
Liang Qu ate with ravenous vigor. Watching the Marsh Cauldron pulse with continuous radiance, an unprecedented surge of satisfaction swelled in his chest.
He was going to be invincible.
Chapter 29