“Who are you?” Zhao Fan didn’t have a good impression of the old man. He barged in, ate their food, and revealed some of his secrets in front of everyone.

“Wang Kang, an elder of Starlit Vine Sect. Brat you should be grateful for my advice, just because you haven’t seen any demon hunters doesn’t mean they don’t exist. If you don’t stop using demon essence or at least restrict your aura, you will get killed sooner or later” Wang Kang took off another piece of the wolf and continued chewing.

“An elder? Wow! Senior you are at the Foundation Establishment level right?” Jia Shuren revealed an excited expression.

“Hold on, you said I can restrict my aura, how can I do that?” Zhao Fan forgot about his conflict with the old man after hearing about this hidden threat.

“A campfire and a meal can only get you so far unless you have some spirit stones you want to exchange?” A sharp glint flashed in Wang Kang’s eyes.

“How much? I don’t have any on me right now but if you are going back to the Golden Leaf city, I can trade you there” It wasn’t difficult to make a lot of money in a short time using his new business. As long as he waited one or two days, he was confident in affording the price.

“Sure, we can trade in the city, ask for me in the blacksmithing guild and you will find me. As for the price, it depends on my mood AHAHA!”

“...Fine” Zhao Fan felt helpless. On one hand, he needed the method, but the old man’s attitude made him feel hopeless.

“I’ll be going back now. I still need to do something about the arm wound” Wang Kang held his shoulder which was covered in blood and laughed.

When they saw his missing hand, everyone assumed it was just an old wound but seeing blood seep out of it, it was clear that Wang Kang just escaped death. Not only that, he stopped to eat some meat and joke around while clearly, his injuries were very grave, the youths didn’t know whether to admire or insult the old man.

“Oh yeah, since we met by fate, I’ll give you guys a little warning. The beasts from beyond Limestone Forest are growing in numbers and some Demonic Beasts have also made it there, hence my missing arm HAHAHA!”

“Senior, I’m not sure where that is, we are going to the crystal lakes, have you heard of them?” Liu Zhong asked.

“The place with the tasty crabs? Hmm, it’s quite far away but I haven’t heard about the beast activity there. Still, it’s risky and I don’t recommend staying there for longer than necessary. Okay, I need to get going now” Wang Kang’s expression stiffened and a stream of blood leaked out of his shoulder again.

“Thank you!” Liu Zhong bowed in gratitude as the man left.

“Are strong cultivators all strange?” Zhao Fan felt confused.

“Maybe he’s just old? At Least he had good intentions” Zhou Da chimed in.

“So what should we do? If it’s dangerous maybe we can go back?” Gong Yu hesitated when thinking about Demonic Beasts who injured the Foundation Establishment elder.

Liu Zhong’s face paled visibly from the question, but he quickly recovered before anyone noticed. Before anyone could say anything, he quickly explained.

“No, if we get to the lakes and there are no crabs then that means that a Demonic Beast took over. The first thing that would happen when a Demonic Beast enters a territory is to capture the source of energy with which they can cultivate, if the crabs are still there then it’s impossible that there are any.”

“Still, there is a chance we can get discovered and ambushed by wolves when we get in range to check. How about we take a vote? If the majority wants to go, then we go, otherwise, we leave.” Huo Long suggested.

“Okay, raise your hands if you are fine with the risk,” Zhao Fan said loudly and raised his hand. Along with him was Liu Zhong.

“Huo Long, you don’t want to go?” Zhao Fan didn’t feel too surprised about Gong Yu who had a weak backbone, but Huo Long had a brave and heroic character so it was strange for him to not go.

“Sorry, unless there are 3 votes, I won’t raise my hand. As the group leader, I don’t want to be responsible unless more people want to come”

“Gong Yu, are you sure?” Liu Zhong asked with some panic in his voice.

Gong Yu gulped as all eyes went on him. He looked at Zhao Fan who was looking at him and remembered the scary side of Zhao Fan when he rode the carriage with him.

“Damn, the Boss can be scary, I shouldn’t disagree with his opinion. He almost broke past my defense with one strike and everyone else is strong too, it shouldn’t be too dangerous!” Gong Yu hesitated internally before shooting Jia Shuren an apologetic smile.

“Okay, three votes, that means we go! We set out first thing tomorrow” Liu Zhong smiled.

Hiking the whole day exhausted everyone, it wasn’t difficult for the group to fall asleep on some makeshift bed. Only Zhao Fan, with his strong body, wasn’t tired at all, thus he was assigned to keeping watch.

“What does Liu Zhong want from me? There can’t be this many coincidences, he must have some secret plans. A person like this, should I trust him or not? Should I have voted yes?” Zhao Fan ruminated internally.

He sat by the campfire, gazing at the stars ahead and breathing the fresh air.

“Seems like someone is observing you” Hei Long’s voice broke Zhao Fan out of his daydreams. (or nightdreams?)

“Who do you think?” Hei Long’s voice faded and he didn’t reply no matter how much Zhao Fan asked.

The next day, the group set out and hiked for several hours before they finally reached a tall hill.

“This is a hill right next to the crystal lakes, we are about to find out if we wasted two days,” Liu Zhong said in an enthusiastic tone.

“Finally!” Gong Yu heaved a sigh of relief. His body was soaked in sweat and the rest of the group except Zhao Fan wasn’t in good condition.

“Let me go check” Zhao Fan sprinted ahead at an incredible speed.

He quickly reached the peak of the hill and looked at the sight in front of him. There were several small and large lakes separated by steep hills. The small ones were anywhere from ten meters in diameter and the large ones were several hundred. At every lake, there was no more than one crab. The lake nearest to the hill Zhao Fan stood on was fairly small in size and the crab was standing on the shore of the lake, basking in the sunlight.

“The crabs are here!” Zhao Fan let out a sigh of relief and shouted down at the rest of the group.

As they climbed up and saw the view, they let out sighs of relief as well and burst into laughter.

“This one, the one basking in the sun next to our hill is probably a tier 5 crab, let’s try to fight it and prepare for the big fight!”

“Let’s go down!”

The Crystal Crab was soundly sleeping after absorbing lots of qi from the lake when all of a sudden it heard shouts coming from above.

It quickly became alert and lifted its shining blue carapace to look above. The last thing it saw was a spear being thrown straight at its face.