A devilishly handsome white-haired young man bolted through a forest at an incredible speed. A silver sword was sheathed by his hip and it swung back and forth as the youth bolted across trees.

The trees suddenly thinned and looking ahead, he saw a multitude of beautiful lakes. Next to some of these lakes were large masses of crystal which added a mystical feel to the area.

“Crystal Crabs?” He frowned.

His figure accelerated so fast that it seemingly disappeared. In a few moments, he arrived before the biggest lake which spanned almost half a kilometer in diameter.

“Big crab, come out and be my dinner!” He yelled at the top of his lungs.

A full minute passed by with nothing happening. Just as he was about to shout again, the top of the lake rippled. All of a sudden, a huge explosion sounded from the water.

The youth barely had time to react before a shiny claw reached out of the water and launched a huge circular blade made of water at him at an incredible speed.

“Silver Oblivion”

An invisible but terrifyingly sharp aura was released from the youth. The aura condensed on his silver sword. Without wasting a second, he drew the sword which shone like a beacon, all of the crabs which were sunbathing suddenly scurried into the water to hide. A silver flash of light was unleashed from the sword and flew at the blade.

The huge claw which rose a few meters out of the water suddenly pulled back in as if it touched a hot flame.

The silver light spread in all directions but was mainly concentrated in the shape of a sword flying towards the water blade. Within a blink of an eye, the spreading light swallowed and erased the water blade as if it didn’t exist before.

In the next moment, the silver light sword reached the lake at the place where the crab showed its claw before. The sword sliced into the water as if through butter and flew at the crystal crab which scurried to getaway.

The crab was sliced in half and the blade continued until it reached the bottom of the lake where it left a huge hole in the ground. For some reason, the sword-shaped hole in the water didn’t immediately get filled with water and the water remained split for a few moments.

The youth suddenly ran towards the lake and jumped into the hole in the water, reaching the very bottom of the lake.

“I have run pretty far, this lake has decent spiritual energy, I can take this chance to recover my cultivation a bit. The moment I reach the Foundation Establishment realm, the Dark Pavillion Sect will perish. After that, I shall carve a spot in the world which will know of Xiong Xi as the number one sword cultivator under and over heaven!” The youth smiled viciously.

In another part of the lake, a group of youths jumped down on a sunbathing crab. Before it could react, its crystal shell was hit with a spear which made it dazed. A knife appeared in its face and stabbed straight through the soft tissue in the eyes, killing the crab instantly.

“The weak point seems to be the eyes, they are very small targets so we would need to stagger the crab before aiming for them” Huo Long put together a simple strategy. The heavy hitters, him and Zhao Fan, would attack the crab and stagger it and Liu Zhong and Jia Shuren would swoop in and assassinate the crab. Zhou Da and Gong Yu would provide support.

This time, the group decided to attack a bigger crab which was next to a nearby lake.

Huo Long took the front position, charging at the crab with his spear radiating lightning. This crab was bigger than the one before, the crystals on its carapace were much more colorful and looked even shinier than the one before.

“It’s not working!” Huo Long shouted as his attack was deflected off the crab.

The angry crab swung his claw at Huo Long who got saved by Gong Yu in the nick of time.

“Let me give it a try!”

Zhao Fan ran up to the crab and punched the top of its shell with his full strength. A ringing sound was produced from the impact and Zhao Fan was blown back.

“It worked!” The crab lost its sense of direction and wandered back and forth as if it was drunk.

Jia Shuren and Liu Zhong quickly seized the opportunity and dove in to attack. Their blades flew in the direction of the beady eyes like blurry shadows but at the last moment, the crab tilted its head and caused the two attacks to miss.

“F*ck, we need another opportunity!” The two looked at Zhao Fan.

“Did you forget about me?”

Suddenly a fireball flew at a rapid speed towards the crab and hit it accurately on the left eye.

The crab shrieked horribly as its eye was burned from the blast and it caught on fire, the high temperature slowly melting its brain.

“How did the eye catch on fire?” Zhao Fan was stunned. Was it some weird property of the crab which made its eyes flammable?

“Hmph, it’s the Principle of Burning,” Zhou Da said proudly while the crab crashed to the ground.

“Wow! To be able to grasp a Principle means you are a top genius in the city!” Huo Long applauded.

“Could you not tell before?”

“Are you sure you didn’t comprehend the Principle of Shamelessness?” Zhao Fan laughed. Zhou Da blushed.

“Shut up, you haven’t comprehended anything, do you think you can talk just because of your body? I can use this Principle to burn your body alive!”

“No thanks, I’m already hot enough. If I get any hotter I’m afraid your attacks would give you some drawbacks!”

“Shut up!” Zhou Da covered her face with her hands and turned around.

“Stop messing around and look over there” Huo Long raised his voice.

“There’s nothing?”

“Exactly! In other areas, there are occasionally crabs sunbathing by the lakes but in that one there is not a single one!”

Liu Zhong’s gaze grew stern and he rested his hands on the twin swords by his sides. Zhao Fan noticed this and grew serious as well.

“Could it be an ambush?” He thought internally.

“If you step within ten meters of that huge lake, your entire party will die. Honestly, I’m not sure whether we can escape!” Hei Long suddenly warned him.

“Did the Sun family send a Foundation Establishment expert after us?” Zhao Fan felt the hair on his neck stand. Even in his merged form, he probably wouldn’t be able to best a full-fledged expert on that level.

“No, it’s probably some random cultivator passing by. I think he is just cultivating but he is releasing some sort of aura to be able to breathe underwater. I can’t probe more closely or he will notice, but the aura on top of the lake is already slightly painful to the touch. Never mind, I’m sure that if he notices us we will probably die in one strike.”

“Guys, we seriously need to leave right now!” Zhao Fan said in a low voice.

“Why? We just came here!” Gong Yu questioned.

“We can go away for a bit and come back tomorrow! I’m being serious for once”

The protesting members immediately quieted. They respected Zhao Fan even if he liked to joke around, plus it wouldn’t harm them to wait another day.

“Let’s leave then, but you need to explain why later” Huo Long led the group out.

On a nearby hill, a group of middle-aged men laid prone on the ground.

“Boss, they are leaving! Should we ambush them now?” Hearing this, a man with the scar on his face furrowed his brows.

“Why would they leave now? Did they discover us? Impossible! There must be something else! Let’s track them for a bit and attack once we get away from the lakes, there might be some hidden danger here.” He ordered.

“Aren’t you an elite squad? Why are you so scared of rats?” A voice suddenly spoke from behind the men.

“Lord Qing, we think there may be some hidden danger-” A handsome-looking man walked up to them. He was wearing golden robes with patterns of the Sun clan and his long hair was tied in a ponytail.

“I don’t care, either you go or I go. Let me remind you, the only time I will go is if all of you die.” A smile blossomed on his narrow face.