After the crab was done with everything, it took rest.
Lying there, it thought, "This process over the past few days was very fruitful... and painful."
It was out of those shining stones now. "I need to find more of these," it thought.
After sufficient rest, it went to the hole where it had found the stones. The crab removed the cover of sand and stone it had placed there.
As it tried to enter, it realized something. "This isn't as comfortable as last time."
Every breakthrough had made its body bigger and stronger. The hole, which was perfect before the breakthrough, now felt too small.
"I need to dig some part again," it thought, knowing it could still go in, but flexibility was crucial for escaping unexpected situations deep underground.
So, it started to widen the hole, making sure it would be able to move freely.
The crab dug deeper and deeper, finding several more shining stones. Each time it took longer as it had to bring out sand and go back and forth multiple times in the deep underground.
This process continued for several months. The crab became more and more powerful. It no longer valued the normal shining stones, eating them like regular normal food.
"These stones are useless now," it muttered. "I need stronger ones."
Now, it want's stronger stones, which it had discovered only a couple of times, but those were much more worthwhile. It was also close to reaching new level of Qi refining.
"I'm almost there," it thought, feeling the power within. "Just a bit more."
After continuing to dig for two days, it found another mid-level spiritual stone and returned to its cave house. Sitting in a meditation position, it ate the stone, which had more spiritual energy.
"This should do it," it thought.
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The stone slowly broke inside, releasing lots of spiritual energy. This instantly made the crab break through to level 9.
"I did it!" it exclaimed.
As for the crystal particles, they didn't harm the crab's skin much anymore. Whether lower-level or higher-level stones, both had same durability. The only problem was that each crystal breaking created a strong impact, and the stronger the energy inside, the stronger the impact. But it wasn't much of a problem for the crab now. It easily pooped them out without any blood included in poop, and the screen appeared again.
---
**System: Talent Enhancement System**
**Name:** Rock Crab
**Age:** 5 Years / 20 Years
**Race:** Demonic Beast (Level 9)
**Skills:**
- Rock Smash (Level 4) [123/400]
- Eating (Level 4) [2/400]
- Swimming (Level 3) [25/300]
- Stone Shell Breathing Technique (Level 2) [Max]
- Walking (Level 3) [56/300]
*Note: Consume stronger ones to get stronger.*
---
As always, the crab ignored the screen. It looked at its reflection in the water.
"I'm much bigger now," it thought. "And more muscular."
Flexing its sharp crab claws, it felt quite handsome.
Now 7 feet in size and very powerful, the crab was at a loss about what to do next.
"What should I do now?" it wondered. "My bloodline inheritance has ended.
It also wanted to find a female but also wanted to become stronger, yet didn't know how.
"I must find more of my species," it decided. "They might know what to do next. And I need a big, strong female too."
As for the spiritual mine, it would abandon it since it was no longer important—just piles of stones now.
" It thought it's"Time to move on."
The crab after thinking, left and started to search for other crabs. After a couple of days, it found lots of crabs of different species, but they were just normal crabs. It couldn't even find a single Demonic crab.
"Why don't I go to those Demonic beasts?" it thought. "But the problem is they can't understand my language and might attack me or hide."
It pondered for a moment and then decided, "Maybe I should go to bigger waters to find more crabs. High chances to find a female."
After some months of traveling, he met lots of Demonic beasts on the way. He even met one crab who was just level 3 and asked him, but that guy didn't know anything.
Suddenly one day he come out on land to take a little sunbath and rest. After all, he was very strong now and not scared of anyone.
But soon, a powerful aura locked onto him. It was a two-legged monster. The crab could feel it was much stronger. The human, at the foundation-building realm, had spiritual consciousness.
The human saw a big level 9 crab with his spiritual consciousness. When he saw this crab, he immediately decided, "Such a big crab! If I capture and sell it to the Beast Sect, I would earn lots of spiritual stones. Beast Sects usually buy beasts that they don't have or some time their disciple might need beasts, and stronger water species are hard to catch and such a big crab might be sold at higher price."
The crab also felt the aura, which was different from the Qi refining realm. It immediately planned to run away but was too late as the two-legged monster attacked him with a powerful sword attack.
The crab's strong body blocked the attack as the two-legged monster didn't want to kill him, using a weaker attack instead. Seizing the opportunity, the crab ran away into the water.
The foundation-building realm cultivator said, "You think you can run away?" He brought out a strong magic bell from his storage bag and easily trap the running crab. It was a foundation-building item the crab couldn't damage it, it thought.
But the crab's rock slash had already reached a very high level. While a normal level 9 crab wouldn't be even reach 2nd level max its strength, it was already close to level 5. After some tries the bell cracked and the crab broke free.
The human saw it was a very strong crab and then it thought, it means more value, it instantly launched a very strong attack. The crab was severely injured, but managed to run away with his fast swimming skill deep in water.
The cultivator tried to search, but the crab in water was very fast. Unable to find him, he was angry as it lost a powerful magic wepon, worth of lot's of spritual stones.