Chapter 9: This Isn’t a Demonic Beast, It’s a Hairy Crab!

Chapter 9: This Isn’t a Demonic Beast, It’s a Hairy Crab!

Ninth Peak, back mountain. An abandoned mine.

This place had not seen daylight for years. The cave mouth was draped with thick, gray-white webs, each strand as thick as a finger, dangling sticky and foul with a nauseating stench.

Qin Meng gripped his greatsword with one hand, shielding Ling Yue behind him, his expression grave.

“Sister-in-law, be careful. This beast may lack intelligence, but its shell is hard as iron, and it spits venom. Not easy to deal with.”

Ling Yue peeked out from behind his broad back, activating the system’s [Ingredient Scan] mode.

In her vision, the dark cave held no terrifying monster—only a glowing red mass labeled:

“High Protein Detected.”

“Whoa… so big.”

With a screeching scrape that set teeth on edge, a black spider the size of a millstone crawled down from the ceiling. Eight barbed legs gleamed like spears, cold and metallic.

On its abdomen, a pale human-face pattern flickered faintly, eerie and grotesque.

Qin Meng’s muscles tensed. He growled low:

“Sister-in-law, stay back! I’ll hold it off—you find a chance to dig the lapis azure!”

But Ling Yue’s focus was entirely elsewhere.

She stared at those eight “spears,” swallowing hard.

“Those legs… the meat inside must be plump. The shell looks crisp—fried, it’d be amazing.”

The system chimed in helpfully:

[Earthblood Demon Spider (Tier 3): Meat Quality A+. Recommended cooking: spicy stir-fry, garlic butter, steamed with vinegar. Weak point: joints—thin shell at leg-body connections, similar to crab claws.]

“Roar—!”

The spider shrieked, launching its attack.

Jets of dark green venom shot like arrows, sizzling as they corroded stone.

Qin Meng, though one-armed, moved with the agility of a Golden Core body cultivator. He dodged aside, his greatsword crashing down with immense force onto a spider leg.

Clang! Sparks flew.

The strike left only a pale mark.

“So hard!” Qin Meng grimaced, staggered back by the recoil.

Enraged, the spider spun its eight legs like wheels, driving Qin Meng into retreat. Though his pain was suppressed by radish soup, his injured body still faltered, his spiritual power sluggish.

“Sister-in-law, run!” Qin Meng shouted.

Ling Yue didn’t run.

Crouched behind a boulder, clutching her black pot, her eyes locked on the spider’s movements.

“Don’t hack the leg itself! That’s the claw—no, the hardest part! Qin Meng, aim for the armpit! The joint where the leg meets the body—that’s the weak spot!”

Qin Meng blinked mid-battle. “Armpit?”

“The gap between the third and fourth legs! The shell there is thin!”

Ling Yue spoke with the authority of a seasoned foodie. She had dismantled hundreds of crabs; joints were always the weak point.

Qin Meng didn’t understand “crab anatomy,” but he trusted the sister-in-law who cooked miracles.

Breathing deep, he shifted tactics. As the spider lunged, Qin Meng ducked low, his sword flashing upward at the joint Ling Yue had named.

Slash!

Green ichor sprayed.

The supposedly indestructible leg was severed clean.

“Shriek—!”

The spider screamed, collapsing half its body.

“It worked!” Qin Meng’s eyes lit. “Sister-in-law, you’re brilliant!”

The tide turned.

Targeting the joints, Qin Meng became a butcher at work. Even one-armed, each strike landed true, slicing through weak points.

Watching from a treetop, the bald rooster finally lost patience.

It had scoffed at helping—but those falling legs reminded it of last night’s roasted toad.

“Cheep!” (For food, I’ll endure this!)

It dove, spitting golden-red flame straight into the spider’s venomous maw.

Boom!

Phoenix fire, though weak, naturally countered such dark creatures. The spider writhed in agony, distracted.

“Now!” Qin Meng leapt high, his sword crashing down into the spider’s head.

The battle ended.

Dust settled.

Panting, Qin Meng stared at the massive corpse, stunned.

He had slain a Tier 3 peak beast—even crippled.

Clap clap clap!

Ling Yue ran out, clapping, eyes gleaming—not at the victory, but at the legs.

“Beautifully done! Quick, quick, while it’s fresh—uh, I mean, before it spoils—cut off the legs! And dig out the lapis azure!”

Qin Meng watched her expertly direct the dismantling, more skilled than any beast dissector. He swallowed hard.

This sist

er-in-law… What had she done before?

Her gaze on the carcass was fiercer than his own as a body cultivator.