Li Yu left the headquarters of the Gate Keepers on the southern continent and instead of beginning to walk immediately he instead flew around the continent to check how things were doing.

The landscape of this continent was recovering. Where grey blight had once choked the life from the soil, vibrant aggressive greenery was now reclaiming the earth. It was a chaotic explosion of biology. Li Yu still didn’t know if it was the work of those three beings or the divine beasts.

Having circled around the continent once to take in the sights from above Li Yu then decided to begin his quest on foot. He chose a random location to land and adjusted his robes. They were instantly clinging to him due to the humidity here and they were quite worn away from his earlier travels. He tapped his bamboo staff on a massive root that seemed to be vibrating with energy nearby.

"Interesting," Li Yu muttered. "It feels alive. Aggressively alive. I never saw anything like this when I first came to this continent. This is exactly what I am looking for. The different and the strange."

He wanted to head deeper inland to check things out there. According to the map he had purchased from a sweaty cartographer in one of the towns he passed by, the Emerald Heart Region was several days' travel by river.

He found a transport station at the edge of a massive swamp. There were no horses here. Instead, there were Marsh-Striders. They were giant long-legged insects that looked like water striders but were the size of ponies.

The stable master was an old man with skin like tanned leather and a necklace of some sort of beast teeth. As Li Yu approached him, he spat into the water.

"Going upriver?" the old man asked. "Cost is five spirit stones. And don't pet the Striders. They bite."

"I'll take one," Li Yu said. "Is the route safe?"

The old man laughed, a dry, rasping sound. "Safe? Son, this is the Wilds. The water wants to drown you, the trees want to strangle you and the bugs want to drink you. But..." He paused, a gleam of respect entering his eyes. "It's safer than it used to be. Ever since the Red-Shelled Savior passed through this region."

Li Yu paused in the middle of mounting his giant bug. "The who?"

"The Red-Shelled Savior," the old man repeated reverently. "The Crab Lord. The Pincer of Justice."

Li Yu choked on his own spit when he realized who it was. ‘Red-shelled? How did he become known as that?’ He thought. "I... see. Tell me more about this... Pincer of Justice."

"Oh, he's quickly becoming a legend," the old man said, leaning on a fence post. "Came through here about a month ago. A man loud as thunder. Wears armor that looks like a crab's shell. He walks... differently."

"Differently?" Li Yu asked, struggling to keep a straight face.

"Sideways," the old man demonstrated, shuffling to the left. "Says it confuses the enemy's and messes with their depth perception and thoughts. And by the Gods, he's right. He cleared out the Rot-Tooth Bandit Clan single-handedly."

"Did he kill them?"

"Worse," the old man shuddered. "He challenged their leader to a duel of poetry and pain. Every time the bandit leader couldn't rhyme, the Crab Lord pinched him. By the end, the bandit was weeping and reciting sonnets about seashells. They turned themselves in just to make it stop."

Li Yu buried his face in his hands. Jian Xuan. His brother was out there, weaponizing bad poetry and crab-walking his way into folklore. Li Yu then remembered that Jian Xuan’s path was one where he grew stronger by being admired and looked up to and it made a bit more sense why he was doing what he was.

"He sounds... formidable," Li Yu managed to say.

"He is," the old man nodded. "The kids around here now play 'Crab and Bandit' in the streets. They all want to be the Crab. Everyone wants to be the one that says the chant! That mighty claw!."

"Praise the God Crab, his mighty claw," Li Yu whispered instinctively.

"Mighty indeed," the old man agreed seriously.

Li Yu guided his Marsh-Strider onto the water. The beast moved with a jerky but rhythmic grace. Its surface tension was keeping them afloat as they skated over the dark murky river.

The journey was a sensory overload. The wildlife here had evolved to be loud and opinionated, much to Li Yu’s surprise.

At one point, Li Yu passed a grove of Screaming Orchids. As he drifted by, the vibrant purple flowers turned their heads toward him.

“HEY! NICE HAT!” one flower shrieked. “YOU LOOK LOST!” another yelled. “YOUR POSTURE IS TERRIBLE!” a third critiqued. These were not living flowers but special flowers that had grown and adapted over the eras.

Stolen novel; please report.

The legend here was that these flowers were raised and developed by a very rude gardener and took on her personality. After her death the seeds somehow got into the wild and have been there ever since.

Li Yu frowned. "Quiet, or I'll prune you."

“OOH, HE’S GOT SHEARS! TOUGH GUY!” the flowers jeered.

Li Yu didn't slow down but he did flick a finger, sending a splash of river water over the flowers to shut them up. ‘These are probably the most unique flowers that I have ever encountered.’ He thought as he continued.

A few miles later, he encountered a Log-Back Crocodile. It looked exactly like a floating log until it opened a mouth filled with razor-sharp teeth. It lunged at the Strider.

Li Yu was expecting this and simply tapped the crocodile on the nose with his bamboo staff using the Mountain Collapse technique.

BONK.

The crocodile went cross-eyed and slowly sank beneath the surface, blowing bubbles of confusion. Li Yu didn’t capture the beast as he already had a few in his Koi Sanctuary.

"Nature is vigorous here," Li Yu noted.

As night fell, he camped on a high root cluster above the water line. He lit a smokeless fire and sat back to stare at the stars while listening to the jungle.

Through the buzzing of insects and the distant calls of night-birds, he heard travelers at a nearby campsite talking. His enhanced hearing picked up their conversation.

"...no, I'm telling you, he saved my village," a woman's voice said. "The Mud-Slide was coming down the mountain. We thought we were dead. Then he appeared."

"The Crab Champion?" a man asked.

"Yes! He stood in the path of the mud. He didn't use a wall. He didn't use earth magic. He just held up his hands like claws and shouted 'YOU SHALL NOT PASS... STRAIGHT!' With a swing of his sword he redirected the entire mudslide sideways! I tell you it was one of the most majestic sights I have ever seen in my life. That heroic figure standing against the force of nature and winning!"

"Sideways?"

"Into the valley of the invasive Razor-Vines. Killed the weeds and saved the town. He refused payment of any kind, simply trying out the drinks of the town and buying the ones he liked. He just asked that we remember and honor the Crab God every year on that day. Just as he were noting down his words he flew off sideways to us and into the sunset."

Li Yu grinned, leaning back against the tree bark. Jian Xuan had found his calling and was actually making a difference here, in his own unique way. He wasn't just a fighter, it seemed like he was quickly becoming a symbol. A ridiculous, boisterous but heroic symbol that the morals of this scarred and recovering land desperately needed.

"Good job, Jian Xuan," Li Yu whispered to the stars.

As he laid there and looked up towards the stars Li Yu began to wonder what those tiny spheres of light were. He had read that some cultivators could absorb the essence of the sun or the moon and even the stars. They gave off their own unique qi that was different from the others.

Li Yu tried to focus and see if he could do it as well and the result was nothing.

‘The environmental qi that I drew in naturally due to my Koi and my Abyssal Leviathan Physique technique included the elements and what was considered normal or everyday tier energy. It couldn’t pull in more unique qi or higher form qi such as void or life. Is it because you need special techniques or methods to do so or is it because I haven’t mastered those or understand them?’ Li Yu was thinking through the problem.

‘Sun qi, moon qi and star qi should all be in the environment, they are present every single day. So they should be there but the problem is I’ve never detected them before and my Koi hasn’t naturally pulled them in like it did the others. What do I need to do for it to do so? Let’s just start by trying to feel for them.’ Li Yu's thoughts concluded.

He would begin as though he was a new cultivator. Trying to feel and find qi for the first time. The only difference would be that he would try to do it for these more special qi. He spent 5 hours of staring up at the stars and focusing but he still couldn’t detect them.

‘This is harder than I thought, I will just keep trying at night while I relax and enjoy the area I am in.’ Li Yu then went to bed. He didn’t need to sleep but he enjoyed it and since he was traveling as a mortal, he felt it was an enjoyable thing to do. His second mind was continuing to work however.

The next day Li Yu found something he had been looking for.

He steered his Marsh-Strider into a hidden tributary that led away from the main river. The water here cleared up, filtering through beds of Crystal-Reeds. The chaotic noise of the jungle faded and was replaced by a serene cathedral-like silence.

He arrived at a lagoon.

It was perfect. The water was mirror-still and was a deep mesmerizing indigo. Willow-like trees draped moss over the edges, creating a natural curtain. The spiritual energy here was also dense and water-aspected.

Li Yu dismounted onto a grassy bank. He took a deep breath. "This is it," Li Yu said. "The arena."

He wasn't here to cultivate. He wasn't here to fight beasts. He tapped his chest.

"Hey. Wake up. It's time."

Inside his Ocean of Qi the Fisherman opened his eyes. He stood up from his island as if he had been waiting for this. He stretched.

With a shimmer of black and white light, a figure stepped out of Li Yu’s body. It was his soul that came out and was physically manifested. The area began to tremble and the air grew heavy before the Fisherman quickly pulled back in his entire aura until he too felt like nothing more than a mortal.

The Fisherman looked exactly like Li Yu but looked slightly older than him. Ever since Li Yu got a clear look at his face, Li Yu wondered if that was going to be him in a few years but it didn’t seem important. The Fisherman wore a spectral bamboo hat that cast a shadow over his eyes. He had a piece of grass in his mouth and of course the trusty fishing rod that he always carried.

While Li Yu radiated both a sharp and calming energy around him, the Fisherman radiated the vibe of a man who had nowhere to be and all day to get there.

The Fisherman looked at the lagoon. He nodded slowly as he looked around. Nice spot, his posture seemed to say.

"We have been busy," Li Yu said, rolling up his sleeves. "Wars. Tragedy. Rebuilding. I said that when the opportunity came, we could have a fishing competition between us. Now is that time."