Chapter One: Heaven's First Floor

  The beach was quiet, and Sun You looked at Shen Shi as if he didn't recognize him, staring blankly at Shen Shi's expressionless face with a sharp blade in his hand. Hou Sheng and the other three boys were also stunned, and even Hai Xing, the red clam tribe girl standing beside them, looked at Shen Shi with a hint of surprise, covered in shrimp blood.

  Perhaps because the ghost-faced prawn's body structure is after all different from that of domesticated livestock such as pigs and sheep, Shen Shi's knife strike stunned his companions but its effect was not as clean and efficient as that of the red clam tribe man who killed the sea urchin earlier. This ghost-faced prawn did not die under this knife strike, and although it seemed to be on its last breath, its hands and feet were still struggling and flailing about.

  Shen Shi furrowed his brow, hesitated for a moment, and then swung the knife again. This time he finally killed the blue lobster. Then, under everyone's gaze, he silently inserted the thin blade of the knife into the gap in the hard shell of the ghost-faced shrimp's abdomen, just like the sea urchin had demonstrated earlier, and began to peel off the shell.

  When the sea urchin killed the mantis shrimp, it then peeled off its shell and took its meat. All of its movements were swift and smooth, but when it came to Shen Shi, they suddenly became clumsy. The knife inserted into the shrimp's shell, moved slightly, and found itself stuck by the hard shell. It was only then that Shen Shi discovered that the seam of this shrimp was not a straight line, but rather an inconspicuous curve hidden beneath. One had to constantly change the direction of the knife when peeling off the shell in order to find the space to pry it open.

  The sharp blade began a long and arduous struggle with the hard shrimp shell, blue-black blood flowing continuously from the wound, staining the ground around where he stood, and since half of his body was splattered with blood, he looked like a monster bathed in eerie blue, emitting thick bloody and murderous aura.

  The faces of the boys watching from the side slowly changed, and two people suddenly turned around and walked away. Only Sun You and the little fatty Hou Sheng were left standing still, trying to remain calm. But when Shen Shi's knife blade kept making a hair-raising screeching sound as it clashed with the hard shell, and they saw the terrifying scene in the pool of blood, even the two of them couldn't take it for a moment.

  Hou Sheng's mouth twitched twice, and he muttered a few words under his breath, as if saying something like "you're ruthless". He finally turned around and left, apparently still unable to accept this strange task in Hong Bang Village. As for Sun You, who was born into a wealthy family and had never seen such a bloody scene before today, he was able to hold on until now, and honestly, even he himself was somewhat impressed with himself.

  However, looking at the ghost shrimp with more than half of its shell peeled off and that large pool of blue polluted blood, Sun You still asked himself if he could really withstand this scene. After forcing a smile, he walked to Shen Shi's side and dryly said: "Shen Shi, you're...you're formidable...I really can't do this, I'll just head back first." As he spoke, he stretched out his hand, seemingly wanting to pat Shen Shi's shoulder in encouragement, but looking at the thick bloody smell emitted by the blue polluted blood on Shen Shi's body, his palm suddenly froze in mid-air, unable to pat him for a while.

  Shen Shi raised his head, looked at him for a moment, and a hint of a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth. He nodded towards Sun You and said, "You go back first."

  Sun You took a deep breath, but ended up inhaling a strong bloody smell, almost vomiting on the spot. His face turned pale and he hastily signaled to Shen Shi before turning around and running away, looking like he couldn't wait to get as far away from Hong Wan Village as possible.

  The sea breeze is gentle, the seawater is crystal clear, and the sound of waves crashing is just nearby. The sky is vast and the sea is wide, as if I am in a paradise on earth, except for Shen Shi.

  All the young people of the village had left, except for him alone.

  He looked at the blue bloodstains on his body, then at the ghostly shrimp shell that had been pried open with great difficulty on the ground. He fell silent and squatted down again, the knife blade struggling once more in the small, hard shell, slowly opening the greenish-blue shell, as the blue blood flowed continuously along the blade.

  After a while, Shen Shi's forehead was already sweating, and finally, he completely cut open the seemingly simple but actually winding, hard, curved, and unimaginable shrimp gap, revealing the tender white shrimp meat inside.

  He threw down the knife, reached out and grabbed the shrimp meat, pulled it with force like the sea urchin before, and finally completed the last step of the process, taking out the ghost-faced shrimp's shrimp meat.

  The sea breeze blew by, and from afar came the clear, crisp calls of seagulls soaring on the wind.

  Suddenly, a large bowl appeared beside him. Shen Shi turned his head to see that it was the beautiful red clam girl Hai Xing who had somehow produced the bowl and placed it lightly on the ground beside him, saying: "You can put the shrimp meat here."

  After being stared at by Shen Shi from such a close distance, Hai Xing seemed to be somewhat unaccustomed to it and subconsciously took two steps back. His cheeks flushed with a faint red glow again. However, since there was only Shen Shi present, Hai Xing appeared to have more courage than before. He secretly glanced up at him again and couldn't help but speak: "Your method of peeling shrimp is quite slow; you can't even kill a hundred in one day."

  Shen Shi tossed the white and tender shrimp meat into the large shell bowl, smiled at Hai Xing, and said, "Hmm, I'm not very familiar with this yet, it's not going quickly...". He suddenly paused, his expression tense, furrowed his brow, and asked Hai Xing, "Can we make up for the number we can't kill today tomorrow? Or does the village really require killing 100 ghost-faced shrimp in one day?"

  The sea star immediately shook its head and said, "That's not the case, no matter how much time you spend, even if it's three days, five days, ten days or half a month, as long as the number I give you is one hundred, I'll exchange it for a spiritual crystal."

  Shen Shi let out a sigh of relief, nodded his head and said: "That's good, I'll try again then."

  He stood up straight, stretched his waist, and after a brief exercise, he bent down to grab another live ghost shrimp from the cage. The starfish had been watching this human boy for some time, and they exchanged a few words, gradually becoming bolder and no longer as shy as before. However, she still seemed to be very disgusted with the ghost shrimp, and when Shen Shi was about to kill it, she hastily retreated several steps, but not as far away as before, instead squatting on the beach a few steps away, randomly drawing unknown patterns on the sand with her hand.

  "Whoosh!" A dull sound, the sharp blade once again pierced into the Ghost Shrimp's vital neck, and blue polluted blood also sprayed out once more.

  The starfish turned its head to look at Shen Shi, only to see that the human youth was once again splattered with blue blood all over his body, looking even more dirty and bloody. However, she seemed to have no fear of this bloody scene, at most just looking disgusted by the blue blood, but her eyes kept darting towards Shen Shi's expression, filled with a hint of curiosity.

  Practice makes perfect, constant dripping wears away stone.

  One thing done repeatedly will eventually reveal some tricks, and gradually it becomes second nature, just like when he was very young, starting to draw those intricate and complex symbols.

  Blue crab blood splattered on the beach and fell, washed clean by the clear sea water, as if born from the ocean and finally returned to the sea, completing a cycle of life. In this process, knives rose and fell, bright knife lights waving back and forth on the beach.

  Every ghost-faced shrimp, Shen Shi killed with great difficulty. Each time he peeled off the shell, those small, hard, and dark curved shrimp seams made him suffer a lot. But for some reason, under the blue sky and white clouds, in the gentle sea breeze, he never gave up.

  When he killed the second ghost shrimp, his clothes were completely soaked, but it was unclear whether they were drenched in sweat or stained with blue shrimp blood. It was also at this time that Shen Shi seemed to have finally found a certain weakness on the neck of the ghost shrimp, and with one knife, the ghost shrimp died instantly, without any struggle, and finally didn't need to use a second knife.

  When he killed the third ghost-faced prawn, Shen Shi's knife edge inserted into the gap of the prawn shell seemed to move a bit faster. At least in the first few places, he appeared to have already counted the number of bends on the prawn shell in his heart. When he arrived at the place, his wrist rotated slightly, and the knife edge moved naturally and smoothly past.

  By the time he killed the fourth Ghost-Faced Prawn, Shen Shi seemed to have a good grasp of the subtle twists and turns at the very front of the prawn's gap, and the speed of his knife's movement gradually had a smooth flavor.

  And by the time he caught the fifth ghost shrimp, Shen Shi was already breathing heavily and looked exhausted. After he gritted his teeth and finally dealt with the ghost shrimp, he pulled out the white tender shrimp meat and threw it into the sea bowl, then stood up and said to Hai Xing:

  "Let's get it done today and I'll come back tomorrow."

  The starfish, which had been squatting not far away, blinked its eyes, looked up at the sky, hesitated for a moment, and said: "It's not too late now, you see the sun hasn't set yet."

  Shen Shi smiled, turned his slightly sore neck and swung his arm which had been using force and was aching, saying: "It's almost enough, no need to rush at this moment, otherwise today's consumption is too great, tomorrow may not be able to kill a few."

  The starfish looked at him, with a few more curious eyes, and said: "This kind of remark, I've never heard it before."

  "My father once told me that to do something well or learn a skill, being impatient and anxious is of little use. The most important thing is to calm down, be patient and persistent."

  The sea star murmured, slightly furrowing its good-looking eyebrows, and the red clamshell beside it moved back and forth twice, as if thinking about Shen Shi's words in its heart, but it didn't seem to understand very well.

  Shen Shi picked up the sea bowl on the ground, walked to her side, handed it over to her and said: "Today there are five shrimp, tomorrow I will come again, I think there should be more than today."

  The starfish took over the big bowl filled with ghost-faced shrimp meat, and immediately jumped back a few steps like a frightened little rabbit, covering his nose. Shen Shi looked at himself and laughed: "You people from the Red Clam Tribe seem to particularly dislike this shrimp blood."

  The starfish waved its hand, and Shen Shi took two more steps back. His face improved slightly as he said, "Yes, that's right. This blue blood is best washed off in seawater, it's easy to get clean. If you go back and use the spring water or fresh water on the island to wash it, it will actually stain your clothes and won't come out for several months."

  Shen Shi was taken aback for a moment and said, "There's still this matter." He lowered his head, thought for a moment, and smiled slightly.

  "Uh... Starfish girl, would you mind turning around for a bit?"

  The sea star tilted its head and said, "What's up?"

  Shen Shi was at a loss for words for a moment, then said: "I think I'll go wash up in the sea."

  "Go take a bath then."

  Shen Shi looked at her for a moment, nodded after a while, then reached out to unbutton his collar button and started taking off his clothes.