Chapter 45: The Crab Population Crisis!

  With the help of Ye Qinghong, Fang Luoyou and Niu Deng, Mo Bei's business is getting better and better. The crab meat is in short supply, and he is making a lot of money.

  Until the sky grew dark and a cool breeze began to rise, Ye Qinghong, with a tired look on his face, bid farewell and left.

  "Eighty-one. Eighty-two......" Long Hao Tian sat on the ground with his legs apart, gleefully pointing at the Spirit Pearls one by one: "Ninety-five...... One hundred seventy-eight......"

  "One hundred ninety-two!"

  Long Haitian's face turned red with excitement, and he shouted in surprise: "Boss! Boss! We've struck it rich!! We really have struck it rich! Tonight we sold crab meat and actually earned two spiritual stones!"

  "Hahaha," Long Hao Tian burst out laughing: "This is going to earn more than what I made from doing tasks for two or three months!"

  Mo Bei nodded slightly, a faint smile spreading from the corner of his mouth, his expression calm and collected, as if everything was going according to his plan.

  Mo Bei thought to himself: The amount of spiritual stones earned in these days is indeed considerable. If it were just for cultivation, one spiritual stone would be enough for me to cultivate for several days. However, if I want to buy sword techniques in the future, it won't be enough.

  "Uh-huh, still need to keep working hard and earn more spirit stones!"

  "Ah... what a pity."

  Mo Bei sighed secretly in his heart: "These days, I've been killing Iron Shell Crabs all the time. It seems that Iron Shell Crabs are getting harder and harder to find. A few days ago, they were everywhere, and in the first few days, I could still kill 17 or 18 of them every day. But later on, there were only 15 or 16 of them every day, and then 11 or 12 of them..."

  Mo Bei did not speak or utter a word, lowering his head in contemplation, his eyes flickering with thoughts that kept surfacing in his mind:

  It won't work, we must think of a way.

  ……

  The fifth day early in the morning.

  Mo Bei and Long Hao Tian entered the Demon Island as usual.

  That day, Mo Bei and the others came out exceptionally late; until the sunset had completely fallen, and the entire island was shrouded in darkness, Mo Bei and Long Hao Tian slowly walked out of the dense forest onto the beach.

  It's strange that Long Hao Tian didn't have a big pile of Iron Shell Crabs behind him, his face filled with excitement as usual.

  Long Hao Tian walked behind Mo Bei with a gloomy face, his head hung low in a listless manner. Behind him, six or seven iron-armored crabs trailed along, looking rather pitiful.

  "Brother, we're having bad luck today." Long Hao Tian pouted and muttered under his breath: "Those big crabs seem to have gotten smarter, we've been circling around for a whole day and only found a few."

  Mo Bei's expression remained unchanged, shaking his head and saying: "It's not that the Iron Shell Crab has become more skilled, but rather we've been killing too many of them in recent days, causing their numbers to sharply decline."

  "What should I do?" Long Hao Tian's face was full of worry: "I was thinking of saving up enough spirit stones to buy a sword technique. Without the Iron Armor Crab, there's no source of spirit stones. What to do?"

  "Let me think for a moment." Mo Bei furrowed his brow slightly and continued walking forward, no longer paying attention to Long Hao Tian.

  Two people, one in front and one behind, walked silently onto the flying boat.

  The white-robed attendant on the flying boat habitually glanced at Mo Bei and the other person, his gaze sweeping over the iron-armored crab behind them, and said with a smile: "Today's harvest isn't very good?"

  Mo Bei smiled slightly, clasped his hands together in a salute to the white-robed attendant, and then curled up the corners of his mouth: "Yes, Shixiong. These days, the Iron Shell Crabs seem to be getting fewer and fewer."

  "Of course." The man in white robes drove the flying boat, slowly rising into the air and carrying everyone with him as he flew through the void. He nodded his head and casually responded with a few words, then pulled out a small wine gourd tied with a red ribbon from his sleeve, tilted his head back and gulped down a few mouthfuls.

  The white-clothed man's lips were still pursed, and he put away the wine gourd, saying: "That iron-armored crab is a demonic beast with great spiritual energy."

  "You used to come here every day from dawn till dusk. The iron-armored crab was almost killed by you, what do the remaining iron-armored crabs think?"

  The remaining iron-armored crabs, naturally seeing the situation was unfavorable, fled in a hurry.

  "Do you think they're fools, waiting for you to kill them?"

  Mo Beishen nodded in agreement: "Elder brother's words are extremely right, it was actually younger brother who was remiss earlier and didn't consider things thoroughly."

  Long Haitian poked his head out and glanced at the man in white: "So what do you think we should do?"

  The man in white robes smiled and shook his head, not continuing the conversation, and took out a wine gourd to drink a few mouthfuls. Long Hao Tian's face was covered with dust, and he sullenly withdrew his neck.

  This scene fell into Mo Bei's eyes.

  The latter's eyes slightly widened, intentionally or unintentionally glancing at the white-robed attendant's hand holding the wine gourd. In his gaze, a hint of sharpness suddenly flashed, as if he had come up with an idea.

  On this road, everyone looked at each other without saying a word.

  Mo Bei and the other two dejectedly boarded a flying boat and returned to the Great Desert Mountain.

  Mo Bei didn't rush back, instead he took Long Hao Tian to stroll around the market and finally entered a shop called Selling Spirit Pavilion.

  The shop is not big, but although the sparrow is small, it has all its internal organs.

  On the ring-shaped wall bracket, all kinds of heavenly and earthly treasures are dazzling.

  "Big brother, why did you bring me here?" Long Hao Tian looked around curiously, his eyes scanning the treasures on the shelves behind the counter, muttering to himself: "Thousand-year-old Lingzhi, Bone Tempering Dan, First-grade artifact Life-taking Ring... Tsk tsk, all good treasures."

  "Huh? There's actually still a two-stage demonic beast, the three-legged lizard demon's demonic tail!"

  However, when Long Hao Tian's gaze fell on the price tag on the small wooden sign, he was shocked and quickly withdrew his neck, muttering in a low voice: "Damn it, 45 spiritual stones, that's daylight robbery!"

  Mo Bei stood calmly in front of the wooden frame embedded in the wall, his hands clasped behind him, pacing slowly as he carefully examined various materials.

  A smiling waitress came up: "This Taoist friend, what materials do you need? Our store has everything, such as the first-class magic tool wind-water wheel, which is very suitable for you now."

  "And there's also the hundred-year-old Lingzhi, after taking it, your cultivation will be greatly improved! Your true energy will also become even more dense!"

  The waitress was tirelessly introducing to Mo Bei:

  "Also..."

  Mo Bei waved his hand to interrupt him and pointed at a crystal clear emerald green jade jug, asking: "How much is this wine?"

  The waitress's eyes lit up: "Brother Dao is indeed wise and discerning, this is the best old wine from the Jade Wine Workshop!"

  The wine is called Yu Hu Chun, made from the gallbladder of Qing Zhu She Yao, a third-grade demon beast, combined with sixteen kinds of fifty-year-old immortal herbs including Cang Hong Hua, Bai Hong Cao, Lin Feng Ye, Chi Zhu Guo, Xuan Yang Cao and Tian Zhu Cao, brewed for three years.

  "After brewing this wine, it must be buried under the spiritual veins of the earth to absorb the purple yang energy for three years. Only then can it become a fine wine. For cultivators, especially one like you, its effect is the best!"

  "To be honest," said the waitress, clearing her throat: "This jug of fine wine is the last one in our store."

  "How many spirit pearls?" The waitress smiled and replied: "One spirit stone!"

  After finishing speaking, she picked up the wine jug, opened the lid and let Luo Li smell it!

  Mo Bei sniffed his nose. A faint scent of wine wafted out from the jade pot, and suddenly he felt all the pores on his body relax, his whole body at ease.

  Mo Bei thought to himself: That spiritual wine is indeed good, the spiritual energy contained in that fragrance is indeed rich! A piece of spiritual stone, isn't too expensive after all.

  Long Haitian was shocked, his eyes wide with alarm as he tugged on Mo Bei's sleeve, whispering urgently: "Boss, one piece of spirit stone!! Why are we buying this wine, it's too extravagant, too extravagant, simply too extravagant!"

  Mo Bei remained unmoved, paid the bill decisively, put the Ling wine jug into his sleeve, and dragged Long Hao Tian away from the Spirit Pavilion, walking back.

  All the way, Long Hao Tian kept muttering under his breath, repeating a sentence, like a mosquito buzzing.

  His aching senses all contracted into one place, although Mo Bei's was his own spiritual stone, but Long Hao Tian felt as if a piece of flesh had been ruthlessly cut off from his body.

  "Too luxurious... too luxurious..."

  "Oh dear, my little sweetheart..."

  "Brother is really..."

  Mo Bei took out a bun and stuffed it into his mouth.

  "Tomorrow, you will know what this spiritual wine is used for."

  The next day, early in the morning, the sky was overcast with a thin layer of cloud.

  Mo Bei and the other person came again to the market where the flying boat was docked, boarded the flying boat heading to the Demon Island.

  Mo Bei raised his eyes and looked into the distance. On the flying boat, there were already over a dozen people, in groups of three or five, gathered together chatting with each other.

  Just as the flying boat was about to take off.

  "Slow down!"

  "Wait for us!"

  Several voices sounded in succession under the flying boat.

  Long Hao Tian focused his eyes and saw several figures rushing up and boarding the flying boat.

  His eyes narrowed, revealing a hint of cold light.

  "What's going on? How did they get here?" Long Hao Tian gritted his teeth, his voice laced with a hint of coldness that couldn't be concealed.

  The old lady stood at the edge of the flying boat with eight disciples from her family, her eyes slowly scanning the crowd and falling on Long Hao Tian and Mo Bei. A hint of hatred flashed in her eyes, and she let out a heavy breath: "Hmph!"

  "Brothers, let's make a bet, how many iron-armored crabs can we catch today?!" Ji Lao Ba looked up with his nose in the air, proudly and loudly speaking to the young men of the Ji family; his voice was just loud enough to fall into Mo Bei's ears.

  "Haha."

  The young master of the Ji family burst out laughing: "Eighth Brother, we spent a spirit stone to buy that anesthetic specifically for dealing with that Iron Shell Crab!"

  A scar-faced disciple smiled and said: "Today will definitely be a great harvest!"

  Another pale-faced disciple nodded and smiled: "Yes, yes, that's right."

  The bald disciple beside him, with a ferocious expression, shouted: "Hmph, the entire Iron Shell Crab of that island belongs to our Ji family. You think you can compete with us? Don't even think about it!"