**Recommendation: Witch Doctor Awakening.**

“Sea beast?” Jiang Wang questioned, a hint of confusion in his voice. He spoke instinctively in the tongue of Qi, yet the other party clearly grasped his meaning.

The bald, transformed giant crab of the Sea Clan, enraged, roared back in the very same language: “Lowly slave, how dare you slight this Sea Master!”

The sound was like thunder, and without hesitation, it brought down its massive pincer, wielding it like a great hammer!

The pincer crashed against a sudden, brilliant silver-white light circle. It could not penetrate, nor could it even dislodge the barrier. Jiang Wang had summoned a sword circle, effortlessly deflecting the blow.

No wonder. No wonder the eight-clawed sea beast’s Sea of Consciousness had appeared as it did. No wonder it possessed a discernible divine soul. No wonder the sea beasts encountered along the way differed from it. This “sea beast” was not *that* sea beast.

Observing the furious demeanor of this beast-formed Sea Clan member, it was evident it felt deeply insulted. The term “sea beast” was, to it, a profound affront, akin to a human being reviled as a dog.

*Clang! Clang! Clang!*

The giant pincer, like a hammer, struck repeatedly. The sound was of iron being beaten, the force measured in a thousand *jun*. Yet the sword circle remained utterly unmoved.

From within the silver-white barrier, Jiang Wang’s clear voice resounded: “Now, it is my turn.”

In the fleeting gap between the giant pincers’ descent and ascent, the silver-white sword circle subtly dispersed, leaving a single sword held horizontally before him! It was as if a renowned scholar, filled with inspiration, had flourished his brush, a single flick of the wolf-hair tip, and between heaven and earth, a sword light evolved into an ink trace.

*Crack.*

A sound as if something had fractured. The bald Sea Clan creature heard the sound first, then saw it: its right pincer, the one that had first struck down, its entire frontal portion, suddenly detached. Only then did the pain register! Following the pain came horror. Its most solid, most formidable weapon, severed by a single sword! What sword was this? Was it one of those renowned implements so prized by human cultivators?

Thoughts flashed like lightning in its mind, but in the real world, its left pincer instinctively lashed out. It no longer sought victory; its sole aim was to temporarily drive the opponent back, to seize an opportunity to escape.

But then, another sword trace!

In the blink of an eye, Jiang Wang had cut open with a sword from left to right, and with a release of his right hand, his left hand grasped the sword hilt, pulling it back from right to left. This sequence of movements was fluid as flowing water. His mastery of the Unrestrained Scholar’s Sword was complete; it formed the very foundation of his art. Two swords, two horizontals – that was how both pincers were shattered!

The bald Sea Clan creature, transformed into a giant crab, only then unleashed its pained howl.

Jiang Wang followed the momentum, taking a single step forward. Before the giant crab’s pale blue blood could even spray down, he stepped onto the mountain-like body of the creature, half-crouching. Gripping his long sword vertically, he plunged it straight down! It easily pierced the thick armor shell, and Long Xiang Si penetrated directly into the body. Surging Dao Yuan instantly gathered upon it, leaving the bald Sea Clan creature in no doubt that should it explode, everything within its body would be churned into fragments.

“Now, can we have a pleasant chat?” Jiang Wang asked.

At that moment, the handsome young man was half-crouched upon the giant crab’s shell, his left hand supporting him with the sword, his right hand resting lightly on his right knee, palm facing down. Terrifying flames burned silently beneath his right hand. The originally ferocious giant crab, both pincers broken, its momentum utterly gone, lay motionless in the air.

The frog-shaped sea beast, originally devoid of divine intelligence, stared blankly for a few moments. For some inexplicable reason, it felt an instinctive fear. With a turn, it leaped away, not even sparing a glance back.

The fear of death hung at its doorstep. The giant crab dared not move, yet it bared its teeth, shouting with surprising bravery: “You dare to think you will extract the secrets of the Sea Clan from me!”

Jiang Wang paused for a moment, then said: “I have no need for you to reveal the secrets of the Sea Clan. A casual chat will suffice.”

A joke. What secrets of the Sea Clan could a Teng Long Realm level creature possibly know? Jiang Wang was not so naive as to believe he could unearth shocking secrets from such a weakling. He simply wished to supplement his knowledge of basic Sea Clan matters.

The giant crab remained silent, implicitly acknowledging Jiang Wang’s request for a “chat.”

“Speaking of which, it’s been some time since I’ve been in this area,” Jiang Wang began. “How many Sea Nests are there here now?” He started with a question whose answer he knew, testing the sincerity of this Sea Clan creature. He did not expect the opponent to know everything and refuse to speak, but if it lied about such a simple question, there would be no point in continuing the conversation. He would simply kill it.

The giant crab snorted coldly: “There are already five! You slaves will sooner or later be driven out of Hu Shi by the great Sea Master’s clan!”

Interesting. The Human Race called this the Mi Realm, while the Sea Clan referred to it as Hu Shi. Yet, knowing that its life depended on its enemy, it finally omitted the word “lowly.”

Jiang Wang was not angered. He asked again: “Under which King Duke do you serve?”

“I’m not afraid to tell you, your father here is a War Soldier under the White Elephant King! If you know what’s good for you, release me quickly. Otherwise… ah!”

Mid-threat, Jiang Wang lightly pulled the sword hilt. Razor-sharp sword qi suddenly raged within its body, turning its remaining words into a miserable shriek.

The Sea Clan’s hierarchical division roughly consists of War Soldiers, War Generals, Commanders, King Dukes, and Emperor Masters. War Soldiers correspond to human cultivators in the Teng Long Realm, War Generals to Inner Mansion Realm cultivators, Commanders to Outer Building Realm cultivators, while King Duke level Sea Clan members have a wider range of strength, corresponding to human Divine Arrival and Cave True Realm cultivators. The Sea Clan uniformly uses the title King Duke, but there is a distinction between single-character Kings and multi-character Kings, with single-character Kings far surpassing multi-character Kings. The Human Race refers to single-character Kings as True Kings and multi-character Kings as False Kings, corresponding to Cave True and Divine Arrival cultivators respectively. As for Emperor Masters, they naturally correspond to human cultivators in the Derived Dao Realm. Information above the Emperor Master level was not something Jiang Wang could grasp at this moment.

This Sea Clan member stated it was under the White Elephant King, indicating that in the Ding Wei area, the White Elephant King was the most powerful figure it could invoke. This suggested that the strongest fighting force on the Sea Clan’s side in the Ding Wei area might only be a False King. This was good news.

The highest fighting forces generally did not move lightly. Usually, only with a True King holding down the fort would a False King be free to hunt widely, as consolidating the Sea Nest was the most crucial task compared to hunting and killing one or two opponents. The Human Race side was also like this; without a Cave True cultivator holding down the fort, Divine Arrival cultivators generally guarded the floating islands. Therefore, it could be deduced that in the wilderness areas of Ding Wei, the main forces on both the Human Race and Sea Clan sides should be Outer Building Realm cultivators and Commander level Sea Clan members. One could say that True Person Chong Guang had chosen a battlefield that was not overly difficult for them.

“Your mouth isn’t too clean. Please be more polite.”

Jiang Wang stopped his hand. After the Sea Clan member stopped its miserable shrieks, he said: “No offense intended, but I wanted to ask, why were you so angry when I mistook you for a sea beast?”

The Sea Clan creature suddenly struggled: “Don’t think to insult me!”

“Calm down!” Jiang Wang’s voice sank, and the Three Flavors True Fire moved directly towards its armor shell: “At this moment, do I have any need to humiliate you?”

The burning sensation brought by the terrifying flames calmed the Sea Clan creature down.

“Sea beasts are not open to divine intelligence, equivalent to the pets and wild beasts within your human territories. Whereas I manifest the true form of a Sea Master. How can I not be angry when you lump us together?”

Aside from being more powerful, Jiang Wang truly couldn’t discern the difference between the so-called “true form of a Sea Master” and a sea beast, but he understood its meaning. It was like some human cultivators who practiced techniques like the Eagle Claw or Dog Wading Leg; they could practice these, but if you directly called them a dog, that was an insult. And the Human Race’s prohibition against Sea Clan members manifesting their true Sea Master forms, treating them as watchdogs, naming them “sect-protecting sea beasts,” was undoubtedly a naked act of humiliation towards the Sea Clan. This was also clear evidence of the blood feud between the two races.

Jiang Wang was still processing this information. The Sea Clan creature, manifesting the true form of a giant crab, seemed to see an opportunity and initiated conversation: “It looks like you’ve just arrived in Hu Shi and don’t understand us Sea Clan. How about this, we make a deal…”

“No need.”

Jiang Wang extinguished the Three Flavors True Fire in his palm, yet pressed down with that very palm once more!

**Recommendation: Witch Doctor Awakening.**