The immortal had yet to arrive, the lingering poison would not fade

As the Spirit Net stretched to its limit, it made a sound like ox sinew being slowly torn apart, sharp enough to set teeth on edge.

Sixteen soldiers stood in two rows, each hauling on one end of a net rope, their backs bowed like drawn bows and their boot heels driven deep into cracks in the reef.

The Mutated Reef Crab at the center of the net had gone mad. Its eight walking legs scraped against the rocks with an ear-piercing screech, while the golden markings on its carapace shone like molten iron, streaming down along the seams.

It was not trying to escape. It was trying to explode.

Lin Shouyi knew that feeling better than anyone. Over the past month, he had personally strangled three mutated crabs of this size.

And before dying, every one of them had compressed the turbid breath inside its body to the utmost, then, like a lit firecracker, splashed the foulest portion onto whoever stood closest.

He roared an order: "Push the front of the net down another three feet! Don't let it raise its head!"

Before his words had faded, a golden orb suddenly bulged from the center of the giant crab's back, and time seemed to stretch.

Lin Shouyi could see every writhing line on that golden swelling, hear his own blood rushing past his eardrums, and smell the sweet rot in the sea breeze suddenly intensify.

Somehow, the enormous claw was already before him. It carried the breath of death. He opened his mouth, but the words caught in his throat. He could not shout.

"Get down."

Only then did he hear that voice.

"Receive."

Zhao Canghai descended from a reef three zhang high. He formed no hand seals and chanted no incantation, merely sweeping his left sleeve. What surged