Demon Sword Sect’s Undercover
Chapter 315 - 315 314 Crab Claw Island

315: Chapter 314: Crab Claw Island 315: Chapter 314: Crab Claw Island Hou Niao did not fly directly to Crab Claw Island; instead, he toured dozens of islands within range, even if it meant taking a bit of a detour.

Such a flight path turned a journey of several hours into three days because he also wanted to experience the sensation of flying over the ocean at night.

This was crucial, and during the process, he often got lost, but as soon as the sun rose and he could see the horizon again, his sense of direction returned.

Through these experiences and the navigational tools he prepared in his bag, he had gained a preliminary understanding of flying over the sea.

He had found the right general direction but still needed to refine the details.

Three days later, the sea was no longer a gentle light green but began to shift to a light blue, and the waves grew from a mere few feet near shore to roughly ten feet high.

He was fortunate as the seasonal winds were mild; otherwise, in the face of tsunamis and torrential rain, the smaller islands would have been utterly invisible from the sky.

Divine Sense?

It was fine when the weather was clear, but once the environment turned harsh, his limited Divine Sense was not as useful as eyesight in the air.

Looking down from a few hundred feet, Crab Island lived up to its name, resembling a large crab with claws ready to strike, with a not-so-large bay forming between the pincers, wide enough to embrace a thousand feet, a little larger than he had imagined.

Circling the island several times from above, he determined that it was oriented east-west.

To the west were the two claw tips, where the terrain gradually descended into the sea; on the east near the crab’s body were two hills, one larger and one smaller, neither rising more than a hundred feet, covered in luxuriant, lush forestry.

The taller hill was steep and entirely blanketed in trees, while the lower one featured a gentler slope with a cleared space and two stone cottages.

His Divine Sense swept over the area and detected no signs of life, which led him to conclude that the stone houses were likely constructed by past Cultivators rather than being native to the island.

Although there were many creatures on the island, his cursory scan found no large wild beasts.

However, there was an abundance of reptiles, justifying the island’s alternate name of Snake Island.

These cold-blooded creatures certainly didn’t rely solely on rodent prey, instead mostly preying on the endless birds and their offspring – the eggs.

Of course, he didn’t expect to find any Demon Beasts here; if there ever were any, human occupation over the centuries would have long since wiped them out, making it impossible for them to re-emerge.

While Demon Beasts were sure to exist on remote islands, according to the Earth Map, they would only appear beyond two thousand miles from the coastline, and beyond nine thousand miles, it goes without saying – it’s an entirely different world.

Gently descending, as if sensing his arrival, countless worms emerged from the two stone houses, reluctantly leaving their home.

The island had been deserted for over a year with no one willing to come until his particular requirements brought him here.

Personally, he preferred not to live in stone cottages, but that did not mean he would tolerate worms infesting them.

He intended to clean up the place, set up a human-like Puppet, and arrange Arrays around the cottages to create the illusion of someone Cultivating there.

As for his own Cultivation, he would simply find a spot anywhere; he wasn’t bound to one particular location.

Being far from the Continent, the most important thing was to protect oneself.

No one obeyed the law out at sea, everyone indulged in their own desires, and he could not entrust his safety to the benevolence of others.

Puppets, Arrays, and early warnings—these measures were common among Cultivators.

If he thought of them, so could others; they were not reliable alone.

His real methods lay in his persistent effort in Earth Escape, particularly embodied in the priceless Thousand-Mile Earth Map.

In the following days, he intended to use the Earth Escape Skill to explore every inch of the island’s soil.

Leveraging his nascent understanding of Earth Escape, the grassroots knowledge, and the Thousand-Mile Earth Map, he would turn this place into his own rat’s nest without actual burrows.

When he could comfortably move beneath the surface to any inch of land on the island, it would truly be his domain.

That was the essence of Earth Escape.

No one would expect a Sword Cultivator to practice Earth Escape from the outset, as it seemed entirely incompatible with Flying Sword.

This was his initial intention for choosing skills; while others may think about how to manifest as saints in front of others, how to become immortals or gods in the future, he didn’t dwell on that much—he only thought about how to survive.

Throughout his journey, he made quite a few enemies, killed many, and being experienced in the world of criminal investigation, he was well aware of his retribution; when he was just a lowly criminal investigator in Fufeng City, there was never a lack of malevolent criminals seeking revenge every year, including gang members of great thieves and interest groups.

If the Mortal World was like this, how could the Cultivation World possibly be peaceful?

But it was merely because he was inside the Quanzhen System in Shan Country that some would hesitate for fear of harming something valuable; now that he had left Shan Country and lost the support of the Quanzhen System, standing alone overseas, it would have been fine had he been an unknown Sword Cultivator, but Hou Niao had accumulated a massive blood debt while abroad—it was impossible that no one bore him ill will.

Thus, he needed to give himself a truly safe guarantee.

To achieve this, ordinary arrays were useless.

Before he truly became powerful, he still had to rely on this Earth Escape Skill to struggle for survival.

After conducting a thorough survey of Crab Claw Island, his cultivation began to get back on track in the days that followed.

His primary focus on cultivation techniques was still on Earth Escape; he planned not to attempt the Thunder Skill until he had fully mastered the Thousand-Mile Earth Map.

Every day, besides the normal morning, noon, and evening lessons, as well as training his control over his Flying Sword, he spent most of his time on two aspects.

Firstly, tunneling all over Crab Claw Island, leaving no stone unturned, not overlooking a single rock crevice or streak of soil; his Earth Escape now allowed him to burrow ten feet deep into soil and three feet into rock layers, varying based on geological conditions, and he no longer had to worry about carelessly exposing his backside.

The speed could reach that of an ordinary person jogging on flat ground, which might sound quite ordinary, but considering the movement is happening within the soil, such speed was quite remarkable.

This was just a basic skill.

His understanding of Grassroots had improved significantly due to his natural affinity, ensuring that his aura would not leak and expose his whereabouts during Earth Escape.

The worst kind of Earth Escape would be one where a moving lump appeared on the ground above the person tunneling—it would be better not to use the skill, akin to burying one’s head in the sand, deceiving only oneself.

The function of Grassroots was to disperse the practitioner’s aura to the plants on the surface, which then absorbed the aura through their roots and rhizomes, thereby achieving undetectable movement.

For Great Cultivators who had mastered the Great Dao, such measures were unnecessary as they would perfectly solve this issue at the level of the Five Elements; however, for mid to low-rank cultivators who hadn’t yet grasped the Great Dao Ability, this was a fatal flaw.

This was the reason why Earth Escape was so extraordinary, yet so few mid to low-rank cultivators practiced it.

Secondly, flying all around the vicinity of Crab Claw Island; circling the island time and again with Sword Control Technique, he was training his control over the sword while also investigating the surrounding waters.

Moreover, he kept expanding the radius from several miles around the island to more than a dozen miles, even dozens of miles, familiarizing himself with the local marine climate, changes in wind direction, the cycle of day and night, and the movements of the Sea Clan during these flights.

No battle is ever easy, and only when a cultivator doesn’t fool themselves, will the battle not fail them.

Surviving is a very serious matter; there are no shortcuts to take.