Chương 417: Making a Difference and the Legend Begins

Li Yu traveled further west and was entering a region dominated by mining clans. The sky here was perpetually gray with soot and the ground vibrated with the sound of heavy machinery and earth-shaking arrays. He arrived at a small mining outpost near the city. The atmosphere was heavy, not with smog but with misery. He saw a line of people being marched toward a mine shaft. He saw that they weren't criminals being put to work.

They were mortals and low-level rogue cultivators that were wearing collars that suppressed their Qi.

'Slaves!' He frowned when he put it together. Guarding them were disciples in the uniform of the Obsidian Hall, a supposedly orthodox sect known for its metal refining. Li Yu watched from a ridge. A disciple whipped an old man who stumbled. The whip crackled with lightning Qi.

"Move, trash! The quotas must be met!" Li Yu's eyes went cold. The playful traveler vanished instantly and a cold consuming rage and anger took his place. Ever since the incident he has been much quicker to anger and rage and he wasn't quite sure why. He had tried to suppress such feelings when they arose but the anger and rage would always win. His demonic aura exploded outward along with his killing intent, painting the entire area in red and black. Everyone froze and then quickly dropped down to the ground.

The pressure and intense killing intent was not something that they could endure. Li Yu moved through the camp and spared no one that was a slaver. He probed each person for their bloodlust and killing intent but as he went through the camp on his slaughter he realized he didn't need to probe. He instinctively could feel it, each time he detected bloodlust and killing intent on a person he felt they were bad. Everytime he didn't, he felt they were normal.

It was never wrong and made him think about the bandits of before.

'Could it be that I can somehow feel or know at an instinctive level if someone had done terrible things? I must keep testing this until I am completely sure. Killing someone out of a feeling that could be wrong would be a massive sin…' He thought to himself and he continued his march. He reached the mine entrance. The overseer was a Foundation Establishment cultivator and he was frozen in place like all the others. Li Yu released the pressure around him and he was finally able to talk.

"You dare attack the Obsidian Hall?" the overseer roared.

"You will be killed for this!" Li Yu flicked his wrist. A small black rod shot forward, impacting the overseer's rock armor and continued through him. The overseer flew backwards but the life in his eyes was already gone. Li Yu had used his combined technique of the soul needle along with a small version of his javelin. Even though he was walking around his continent his second mind was still always continuing to perfect his techniques. He made great process on this combination and was now ready to use it.

He named it the Calamity Soul Spear. After rid of everyone that he detected to be a vile person, Li Yu walked to the prisoners. He touched the collars. With just a single thought he used his spiritual sense to destroy the intricate locking arrays. The prisoners looked at him with wide and fearful eyes. Afraid of what he was going to do next.

"You are all free now. I will take you to the nearest town. The Golden Shell Guild will then help you return to your families." Li Yu spoke to them. They didn't cheer. They were too broken for that. Not even the relief of freedom could bring happiness to them now. It wasn't tangible enough yet for them. He summoned Tempest and gathered all the prisoners. As he passed by a few of them, his instinctive feeling kicked in.

Noticing this, he probed them and sure enough, there was a thick and evil bloodlust and killing intent on them. After everyone was gathered, Li Yu waved his right arm and 8 of them fell back dead. Those were the eight that he had felt and confirmed.

"Those people were not good people either." Li Yu said but the people here didn't even seem to notice. They seemed more dead than alive. Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. He took them to the nearest town and contacted the Golden Shell Guild to come and help relocate them back. That was the most he could do for them.

'I cannot save the world,' he reminded himself, feeling the weight in his soul.

'But I can burn the weeds where I stand and where I can see it.' Once some members of the Guild got there, he left to go to the Obsidian Hall. After scanning through the entire sect, he found most of them to be 'evil'; they had greatly harmed others. He launched a volley of Calamity Soul Spears at each and everyone, wiping them out of existence. He waved his left arm and all of their storage rings flew to him.

Li Yu didn't stop there, he looted their entire treasury, his hunger for growth fueled his desire to get everything he could. For those that were still left behind, he shouted as he was leaving.

"This sect has been doing great evil to the world, today they pay the price for all of the sins they have committed. My name is Little Crab! From the Abyssal Crab Cult! I will purge the world from evil wherever I see it!" He shot into the air and disappeared from sight. From that day on a new small legend was following in the areas Li Yu visited. That Little Crab from the Abyssal Crab Cult was punishing evil whenever he ran into it or saw it. That those that did wrong should beware.

It even turned into stories to scare children into behaving and being good kids. Seeking higher ground and cleaner air, Li Yu climbed the Azure Spire Mountains. While climbing up there he stumbled upon a hidden cave that was populated entirely by monkeys. Not normal monkeys. Spirit-Brew Monkeys. They were three feet tall, had fur that changed color depending on their mood and they were all undeniably drunk. They had fermented the rare 'Cloud-Peach' that grew only at this altitude.

The resulting wine was potent enough to make a Core Formation cultivator forget his own name. Li Yu didn't fight with them. He sat down and tried to offer a trade in exchange for a drink but was refused. No matter how many items he took out, even powerful ones he had obtained through battle the monkeys refused.

'Should I just steal some just to try the taste?' Li Yu was seriously considering it. He really wanted to try the drink out and know what it tastes like. Then it hit him, what was he doing now?

'Was I really considering stealing from this group of monkeys just to try their drink? Just a month ago I was obsessed with getting stronger and obtaining my revenge and now here I am plotting to steal some monkey liquor.' He thought to himself while smiling and then slowly his laughter grew.

"Yes! This is what it means to live, to get to experience such a thing." He shouted to himself which startled the monkeys around him. Then he grinned.

'I guess I will just have to steal!' He thought to himself. Li Yu then quickly acted. Using his entire power, he rushed into their cave in a blur, found some wooden gourd bottles of the liquor that the monkeys had stored and grabbed them. Before he void-steped away, Li Yu left behind a large pile of rare herbs and a second large pile of spirit stones. In his head, that was his payment for the drink, he was paying… not stealing. As he disappeared a large hand smashed down into the ground where he was.

It created a small crater on the ground, the hand had come from a large monkey, about three times the size of the others. Then an even more amazing thing happened, it spoke.

"What a despicable human, stealing from us! That's odd though, I sensed no malicious or evil intentions from him at all. That's why I had lowered my guard!" It roared. The large monkey then looked down at the large pile of rare herbs, finding many that would be useful to treat injuries and then at the large pile of spirit stones and some of the anger went away.

"At least he had the decency to somewhat pay for it!" Li Yu reappeared on the other side of the mountain.

"Who would have thought that my first real 'crime' would be to steal from monkeys. Let the legend be known. Little Crab the monkey wine stealer!" Li Yu said happily to himself as he took a sip. The world tilted and gravity became a suggestion. He found himself floating, literally floating, three feet off the ground. The wine contained so much wind-element Qi that it made the drinker buoyant.

For the next three days, Li Yu drifted upside down through the mountain peaks, debating philosophy with a cloud that he was fairly certain looked like Kui.

"You worry too much about profit," Li Yu told the cloud, hiccuping bubbles of Qi.

"Look at the sky. It's free. Why don't we charge for the sky?" He laughed until his stomach hurt. He raced a passing eagle and lost because he fell asleep mid-air. He tried to practice his staff forms but ended up inventing a new style he called the 'Drunken Float,' which mostly involved spinning uncontrollably while looking dignified or at least he thought it did in his mind. It was the most relaxed he had been in years.

When the effects finally wore off, Li Yu found himself sitting on a high peak, the world stretching out endlessly below him. His Ocean of Qi was vast and calm. The Fisherman sat on the island and continued to fish. The Koi Soul swam in the water. All was normal within his soul yet he felt lighter, stronger and more connected to his souls than ever before. The White Eye of the Fisherman glowed with the memory of the spicy soup, the clumsy bandits and the drunken monkeys.

The Black Eye of the Fisherman glowed with the memory of the slaver camp, the corrupt overseer and the justice dealt that day. Li Yu stood up and dusted off his robes. He looked in the direction of Crater's Edge and then toward the unknown.

"I'm not done yet," he whispered to the wind. He adjusted his bamboo staff and began walking down the mountain. There were more towns to see. More foods to taste. More weeds to pull. The World Walker continued his journey.