Chapter 1540: Humanoid Snake Beings
The crab was quite massive in stature, but it certainly wasn't slow. Within moments, it had reached within 70 to 80 feet of Han Li, and it'd be able to attack him with its giant claws after just one more flying lunge.
A cold light flashed through Han Li's eye as his lower abdomen bulged slightly. At the same time, his puckered his lips together as if he were about to blast something out of his mouth.
Right at this moment, a sharp screech rang out, following which a streak of silver light flashed through the air before striking the giant crab's body.
The crab's azure exoskeleton appeared to be indestructible, but the silver light was able to force its way through before plunging into the crab's body.
A jet of green blood erupted forth, and the streak of silver light was revealed to be a silver trident that was around 10 feet long. However, its upper half had been completely plunged into the giant crab's back, and only its lower half could be seen.
Having been wounded by that trident, the giant crab let loose an earthshattering screech before immediately rushing toward the opening in the valley.
The attack clearly hadn't inflicted any substantial wounds, but had merely enraged the giant crab instead.
Han Li faltered upon seeing this before hurriedly also turning his gaze toward the opening of the valley.
There, he discovered a dozen or so humanoid figures of different heights.
There were both male and female humanoid figures around them, and all of them were holding shimmering silver javelins, tridents, and other weapons that were made to be hurled. The men among them had their musclebound arms exposed while the women wore tight-fitting short-sleeved leather garments, and all of them gave off a tough and formidable aura.
However, when Han Li's gaze swept over their lower bodies, a surprised look instantly appeared on his face.
The lower limbs of these humanoid figures didn't consist of pairs of legs; instead, all of them had serpentine lower bodies of different thicknesses and colors, as well as layers of faintly visible scales.
These were definitely foreign beings, and they seemed to be from a foreign race that he'd never heard of.
Before Han Li had a chance to consider this notion any further, the giant crab was already almost upon these beings.
The burly man at the forefront of the ground let loose a low roar, and all of his companions quickly organized themselves into two orderly rows with six men at the front and seven women at the back.
The man let loose a loud cry, and everyone in the front row hurled their silver projectiles at once.
Six streaks of silver light flashed before striking the giant crab's body, but the projectiles were only half-buried into its shell, thus unable to inflict any substantial damage. Instead, the giant crab only became more enraged as green blood flowed down its body. It opened its mouth to blast forth a ball of putrid white froth.
The expression on the face of the man at the forefront of the group changed slightly, and he murmured something to himself, seemingly in quite a frustrated and furious manner. He then pulled out a flat round stone disk from behind his back, and the disk was shimmering with faint light, indicating that it seemed to be a more powerful weapon than the silver projectiles being used.
The man hurled the disk toward the oncoming ball of white froth without any hesitation.
In the instant that the stone disk left his hand, it transformed into a ball of red light that shot forth through the air before crashing into the white froth amid an earthshattering boom.
A ball of fierce flames then immediately enshrouded the white froth, and both of them nullified wone another within moments.
However, the giant crab had taken advantage of this opportunity to charge ahead, and it was now only just over 100 feet away from the foreign serpentine beings. Right at this moment, the six men in the front row split up into two groups that rushed forward on either side. They then flicked their wrists in unison before leaning back together, and the oncoming giant crab was suddenly brought to an abrupt halt.
Blue light flashed through Han Li's eyes, and only then was he able to identify that there were semi-transparent threads attached to each of the six beings' wrists, thereby ensnaring the giant crab. The threads had been stretched completely taut by the six beings, clearly indicating that they had remarkable arm strength.
However, what Han Li was more intrigued by were the yellow bracers each of them wore on their wrists. Spiritual light was shimmering from the bracers, and they seemed to be low-grade treasures. The six of them were able to use these bracers and their own brute strength to bring the giant crab to a complete standstill.
However, the crab was only stopped for an instant before its two pincers shot forth like lightning.
Two dull thumps rang out in unison as two of the six threads were severed, leaving extremely smooth incisions as if they'd been severed by a sharp blade. The two men were leaning back to exert force against the threads with all their might, and they were immediately sent tumbling through the air by their own momentum.
The giant crab was about to sever the rest of the thin threads when the women in the second row hurled their silver tridents through the air.
Bursts of dull thumps rang out, followed by a bloodcurdling howl from the giant crab. Seven of its leg joints had been punctured by silver projectiles, and it was immediately keeled over.
With only one of its legs remaining completely intact, there was no way that it could maintain balance.
The giant crab crashed to the ground amid a resounding boom, smashing a crater into the ground that was several feet deep.
All of the tense serpentine beings immediately let loose cries of elation, seemingly assured of their victory.
Indeed, the crippled giant crab was completely at their mercy.
The serpentine beings rushed forward at once, making sure to keep a distance of around 10 feet away from the crab while drawing the weapons strapped across their backs, then hurling them toward the giant crab's vital regions.
At such close quarters and with the giant crab completely crippled, their attacks naturally landed with unerring accuracy.
Moments later, the giant crab's body had been punctured by several tens of silver projectiles, and it was completely dead.
Han Li looked on as he lay on the ground with a calm expression, but his mind was racing rapidly.
From the weapons, treasures, and tactics that these beings had used to bring down the giant crab, these foreign beings seemed to be quite an organized unit. However, if this was the extent of their powers, then there was no way they'd be able to pose any threat to him even if he couldn't move.
Interestingly enough, these foreign beings were quite lithe an athletic, but there was no spiritual Qi emanating from their bodies. As such, they reminded Han Li of the body refinement warriors of the human race.
Just as these thoughts were flashing through Han Li's mind, the foreign beings had dismembered the giant crab in what seemed like the blink of an eye in an extremely rehearsed manner. They then collected the edible parts of the crab before laying them out on the ground, and judging from the proficiency in their movements, this was clearly not the first time they'd slain a creature like this.
At this moment, one of the female foreign beings with a supple and flexible waist slithered over to the man who appeared to be the leader of the group, following which the former pointed at Han Li and said something in a voice that was quite pleasing to the ears. It sounded similar to the language of the human race, but if one were to listen closely, they'd realize that they had no idea what was being said.
The leader of the group was a tanned musclebound being, and not only did he possess the most imposing stature among everyone in the group, he was also the only one with a completely inky-black serpentine lower body.
All of the other beings either had green or white lower bodies, completely different from that of their leader.
After hearing what the woman had to say, the man instantly cast his eyes toward Han Li, and he just so happened to meet Han Li's indifferent gaze.
His heart stirred at the sight of Han Li's placid eyes, and he then cast a glance toward Han Li's lower body, upon which his expression changed drastically. He hurriedly said something to the woman before slithering over to Han Li at a remarkable speed, reaching Han Li in just the span of a few breaths.
Han Li looked on with a calm expression and refrained from saying anything. However, if one were to look closely, they'd discover that his lower abdomen was still bulging slightly and hadn't settled down to its normal state.
Of course, this the first time that the man was seeing Han Li, so he naturally didn't notice that anything was amiss.
However, he suddenly stopped in front of Han Li, then extended a respectful bow with an arm placed in front of his chest. At the same time, he said something in a language that Han Li was unable to comprehend.
A wry smile appeared on Han Li's face upon hearing this.
He'd learned the languages of almost all of the races known to humans back when he was in Deep Heaven City, but the language being spoken by this man clearly wasn't one of those.
After a brief hesitation, Han Li asked a few questions in a language that was quite prevalently used on the Tian Yuan Continent. However, the man appeared to be quite lost, clearly unable to comprehend what Han Li was asking.
Han Li furrowed his brows before trying a few more languages, but the man only continued to scratch his head with a confused look on his face.
Thus, Han Li heaved a faint sigh and didn't say anything further.
At this moment, the man seemed to have identified that Han Li was unable to move, and he suddenly turned around and cried out to his companions.
Four of his female companions then immediately stopped what they were doing and quickly slithered over.
The man said something to those four women, and the women turned to Han Li with shock in their eyes, which quickly gave way to awe and veneration.
They then also extended a respectful bow toward Han Li before slithering over to the dozen or so trees within the valley.
Silver light flashed, and one of the smaller trees was felled by them using a strange silver blade.
The women swung their silver blades through the air, quickly crafting a stretcher out of the tree and some beast hide that they were carrying with them.
After that, the four men picked up a corner of the stretcher each, then hurriedly slithered back to Han Li.
At this point, Han Li had naturally identified that these beings bore no ill will toward him, and the bulge in his lower abdomen settled down again.
The four women then placed the stretcher down beside Han Li, and two of them slithered toward him before asking a question in a respectful manner.
Han Li didn't understand what they were saying, but their intentions were quite obvious. After a brief pause, Han Li nodded in response to their question.
All of the beings before him were all ecstatic upon seeing his response.
The two women beside him extended another respectful bow each before carefully lifting Han Li up from the ground by his arms and legs, then gently placing him onto the stretcher.
After that, they carefully adjusted his position to ensure that he would be in the least amount of discomfort possible.