The Crab General Who Refuses Ascension, Only Wants to Dominate

The crippled cultivator Chen Du is exiled to the Nine-Bend Crab Field, where he spends his days counting gray-shelled river crabs. On a moonless night, an old dark-gold crab strikes a stone with its claw and draws in the sand, revealing a hidden map of the underground water veins. The old crab communicates telepathically, warning that the Tianxing Sect is about to excavate the Xuanming remains beneath the sand, which would cause the entire sandy land to wither completely. Chen Du decides to abandon his remaining spiritual power and learn the art of listening to the sand with his crippled body, using his feet to sense the direction of the earth's veins. Pei Xuan, an executor from the Punishment Hall of the Tianxing Sect, arrives early on a flying boat, and iron-armored puppets drill deep day and night, severing the earth's veins and collapsing the water routes. Guided by an old sand-boat man, Chen Du obtains a shell fragment shed by the Crab King three thousand years ago, and uses the dark-gold light at his fingertips to directly communicate with the ancient veins underground. The crab swarm migrates south under the guidance of Zhao Lingzhu, while Shen Qingya alone guards the narrow valley to block the enforcement team. Chen Du activates the ancient water veins deep in the southern pit, triggering a resonance of earth's energy. The Crab King's shell shatters and transforms into a golden new carapace. Pei Xuan's mission fails and he is recalled, and a high-ranking executor descends to seal off the entire region. Chen Du leads the crab swarm and mortal tribes, using the earth's veins as a blade to counterattack, tearing apart the cleansing formation of the Spiritual Vein Council. The ruins surface, and the sandy land turns into an oasis. Chen Du does not rebuild the sect but leads the golden-shelled Crab King along the underground river into the depths of the earth. There is no ascension there, only a path never taken by cultivators. Since then, 'sand listeners' have appeared in the wastelands of the Nine Provinces, using non-spiritual methods to channel water and dig canals, and the earth... — Description from novelcodex.org