Chapter 12: 12

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

The Metal-Eating Rat had originally thought that after escaping back to its nest in the red iron vein, it would be able to rely on the presence of the Venomous Fire Scorpions outside to protect it as it recovered from its injuries and escape this calamity.

Unfortunately, it had underestimated the abilities of the human immortal cultivators, including Zhou Yang’s determination to kill it.

With the aid of the Blood Spirit Trace, Earth Evasion Technique, and other magical artifacts, Zhou Yang and Zhou Quan forcibly opened a passage and slaughtered their way into the rat’s hole fifty to sixty meters underground. The duo descended right into the nest as the Metal-Eating Rat was sleeping and recuperating.

Without wasting time, Zhou Quan had already used the Earth to Steel spell to seal off the surrounding ground and rocks.

Now that its most convenient escape method had been sealed off, how else could the Metal-Eating Rat attempt to successfully escape in such a narrow space while heavily injured?

After a desperate struggle, the rat was finally smashed in the head by Zhou Quan’s gourd hammer. The deaths of dozens of miners had been avenged.

“Demon Beast, this is your retribution for eating people!”

Zhou Quan gently raised the gourd hammer and struck the head of the Metal-Eating Rat again. He did not stop until the rat’s head was smashed into several pieces.

It was only then that Zhou Yang realized that Zhou Quan was not completely cold and heartless. He did take the lives of ordinary clansmen seriously.

It was just that Zhou Quan had lived for more than a hundred years and was already used to seeing life and death flash before him. As such, he was able to hide his emotions well and not reveal them easily.

Zhou Yang remembered Zhou Quan’s stern words back then and still found himself disagreeing with them even now.

Nevertheless, he did not dare to voice out his thoughts as he was still a junior to Zhou Quan. After all, Zhou Yang was still not as strong as Zhou Quan.

Seniority was the foundation of a clan’s stability. The only way an immortal cultivator belonging to a clan could escape the hierarchy was to achieve the realm of immortality.

Throughout the whole time Zhou Yang was busy entertaining the thoughts in his head, Zhou Quan had already put away his gourd hammer and said, “Zhou Yang, you can keep this demon beast’s corpse. Bring it to the clan head and he can help extract and refine some of the materials from it. You should be able to refine a few good magical artifacts from it.”

Zhou Yang was stunned. He had never thought that Zhou Quan would say such a thing. Now he felt ashamed for the negative thoughts he had towards Zhou Quan earlier. Zhou Yang slightly blushed, shook his head, and said, “No, Third Grandfather was the one who slayed it. How could I dare claim it?”

“If I ask you to take it, then take it. Third Grandfather is already so old. Even if I were to claim the corpse and get a Grade-3 or Grade-4 magical artifact, how many more years can I use it? Besides, you’re about to reach Qi Refinement Advanced Stage. If you don’t have enough magical artifacts in your inventory, how will you win in a fight in the future?”

Zhou Quan glared unhappily at Zhou Yang, feeling as though Zhou Yang was looking down on him by not accepting the gift.

Zhou Yang felt even more ashamed when he heard Zhou Quan speak, but he still declined. “I appreciate your kindness, Third Grandfather, but this item is too valuable. I’m ashamed to accept it, I’m just too ashamed to accept it!”

Zhou Quan could tell that Zhou Yang was not faking his reaction, which only made the former confused.

What kind of situation was this?

The juniors of today were really hard to understand!

Zhou Quan stared at Zhou Yang with a puzzled expression. Then, he asked, “What do you have to be ashamed of? This demon beast was discovered and killed by the both of us. Even those itinerant cultivators who team up to hunt demon beasts would have a share in the spoils. So why not you and me?”

What he could not understand was why Zhou Yang was acting as if only seniors were allowed a share of the spoils and juniors were expected to simply watch from the sidelines.

Zhou Quan could tell that the guilt Zhou Yang was feeling and expressing was genuine. However, Zhou Quan could also tell that Zhou Yang would not say what he had in his mind, and that he only wanted to let this matter pass as soon as possible.

Since that was the case, Zhou Quan decided not to pursue the matter any further as he helplessly said, “Look, how about this? Just treat this as me asking a favor from you for the benefit of your second brother’s future!”

Zhou Quan was afraid that Zhou Yang would still disagree so the former immediately used the Earth Evasion Technique to leave the rat’s nest. It was as if Zhou Quan was the one with the guilty conscience, not Zhou Yang.

This was not something Zhou Yang was expecting as he was left standing there, dumbfounded.

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After a long while, he finally came back to his senses and let out a bitter smile before sighing. “Forget it. I’ll just accept the gift today and find an opportunity to return the favor through Zhou Bao and the others!”

After putting away the corpse of the Metal-Eating Rat, Zhou Yang rummaged around in the nest for a while and found some of its feces.

The feces of the Metal-Eating Rat were also considered treasures due to their metal-based diets. In fact, the feces of the Metal-Eating Rat sometimes contained some special spiritual metal that was not digested. If the spiritual metal was extracted and used to refine magical artifacts, it could slightly increase the success rate of refining. It was also an excellent material for repairing damaged magical artifacts.

Knowing that, Zhou Yang immediately got to extracting the undigested refined iron and red flame iron ores from the Metal-Eating Rat’s feces. These would definitely be of great use when refining Grade-2 or Grade-3 magical artifacts in the future.

After raiding the nest, Zhou Yang quickly used the Earth Evasion technique to return to ground-level and meet up with Zhou Quan who had been waiting for him.

“Zhou Yang, now that this demon beast is dead, what do you plan to do next?” asked Zhou Quan as he made a quick glance at Zhou Yang’s bulging storage bag on his waist.

“I thought Third Grandfather already had a plan,” said Zhou Yang confidently after a brief moment of surprise at the sudden question. 

“Regardless of whether there is a Grade-3 Venomous Fire Scorpion King or not, hundreds of Venomous Fire Scorpions are not something the two of us can deal with. Why do we have to take the risk to confirm the presence of the Venomous Fire Scorpion King anyway? We should return to Qingping Mountain first. Then, Third Grandfather will report this matter to the clan leader and let him decide on this matter.”

The round of applause rang out as Zhou Quan clapped at Zhou Yang with a gratified expression and praised the young cultivator. “Well said! As expected of the apple of the Zhou clan and clan leader’s eyes. Zhou Yang, I have long heard of your wisdom but this is the first time I get to experience it directly. Despite your age, you already know when to advance and when to retreat, and you know how to weigh the pros and cons. I don’t think there are no more than three cultivators between the Xuan and Yuan generation of our Zhou clan who are as insightful and wise as you!”

Then, Zhou Quan turned serious and said, “Let me give you a piece of advice. In the future, whenever you encounter such opportunities and risks, you must restrain your greed and curiosity to avoid taking risks as much as possible. Self-preservation is very important. You must remember that only when people are alive can they be met with and take opportunities. Nothing is possible once you’re dead!”

“I will always remember Third Grandfather’s advice. Thank you for your guidance.” Zhou Yang bowed respectfully to Zhou Quan.

Although Zhou Quan’s words were not new to him, Zhou Yang was also grateful for the kindness the elder had shown him throughout.

Zhou Quan accepted his bow calmly. Then, he let out a long sigh with a complicated look on his face.

“It’s good that you’re willing to take my advice. In the future, our Zhou family will rely on you juniors to carry on the clan’s name. Us elders are already in our senior years. Now, we can only pass on the baton of insights and experiences that we have summed up throughout our lives to you. With that, we hope that you will be able to raise your cultivation with fewer detours than we had!”

When Zhou Yang heard Zhou Quan’s sudden words, the former knew the latter was thinking of their ancestors who had died violently in the Boundless Sand Sea.

Their current world was filled with dangers. Not only were there natural disasters and demon beasts but there were man-made disasters as well.

The vastness of the Boundless Sand Sea meant that there were other oases like the Yuquan Lake Oasis that hosted other cultivation clans like the Zhou clan.

Even smaller oases would host itinerant cultivators who did not have the benefits or systematic inheritance of cultivation techniques or refining tools and pills of those who belong to clans or sects. If they wanted to obtain talismans, pills, spiritual stones, and magical artifacts, they would have to hunt demon beasts or collect spiritual herbs to be exchanged for in the immortal cultivator market.

But such items weren’t the only things that could be traded in the market. Lives could be exchanged too.

Therefore, many itinerant cultivators simply formed groups and acted as sand bandits in the Boundless Sand Sea. They engaged in no-cost business, specifically killing and plundering other cultivators’ belongings to benefit their own cultivation.

Some powerful itinerant cultivators even deliberately left spiritual items in the desert as traps, spreading the news of the treasures everywhere to attract cultivators who thought they had stumbled upon an opportunity before killing and robbing them.

The Boundless Sand Sea was a place such that anyone could easily get away with murder – it was easy to clean one’s hands and find a place to hide or disappear.

There were a total of thirteen Light generation and eighteen Xuan generation cultivators in the Zhou family tree, but only eighteen of them were still alive between the two generations.

Of the thirteen who disappeared, three accidentally died at the hands of demon beasts and the remaining ten had mysteriously disappeared when they had left to carry out clan missions or go on adventures. Not even their bones had been found.

Compared to the poor itinerant cultivators, the clan or sect cultivators were sometimes more easily targeted by those evil people since they had more assets.

For this reason, the Zhou clan and many immortal cultivation clans had specially set down family rules: any cultivator who had not reached Qi Refinement Advanced Stage was not allowed to leave the clan to travel and explore alone.

Zhou Quan had lived for more than a hundred years and as such, he had encountered many wandering cultivators’ attacks, traps, and temptations. For him to be able to live until now only meant that his hands must have been stained with the lives of many people.

Therefore, Zhou Quan was definitely not exaggerating when he talked about the importance of clan juniors inheriting insights and experiences from their seniors and elders..

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