Leading the Rat Back to the Nest

Zhou Yang was unaware that he had become a psychological shadow for his peers in the clan.

In his eyes, Zhou Bao's performance was merely due to his introverted personality, and he didn't pay much attention to it.

After all, he didn't have much of a relationship with Zhou Bao. If he were to take care of him in the future, it would be out of respect for Third Grandfather Zhou Quan, and their interactions were destined to be infrequent.

Therefore, he simply offered a few polite pleasantries and said nothing more.

In fact, among all the "Yuan" generation clansmen of the Zhou Family, Zhou Yang was an anomaly.

Due to his memories from his previous life, he had been precocious since childhood. He disliked playing with his peers and preferred to hide in secluded places to cultivate quietly, often sitting for an entire day.

His ability to reach his current cultivation level at such a young age, besides his good Spiritual Root aptitude, was largely due to this.

Children are naturally playful and active; how could they possibly sit still for cultivation at such a young age? Only someone like Zhou Yang, who possessed memories from a past life, or those with naturally indifferent personalities who knew nothing of enjoyment, could maintain high-intensity cultivation during childhood.

This unconventional behavior naturally led to Zhou Yang's relationships with his peers becoming very distant. They even collectively ostracized and isolated him at one point.

When his peers grew up, understood the reasons, and apologized to him, the sense of distance had already formed. Even though he didn't mind, his peers, feeling ashamed, didn't want to spend much time in his presence, and their relationships didn't improve much.

This situation would only worsen as his cultivation grew higher and his fame spread.

To the point that now, his peers could only look up to him, their exceptionally talented clan brother (or junior), who had galloped far ahead of them in cultivation, completely losing the courage to interact with him as equals.

Regardless, Zhou Bao's arrival had indeed helped Zhou Yang somewhat.

Although his cultivation was not impressive, he was still a Qi Refining fourth-layer cultivator. With him around, Zhou Yang could confidently hand over the management of the dozen or so acres of Spirit Fields on Qingping Mountain and some miscellaneous tasks at the mine to him, allowing him to focus on accompanying the elder Zhou Quan to the mine to wait for the Gold-Eating Rat demonic beast to arrive.

At this point, the cruelty of the Cultivation World became apparent.

Even though they knew that the Gold-Eating Rat's reappearance would definitely cause the deaths of the miners in the mine, under Zhou Quan's insistence, Zhou Yang's proposal to temporarily halt operations and evacuate the miners was ruthlessly rejected by the elder.

Not only did the elder ruthlessly reject his proposal, but he also gave him a stern lecture.

"Little Nine, you must remember this: we cultivators must guard against being soft-hearted. Whether it's these mediocre mortal miners today or family cultivators like myself, if abandoning us can bring about the family's strength and ensure its continued inheritance, then you should abandon us without hesitation!"

"A gecko can break off its tail to survive; as long as the family can continue to be passed down, the tails that are broken off will eventually grow back in the next generation!"

"You are the hope of our Zhou Family. If you can achieve Foundation Establishment in the future, the position of Zhou Family Patriarch will be passed to you. If you are soft-hearted and cause disaster then, it will not just be you who suffers, but the entire Zhou Family!"

The elder, who usually had a kind and amiable expression, spoke these words with an indescribably cold demeanor, as if he had become a completely different person.

Zhou Yang knew that at this moment, the elder was not speaking to him as a kind elder, but as a family elder.

As a disciple of a cultivation family, one must always prioritize the family's interests and never cause significant losses to the family due to personal soft-heartedness.

To be honest, he did not entirely agree with this theory of prioritizing family interests above all else, but he also knew that this was the normal way for all cultivation families in this world to survive.

Moreover, although Elder Zhou Quan's actions seemed cold and unfeeling, they were actually the best choice for quickly achieving the objective.

Demonic beasts are not wild beasts. Wild beasts act solely on instinct, while demonic beasts, in addition to possessing demonic energy, have also awakened their intelligence. The intelligence of a tier 2 demonic beast is already quite high; they understand simple thinking.

If they ordered the miners in the mine to evacuate and seal the mine, the Gold-Eating Rat demonic beast would surely realize something was wrong upon discovering this situation and would not appear again.

Therefore, to lure this demonic beast out, the miners had to be used as bait, and someone had to sacrifice themselves for it!

Thus, Zhou Yang didn't say anything more and could only tacitly agree with Elder Zhou Quan's decision.

Using miners as bait was something that definitely could not be revealed to the miners. Therefore, after making the decision, both Zhou Yang and Zhou Quan used the Breath Concealment Technique to conceal their auras and quietly hid in an unused branch tunnel within the mine to wait.

The wait was agonizing because no one knew when the Gold-Eating Rat would arrive. Neither Zhou Yang nor Elder Zhou Quan dared to make any noise, let alone cultivate.

To ensure the success of this stakeout, Elder Zhou Quan had even prepared two bottles of tier 2 spirit pills, Grain Abstinence Pills. For a Qi Refining cultivator, taking one pill could sustain their body's needs for 7 days without the need for further sustenance.

They waited for more than ten days.

One afternoon, fifteen days later, as Zhou Yang, bored, was studying the artifact forging techniques from the artifact forging classics given by the Old Clan Leader, the sounds of miners' hammering and digging in the mine were suddenly replaced by the terrified screams of the miners.

"Ah! There's a demonic beast, a demonic beast is killing people!"

"Run! Quickly go invite the Immortal Master to eliminate the demon!"

The miners screamed, crying and wailing as they threw down their mining picks and other tools, wishing their parents had given them two more legs as they desperately fled towards the outside of the mine.

However, no one noticed that the "Immortal Master" they were calling for had already appeared in the mine.

As soon as Zhou Yang and Zhou Quan heard the miners' screams, they immediately put away their Breath Concealment Technique and sprang into action.

They did not join the miners in squeezing through the narrow mine tunnel but directly used the Earth Evasion Technique to bypass the miners and head straight for the scene of the incident.

A short while later, the two arrived at the scene of the Gold-Eating Rat's rampage and saw the ferocious demonic beast again.

"Using blood as a guide, let the Blood Spirit manifest, go!"

As soon as he saw the Gold-Eating Rat, Elder Zhou Quan bit his tongue, spat out a mouthful of vital blood, and directly cast the Blood Spirit Mark spell.

With a flash of blood-red light, before the Gold-Eating Rat could react, a blood-red glowing mark suddenly appeared on its body.

With Elder Zhou Quan's cultivation at the ninth level of Qi Refining, casting the Blood Spirit Mark spell would allow the mark to remain on the Gold-Eating Rat for at least a day. As long as the mark existed, and as long as the distance between the two parties did not exceed a thousand miles, Elder Zhou Quan could sense and locate the Gold-Eating Rat at any time through a subtle connection.

The Gold-Eating Rat, however, clearly did not understand what this seemingly inconspicuous blood-red mark represented.

When the blood-red light touched it, it was indeed startled, thinking that the human who had previously severely injured it had cast some sort of sorcery on it again.

After discovering that the blood-red mark did not harm it at all, its fur relaxed, and a human-like sneer flashed in its scarlet rat eyes as it bared its teeth at Zhou Yang and the other.

Squeak squeak squeak!

It let out a sharp squeaking sound, and with a movement of its body, it instantly burrowed into the ground, disappearing from Zhou Yang and the other's sight.

"What a cunning beast, it's actually gotten smarter. But you're still too green to try playing a feint on me!"

Just as Zhou Yang was on high alert, summoning his Silver Gang Shield artifact and focusing all his attention on defending against the Gold-Eating Rat's sneak attack, Elder Zhou Quan seemed to sense something and let out a low shout, exposing the beast's whereabouts.

It turned out that after suffering a loss last time, the Gold-Eating Rat had developed a fear of the elder's "Finger Points to Steel" spell. It had no intention of engaging them head-on again, instead resorting to a "feint" tactic.

While it appeared to be burrowing and hiding its tracks to ambush the two, it was actually stealthily heading towards the mine exit to pursue the fleeing miners.

"Let's go, we're heading to the mine exit." The elder shouted lowly, his body moving as he put away his Golden Gourd Great Hammer artifact and rushed towards the mine exit.

Zhou Yang, only realizing what was happening afterward, quickly followed suit.

At the mine exit, the miners, who had just narrowly escaped death, had no time to celebrate before they saw a black rat, the size of a large dog, erupt from the ground. It immediately lunged and bit at the closest individuals.

"Run!"

The sudden turn of events stunned many miners. Then, someone shouted, and everyone scattered like startled sparrows, fleeing madly in all directions with a whoosh.

But how could these two-legged mortals outrun a four-legged demonic beast?

A massive black shadow darted left and right, thrusting forward on the ground. The fleeing miners screamed and fell like wheat in a harvest, with nearly half of the dozens of miners collapsing within a mere ten-plus breaths.

If this continued, in less than a minute, all these dozens of miners would be dead under the Gold-Eating Rat's claws.

Fortunately, this situation did not come to pass.

As the Gold-Eating Rat surged onto the surface and began its slaughter, Zhou Yang and Elder Zhou Quan, who had sensed something was wrong, finally reached the surface.

Finger Points to Steel!

Finger Points to Steel!

Seeing the black shadow chasing and killing miners all over the ground, both of them simultaneously used the "Finger Points to Steel" spell to seal the earth.

The difference was that Elder Zhou Quan was releasing the spell he had learned himself, while Zhou Yang was using a second-tier talisman given to him by Elder Zhou Quan.

This second-tier talisman, inscribed with the "Finger Points to Steel" spell, was personally drawn by the Zhou Family's "Guang" generation Third Elder, Zhou Dan, a second-tier high-grade Talisman Master. Elder Zhou Quan had specifically requested it from his fifth brother after returning to the family last time.

With the simultaneous use of two "Finger Points to Steel" spells, the earth and stone within a hundred square meters around the Gold-Eating Rat instantly turned into refined steel, rendering its burrowing technique useless.

Before it could react to this sudden change, Elder Zhou Quan's Golden Gourd Great Hammer artifact smashed towards its head through the air.

"Crimson Flame Sword, go!"

Zhou Yang let out a low shout and didn't just stand by. He decisively summoned the second-tier mid-grade flying sword, the Crimson Flame Sword, which his father had given him on his fifteenth birthday.

With a flash of fire, Zhou Yang's Crimson Flame Sword actually struck the Gold-Eating Rat, which was trying to escape, first.

However, as Elder Zhou Quan had said before, the Gold-Eating Rat's fur was tough, and only a second-tier high-grade artifact could break it.

The second-tier mid-grade Crimson Flame Sword merely shaved off a wisp of its fur and left a shallow white mark on its body, unable to harm its true form.

But Zhou Yang was not discouraged by this, as his sword was only intended to hold the Gold-Eating Rat in check, creating an opportunity for Elder Zhou Quan's Golden Gourd Great Hammer artifact.

As expected, with his sword blocking it, the Gold-Eating Rat's movement was inevitably slightly delayed. It was this moment that allowed the Golden Gourd Great Hammer, following closely behind, to heavily smash onto its back.

Screech—

With the heavy hammer landing, the Gold-Eating Rat immediately let out a scream and fell to the ground, spewing out large mouthfuls of blood, even containing some bloody internal organ fragments.

The "Earth Quake" in Elder Zhou Quan's Earth Quake Hammer artifact was not named in vain. Once struck by this artifact, it would activate the artifact's "Earth Quake" divine ability, creating a powerful shockwave that inflicted secondary damage on the enemy.

Due to its diet of metal, the Gold-Eating Rat had very tough and hard fur and bones, making it difficult for ordinary artifacts to harm it.

But no matter how strong its physical defense was, its internal organs could not possibly be as hard as metal. The shockwave generated by the "Earth Quake" divine ability, upon hitting it, instantly caused significant damage to its internal organs, resulting in severe internal injuries.

This was the second time it had fallen victim to the same move.

"Impressive, Third Grandfather, you truly are strong despite your age, and your experience makes you wise. Old ginger is indeed the spiciest!"

Zhou Yang retracted his flying sword, showering the elder with praise, his face full of admiration.

Of course, this wasn't entirely flattery. The elder's strength was indeed far superior to his. After all, even disregarding the difference in artifacts, their cultivation levels differed by a full three layers: one was at the sixth level of mid-stage Qi Refining, and the other was at the ninth level of late-stage Qi Cultivation.

To receive such praise from the number one person of the younger generation in the Zhou Family, even knowing that his words contained some exaggeration, Elder Zhou Quan couldn't help but feel a sense of pride. He couldn't help but stroke his beard and chuckle:

"Heh heh heh, Little Nine, you flatter me. I'm merely older than you by a few years. In another ten or eight years, when your cultivation improves, dealing with such a beast will be as easy as picking up a hand."

"Then I'll take Third Grandfather's good wishes. Your nephew will strive to cultivate with you as my goal."

Zhou Yang smiled slightly, accepting the elder's praise without any pretense.

While the two were exchanging compliments, neither paid any attention to the severely injured Gold-Eating Rat.

It wasn't until the Gold-Eating Rat, still spitting blood and dragging its heavily wounded body, crawled out of the influence range of the "Finger Points to Steel" spell and disappeared underground that they looked at each other and smiled, their faces blooming like foxes who had stolen chickens.

A four-thousand-word chapter, full of sincerity. Can fellow readers also offer some encouragement and send a few recommendation tickets?

I also want to thank the two fellow readers who gave rewards today. It is your rewards that have propelled this book forward more than twenty places on the new book list. Thank you so much!