The Rat Returns to Its Nest

Zhou Yang did not know how high his reputation had reached and what it meant for his clansmen.

So when he saw Zhou Bao's behavior, he simply thought that the other party was introverted. Thus, Zhou Yang did not think too much of it.

He and Zhou Bao did not have much of a relationship anyway. And in the future, he would take care of the other party only for the sake of Zhou Quan. It seemed that these two were destined not to interact too much.

Zhou Yang had always been an oddball among the Yuan generation cultivators of the Zhou clan.

Due to his memories from his past life, he had been wise since he was young. He might have been a child physically, but his mind had outgrown the childhood stage. Thus, he was not like other children who could not sit still and would rather play. Zhou Yang would hide in secluded places to cultivate quietly for the entire day instead.

Due to this, he did not have much of a relationship with his peers and would often be ostracized.

But his tendency to cultivate by himself while others played was also one of the contributing factors to his ability to reach his current cultivation level at such a young age, other than having a good spiritual root.

When his fellow clansmen grew up and understood things better, they apologized to him. But unfortunately for them, this sense of alienation had already been established. Even if he did not mind, his fellow clansmen usually felt uncomfortable being around him because they were ashamed. As such, despite it all, Zhou Yang's relationship with his peers had and probably would not improve much.

And the rate at which his cultivation grew did not help either, only further propelling his reputation and increasing the gap between him and his peers in terms of cultivation and their relationship.

In the end, the others could only continue looking up to him as a senior. They had completely lost the courage to treat him as an equal.

In any case, Zhou Bao's arrival had indeed helped Zhou Yang a little.

Although this clan brother's cultivation wasn't that great, he was at least at Qi Refinement Level 4. With him around to take care of the spiritual fields and other miscellaneous matters of the mines, Zhou Yang could be at ease when he journeyed with Zhou Quan to go after the Metal Eating Rat.

Now that they had gone through the formalities of greeting each other, Zhou Yang suggested letting the miners stop working and withdraw from the mine as he and Zhou Quan dealt with the Metal Eating Rat because he knew that there would be casualties otherwise.

However, the cruel reality of the immortal cultivation world once again revealed itself as Zhou Quan directly and mercilessly rejected Zhou Yang's idea. Zhou Quan sternly said, "Zhou Yang, you must remember that mercy and compassion are feelings that immortal cultivators should avoid having the most. As cultivators, we must be ready and willing to make sacrifices, regardless of whether they entail ordinary miners or other cultivators like me, for the greater good of our clan. No matter what happens, you must never hesitate to abandon any of us! Do you understand?

"A gecko's tail can regrow if it has been cut off. But if the gecko is dead, there are no second chances. We may lose cultivators and clansmen today, but as long as the clan survives, we will be able to gain more tomorrow!

"You are the hope of the Zhou clan. If you are able to reach the realm of Foundation Establishment in the future, the position of Clan Head will be passed to you. Once you're in that position, having mercy and compassion will only result in the demise of the clan!"

It was as if Zhou Quan had turned into a completely different person - someone cold and stern - as he warned Zhou Yang.

And it was at that moment Zhou Yang knew that Zhou Quan was speaking to him as a clan elder and not as his usual third grandfather.

As a disciple of an immortal cultivation clan, one must put the clan's interests first before anything at all times. Hesitation and mercy will only cause more harm than good.

But honestly, Zhou Yang did not completely agree with the view that the clan's interests were paramount. Yet, he also knew that this was the norm for all immortal cultivation clans in this world.

Though Zhou Quan's advice might seem cold and heartless, it left no room for weakness which was important when dealing with enemies such as demon beasts.

Unlike normal wild beasts that could only act on instinct, demon beasts possessed intelligence and demonic energy. The Grade 2 Metal Eating Rat, for example, already had relatively high intelligence to think and reason.

If they ordered the miners to withdraw and seal off the mine, the Metal Eating Rat would realize that something was wrong when it came over and wouldn't appear again.

Therefore, in order to lure the demon beast out, the miners had to be used as human bait. Sacrifices must be made for the greater good!

Zhou Yang knew this. Thus, he could only consent to Zhou Quan's advice.

They just had to make sure that the miners did not know that they were being used as human bait. In order to do so, Zhou Yang and Zhou Quan used the Breath Concealing Technique to conceal their auras as they quietly snuck in and hid in an uninhabited branch of the mine to wait.

Waiting was torturous because no one knew when the MetalEating Rat would come. Still, Zhou Yang and Zhou Quan didn't dare make any noise, let alone cultivate while waiting.

To ensure they succeed in their mission without any disruptions, Zhou Quan even prepared two bottles of Grade 2 Fasting Pill in advance. A Qi Refinement cultivator would only need to take one pill to be able to fast for an entire week.

Eventually, more than ten days had passed since Zhou Yang and Zhou Quan sat waiting.

One afternoon fifteen days later, when Zhou Yang was too bored and took out the artifact refining book given to him by the clan leader to study the Artifact Refining Technique, he suddenly heard the terrified cries of the miners.

"Ah! There's a demon beast! A demon beast has killed someone!"

"Run! Alert Master Immortal Cultivator to get rid of the demon!"

The miners cried out in alarm as they threw away the mining tools and ran out of the mine desperately.

None of them knew that the immortal cultivators they so desperately needed were already in the mine.

When Zhou Yang and Zhou Quan heard the screams of the miners, they immediately removed their Breath Concealing Technique and made their move.

Rather than squeezing through the narrow tunnel with the miners, Zhou Yang and Zhou Quan used the Earth Evasion Technique to bypass them and head straight to the scene of the incident.

They arrived in a short while and saw the demon beast once more.

Zhou Quan immediately bit the tip of his tongue and spat out a mouthful of blood essence to cast the Blood Spirit Tracing spell.

"With blood as the guide, the blood spirit will reveal itself!"

With a flash of light from Zhou Quan's blood, a glowing blood mark appeared on the Metal Eating Rat's body before it could react.

Since Zhou Quan was a Level 9 Qi Refinement cultivator, the blood mark he had placed on the demon beast would last for about a day. As long as the mark was still there and the distance between him and the demon beast was not more than a thousand miles, Zhou Quan could locate the Metal-Eating Rat at any time through his subconscious.

To the Metal Eating Rat, it did not think much of the bloodstain on its body. It was shocked when it first received it and did suspect that the human that it had severely injured previously had used the blood to cast some kind of attack spell on it.

But when the Metal Eating Rat realized that the bloodstain did not hurt at all, its fur relaxed. A human-like sneer flashed in its scarlet eyes as it bared its teeth at the duo.

It let out a sharp squeaky cry before its figure instantly dived into the ground and disappeared from sight.

Just as Zhou Yang took out his Silver Shield and prepared to set up the barrier to protect himself against the Metal Eating Rat's surprise attack, Zhou Quan had sensed something amiss.

"What a cunning beast. But you're still too young to play tricks with me!"

It turned out that when the Metal Eating Rat had suffered a loss last time, it had developed a fear of Zhou Quan's Earth to Steel Spell. Thus, when it reencountered the duo, it had no intention of fighting back head-on and decided to create a diversion instead.

The Metal Eating Rat had pretended to sneak an attack on them by hiding in the ground. But in actual fact, it had secretly fled to the exit of the mine and chased after the escaping miners.

"We need to get to the exit," said Zhou Quan in a slightly hushed voice before dashing for the mine's exit.

Zhou Yang, who had been slow to realize what was going on, quickly reacted and followed after Zhou Quan.

At the exit of the mine, the miners were just about to rejoice when they saw a black rat the size of a wolf-dog breaking out of the ground with its mouth wide open to take a bite of the nearest person.

"Run!"

The miners were shocked and immediately fled in all directions like frightened sparrows.

However, how could these two-legged mortals outrun the four-legged demon beast?

As they ran, the miners merely saw a huge black shadow darting left and right as people started collapsing to the ground screaming in pain. In just ten breaths, nearly half of the dozens of miners had fallen.

At this rate, the miners would die under the claws of the Metal Eating Rat in less than a minute.

Fortunately, that was not the conclusion.

Before the Metal Eating Rat could finish off everyone, Zhou Yang and Zhou Quan finally rushed out of the mine.

They immediately found the Metal Eating Rat and pointed to the ground to seal it with the Earth to Steel Spell at the same time.

Zhou Quan cast the spell directly while Zhou Yang used the Grade 2 talisman containing the spell that the former had handed him earlier.

The Grade 2 talisman for the Earth to Steel Spell had been personally drawn by Zhou Dan, the third elder of the Light generation in the Zhou family and an Advanced Grade 2 talisman maker. Zhou Quan had specially requested the talisman from Zhou Dan when he last returned to Yuquan Lake Oasis.

With two Earth to Steel Spells being used simultaneously, the ground and rocks within a hundred square meters around the Metal Eating Rat were turned into fine steel, preventing it from using its Burrow Escape Technique.

Without waiting for the demon beast to react, Zhou Quan pulled out his Mountain Quaking Hammer, ready to take the Metal Eating Rat out.

Zhou Yang wasted no time standing idly either. He summoned the Intermediate Grade 2 Scarlet Flame Sword that his father had gifted him for his 15th birthday.

With a flash of fire, Zhou Yang slashed at the Metal Eating Rat that was trying to escape.

However, the demon beast's fur was tough and couldn't be broken so easily unless it was attacked with an Advanced Grade 2 magical weapon, just as Zhou Quan had previously mentioned.

When the Intermediate Grade 2 Scarlet Flame Sword slashed the demon beast's body, it only slightly cut off a strand of its fur, leaving a shallow white mark on its body. The sword's attacks were not able to cause any proper damage on the Metal Eating Rat at all!

However, Zhou Yang was not discouraged. He had intentionally used his sword attack to restrain the Metal Eating Rat to create an opportunity for Zhou Quan's Mountain Quaking Hammer to attack the demon beast.

As expected, the Metal Eating Rat's body inevitably slowed down for a moment after Zhou Yang's attack. And it was at this moment that the Mountain Quaking Hammer smashed heavily on its back.

The demon beast let out a miserable cry and fell to the ground, spitting out large mouthfuls of blood. Some pieces of its internal organs that had been badly mutilated were visible too.

The 'quake' in Zhou Quan's Mountain Quaking Hammer was not there for nothing. Once the magical weapon made a hit, it would activate its 'quaking' divine ability to form a powerful shockwave that would cause secondary damage to the enemy.

Ultimately, the direct impact of the Mountain Quaking Hammer damaged the Metal Eating Rat's exterior while the hammer's magical properties dealt damage to the demon beast's internal organs.

It was a combo attack that made sure there was no room for chances of escape for its victim.

"Amazing. Third Grandfather is so strong despite his age! The older the ginger, the spicier it is!"

Zhou Yang withdrew his flying sword and praised Zhou Quan with a face full of admiration.

Zhou Quan could not help but feel proud and stroked his beard with a laugh to receive such praise from Zhou Yang, the number one person among the younger generation of the Zhou family, even though he knew there was a sense of intentional flattery and exaggeration.

"Oh, this is nothing, Zhou Yang. I am simply older than you. In another ten or eight years, your cultivation will increase and by then, you will be able to easily handle a demon beast such as this too."

"In that case, I will do my best to cultivate to a level as good as yours, Third Grandfather."

Zhou Yang faintly smiled as he unceremoniously accepted the Zhou Quan's praise.

The two were no longer paying much attention to the Metal Eating Rat.

It was not until the demon beast vomited blood and dragged its severely injured body out of the area affected by the Earth to Steel Spell and disappeared underground that the two of them looked at each other and smiled with hidden intentions.