Zhouyang did not know that he had already become a psychological shadow for his peers in the clan.
In his eyes, Zhou Bao's behavior was merely due to being introverted, so he did not pay much attention to it.
After all, he and Zhou Bao did not have much contact, and taking care of him in the future would be only for the sake of Third Grandfather Zhou Quan, and they were destined not to have much interaction.
So he just said a few polite words and didn't say much more.
In fact, among the "Yuan" generation of Zhou Family, Zhouyang was also an anomaly.
Due to the memories of his past life, he possessed early wisdom from a young age and didn't like playing with his peers; instead, he preferred to hide away quietly and cultivate alone, often sitting for an entire day.
The reason he could reach his current level of cultivation at such a young age, apart from having good spiritual root talent, owed much to this.
Children are playful and active by nature, and at a young age, they can hardly sit quietly to cultivate. Apart from individuals like Zhouyang with past life memories, only those inherently cold and indifferent to pleasures can maintain high-intensity cultivation during childhood.
And such unique behavior naturally caused Zhouyang's relationships with his peers to become distant, even leading to collective exclusion and isolation by them.
When those peers grew up and matured, and apologized to him, the sense of alienation was already formed. Even if he didn't mind, they felt ashamed and unwilling to stay long in his presence, impairing relationship improvements.
As his cultivation increased and his fame grew, this situation only became more serious.
So now, those peers could only look up at him, a genius in cultivation who has left them far behind, losing the courage to interact on equal terms.
Regardless, Zhou Bao's presence did help Zhouyang somewhat.
Although this cousin's cultivation wasn't impressive, he was at least a Fourth-Layer Qi Cultivation cultivator, so with him around, Zhouyang could safely delegate the management of the dozen acres of Spirit Field and some mining chores at Cyan Ping Mountain to him, while he focused on guarding the mine with Elder Zhou Quan, awaiting the arrival of the demon beast [Gold-Eating Rat].
This moment displayed the harshness of the cultivation realm.
Even knowing the return of [Gold-Eating Rat] would surely cause miner deaths inside the mine, Elder Zhou Quan mercilessly vetoed Zhouyang's proposal to temporarily halt mining and evacuate the miners.
The elder didn't just ruthlessly reject his suggestion, but also sternly lectured him.
"Xiao Jiu, you must remember, for us cultivators, compassion and leniency are the greatest taboos. Whether it's these insignificant mortal miners or family cultivators like me, if sacrificing us can lead to the clan's strength and continuation, you must abandon us without hesitation!"
"A lizard can regenerate a lost tail, as long as the clan can survive, we cut-off tails will eventually grow back in the next generation!"
"You are our Zhou Family's hope; if you successfully establish a Foundation, the position of clan leader will pass to you. If you act compassionately causing disaster, you harm not just yourself, but the entire Zhou Family!"
The elder, usually so kindly and affable, spoke those words with an unspeakable coldness, seemingly transformed.
Zhouyang knew at this moment, the opposite party spoke not as a compassionate elder, but as a clan elder.
As a child of a cultivation clan, he must prioritize clan interests in all matters, and not let personal compassion cause great losses to the clan.
Honestly, he did not completely agree with this clan interest supremacy theory, but he understood it was the norm for all cultivation clans in this world.
Moreover, Elder Zhou Quan's approach, although cold and impersonal, was the quickest path to the goal.
Demon beasts are not just beasts, who act on instinct; demon beasts have demon qi power and also possess spiritual wisdom. Tier Two demon beasts possess substantial intelligence and can conduct simple thinking.
If they ordered the miners out to seal the mine, that [Gold-Eating Rat] would sense something wrong and not show itself.
Thus, to lure this demon beast out, miners had to serve as human bait, and sacrifices were necessary!
Therefore, Zhouyang ultimately said nothing more and tacitly agreed with Elder Zhou Quan's plan.
Such use of miners as bait must be kept from them, so after deciding, both of them used Concealing Breath Technique to hide away, secretly waiting inside a deserted tunnel section of the mine.
Waiting was torturous, as nobody knew when the [Gold-Eating Rat] would arrive. Neither Zhouyang nor Elder Zhou Quan dared to make any noise, let alone cultivate.
To ensure the stakeout went smoothly, Elder Zhou Quan even prepared two bottles of Tier Two Spirit Pill [Grain Avoidance Pill] ahead of time. A single pill allowed Qi Cultivation Stage cultivators to go without eating for seven days.
This stakeout lasted for over ten days.
On the afternoon of the fifteenth day, when Zhouyang, bored, took out the artifact refining classics given by the old clan leader to study artifact refining, the originally miner-noisy mine suddenly resounded with the miners' terrified screams.
"Ah! Demon beast, demon beast is killing!"
"Run, get the Lord Immortal Master to slay the demon!"
Miners screamed, abandoning their mining tools and fleeing like mad out of the mine, cursing the heavens for not giving them more legs.
Nobody noticed their so-called "Lord Immortal Master" had already arrived inside the mine.
From the moment they heard the miners' cries, Zhouyang and Zhou Quan began actions after casting away Concealing Breath Technique.
They did not join the miners in squeezing through narrow tunnels but directly used the Earth Escape Technique to avoid the miners and head straight to the scene.
Soon, the two reached the location of [Gold-Eating Rat]'s rampage, facing the fierce demon beast again.
"With blood as the guide, Blood Spirit manifest, activate!"
Upon sighting [Gold-Eating Rat], Elder Zhou Quan bit his tongue tip and sprayed out essence blood, casting the Blood Spirit Mark magic.
In a flash of blood light, before [Gold-Eating Rat] could react, its body was marked with a glaring blood light mark.
With Elder Zhou Quan's Ninth-Layer Qi Cultivation employed, this mark could remain on [Gold-Eating Rat] for at least a day. As long as the mark existed and the distance between them did not exceed a thousand miles, Elder Zhou Quan could sense and locate [Gold-Eating Rat] at any time.
However, [Gold-Eating Rat] seemed oblivious to what this inconspicuous blood light mark represented.
Seeing the blood light, it was indeed startled, thinking the human who had severely injured it last time had used some evil magic on it again.
Once it discovered the Blood Spirit Mark on its body had not harmed it at all, the Gold-Eating Rat relaxed its fur, and a human-like mocking expression flashed in its scarlet eyes as it grinned at Zhouyang and Zhou Quan.
Squeak, squeak, squeak!
It let out a sharp rat squeal, and in an instant, its silhouette burrowed into the ground, disappearing from Zhouyang and Zhou Quan's view.
"Such a cunning beast, it has gotten smarter, but trying to fool me with a diversion tactic is simply naive!"
As Zhouyang was preparing with his Silver Gang Shield magical artifact, fully alert against the Gold-Eating Rat's stealth attack, Elder Zhou Quan seemed to sense something, and voiced a low, steady accusation that uncovered the beast's trace.
It turned out the Gold-Eating Rat had developed a fear of the elder's Earth-to-Steel magic after its previous setback, and was no longer thinking of engaging the two head-on, instead resorting to diversion tactics.
It appeared as if it was escaping underground and hiding to ambush the two, but was actually stealthily heading toward the mine entrance to hunt down the fleeing miners.
"Let's head to the mine entrance." The elder commanded with a low voice, swiftly collecting his Golden Melon Hammer magical artifact and moving toward the exit.
After realizing the plan late, Zhouyang quickly followed suit.
Meanwhile, at the mine entrance, the miners just barely escaped with their lives, only for a large black rat the size of a wolfhound to burst from under the ground, attempting to bite the nearest few.
"Run!"
The sudden drastic change frightened the miners senseless, and with someone shouting for a retreat, they all scattered like startled sparrows, rushing in every direction.
Yet these mortals on two legs stood no chance of outrunning the demon beast on four.
The giant black shadow on the ground darted back and forth, mowing down the fleeing miners like wheat, in just a dozen breaths, nearly half of them had fallen.
At this rate, within a minute, all these miners would meet their demise under the claws of the Gold-Eating Rat.
Fortunately, this dire situation was prevented.
Just as the Gold-Eating Rat rose to the surface and began its slaughter, Zhouyang and Elder Zhou Quan arrived on the scene, realizing something was amiss.
Earth-to-Steel!
Earth-to-Steel!
Spotting the shadow chasing the miners, both simultaneously employed Earth-to-Steel magic to lock down the terrain.
The difference being, Elder Zhou Quan wielded the magic he had learned, whereas Zhouyang used a Tier Two Talisman handed to him by Elder Zhou Quan.
This Tier Two Magic Talisman, bearing the Earth-to-Steel magic, was drawn personally by Zhou Dan, the Third Elder of the Zhou Family's Light generation, a Tier Two High-grade Talisman Maker. Elder Zhou Quan had specially requested it from his fifth brother when he last returned to the family.
With two simultaneous Earth-to-Steel magics in use, in an instant, the ground within a hundred square meters around the Gold-Eating Rat transformed into steel, rendering its earth escape technique useless.
Then, before it had a chance to react to this sudden change, Elder Zhou Quan's Golden Melon Hammer magical artifact crashed toward its head.
"Crimson Flame Sword, go!"
Zhouyang let out a low call, not just standing by, he decisively deployed his Tier Two Middle Grade Flying Sword, the Crimson Flame Sword gifted by his father on his fifteenth birthday.
A flash of fire, the Crimson Flame Sword summoned by Zhouyang was the first to strike the fleeing Gold-Eating Rat.
Yet just as Elder Zhou Quan had once said, the Gold-Eating Rat's fur is tough, only a Tier Two High-Grade Spiritual Artifact can break it.
The Tier Two Middle Grade Crimson Flame Sword merely sheared off a tuft of rat hair, leaving a shallow white mark on its body, unable to harm its true form.
However, Zhouyang was not discouraged, as his attack was intended to restrain the Gold-Eating Rat slightly, giving Elder Zhou Quan's Golden Melon Hammer magical artifact an opening.
Sure enough, blocked by Zhouyang's sword swipe, the Gold-Eating Rat's movement inevitably slowed, a split second allowing the trailing Golden Melon Hammer to smash heavily onto its spine.
Squeak—
A painful cry echoed as the heavy hammer struck, causing the Gold-Eating Rat to fall hard to the ground, spewing mouthfuls of blood mixed with fragments of mangled internal organs.
The Earth-Shattering Hammer's "Earth-Shattering" aspect is no mere fancy name; when the magical artifact strikes, it triggers its divine technique, producing a powerful shockwave that inflicts secondary damage.
Due to the Gold-Eating Rat's growth from devouring metal, its fur and bones are immensely tough, resistant to ordinary magical artifacts.
However, no matter how strong its defense externally, its internal organs couldn't possibly be as hard as metal. The shockwave from the divine technique inflicted severe damage upon its organs, resulting in serious internal injuries.
This marked its second downfall to the same maneuver.
"Impressive, Grand Elder truly is seasoned and wise, like fine wine, only improving with age!"
Zhouyang withdrew his flying sword, with a face full of admiration, showering praise onto the elder.
Naturally, his words weren't entirely sweet talk; the elder's strength indeed surpassed his by a significant margin, considering not only the magical artifacts but also the cultivation difference between them, spanning full three layers—one being at Mid-Stage Qi Cultivation Sixth Layer, the other at Late-Stage Qi Cultivation Ninth Layer.
Even gaining praise from this top young talent in the Zhou Family, knowing there was some exaggeration in the compliment, Elder Zhou Quan couldn't help but feel pleased. Stroking his beard, he let out a chuckle and said:
"Haha, Xiao Jiu, you overpraise me, I am just benefitting from having lived a few more years than you. In ten or eight years, Xiao Jiu, once your cultivation advances, dealing with such wicked creatures should be effortless."
"Then, may Grand Elder's words prove true, your grandnephew will surely strive for cultivation with Grand Elder as his goal."
Zhouyang smiled slightly, accepting the elder's compliment without reservation.
The two exchanged flattery, with neither paying any attention to the severely injured Gold-Eating Rat.
Until the Gold-Eating Rat, bleeding along the way, dragged its wounded body out of the range of the Earth-to-Steel magic, burrowed underground and disappeared, the pair smiled knowingly at one another, grinning mischievously like a pair of crafty foxes.