Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
It was over.
When Zhou Minghan used the ultimate move that he had spent fifteen minutes preparing, the result had already been decided.
Zhou Yang and the other Zhou clan cultivators saw the corpse of the Grade-3 Venomous Fire Scorpion King brought back by the clan leader, Zhou Minghan.
The dark red giant scorpion, which was originally as big as a calf, had been broken into dozens of pieces of flesh. Only its two hard pincers and stinger remained intact.
“The defense of Grade-3 Venomous Fire Scorpion King’s exoskeleton is even stronger than ordinary Grade-3 Lower-Tier magical armor. What kind of powerful magical ability did the clan leader use to break through it into so many pieces?!”
Zhou Yang felt both shocked and regretful. As a refiner, there was probably nothing more heartbreaking than seeing a piece of good material destroyed.
If the calf-sized Venomous Fire Scorpion King’s exoskeleton was intact, Zhou Minghan could have a 50% chance of refining a set of Grade-3 Lower-Tier magical armor – a breastplate, helmet, arm armor, leg armor, and a few other magical armors.
A whole set! Not just a single piece of magical armor!
Individually, they would merely have a Grade-3 Lower-tier defense level. But worn together, they could achieve a defense level of Advanced-Tier Grade 3.
If a Primary-Stage Foundation Establishment Cultivator wore such a set of magical armor, it would be easy for him to enhance his cultivation level to fight against an Intermediate-Stage Foundation Establishment Cultivator.
Zhou Yang’s four Armor Breaker Daggers would simply be a child’s plaything against such a set of magical armor. They were on a completely different level.
It would be a lie if Zhou Minghan said that he did not feel the pain of seeing the exoskeleton in pieces. Unfortunately, to ensure the certain death of the Venomous Fire Scorpion, the clan leader had no other way of defeating the demon beast besides tearing it apart.
But the other Zhou clan cultivators did not feel the same way as Zhou Minghan and Zhou Yang. On the contrary, they breathed a sigh of relief and smiled upon the sight of the Venomous Fire Scorpion King’s corpse.
Now, the Zhou clan’s operation to expand the Red Flame Iron vein could finally proceed. Now, it was time to reap the rewards.
They had killed one Grade-3 demon beast, dozens of Grade-2 demon beasts, and hundreds of Grade-1 demon beasts. Those were quite bountiful results of a battle.
To Immortal Cultivators, the entire body of a demon beast was a treasure. Except for a few demon beasts whose flesh contained deadly poison, the flesh of a vast majority of demon beasts could be eaten and affect them in a way that was better than the Golden Pearl Rice.
The blood of demon beasts was the main material used by Talisman Makers to make blood ink. The skin and fur could be used to refine artifacts or made into blank talisman papers.
Even the feces of demon beasts could be used to enhance spiritual wood and herbs!
Since they had a bountiful battle, the storage bags of the Zhou clan’s cultivators had been filled to the brim, and yet there was still more than half of the harvest left. In the end, they had no choice but to pile the leftovers together so that they could transport them back to the clan another time.
After clearing up the battlefield, they regrouped and looked at Zhou Minghan excitedly.
Zhou Minghan knew what these people were thinking. Although the corpses of hundreds of demon beasts had yielded them a huge harvest, it could not be compared to a Grade-3 natural spiritual vein or a Red Flame Iron vein.
“Let’s go. We’ll head to the spiritual vein first.”
Zhou Minghan led the way on his flying sword toward the nest of the Venomous Fire Scorpions.
There were some Venomous Fire Scorpions left in the nest, mainly consisting of female Venomous Fire Scorpions that were waiting to give lay eggs and a few male Venomous Fire Scorpions that were guarding them. They had not been aware of what was happening in the outside world.
When Zhou Minghan arrived, he drew his flying sword and started a merciless slaughter.
Zhou Yang and the others arrived later and saw the headless corpses of Venomous Fire Scorpions sprawled all over the ground.
They were already tired of looking at Venomous Fire Scorpion corpses. Zhou Yang was no exception. Instead, he used the Heavenly Eye Technique to observe the huge underground cave and felt the abundant spiritual Qi in there.
Zhou Yang was observing the environment in the cave when he heard the excited exclamation of his fourteenth uncle, Zhou Xuanhe from next to him.
“What pure Spiritual Energy of Heaven and Earth! It’s as pure as the spiritual Qi on the mountainside of Yuquan Peak. As expected of a Grade-3 Lower-Tier natural spiritual vein. Even at a lower tier, the spiritual Qi here is not inferior to an artificially-cultivated Grade-3 Intermediate-Tier spiritual vein!”
Zhou Xuanhe’s words tempted Zhou Yang to silently circulate his cultivation method and absorb a wisp of the spiritual Qi into his body to refine it. Then, a look of shock appeared on his face.
Zhou Xuanhao was right beside Zhou Yang, so he naturally saw Zhou Yang’s little movements. After seeing his expression, he couldn’t help but smile and explain his thoughts.
“How is it? You can feel it, right? Not only is the spiritual Qi here dense, but its attribute is more inclined towards the Fire and Earth elements. Since you and your father are both cultivators with spiritual roots with Fire element, you two should cultivate here and you can improve your cultivation much faster than at Yuquan Peak, where the five elements tend to be balanced!”
A cultivator’s spiritual root had a bias towards certain elements, so naturally, they would also be biased towards certain spiritual veins.
For example, dense clouds of vapor around the ocean, rivers, or lakes would have spiritual Qi from spiritual veins that were more biased towards the Water element. Thus, those locations would be perfect for Immortal Cultivators with Water-based cultivation methods.
Spiritual veins in a hot land of a volcano would have spiritual Qi that was inclined towards the Fire element, making the place suitable for Immortal Cultivators who practiced Fire-based cultivation methods.
The natural spiritual veins of the Boundless Sand Sea would have spiritual Qi of Fire, Earth, and Metal elements. Few would be inclined toward Water and Wood elements.
Generally speaking, unless everyone cultivated with the same elemental bias in their spiritual roots, Immortal Cultivators would use Spirit Gathering Arrays and spiritual stones to modify the elemental inclinations of the spiritual veins into a state of equilibrium of the five elements for the sake of their juniors once the pioneers have occupied a spiritual vein.
For example, when Yuquan Lake Oasis was first occupied by the Zhou clan, it was a Grade-2 Advanced-Tier natural spiritual vein. Its spiritual Qi was initially inclined towards Wood and Metal elements. Once the Zhou clan had invested a large number of spiritual stones to modify it, the spiritual vein slowly become a Grade-3 Intermediate-Tier spiritual vein with a state of equilibrium of the five elements.
Zhou Yang recalled these records of the spiritual vein knowledge that he had read before. Suddenly, he remembered another matter related to natural spiritual veins.
He turned around and asked, “Father, I read from the ancient records that the natural spiritual veins usually have some special spiritual item of Heaven and Earth. For example, the Dragon Scale Tree on Yuquan Peak. I wonder if something similar can be found here too?”
Zhou Xuanhao looked slightly awkward. “Oh, this question is not easy for me to answer.”
Then, to prevent Zhou Yang from asking another difficult question, he simply flung his sleeves and said, “Let’s go. Hasn’t the clan leader already entered? Let’s go and take a look.”
The underground cave was quite deep. The Venomous Fire Scorpions’ nest was mainly settled in the main cave hall. But there were many underground passages that extended in all directions from the cave hall.
Those underground passages were naturally formed, but most of them were dead ends that had been explored by the Venomous Fire Scorpions.
Among them were two relatively spacious passages. Even if Zhou Yang didn’t enter it, he could still feel the cold water vapor emitted from the depths of the passage. Needless to say, this passage definitely led to that underground river.
The other passage was also two to three meters wide and could allow several people to walk through. It had been forcefully dug out by a powerful external force as dense spiritual Qi flowed out from this passage. It was probably where the spiritual eye of the spiritual vein was.
Zhou Yang and Zhou Xuanhao entered this tunnel.
After walking for hundreds of meters, the father and son came upon a stone room that could accommodate dozens of people. The clan leader, Zhou Minghan, and a few elders of the Light generation were already there and currently looking at an object in the stone room.
“Clan Leader, did you discover any treasures?”
Zhou Xuanhao brought Zhou Yang forward and stretched his neck to look at the object surrounded by the others.
Zhou Yang looked over as well and saw that the object was a cream-colored stalactite pillar that protruded three feet out of the ground.
“This… could this be…?”
Zhou Xuanhao’s eyes suddenly widened in surprise, then joy as he looked at the stalactite pillar and Zhou Minghan. He was afraid that he had seen wrongly.
“That’s right. This is the extremely rare Grade-3 spiritual item, the Spiritual Milk of Earth Essence!”
The clan leader affirmed what Zhou Xuanhao had been wondering.
Zhou Xuanhao couldn’t help but suck in a breath of cold air, and his body started to tremble slightly.
When Zhou Yang saw his father like this, he was also shocked. Ever since he was young, this was the first time he saw his father lose his composure like this.
“Father, what is the Spiritual Milk of Earth Essence?” asked Zhou Yang in doubtful surprise as he looked at the cream-colored stalactite pillar.
“The Spiritual Milk of Earth Essence is an extremely rare Grade-3 spiritual item. It is a kind of spiritual item of Heaven and Earth that has been nurtured by the ten-thousand-year-old stalactite. Not only can it be used as a substitute for many Grade-3 spiritual pills, but it is also an important supplementary spiritual herb to refine many Grade-4 and even Grade-5 spiritual pills. You’ve heard of the Foundation Establishment Pill, right? To refine one requires the Spiritual Milk of Earth Essence!”
Knowing that Zhou Yang was relatively young and had spent most of his time cultivating, Zhou Xuanhao knew that his son was not familiar with some of the rare spiritual items in the cultivation world, so he hurriedly explained the use of the Spiritual Milk of Earth Essence to him.
After saying this, he searched around his storage bag on his waist, took out a stack of jade bamboo strips used by Immortal Cultivators to record important knowledge, and handed it to Zhou Yang. “This is the Book of the World’s Treasures. It has recorded over three thousand rare treasures of Heaven and Earth, arranged from Grade 1 to Grade 7. Zhou Yang, when you have time, give it a read. You shouldn’t enter a treasure mountain empty-handed next time.”
The clan leader turned around and said, “Xuanhao, you left out one more thing about the effects of the Spiritual Milk of Earth Essence!”
In an instant, Zhou Xuanhao’s expression changed..