It's over.
When Zhou Minghan's ultimate move, prepared over half an hour, was unleashed, the outcome was already decided.
About fifteen minutes after the booming sound arrived, Zhouyang and the group of Zhou Family cultivators saw the Tier Three Poison Fire Scorpion King corpse brought back by the old Clan Leader Zhou Minghan.
The originally calf-sized dark red giant scorpion was now shattered into dozens of pieces of flesh, with only its two hardest scorpion claws and one scorpion tail barely intact.
"The scorpion shell defense of the Tier Three Poison Fire Scorpion King is stronger than the average Tier Three Lower-Grade Defense Spiritual Artifact; what kind of powerful divine techniques did the old Clan Leader use to shatter such a hard scorpion shell into so many pieces!"
Zhouyang looked at the Tier Three demon beast corpse thrown out by the old Clan Leader Zhou Minghan, feeling both shocked and regrettable.
As an artifact refiner, there's hardly anything more heartbreaking than seeing good artifact refining materials destroyed before one's eyes.
Given the size of the Poison Fire Scorpion King, if its scorpion shell were intact, with the old Clan Leader Zhou Minghan's artifact refining skill, there's at least a more than fifty percent chance of refining a set of Tier Three Lower-Grade Defensive Armor.
Note, it's a set, not just a piece!
A set of Tier Three Lower-Grade Defensive Armor includes chest armor, helmet, arm armor, leg armor, and defense spiritual artifacts for several parts. Each spiritual artifact's defense effect can reach Tier Three Lower-Grade, and when worn as a whole set, the defense effect is even better than a single Tier Three High-Grade defense spiritual artifact.
A cultivator at early-stage Foundation Establishment, wearing such a set of defensive armor, can easily fight against a mid-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator across a small realm.
Compared to such a complete set of magical artifacts, Zhouyang's four-piece set of "Armor-Piercing Dagger" is just child's play, not even close.
Actually, old Clan Leader Zhou Minghan felt heartache as well. But to ensure the removal of the Poison Fire Scorpion King without any chance of mishap, he had no choice.
Putting aside how distressed Zhouyang and old Clan Leader Zhou Minghan were as artifact refiners, the rest of the Zhou family were relieved and smiled gleefully upon seeing the corpse of the Tier Three demon beast, the Poison Fire Scorpion King.
With the death of the Tier Three demon beast, the Poison Fire Scorpion King, their Zhou family's expansion into the Red Flame Iron Ore Vein has concluded perfectly, and next comes harvesting the rewards.
In this battle, they killed a Tier Three demon beast, dozens of Tier Two demon beasts, and hundreds of Tier One demon beasts, marking impressive gains.
For cultivators, the entire demon beast is a treasure. Generally, except for a few with poisonous blood and flesh, most demon beast meat is edible and much better than Golden Pearl Rice.
A demon beast's blood is the primary material for talisman makers' blood ink, and its fur can be used in artifact refining and made into blank talisman paper.
Even the demon beast's feces can be used to fertilize some spirit wood and spirit elixirs!
Due to the vast number of demon beasts slain in this battle, after stuffing their storage bags, the Zhou family cultivators had more than half left without room to store, necessitating collecting them and piling them up for later transport back to the clan slowly.
After tidying up the battlefield, everyone gathered again, with excitement on their faces, looking at old Clan Leader Zhou Minghan.
Zhou Minghan naturally understood what these people were thinking. The hundreds of demon beast corpses represent a substantial harvest, but it depends on what it's compared to.
Compared to a Tier Three Natural Spiritual Vein and a Red Flame Iron Ore Vein, this gain is indeed insignificant.
"Let's go, we'll first visit the spirit vein."
He nodded slightly, summoning his flying sword, and led the way towards the old nest of the Poison Fire Scorpion Swarm.
Inside the old nest of the Poison Fire Scorpion Swarm, some Poison Fire Scorpions were left guarding. The remaining ones were mainly female scorpions awaiting production and a few male guard scorpions, completely oblivious to what had transpired outside.
Zhou Minghan, upon seeing this situation after storming into the scorpion nest from the outside, mercilessly began a slaughter with a swing of his flying sword.
When Zhouyang and the others followed and arrived, they saw nothing but headless Poison Fire Scorpion corpses on the ground.
Without even sparing a glance at those all-too-familiar Poison Fire Scorpion corpses, Zhouyang and the other Zhou Family cultivators, like him, directly used the Celestial Eye Technique to observe the massive underground cavern and keenly sensed the abundant spiritual qi within it.
"Such pure Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi! Just the spiritual qi on the cavern's periphery, the purity of spiritual qi is already equal to the mountainside of Jade Spring Peak. It's worthy of a Tier Three Lower-Grade Natural Spiritual Vein. Even if its rank is slightly lower, the spiritual qi here is no worse than an artificially nurtured Tier Three Middle-Grade Spiritual Vein!"
As Zhouyang observed the cavern's environment, he heard the excited exclamation of Fourteenth Uncle Zhou Xuanhe nearby.
Listening to this, he couldn't help but silently circulate his cultivation technique to absorb a strand of spiritual qi for refinement, then revealed a shocked expression on his face.
"How is it? Feel it yet? The spiritual qi here is not just dense; its attributes lean more towards fire and earth. Cultivators like you and your father, whose spiritual root technique leans towards the fire attribute, will find cultivating here even better than on the balanced five-element Jade Spring Peak!"
Xuan Hao, next to Zhouyang, naturally noticed his little move and, seeing the expression on his face, couldn't help but smile slightly and explain his doubts.
A cultivator's spiritual roots have elemental inclinations, and similarly, spirit veins have natural affinities. Based on their environment, the attributes of natural spirit veins often lean towards certain elements.
For instance, in environments rich in water vapor like seas or large lakes, the spiritual energy of spirit veins tends to lean towards the water attribute, making it more suitable for cultivators practicing water element techniques.
In volcanic and heated areas, the spiritual energy of the veins leans towards the fire attribute, suitable for cultivators practicing fire element techniques.
In the Boundless Desert Sea, the natural spirit veins predominantly have spiritual energy attributes of fire, earth, and metal, rarely leaning towards water and wood attributes.
Generally, after cultivators occupy a spirit vein, unless all disciples practice the same attribute technique, they would use a spirit gathering array and spirit stones to modify the spirit vein, making its spiritual attributes tend toward the balance of the five elements, for future generations to cultivate.
The Zhou Family's Jade Spring Peak was initially a Tier Two Top Grade natural spirit vein with spiritual energy inclined towards earth and wood attributes. It gradually became a Tier Three Middle Grade spirit vein with balanced attributes of the five elements, thanks to the Zhou Family's investment in spirit stone modification.
Zhouyang remembered some of the spirit vein knowledge he had read before, and suddenly, his expression changed, recalling another matter related to natural spirit veins.
He glanced around curiously and asked, "Father, from the records I've read, it says that special celestial and earthly spiritual objects often grow on natural spirit veins. Like the Dragon Scale Tree on our Jade Spring Peak, is there such a thing here?"
"Hmm, this question is difficult for me to answer,"
Zhou Xuanhao's face showed a hint of awkwardness, unable to answer Zhouyang's question. To avoid similar questions, he quickly said, "Let's go, the old Clan Leader has already gone in. We'll follow him and find out."
This underground cave was quite deep, with the Poison Fire Scorpion Swarm's nest mainly located in a spacious hall at the cave's periphery. Around this hall, the cave walls had many interconnected underground tunnels.
Some tunnels formed naturally, but most were dead ends dug out by the Poison Fire Scorpion Swarm.
There were two relatively spacious tunnels: one was naturally formed. Even without entering, Zhouyang could feel the cool water vapor emanating from its depths, suggesting it led to a dark river.
The other tunnel was also two to three meters wide, accommodating several people side by side. It was forcibly carved out from the rock wall by powerful forces. The dense spiritual energy in the cave was emanating from this tunnel, likely leading to the spirit vein's spiritual eye.
Zhouyang and Zhou Xuanhao entered this tunnel.
After they delved several hundred meters along the tunnel, they came upon a stone chamber capable of accommodating dozens of people for cultivation. Inside, the old Clan Leader Zhou Minghan and several elder Zhou Family members marked by the character "Light" were inspecting something.
"Old Clan Leader, have you discovered some treasure?"
Zhou Xuanhao approached with Zhouyang, craning his neck to see the object surrounded by the old Clan Leader Zhou Minghan and others, casually asking.
Zhouyang stretched his neck to peer and saw that the central object surrounded by the elders was a stalactite pillar protruding about three feet from the ground, pale yellow in color.
"Hmm, is this, could it be...?"
Suddenly, Zhou Xuanhao's eyes widened, filled with surprise and excitement, as he looked at the stalactite pillar and then at the old Clan Leader Zhou Minghan, fearing he might be mistaken.
"Indeed, it is the extremely rare Tier Three Spiritual Object, Earth Element Spirit Milk!"
The old Clan Leader nodded slightly, confirming the name Zhou Xuanhao wished to say with a deep voice.
Hiss—
Zhou Xuanhao couldn't help but gasp, his body slightly trembling.
Zhouyang saw his father like this and was taken aback. All his life, he had never seen his father so lost in composure.
"Father, what is the Earth Element Spirit Milk?"
His eyes widened in astonishment as he looked at the pale yellow stalactite pillar, filled with curiosity.
"Earth Element Spirit Milk is an extremely rare Tier Three Spiritual Object, a celestial and earthly spiritual object cultivated from Earth Vein Spiritual Qi through thousands of years of Stone Stalactite development. It not only serves as a substitute for main materials in various Tier Three Spirit Pills but is also an essential auxiliary spirit elixir for many Tier Four and even Tier Five Spirit Pills. You know of Foundation Establishment Pill, right? For refining Foundation Establishment Pill, this Earth Element Spirit Milk is a mandatory auxiliary ingredient!"
Knowing that Zhouyang was young and spent most of his time cultivating, thus unfamiliar with some rare spiritual objects in the cultivation realm, Zhou Xuanhao quickly explained the uses of Earth Element Spirit Milk.
After explaining, he patted his waist storage bag, took out a jade scroll used by cultivators to record important knowledge, and handed it to Zhouyang, saying, "This Record of Wondrous Treasures of Heaven and Earth contains records of over three thousand rare celestial and earthly treasures, ranging from Tier One to Tier Seven. Yang'Er, find time to read it more so you don't return empty-handed in the future with treasures abound, making yourself a laughingstock."
While Zhou Xuanhao was doing this, the old Clan Leader Zhou Minghan watched him with deep meaning and said, "You've overlooked one aspect regarding the usage of Earth Element Spirit Milk, Xuan Hao!"
Instantly, Zhou Xuanhao's face changed dramatically.