Robber Cultivators

His father, Zhou Qiankun, was a mortal martial artist in the Martial Dao Innate Realm. He had heard that in the mortal world, he was also a figure whose name shook the land.

But this was the cultivation world. Within Phoenix-Cry Cove Market, cultivators were everywhere. Innate Realm martial artists might be able to contend with low-level cultivators for a moment or two, but against cultivators above the middle stages of the Qi Refining Realm, they were almost powerless to fight back.

After recognizing this reality, Zhou Qiankun had no choice but to follow behind a team of cultivators to do rough work like scouting paths, setting traps, and hauling demon beast corpses.

At best, he could earn five or six Low-Grade Spirit Stones a month.

One could easily imagine the dangers involved.

And after deducting the costs of recovering from the occasional injury, as well as the two Low-Grade Spirit Stones in monthly rent for a house on the outskirts of the market, very little of that income remained.

As for why Old Xu had mentioned him, that was simple enough.

One of Old Xu's grandsons lacked a Spirit Root and could not cultivate immortal techniques, so he had thought of Zhou Changwang's father and hoped he could teach the boy martial arts.

After all, no matter what, it was still a useful skill.

That evening, he brought the four Azure-Armored Beetles home.

As usual, his father had not returned.

Though he was worried, there was nothing he could do.

Fortunately, he knew that his father had worked with that Rogue Cultivator team for four or five years. Their leader was a Rogue Cultivator at the Fifth Layer of the Qi Refining Realm named Zhao Heng, who had always been cautious and powerful. Besides, there had been times when his father had not returned for ten days or even half a month, so his safety should still be assured.

Then, Zhou Changwang took out a small knife, peeled open the shells, and removed the beetle meat inside.

The beetle meat came in white, crystalline clumps, with what seemed to be faint spiritual light flickering across it. The sight made his index finger twitch with appetite.

After simply cooking it, Zhou Changwang ate it with ordinary rice. The moment it went down his throat, joy surged through his heart.

It was delicious.

More importantly, the spiritual qi within it was stirred the instant it entered his stomach, circulating through his body. Yet unlike the spiritual qi of heaven and earth, it did not quickly dissipate, leaving his belly warm throughout.

After swallowing four chunks of beetle meat in succession, he immediately felt incomparably satisfied and full.

Even his spirit had recovered considerably.

He did not dare delay.

Zhou Changwang hurried back to his room and cultivated the Five Elements Formula, absorbing and refining the spiritual qi from the beetle meat.

The spiritual power that had originally been depleted swiftly filled up as the cultivation technique circulated.

Five Elements Formula +1

After one round of cultivation, he sensed that the spiritual qi from the spirit insect meat within his body had not yet been fully refined and absorbed.

So without stopping, he circulated it once more.

Five Elements Formula +1

Cultivation +1

Seeing the changes in the panel's values, a delighted expression appeared on Zhou Changwang's face.

His cultivation had increased.

Although it had only risen from the second layer of the Qi Refining Realm, (21/100), to (22/100).

He could clearly feel that his spiritual power had become a little more robust.

"If I could eat a bite of spirit insect meat every meal, it would be greatly beneficial to my cultivation.

If I added Spirit Rice as my staple food, my spiritual power would probably recover even faster."

Zhou Changwang looked forward to it in his heart, but sighed aloud.

Who would have thought that after beginning immortal cultivation, he would still be fussing over three meals a day?

"Immortal cultivation, immortal cultivation—techniques, wealth, companions, and land. Of these, wealth is the most important.

And wealth here means Spirit Stones.

I must earn Spirit Stones as quickly as possible to sustain my cultivation."

Zhou Changwang frowned slightly.

Without Spirit Stones, his cultivation speed was far too slow.

Leaving aside the growth of his cultivation, the speed at which his spiritual power recovered alone was a major obstacle to the improvement of his spells.

"Ah..."

Suddenly, a miserable scream rang out.

The voice was panicked and agonized, but it came to an abrupt halt in an instant.

"Robber cultivators!"

Zhou Changwang's expression changed.

He knew this was the outskirts of Phoenix-Cry Cove Market, where order was chaotic and there were no market guards to offer protection.

It was still all right during the day. Those robber cultivators had some misgivings and did not dare act recklessly. But at night, once they set their sights on someone, there was the danger of death and Dao dissolution.

He clearly remembered how, when his former self had returned late one time, he had been targeted by robber cultivators—if they had not seen that he was merely a minor spirit farmer with little to squeeze from him, he likely would have met a grim fate.

His heart tense, he only breathed a faint sigh of relief after sensing no movement outside for a long while.

"This world is truly even more dangerous than I imagined.

Aside from cultivation, I must quickly gain the ability to protect myself."

As he considered this, the first thing that came to mind was naturally the only offensive spell he had mastered: Geng Metal Finger.

"Although this Geng Metal Finger is merely a spirit plant spell, used for removing pests, and its attack range is only about ten feet, its power is not weak.

At the Initiation stage, it can kill Azure-Armored Beetles with hard shells. If it reaches the Mastery stage, its power will surely increase by a great margin, and its attack range should also improve.

It should barely serve as my current means of self-defense."

This was actually a helpless choice.

Among the offensive spells he had learned, there was one and only one.

Of course, he could also learn other spells. With his Five Elements Spiritual Root, as long as his realm was high enough, he could learn almost any Five Elements spell.

But.

It cost money!

The most basic spell cost at least five Spirit Stones, while those with slightly greater power cost dozens or even hundreds.

Now that he did not have a single coin to his name, he had almost no room to choose.

As it happened, his spiritual power was abundant at the moment.

So, he began practicing the spell.

As for the fact that the room was unsuitable for casting spells?

He could not worry about that now.

A low-level spell like Geng Metal Finger had a small range of fluctuations and made little commotion, so it would not draw anyone's attention.

His mind guided his spiritual power, sketching one rune after another, then combining them into the rune structure of the Geng Metal Finger spell.

Buzz~!

A faint wave of spiritual energy arose.

Geng Metal Finger +1

But Zhou Changwang did not truly cast the spell. Instead, he tried to slowly disperse it.

This was not easy.

Once the spell took shape, its structure became extremely stable. To disperse it afterward required extraordinarily strong control.

"Not good..."

Suddenly, Zhou Changwang's expression changed. He hurriedly pointed forward.

His body abruptly shot backward, retreating all the way to the doorway.

Puff!

The spiritual light of Geng Metal Finger exploded.

It blasted a small pit directly into the floor.

"As expected, the idea is good, but putting it into practice is nowhere near so easy."

Zhou Changwang's face was slightly pale.

He had originally thought that if he dispersed the spell after successfully forming it, perhaps he could save some spiritual power, cast more spells, and increase his proficiency...

Now it seemed that would not work.

At least, his current self did not possess that ability.

Fortunately, the spell's proficiency had increased, so it still counted as a successful cast.

It was just that the commotion...

After waiting for a long time and confirming that it had not drawn anyone over, he finally let out a sigh of relief.

Then, he began casting again.

This time, he did not dare act rashly. He honestly cast the spell step by step.