Cultivator Bandits

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

But this was the cultivation world. Phoenix Cry Dock Market was packed with cultivators. An Innate martial artist might be able to contend with low-level cultivators for a moment or two, but against cultivators at the middle stage of the Qi Refining Realm or above, he would have virtually no power to fight back.

After recognizing this reality, Zhou Qiankun had no choice but to follow behind a team of cultivators in order to survive within the market, doing menial work such as scouting the way, laying traps, and hauling demon beast carcasses.

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, the reason was simple.

One of Old Xu's grandsons lacked a spiritual root and could not cultivate immortal arts, 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 skill.

That night, 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 level of the Qi Refining Realm named Zhao Heng. He had always been cautious and powerful, and there had been times when he did not return for ten days or half a month. Presumably, his safety was assured.

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

The beetle meat came in pale, crystalline clumps. Faint spiritual light seemed to flicker over it, making his mouth water.

After simply boiling it, Zhou Changwang took a bite along with ordinary rice, and delight immediately welled up in his heart.

It was delicious.

More importantly, the spiritual qi contained 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 the whole time.

Four pieces of beetle meat went down in succession, leaving him incomparably satisfied and full.

Even his spirit recovered considerably.

He did not dare delay.

Zhou Changwang hurried back to his room to cultivate the Five Elements Formula and absorb and refine the spiritual qi within the beetle meat.

His originally depleted spiritual power rapidly filled up as the cultivation method circulated.

Five Elements Formula +1

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

So without pausing, he circulated it again.

Five Elements Formula +1

Cultivation +1

Seeing the changes in the values on the panel, Zhou Changwang's face revealed a look of delighted surprise.

His cultivation had increased.

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

He could truly feel that his spiritual power had become somewhat more robust.

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

"If I could also use spirit rice as my staple food, my spiritual power would probably recover even faster."

Zhou Changwang looked forward to it inwardly, but sighed aloud.

Who would have thought that even after beginning his immortal cultivation, he was still calculating his three daily meals?

"Cultivating immortality, cultivating immortality—the dharma, wealth, companions, and land. Of those, wealth is the most important.

"And here, wealth means spirit stones.

"I must earn spirit stones as soon as possible in order to sustain my cultivation."

Zhou Changwang frowned slightly.

Without spirit stones, his cultivation speed was simply too slow.

Never mind increasing his cultivation—even the recovery speed of his spiritual power was a major obstacle to improving his spells.

"Ah..."

Suddenly, a miserable scream rang out.

The voice was terrified and pained, yet it stopped abruptly in an instant.

"Cultivator bandits!"

Zhou Changwang's expression changed.

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

It was still manageable during the day. Those cultivator bandits had some scruples and did not dare act recklessly. But at night, once one was targeted, there was a danger of dying with one's dao extinguished.

He clearly remembered how his previous self had once returned late and been targeted by cultivator bandits—if they had not seen that he was merely a small spirit farmer with little to squeeze from him, he would probably have met with disaster.

Nervous, he waited until there had been no movement outside for a long while before he finally relaxed slightly.

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

"Besides cultivating, I must quickly gain the ability to protect myself."

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

"Though this Geng Metal Finger is only a spirit plant spell, meant for eliminating insects, and its attack range is only a little over three meters, its power is not weak.

"At the beginner stage, it can kill the hard-shelled Azure-Armored Beetles. If it reaches the proficient stage, its power will surely increase greatly, and even its attack range should rise.

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

This was truly a helpless choice.

This was the one and only offensive spell he knew.

Of course, he could learn other spells. With his Five Elements Spiritual Root, so 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.

With not a coin to his name, he had almost no room to choose.

It so happened that his spiritual power was abundant at the moment.

Thus, he began to practice his spell.

As for whether it was unsuitable to cast spells inside the room?

He could not care about that now.

A low-level spell like the Geng Metal Finger had a small range of fluctuations and did not make much of a disturbance, so it would not attract anyone's attention.

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

Buzz!

A faint wave of spiritual energy spread out.

Geng Metal Finger +1

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

This was not easy.

Once a spell took shape, its structure became extremely stable. To disperse it afterward required an exceptionally strong ability to control it.

"Not good..."

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

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

Puff!

The spiritual light of the Geng Metal Finger exploded.

It directly blasted a small pit into the ground.

"Sure enough, the idea was good, but putting it into practice was nowhere near as easy."

Zhou Changwang's face turned slightly pale.

He had originally thought that dispersing the spell after successfully casting it might save some spiritual power, allowing him to 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 disturbance...

He paused for a long time, only relaxing after confirming that it had not attracted anyone.

Then, he continued casting spells.

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