Chapter 5: Bandits Attack

However, it felt as if there was a shackle at her Dantian; the spiritual power could not enter it and kept crashing against this barrier.

Bing Cheng knew that only by breaking through this shackle could she be considered a true cultivator, so she did not lose heart.

If she could not break it now, she would just absorb more Spiritual Qi.

One hour…

Two hours…

As more and more spiritual power struck the shackle, she could feel that it would not last much longer.

Sure enough, after a while longer.

A massive amount of spiritual power, now unimpeded, surged frantically into her Dantian; this process was extremely painful.

It felt as if countless knives were stabbing into her body, but soon, as the spiritual power stabilized, this sensation vanished.

The next second, Bing Cheng felt as if she were on top of the clouds, her mind clear and unburdened, able to perceive the specks of red Spiritual Qi in the surrounding environment.

It was as if she had merged with nature and could freely manipulate the power of nature.

It has been said since ancient times.

Immortals and mortals are worlds apart.

Now, Bing Cheng truly felt it.

Those red specks of Spiritual Qi seemed very close to her, actively drilling into her body.

Now, she could absorb Spiritual Qi without having to sit in meditation; as for why it was red, it must have something to do with her Spiritual Root.

Spiritual Roots in the world are usually divided into five types: Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth.

Red should represent that she has a Fire Spiritual Root.

The Strongest Cultivation Technique also stated that Spiritual Roots have rankings, which are, from top to bottom: Heaven, Earth, Mysterious, and Yellow Rank.

She did not know what Rank her Spiritual Root was, but that was not important; even if it were the lowest Yellow Rank, she was still a true cultivator.

Bing Cheng discovered that she could see her surroundings very clearly even in the night; this was a huge improvement.

At least in the future, she would not need to rely on firelight.

She picked up the Strongest Cultivation Technique and flipped to the next pages.

After the introductory teachings came the lessons on how to manifest objects with spiritual power and how to manipulate objects with spiritual power.

Manifesting objects with spiritual power was very simple; it was just controlling the spiritual power within her own body to gather and form the items she imagined.

However, these were just illusions and not real objects; they would disappear when her spiritual power was exhausted.

Soon, Bing Cheng gathered a flame of spiritual power in her palm.

She felt the heat in her palm; since she had a Fire Spiritual Root, she had resistance to flames, and the temperature of this spiritual fire was definitely not low.

She really wanted to find something to burn and test it out.

However, it was already late at night, and it would not be good to cause a commotion and disturb the villagers.

After putting away the spiritual fire.

Bing Cheng began to try manipulating objects with spiritual power and discovered that it required more spiritual power than manifesting objects; currently, she could only control a stool to fly and move a few meters at most.

She also understood the truth behind sword flight: it was just controlling a sword to carry oneself while flying.

However, the spiritual power required for that was terrifying and definitely not something she could do right now.

Just as Bing Cheng wanted to turn the page and continue reading.

"Woof, woof…"

The dogs in the village started barking. Initially, Bing Cheng did not think much of it, but then all the dogs in the village began to bark.

It seemed like something had entered the village.

She went to the window and looked outside; there were fire points approaching outside the village, and there were quite a few of them.

Soon, a villager shouted.

"Bandits are here! Bandits are here!"

Immediately, all the villagers in the village woke up and took out kitchen knives, hoes, and the like from their homes.

"Little girl, the bandits are here, wake up quickly." Auntie Cuihua knocked on the door anxiously.

Bing Cheng smiled. Perhaps before tonight, she might have felt a bit of fear toward bandits, but now that she had stepped onto the path of cultivation, she certainly did not fear these robbers from the Mortal Realm.

"Auntie Cuihua, no need to worry. Do you have any embroidery needles at home?" Her spiritual power was still limited, so controlling small objects like needles was the best choice.

"Embroidery needles?" Auntie Cuihua was confused as to why this little girl wanted that thing right now, especially with bandits arriving.

"Yes, I have a use for them."

Auntie Cuihua returned to her room and quickly brought out a wooden box, inside which were two relatively rough iron needles, several times larger than modern needles.

But this was enough.

"Auntie Cuihua, let me borrow these." Bing Cheng grabbed the two iron needles and ran outside.

"Little girl, why don't you hide?" Auntie Cuihua wanted to pull Bing Cheng back, but Bing Cheng had already run far away.

She ran all the way to the entrance of the village.

She discovered that the men in the village were already in a standoff with the group of bandits, and the old village chief was standing at the very front, leaning on his cane.

On the bandits' side, there were over twenty men, all burly and rough-looking, and the leader was even taller and more imposing.

"Hehe, old man, we do not want to see bloodshed either. Today, as long as you hand over one thousand catties of rice, we will turn around and leave immediately."

The old village chief's body trembled upon hearing this. One thousand catties of rice was a huge amount; a family did not even use one catty of rice a day for porridge, and this would be the entire village's food supply for several months.

Moreover, if they started this precedent, they would come a second time; these bandits were a group of insatiable vampires.

There was not just this one group of bandits within fifty miles of the village.

"Impossible! Luodi Hu, you are going too far." The old village chief thumped his cane.

Luodi Hu was the nickname of this bandit leader.

"Then there is no room for negotiation. I thought you, old man, could see the situation clearly, but it turns out you are just an old fool." Luodi Hu took out a dagger and licked it with his tongue, looking incredibly vicious.

The old village chief seemed to age several years at this moment, and he lowered his head.

"Sigh! Five hundred catties, at most we can give you five hundred catties." The old village chief sighed, his voice sounding very weary.

Luodi Hu's eyes lit up. They did not want to kill anyone either; if they really started fighting, his brothers would definitely suffer casualties.

Now that the old village chief had compromised, it was a good start for him.

"Why should we give it to you?"

At this moment, Bing Cheng had already arrived at the front of the line, standing alongside the old village chief.

Luodi Hu stared at Bing Cheng for a while upon hearing this, and after discovering that she was just an ordinary little girl, he burst into laughter and said contemptuously.

"Whose child is this? Take her back quickly, or I'll take her back to be my bandit wife!"

The other villagers' expressions changed when they saw Bing Cheng suddenly appear. They were afraid that Bing Cheng would anger Luodi Hu, especially since losing five hundred catties of rice could have appeased these bandits.

"Little girl, come back quickly…"

"This is none of your business…"

The old village chief on the side also said.

"Little girl, I know you have a good heart and can't bear to see this kind of scene, but…"

Before the old village chief could finish speaking, the two iron needles in Bing Cheng's hands rose out of thin air and floated in the air.

"Whoosh…"

Spiritual fire appeared, enveloping the iron needles.

However, the iron needles were instantly melted by the spiritual fire, leaving only two flames of spiritual fire floating in the air.

Bing Cheng's face darkened. She had not expected the temperature of the spiritual fire to be so high; the iron needles could not even withstand it. Now, what could she return to Auntie Cuihua?

"Immortal? This is an Immortal!" The old village chief was the first to react and knelt directly before Bing Cheng, kowtowing twice.

"Please, Immortal, help us."

Luodi Hu, however, was dismissive and curled his lip.

"Old thing, do you think you can fool us by finding someone who does magic tricks? You underestimate me, Luodi Hu, too much."

Bing Cheng looked at Luodi Hu with interest, controlling the spiritual fire to transform into the shape of a needle.