I planted the spiritual roots for my people, and they bestowed upon me a body inscribed with incense

Soon, another month passed, and now the entire fishing village was covered in snow, and there were no more animal calls in the village.

"Yuan'er, let's go into the mountains again after we finish eating. We don't have much food left at home," Li Daqiang said, looking at Li Yuan, who was sitting cross-legged in the house.

Li Yuan did not reply. If there were any cultivators present, they would have seen that Li Yuan's body was now surrounded by countless tiny stars.

At this moment, Li Yuan was already following the instructions of the cultivation method, continuously drawing external spiritual energy into his body and trying to retain it.

After a long while, Li Yuan finally stopped, only after the first wisp of magical power was successfully generated in his dantian.

At the moment the magic was born, the scene that Li Daqiang saw outside the house was completely different. At this moment, Li Yuan's body emitted a ray of light. Although it was only for a moment, Li Daqiang was absolutely certain that he was not mistaken.

Seeing this, Li Daqiang quickly closed the door and silently waited for Li Yuan outside the room.

Feeling the different sensations in his body, Li Yuan couldn't help but think to himself:

"As expected of a celestial technique, ever since I began cultivating this method, my essence, energy, and spirit have been constantly strengthening."

Then Li Yuan stretched out a hand, looked at the pulsating magic power in his hand, and with a thought, the magic power flew to the side, moving at his will. This magic power was indeed magical.

After finishing his cultivation, Li Yuangang opened the door and saw Li Daqiang standing anxiously outside.

"Yuan'er, is there any progress?"

Li Yuan didn't speak, but silently opened his palm.

Looking at the wisp of spiritual energy in Li Yuan's hand, Li Daqiang felt a sense of novelty.

Seeing his father's surprised expression, Li Yuan then spoke:

"According to the description in the cultivation method, I have successfully entered the first level of the Five Elements Spirit Gathering Technique and successfully condensed the first strand of magical power."

Upon hearing this, Li Daqiang nodded repeatedly in excitement.

Then Li Daqiang seemed to remember something and said:

"Yuan'er, have you ever used that blood-red flying sword that the old Taoist priest controlled? And that bell too?"

Li Yuan shook his head. "Let's not reveal it for now. If it's exposed, it might bring disaster upon my Li family."

Seeing this, Li Daqiang nodded and then said:

"It was I who failed to consider this thoroughly."

"By the way, Yuan'er, would you like to come with me to Daheng Mountain again? We don't have much food left at home. After the heavy snow closes the mountain, it will be even harder to find prey."

Li Yuan nodded, "Okay, should we invite Uncle Wang? Judging from how Gou Dan always looks when he comes over for meals, there's probably not much food left at home."

Take him with you. Your Uncle Wang has wanted to go into the mountains for a long time, but he's alone and he's afraid that if something happens to him, there will be no one to take care of him at home. Besides, he sends Li Gou Dan to his house every few days, hoping that we can get closer to him.

This situation is very common. In the past, some farmers who couldn't even afford to eat would eventually sell their children to get a few bushels of coarse rice.

After assembling, the three of them set off for Daheng Mountain the next day.

There was already some snow on the road. The weather had no effect on Li Yuan, but the other two seemed to be struggling.

Although the snowfall was light, according to Li Yuan's perception, if measured according to the temperature of his previous life, the temperature had already reached minus ten degrees Celsius.

Soon, the three of them arrived at the dilapidated temple where they had stayed last time.

Tonight, Li Yuan plans to see if he can discover how the sharp metal energy within the bead is transformed.

After lighting a fire in the temple, Li Daqiang and Wang Tiezhu warmed themselves by the fire in the courtyard, while Li Yuan found a secluded corner and sat down to practice his inner cultivation technique.

During his cultivation, Li Yuan could clearly feel that the spiritual energy around him was at least 50% more concentrated than that at home, even though the spiritual energy here was still thin.

In this situation, the time required to cultivate a second strand of magical power would naturally be much faster. This benefit reminded Li Yuan of the method in the "Thousand Rivers Gathering Pulse Technique" of gathering the earth's vein energy to increase spiritual energy.

According to the "Thousand Rivers Gathering Pulse Technique", wherever the earth's energy is abundant, the concentration of spiritual energy between heaven and earth is naturally high.

Thinking of this, Li Yuan couldn't help but think to himself:

"Once Li Yuan has identified all the materials needed to make the array flags, I will definitely set up a set of array flags for my own cultivation."

Before long, Li Yuan put aside his thoughts and entered a meditative state, striving to condense his second strand of magical power as soon as possible.

Li Daqiang knew that Li Yuan was cultivating, so he stayed with Wang Tiezhu to keep him company and prevent him from disturbing Li Yuan.

The next day, Li Yuan woke up early. A day of cultivation had greatly stabilized his Qi Refining Level 1 cultivation.

After examining the three-colored beads in his mind, Li Yuan found that the Geng metal energy still had only eleven strands remaining and had not increased, which made him even more puzzled.

As for the other faint wisp of milky white mysterious gas in the three-colored bead, it was drawn out by the old Taoist priest by the three-colored bead, and Li Yuan has yet to discover its use.

Just as Li Yuan was deep in thought, Li Daqiang came over with some dry rations.

"Yuan'er, let's finish eating and get going. What are you thinking about?"

Seeing this, Li Yuan took the dry rations and began to eat. Then he said to his father:

"Father, let's hunt more game this time, and use the money to buy some land."

Li Daqiang shook his head with a wry smile, then said:

"Most of the land in our village is controlled by the village chief's family, so we have no chance at all."

Li Yuan pondered for a moment, then said

"You won't sell it even if I offer more money?"

Li Daqiang saw this.

"Forget about it. The village chief's family has made a fortune from collecting rent over the years. It's going to be extremely difficult for them to buy a piece of land from the Wang family now."

After hearing this, Li Yuan roughly understood what was going on; the village chief of the small fishing village was probably the landlord of the small fishing village.

Apart from families like the Gou family who had some connections, ordinary farmers in the small fishing village without powerful backers would likely end up as long-term laborers or even slaves for the village chief.

Unlike the Gou family's overt actions, the village chief's methods were like slowly boiling a frog in water—a subtle form of exploitation. Unfortunately, the villagers had no connections and could only silently endure it.

The village chief's family name is Wang. The Wang family is a large family in the small fishing village. Apart from Wang Tiezhu and others who moved in later, everyone else is related to them.

If something were to happen, everyone would surely rush to help.

However, this situation is unlikely to occur in the Li family now. Regardless of their magical abilities, with just two third-rate martial artists, if they were to become ruthless, they could probably wipe out all the villagers in the small fishing village.

Li Yuan believes that the world operates on the principle of "whoever has the bigger fist calls the shots," but the time for that has not yet come.