Before nightfall, Bai Xue had already returned, but she was covered in dirt and had been scolded by Li Shi. It was half an hour later before she turned back into the clean and white Bai Xue.

Ye Shuang knew that the matter had been accomplished. When Bai Xue returned to the small bedroom, she would reward it with a top-grade spirit stone. With Bai Xue's cultivation speed as a pure spirit beast, this spirit stone would be enough to further improve its cultivation.

The bandits' granary has been destroyed, and they have no food left. There is a huge granary that people can use, not far away. Would mortals who are already starving be afraid of immortals who have not appeared for a long time?

Sure enough, before the sun rose the next day, a commotion broke out around the village.

The bandits didn't dare to go too far, after all, the bloodshed that had happened in this village before was still fresh in their minds. They just "friendly" knocked on the door and "friendly" asked where the food was. They only wanted the food and nothing else.

Even when the villagers shakily took out their grain, they thoughtfully left some with them, but that amount was barely enough to get through the winter.

Bag after bag of grain was piled up in the open space in the village. The villagers who had been plundered were also brought out by the bandits and knelt on the open space.

Awakened by the noise, Li Mantian took advantage of the darkness to lie on the wall and observe what was happening there.

The leader was the chief that Ye Shuang had seen with her divine sense. At this moment, his broadsword was still in its sheath, and he didn't seem to have any intention of drawing it. He even said in a gentle manner, "I don't want to make things difficult for everyone, so I've left all the food for winter for you. So please don't make things difficult for me. Is there anyone else whose family has enough food that we haven't found yet?"

Perhaps his words were too gentle and lacked any deterrent effect, because the villagers all hunched their shoulders and no one spoke.

The bandit leader sighed, toying with the broadsword in his hand. Just as he was about to speak again, a woman from the village asked tremblingly, "If I tell you, can you return my family's grain?"

"Of course." The leader agreed almost without hesitation, the instant her voice fell.

Li Mantian felt a sense of foreboding, and then he saw the woman pointing in the direction of his house and saying, "Li Mantian's family harvested almost twice as much grain as my family during the autumn harvest. They don't have many people in their family, so they must have a lot of grain!"

Upon hearing this, the remaining villagers, who were still afraid, seemed to be bewitched by something and began to echo his words one by one.

That's right.

“His family must have quite a lot, probably more than all of us combined.”

"Does that mean we can get our grain back?"

"His family has enough food to feed you for a long time!"

...

The leader looked over and asked the brothers around him, "Why didn't you search his house?"

The brother next to him immediately said, "Boss, his son is the newly appointed county magistrate, the kind of magistrate who can command the garrison. If we really provoke him, he might send troops to attack our stronghold!"

The chieftain suddenly realized that was indeed the case, but he still went over and knocked on the door: "Is anyone home? I've come to borrow some grain! Since you are the magistrate's parents, you should also benefit the people and not just stand by and watch them die, right?"

Li Mantian, who was in the courtyard, sighed, looked back at Li Shi and Ye Shuang who had already retreated into the house, and then went forward to open the door.