Going down the mountain again, Leaf Gray appeared much more composed. He followed the familiar route to the Jade Market at the mountain's foot, then easily made his way to the Providentia Merchant Alliance.

Before the welcoming maid at the door could even ask, Leaf Gray uttered a single word: "Sell!"

Sitting in the partitioned room, he drank the Providentia Merchant Alliance's spirit tea as usual. Unfortunately, this time he had only finished one pot when someone walked in.

"Apologies for keeping you waiting, fellow Daoist!"

Following the voice, a middle-aged man entered the room and bowed to Leaf Gray: "I am Marcus Thorne, pleased to meet you, fellow Daoist."

Leaf Gray nodded. Marcus Thorne sat down and got straight to the point: "I wonder what fellow Daoist wishes to sell?"

Leaf Gray then took out the few pieces of ore he had prepared earlier. Of course, the Metamagnetic Ore was the main item. Last time, the reason those ores could fetch that many spirit stones was largely due to the value of the Metamagnetic Ore.

The piece of Metamagnetic Ore taken out this time was slightly larger, so the price might be higher.

Marcus Thorne inspected each one and quoted a price for each ore. During this, Leaf Gray didn't speak, only drank tea.

Finally, he put down the Metamagnetic Ore and said: "This item is quite rare in the outer circles. It can be priced at thirty-eight spirit stones. The total price would be fifty-one spirit stones. If fellow Daoist finds this acceptable, we can proceed with the transaction."

"Can't it be a bit higher?" Leaf Gray looked at him.

Marcus Thorne shook his head with a bitter smile: "It can't be higher. After these items are collected, specialized personnel need to refine and extract them before they become useful materials. Any higher, and the Trade Union would have no profit margin."

This guy is harder to deal with than Seraphina Vale! Leaf Gray grumbled inwardly. Last time, when he haggled with Seraphina Vale, she immediately added four spirit stones. Although she was a woman, she was much more straightforward than this Marcus Thorne.

What he didn't know was that Seraphina Vale's willingness to raise the price was partly due to an unwritten rule, and she also wanted to do another kind of business with him, hence her straightforwardness. As it turned out, Leaf Gray was completely unaware of that rule and didn't even give her a tip, which made Seraphina Vale a little unhappy.

Marcus Thorne was a man and didn't expect to do any other business with Leaf Gray, so he naturally adopted a business-like attitude.

Leaf Gray remained silent for a moment, too lazy to waste words. He then took out four storage bags: "You have a way to open these, right?"

These were the ones Evie had given him before. She had told him that someone in the Jade Market could open the restriction locks on storage bags, but Leaf Gray had forgotten about it last time.

Marcus Thorne calmly took the storage bags, clearly accustomed to such things. After a brief inspection, he said: "If fellow Daoist wishes to ask us to help open them, that is possible, but a fee will be charged."

"How much?"

Marcus Thorne quoted a figure.

Leaf Gray's face darkened; the asking price was a bit high.

Marcus Thorne smiled slightly: "Of course, fellow Daoist could also sell these items to our Trade Union. Each storage bag is valued at this amount."

He gestured with his hand.

Leaf Gray laughed: "That amount is even lower than the previous one!"

In other words, the cost of having the Trade Union open the storage bags was actually higher than selling the storage bags directly to the Trade Union, which seemed somewhat unreasonable.

Marcus Thorne said with a smile: "I understand what fellow Daoist is thinking, but this is indeed the price. Fellow Daoist must understand that storage bags from outer circle cultivators aren't valuable. There might be nothing inside, just an empty bag, and the Trade Union has to bear some risk for this, so the price won't be very high. Of course, if fellow Daoist wants to gamble and see if these storage bags contain any priceless treasures, you only need to pay the unlocking fee. It depends on fellow Daoist's choice."

Leaf Gray recalled the three cultivators robbed by Evie and the big tiger; their storage bags indeed contained nothing good.

He immediately made a decision. After some more haggling with Marcus Thorne, the four storage bags were sold to the Trade Union as a bundle for twenty spirit stones.

Including the previous amount, that made seventy-one spirit stones!

With the deal settled, Marcus Thorne was clearly somewhat pleased as well. He asked: "How would fellow Daoist like the payment? Spirit stones or spirit pills?"

Leaf Gray asked: "Do you have maps of the Spirit Creek Battlefield?" The reason for this question was that Leaf Gray remembered the wealthy-looking man he met when he first entered the market told him that the Trade Union sold maps.

If he wanted to go to The Vermilion Guild headquarters, he had to figure out the specific location of The Vermilion Guild. Having a map on hand would naturally make it easier.

Marcus Thorne immediately became enthusiastic: "Naturally, we do. I wonder which kind of map fellow Daoist wants?"

"How many kinds do you have?"

"There are three-tenths maps, seven-tenths maps, and full maps."

"What's the difference?" Leaf Gray couldn't help but frown. Selling a map, why so many variations?

"It's like this..." Marcus Thorne began to explain. Listening to his explanation, Leaf Gray gradually understood the differences between the three types of maps.

Throughout the entire Spirit Creek Battlefield, there were countless headquarters of forces, large and small. After all, all the sect forces of The Novem Lands had their own headquarters in the battlefield. The forces were interwoven, and headquarters frequently changed hands, so map-making was a very troublesome task.

However, the Providentia Merchant Alliance had such capability because this Trade Union had countless branch unions throughout the entire battlefield. By compiling information from various regions, they could easily create a map of the entire battlefield, an ability no other single force possessed.

The complete map included the situation of all headquarters in the Spirit Creek Battlefield, which faction they belonged to, and descriptions of the grades of those sects. Not only that, but various terrains and landforms in the battlefield were also marked.

This was the full map.

The seven-tenths map was an abridged version of the full map, including only the general situation of about seventy percent of the force headquarters in the battlefield...

The three-tenths map had even less, only about thirty percent of the headquarters' situations. As for the inherent terrain and landforms of the battlefield, they were simply not included...

For Leaf Gray, if he were to buy one, he would definitely buy the full map because The Vermilion Guild was only a ninth-grade sect. The three-tenths and seven-tenths maps might not have it marked. If he bought one and couldn't find The Vermilion Guild, it would be a huge loss.

Moreover, buying the full map had an advantage: he could update the map at the Providentia Merchant Alliance anytime in the future.

Because the Spirit Creek Battlefield was constantly war-torn, with headquarters frequently changing hands, perhaps a headquarters belonging to The Firmament Palace today might belong to The Ophidian Covenant tomorrow. If one wasn't careful and stumbled in, the outcome would certainly be bad. Having a map that could be updated in real-time could intangibly avoid many risks.

However, after Leaf Gray inquired about the price, he gave up on this idea.

A full map cost six hundred spirit stones, and that was already discounted.

As for the three-tenths map that Marcus Thorne strongly recommended, it still cost several dozen spirit stones. But what use did Leaf Gray have for a three-tenths map?

In the end, he could only conclude this transaction. He kept one of the seventy-one spirit stones and used the remaining seventy to buy seven bottles containing sixty-three Spirit Nurturing Pills. With so many Spirit Nurturing Pills, achieving the second layer of the Spirit Creek Realm was within sight.