At the Providentia Merchant Alliance, Marcus Thorne politely saw Leaf Gray to the door.

Most cultivators in the outer circles were relatively poor, unless they were disciples from major sects. So, transactions involving several dozen spirit stones weren't encountered easily. Moreover, Leaf Gray's character was quite straightforward, so Marcus Thorne naturally wanted to get more familiar with him, hoping for future business.

Watching Leaf Gray's figure disappear, Marcus Thorne turned around and was met with a wave of fragrant scent. Someone was standing behind him.

"You scared me!" Marcus Thorne said irritably. "Why aren't you attending to guests? What are you doing standing behind me?"

That person said in a coquettish voice, "I missed you."

Marcus Thorne looked around guiltily like a thief, and upon finding no one paying attention, lowered his voice: "I'll come find you after you finish duty tonight."

"Alright..." the woman replied with a smile.

Marcus Thorne then walked towards the main hall as if nothing had happened to attend to other guests. The woman gazed thoughtfully in the direction Leaf Gray had left.

When night fell, there was naturally some intimacy. After the clouds and rain ceased, the two chatted casually. The topic was intentionally or unintentionally guided by the woman towards the day's transaction. Marcus Thorne was somewhat tired and answered intermittently, soon falling fast asleep.

The woman, lying in his arms, found it somewhat difficult to sleep.

If she wasn't mistaken, the guest during the day was the same one she had attended to half a month ago, who had sold many ores and bought some spirit pills.

Unexpectedly, in just half a month, he had come again to sell ores.

Judging by the guest's appearance, he should undoubtedly be a rogue cultivator. A rogue cultivator with no one to rely on could amass wealth of several dozen spirit stones in such a short time, which naturally made people take notice.

For someone like her, working in the Providentia Merchant Alliance, even with additional income, she could only earn twelve or thirteen spirit stones per month at most. This reminded her of her days as a rogue cultivator. Comparing them, she felt somewhat sour and bittersweet. After random thoughts for a long time, she finally felt sleepy but couldn't rest peacefully.

At the same time, in the Jade Mountain cave, Leaf Gray was cultivating.

During the day, after completing his transaction at the Providentia Merchant Alliance, he used the remaining spirit stones to buy a lot of food and hurried back without stopping, managing to return here before nightfall.

With sufficient spirit pills, he immediately began cultivating by taking them.

Pill by pill was consumed. The spiritual power in the fifteenth aperture gradually became full, then began impacting the sixteenth aperture.

Twelve days later, in the cave, Leaf Gray sat cross-legged, calming his mind and concentrating his spirit.

Today was a big day. If everything went smoothly, he would advance to the second layer of the Spirit Creek Realm today.

Since returning twelve days ago, he had consumed over thirty Spirit Nurturing Pills one after another, finally opening up to the eighteenth aperture, and had cultivated the spiritual power in the eighteenth aperture to a full state.

Recalling the energy circulation path in the Cicada's Transcendent Metamorphosis, Leaf Gray activated his spiritual power, starting from the tenth aperture, sequentially passing through the eleventh, twelfth... ultimately reaching the eighteenth.

He had done this when achieving the first layer of the Spirit Creek Realm, so he was quite familiar with it now and didn't encounter any difficulties.

The spiritual power smoothly circulated through the nine major spiritual apertures, flowing slowly like a creek. As Leaf Gray worked, the speed of the spiritual power flowing within these nine apertures continuously increased, cycling over and over.

Reaching a limit, Leaf Gray felt a vibration throughout his body, a wave of energy swept out, and the spiritual power flowing from the tenth to the eighteenth aperture began operating autonomously.

Second layer of the Spirit Creek Realm, achieved!

Having experienced this once before, Leaf Gray wasn't overly joyous, just calmly accepting the natural progression.

Now, he was no longer the three-aperture minor cultivator who had first arrived at the Spirit Creek Battlefield over two months ago.

If achieving the first layer of the Spirit Creek Realm gave him the qualification to survive in the outer circles of the battlefield, then the second layer gave him the qualification to travel. Of course, there was still a gap compared to cultivators with higher cultivation, but Leaf Gray was already quite satisfied.

Compared to achieving the first layer, the time taken to advance to the second layer was even shorter. From opening three apertures to the Spirit Creek Realm, he took roughly forty days. But from the first to the second layer, he used less than a month.

The main reason was sufficient cultivation resources. Even so, this cultivation speed was extremely terrifying.

It must be known that in the early stages of cultivation, cultivators typically took about ten days to open each aperture because their primary cultivation method was absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. When their cultivation level wasn't high enough, the efficiency of absorbing spiritual energy wasn't high, so the cultivation speed naturally couldn't be fast.

This situation would only slightly improve after reaching the fourth layer of the Spirit Creek Realm.

In other words, for ordinary cultivators at the beginning of their cultivation, advancing one layer every three months was normal. But for Leaf Gray, it was an average of one layer per month. This was the joy of cultivating by taking pills.

At the first layer, Leaf Gray only had one small circulation cycle in his body, from the Source Spirit Aperture to the ninth aperture. But after reaching the second layer, he gained another cycle starting from the tenth aperture and ending at the eighteenth. He now had two spiritual power circulation systems in his body.

Thus, he could mobilize more spiritual power in a short time, and the destructive power of his spiritual power naturally became stronger.

Upon reaching the third layer, there would be three such small circulation cycles, and so on. A cultivator at the ninth layer of the Spirit Creek Realm would have nine small circulation systems in their body.

He still had thirty Spirit Nurturing Pills left. Although Leaf Gray very much wanted to continue cultivating, he also knew the principle of 'more haste, less speed'.

He first ate something, then walked out of the cave, found a mountain spring to take a bath, changed into clean clothes, and then, amidst the gurgling of the spring, took out the Cicada's Transcendent Metamorphosis to study.

Next, he aimed for the third layer of the Spirit Creek Realm. He needed to identify the locations of the spiritual apertures after the eighteenth to facilitate his subsequent cultivation.

The mountain wilderness was quiet, occasionally punctuated by the sounds of birds and insects. Dappled sunlight penetrated the leafy canopy, shining on the young man's profile, making the scene resemble a painting.

"What are you doing, sneaking around like a ghost?" Leaf Gray called out without looking up.

On the trunk of a large tree nearby, a small head popped out. Her disheveled appearance would surely startle anyone who didn't know the context.

Evie glanced at the reading material in Leaf Gray's hand. After seeing it was a low-level technique, she curled her lip slightly, looking disdainful.

"Something the matter?" Leaf Gray asked, tilting his head, barely restraining the urge to punch her.

"When are you leaving?" Evie asked.

Although Leaf Gray hadn't come out to hunt during this period, this was her and the big tiger's territory. How could they allow others to sleep soundly right beside them? If it weren't for fearing the spirit talismans in Leaf Gray's hand, she would have long collaborated with the big tiger to drive Leaf Gray away. However, having suffered a loss at Leaf Gray's hands before, Evie didn't dare act recklessly. Moreover, Evie could tell that Leaf Gray had become much stronger compared to two months ago.

Leaf Gray closed the book, stood up, and stretched: "I'm tired, going back to sleep!"

"Hey, I'm asking you a question!" Evie said angrily. However, she received no response and could only grit her teeth and curse: "Rogue, stinky thing, you really infuriate me, wah yah yah yah..." She clawed at a nearby tree, sending wood chips flying.