Leaf Gray gathered spiritual power in his legs, and his pursuit speed increased noticeably.

This was a small trick he had inadvertently discovered during his several trips in and out of Jade Mountain. A cultivator's spiritual power had many wonderful uses. Gathering it in the eyes allowed one to see things normally invisible; concentrating it in the legs enabled one to run faster; channeling it into blades or swords could make the weapons more lethal.

The mountain forest terrain was complex, filled with huge trees that would take several people to encircle. The person fleeing ahead was naturally not as familiar with the terrain as Leaf Gray, and the distance between them kept closing.

When Leaf Gray clearly saw the person's back, all his questions were suddenly resolved.

He knew who was behind all this scheming. The result surprised him because, in his view, he had no grudge with the other party; they had even only interacted once!

"Roar!" A snow-white figure suddenly darted out from ahead, blocking the person's path. It was the big tiger!

The person was scared out of their wits by the tiger, let out a scream, and without a second thought, threw out a talisman they had been holding ready. The talisman transformed into a crescent-shaped slash mid-air, shooting straight towards the big tiger.

The big tiger hastily dodged. The crescent-shaped slash barely grazed its body and struck a large tree behind it, slicing clean through the trunk, demonstrating the talisman's penetrating power.

The failed attack made the person even more panicked. They fumbled clumsily in their storage bag for something.

A small figure had already silently climbed onto their back, emitting a piercing shriek.

Leaf Gray saw the person's body slump as if bearing a heavy weight, and their movement faltered for a moment.

This reminded Leaf Gray of his first encounter with Evie and the big tiger in the cave; he had been ambushed by Evie in exactly this way...

With this delay, Leaf Gray had already rushed close to her and swung his sword down.

A flash of bright sword light, and an arm flew off, blood spraying.

The pain made her scream. Although she came from a rogue cultivator background, because of her outstanding figure and looks, shortly after entering the Spirit Creek Battlefield, she had been noticed by someone from the Providentia Merchant Alliance and taken into the merchant alliance. In all this time, she had never been in a fight, let alone suffered such a severe injury.

Calling her a flower raised in a greenhouse wouldn't be an exaggeration.

Most people in the merchant alliance were of this type. They didn't need to fight others, nor did they face the hardships and dangers of battlefield training like disciples of various sects. Their only task was to manage business well.

The big tiger pounced, knocking her to the ground. Its ferocious maw roared, foul breath washing over her face, nearly scaring her into unconsciousness.

What frightened her even more were the footsteps approaching from the side. Turning her head, she saw Leaf Gray walking towards her step by step, his sharp sword pointing obliquely at the ground, blood still dripping from the blade.

When he was close, Leaf Gray looked down at her and said calmly, "Seraphina Vale!"

This woman was precisely the one who had conducted the transaction with him during his first visit to the Providentia Merchant Alliance.

"Don't kill me, please don't kill me!" Seraphina Vale's makeup was smeared by tears as she begged incessantly.

Leaf Gray's eyes lowered slightly. "Who put you up to this?"

"No one! I was blinded by greed, tempted by wealth..." Under immense terror, Seraphina Vale naturally said whatever came to mind, even blurting out the whole story without waiting for Leaf Gray to ask further questions.

"I see..." Leaf Gray raised his sword high.

Sensing Leaf Gray's killing intent, Seraphina Vale screamed, "Don't kill me! I'll give you anything you want!"

The long sword fell. The big tiger timely dodged away. The blade, enhanced by spiritual power, sliced across Seraphina Vale's slender, pale neck.

A point of yellow light flew out from the back of Seraphina Vale's snow-white hand and streaked into Leaf Gray's right hand.

The headless corpse convulsed, blood gushing like a fountain from the neck before finally stopping after a good while.

Watching from the side, Evie's eyelids twitched violently. Everything today had refreshed her understanding of Leaf Gray. Only now did she realize that the big tiger's survival in their earlier encounter was just luck. This guy was not someone easy to deal with.

Leaf Gray bent down, took the storage bag from Seraphina Vale's waist, and patted her body all over. Of course, this wasn't to take any advantage; he wanted to see if the woman had any hidden storage bags.

He himself had hidden storage bags... Projecting from himself, he thought others might have them too.

Unfortunately, Seraphina Vale didn't have that habit. After all, she was from the merchant alliance; she didn't need to fight others or take risks outside. Keeping her storage bag on her person was safe enough.

Seraphina Vale's storage bag was open. Leaf Gray inspected it briefly and found some useful things.

"Dispose of the body," Leaf Gray ordered.

"Huh?" Evie looked at him with an expression of disbelief, as if saying, 'Are you kidding me?'

Leaf Gray then took out a bottle from Seraphina Vale's storage bag and tossed it in his hand.

"Right away!" Evie promptly agreed, exchanged a look with the big tiger, and hurriedly got busy.

Leaf Gray ran back to the spot where he had killed the fair-skinned cultivator, picked up his storage bag too, along with the fair-skinned cultivator's weapon.

About half an hour later, in their shelter cave, Leaf Gray sat cross-legged, bare-chested, applying healing ointment to his wounds.

He didn't have much of the healing ointment left; after using two doses this time, only four remained.

Recalling today's battle, Leaf Gray didn't feel smug about killing a third-level Spirit Creek Realm cultivator. Instead, he reflected on himself.

Conflicts between low-level cultivators mostly involved close-quarters combat. One could say most low-level cultivators followed the path of weapon cultivators. Because their cultivation wasn't high enough and their training time was short, low-level cultivators lacked the time and energy to delve into spell techniques. Only after their strength increased would they gradually clarify their future path.

This fight with the fair-skinned cultivator exposed a serious problem: he had no technique to speak of in combat. This was unavoidable. He had only truly started cultivating for less than three months. During this time, he had been focused on improving his cultivation base; how could he have had any spare effort to enhance combat skills?

In the end, being able to kill the fair-skinned cultivator relied on borrowing the big tiger's intimidating presence and catching the opponent off guard.

But regarding technique, he didn't know how to improve it. Without a suitable teacher to guide him, trying to figure it out alone undoubtedly wouldn't work.

Then there was the issue of weapons...

Before, he hadn't felt it much. The long sword in his hand was left behind after Manager Miller's death. Prior to that, he had used this sword to kill Ryan Carter, but that fight was over in an instant.

Only after today's life-and-death struggle with the fair-skinned man did he truly notice something: the compatibility between himself and this long sword was severely lacking. The sword felt awkward no matter how he used it.

Swords emphasized lightness and agility, focusing on technique. Yet, when he wielded the long sword, he only chopped and hacked, completely failing to utilize the sword's advantages.

Thinking this, Leaf Gray put his clothes back on, picked up the long sword by his feet, and examined it carefully. The blade had many nicks, all caused by his hacking, especially one nick about one-third down the blade, almost the size of a grain of rice.

Such a nick was very serious for a long sword; it was practically unusable.

He then picked up the fair-skinned man's long knife, stood up, and swung it a few times, raising an eyebrow.

This thing... felt unexpectedly satisfying to use.