After sorting out all the clues, Leaf Gray had a general understanding of his current situation.

Admittedly, his situation wasn't great. The biggest problem was his low cultivation level. A pack of vicious wolves could trap him in a tree, and if he encountered any malicious cultivator, he would undoubtedly be powerless to resist.

The good news was, with the battlefield mark, he knew which direction to go for a way out.

But he didn't know how far he was from The Vermilion Guild's territory.

To reach The Vermilion Guild's stronghold in the Spirit Creek Battlefield, he needed a certain level of cultivation. So, the top priority was to improve his strength!

He now had quite a few usable spirit pills. If he could absorb and refine them all, his strength would certainly increase significantly. He didn't dare say how many layers of the Spirit Creek realm he could reach, but at the very least, he would gain more self-preservation ability.

Having made his plan, Leaf Gray looked down at the pack of wolves gathered below. To cultivate, he first needed to escape this predicament; this environment wasn't suitable for cultivation.

Although these vicious wolves couldn't really harm him, the commotion they caused was significant and could easily attract unwanted attention, posing a potential danger.

After some thought, Leaf Gray took out the spirit talismans from the storage bag the Sect Master had given him. He picked through them and selected one – a Gold Wheel Talisman.

Out of over thirty spirit talismans, only half were for attack. The rest were either for defense or assistance. These more than ten attack talismans were all of the fire or metal attribute, perfectly suited for someone like Leaf Gray, whose primary elemental affinity was fire and secondary was metal.

The Sect Master had undoubtedly considered this when collecting these talismans.

He didn't choose the fire-attribute talismans mainly because Leaf Gray suspected they would cause quite a commotion. After all, names like "Blast Talisman" and "Fire Snake Talisman" sounded violent.

How to activate the talisman was a problem; Leaf Gray had never used one before.

But now he had to try no matter what; he needed to escape quickly.

Holding the talisman, Leaf Gray carefully channeled his spiritual power into it.

The talisman immediately emitted a layer of golden light, which then condensed in front of Leaf Gray into a disc-like object.

The disc was golden, shimmering, semi-transparent, about the size of a washbasin, with Spirit Patterns flowing within it.

Before Leaf Gray could react, a golden, crescent-moon-shaped blade shot out from the disc, vanishing in an instant.

Thud! A muffled sound. Leaf Gray looked up and saw an extremely deep slash mark appear on the trunk of a large tree not far away, a tree so thick it would take several people to encircle it.

Whoosh, whoosh... From the semi-transparent golden disc in his hand, crescent blades continuously shot out one after another. In an instant, the surrounding trees suffered; branches were severed, falling noisily to the ground.

"So that's how it works!" Leaf Gray understood. He quickly adjusted the direction of the disc in his hand, aiming it at the wolf pack below.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...

Razor-sharp golden crescents sliced through the air, striking the wolves gathered together. Immediately, blood splattered, and flesh flew everywhere.

The vicious wolves, each as big as a small calf, were instantly cut in half if struck.

The wolf pack clearly panicked, scattering and dodging. Leaf Gray continuously adjusted the direction, trying to aim the blades at the densest areas of the pack.

One by one, the vicious wolves were killed, the smell of blood filling the air.

After a moment, the wolf pack seemed to realize the situation was dire. A howl came from not far away, and the wolves gathered below fled with their tails between their legs, leaving behind over a dozen wolf corpses.

Leaf Gray controlled the disc in his hand, pursuing the fleeing wolves for a while, feeling immensely satisfied inwardly.

Spirit talismans were indeed good things. A single talisman allowed a cultivator like him, who had only opened three apertures, to kill wantonly. The only drawback was that it was his first time using a talisman, and he wasn't very good at controlling the direction and aim; otherwise, he could have killed even more.

Just as he was thinking this, Leaf Gray suddenly felt a sense of fatigue. His heart pounded, stars danced before his eyes, and he swayed, nearly falling off the tree branch.

This startled him greatly. He quickly stabilized himself, gasping for breath for a moment.

After recovering slightly, Leaf Gray looked down and found that the semi-transparent golden disc had disappeared. The talisman in his hand had also become dull and lusterless, its patterns obscure and unclear.

This talisman could no longer be used, Leaf Gray realized.

But what had just happened to him?

After checking himself, Leaf Gray figured out the truth.

His internal spiritual power was exhausted! The three spiritual apertures were empty; the spiritual power originally stored within them was completely depleted.

The fatigue was precisely because of this.

He hurriedly took out a Spirit Nurturing Pill and swallowed it, refining it with all his might. It took a good while before he recovered slightly.

A single Spirit Nurturing Pill naturally couldn't restore him completely. He didn't even wait for the pill's efficacy to fully dissipate before jumping down from the tree.

The smell of blood here was too strong and could easily attract more fierce beasts, so it was best to leave first. As for the accumulated pill efficacy in his body, he could resolve it while walking, though the efficiency would be lower.

He also took a moment to take out his long sword, cut several large pieces of wolf meat, and stuffed them into his storage bag.

After this incident, Leaf Gray learned a lesson: when using spirit talismans, one must never be carried away by success and forget caution. He must always pay attention to the consumption of his own spiritual power.

This time, he was only killing wolves. Next time, if he encountered hostile cultivators, once his spiritual power was exhausted, he could only wait for death.

Most of the day later, in a dry, dark cave, Leaf Gray sat cross-legged on a cushion placed beneath him.

Such caves for shelter were plentiful in the mountains and wilds. After Leaf Gray's inspection, this should be an unowned cave. Staying here, he didn't have to worry about being disturbed by some returning wild beast.

The environment in the cave was average, but now wasn't the time to be fussy. If nothing unexpected happened, Leaf Gray felt he might have to stay here for a while.

He had previously scouted the surrounding environment; there were no traces of particularly fierce beasts, but there were many small animals.

This was good news for him. If he got hungry later, he could go out hunting anytime without going hungry.

In front of Leaf Gray was a pile of miscellaneous items; he was taking stock of his assets.

Three storage bages: Manager Miller's, Ryan Carter's, and the one given by the Sect Master. These things weren't valuable; basically, every cultivator Leaf Gray had seen had one, maybe more.

The Sect Master didn't have one on his person, but he certainly had other storage methods, which Leaf Gray couldn't possibly know about.

Twenty-five Spirit Nurturing Pills: twenty given by the Sect Master, and five obtained from Manager Miller and Ryan Carter's storage bages. There were originally six, but Leaf Gray consumed one after killing the wolves.

A total of sixteen Vermillion Dawn Pills: most given by the Sect Master, and a smaller portion obtained from Manager Miller and Ryan Carter's storage bages.

Eight healing pills.

Over thirty pieces of Metamagnetic Ore of various sizes, and some other ores whose names Leaf Gray didn't know.

One story booklet!

One copy of Cicada's Transcendent Metamorphosis!

Nearly thirty various spirit talismans.

Five sets of clothes in various styles.

The various messy pills previously stored in Manager Miller and Ryan Carter's storage bages were nowhere to be seen. Probably, they were confiscated by the Sect Master during his cultivation on the Flying Dragon Ship. Those few bottles of pills probably weren't anything good.