During the day, Leaf Gray had already cultivated his twenty-first aperture to fullness. As long as he broke through the barrier of the twenty-second aperture, he would be one step closer to the third level of Spirit Creek Realm.

He did not take the Barrier Breaking Fruit, even though it was highly effective at breaking through aperture barriers.

According to Leaf Gray's estimation, the Barrier Breaking Fruit should be very valuable. Last time he consumed one was because he urgently needed to advance to the first level of Spirit Creek Realm. Now, with enough Spirit Nurturing Pills, he could achieve the same goal by just spending a bit more time. Naturally, Leaf Gray didn't want to waste it.

He planned to keep these two spirit fruits and consume them at a more appropriate time to maximize their effect.

The spiritual power within his body was now vastly greater than at the beginning. This made impacting the aperture barriers much easier for him.

In just about an hour, the barrier of the twenty-second aperture was broken, and a trickle of spiritual power flowed into it.

Leaf Gray cultivated a while longer, fully digesting the pill's potency before stopping.

Three days had passed since he last examined the spirit pattern leaves on the Talent Tree. Leaf Gray planned to check the third burning leaf tonight to see what kind of spirit pattern it carried.

Even though he was mentally prepared, he still felt some trepidation when the time came, mainly because the experience was so unpleasant.

But this was something he had to go through sooner or later. Better a short pain than a long one. Gritting his teeth, Leaf Gray concentrated his spirit and 'looked' towards the Talent Tree within his Origin Spiritual Aperture.

The burning leaf rapidly enlarged. The intricate patterns on the leaf instantly obscured Leaf Gray's vision and thoughts. That feeling of being struck hard on the head returned.

His brain felt pried open, a flood of inexplicable information poured in, and then it was stirred vigorously...

After a good while, Leaf Gray finally opened his eyes, gasping for breath. The big tiger raised its head nearby, and Evie stood by the bed, looking at him with concern.

Fortunately, having experienced this once three days ago, Evie was somewhat used to it.

Leaf Gray immersed his mind, examining the new information that had appeared in his thoughts.

Spirit Gathering!

This was the name of the spirit pattern carried on the third leaf.

The first spirit pattern was offensive, the second was defensive. Was the third an auxiliary type?

The function of this spirit pattern was clear just from its name; it was used to gather spiritual energy. Leaf Gray channeled spiritual power and constructed this pattern on his palm. As the intricate and complex spirit pattern appeared, the heaven and earth spiritual energy in the room converged towards his palm, subsequently drawing in spiritual energy from outside as well.

Leaf Gray waited for a moment but found that the spiritual energy in the room didn't seem to change much. Perhaps the spirit pattern he constructed wasn't large enough, or the duration wasn't long enough.

If he could construct a spirit pattern large enough to cover the entire room, or even the entire Merchant Alliance, the effect of gathering spiritual energy should be quite remarkable.

But never mind whether his spiritual power could sustain such a large pattern; even if he could do it, it would be meaningless.

His body couldn't effectively absorb and refine spiritual energy, so no matter how dense the external spiritual energy became, it wouldn't be very useful to him.

Trash!

Leaf Gray inwardly cursed, feeling somewhat disappointed.

Both Sharpness and Guard could provide significant help in battle. He had high hopes for this third spirit pattern, but the result was actually a rather useless pattern.

However, compared to the Sharpness and Guard patterns, the Spirit Gathering pattern consumed very little spiritual power. For a pattern of the same size, the consumption of Spirit Gathering was only ten percent of that of Guard. Moreover, it seemed it could be maintained for a long time.

Both Sharpness and Guard lasted for a very short time. So, if Leaf Gray wanted to use them in battle, he had to time it right. Maintaining them for a long time was possible, but the spiritual power consumption would increase.

But Spirit Gathering was different. While it gathered heaven and earth spiritual energy, it also replenished itself. So once constructed, unless Leaf Gray actively dispersed it, it would continue to persist.

Thinking about it this way, it wasn't completely useless. If he constructed a sufficiently large Spirit Gathering pattern at a sect headquarters, the spiritual energy within the headquarters would become increasingly dense.

Evie watched this scene from the side, somewhat shocked.

Three nights ago, she witnessed Leaf Gray casually construct an unknown spirit pattern. Tonight, she saw it again, and these two were completely different patterns.

Evie wasn't very clear about the use of the pattern from three days ago, but this time, the pattern clearly had the function of gathering heaven and earth spiritual energy.

Just who was this guy? His cultivation wasn't high, yet his understanding of spirit patterns was so profound. One must know that this required spending a great deal of time and energy.

Looking at it this way, he really must be connected to some important figure in a major sect...

It must be said, the more Evie thought about it, the more her imagination ran wild. She was smart enough to pretend not to see things that shouldn't be asked about, which Leaf Gray appreciated. Otherwise, he would have to consider whether to continue their cooperative relationship.

Over there, Leaf Gray had already dispersed the Spirit Gathering pattern. Instead, he took off his upper garment, took out his long knife, and began practicing his swings. The big tiger had to huddle in a corner to avoid being accidentally injured...

Swing after swing, Leaf Gray chopped earnestly.

The night passed. At daybreak, Leaf Gray went from the third floor to the main hall on the first floor, found a steward of the Merchant Alliance, and conducted a transaction for two pieces of Metamagnetic Ore.

He still had fourteen pieces of Metamagnetic Ore left, all relatively large, the biggest one about the size of a washbasin. He didn't trade too many, to avoid encountering someone like Seraphina Vale again.

Anyway, along the journey, he would encounter many branches of the Providentia Merchant Alliance. Selling the ores in his possession sporadically could reduce the risk somewhat.

When he left Jade Market III last time, if he hadn't been in a hurry to buy a Ten-Point Map, he wouldn't have risked selling over ten pieces of Metamagnetic Ore at once. That really made it easy to attract unwanted attention.

Two pieces of Metamagnetic Ore fetched one hundred and three spirit stones. This time, he didn't buy more Spirit Nurturing Pills but saved the spirit stones.

He temporarily had enough Spirit Nurturing Pills to last him beyond the third level of Spirit Creek Realm, so there was no need to stockpile more.

As for saving spirit stones... it was because he needed to save up a large sum of spirit stones for another use.

Just after stepping out of the Providentia Merchant Alliance, a male cultivator with a sharp mouth and monkey-like cheeks approached him, greeting him with a broad smile: "Greetings, Fellow Daoist!"

Leaf Gray frowned at him. The big tiger beside him stepped forward, emitting a threatening low growl.

The male cultivator's smile instantly stiffened, and he hastily retreated two steps: "Fellow Daoist, please don't be angry! I mean no harm. I just have a business proposition I'd like to discuss with you."

Leaf Gray looked at the spiritual glow on the other person, confirming he was only at the second level of Spirit Creek Realm. Moreover, judging by the purity of his spiritual glow, it was below average, indicating this guy's strength wasn't great.

Seeing Leaf Gray and the big tiger both staring at him, the male cultivator felt his scalp go numb. Forcing a smile, he said, "It really is just to discuss a business deal."

"Step aside!" Leaf Gray said flatly, his hand resting on the knife at his waist. He led the big tiger straight forward. The man hurriedly moved out of the way but, unwilling to give up, probably thinking Leaf Gray couldn't do anything to him here, chased after Leaf Gray and said, "Fellow Daoist, I have a set of auxiliary cultivation techniques. If used, cultivation efficiency can at least double. It's perfect for someone of your cultivation level. Might you be interested?"