Amber, who was eating nearby, shrank its head back a little and swallowed its food much more quietly.

Seeing its expression, Evie knew it must have done something wrong…

Pursing her lips, she asked Leaf Gray, "What did Amber do wrong?"

Leaf Gray turned and glared at Amber, then briefly explained how Amber had rushed out recklessly during the rescue mission. He then said, "Do you remember the first rule of our three-part agreement?"

Evie sat obediently in front of him, her back straight as a rod, and immediately replied, "In all matters, you take the lead. If opinions differ, we must listen to you!"

"Not bad memory!"

Evie turned her head and shouted sternly, "Amber!"

Amber whimpered, its large, sturdy body slowly moving in front of Evie. It lifted its eyes and looked at her pitifully. Evie raised her hand and slapped Amber on the head: "Leaf Gray told you not to be impulsive, why didn't you listen? You can't just charge out like that; you need to follow the plan."

She punctuated each sentence with a slap.

Evie also knew that Amber's earlier impulsiveness had caused some trouble. Looking at the result, Leaf Gray had killed the four cultivators and rescued her, but if Amber had shown a little more restraint, the situation would definitely have been better. Perhaps Leaf Gray wouldn't have ended up unconscious because of it.

Her escape this time was entirely due to Leaf Gray's decisiveness. If he had hesitated even slightly when Amber charged out, they would have missed their chance.

Evie kept this debt of gratitude in her heart, and to teach Amber a lesson, she showed no mercy, hitting its head with loud thumps.

"Enough," Leaf Gray interrupted her, looking at her seriously. "I don't want there to be a next time for something like this."

They hadn't been cooperating for long; everyone needed time to adjust to each other, a breaking-in period. But experiencing this once was enough. If it happened again, Leaf Gray couldn't guarantee he would emerge unscathed. He certainly didn't want to be killed by his own people one day.

"Understood!" Evie nodded, then looked at Amber again. "Did you remember?"

Amber let out a soft whimper in response.

Evie then looked at Leaf Gray and said sincerely, "Thank you!"

This thank you was for both Amber and herself. Her escape was ultimately due to Leaf Gray risking his life. And this matter wasn't over yet; they were currently trapped inside the Rift Sky Gorge, and whether they could escape was still unknown.

Leaf Gray waved his hand and checked his own condition. His injuries weren't too much of a concern; a few days of rest would suffice. His spiritual power had been significantly depleted during the previous battle and needed replenishing. However, what surprised him was that the barrier of the 26th aperture seemed to have loosened somewhat.

He had previously cultivated until the 25th aperture was full but hadn't attempted to impact the 26th aperture yet. Thinking back now, it was probably due to the violent fluctuations of his spiritual power during his fierce battle with Daniel Rivera impacting the aperture barrier.

This was actually a good thing, saving him some cultivation time.

But before that, he still needed to replenish his spiritual power to its peak. In such a perilous environment, maintaining a perfect state was crucial. Who knew when the next fierce battle might occur? At that time, Leaf Gray wouldn't have time to recover.

However, he wasn't in a hurry to cultivate. Instead, he shot Evie a meaningful glance.

Evie understood, patted Amber's head, and the one spirit and one tiger immediately split up, heading towards the two ends of the tunnel.

This way, with the two of them monitoring the tunnel from both ends, Leaf Gray wouldn't be trapped in the tunnel. If danger approached, he would have room to advance or retreat.

After Evie and Amber moved away, Leaf Gray looked down at the back of his hand. Channeling his spiritual power, the back of his hand was covered by a layer of blue light, which transformed into several lines of large text:

Name: Leaf Gray.

Identity: The Vermilion Guild Disciple.

Cultivation: Twenty-Five Apertures.

Merit: Thirty-Four.

Leaf Gray stared blankly at the number in the Merit row, unable to figure out how the number thirty-four had come about.

Last time, in Jade Mountain, he had dealt with that pale-faced man and Seraphina Vale, gaining eight merit points. This time, after killing four people, his merit became thirty-four. In other words, those four people had increased his merit by a full twenty-six points.

Leaf Gray still didn't know what use Merit had. He had asked Evie, but she didn't seem very clear about it either. Her memory was severely damaged; she knew some things, but was completely ignorant about others.

This thing definitely had a purpose, but how it functioned and where it could be used required gradual exploration.

Since he couldn't figure it out, he decided not to bother for now.

Leaf Gray tossed a Spirit Nurturing Pill into his mouth, refined the pill's energy, and replenished his consumption. His spiritual power gradually recovered.

He had noticed before that the efficiency of recovery versus cultivation, as well as the consumption of spirit pills, differed greatly. When simply recovering, the speed was much faster than cultivation, and the consumption was also much smaller.

The most direct comparison: Leaf Gray had now opened twenty-five apertures. The total number of spirit pills consumed during this period was nearly over two hundred, taking almost three months. But if he exhausted all his spiritual power in a battle and wanted to replenish it, it wouldn't possibly consume two hundred pills, nor would it take three months.

If that were the case, the cost for a cultivator after a single battle would be far too great.

During cultivation, a significant portion of the pill's efficacy is dissipated as waste, and the process of refining spiritual apertures is exceptionally time-consuming. Progressing from the initial opening of a spiritual aperture to its complete saturation constitutes a gradual, step-by-step process. However, once the apertures have been fully cultivated, replenishing spiritual power becomes markedly simpler and more efficient.

Time passed, pill after pill was consumed. Two days later, Leaf Gray was fully recovered, but he only had a little over twenty pills left in his possession.

There was no movement from Evie and Amber's side; it seemed their location was relatively safe for the time being.

Leaf Gray wasn't in a hurry to leave. He didn't know the situation outside; leaving rashly would only complicate matters further.

He was currently only two apertures away from the third level of the Spirit Creek. Moreover, the barrier of the 26th aperture was somewhat loose, and he had enough pills on hand. Therefore, Leaf Gray decided to first raise his cultivation by one layer.

At the second layer, he could cooperate with Amber and Evie to kill Daniel Rivera. If he reached the third layer, his strength would increase further, which would be a great help in their current predicament!

Furthermore, his injuries weren't fully healed yet, so he could use these next few days to recuperate further.

Having made up his mind, Leaf Gray continued to swallow spirit pills, urging his spiritual power to impact the barrier of the 26th aperture.

Another five days later, within the mountain tunnel, Leaf Gray sat cross-legged with a solemn expression. The day before yesterday, he had opened the 27th aperture and spent some more pills to cultivate it to a full state. Today was the time to advance to the third level of the Spirit Creek!

With the experience from the previous two advancements, Leaf Gray was familiar with the process this time. Spiritual power started from the 19th aperture, following the meridian route, sequentially passing through the 20th, 21st, up to the 27th aperture.

The spiritual power circulated continuously among these nine major apertures, repeating over and over, moving faster and faster. Until a certain moment, it broke through a bottleneck. Leaf Gray's seated body shook violently, spiritual energy surging around him.