Attempt after attempt, failure after failure. Leaf Gray wasn't discouraged; instead, he grew more enthusiastic, as each failure accumulated experience.

The biggest challenge in applying the Spirit Gathering Pattern within a spiritual aperture was the surge of his own spiritual power. The circulating spiritual power would wash away the Spirit Gathering Pattern.

So, for Leaf Gray to successfully apply a Spirit Pattern within an aperture, he had to avoid the impact of the spiritual power; otherwise, success was impossible.

But this raised another issue: if the constructed Spirit Pattern was too far from the spiritual aperture, it wouldn't be very effective. For example, if Leaf Gray constructed the Spirit Pattern on his hand, the Pattern would gather spiritual energy, but his body had difficulty accepting external spiritual energy, so it couldn't be converted into his own spiritual power.

Finding a balance point was necessary: how to make the Spirit Pattern function effectively while maintaining its stability.

Fortunately, the cost of constructing one Spirit Gathering Pattern wasn't high, something Leaf Gray had discovered earlier when he first obtained this Pattern.

Two hours later, he still hadn't succeeded.

Leaf Gray tried altering the shape of the Spirit Pattern. Normally, when a Spirit Pattern was activated, it took a planar form. Unless one had extremely profound knowledge in this art, it was impossible to alter a Spirit Pattern.

Although Leaf Gray hadn't studied Spirit Pattern knowledge, whenever he obtained these Patterns, a wealth of information about them flooded into his mind, allowing him to comprehend their various mysteries.

Regarding the three Spirit Patterns he currently mastered, Leaf Gray had the ability to change their forms; what he lacked was practical experience.

More attempts followed. Finally, after another half day, a Spirit Gathering Pattern took form, and this time, it wasn't scattered by his flowing spiritual power.

Success!

A pleased expression appeared on Leaf Gray's face. He perceived quietly, able to sense that under the Pattern's effect, the heaven and earth spiritual energy from the surroundings gathered and poured into that spiritual aperture, transforming into his own spiritual power.

This Spirit Gathering Pattern had been transformed by him into a funnel shape and then applied to the spiritual aperture. The tip of the funnel minimally pierced into the aperture itself.

In other words, the spiritual energy gathered from the outside would directly pass through this small funnel and inject into his spiritual aperture. Through the flow and conversion of spiritual power, it bypassed the need to go through his body.

Thus, whether Leaf Gray's aptitude was one leaf or sixty-four leaves, it wouldn't affect the efficacy of the Spirit Gathering Pattern.

What a clever little me! Leaf Gray couldn't help but give himself a mental thumbs-up.

Although he had successfully applied the Spirit Gathering Pattern to an aperture, enabling himself to start absorbing heaven and earth spiritual energy, the effect was extremely limited because the Spirit Gathering Pattern was very small.

This was just one aperture...

Leaf Gray currently had twenty-nine apertures open...

What would be the effect if he applied Spirit Gathering Patterns to all twenty-nine of his apertures?

Leaf Gray couldn't help but look forward to it. If this idea could be implemented, then his cultivation wouldn't be limited to swallowing spirit pills in the future; he could also inhale and exhale heaven and earth spiritual energy! Not only would it save a lot of cultivation resources, but it could also improve his cultivation efficiency.

Once this idea popped up, Leaf Gray couldn't suppress it and immediately began to try.

With the experience of the first success, the second time became much simpler.

In less than half an hour, Leaf Gray applied the little funnel Spirit Pattern to his second spiritual aperture, followed by the third, the fourth... Leaf Gray gradually became more skilled through practice.

By the tenth aperture, Leaf Gray could faintly feel the effect. By the twentieth, the effect was more pronounced. By the time Leaf Gray had applied Spirit Gathering Patterns to all twenty-nine of his apertures, night had fallen.

At this point, he clearly felt the heaven and earth spiritual energy around him continuously pouring into his apertures one by one. As his spiritual power surged and flowed, it transformed into his own strength.

The Spirit Gathering Patterns could be maintained for a long time because they constantly gathered heaven and earth spiritual energy to replenish themselves. In principle, as long as Leaf Gray didn't actively disperse these Patterns, they would last forever.

Of course, this was impossible in practice. Right now, Leaf Gray was in a stable state, so the Patterns remained intact. But once he engaged in battle, his spiritual power would flow and surge violently, which could easily destroy the Patterns.

But ultimately, this was a venture with no capital cost. Leaf Gray only needed to construct the Patterns and apply them to his apertures at an appropriate time, then do nothing else. The heaven and earth spiritual energy would be gathered and pour into his body. He could even go about doing other things...

Now it depended on how much benefit these Patterns could bring him within a certain period.

To investigate this, he calmed his mind and focused, perceiving the changes in his internal spiritual power.

Three hours later, he reached a conclusion: if the Patterns on the twenty-nine apertures could be maintained for a full day and night, the benefit they brought would be roughly equivalent to taking one Spirit Nurturing Pill...

Not a huge amount, but not insignificant either.

One had to remember this was only twenty-nine apertures. The total number of spiritual apertures in a cultivator's body was a full three hundred and sixty. If one day Leaf Gray could apply Spirit Gathering to all three hundred and sixty apertures, the gains would be substantial.

Now possessing many Spirit Nurturing Pills, the auxiliary technique Gluttonous Feast, and the assistance of the Spirit Gathering Patterns, Leaf Gray felt a restless eagerness, wishing he could find a place to seclude himself and cultivate straight through to the ninth level of the Spirit Creek Realm...

However, what frustrated him was that he didn't have a suitable main cultivation technique.

The Cicada's Transcendent Metamorphosis obtained from Manager Miller only allowed cultivation up to the third level of the Spirit Creek Realm.

He originally planned to go to the next market and see if he could buy a technique at the Providentia Merchant Alliance branch. For this purpose, he had sold four Metamagnetic Ores along the way, saving up over two hundred spirit stones.

But who would have thought he'd be stuck in this Rift Sky Gorge for the time being, unable to leave?

This was rather troubling...

After some thought, Leaf Gray raised his hand and tapped his battlefield mark, sending out a message.

Samuel Castillo was meditating to recover when he suddenly felt a message arrive. He quickly checked and found it was actually Leaf Gray contacting him.

Remembering the precedent from earlier in the day, Samuel Castillo replied very cautiously: "Shidi Oneleaf, what matter?"

"Do you have an Earth-grade technique? Sell me one."

Samuel Castillo was perplexed: "What do you need an Earth-grade technique for?"

In the tunnel, Leaf Gray looked speechlessly at Samuel Castillo's reply, thinking this guy might be an idiot, and patiently replied: "To cultivate!"

Samuel Castillo looked at Leaf Gray's reply and couldn't help but scratch his head.

A short while later, the message was relayed back to The Arcaneum Gate headquarters.

Andrew Scott wore a surprised expression as he looked at Susan: "The message is correct?"

Susan nodded: "The message came from Samuel Castillo, it should be correct."

Andrew Scott thought seriously for a moment, then couldn't help but click his tongue: "Truly the style of those major sects. Dispatched disciples have to rely entirely on themselves; they don't even prepare cultivation techniques for them. It seems the technique he was cultivating before was only a Mortal-grade one. Now that he's reached the peak of the third level of Spirit Creek, he needs to change to a new technique."

"Samuel Castillo is waiting for a reply. How should we respond?"

"It's just a technique, a common item found everywhere. Give it to him. Tell Samuel Castillo to ask him about his elemental affinity."

"Oh." Susan nodded in acknowledgment, thinking that disciples from these major sects seemed quite pitiful. Although their own The Arcaneum Gate was only ninth-grade, in the early stages of cultivation, Shixiong, Shijie, and Shidi helped each other, and they didn't face so many hardships.

"Right, don't give it for free. Those major sects frown upon that. Sell it to him, charge fewer spirit stones. He's probably poor too."

"Understood."