Jade Market was a small market. Such markets were countless throughout the entire Spirit Creek Battlefield. Cultivators always needed places to trade and rest, and these spontaneously formed markets emerged to meet that need.

Because no one managed the market, everything within it appeared very disorderly, especially the buildings. Structures of different styles from all over The Novem Lands stood scattered haphazardly, making the market look like a jumbled mess.

These buildings were all erected by cultivators who resided here year-round. The nearby Jade Mountain actually contained quite a few cultivation resources, and the safety factor was relatively high, which naturally attracted many low-level cultivators, especially those rogue cultivators without sect affiliations.

Each building was a shopfront, selling various cultivation supplies, and there were even tea houses and restaurants.

Low-level cultivators also needed to eat and drink. Moreover, because the daily needs of cultivators were somewhat greater than those of mortals, such businesses were inevitable.

Leaf Gray walked past shop after shop, only looking and not buying—mainly because he had no money—and gradually understood the trading methods among cultivators.

What currency system the mortal world of The Novem Lands used, Leaf Gray didn't know, but transactions between cultivators generally used something called spirit stones.

This was the hard currency of the cultivation world. Spirit stones were highly useful in a cultivator's daily cultivation, battles, and even in drawing talismans or setting up formations. Precisely for this reason, spirit stones became the standard measure for transactions among cultivators.

Leaf Gray had never seen a spirit stone before. Back when his aptitude was being tested, that Third Shixiong from The Azure Heaven Sect had indeed placed spirit stones on the formation, but he hadn't paid much attention at the time.

Only now did he realize that spirit stones were a type of translucent crystal, about the size of a thumbnail, and they were also graded by quality. However, perhaps because the cultivators here were all of low level, they all used lower-grade spirit stones.

It seemed there should be better ones, like upper-grade spirit stones.

The most common shops in the market were medicine shops, selling miraculous medicines for cultivators. Leaf Gray, having no wealth, could only look on as an outsider.

But after visiting shop after shop, he had a rough idea of the general price levels.

Besides the shops buying and selling goods, there was also a street crowded with many rogue cultivators. They set up simple stalls by the roadside, placing the items they wanted to sell on them, and haggled with interested buyers.

This street was incredibly lively, much more so than the other streets Leaf Gray had passed through. People sold all sorts of things, making it seem like a bustling food market.

Having wandered around the market for most of the day and seen what there was to see, Leaf Gray simply found an empty spot on this street, sat down cross-legged, took out a few pieces of ore from his storage bag and laid them out. After a moment's thought, he also took out a fist-sized piece of Metamagnetic Ore.

He didn't actually intend to sell these ores; his main goal was to find out how much his items were actually worth.

Having wandered for most of the day, he was hungry, so he took out some beast meat to eat. He had previously hunted quite a few animals, roasted them, and stored them in his storage bag, which would suffice for his needs for the next few days.

As he ate, he watched the passing cultivators, observing them carefully.

The cultivation levels of these cultivators were a mystery to him. Currently, he only knew that those qualified to move within the Spirit Creek Battlefield were at least at the first level of the Spirit Creek realm. But as for their specific cultivation level, he couldn't tell.

This wasn't a good thing. He was bound to have conflicts with others in the future, and not being able to determine their cultivation level posed a danger to him.

If he encountered a cultivator he couldn't match, he might lose his life before even gauging their strength.

So he wanted to try and see if he could find some clues through observation, so that in the future, he might have a better chance of preserving his life.

Cultivator after cultivator passed by. Leaf Gray observed each one carefully but couldn't discern anything.

"This Shidi, what are you looking at?"

Leaf Gray's unusual behavior caught the attention of the stall owner next to him. She was a curvaceous female cultivator wearing a green dress. The dress had been washed many times but was still relatively neat. Her hair was lightly tied up, revealing a long, slender, and fair neck.

Leaf Gray hadn't noticed her before. Now, turning his head to look, he immediately saw a view of rolling hills.

Withdrawing his gaze, Leaf Gray shook his head: "Nothing much." He took a bite of the dry jerky and a sip of water.

The female cultivator pursed her lips and smiled: "You wouldn't be trying to see others' cultivation levels, would you?"

Leaf Gray was surprised: "Is it that obvious?"

The female cultivator laughed: "Because when I first entered the Spirit Creek Battlefield, I was just like you, dumb and dazed."

So everyone had the same idea at first... Leaf Gray chuckled wryly.

"It's not easy being a rogue cultivator. No guidance, no protection from elders, not even a place to shelter from the wind and rain." The female cultivator seemed to recall her own past experiences, sighed, stopped dwelling on it, and offered advice: "You can't see anything just by looking with your eyes."

Leaf Gray asked for guidance: "Then what should I do?"

"Since you've reached the Spirit Creek realm, you should have sufficient spiritual power. Why not try channeling your spiritual power?"

Hearing this, Leaf Gray was taken aback, inwardly cursing his own stupidity. He immediately tried as the female cultivator suggested, channeling spiritual power to gather in his eyes. The next moment, it was as if he had opened the door to a new world.

The cultivators coming and going before him were all enveloped in a layer of spiritual light invisible to the naked eye, flowing gently—a sign of the spiritual power circulating within their bodies.

At first glance, the spiritual light didn't seem too different, but upon closer inspection, some variations could be discerned.

On some people, the spiritual light on their body surface flowed faster and was denser, while on others, it was the opposite.

Leaf Gray understood inwardly: those with denser, faster-flowing spiritual light clearly had higher cultivation levels, and vice versa.

"See it?" the female cultivator asked again.

Leaf Gray nodded repeatedly.

The female cultivator said, "If you could join a sect, you'd learn these things naturally. But rogue cultivators have no one to guide them, so we have to figure it out ourselves."

Then Leaf Gray saw a few strange individuals. They had no spiritual light around them at all, which puzzled him. After those people walked past, he asked the female cultivator beside him about this issue.

The female cultivator said, "That's normal. They either have spirit tools that conceal their spiritual power, or they practice some secret techniques to hide their presence. However, the cultivators appearing here aren't very high-level, so they probably wouldn't have the energy to practice such secret techniques. It's most likely the former."

"So that's how it is!" Leaf Gray nodded in understanding.

"Let me give you some advice," the female cultivator said seriously. "In the future, if you encounter such people, run far away. Because they definitely come from forces with profound foundations. They are not people us minor rogue cultivators can compare to. Also, while this method can roughly judge a person's cultivation level, it's not entirely accurate. Only when someone truly makes a move can you judge their specific cultivation level from the fluctuations of their spiritual power when they strike."

Leaf Gray said gratefully, "Thank you for the guidance, Shijie." He thought for a moment, took a piece of jerky from his storage bag, and offered it to her.

The female cultivator chuckled, didn't refuse his goodwill, reached out to take it, and began eating slowly. However, her eating demeanor was clearly much more graceful than Leaf Gray's.