A full two hours later, Leaf Gray finally sheathed his knife, walked to a shaded spot, took out a water skin, washed up a bit, put on his clothes, and returned under the cliff.

The big tiger was already fast asleep, snoring thunderously. Evie was still sitting there, probably waiting for him.

But seeing Leaf Gray's expression, she found it strange because Leaf Gray looked as if he had made some difficult decision, with an expression of 'even if faced with ten thousand men, I would go' determination.

She couldn't help but tilt her head...

Leaf Gray sat down cross-legged, full of worry and hesitation. After a moment's thought, he instructed Evie, "If I faint later, don't worry too much."

"Huh?" Evie's face was full of confusion.

Leaf Gray didn't explain too much. He closed his eyes, immersed his mind, and once again 'saw' the Talent Tree entrenched in his Origin Spiritual Aperture.

On the huge tree crown, three leaves were burning fiercely, and the fourth had already begun to glow, though it hadn't caught fire yet.

In the mine of The Lunar Blight, the first burning leaf appeared on his Talent Tree, bearing a spirit pattern called Sharpness. Without that Sharpness spirit pattern, he wouldn't have been able to kill the severely injured Ryan Carter so easily later, wouldn't have pierced through the fair-skinned man's protective spiritual power with one sword thrust, and couldn't have severely wounded the snake demon to ultimately win.

It could be said that this spirit pattern had provided significant help to Leaf Gray at several critical moments.

Now, two more leaves on the Talent Tree were burning. While feeling apprehensive, he was also eagerly anticipating what kind of spirit patterns he would obtain.

Slowly concentrating his attention, Leaf Gray looked towards one of the burning leaves. Just like the last time, that small leaf rapidly enlarged, filling all his vision and thoughts in the blink of an eye.

At the same time, a large amount of information uncontrollably flooded into his mind. Leaf Gray once again felt as if someone had struck his head hard with a hammer.

Last time, he fainted directly.

This time, although he felt the world spinning and the pain was unbearable, he ultimately did not faint.

Leaf Gray would rather have fainted, because throughout the process, he felt as if he'd rather die—as if someone was prying open his brain, forcibly stuffing in things he completely didn't understand, and stirring vigorously...

He abruptly opened his eyes, let out a suppressed low roar from his throat, his eyes completely bloodshot.

Evie, who had been watching him, was startled. Even the sleeping big tiger was awakened. It let out a roar and looked around vigilantly, mistakenly thinking they were under attack.

After a good while, Leaf Gray gradually calmed down. His vision was blood-red, and his whole body was soaked with sweat. Evie and the big tiger stood nervously nearby, at a loss.

In fact, Leaf Gray's appearance at this moment was extremely ferocious. Bloodshot eyes were one thing, but the veins on both his temples were bulging, as if he was enduring extreme torture.

After breathing heavily for a moment, Leaf Gray recovered slightly and said to the tense big tiger and Evie, "It's alright now."

He closed his eyes again.

The pain had passed; it was time to reap the rewards of victory.

Evie and the big tiger exchanged a glance, both utterly baffled. But this matter seemed related to Leaf Gray's cultivation. Since he didn't explain, Evie felt it wasn't her place to ask, so they could only stand guard nearby.

At this moment, Leaf Gray was examining the characteristics of the second spirit pattern.

Guard!

This was the name of the second spirit pattern. Judging solely by the name, it should be a protective spirit pattern.

Leaf Gray had previously speculated that since the first spirit pattern was offensive, perhaps the second would be defensive. Now it seemed that was indeed the case.

He opened his eyes, focused slightly, and a layer of visible spiritual light suddenly flickered on his palm. The spiritual light transformed into the shape of a triangular shield, with intricate and complex patterns engraved on it.

"This is... a spirit pattern?" Evie, who had been silently watching Leaf Gray, was shocked. Although she had lost many memories, she still remembered some common knowledge of the cultivation world and understood more than Leaf Gray. So, seeing Leaf Gray actually construct a spirit pattern using his own spiritual power was almost unbelievable.

One must know that low-level cultivators like Leaf Gray generally focused on improving their own cultivation. They didn't even have time to study and learn spells, let alone complex spirit patterns. Of course, some spells could also be seen as manifestations of spirit patterns.

One could even say that the spirit pattern Leaf Gray was activating now could be viewed as a defensive spell.

Spells and spirit patterns were closely related, often sharing commonalities, yet not entirely the same—difficult to explain in a few words.

But regardless, a low-level cultivator being able to construct a spirit pattern was still hard to believe.

Evie became even more convinced that Leaf Gray was probably a disciple of some top major sect, and his status within that sect was certainly not low. Perhaps he was the illegitimate son of a sect leader or something, forced to train alone due to unavoidable circumstances...

In these short few moments, she had already imagined a whole drama filled with grievances and passions.

Leaf Gray didn't notice Evie's gaze. He was currently feeling the sturdiness of the Guard. Purely in terms of defensive power, the protective ability of the Guard completely surpassed his own protective spiritual power. Comparing the two, there was at least a several-fold difference in protective strength.

This meant that in the future, if he encountered any attacks, he would have a better means of defense.

However, while the protective strength was outstanding, the consumption was also not low. This palm-sized Guard spirit pattern consumed the spiritual power reserve of one entire aperture from Leaf Gray.

Its consumption was even greater than that of Sharpness.

In other words, if he activated such a spirit pattern twenty times consecutively, Leaf Gray would be drained of spiritual power.

Moreover, if the protective area were enlarged, the consumption would increase further. Leaf Gray was currently only activating a palm-sized Guard spirit pattern, but that didn't mean the Guard spirit pattern could only be this big. If he wished, he could definitely activate a larger one.

All in all, it was a good spirit pattern. Although he had things like the Golden Body Talisman, talismans could eventually run out, but this Guard spirit pattern was his own ability.

Furthermore, comparatively speaking, activating Guard required only a thought, whereas activating a talisman was more troublesome: first, taking the talisman out from the storage bag, then channeling spiritual power into it. In intense battles, there often wasn't time for Leaf Gray to do these things.

If he had possessed such a spirit pattern before encountering the fair-skinned man, he could have directly fought and killed that guy head-on while withstanding the opponent's attacks.

A single spirit pattern, although it didn't increase Leaf Gray's cultivation level, significantly enhanced his combat power.

There was still one more...

Thinking back to the previous sensation, Leaf Gray shuddered. He wasn't prepared to examine the other spirit pattern, at least not for the next couple of days.

His mind was a complete mess right now. Trying to examine that spirit pattern again might just kill him.

So, he needed to rest for a few days before considering it.

Taking out a Spirit Nurturing Pill and swallowing it, Leaf Gray prepared to investigate the question that had always puzzled him: whether his pill-assisted cultivation having no hidden dangers was related to the Talent Tree!

Calming his mind and sensing carefully, he soon 'saw' the Talent Tree hidden within his Origin Spiritual Aperture.