There was barely any wind here either.
Because of that, the pile of ash had remained completely undisturbed even after all this time.
However, Grey soon withdrew his gaze and refocused on his cultivation.
Very soon, two hours passed.
Grey slowly opened his eyes.
Cracking sounds echoed from his body while low booming sounds continued to reverberate through his meridians.
Several more spirit perforations had been shattered in succession.
His total number had risen from fifty-five to sixty-two.
At the same time, the spirit energy remaining within his body had been reduced from sixty percent to roughly forty percent.
Although this rapid breakthrough felt incredibly tempting, Grey quickly realized something important.
The more perforations he opened, the longer it took to break the next one.
The difficulty was gradually increasing.
After making a rough estimate, Grey came to a conclusion.
'Even if I use all the remaining energy, I would probably only reach around seventy spirit perforations.'
'After that, breaking open the remaining perforations will become just as difficult as before.'
Grey fell silent for a moment.
Then another thought surfaced in his mind.
'Instead of wasting this energy on cultivation…'
'It would be better to use it to activate the Ancient Art that I learned from that old man.'
'The energy required to activate it is enormous. If I attempt it with my own cultivation, it would take far too long.'
After quickly weighing the pros and cons, Grey made his decision.
He stopped forcing breakthroughs.
'Moreover, relying too much on external strength is not good for my foundation.'
'I haven't even fully adapted to the power I've already gained.'
With that thought, Grey slowly stood up.
Not far away, the captain turned to look at him.
Her eyes were calm and expressionless, but Grey could clearly see a brilliant glint hidden deep within them.
Grey's aura had increased once again.
The power of three Spirit Fires radiated faintly from his body.
However, this was nothing compared to the captain.
It was obvious that she was intentionally suppressing her aura.
Even so, Grey could clearly sense the presence of four blazing Spirit Fires within her body.
His heart couldn't help but tremble slightly.
The captain's cultivation speed was simply too terrifying.
At the beginning, Grey had only been in the initial stage of Foundation Establishment, while the captain had been at the peak of the middle stage.
Later, when Grey broke through to two Spirit Fires and could unleash the strength of three fires, he had finally gained the ability to compete with her if he used all of his power.
But now…
Her cultivation had risen again.
Once more, she stood ahead of him.
Although Grey never spoke about it openly, he knew something very clearly.
Between the two of them.
There had always been a silent competition.
A competition to see who would step into the Spirit Core Formation realm first.
Seeing Grey's shocked expression, the captain's spurious smile widened even further, the corners of her lips curling with faint amusement. It was as if she found his reaction somewhat entertaining.
However, Grey soon ignored her expression entirely.
Instead, he slowly turned his head and looked around, his gaze sweeping across the surrounding area. His eyes narrowed slightly as he searched for a familiar figure.
"Where is Roxanne?" he asked softly.
Strangely enough, after killing the two white-haired men that had descended earlier, the enormous head with six eyes seemed to have completely ignored them.
It had simply turned its massive gaze away, as if Grey and the others did not even exist within its perception.
This made Grey extremely shocked at first. The six-eyed head had previously displayed terrifying awareness of everything happening in this strange world, so the fact that it was suddenly ignoring them was almost unbelievable.