Within the canyon, tigers roared and apes howled. Leo rode on the panther's back, carrying a bulging pack as usual, filled with salt. This time, he had also added a small iron pot and a large coil of rope. A month ago, he had vaguely seen a spirit plant on a distant peak. Although it was too far to collect, after that incident, Leo had woven gathered vine fibers into a long rope and now carried it with him whenever he went out.

  The black bear was the black-robed elder's spirit beast and wouldn't let Leo ride it. The panther was much smaller than the bear, but carrying an eleven-year-old boy like Leo, it could still manage a brisk trot at a decent speed.

  It seemed using that Qi Gathering Pill to obtain the panther spirit beast was completely worth it.

  After passing beyond the previously searched area, Leo thought for a moment and then dismounted from the panther to search on foot, lest he miss any needed spirit plants.

  The black-robed elder was truly stingy, not even teaching him how to identify spirit plants. Apart from the White Glow Grass used to refine Beast Spirit Pills, he revealed nothing else. Searching through the grass and bushes along the way for nearly two hours yielded nothing, and this method of searching was quite troublesome. Leo couldn't help feeling some resentment towards the elder. Sharpening the axe doesn't delay the chopping. If the elder weren't so miserly, he could cultivate faster. The higher his cultivation, the more he could do for the elder.

  However, Leo also understood a principle: Nothing in life is free. When he first arrived in the valley, Leo had seen the black-robed elder as his reliance. But living in the canyon since then had taught Leo that the only one he could truly rely on was himself. The elder had saved him simply to have someone handle trivial matters in the cave dwelling, not with any real intention of teaching him.

  Having understood this, during the elder's absence, whenever circumstances permitted, Leo would come out to search for spiritual items. Although this method was like finding a needle in a haystack, it was still better than sitting idle in the cave.

  The deeper into the canyon, the thicker the mist became. If not for his eyesight improving severalfold after cultivating The Primordial Chaos Scripture, Leo would probably only be able to see a distance of eight or nine meters. Venturing another ten or so miles deeper, visibility might shrink to about six meters. Leo frowned. At this rate, his search efficiency was too low. It was a pity that after cultivating The Primordial Chaos Scripture and generating elemental energy to become a Qi Refiner, apart from increased strength and better eyesight, there didn't seem to be any other significant changes.

  Could elemental energy really have no other uses? Even though the elder hadn't mentioned it, he should try. Thinking this, Leo took a deep breath and silently circulated the elemental energy from his elixir field towards his eyes. As a wisp of energy flowed, his eyes suddenly felt covered by a white, hazy layer, even worse than normal vision. Could elemental energy not be used this way? Startled, Leo was about to withdraw the circulating energy. But just then, a sudden coolness washed over his eyes. His vision cleared again, becoming incredibly sharp within nearly three hundred meters. He could see the fine fur on the black bear and the Gray Wolf clearly. It was truly miraculous.

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  So, elemental energy really could be used this way! Leo was immediately overjoyed, not just because he could see farther, but because the success of the experiment made him feel that even without a teacher, he could slowly figure out other ways to use elemental energy in the future.

  Leo, having successfully used elemental energy for the first time, reveled in it. His search speed increased more than tenfold compared to before. After an hour, he had ventured even deeper into the canyon, completely unaware that his surroundings were quietly changing.

  It wasn't until the black bear dropped a dead gazelle at Leo's feet that he shook his head with a wry smile. If he didn't serve the black bear well, it would likely throw a tantrum. When the bear got upset, Leo really couldn't handle it.

  However, while gathering firewood, Leo saw a small grove ahead and his expression changed drastically. He had just searched from this direction earlier, and there had been no grove here.

  Maybe he remembered wrong. Clinging to a sliver of hope, Leo summoned the panther, mounted it, and galloped in another direction for a while. His face instantly turned grim. Since becoming a Qi Refiner, Leo's memory had improved significantly. He clearly remembered the place he had just passed was a small hillock, with a clear, less than five-chi-wide stream to its east. Now, both the hillock and the stream had vanished, replaced by a dense forest.

  "Go back, find the black bear!" Leo patted the panther's neck. Suddenly finding himself in an unfamiliar environment, his first thought was to reunite with the black bear to avoid encountering other beasts later. Relying solely on himself and the panther in this complex canyon, their self-defense capability was still quite insufficient.

  But when Leo retraced his steps for about a mile or two, the area he had just passed through had turned into a stretch of bluish-white flowers. There was no sign of the black bear anywhere.

  If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, Leo would never believe things that grew on the ground could move. But the scene before him left him utterly bewildered.

  "Awoo!"

  A familiar howl echoed, followed by answering howls from many wolves. Leo's heart tightened. A wolf pack again, and this one seemed much larger than before.

  "Go!" Leo quickly urged the panther into a brisk walk in another direction, partly to conserve stamina, and partly because the terrain they were in was vulnerable from all sides, detrimental for defense. With the black bear absent, once surrounded by the wolf pack, trouble would be immense.

  The panther seemed restless, carrying Leo deeper into the mist.

  After trotting for about five or six miles, Leo looked back and saw, to his shock, a seemingly bottomless cliff behind him. Ahead, a dozen or so wild wolves were howling as they closed in on him.

  Judging from the fluctuations of baleful aura on these wolves, most were ordinary beasts, with only a few emitting a disconcerting aura from certain parts of their bodies. But this aura wasn't as strong as that of Leo's panther. Their bodies were also nearly a third smaller than his spirit beast panther. However, there were too many of them, and they kept calling more of their kind to gather.

  Leo dismounted from the panther and hurried to the edge of the precipice to look. Even with elemental energy channeled to his eyes, seeing about three hundred meters down, below that everything was still shrouded in clouds and mist; he couldn't see the bottom. However, at a distance of about sixty meters, Leo spotted a small platform, about three meters wide, formed by protruding rocks, with some green vines growing on it.

  Finding hope in a desperate situation, Leo's heart leaped with joy. Seizing the moment while the wild wolves hesitated, intimidated by the aura of the spirit beast panther, Leo quickly opened his pack, took out the rope, and tied one end to a thick tree trunk at the cliff's edge.