Amber, who was eating something nearby,缩了缩脑袋，吞咽食物的声音也小了许多。
Seeing her like this, Yi Yi knew she must have done something wrong...
She pursed her lips and asked Lu Ye, "What did Amber do wrong?"
Lu Ye turned his head and glared at Amber, then briefly recounted how she had recklessly rushed out during the rescue mission. He continued, "Do you remember the first rule of our three agreements?"
Yi Yi sat obediently in front of him, her back straight, and immediately replied, "Always follow your lead. If there's a disagreement, listen to you!"
"Not bad, you remember well!"
Yi Yi turned her head and called out sternly, "Amber!"
Amber whimpered and slowly moved to Yi Yi's side, lifting her eyes to look at her pitifully. Yi Yi raised her hand and slapped Amber's head, saying, "Lu Ye told you not to act rashly, why didn't you listen? You can't just rush in at any time; you need to follow the plan."
She slapped Amber with each sentence.
Yi Yi knew that Amber's impulsiveness had caused some trouble. From the outcome, Lu Ye had killed the four cultivators and saved her, but if Amber had been a bit more patient, the situation would have been better, and Lu Ye might not have fallen into a coma.
This time, she was able to escape thanks to Lu Ye's decisive action. If Amber had rushed out and Lu Ye had hesitated even a little, they would have missed the opportunity.
Yi Yi kept this kindness in her heart and, to teach Amber a lesson, she didn't hold back, slapping her head until it throbbed.
"Enough." Lu Ye interrupted her, looking at her seriously, "I don't want this to happen again."
They had just started working together and needed to adapt to each other, but this kind of mistake should only happen once. If it happened again, Lu Ye couldn't guarantee he would come out unscathed. He didn't want to be betrayed by his own people one day.
"I understand!" Yi Yi nodded and looked at Amber, "Do you remember?"
Amber whimpered softly in response.
Yi Yi looked at Lu Ye again and said sincerely, "Thank you!"
This gratitude was for both Amber and herself. She was able to escape because Lu Ye had risked his life, and the situation was far from over. They were still trapped in the Sky-Cleaving Gorge, and whether they could escape was still uncertain.
Lu Ye waved his hand and checked his condition. He didn't need to worry too much about his injuries; a few days of rest would suffice. His spiritual energy had been significantly depleted in the previous battle and needed to be replenished. However, what surprised him was that the barrier of the twenty-sixth spirit aperture seemed to be slightly loosened.
He had previously cultivated to the point where his twenty-fifth aperture was full but hadn't yet attempted to break through to the twenty-sixth. Now, he thought it must have been due to the intense spiritual energy fluctuations during the battle with Zhang Wu.
This was a good thing, as it would save him some cultivation time.
However, before that, he needed to replenish his spiritual energy. In such a perilous environment, being in good condition was crucial. They might encounter another battle at any moment, and Lu Ye wouldn't have time to recover.
However, he didn't rush into cultivation. Instead, he gave Yi Yi a meaningful look.
Yi Yi understood and patted Amber's head. The spirit and the tiger immediately split up and went in opposite directions along the tunnel.
This way, with them monitoring the tunnel, Lu Ye wouldn't be trapped. If danger arose, he would have room to maneuver.
After Yi Yi and Amber left, Lu Ye looked down at his hand. When he activated his spiritual energy, a layer of blue light covered his hand, forming several large characters.
Name: Lu Ye.
Identity: Disciple of the Crimson Blood Sect.
Cultivation: Twenty-fifth Aperture.
Merit Points: Thirty-four.
Lu Ye stared at the number of merit points, puzzled. He didn't understand where the number thirty-four came from.
The last time, he had earned eight merit points for capturing the pale man and Liu Ruyin on Green Cloud Mountain. This time, after killing four people, his merit points increased to thirty-four, meaning those four people had given him twenty-six merit points.
Lu Ye wasn't sure what the merit points were for. He had asked Yi Yi, but she seemed to be unclear about it too. Her memory was severely damaged, and while she knew some things, she was clueless about others.
This thing must be useful, but how to use it and where to use it would require further exploration.
Since he couldn't figure it out, he didn't bother thinking about it.
Lu Ye put a Spirit Nourishing Pill in his mouth, refined the pill's energy, and replenished his own consumption. His spiritual energy gradually recovered.
Lu Ye had previously noticed that the efficiency of recovery and cultivation, as well as the consumption of spirit pills, were very different. When simply recovering, the speed was much faster, and the consumption was much less.
The most direct comparison was that Lu Ye had opened twenty-five apertures, using nearly two hundred spirit pills and taking about three months. If he had exhausted his spiritual energy in battle and wanted to replenish it, it wouldn't take two hundred spirit pills or three months.
If it did, the cost of a single battle for a cultivator would be too high.
During cultivation, much of the spirit pill's energy was lost, and refining the spirit apertures was very time-consuming. Opening and filling an aperture was a gradual process, but once it was full, it was much easier to recover.
Time passed, and one by one, the spirit pills were consumed. Two days later, Lu Ye was fully recovered, but he only had about twenty spirit pills left.
There was no movement from Yi Yi and Amber, indicating that their current position was relatively safe.
Lu Ye didn't rush to leave. He didn't know what the situation outside was like, and leaving rashly would only complicate things.
He was only two apertures away from the third level of the Spirit Stream Realm. The barrier of the twenty-sixth aperture was already loosened, and he had enough spirit pills, so Lu Ye decided to advance his cultivation to the next level first.
At the second level, he could cooperate with Amber and Yi Yi to kill Zhang Wu. If he reached the third level, his strength would increase, which would be very helpful for their current situation!
Moreover, his injuries hadn't fully healed, so he could take this opportunity to recover further.
With this decision made, Lu Ye continued to take spirit pills and directed his spiritual energy to break through the barrier of the twenty-sixth aperture.
Five days later, in the tunnel within the mountain, Lu Ye sat cross-legged with a solemn expression. The day before, he had opened the twenty-seventh aperture and spent some spirit pills to cultivate it to fullness. Today was the time to advance to the third level of the Spirit Stream Realm!
With the experience of the previous two times, this time Lu Ye was more familiar with the process. His spiritual energy started from the nineteenth aperture and followed the cultivation route, sequentially penetrating the twentieth, twenty-first, and up to the twenty-seventh aperture.
The spiritual energy circulated continuously in these nine apertures, repeating over and over, gradually speeding up. At a certain moment, it broke through a bottleneck, and Lu Ye's body, which was sitting cross-legged, trembled violently, with spiritual energy surging around him.