Lu Ye chuckled, "What can this junior advise the senior on? I can only wish the senior a smooth journey ahead and to turn misfortunes into blessings!"

"You're not being honest, kid!" Wuchang looked at him with playful irritation, waved his hand, and said, "Forget it, if you don't want to say, then don't. I will find out about the path ahead myself."

Wuchang left. Recently, the old seniors of the Nine Provinces have been leaving one after another, some going alone, others in groups. Their longing and instinctive desire for the stellar space have made them set out as soon as they achieved advancement.

They are the first pioneers of the current Nine Provinces era, and this journey will surely be fraught with hardships and dangers. However, such is the cultivation journey of a cultivator. Staying confined in one place might be safe, but that is not what their hearts desire.

Lu Ye is not far from taking this step himself. With his current cultivation at Divine Sea Level 7, at his cultivation speed, it won't be long before he can make this leap if he pushes forward.

However, his current focus is not on cultivation but rather on the Talent Tree.

The second metamorphosis of the Talent Tree had just completed, right before Wuchang came to see him. That flame seed had blossomed anew, transforming once again into a grand, burning tree.

From the feel of it, the Talent Tree doesn't seem to have undergone any major changes, but Lu Ye knows that it must have experienced some changes that he hasn't noticed yet. The specifics of these changes would require slow exploration.

It was the same during the first metamorphosis.

After some attempts, Lu Ye confirmed that the range the Talent Tree can now absorb from is significantly more expansive—in other words, the length to which its roots can extend has seen a breakthrough increase.

This is a boon for him because the increased length means enhanced efficiency in absorbing external forces.

The most practical aspect is that if there were deeply buried energy underground in the past, he couldn't absorb it because the Talent Tree's roots couldn't reach that far. But now it's possible. As long as he can detect energy within a certain range, he can devour it to his heart's content with the Talent Tree's might.

He then conjured a doppelganger.

Originally, he thought that after the Talent Tree's second metamorphosis, it might split into two roots, allowing him to form two doppelgangers, but that was not the case.

The Talent Tree can still only split into a single root, but it can no longer be merely called a root: it is another Talent Tree!

It's as if the entire Talent Tree split into two, and during this split, the stored fuel in the Talent Tree was halved!

This inadvertently solved a problem, which was the difficulty of long-term cultivation for the doppelganger.

In the past, because the doppelganger lacked the fuel of the Talent Tree, it could only rely on Spirit Stones to restore itself when its strength was depleted in battle. This method was inefficient compared to the original body, which could quickly replenish by swallowing elixir pills.

But now, with the Talent Tree's second metamorphosis, the doppelganger gains the exact capabilities of the original body. From now on, the doppelganger can also swallow elixir pills to restore itself without the worry of pill poison buildup.

Merely having such a condition may not bring much benefit to Lu Ye.

However, looking at it from another angle, the doppelganger can cultivate, and so can the original body, and when the original body reabsorbs the doppelganger, it can quickly assimilate all energy within the doppelganger.

This means if Lu Ye desires, both the original body and the doppelganger can cultivate together, thereby having double the cultivation efficiency!

This becomes quite terrifying because his efficiency in cultivation is already high enough. Doubling it would likely lead to a sky-breaking level of efficiency.

Of course, for Lu Ye, this change doesn't hold significant meaning. Although cultivators place a premium on efficiency, there is also a limit. Too high efficiency might not be entirely beneficial, as it can lead to an unstable foundation.

Thus, Lu Ye usually controls his cultivation pace, aiming to enhance his cultivation and strength as swiftly as possible without compromising his foundation, rather than endlessly chasing efficiency.

If he truly wanted to pursue efficiency endlessly, he would have already advanced to Divine Sea Level 9; he is quite capable of that.

The changes in the doppelganger have no practical significance for Lu Ye and instead add more risks.

Previously, the doppelganger only housed a segment of the Talent Tree's root. Even if the doppelganger was lost, at most only a root would be forfeited. But now, if the doppelganger is lost, it equates to losing half of the Talent Tree, which is a considerable loss.

The only changes observed are these; there must be other changes yet to be discovered, which will require further investigation and observation.

The metamorphosis of the Talent Tree nearly exhausted the stored fuel, forcing Lu Ye to quickly replenish it.

Fortunately, he still has a substantial surplus of fire spirit stones and doesn't need to worry about this issue for the moment.

Day by day, time passed. In less than a month, within the Nine Provinces, those old seniors who had once served under the Righteous Blood Sacred Land have basically all advanced to the Constellation Realm, stepped out of the Nine Provinces, and entered into the starry space.

The only one left behind was Senior Brother Feng Wujiang.

In terms of age, he was still considered young, so he wasn't particularly eager about advancement. Plus, he wished to make up for the decades of separation from Senior Sister-in-law, so he wasn't in a rush to leave the Nine Provinces.

With the departure of the older generation, the next contenders were the sect master, Pang Zhen, and Long Bai, as well as cultivators at their level.

Although their cultivation in the Divine Sea Realm wasn't as profound as Jian Guhong and others, they were still qualified to take that step.

However, their contention was much more peaceful compared to those like Wuchang. After all, their current relationships were relatively harmonious, so it wouldn't do to fight too fiercely; it was mostly just to the extent of stopping when necessary.

Some could restrain themselves and continue to wait, like Yun Xuechu, who almost showed no intention of participating in the struggle.

Overall, the most significant event in the Nine Provinces currently was centered around that spark of spirit light that allowed cultivators to break through the Divine Sea and advance to the Constellation. Above each provincial state, sounds of conflict frequently echoed, which had become the norm for both mortals and cultivators alike.

The Nine Provinces was bustling with activity, and the area beyond it was beginning to liven up as well.

Since the great cultivators of the former Nine Provinces period refined the Heaven's Augury Compass and used its power to teleport the Nine Provinces to the present stellar region, there had hardly been any prior visits by cultivators.

With countless years of accumulation, the cultivation resources in this stellar region were still very abundant. The drifting meteorites, the dead star near the Nine Provinces, and even within the Void, one could find spirit jade formed from condensed stellar space energy.

It's safe to say that this stellar region was a completely undeveloped wilderness. As the first group to leave the Nine Provinces and enter this stellar region, each of those elder cultivators had considerable gains.

Everyone knew that spirit jade was a resource needed by Constellation cultivators, so naturally, they hurried to seek and gather it. At present, they were almost in an environment where treasures were plentiful at every turn.

This was also why so many people left, yet none returned to the Nine Provinces.

They weren't very far from the Nine Provinces; if they truly wished to return, it wouldn't take much time. However, now was an excellent time to seek cultivation resources, so who would waste time traveling back to the Nine Provinces?

The first group of cultivators who left the Nine Provinces undoubtedly gained the most advantage because they drank the first sip of soup. When more and more cultivators left the Nine Provinces in the future, finding spirit jade in this stellar region would become difficult, and they would inevitably be pushed to venture further away.

Almost every large domain's cultivators had similar experiences. As they searched for spirit jade, they explored more and more places, and their range expanded widely.

Recently, quite a few cultivators left the Nine Provinces, but looking at the stellar space, it was like a drop of water falling into the ocean, so it was rare for cultivators to encounter one another in the stellar space. They mostly acted alone, and even if they did meet, they would quickly part ways, as treasure hunting was not suited for group actions; if one were found, whose would it be?

In a star region near the Nine Provinces, on a massive, desolate meteorite, a figure was meticulously searching.

Finding spirit jade wasn't an easy task. Though it emitted some energy waves, they were extremely faint, so if one wasn't close enough, it was hard to detect it.

So even though these elder cultivators of the Nine Provinces had advanced to the Constellation, greatly increasing their Mental Consciousness, it wasn't as if a sweep of their consciousness could detect anything interesting. To find spirit jade, they needed to carefully investigate.

However, because there was quite a bit of spirit jade in the star region near the Nine Provinces, everyone was able to gain something.

Such a massive meteorite, drifting from who knows where, had crossed the stellar space for countless years. With accumulated stellar space energy, it was easy for spirit jade to be born—this was a known fact, and Zhao Shoumu had benefited nicely using this method in recent days.

Among the numerous elder cultivators, his strength was not the strongest, but not weak either; he was of medium level, but that was before. Now that everyone had just advanced to the Constellation, the differences had essentially evened out. Who would go further and become stronger in the future depended on one's own luck.

As the most important cultivation resource, spirit jade was certainly indispensable.

After some searching, he indeed made a discovery. In a crevice of the meteorite, three pieces of spirit jade were neatly aligned. He joyfully collected them.

Following this crevice forward, he unexpectedly found another piece of spirit jade.

Continuing forward, there was even more...

Such good fortune made him unbelievably happy. Previously, in his searches, even if he found something, it was generally just one or two pieces of spirit jade. Never had he found this many at once.

He marveled at his good luck that such a treasure location hadn't been discovered by anyone else.

Just as he reached the end of the crevice and collected the last newly discovered piece of spirit jade, Zhao Shoumu's body suddenly stiffened.

He stared fixedly at the spot directly in front of him, his body suddenly freezing cold, scalp tingling.