Chapter 1468: Talent Tree Triple Transformation

A monthly consumption of a thousand spirit jades was naturally nothing to Lu Ye. He currently possessed eighty million spirit jades and a significant amount of spirit crystals; a thousand spirit jades was merely a drop in the ocean!

However, this was merely the cost of cultivating with spirit jades. In reality, his cultivation relied more on the Spirit Tree's absorption and refinement. The spirit jades he spent were all used to purchase fire-element treasures, and such expenses were truly staggering.

Taking the progression from the middle to late stage as an example, if he cultivated steadily using spirit jades, Lu Ye estimated he would only use a maximum of one to two hundred thousand spirit jades.

However, the actual expenditure was a full ten million spirit jades, nearly a hundred times more.

Currently, Lu Ye decided to consolidate his cultivation and deliberately control the pace of his practice, so the consumption of fuel for the Spirit Tree wouldn't be excessive. This would only change if he decided to act recklessly and delve deeper into the Myriad Manifestations Sea again.

Such a thing was highly unlikely to happen.

After determining the usual consumption for his current cultivation, Lu Ye waved his hand, and immediately, various fire-element treasures, piled up like small mountains, appeared beside him.

Activating the Spirit Tree's power, invisible roots stretched out, voraciously devouring the energy within the fire-element treasures. Lu Ye could clearly perceive that the Spirit Tree's fuel reserves were slowly increasing.

With the Spirit Tree autonomously absorbing the energy from various fire-element treasures, Lu Ye didn't need to exert much mental effort; he only needed to replenish the fire-element treasures when they were nearly depleted.

After a brief moment of thought, Lu Ye didn't proceed with deducing the Concealment Spirit Rune. Instead, he took out two items he had brought from the Star Palace.

One was a miniature Star Palace, and the other was a small knife.

The small knife was a form of inheritance; Lu Ye had already understood that. The rest only required slow comprehension and practice. However, Lu Ye wasn't quite sure what the miniature Star Palace was for, and at the time, he hadn't had the leisure to study it.

Holding the miniature Star Palace in his hand and examining it closely, he couldn't discern anything special. It resembled a Star Palace scaled down countless times. Even when he channeled spiritual power into it, there was no reaction.

Lu Ye tried placing several spirit jades inside, but still no reaction. He put spirit crystals in, also without response.

Lu Ye tried many other strange and unusual items, but the miniature Star Palace remained as inert as a piece of wood.

What exactly was this thing for? Lu Ye was utterly bewildered. Logically, since it was bestowed by the Star Palace, it couldn't be useless. Yet, he had tried countless methods without being able to activate its power.

Left with no choice, he could only temporarily give up on researching it; perhaps he would discover its purpose at some unexpected moment in the future.

Putting away the miniature Star Palace, Lu Ye picked up the small knife, gazing at it with a solemn expression. He channeled a bit of his spiritual sense into it. The next instant, Lu Ye saw a flash of blade light, followed by a slight ache in his head.

He closed his eyes, carefully contemplating the profundity of that momentary blade strike. Many thoughts surged in his mind, as if he had gained some insight.

Unlike the inheritance of the Hegemonic Blade Art, the Hegemonic Blade Art allowed one to immerse their mind and spirit within it, providing direct teachings and demonstrations.

However, the inheritance from this small knife required Lu Ye's spiritual sense to be injured as a price, using his own pain to fathom the true meaning within the blade.

It was hard to say which of the two inheritance methods was superior or inferior. However, comparatively, the former was undoubtedly safer.

Yet, Lu Ye preferred the latter, because only through personal experience could he more clearly perceive the various profound mysteries hidden within this inheritance.

The feeling of his spiritual sense being severed was somewhat unpleasant.

Fortunately, he had previously purchased many treasures for nourishing the soul from various spirit islands. Though exorbitantly priced, they now proved to be useful.

Previously, when he was in Kyushu, he had Soul Cleansing Water available. However, that item was now in short supply and couldn't sustain long periods of cultivation.

Each time he activated his spiritual sense to observe, Lu Ye experienced the sensation of his spiritual sense being severed, but each time, he gained new insights and understandings.

Gradually, Lu Ye discerned the profoundness of this inheritance. After all, it was a reward bestowed by the Star Palace, and in terms of level, the Hegemonic Blade Art he obtained from the Dragon Ascent Realm was far inferior. However, with blade arts, it wasn't simply a matter of the higher the level, the better. It also depended on who wielded it; a high-level blade art was useless in combat if one lacked sufficient fighting skills.

Days passed by, and Lu Ye was deeply immersed in this unique cultivation, unable to extricate himself.

His spiritual sense was severed repeatedly, but each time it was controlled within an acceptable range. Coupled with the use of various treasures for recovery, it wouldn't leave any irreparable damage.

Lu Ye discovered that under this cyclical process, his spiritual sense strength was actually gradually improving. This came as a pleasant surprise.

Furthermore, he made an interesting discovery: the sea grass he had brought back from the Star Palace surprisingly had excellent nourishing effects on his spiritual sense.

This discovery was purely accidental.

While observing and comprehending the inheritance within the small knife, with his spiritual sense being severed repeatedly, Lu Ye couldn't maintain this kind of cultivation continuously. In his free time, he occasionally researched the miniature Star Palace, sometimes used the Spirit Tree to deduce Concealment Spirit Runes, and sometimes did other things.

For instance, he would roast some Star Beast meat to eat...

He had always thought that sea grass shouldn't be common and might possess some medicinal value, but he had never tried it. This time, he casually gave it a try, and found that the recovery speed of his damaged spiritual sense had accelerated. This was clearly due to the sea grass!

Lu Ye immediately realized that the value of sea grass was far greater than he had imagined!

Among the items used for healing by cultivators, treasures capable of healing and nourishing spiritual sense were far more valuable than those for physical injuries. Lu Ye had a deep appreciation for this; he hadn't bought many soul-nourishing treasures before, but they had cost him a considerable amount of spirit jades.

Unfortunately, like the Star Beasts he brought back, this sea grass couldn't be revealed to the public for now. Lu Ye couldn't help but miss his second senior sister and Hua Ci. If they were here, perhaps they could find a way to refine these unmarketable items into spiritual pills, thus eliminating the worry of anyone discovering their true nature.

Moreover, his second senior sister possessed a treasure like the Elixir Gourd. If they could truly research a pill recipe primarily using sea grass, they could easily refine a large quantity of extremely high-quality precious elixirs.

Time flew by, and half a month had passed.

On this day, Lu Ye was comprehending the inheritance within the small knife. During this half-month, he had gained tremendously, vaguely discerning the true essence of the inheritance. This was also the advantage of this method of inheritance: its efficiency was remarkably high.

If it were an inheritance method like the Hegemonic Blade Art, the efficiency would not be this high. To achieve the same level of comprehension, Lu Ye would undoubtedly have to spend more than ten times the amount of time.

Suddenly, he felt an unusual sensation from within his body.

Lu Ye was startled, and quickly immersed his mind to observe. What he saw greatly surprised him.

The Spirit Tree was gone, transformed into a cluster of fire seeds. Upon closer inspection, the light from the fire seeds wasn't very bright; it resembled a faint candlelight flickering gently.

This was... the Spirit Tree undergoing a transformation?

Having experienced such an event before, Lu Ye instantly knew what was happening.

Clearly, the Spirit Tree had entered a transformation process. For a moment, he was stunned; this was quite unexpected.

It had been many years since he obtained the Spirit Tree. The Spirit Tree had also undergone two transformations, and Lu Ye could naturally discern certain patterns.

The Spirit Tree's transformation had only one requirement: to absorb enough fuel reserves. Once the Spirit Tree's fuel reserves reached a certain level, it would enter the transformation process.

When he first obtained the Spirit Tree, its only function was to incinerate foreign objects that entered his body. This allowed Lu Ye to stand out among low-level cultivators, as his own spiritual power was pure enough to enable him to fight across cultivation levels.

The first transformation granted the Spirit Tree the ability to absorb external objects, and its roots could even split. With the help of the Blood Shadow and the Twin Lotus, Lu Ye condensed his own clone.

The second transformation enabled the Spirit Tree to engrave new spirit runes on its leaves, and even deduce spirit runes. Lu Ye's Divine Edge, Saint's Guard, and even the new 'Connected as One' were all born this way.

Lu Ye had also considered what new abilities the Spirit Tree might evolve if it transformed again. However, he had not deliberately pursued this, always letting nature take its course, as he felt the Spirit Tree was already powerful enough for now.

The Spirit Tree was indeed his greatest reliance, but he never considered it his sole support. For cultivators, the most crucial aspect was to strengthen themselves.

Unexpectedly, the Spirit Tree was about to undergo its third transformation today.

However, upon closer thought, it wasn't surprising. This time, the Spirit Tree had absorbed an enormous quantity of fire-element treasures. The reserve fuel, derived from nearly one hundred million spirit jades worth of fire-element treasures, should indeed be sufficient to meet the Spirit Tree's transformation requirements.

Previously, when he was beneath the Myriad Manifestations Sea, although the Spirit Tree had also absorbed nearly one hundred million spirit jades worth of fire-element treasures, it wasn't absorbed all at once, but in many separate instances, thus naturally failing to meet the requirements for the Spirit Tree's transformation.

Since things had come to this, Lu Ye was rather curious about what changes the Spirit Tree would undergo after this transformation.

However, judging by the appearance of the fire seeds, this transformation might last for some time. During this period, the Spirit Tree's power could not be utilized.

Putting away the remaining fire-element treasures, Lu Ye sighed, realizing he had to buy more.

After the Spirit Tree completed its transformation, the fuel it had previously absorbed would inevitably be depleted.

Fortunately, he had already reached an agreement with An Zhe, establishing a cooperative relationship. When An Zhe returned, he should be able to bring a large quantity of Dragon Breath Crystals.

Before that, however, he still needed to buy some reserves from the Myriad Manifestations Commerce. This time, the Spirit Tree transformed only after absorbing nearly one hundred million spirit jades worth of fire-element treasures all at once. Next time, it would undoubtedly need to absorb even more. Lu Ye felt that the eighty million spirit jades he currently possessed might not keep him worry-free forever; there would come a day when they were all used up.

It was time to find an opportunity to initiate trade with the merfolk. That was his unique path to wealth. As long as he maintained trade with the merfolk, he would have as many spirit jades as he desired in the future.