NOVPUBIn the Nine Provinces cultivation world, the categorization of a cultivator's aptitude has sixty-four tiers, represented by sixty-four leaves, the higher the number, the better the cultivation aptitude.
This represents a cultivator's affinity with nature's spiritual energy, and the efficiency with which they absorb and release nature's spiritual energy.
After all, for the vast majority of cultivators, absorbing and releasing nature's spiritual energy is the primary and safest method of cultivation, while consuming elixir pills is merely a supplementary measure. 𝓷ℴ𝓋𝓅𝓊𝒷.𝒸𝓸𝓶
Therefore, cultivation aptitude becomes particularly important.
The origin of Lu Ye's nickname 'Yiye' stemmed from the results of his aptitude test in Evil Moon Valley.
Yiye's talent was barely better than those who couldn't cultivate at all, mere common folk.
All along, Lu Ye had been troubled by this nickname, and what made him feel utterly helpless was that it seemed even Heaven's Augury had acknowledged this nickname.
Originally, the battlefield marking had his name as Lu Ye.
But at some point, it had changed to Lu Yiye!
On the Spirit Stream battlefield and in the Kills Ranking within the hunting grounds, what was displayed was all Lu Yiye!
Now, Lu Ye had finally shed the aptitude of Yiye!
Although he wasn't sure of his current level of talent, it was definitely not just one leaf!
This efficiency of absorbing and releasing nature's spiritual energy, at the very least, was grounded at forty leaves, with the possibility of fifty leaves.
The change in talent could undoubtedly make his future cultivation efficiency much faster, which pleased Lu Ye, prompting a laugh from him.
Hua Ci, who was speaking with Yiyi at the side, couldn't help but glance at him and muttered, "He looks like a fool!"
Ignoring him thereafter, she continued talking with Yiyi.
Lu Ye had already faintly sensed the change in his talent while he was in the Soaring Dragon World, but because much essence had faded away there and the spiritual energy of nature wasn't dense, it wasn't very noticeable.
It became more apparent after returning to the Cloud River battlefield.
By this moment, it was finally confirmed!
Lu Ye hadn't expected that the origin of the world could change a person's cultivation aptitude, but on second thought, since it was the origin of a world capable of reviving the dead, what was changing cultivation aptitude in comparison?
He then let go of his concerns.
Shortly after, Lu Ye stopped the operation of his Cultivation Technique.
He immersed his mind and looked towards the Talent Tree.
The uncanny fire and pill fire he had purchased from Heaven's Augury treasure vault had been completely devoured, and he didn't know if there would be any gains this time.
Every time the Talent Tree devoured flames, when he checked it, he was hopeful because, since he started cultivating, the many spirit runes carried on the Talent Tree had brought him immense help.
Activating various spirit runes in combat could enhance his combat power and self-preservation ability.
To the extent that he had such high accomplishments in the Array Path today was also due to the foundation laid by the Path of Spirit Runes.
Having reached his current level of cultivation, Lu Ye realized one thing.
The Path of Spirit Runes touched on various aspects of cultivation; the deeper his mastery in the Path of Spirit Runes, the more multiplication of efforts in cultivating other aspects.
Whether it was magic and spells, the Array Path, or even the Path of Artifact Refining, all could be said to be an extension and branch of spirit runes.
In one word, the Path of Spirit Runes can be considered the foundation of all peripheral and external paths.
Looking at it, Lu Ye was startled.
At this moment, more than twenty leaves on the Talent Tree were emitting a red glow, evidently due to changes triggered by the devoured flames.
But these leaves had not combusted.
Only leaves that had entirely combusted would allow Lu Ye to examine the information they carried.
The fact that they hadn't completely combusted undoubtedly indicated one thing: the flames devoured by the Talent Tree were insufficient to ignite these leaves.
Furthermore, the similar response from more than twenty leaves implied that they carried the same spirit rune!
Lu Ye was overjoyed.
This type of spirit rune, which required more than twenty leaves to carry, must be extraordinarily complex. Fire Phoenix, Sky Prohibition, Wings, Bewitchment, were all of this type; although it consumed much more than ordinary spirit runes when activated, its effects were also much greater.
What kind of spirit rune was it?
Lu Ye looked carefully, but the leaves had not fully ignited and the patterns within were blurry and unclear. No matter how much Lu Ye tried to investigate, he could not discern any specifics.
This only added to his anticipation.
But the current situation was somewhat awkward, as he didn't have many flames left for the Talent Tree to devour.
Or perhaps... to devour his backup of Earth's Core Fire?
He had always kept around twenty portions of Earth's Core Fire on hand, mainly as a precaution for when the fuel for the Talent Tree ran out, and he needed the power of the Talent Tree to burn off an external force invading his body.
For instance, if he was severely poisoned, it would be dangerous if the Talent Tree's fuel was exhausted without timely replenishment at such a critical moment.
These twenty portions of Earth's Core Fire were normally not to be used.
The thought had just arisen when he dismissed it.
It wasn't that he was reluctant to use them, but since they were meant for emergencies, it was better not to use them lightly.
Moreover, according to his observations, even if he swallowed those twenty portions of Earth's Core Fire, it probably wouldn't be enough to fully ignite those leaves.
There were indeed many more uncanny fires for sale in the Heaven's Augury treasure vault, but each of these fires was exorbitantly priced, often costing tens to hundreds of thousands of merits for just one portion.
For some cultivators, maybe they needed those uncanny fires to cultivate some secret technique.
But for Lu Ye, who just wanted to feed them to the Talent Tree, spending such a large amount was hardly cost-effective.
Let's wait a bit longer...
There will always be a chance to buy cost-effective uncanny fires in the future. He still had many things to do now, and wasn't in a hurry to produce this spirit rune whose effect was unknown.
Having made up his mind, Lu Ye suppressed the urgency in his heart and looked up to call Yiyi, "Come, let's cultivate, and Hua Ci, join us!"
Hua Ci blinked her innocent big eyes and asked incredulously, "Both of us together?"
Otherwise, why would he invite them to cultivate together?
"Nonsense in front of the kids!" Lu Ye glared at her, raising his hand to take out the gold-hued spirit fortune stick he had exchanged from the Hall of Battle Merits.
Hua Ci's eyes lit up as she approached and bent down to pick up the fortune stick, flipping it over to inspect it, "So this is a spirit fortune stick?"
She had heard that in the Cloud River battlefield, there was such a special item called a spirit fortune stick, which could help cultivators rapidly increase their cultivation, and there was even the Heaven-bestowed spirit fortune stick which was an opportunity all cultivators had a chance to encounter.
However, she had only been in the Cloud River battlefield for a month, so she had never seen a real spirit fortune stick, let alone the highest tier of gold-hued ones.
Looking at it, she saw it was dazzling with golden light, its surface had various intricate and complex patterns, and the light flowed beautifully.
However, she soon put down the spirit fortune stick, "Spirit fortune sticks are hard to come by, you don't need to include me..."
Before she could finish, she saw Lu Ye pull out one gold-hued spirit fortune stick after another.
A moment later, there were as many as eighteen laid out in front of him!
Hua Ci exclaimed, "Are these things so easy to obtain?"
It seemed somewhat different from what she had heard.
"Wow, we've struck it rich!" Yiyi watched from the side with glowing eyes, looking at Lu Ye with admiration, "Lu Ye, you're amazing!"
Although she knew that Lu Ye had gained a lot from his time in the Soaring Dragon secret realm, she hadn't expected him to obtain so many gold-hued spirit fortune sticks.
Up till now, the highest number of spirit fortune sticks Lu Ye had acquired was the first-place reward from the Kills Ranking, but even that was only nine, and he had to share those with Li Baxian and Feng Yuechan.
He had only gotten three from that batch himself.
Compared to this moment, it was a world of difference.
Not to mention Lu Ye himself, looking throughout the entire Cloud River battlefield, no one in the past could have possibly attained this many gold-hued spirit fortune sticks at once.
Hua Ci still shook her head, "My cultivation method is different from yours, nature's spiritual energy isn't so important to me, I don't want to delay your cultivation speed."
She had inquired, the duration of a spirit fortune stick is fixed, a cultivator cultivates for that fixed period, but if two people cultivate together, then that time is reduced to half, meaning the two people share the duration of the spirit fortune stick's effect.
Amber was Lu Ye's pet beast, and they had a pet contract, so the duration of the spirit fortune stick wouldn't be affected, and Yiyi was Amber's minion spirit, which similarly wouldn't affect it.
But if she joined in, then she would take half of the duration that belonged to Lu Ye.
This was undoubtedly not cost-effective, especially since nature's spiritual energy really wasn't that important to her, her cultivation relied more on various poisons.
With the many poison pills Lu Ye had previously given her, she already had enough for a long period of cultivation.
Moreover, she had accumulated a large amount of Ten Thousand Poisons Pills in the Spirit Stream battlefield, she also needed to refine and integrate them back into her body to enhance her cultivation.
Lu Ye was about to continue persuading when an inexplicable sense of warning rose in his heart.
Suddenly recalling, the flood dragon guarding the door of the Hall of Battle Merits had told him that everything in the hall was for personal use only and could not be disclosed to anyone.
Previously, he was caught up in enjoying Yiyi's admiring gaze, thinking of quickly improving Hua Ci's cultivation, he had forgotten about this matter.
This meant, those gold-hued spirit fortune sticks really could only be used by him alone.
With this thought, Lu Ye no longer attempted to persuade, instead, he crushed a gold-hued spirit fortune stick with his hand.
Golden dust swirled and flowed, turning into a vortex, and from that vortex emerged an extremely vast and rich spiritual energy, enveloping the figures of Lu Ye, Yiyi, and Amber.
The spiritual energy gathered without dispersing, revolving only around the three figures without spilling out even slightly.
Hua Ci stood by and watched, clicking her tongue in amazement.
It being her first time seeing a gold-hued spirit fortune stick, naturally it was also her first time seeing someone cultivate with the help of one.
The purity and richness of that spiritual energy were truly astonishing, the nearly mist-like power didn't require any refining and could be directly absorbed by the cultivator's river of spirit force, enhancing the cultivator's own power.
Understanding this, no wonder people say that Cloud River Realm is a miraculous realm.
In this realm, because the foundation laid by the cultivators in Spirit Stream Realm is different, there are often instances of defeating higher-level opponents. Moreover, with spirit fortune sticks, as long as one's luck is good enough, advancing in cultivation in Cloud River Realm is much simpler compared to Spirit Stream Realm.
Indeed, it seemed to be the case.
