The great ship of the Blood Refinement World, which had been drifting in stellar space for countless millennia, finally stopped. From a vantage point in the stars, it appeared to have halted not far from the Nine Provinces.

However, this "not far" is, in the end, a relative distance. In reality, the distance between the two large domains remains a boundary that the current Nine Provinces cultivators cannot breach, as they lack the ability to traverse stellar space physically. To return to the Nine Provinces, they still need to rely on the teleportation of the Heaven's Augury Pillar.

The matters of the Blood Refinement World have largely settled, and the Nine Provinces cultivators participating in the expedition have embarked on their journey home.

Though many from the various minor and major sects have suffered casualties during this expedition, the surviving cultivators have reaped immense rewards, earning an unimaginable amount of battle merit.

Whenever Nine Provinces cultivators obtain battle merit, their first thought is to exchange it for spirit fortune sticks for cultivation.

To do this, they must return to the Nine Provinces.

Though the nature's spiritual energy in the Blood Refinement World is sufficiently rich, when it comes to cultivation speed, using spirit fortune sticks remains the more convenient method. Moreover, the spiritual energy in this world will not maintain such richness indefinitely; as the world's foundation dissipates and its level diminishes, the spiritual energy will become increasingly scarce.

The ultimate fate of the Blood Refinement World is highly likely to become a domain with only a faint spiritual energy presence. At that point, human life in this world won't be greatly affected, but if cultivators linger here long-term, their cultivation will progress very slowly. Relying solely on the foundation of the Blood Refinement World, it might not even give rise to Cloud River Realm cultivators.

In the future, the Blood Refinement World will exist as a vassal domain of the Nine Provinces, with its greatest function being to continuously provide each minor and major sect in the Nine Provinces with suitable cultivation talents.

This information was naturally spread by Lu Ye. There was no need to intentionally disseminate it; just mentioning it casually during idle conversations would quickly make it widely known, as it wasn't really a secret.

As for how Lu Ye came to know this, it was, of course, Number Nine who told him!

This was also deduced by Number Nine, representing the best possible outcome for the Blood Refinement World. In fact, it had the capability to completely drain the world's foundation. However, if that happened, the entire domain would become a wasteland, bringing about a cataclysm for all the humans living in this domain.

When it was first crafted, the cultivators of the previous Nine Provinces era assigned it two tasks: to protect the Nine Provinces and to protect the human race. Naturally, it would not engage in activities harming the human race, even including humans from the Blood Refinement World, who were also within its protective domain.

Nine Provinces cultivators began to return one after another.

Within the Nine Provinces, in the Heaven's Augury Halls of various sects, the Heaven's Augury Pillars resonated as familiar figures reappeared, their auras manifesting, prompting the resident cultivators to quickly come to inspect and welcome these heroes.

If the earlier transportation of Nine Provinces cultivators through the Heaven's Augury Pillar into the Blood Refinement World still had some degree of resource consumption on the Nine Provinces' foundation, then this return from the Blood Refinement World to the Nine Provinces, while not negligible, consumed much less.

This was because the distance between the two domains was close enough that the people in the Nine Provinces could see the Blood Refinement World just by looking up.

At the Lock Horns Grotto Heaven, the cultivators from each sect gradually departed, finally leaving only the people from Ziwei Dao Palace and the Righteous Blood Sect.

As they left one after another, eventually only Lu Ye, Lann Qiyue, Shui Yuan, the sect master, and Pang Huanyin remained, along with Amber and Yiyi.

The sect master looked at Lu Ye and said, "I can handle this; should I stay while you return to the Nine Provinces first?"

Lu Ye smiled and replied, "You've worked hard all your life; let this disciple handle such a trivial matter."

In truth, it wasn't just Lu Ye who stayed. Practically every minor and major sect had someone remaining, not for any other reason than that each had staked out their piece of territory in the Blood Refinement World during their battles with the Blood Race but had yet to thoroughly investigate what resources it held.

Now that the war in the Blood Refinement World was over, it was naturally time for a detailed exploration.

Not to mention, the Blood Refinement World is rich in various mineral deposits. Since the Blood Race doesn't understand the Path of Artifact Refining, nor do they engage in Artifact Refining, the domain's mineral resources are virtually untapped.

To the Nine Provinces cultivators, these are invaluable treasures, and it is only right to make good use of them.

There are also various rare herbs growing in the depths of the pristine wilderness, largely ignored by the Blood Race, yet in the hands of the Nine Provinces cultivators, they can serve their purpose.

Additionally, during the exploration, cartography must be conducted. The territory that the Righteous Blood Sect has demarcated this time is vast. Without an accurate map as a guide, future Righteous Blood Sect cultivators who come to the Blood Refinement World to mine resources or handle other tasks will find it inconvenient.

All these matters require someone to prepare in advance.

The sect master is too old for this kind of work, and Shui Yuan needs to hold down the fort at the sect headquarters, so it naturally falls to Lu Ye as one of the only three Divine Sea Realm members of the sect headquarters.

"Since you're willing, I won't compete with you for it," the sect master nodded. "I will try to dispatch personnel to take over from you as soon as possible."

As long as Lu Ye completes the preliminary preparations on this side, there won't be much more for him to do. The sect will send personnel to be stationed at the Lock Horns Grotto Heaven long-term, making it convenient to recruit disciples from the Blood Refinement World in the future.

The situation is pretty much the same for the other sects.

The Blood Refinement World is peaceful now, with no Blood Race causing trouble. The remaining humans are living comfortably and contentedly.

With the current skills of Lu Ye, looking across the entire Blood Refinement World, there's truly nothing that can threaten him.

Lu Ye looked at Pang Huanyin: "Junior Sister Pang, upon returning to the Nine Provinces, remember to request Heaven's Augury to grant a Heaven's Augury Pillar; only then will it be convenient for future exchanges between the two worlds."

In the Nine Provinces, any sect establishing itself on Nine Provinces territory has the right to respectfully request Heaven's Augury to grant a Heaven's Augury Pillar.

In the past, this was the only one.

But now the situation is different, all minor and big sects in the Nine Provinces will establish a branch in the Blood Refinement World. The existing hundred plus Heaven's Augury Pillars alone are insufficient for convenient exchanges, so Number Nine made an exception, allowing all sects in the Nine Provinces to apply for another one. When this new Heaven's Augury Pillar is positioned at the branch's location, future exchanges between Nine Provinces territory and Blood Refinement World will become convenient.

Any sect's cultivator can easily achieve teleportation between Nine Provinces and Blood Refinement World through the Heaven's Augury Pillar, though this must certainly come at a certain cost.

Pang Huanyin nodded solemnly: "I've noted it down. As for the survey of the Dao Palace territory, I must trouble Senior Brother."

Lu Ye said: "It's an easy task."

Quickly, everyone departed, and this time even Amber and Yiyi didn't stay behind.

Ever since Lu Ye advanced to the Divine Sea Realm, the urgency regarding cultivation for one spirit and one tiger has risen because they don't want Lu Ye to leave them too far behind. Currently, they are just a step away from Divine Sea, evidently intending to return to Nine Provinces to prepare for advancement.

Perhaps next time they meet, one spirit and one tiger will have undergone a transformative change. Of course, this mainly depends on Amber, as Yiyi is Amber's minion spirit, whose power strength relies on Amber's growth.

Lann Qiyue also left together, and this time to the Nine Provinces sect headquarters, she will officially be inducted into the Righteous Blood Sect, becoming a disciple of the Righteous Blood Sect.

For this, she has been looking forward to it for a long time.

Once Lann Qiyue becomes a disciple of the Righteous Blood Sect, the sect will have four Divine Seas. If Yun Xuechu is included, it becomes five! This number is already considerable.

Furthermore, whether it is Giant Armor or Hua Ci, both are steadily advancing toward Divine Sea. Nowadays, the Righteous Blood Sect has sprung up with a multitude of Cloud Rivers; though the number of True Lakes is not high, given time, their quantity will increase. These newly appeared True Lakes will continue striving toward Divine Sea.

Compared to the past when the Righteous Blood Sect was nearly delisted by Heaven's Augury, the current Righteous Blood Sect barely exhibits the traits of a big sect.

For a sect to stand firm, it must have sustainable developing backup forces. If there is a break in these backup forces at any stage, it will significantly impact the development of the sect.

Lock Horns Grotto Heaven became desolate and empty, the Blood Race eradicated, Nine Provinces cultivators departed, leaving only Lu Ye alone.

He exerted his power, condensed a doppelganger, equipped the doppelganger with a Crimson Dragon Battle Suit, and a sword gourd, dividing into two directions to start surveying this territory of a hundred thousand miles radius.

Nowadays in Blood Refinement World, those engaging in the same activities are mostly Divine Sea Realm, as Divine Sea Realm has Mental Consciousness, offering unique advantages in surveying tasks.

Many mineral deposits are hidden deep underground; merely relying on sight cannot discern the subtleties, yet with a sweep of Mental Consciousness, the situation becomes clear.

Lu Ye and his doppelganger operated simultaneously, meticulously traversing each mountain, memorizing the topography and various mineral and medicinal reserves discovered, while also recording the distribution of human race villages within this domain.

These human race congregating villages will be the talent source for the Righteous Blood Sect in the future.

After surveying the situation on the Righteous Blood Sect side, he proceeded to survey the territory of Ziwei Dao Palace.

Spent almost half a month before he returned to Lock Horns Grotto Heaven.

All surveyed information was imprinted on his mind. Next, he needs to create an accurate map, which is not difficult for him; even though he has never done it before, he has seen what a ten-part map looks like.

Just copy as if tracing a printed example.

After waiting several days at Lock Horns Grotto Heaven, the Heaven's Augury Pillar suddenly reacted.

Immediately, several figures manifested.

Leading them was Pang Huanyin, who had returned, having evidently acquired a Heaven's Augury Pillar, and now necessary to head to the territory of Ziwei Dao Palace to place the Heaven's Augury Pillar there. Subsequently, cultivators of Ziwei Dao Palace will be able to teleport directly to establish a branch.

For the Righteous Blood Sect, it doesn't need to be this troublesome; Lock Horns Grotto Heaven is ready-made.

Besides Pang Huanyin, there were Chen Yu, Kong Niu, and Ruan Lingyu, who had clearly come to replace Lu Ye in overseeing the branch sect in Blood Refinement World.