Elven cultivators

The corpses of more than sixty Sighing Crystal Clusters were all completely devoured by the sword pellet.

The sword pellet's radiance was slightly more intense than before, but that was all.

Anton focused his mind and sensed it, then shook his head slightly.

After breaking through to the Xuanqi level, even a sub-dragon species at the peak of the gold level can greatly reduce its benefits to the sword pellet.

To significantly improve the quality of the sword pellet, it would probably be necessary to kill a legendary-level being.

Composing himself, Anton retrieved the sword pellet into his dantian, used his Wind Control Technique to rise and head towards the depths of the city-state.

To avoid alerting the Sighing Crystal Cluster, he had only briefly explored the city-state.

Now that the obstacles have been removed, he decided to thoroughly explore the entire city-state to see if there were any overlooked resources or hidden places worth noting.

Unfortunately, after going around in circles, I gained very little.

Whether it was the main buildings of the city-state or the hidden underground caves, they were all completely empty.

Apart from some petrified mind flayers and their servant corpses, there was nothing else.

On second thought, Anton wasn't surprised.

Mind Flayers have a very unique community structure.

The entire city-state has only one absolute will—the Mastermind.

All mind flayers are tentacles extending from the mastermind. Although they have independent self-awareness, they are completely obedient to the mastermind and will not have even the slightest thought of resistance.

Naturally, there would be no selfish motives involved.

Hiding valuables is absolutely unthinkable in the Mind Flayer clan.

All the resources of the Mindbreaker City-State were probably concentrated in that warehouse before, and he had already moved them all out.

Anton lost hope and focused his attention back on business.

He sank his divine sense into the ground and began to explore this ley line node, or rather, spiritual vein.

To establish a cave dwelling on a spiritual vein, preliminary exploration must first be conducted.

Only by ascertaining the scale, flow, coverage, and energy stability of the entire spiritual vein can subsequent planning be carried out.

This is an extremely tedious task that requires a lot of time and effort.

Anton patiently explored every inch of the spiritual vein, penetrating every tiny energy tributary with his divine sense, recording every change in energy concentration, and gradually sketching out a three-dimensional map of the entire vein in his mind.

It took him a full five days to completely explore the entire spiritual vein.

This spiritual vein isn't very large, barely meeting the standard of a medium-sized spiritual vein, but it's more than enough to build a cave dwelling at the Qi Mansion level.

Once the cave dwelling is established, and after spending another one or two hundred years carefully maintaining it, it has a good chance of being promoted to the True Palace level.

As for even better blessed lands, if the innate conditions are insufficient, then forget about it.

Even so, it's enough.

In places like the Silver Moon Forest, the highest one one could hope to reach was a cave dwelling at the Xuanlu level; a Qi Mansion was out of the question, let alone a True Palace.

To possess a cave dwelling at the Qi Mansion level, with the potential to advance to the True Palace level, is already considered quite good in the current Dawn Continent.

Don't be greedy for more.

After the initial exploration of the spiritual veins was completed, the next step was to begin planning the blueprint for the construction of the cave dwelling.

This is not an easy task.

A cave dwelling is a complete cultivation ecosystem, which needs to organically combine cultivation, life, resource production and defense system to form a self-consistent whole.

In general, the planning and construction of the cave dwelling can be divided into two main parts.

The array formation clusters and the layout of functional areas.

These two are not independent systems and cannot be built separately; they must be developed simultaneously.

The array formation is the core framework of the cave dwelling and the fundamental guarantee for the normal operation of all functional areas.

The array cluster mainly consists of three parts.

The most crucial element, of course, is the mountain-protecting formation.

This is a crucial defensive formation protecting the cave dwelling. It uses the spiritual veins as its source and the cave dwelling buildings as its nodes to construct a three-dimensional defense system covering the entire cave dwelling.

Generally speaking, it is similar to the Great Evolution Azure Mystery Array of the Silver Moon Forest.

However, the environments of the city-state and the Silvermoon Forest are completely different, and their core requirements for the mountain-protecting array also differ.

The Great Evolution Azure Profound Array lacks spiritual veins as its power source, making its defensive and offensive capabilities relatively weak. It requires time to accumulate energy, but it does possess a certain degree of growth potential.

With spiritual veins as their power source, city-states can certainly set up larger and more powerful protective mountain formations.

As for growth potential... given the desolate and harsh environment of the Dark Region, it's really difficult to set up a mountain-protecting array with such capabilities.

Secondly, there is the Spirit Gathering Array Network.

As the name suggests, this is a network of arrays formed by connecting multiple spirit-gathering arrays through array patterns, also known as an energy guiding system.

Its core function is to organize and guide the energy generated by the spiritual veins, regulate the energy concentration in various areas of the cave, and distribute the energy to the places where it is most needed.

Finally, there is the auxiliary array network.

This is a network term encompassing a large number of diverse sub-arrays.

Sub-array types include, but are not limited to, warning arrays, revealing arrays to counter invisibility, burrowing, or illusions, sensing arrays to monitor abnormal energy flows, and dust removal arrays, constant temperature arrays, soundproof arrays, etc., for convenience in daily life.

Some of these auxiliary formations need to work together, while others need to remain independent.

The setup is not difficult, but it is extremely complicated.

In general, the difficulty of setting up the cave formation cluster far exceeds that of the Great Evolution Azure Profound Formation in the Silver Moon Forest.

One of the main reasons An Dong promoted the deployment of the Great Evolution Azure Mystery Array was to accumulate experience for establishing a cluster of cave arrays.

Otherwise, without any experience in setting up large formations, he would be completely clueless if he tried to plan and establish a cluster of cave formations directly.

Now that I have experience, it will be much easier to get started.

In terms of functional areas, it mainly includes cultivation area, alchemy room, weapon refining room, spiritual plant garden, beast garden, library, storage area, etc.

Each functional area inevitably needs to be equipped with corresponding formations, and these formations must be incorporated into the entire formation cluster for unified coordination.

Therefore, the planning of the array clusters and the planning of functional areas must be carried out simultaneously and neither should be neglected.

Compared to the complexity and cumbersome nature of these two, basic modifications are much simpler.

Whether it's space expansion, floor and wall treatment, or lighting and ventilation systems, these can all be handled by the clan members; Anton doesn't need to do it himself.

Anton planned to have the clan send people to clean up the stone statues in the city-state first.

The petrified mind flayers and their minions blocked every corner of the city-state, both an eyesore and a waste of space.

In addition, all the twisted, fleshy buildings in the city-state must be demolished.

Those buildings were constructed by mind flayers using psychic energy combined with organic matter. They were bizarre in style and made of special materials, making them unsuitable for elves to live in, and also inconsistent with the overall plan of the cave.

After the cleanup is complete, some basic renovations will be carried out.

These jobs don't require advanced skills; as long as you have manpower and tools, you can just do them step by step.

During this period, Andong needs to complete the detailed planning map of the cave dwelling.

This is undoubtedly a massive undertaking.

But he wasn't in a hurry.

The planning and construction of the cave dwelling was not something that could be accomplished overnight.

He was mentally prepared to invest a lot of time and energy.

Having made up his mind, Anton returned to Silvermoon Forest and immediately found the three elders to inform them that the Sighing Crystal Cluster Clan had been completely wiped out.

Upon hearing this, the three elders stood frozen in place, their faces showing disbelief.

It's no wonder they were so surprised; they had heard Anton mention that there were as many as sixty or seventy Sighing Crystal Clusters residing in the city-state.

Otherwise, they wouldn't have strictly forbidden their people from approaching the city-state.

But now Anton suddenly tells them that the Sighing Crystal Cluster Clan has been completely wiped out.

How can they believe that?

That's a whopping sixty or seventy Golden Peaks!

"Anton... are you telling the truth?"

The Third Elder thought he had misheard and subconsciously asked another question.

Only after Anton confirmed it again did the three of them finally believe it and fall silent.

"You've advanced to Legendary?" the Second Elder couldn't help but ask.

"No." Anton shook his head and explained, "I recently crafted a mystical artifact...you can think of it as an ancient-grade magical weapon."

"It was thanks to this mysterious artifact that I was able to defeat those Sighing Crystal Clusters."

This explanation only increased the shock in the hearts of the three elders.

The previous Great Evolution Azure Profound Array was already enough to shock them.

Over the years, they have been amazed by Anton's mastery of enchanting.

Unexpectedly, Anton produced another legendary magical item in the blink of an eye.

Those who can forge legendary magical items are all renowned alchemical masters on the Dawn Continent.

Unbeknownst to many, Anton's alchemy skills had actually improved to this level!

Even though the three elders had become somewhat numb to the constant surprises Anton had brought over the years, they were still deeply shocked at this moment.

After a long while, the Grand Elder finally came to his senses, took a deep breath to suppress the turmoil surging in his chest, and asked, "What do you intend to do with that city-state?"

Anton was prepared and spoke calmly: "I plan to transform the city-state into a cave dwelling."

"Cave dwelling?" The three elders looked at each other, completely unfamiliar with this term.

"You can think of it as a fully functional, heavily fortified super-large stronghold."

Anton explained it in detail in a way that the elders could understand.

The three of them had some difficulty understanding many parts, but they understood some of them.

For example, the cave also has a protective formation.

For example, the elemental energy concentration in the cave is much higher than that in the Silver Moon Forest, and by a significant margin.

For example, the cave will have a spirit plant garden for cultivating rare plants in large quantities, as well as a beast garden for taming and training combat partners.

Once these two functional buildings are established, the clan will have a stable channel to obtain rare materials and combat companions, greatly reducing its dependence on external procurement.

Simply understanding these things was enough to fill them with boundless anticipation for the so-called cave dwelling.

The three elders exchanged glances, and each saw undisguised joy and excitement in the other's eyes.

The First Elder was the first to recover, his gaze fixed intently on Anton: "What role does the clan need to play in establishing the cave dwelling?"

Anton didn't mince words and said directly, "I need a lot of manpower to clear out the city-state, demolish buildings, and also carry out some basic renovations."

"We'll talk about the rest after I've designed the detailed plans for the cave dwelling."

The Grand Elder nodded without hesitation: "No problem, I'll order the allocation of manpower right away."

Even if they didn't know the benefits of the cave dwelling, based solely on the trust they had built up over the years, they would still wholeheartedly support Anton without reservation.