Elven cultivators

Apartment, bathroom.

Anton stood in front of the mirror, looking at the unfamiliar face reflected in it.

The person in the mirror has ordinary features; they are the kind of face that you would easily lose in a crowd.

This face does not belong to elves, nor to cultivators, nor to the Dawn Continent.

It belongs to an ordinary person.

An ordinary person living in a world called "reality".

Anton gazed at himself in the mirror, his eyes calm and profound.

Those obsessions and fears that were repeatedly questioned, examined, and resolved in countless moments of inner demons and illusions have now settled into the most solid foundation.

He no longer had doubts or felt lost.

He is Anton.

He is a time traveler, an elf, and a cultivator.

She is a member of the Silvermoon Clan, Roman's childhood sweetheart, Eleanor's mentor, and the teacher of those children.

Everything he has, everything he has experienced, everything he has chosen... has made him who he is today.

"I am who I am."

That's what Anton said.

The moment the words left his mouth, the mirror shattered with a crash.

Everything around it shattered as well.

The world began to collapse, revealing the void and darkness behind it.

The basketball court downstairs, the roadside trees, the residential buildings in the distance... everything turned into countless tiny specks of light, drifting in the void.

The points of light grew farther and farther away, becoming increasingly sparse, until they finally disappeared completely into the boundless darkness.

The world returned to nothingness.

In the quiet room, Anton slowly opened his eyes.

Deep within his amber eyes, five-colored light swirled like the aurora borealis, so profound it seemed to draw one's soul into them before returning to calm.

The real tribulations of the mind are far more dangerous than the simulated rehearsals triggered by inner demons.

If the latter is like practicing in shallow water, then the former is like risking one's life facing the giant waves of the deep sea.

The slightest mistake could plunge one into an illusion forever, and even those with extraordinary cultivation would be powerless to reverse the situation.

However, it was precisely those twenty-three simulated inner demon tribulations that repeatedly tempered Anton's Dao heart, making it clear and perfect without him even realizing it.

Those obsessions, fears, and self-doubts that once lurked deep in the soul were questioned, examined, and resolved time and again during those rehearsals.

When the real inner demons descend, this accumulation transforms into the most solid foundation.

This time, he "returned" to the world called "reality".

A world without spirits or magic, without dragons or elves.

A world of nine-to-five jobs, mundane chores, and the same old routine day after day.

He lives in a small apartment, where he is woken up by an alarm clock every morning, squeezes onto the subway to go to work, and spends his day in front of a computer screen in his cubicle.

I dragged my tired body back here in the evening, took a shower, ate, scrolled through my phone, and went to sleep.

I occasionally have dinner with friends on weekends, chat about trivial things, and then anxiously wait for the next workday to begin on Sunday night.

Calm and peaceful, yet subtly tinged with an inexplicable sense of unease.

It was as if something important had been forgotten.

He began to doubt and ponder, and started trying to find flaws in that seemingly unbreakable truth.

The keen perception of "reality" and "illusion" honed during the simulated inner demon tribulations played a crucial role at this moment.

He no longer passively accepted the "reality" of this world as he had in the first illusion of his mind, but instead actively sought out its cracks.

I began to think about what it means to be myself.

When he finally saw through the fog and understood himself, the illusion of his inner demons shattered.

Having overcome his inner demons, Anton's mind was now completely clear and pure.

He immersed himself in the world, and all the scenes he had witnessed since he began his cultivation flashed before his eyes, then everything faded away, leaving only emptiness.

He vaguely sensed that there was an invisible giant net surrounding him, preventing him from taking this step.

Those are the constraints inherent in the world itself.

It is the restriction imposed by Heaven on mortals.

Anton smiled inwardly, then suddenly mustered his willpower and rammed into the giant net.

boom!

There was no sound, no light, only a tremor that erupted from the depths of the soul.

By the time Anton came to his senses, he had already broken free of that constraint.

A bright flame ignited in my heart.

This is a fire, a fire of the heart, a bright light that bursts forth from the depths of the origin of life when essence, energy, and spirit unite and heaven, earth, and humanity converge.

Boundless light fell upon the Qi Sea Dan Seed, engulfing it.

Anton felt a sudden jolt in his mind, as if something had exploded deep within his consciousness.

A surge of energy rose from the dantian, almost boiling, and instantly coursed through the meridians and acupoints of the body, like a surging torrent or a gentle spring rain.

When he gathered his breath and opened his eyes to look into his dantian, he saw a crystal-clear, pure, and glass-like elixir sinking into it.

The Golden Elixir has been formed!

Anton couldn't help but let out a hearty laugh.

I felt completely relaxed and refreshed, and my mind and spirit were more at ease than ever before.

Today I break through the gate of life and death, and from this day forward my body and the Dao become one.

From this day forward, I will transcend the mundane and wield the power of the Dao.

Amidst the laughter, his divine sense spread out.

In an instant, the world became clearer than ever before.

Although nothing around him had changed, Anton perceived it as completely different.

The world in the eyes of a Foundation Establishment cultivator consists of flowers, trees, mountains, and rivers—tangible material existences.

A rock is a rock, flowing water is flowing water, and wind is wind.

They have their own form, texture, and temperature; they can be touched, seen, and felt, but that's all.

The world seen by a Golden Core cultivator is one of the circulation of spiritual energy and the interaction of the five elements.

The rock is no longer a rock.

He could see the earthy yellow spiritual energy slowly settling inside the rock.

The flowing water is no longer flowing water.

A deep blue aquatic aura swirled like mist above the water's surface, rising and falling with the ripples of the current.

The wind is no longer the wind.

A pale blue vortex swirled in the air, each wisp of air carrying the trajectory of wind-related spiritual energy.

He began to sense the existence of the laws of heaven and earth.

Those laws are like countless transparent threads, crisscrossing and weaving a giant net that covers the heavens and the earth.

They have no shape, no color, yet they truly exist.

They determine that water flows downhill, that fire burns upward, that life is born and dies, and that the laws governing the operation of all things.

Foundation Establishment cultivators cannot perceive their existence and can only passively endure their effects.

Golden Core cultivators are already able to vaguely perceive the veins and directions of these threads.

Although it is still very blurry, like looking at something through frosted glass, where you can only see the general outline and cannot distinguish the details, the direction has been set, the road has been paved, and the road ahead is wide open.

Foundation Building cultivates the Dharma, while Golden Elixir cultivation cultivates the Dao.

This is the fundamental difference.

Secondly, there's lifespan.

Foundation Establishment cultivators have greatly increased lifespans, and can live for hundreds of years.

As for Golden Core cultivators, it is common for them to live for two or three thousand years as long as they do not die young.

Anton is an immortal species with an extremely long lifespan. If he were to live another two or three thousand years, his lifespan would be three or four times that of an ordinary elf.

This means he has more time to pursue the Great Dao.

Then, true essence is transformed into magical power.

After a cultivator successfully condenses their golden core, their vital energy and essence are refined and unified, with the golden core becoming the core of their power.

Magic power, on the other hand, is the immense power generated by the Golden Core harnessing the mysterious and profound spiritual mechanisms within the universe.

Before this, the cultivator's body was in a state where "qi" and "essence" were separated.

Spiritual energy (true essence) resides in the dantian (energy center), and vital essence flows through the flesh and blood.

After the elixir is formed, the qi and essence unite, and the power becomes a unified whole.

It is no longer a quantifiable "spiritual energy" or "true essence," but a more essential power originating from the very source of the Golden Elixir.

The purity and profundity of magical power far surpasses that of true essence.

The same technique, when activated with magical power, can have its power increased at least four or five times.

More importantly, there's the battery life.

The true essence of foundation building is like water in a vat; every bit used is a bit less.

The power of the Golden Core is like water from a spring; although it is not inexhaustible, the Golden Core rotates on its own, constantly drawing energy from heaven and earth to replenish itself, resulting in a world of difference in combat endurance.

As long as it's not a prolonged, high-intensity battle of attrition, Golden Core cultivators rarely need to worry about running out of mana.

In conclusion, magical power is the hallmark ability of the Golden Core realm.

Only by condensing magical power can one unleash supernatural abilities, which is also the key step to truly enter the path of immortality.

In addition, his spiritual consciousness also underwent a qualitative leap.

The range of divine sense in the Golden Core stage is more than ten times that of the Foundation Establishment stage.

At this very moment, everything within a radius of over two hundred kilometers was within Anton's perception.

The range of divine sense coverage is also the attack range of the flying sword.

This means that the maximum distance his sword light can reach has increased significantly, far exceeding what it used to be.

Even if they are hundreds of kilometers apart, as long as one's divine sense can lock onto the target, the sword light can arrive in an instant.

More importantly, the divine sense of a Golden Core cultivator has itself become a weapon.

With a slight thought, Anton unleashed an invisible spiritual pressure that radiated outwards from him.

That was a suppression of the soul originating from a higher level of life.

If a low-level cultivator were to be caught in this situation, at best they would lose their composure and their combat power would be greatly reduced; at worst they would suffer a shock to their soul and faint on the spot.

He can also condense his divine sense into needles and cones to pierce the enemy's soul.

This attack is invisible and intangible, making it impossible to defend against. It is another deadly move by Golden Core cultivators to crush lower-level cultivators.

"good."

Anton nodded in satisfaction. With a slight thought, a beam of dark golden sword light instantly leaped from his chest and hovered in front of him.

The sword light suddenly surged, splitting into layers, and in the blink of an eye, it transformed into sixteen beams.

Immediately afterwards, it flashed again and transformed into thirty-two streams.

In another blink, it transformed into sixty-four paths.

Anton continued to urge it on, and the sword light split again.

This time, the rate of differentiation slowed down significantly, and the edges of the sword light trembled slightly, showing faint signs of dissipation.

After quite a while, the sword light finally split successfully, reaching one hundred and twenty-eight beams.

However, it was clear that the sword light was constantly trembling and unable to take a stable shape.

Anton wasn't in a hurry.

He has just broken through to the next level, and his use of magic is not yet proficient.

After getting used to it, you will soon be able to master the technique of splitting and combining light into 128 different forms.

The sword light receded, and the sword pellet sank back into Anton's chest.

Feeling the abundant magical power in his dantian, a satisfied smile appeared on his face.

The Golden Core and Foundation Establishment are two completely different levels, as different as heaven and earth.

For a Golden Core cultivator, a Foundation Establishment cultivator is not much different from an ant.

This can be seen from the changes in Anton at this time.

His strength increased several times over simply from his magical power and flying sword technique.

Once he masters supernatural powers, his strength will experience another leap forward.