Elven cultivators

Cressoron, above the inner fortress.

Anton hovered high in the sky, looking down at the empty city below.

The clan has not yet begun to deal with the city, as they are waiting for him to make a decision.

The slaves who were originally imprisoned in the city were temporarily transferred to various mines and put into busy mining work.

Apart from a small number of guards, there were no other idle people in the entire Dragon City.

It took seven full days for Anton to finally complete a comprehensive exploration of this ley line node.

Overall, compared to the ley line node in the Underdark, the energy concentration here is significantly higher, and the energy is also purer and more ethereal.

"Why not just build a cave here? There's a ready-made Dragon City here, which can save a lot of infrastructure work."

After a moment's thought, Anton quickly made a decision.

Putting aside the energy concentration and purity, the key point is that the environment at this ley line node is also better.

The dark region is perpetually shrouded in darkness, with damp and cold air. Even with the illumination of fluorescent plants, the inherent sense of oppression cannot be erased.

Longcheng is located in the heart of the plains, with open terrain, abundant sunshine, and a pleasant climate.

Building a cave here would be far more comfortable for both cultivation and daily life than in the dark and gloomy regions.

More importantly, it has a strategic location.

Dragon City is located in the central part of Eldron Plains, bordered by the wasteland to the north, Bluewater Harbor to the south, and boundless fields and hills to the east and west.

Starting from Dragon City, it is extremely convenient to travel to any place on the plains.

Building the cave here will greatly enhance our control over the entire plain.

The dragon race clearly had similar reasons for choosing to build Krethor Dragon City here.

He's gotten off easy now.

As for the Underdark, it will naturally not be left idle.

However, its positioning needs to be adjusted.

It is no longer the main cave, but rather a bridgehead for exploring the Darklands.

Its unique geographical location makes it a necessary route to the deeper parts of the Underdark.

Establish a simplified cave dwelling there, which can serve as a second stronghold for the clan and a logistical base for exploring the Underdark.

The two cave dwellings, one main and one secondary, one open and one hidden, complement each other.

Only with such a layout can we be absolutely sure of success.

"Now we have another cave dwelling to plan..."

Anton shook his head, lamenting that his workload had increased rather than decreased, before transforming into a sword beam and hurtling towards the horizon.

……

It was already afternoon when we returned to Silvermoon Forest.

Instead of returning to his treehouse, Anton headed straight for the Preaching Pavilion.

As soon as he entered the pavilion, some distance from the preaching hall, he heard a lot of chattering coming from inside, much more lively than usual.

"Is this Reiki? It doesn't seem to be the same as what my teacher said."

"You're so stupid. Ryan's spiritual root is different from yours, so the spiritual energy he refines is naturally different."

"Exactly, the teacher has the top-tier five spiritual roots!"

"Tell me quickly, what did it feel like to refine your first breath of spiritual energy?"

In the spacious hall, twelve students were gathered together, surrounding Ryan and staring curiously at the faint but clear light on his fingertips.

The aura was a pale golden-red, like the rising sun in winter, warm but not dazzling.

Eleanor stood to the side, watching this scene with a gentle smile.

Anton scanned the area with his divine sense and indeed found that Ryan had already refined his first breath of spiritual energy.

"Three years old."

Anton nodded slightly.

As expected of the Haoyang True Body, the cultivation speed is indeed fast.

Although the availability of spirit-gathering arrays and pills played a role, it was still quite impressive that they refined their first breath of spiritual energy in three years.

The first step is often the hardest.

"Chieftain."

Eleanor quickly noticed Anton's arrival and greeted him.

Ryan and the others then realized what was happening and quickly bowed and greeted Anton.

"teacher!"

Anton nodded slightly, his gaze sweeping over the crowd and landing on Ryan.

Ryan stood ramrod straight, his face flushed with excitement, but he tried hard to keep his expression from showing too much excitement.

That forced composure, yet barely concealed joy, reminded Anton of the moment when he refined his first breath of spiritual energy.

"Well done, Ryan." Anton smiled slightly. "From today onwards, you officially embark on the path of cultivation."

"However, this is only the first step. There is still a long road ahead, so don't let your guard down."

"Yes, teacher." Ryan nodded vigorously, finally revealing an uncontrollable smile on his face.

The students around him cast envious glances at him.

Anton said no more, turned his gaze to Eleanor, gave her a nod, and then turned and walked out of the Preaching Hall.

Eleanor understood and followed him out.

The two figures disappeared outside the door.

The preaching hall was quiet for a moment, then erupted into chaos again.

"That's great! I also want to receive praise from the teacher."

"I also need to refine spiritual energy quickly."

"I'll go cultivate now."

A group of children rushed out of the hall and headed toward their respective quiet rooms.

Ryan's advancement to the Qi Refining stage has greatly motivated them, and they are now full of energy.

……

Outside the Preaching House, on the tree-lined walkway.

Anton and Eleanor walked side by side, their pace neither hurried nor slow.

"Besides Ryan, Flora, Mia, and Lucius are also making good progress," Eleanor said. "They should be able to refine their first breath of spiritual energy by next year at the latest."

Anton nodded knowingly.

The three that Eleanor mentioned either have three or two spiritual roots, so it's normal that they're progressing quickly.

After chatting about teaching for a while, the two quickly shifted their topic to another matter.

"How's the modification of the spirit stones going?" Anton asked.

Eleanor perked up, her voice brimming with undisguised joy: "According to the modification plan you gave me last time, I've had a batch of spirit stones made and given to the Forest Guard for testing. The feedback from them is excellent; both the energy stability and the endurance are much better than the previous sensing spirit stones."

"I have already arranged for the alchemists in the clan to start mass production. Once they are familiar with it, the output will be able to increase quickly."

No wonder Eleanor was so delighted.

The significance of transforming spirit stones is truly profound.

The clan's development is now increasingly inseparable from the sensing spirit stones.

Whether it's crafting rune-inlaid equipment, drawing and using talismans, or even expanding the spirit-gathering room, a large number of sensing spirit stones are required.

However, she and Anton were the only ones in the entire clan who could refine sensing spirit stones.

Anton is busy most of the time.

The burden of refining sensing spirit stones fell on her alone, which resulted in the production of sensing spirit stones not increasing.

If there had been enough sensing spirit stones, the clan's casualties in this war with Dragon City could have been greatly reduced.

Eleanor pondered how to solve this problem, but couldn't come up with a good solution.

Her only hope was that Ryan and the others would grow up and then help her share the burden.

Now that Anton has come up with a better solution, she is the happiest person.

Seeing Eleanor's delighted expression, Anton's lips curled into a smile.

He had only recently developed the method of using magic stones to transform spirit stones.

Unlike the previous method of refining spirit stones with gemstones, transforming spirit stones with magic stones essentially changes the nature and density of the energy within the magic stone, transforming it from "magic power" into "spiritual energy".

This process does not require injecting spiritual energy; it only requires engraving specific rune arrays on the surface of the magic stone and then driving it with a specific array to perform mass modifications.

This means that alchemists from the clan can also participate.

Although they were far inferior to Anton and Eleanor in terms of rune crafting skills, and their efficiency and quality were also inferior, they had the advantage of being able to work together as a group, and their total output far exceeded that of Anton working alone.

More importantly, the spirit stones refined using this method have a higher potential.

Refining spirit stones from gemstones is limited by the gemstone's material and energy capacity, so at most only medium-grade spirit stones can be produced.

Unlike magic stones, which are naturally formed energy crystals, magic stones are designed to contain large amounts of energy and can theoretically be refined into high-grade spirit stones.

However, the cost would be very high, making it not very cost-effective.

Under normal circumstances, low to medium grade spirit stones are sufficient.

"If only spirit stones had veins," Eleanor suddenly remarked. "Then we wouldn't have to go through all the trouble of refining them; we could just mine them directly."

Anton chuckled to himself.

That's a good idea, but it's not very realistic.

The conditions for the formation of spirit stone veins are much more demanding than those for magic stone veins.

Even in the world of cultivation, spirit stone veins are extremely rare.

To alleviate the shortage of spirit stones, the cultivation world even developed a technique for "artificially cultivating spirit stone veins".

However, the cultivation process using this method can take thousands or even tens of thousands of years, requiring an extremely long time.

Unless a natural energy crystal vein can be found.

For example, Ling sand mine, Shuangsui mine, and Nitrogen sand mine, etc.

These are also a type of energy crystal, but they contain many impurities and are far less pure than spirit stones. They can only be used for alchemy or weapon crafting.

But they are essentially the same type of spirit stones.

Cultivating spirit stone veins based on these energy crystal veins can greatly shorten the vein formation time.

and many more!

Anton suddenly realized.

So, isn't magic stone also a type of energy crystal vein?

Moreover, in terms of energy purity, it is much higher than that of spirit sand ore, frost marrow ore, and nitrate sand ore.

So, can we also use magic stone veins to cultivate spirit stone veins?

Once the thought arose, it lingered in Anton's mind and wouldn't go away.

Since magic stones can be transformed into spirit stones, it should also be feasible to transform magic stone veins into spirit stone veins.

"Although it will take a long time, perhaps decades or even centuries, to see results, once successful, it will be a vein that produces spirit stones in a continuous stream, and it is worth a try."

Anton found it more and more believable, and his mood immediately brightened.

"By the way, I have an idea and I'd like to hear your opinion."

Eleanor's voice pulled Anton back from his reverie about nurturing the spiritual veins.

He turned to look at Eleanor, whose expression was more serious than before.

"you say."

Eleanor gathered her thoughts and slowly began, "It's about those mineral veins."

"Before the war broke out, we had nearly twenty metal mines in the Underdark and the Thousand Rock Hills. The output of various metals was more than enough to supply the clans with enough to make rune equipment, and even had a lot to spare."

"Now there are more than twenty metal mines in Dragon City, and the output has far exceeded the clan's needs. The extra metal must be sold."

"But selling ores or ordinary metal ingots directly yields limited profits, and the quality is inferior to what the dwarves of Grayrock Fortress smelt. We have no advantage in this regard, so I want to try a different approach."

Hearing this, Anton already had a vague idea in his mind.

Sure enough, Eleanor continued, "I plan to use spirit fire to temper the metal before selling it."

The Spirit Fire Tempering Method was discovered by Anton when he was refining the Yellow Turban Warriors.

Metals tempered by the spirit fire far surpass similar metals in toughness, hardness, and energy conductivity, resulting in a significant improvement in quality.

It far surpasses the metals refined by alchemists on the Dawn Continent using magical flames.

In the Dawn Continent, metal is always one of the most urgently needed resources, and there is never any worry about selling it.

Especially at this juncture when turmoil is imminent, all major forces are making intensive preparations, causing metal prices to rise steadily and remain high.

If a metal product of superior quality to those on the market could be launched at this time, it's easy to imagine how popular it would be.

There are just two problems.

First, the alchemists in the clan do not have spirit fire, so they have to use spirit fire talismans instead.

Both refining and activating spirit fire talismans require sensing spirit stones.

This will greatly increase the demand for spirit stones.

However, now that there are modified magic stones, the supply of spirit stones is no longer as tight as before, and the clans can afford it.

The second issue is consciousness.

Unlike Anton, the alchemists in the clan do not possess divine sense and cannot perceive the distribution of impurities inside the metal, nor can they force the impurities out inch by inch from the inside out without damaging the toughness and spirituality of the metal itself.

Metal refined in this way is definitely not as good as metal made by him personally.

But on second thought, it doesn't seem to be a problem.

Even if it can only be passively heated using a spirit fire talisman, the upper limit of the spirit fire's temperature and energy density far exceed those of magical flames, and the quality of the metal refined from it will far surpass that of ordinary metals on the market.

Furthermore, selling high-quality metal to other factions would not be a good thing.

The truly good things must be kept in your own hands.

Lowering the metal quality appropriately is actually a safer approach.

Having thought this through, Anton had already made up his mind. He nodded and said, "Good idea. Go ahead and do it. If you need any support, just come to me."

"Okay." Eleanor smiled slightly and nodded solemnly.

Just then, the two of them suddenly changed their expressions and looked ahead.

A paper crane flew in from the end of the tree-covered corridor, its wings fluttering gently, drawing an elegant arc in the air.

Its body was folded from pale green talisman paper, and its wings were edged with silver runes that shimmered in the sunlight.

This is a low-level puppet, and also a tool used by the clan chief's assistant team to transmit information within the clan.

Eleanor stretched out her palm, letting the paper crane land steadily in her hand, then automatically unfolded into a flat sheet of paper.

She glanced down at him, her expression hardening slightly, then looked up at Anton.

"Dragon City has been destroyed."