Elven cultivators

Having been delayed by the people of the Ring of Annihilation, the enormous creature had recovered a considerable amount of its strength and was struggling to get up from the ground.

Seeing Anton looking at it, it opened its huge mouth and let out a deafening roar.

Those dark yellow eyes were still filled with savagery and madness, showing no trace of reason.

Anton didn't tolerate it either. He unleashed his sword light and the Northern Darkness True Water simultaneously, quickly killing the guy.

After its death, the colossal earth elemental began to disintegrate.

Countless grayish-yellow rocks peeled off its body, crashing to the ground with a dull thud.

The originally bulky humanoid outline gradually blurred, collapsing and shattering layer by layer from limbs to torso, and from torso to head, eventually turning into a huge pile of rubble scattered in the center of the valley.

Two things stood out in the pile of rubble.

The first one is a crystal the size of a fist.

It exhibits a deep amber color and exudes a rich, almost tangible, earth elemental energy.

Just by looking at it, you can feel its weighty and solid presence, as if it were not a small crystal, but a mountain shrunk to a million times its original size.

"The original crystallization of the earth element."

A hint of joy flashed in Anton's eyes, and he reached out a hand.

The crystal instantly flew off the ground, drawing an arc in the air before landing steadily in his palm.

It feels smooth and substantial in the hand.

Inside the crystal, amber-colored light slowly rotates, and with each pulsation, visible ripples spread through the surrounding air, like the beating of a heart, full of the rhythm of life.

"good."

Anton nodded in satisfaction.

With this as a spirit seed, the time it takes for a spirit stone vein to form can be shortened by at least half.

It was worth the long journey he made.

The purpose of the trip to Ure Valley has finally been successfully achieved.

After storing the earth element crystal in his storage bag, Anton's gaze fell on the second item in the pile of rubble.

It was an irregularly shaped block, roughly the size of an adult's head.

Its surface is pitted and uneven, like a rock that has been weathered for many years.

It is the elemental core of the earth elemental giant.

This thing is a crystallized form of the concentrated essence of an earth elemental giant, containing extremely rich earth elemental power. It is a top-grade material for crafting legendary and even higher-level magical equipment.

Large magic arrays that use it as their core hub will have their power significantly enhanced.

For warriors and spellcasters who are stuck at the upper level of the Gold rank (peak) and unable to awaken (manifest) the power of the laws, the elemental core is an invaluable treasure.

By engaging with and comprehending the elemental power contained within over a long period, one can greatly increase the chances of awakening or manifesting the corresponding law power.

In the Dawn Continent, every elemental core is a strategic resource that various forces vie for, and it is priceless and unavailable for purchase.

However, the earth elemental core before him was not quite the same as those he had seen in his memory.

The core of a normal earth element should be a clear, earthy yellow.

However, the earth element core in front of us has a murky grayish-yellow color.

Even more striking is that wisps of grayish-black mist are seeping out from the cracks on the core surface, condensing in the air into distorted faces that seem to be screaming silently, before dissipating.

"It seems that the source of the Earth Elemental Giant's unusual appearance was this."

Anton examined the earth elemental core in his hand, his brows furrowing slightly.

He sensed a familiar feeling about this thing.

The aura emanating from it was very similar to that of the group from the Ring of Annihilation, but even more pronounced and intense.

It was a force diametrically opposed to vitality and life, one that seemed to drag everything into silence and decay.

"Death energy."

Anton uttered two words in a low voice, a thoughtful look flashing in his eyes.

The core of the earth elemental giant was actually infected by death energy.

This is not a common occurrence.

Elemental beings are essentially pure aggregates of elemental energy, and they have a strong aversion to all non-native, alien energies.

In particular, the energy of death is completely incompatible with the heavy and stable nature of the earth element.

Under normal circumstances, it would be impossible to penetrate the core of an elemental creature, let alone leave such stubborn traces of infection.

The only explanation for this is that the giant spirit had spent a considerable amount of time in an environment with extremely high concentrations of death energy.

Anton had a vague idea about the Ring of Annihilation's actions in setting a trap to capture this earth elemental giant.

In the original history, the calamity of the dead that swept across the entire Dawn Continent and caused countless deaths originated from a plane called "Nether Abyss".

The Abyss, also known as the "Land of Echoes of the Dead" or the "Forgotten Final Battlefield".

It is not a naturally occurring plane, but a "scar" left by a catastrophe in ancient times that surpasses any record of today.

Legend has it that before the rise of the dragon race, the Dawn Continent experienced an era later known as the "War of Eternal Annihilation".

Countless ancient races, including Titans, Proto-Giants, Ancient Elemental Lords, and the First Generation of Dragons, as well as extinct alien invaders, waged a thousand-year-long war on this continent.

When the war finally ended, the battlefield was piled with hundreds of millions of corpses.

The remnants of the powerful who perished in the war, their lingering resentment, and the lingering power of the laws intertwined and condensed into an ever-present dark cloud above the land of the dead.

Intense death energy seeped into the earth, altering the flow of the earth's veins and causing an irreversible distortion of the laws governing this region.

Ordinary methods are insufficient to purify this land, which has been thoroughly polluted by death.

Ultimately, the remaining powerful beings of the ancient races joined forces to strip and seal the entire polluted battlefield from the material plane and banish it to the void outside the material plane.

This is the Abyss.

In the original history, the Calamity of the Undead broke out because the seal on the Abyss was broken, reconnecting it to the Dawn Continent.

The spirits that had slumbered in the Abyss for countless years were awakened and began to invade the Dawn Continent.

Behind all of this lies the shadow of the Ring of Annihilation.

Anton speculated that it was most likely the Ring of Annihilation that broke the seal on the Abyss, reconnecting it with the Dawn Continent and thus causing the outbreak of the Undead Catastrophe.

After all, the Abyss is a dead end for the living; if they stay there too long, they will be assimilated by the death energy and become one of the undead.

Only the undead, and those creatures transformed through necromancy rituals, can remain in the Abyss unaffected for extended periods.

The Ring of Annihilation happens to have a large number of such members.

As for this earth elemental giant, Anton speculated that it most likely stumbled into the Netherworld Plane by chance and stayed there for a while.

After all, although the Abyss cannot be connected to the Dawn Continent, it is still connected to the four elemental origin planes.

In extremely rare circumstances, the collision of two planes creates a rift that happens to suck in a nearby earth elemental giant, thus leading it into the Abyss. While such a situation is extremely rare, the probability of it occurring is not zero.

During its time in the Abyss, the elemental core of the Earth Elemental Giant was constantly eroded and permeated by death energy, undergoing an irreversible mutation that resulted in its current form.

The reason why the Ring of Annihilation has its eye on the Earth Elemental Giant is also easy to guess.

Elemental cores infected with the death energy of the Netherworld retain an extremely weak, transdimensional connection with the Netherworld.

This connection can serve as a coordinate for locating the Abyss.

With the coordinates, the Ring of Annihilation can use some secret method to accurately locate the spatial position of the Abyss, and then attempt to break the seal.

Thinking about this, a thought suddenly flashed through Anton's mind.

In the original timeline, this earth elemental giant suddenly disappeared before the Dragon Slayer War began and never reappeared.

Now it seems that it didn't just disappear, but was destroyed by the Ring of Annihilation.

The latter thus acquired this elemental core corrupted by the death energy of the Netherworld, thereby locating the Netherworld and foreshadowing the later outbreak of the undead calamity.

But now, he has disrupted this process.

Would the Ring of Annihilation be unable to enter the Abyss because of this?

Anton pondered for a moment, then shook his head.

Most likely not.

The earth elemental core infected with death energy is not the only item that can be used to locate the coordinates of the Netherworld.

There are other ways to enter the Abyss besides using location coordinates.

The Ring of Annihilation cannot place all its hopes on a single earth elemental core.

They probably have other preparations as well.

Otherwise, they wouldn't have only sent a legendary-ranked individual to handle this matter.

As for whether his meddling might delay the time it takes for the Ring of Annihilation to find the Abyss, thus delaying the outbreak of the Cataclysm of the Undead, Anton thought that the possibility was unlikely.

The butterfly effect he created has caused drastic changes in the timeline.

No one can predict the future.

Perhaps the Scourge of the Undead, like the War of the Dragon Slayers, will break out even earlier than in the original timeline.

There was no point in dwelling on it, so Anton quickly put the matter out of his mind.

Instead of worrying about things that haven't happened yet, it's better to do the things in front of you well.

He casually set up a restriction on the earth element core to seal off the death energy inside and prevent it from infecting other items, then put it into his storage bag.

The elemental core, infected by death energy, no longer contains pure earth elemental power.

Using it to aid in comprehending the laws will not only fail to increase the chances of awakening, but may also lead to the corruption of death energy, resulting in the degeneration of the soul and the decay of the body.

That being said, this earth elemental core is still an extremely high-quality material, and it might come in handy someday, so it's always good to keep it for now.

Anton then flashed into view and appeared next to Xavier's corpse.

A legendary powerhouse of the pillar level should possess many valuable items.

He scanned the area with his divine sense and quickly located a dimensional ring.

Upon probing inside with my divine sense, I indeed found it filled with various rare materials, magical items, and a large amount of magic stones and gold coins.

After a quick glance, Anton smiled with satisfaction.

Not bad, I've made another small fortune.

After putting away the dimensional ring, Anton casually waved his hand, and the storage items on the other members of the Ring of Annihilation flew out and landed in his palm.

They were all dimensional bags and low-level dimensional rings, and the contents were far less abundant than Xavier's.

Anton didn't find anything of particular value, so he put everything away, intending to sort it out more carefully when he got back.

"It's time to go back."

After taking one last look at the clouds over Ure Valley, Anton turned and transformed into a streak of light, speeding towards the Eldron Plains.

His strength has improved considerably since this trip to Ure Valley.

Next, as long as you refine the remaining 40% of the pill essence step by step, you can break through the shell barrier and advance to the second level of the Golden Core stage.

At that time, his strength will reach a new level.