Elven cultivators

More than a month has passed in the blink of an eye.

The weapon-refining room.

A burst of intense red light rose slowly from the furnace, hovered in mid-air, and rotated slowly.

Within the red light, nine fire dragons could be faintly seen swirling and chasing each other, each with a different form.

They might raise their heads and roar angrily, or lie in wait to gather their strength, or swoop down and pounce.

Each fire dragon is so lifelike, as if it might break free from the red light at any moment and pounce on the enemy.

As the red light gradually subsided, the true appearance of the object inside was finally revealed.

It was a cover made entirely of pure gold.

About the size of an adult's palm, it hangs quietly in mid-air, its surface shimmering with a reddish-gold luster that flows gently like ripples on water.

The cover is semi-transparent, and the firelight is contained.

On the wall of the canopy, nine divine dragons are coiled in relief, with their heads all facing a fist-sized fireball at the top of the canopy, while their tails extend into the bottom of the canopy.

The bottom of the cover has a lotus petal-shaped base, with layers of petals that, when closed, resemble a budding fire lotus, hidden yet not fully open.

Anton raised his hand and summoned the Nine Dragons Divine Fire Cover, which slowly floated down from mid-air and hovered above his palm.

Feeling the immense fire elemental power contained within the magical artifact, as well as that vague and hazy sense of self, Anton revealed a satisfied smile.

Although it cannot compare to the sword pellet, this magic weapon has already reached the level of a mid-grade Xuan weapon.

It is one small rank higher than the first Heaven-Turning Seal that was refined.

The power of the Nine Dragons Divine Fire Cover does not lie in the overwhelming suppressive force of the Heaven-Turning Seal, nor in the unparalleled sharpness of the sword pellet, but in the word "trapping and killing".

Once unleashed, the Nine Dragons Divine Fire Cover will expand rapidly, descending from the sky and enveloping the enemy within it.

The nine fire dragons on the wall will come to life from their relief state, transforming into nine real fire dragons that will coil and soar within the enclosure, spewing divine fire that can incinerate everything.

The enemy was trapped inside the enclosure, facing both the siege of nine fire dragons and the continuous burning of divine fire, as if they were in a furnace with nowhere to escape.

Unless the enemy can escape the moment the shield completely falls, or forcibly break through from the inside with power far exceeding Anton's cultivation level, once trapped, they can only struggle bitterly in this cage of flames until they turn to ashes.

With this offensive magic weapon, his combat power has increased significantly.

After storing the Nine Dragons Divine Fire Cover in his Qiankun Bag, Anton stood up and stretched.

I sat there for more than a month, and my bones almost became stiff.

He pushed open the hatch of the Tian Shu Chamber and walked onto the deck.

When the disciples of Taichu City on duty on the deck saw Anton come out, they quickly bowed and paid their respects.

Anton nodded slightly in response, then transmitted his voice to Ryan in the control room.

Not long after, Ryan strode onto the deck.

"Teacher." He bowed respectfully.

Anton calmly said, "Get ready. We're setting off now to sail the Lingyun Flying Ship back to Taichu City."

Ryan paused slightly, a hint of surprise flashing in his eyes, but he didn't ask why. Instead, he nodded without hesitation.

"Yes, teacher."

After saying that, he turned and walked towards the control room, quickly disappearing at the entrance to the cabin.

Before long, a series of hurried but orderly footsteps echoed on the deck as the disciples of Taichu City returned to their posts and began preparing for the departure.

Anton then leaped off the flying boat and returned to the Dark Desolation Fortress.

They will be staying in the Annihilation Fortress for at least several decades, so there's no need to keep the Flying Cloud Ship here and waste manpower and resources.

This also delayed the cultivation of many disciples of Taichu City.

It would be better to let them go back.

Back at the stone building, the First Elder, the Third Elder, and Roman were all there.

Upon seeing Anton, the three of them simultaneously showed joy.

"Clan leader, you've emerged from seclusion," the Third Elder said with a chuckle. "The refining went smoothly, didn't it?"

Anton nodded slightly and casually asked, "Have the allied forces destroyed any new spatial nodes during this period?"

The elder shook his head: "No, we did find spatial nodes twice, but unfortunately we couldn't capture them and lost a lot of manpower in the process."

Anton was not surprised to hear this.

As expected, spatial nodes are not so easy to destroy.

If it weren't for his unexpected intervention last time, Valin and the others probably wouldn't have been able to capture the spatial node in the end.

In the original history, the war of attack and defense in subspace lasted for forty years.

It's unlikely that the coalition will be able to start fighting anytime soon.

"Get ready, we're about to enter the warp."

Anton immediately made the decision.

The other three naturally had no objections and immediately got up to prepare supplies.

……

Subspace.

The dark red sky hung low like a canopy, shrouding the entire earth in a blood-red twilight-like light.

The moment my vision cleared, that familiar sense of oppression surged back like a tide.

Anton's expression remained unchanged, and his divine sense naturally expanded, taking in the entire surrounding area.

The First Elder, the Third Elder, and Roman followed closely behind, appearing beside him.

"Let's go."

Anton took the lead and walked forward.

The four people walked forward along the gray-white plain, their pace neither hurried nor slow.

The surrounding scenery remained unchanged, with mounds of dragon skeletons visible everywhere.

The only difference was that this time, they had only walked for less than half an hour when the sky ahead began to tremble.

A dark red vortex appeared out of thin air, and countless points of light emerged from it, gathering and condensing in the air like fireflies.

The three dragon souls condensed almost simultaneously, then swooped down, carrying a chilling killing intent as they rushed towards Anton.

Anton raised an eyebrow and summoned his sword to meet the attack.

Without any suspense, in just a few exchanges, the three-headed dragon soul was killed, disintegrating into countless tiny specks of light that floated in the void.

This time, Anton didn't let the sword pellet absorb it. Instead, he raised his hand and waved, and a palm-sized bronze cauldron flew out from his sleeve, drifting towards the light spot in the air.

The cauldron is a dark bluish-gray color, with three legs standing upright and two tall handles. There is a hole in the center of the lid, which is slightly open at the moment.

It was the Soul-Gathering Cauldron that he had taken time out of his busy schedule to refine during this period.

A magical artifact specifically designed to absorb and refine the essence of dragon souls.

As the Soul-Gathering Cauldron emitted a bluish-gray halo, the light spots floating in the void seemed to be drawn in by an invisible force, surging into the cauldron like rivers flowing into the sea, and disappearing into it through the hole in the center of the cauldron lid.

One after another, the runes on the surface of the cauldron lit up, and the bluish-gray light flowed between the lines, emitting a deep hum.

After a moment, the buzzing gradually subsided, and the light of the runes slowly dimmed.

The Soul-Gathering Cauldron slowly floated back into Andong's palm.

Upon closer inspection, a thin layer of spiritual liquid had already been spread on the bottom of the cauldron.

The liquid was pale gold in color and clear and transparent, like melted amber.

A pure and extremely refined energy aura rose from the cauldron, carrying a faint warmth.

"Protect me."

Anton said something without turning his head, then sat down cross-legged.

The two elders and Roman exchanged a glance, then spread out, forming a triangle around Anton, their eyes scanning the surroundings warily.

Anton's gaze fell on the Soul-Gathering Cauldron. He took a deep breath and began to circulate his cultivation technique.

In an instant, a wisp of mist escaped from the cauldron, like a pale golden ribbon, drawing a graceful arc in the air before disappearing into Anton's slightly open mouth.

The moment the mist entered the throat, a warm sensation spread from the throat to the chest cavity, then descended along the meridians, and finally reached the dantian, disappearing into the golden core.

The golden core trembled slightly, and the halo of light on its surface lit up for a moment before returning to calm.

But Anton could clearly sense that the size of the Golden Core had increased by an extremely subtle amount.

Although the increase is not large, it is a real improvement.

"feasible!"

Anton was overjoyed.

The essence of the dragon soul can indeed be absorbed by the golden core and used to nourish the core body.

This means that he no longer needs to spend a long time refining a large number of pills, or searching for rare and precious natural treasures.

The dragon souls in the warp are ready-made "nourishment".

Anton was overjoyed and absorbed all the remaining essence in the cauldron in one go. Then he glanced at the sword pill and smiled slightly.

"I never thought I'd be competing with magical artifacts for food."

The sword pellet trembled slightly, conveying a hint of resentment.

Anton smiled slightly and said softly, "Once we find the spatial node, I'll give you a good meal."

The sword pellet then returned to calm, and the humming sound of the sword light became light and cheerful again.

Seeing that Anton finished so quickly, the two elders and Roman were somewhat surprised, but they did not ask any further questions.

Anton's unusual behavior was commonplace, and they were already used to it.

"Let's keep going."

Anton didn't explain further and continued walking forward.

Unsurprisingly, they encountered Dragon Souls several more times along the way.

After slaying these dragon souls, Anton did not absorb them on the spot. Instead, he used the Soul-Gathering Cauldron to refine and purify the essence of the dragon souls and store it away, intending to absorb it slowly when he returned.

The advantage of doing this is that it saves time, allowing you to devote more energy to exploration without having to frequently stop to absorb the spiritual liquid.

After several such encounters, Roman suddenly spoke up: "Have you noticed that we seem to be encountering dragon souls more and more frequently?"

The First Elder and the Third Elder exchanged a glance but remained silent.

They had already noticed this, but seeing that Anton hadn't spoken up, they tacitly kept quiet about it.

Anton calmly replied, "It's because the quality of the sword pellet has improved."

After being upgraded to a superior-grade Xuan weapon, the sword pellet's "attraction" to the dragon soul seemed to have increased considerably.

However, this is also a good thing for him.

Hunting efficiency has been greatly improved.

The prerequisite is that their strength must keep up.

Otherwise, if the dragon soul appears too frequently, it will become a problem that we can't handle.

Fortunately, the frequency of Dragon Soul appearances is not yet beyond Anton's ability to handle.

Even if more than ten dragon souls appeared at once, he felt he could handle it easily.

Even if all else fails, Roman and his two companions can still help and share some of the burden.

Upon hearing this, Roman glanced at the golden sword light beside Anton, nodded thoughtfully, and said nothing more.

After walking for a while, Roman started to get a little bored and started chatting with the others.

"The coalition forces have only destroyed one spatial node so far. I wonder how long this war will last?"

The Third Elder chuckled and said, "Judging from this situation, it will take at least several decades, and that's assuming the Dragon Clan has no other backup plans."

"Huh?" Roman's eyes widened. "They've even come out of the warp, so the dragons must have other, even more powerful, backup plans?"

The Third Elder shook his head: "That's hard to say. After all, the Dragon Clan is a top power that has been glorious for nearly ten thousand years. No one knows what other secrets they have."

Anton listened to their discussion without interrupting.

In the original history, the dragon race had no other backup plans.

The subspace is their last line of defense.

Once the warp is completely destroyed, the allied forces will be able to advance unimpeded and reach the gates of Holy Dragon City.

However, the dragons were not completely wiped out in the end.

When the Lord of the Dragon Court died in battle and the Holy Dragon City fell, the Dragon Clan made a crazy decision in desperation.

They ventured into the Storm Rift, attempting to find a way out of that forbidden land of death.

The Storm Rift is a massive fissure left behind by crustal movement and the collision of elemental energy at the beginning of the continent's formation.

It is unfathomable and constantly teems with extremely violent elemental energy.

Any living creature that enters it will be torn to pieces in a very short time.

Even saints are not immune.

That was a forbidden land of death that even dragons dared not easily set foot in.

But in such a desperate situation, the dragons had no other choice.

Staying in Holy Dragon City means death.

Entering the Storm Rift might offer a glimmer of hope.

Perhaps it was because the dragon race still retained a trace of luck, although most of the dragons eventually died in the Rift, a small number of lucky ones managed to cross the Rift and escape to safety.

Led by a holy dragon, they hid themselves and remained hidden from the world until the rise of the gods.

"Speaking of which, this might be an opportunity..."

Anton's gaze fell on the sword pellet beside him, his eyes flickering slightly.

Upgrading a sword pellet from a low-grade Xuan weapon to a high-grade Xuan weapon is relatively simple.

The leap from a high-grade Xuan weapon to a spiritual weapon represents a qualitative leap.

That's not just a matter of energy accumulation, but also involves the level of spiritual transformation.

It requires sufficiently strong nutrients to catalyze.

Even devouring four or five peak legendary dragons might not be enough to trigger this transformation.

It would probably require devouring at least one holy dragon.

In his memory, the one who led the dragon survivors to safety was a royal dragon who had just been promoted to sainthood.

The key is that it emerges from the storm's chasm, and it will inevitably suffer significant losses.

They might even have gotten injured.

It is undoubtedly an excellent hunting target.

After a moment's thought, Anton quickly came up with a plan and put the idea aside for the time being.

It's too early to think about these things now.

The war in the subspace has only just begun, and it will be decades before the allied forces breach the subspace.

He has plenty of time to prepare.