Elven cultivators

The war in the Holy Dragon Mountains continues.

The offense and defense in the subspace is like a slowly unfolding game of chess, with both sides repeatedly pulling in and out of each other. Only once every one to three years will news of a space node being destroyed be reported.

Meanwhile, in the distant Eldron Plains, another war broke out without warning.

Spring of the year 9387 in the Dawn Calendar.

The Silvermoon Clan suddenly declared war on Blackrock Territory, citing Blackrock Territory's secret funding of wandering mercenary groups and bandits, as well as its continued attacks on supply convoys of clan partners.

The news sent shockwaves through the entire Eldron Plains.

Since the fall of Kreisor Dragon City, the Silvermoon Clan has not waged war again.

They focused on developing trade, signing cooperation agreements with various forces to sell rune equipment, tempered metals, potions, and magic crystal products to various parts of the continent.

Everyone knows that this once remote clan is growing rapidly, but few people know just how powerful it has become.

Now, this beast, which has been dormant for many years, has finally bared its fangs, immediately attracting countless eyes.

In an instant, forces in the Eldron Plains and surrounding areas all focused their attention on this war.

Storm is coming.

……

The clouds were thin over Green Heights.

A giant falcon was speeding northward at an astonishing pace, its golden-white wings gleaming in the sunlight, leaving a pale golden afterimage behind it with each flap.

A man and a woman sat side by side on the broad back of a giant falcon.

Ryan squinted, gazing at the gradually clearing horizon in the distance. The wind high above swept past his ears, carrying a chilly edge, but it was kept at bay by the faint aura emanating from his body.

Mia sat beside him, her hands supporting her on the back of the bird beneath her, leaning slightly forward as she looked down at the rapidly receding mountains and rivers below, her face full of pleasure.

"The surface is so much better." Mia took a deep breath of the dry, crisp air. "Even the wind in the Underdark is damp and cold; it always feels sticky when you breathe it in. The air on the surface is so refreshing."

Ryan nodded in agreement.

They had been on an exploration mission until they returned to Nine Nether City, when they learned that the clan had declared war on Blackrock Territory.

Upon hearing this, they returned to Primordial City without hesitation, accepted the mission to participate in the war, and then rushed to Green Heights without stopping.

Lucius was luckier than them.

When the clan declared war, he had just finished his exploration mission and returned to Nine Nether City to rest. Upon hearing the news, he immediately returned to Primordial City, and was already on the battlefield in Green Highlands.

"Speaking of which, the Radiant Feather Falcon is really good." Mia patted the back of the giant falcon beneath her. "Flying by ourselves using the Wind Riding Technique is not only slow, but also consumes a lot of spiritual energy. It's much easier to get around with it."

The Shining Feather Falcon is a first-tier spirit beast that the Beast Garden has bred and selected from the Sun Falcon as its mother through more than ten generations of breeding.

With a wingspan of over five meters, a compact body, and well-developed muscles, its hooked beak is as sharp as a dagger, capable of easily piercing through plate armor.

Moreover, this giant falcon has an extremely fast diving speed, extremely strong claws, eyesight that can see ten kilometers away, and a fierce temperament. It can be called one of the most successful breeding achievements of the Primordial City Beast Garden in recent years.

Two years ago, the Silvermoon Legion established a new flying squadron, using the Shining Feather Falcon as their mount.

Looking at the giant falcon beneath him, Ryan couldn't help but sigh slightly.

The improvement and evolution of ordinary species often takes dozens of generations and spans hundreds of years.

Furthermore, the more powerful the creature, the longer it takes.

However, the Beast Garden uses special methods to catalyze the growth of spirit beasts and, to a certain extent, guides their directional evolution, thus significantly shortening this process.

The Radiant Falcon is a spirit beast breed that has been cultivated and improved in just over a decade.

An even better example is the Rock Armor Beast.

The latter is a second-tier spirit beast bred and improved from the Ridge Dragon Beast. It has deeply explored the Rockhorn Dragon bloodline within its body, pushing its defensive capabilities to the extreme, making it a veritable mobile fortress.

I heard that in this war against Blackrock Territory, the clan deployed Rock Armor Beasts to test the combat power of this new type of spirit beast and collect data for future breeding.

During the conversation, Kaguya Hayabusa had already entered the central part of the Green Highlands.

At the edge of the sky, the outline of a gray-black mountain range slowly emerged, like an ancient behemoth lying on the earth.

The mountain ridges are steep and sheer, with towering peaks that cut through the vast plains.

Black Rock Mountains.

The natural barrier in the center of the Green Highlands is also the stronghold of Blackrock Territory.

On the eastern foothills of the mountains, on a vast plain, a series of military camps spread out like a gray chessboard, stretching to the horizon.

Thousands of tents stood in neat rows, military flags fluttered in the sky above the camp, and the oak crest on the flags was particularly eye-catching in the sunlight.

Giant silver-gray supply wagons lined up in a long queue outside the camp, their cargo compartments covered with rainproof tarpaulins.

Soldiers moved back and forth, unloading boxes of supplies from vehicles and carrying them to designated warehouse areas.

Further away, the Scaled Lizard Cavalry patrolled in formation around the camp, their gray-green scales gleaming coldly in the sunlight.

Mia exclaimed, "Judging from the size of the camp, the Silvermoon Legion has probably sent at least half of its forces."

Ryan made a rough estimate, nodded slightly, and smiled, "After all, the enemy is one of the top forces in the Green Highlands, so it's normal for the clan to take it seriously."

In recent years, the Silver Moon Clan has been developing at an increasingly rapid pace.

Thanks to Anton's growing reputation, elven tribes from all over the continent flocked to join him, and the clan's population grew rapidly, now exceeding 100,000.

The Silvermoon Legion subsequently expanded to over 18,000 men.

This is even with the increased recruitment standards; otherwise, if recruitment were allowed to proceed freely, the troop strength could easily exceed 25,000.

After all, even the guard force, which serves as the Silvermoon Legion's reserve force, has now surpassed the 5,000 mark.

The Silver Moon Legion, numbering 18,000, was organized into twelve flag teams.

Two of the Dark Banner squads are stationed year-round in Nine Nether City, responsible for exploring and guarding the Dark Regions.

The Primordial Spirit Realm—the new area formed after the merger of Primordial City and Silver Moon Forest—is protected by a mountain-guarding array, so it only requires two flag teams to guard it on ordinary days.

The remaining eight flag teams serve as mobile forces, either rotating to guard mines in various locations or resting and training in the Primordial Spirit Realm.

Judging from the size of the camp, at least six flag teams have been deployed.

That is, nine thousand soldiers.

It may not sound like much, but the Silvermoon Legion is no ordinary legion.

The army of nine thousand men, along with their accompanying mounts, pack animals, puppets, and vassal races serving as auxiliary troops, numbered at least five or six times the size of the army.

The size of the camp naturally increased accordingly.

As Ryan was thinking, he saw two dark figures rise into the air from the edge of the camp and quickly approach them.

Those were two smaller Radiant Feather Falcons. On each falcon sat two elven soldiers clad in rune-patterned leather armor, short bows at their waists, their expressions solemn.

One of them held a palm-sized copper plate with faintly visible runes on its surface and a pale blue sensing stone inlaid at the edge.

"Halt! Land and undergo inspection!"

One of the soldiers shouted loudly, his voice particularly clear in the open sky.

Ryan patted the back of the Shining Falcon, which let out a cry with remarkable intelligence, slowed down, and gently landed on the ground.

Two elven soldiers also landed on the ground, and one of them stepped forward.

Ryan took a token from his pocket and tossed it to the other person.

"Disciples of the Primordial City, come to participate in the war after accepting the mission."

The elven soldier had actually recognized Ryan and Mia long ago, after all, these two were among the top few disciples of the Primordial City and held extremely high positions in their clans.

Even so, the elven soldiers remained vigilant. They first glanced at the bronze plate, and seeing that it did not react, they confirmed that the two people in front of them were not disguising their identities before carefully examining the tokens.

After confirming that everything was correct, the elven soldier respectfully handed the token back.

"Lord Ryan, Lady Mia, please forgive me."

"It's just routine, it's what I should do."

Ryan put away the token and nodded slightly.

The two then rode on the Radiant Falcon and continued flying toward the camp, eventually landing in the temporary animal enclosure in the northeast corner of the camp.

The animal enclosures covered a vast area, with huge fences made of thick wooden stakes, and wide passageways between the fences for people and vehicles to pass through.

The air was filled with the distinctive pungent smell of animals, mixed with the aroma of hay and fodder.

Dozens of wild animals were busy working between the fences.

They would feed the Radiant Falcons, clean the droppings in the enclosures, or apply ointment to the injured mounts.

Seeing Ryan and Mia leap off the back of the Radiant Falcon, the two Wildlings quickly put down what they were doing and hurried over to greet them.

"My lords."

They bowed respectfully and practicedly, with perfectly timed smiles on their faces.

"Thank you for your hard work." Ryan handed the reins to one of the Wildlings. "Take good care of him; we'll need them in a few days."

"Rest assured, my lord." Huang Yi took the reins and carefully led the Radiant Falcon, gently stroking the giant falcon's neck with his other hand, his movements soft and practiced.

Ryan watched the Wildling's skillful movements and nodded inwardly.

The clans have now absorbed more than thirty vassal races like the Wildlings.

Most of them were recruited gradually over the years.

Dwarves skilled in engineering, Rockscale Clan experts in mineral exploration, Thor Stone Golems adept at mining, and Bladeclaw Clan skilled in fighting in underground environments...

There are also halflings, windfolk, river people, wood spirits, and so on, from the surface world.

These races each had their own strengths, filling the labor shortages in many areas of the clans, freeing the elves from arduous, low-skilled jobs, and allowing them to devote more energy to cultivation and core affairs.

During a casual conversation with him, Flor once mentioned a development plan for vassal races that their teacher had finalized.

What was it called again...? Upgrading of the industrial chain division of labor?

Ryan didn't quite understand these esoteric terms, but he roughly grasped the logic behind them from Flor's explanation.

The clans control core technologies and high-end production capacity, such as the refining of rune equipment, the production of dragon essence potions, and the processing of sensing spirit stones.

The basic processing steps with low technical barriers and high labor intensity, such as the casting and assembly of parts for magic crystal products, the extraction of low-level potion excipients, and the basic smelting of metals, are outsourced to vassal races.

The benefits of doing so are obvious.

On the one hand, the elves no longer need to waste their energy on those trivial and tedious repetitive tasks, and can focus on more valuable work.

On the other hand, vassal races obtain stable compensation through these jobs, improving their lives and increasing their strength, which in turn increases their loyalty to the clan.

Win-win.

As far as Ryan knew, the living standards of the vassal races had indeed improved significantly in recent years.

They moved into brick and stone houses built uniformly by the clan, and with a stable food supply and medical care, the survival rate of newborns increased significantly, and the population size also grew steadily.

The leaders of those vassal races were very satisfied with this and never compromised on the clan's orders.