Elven cultivators

The crafting of spiritual artifacts is extremely difficult, far surpassing that of mystical artifacts.

"Heretical" methods like the Soul Devouring Path can progress very quickly, but the conditions are often extremely demanding.

Taking the Soul Devouring Path as an example, it requires a continuous supply of the essence of living beings as nourishment.

Once the absorption stops, the sword pellet's improvement will immediately slow down.

The orthodox method of crafting spiritual artifacts is to first forge a high-grade mystic artifact, then plant a spiritual seed in it, and then nurture it day and night with divine sense and magical power, allowing it to gradually transform and grow over a long period of time, eventually crossing that threshold.

This method is time-consuming.

It could take anywhere from a few hundred years to over a thousand years.

However, it is stable and the conditions are not as harsh as those of the Devouring Spirit Path, as it does not require hunting living beings to feed them.

There are generally two choices for what is called a "spirit seed".

Essence, or spirit.

The essence of a powerful being is a spiritual crystallization formed under specific conditions when its soul essence deeply merges with the power of the laws it cultivated in its previous life after its death.

Integrating it into a mystical weapon can greatly enhance the weapon's vague consciousness, making it qualified to advance to a spiritual weapon.

Besides being born naturally, spirits can also be artificially created through secret methods.

Cultivators can use secret techniques to forcibly extract the essence of a spirit beast's soul at the moment of its death and condense it into a spirit essence.

Anton's method of refining sword pellets using the Devouring Spirit Path is essentially an extreme secret technique that refines the essence of dragons and the essence of flesh and blood together, and it follows this very path.

However, the spirit and the essence are different.

The spirit is not born from the fall of living beings, but is conceived in the process of "divine things" transforming from inanimate objects into spiritual beings.

The so-called "mythical objects" include, but are not limited to, totem poles that have carried the blessings and wishes of many years.

A clan relic that has absorbed the beliefs of countless generations of clansmen.

These are rare and precious stones that naturally form in places where the power of laws is abundant.

A legendary weapon, imbued with the heart and soul of generations of craftsmen...

Wait, there's more.

Over the long years, these objects have gradually developed a hazy, indistinct spirituality.

And a nascent spark of spirituality is the soul.

The spirit, the hazy consciousness of the mysterious artifact, and the spirit of the spiritual artifact are all related to spirituality, but their essences are completely different.

The relationship between the three can be roughly compared to wood, a burning flame, and a stable fire.

Simply put, a spirit is a spiritual material that can be extracted, transplanted, and refined.

In theory, if a spirit has been born for a long enough time, it has a certain chance of growing into a spiritual artifact.

These types of magical artifacts are also known as innate magical artifacts.

However, such examples are extremely rare, numbering only a handful in the history of the cultivation world.

Not to mention the Dawn Continent.

Compared to spirit souls, essence souls are obviously easier to obtain.

The essence used as raw material must be from a creature at the very least at the peak of the legendary rank.

Saint-level is even better.

The stronger the essence, the shorter the time it takes for a spirit to be born.

Anton doesn't have a suitable essence at the moment, so he can only upgrade the Heaven-Turning Seal and the Nine Dragons Divine Fire Cover to the level of high-grade Xuan artifacts.

Then we'll find a way to acquire suitable essences to serve as spirit seeds, paving the way for the advancement of the two magic treasures.

Composing himself, Anton turned his attention back to the spoils of war.

Many of these rare materials can be used to craft magical artifacts and mystical weapons.

For example, the Death Breath Stone.

This is a strange crystal formed from a natural mineral after thousands of years of immersion in an environment with extremely high concentrations of dead energy, containing extremely rich yin energy.

It is perfect for crafting Yin-attribute magic weapons.

There are many similar rare materials.

"As expected of the dragon race, their foundation is truly astonishing."

Looking at the mountain of supplies in front of him, Anton felt an indescribable sense of satisfaction.

The value of these resources far exceeded his initial estimate.

Moreover, upon closer examination, it becomes clear that this is only a small part of what the dragon race has accumulated over tens of thousands of years.

When the Dragon Court arranged for the dragons to escape, it was impossible for them to take all the resources with them.

They had to make choices, selecting only those that were most valuable and easiest to carry.

Those bulky, large resource points that could not be moved quickly had to remain in Holy Dragon City and eventually fell into the hands of the Allied Forces.

Moreover, Longting cannot put all its eggs in one basket.

They will inevitably distribute their resources among multiple teams, with each team carrying a portion, to reduce the risk of being wiped out in one fell swoop.

Even so, not all dragons in resource-carrying teams can escape Storm Rift alive.

In that forbidden land of death, many dragons must have perished.

In that environment, the survivors would have no chance of stopping to retrieve the spatial ring from the dead dragon.

After layers of reductions, taking away all of Dragon Court's resources, it would be lucky if even one-tenth remained.

And now, all of these resources have fallen into his hands.

After a moment of joy, Anton collected his thoughts and began to plan how to use these resources.

Strengthening the Heaven-Turning Seal and the Nine Dragons Divine Fire Cover should be the top priority.

If his two magical treasures can be upgraded to spiritual weapons, his combat power will increase dramatically.

The materials for crafting tower-shaped flying magical artifacts have also been secured.

There's no need for the clan to go through the trouble of searching everywhere anymore; the materials contained in this batch of spoils alone are more than enough to forge hundreds of towers.

In addition, these resources can be used to forge more mystical artifacts to arm the legendary powerhouses of the clan.

With the aid of magical artifacts, their strength can be elevated to a higher level.

In the coming turmoil, their ability to survive will be enhanced, allowing them to play a greater role on the battlefield.

The remaining materials were left to the clan to handle.

Whether used for trade or production, it can greatly promote the development of the clan and lay a more solid foundation for the future of the Silvermoon Clan.

After planning how to use the spoils, Anton then began to think about his next move.

Besides refining the mystical artifact, the remaining four laws were gradually integrated into the initial embryo of the true seal.

If things proceed step by step, at his current pace, it will take at least twenty years.

This is all under the premise that everything goes smoothly and no bottlenecks are encountered.

He didn't want to wait that long.

Ideally, this process should be shortened.

The most direct way is to place yourself in an extreme environment that corresponds to the law.

For example, the original plane of elements.

The power of the laws there is so concentrated that it is almost tangible, making it a natural sanctuary for comprehending the laws.

The power of the elements there is no longer an abstract concept, but a tangible and perceptible thing, like air and water.

Cultivating in that environment allows one to comprehend the laws at a speed several times, or even ten times, faster than in the outside world.

But with his current strength, rashly entering the elemental origin plane would be no different from courting death.

The place was filled with violent energy storms, and elemental spirits were everywhere.

Ordinary elemental spirits are manageable, but those elemental giants that have survived for thousands of years are all legendary-level beings.

Elder Giant Spirit is even a demigod-level being.

Once they've got their eye on you, escaping becomes a pipe dream.

However, there are compromise solutions.

For example, one could create a rift in the material plane that connects to the original plane of elements, and use the elemental power overflowing from the rift to cultivate.

The advantage of doing this is that you can enjoy high concentrations of elemental energy without having to delve into the elemental origin plane and confront those terrifying beings.

Although the elemental power overflowing from the rift is not as concentrated as that of the original plane, it is still far more abundant than anywhere else in the material plane.

This approach sounds absurd, but in fact, people on the Dawn Continent have already done it.

That is the heart of the mountains.

In order to obtain powerful bloodline power, these dwarves shattered fire elemental crystals or fire elemental cores, and then, under high temperature and pressure, poured them layer by layer into the bodies of selected dwarves through a complex rune conduit system, thus giving birth to the Forge Dwarves.

This approach requires obtaining a large number of fire element cores and fire element crystals.

Furthermore, the Forge Dwarves will need to regularly ingest large amounts of fire elemental cores to maintain the stability of their bloodline power.

It is clear that relying solely on routine procurement is insufficient to meet the demand.

So the dwarves of the Heart of the Mountains devised a method.

This means creating a rift in the material plane that connects to the original plane of fire element, luring out the spirits of fire and the giant spirits of fire element from the rift for hunting.

In this way, they have a continuous source of fire element crystals and fire element cores.

If we could obtain the technique for opening rifts in the elemental primordial plane from the Heart of the Mountains, it would undoubtedly save us a lot of trouble.

After a moment's thought, Anton made up his mind.

Just then, his expression shifted, and his figure vanished from the spot in an instant.

When they reappeared, they had arrived at the Tianyuan Palace and immediately saw the elf girl waiting in the hall.

Upon seeing Anton, Eleanor's face lit up with a smile, and she asked joyfully, "Chief, when did you return?"

"I just got back not long ago."

With a flick of his sleeve, Anton sent hundreds of spatial rings fluttering down toward Eleanor.

Aside from keeping the resources for his own use, he planned to give the rest to Eleanor for the clan's development.

Eleanor was startled by the spectacle. After taking the spatial ring and seeing what was inside, she stared in astonishment, her eyes wide with disbelief.

"Chieftain, this...this is..."

Considering that they would need to regularly harvest resources from the dragons in the Nether Trench, and that Eleanor's cooperation would be essential, Anton didn't hide anything and told them the whole story.

Upon hearing this, Eleanor was stunned and remained speechless for a long time.

She had naturally heard of the Storm Rift's infamous reputation.

That forbidden land of death, no living being has ever emerged alive from it.

But the dragons actually broke this ironclad rule.

What surprised her even more was that her clan leader had actually killed the leading holy dragon and seized the resources brought out by the dragon clan.

Although she knew that her clan leader was very strong, she never thought that the latter could kill a saint on his own.

That's the power that stands at the very top of the Dawn Continent!

It took Eleanor a while to recover from her shock.

Although I still have many questions in my mind.

For example, how did Anton know that a giant dragon would escape from the Storm Rift?

How did they know they would go to the Nether Trench?

But Eleanor wisely refrained from asking further questions.

"With these resources, future development can be accelerated significantly."

Eleanor's eyes lit up.

The development of the Silvermoon Clan has always been limited by resources.

While the trade network can generate substantial profits each year, the clan's expenses are equally enormous.

The expansion of the legion, the forging of Dao soldiers, the resources needed for the cultivation of disciples in the Primordial City, the cultivation of spirit plants and beasts, the settlement of vassal races...

Each of these requires a massive investment of resources.

Over the years, Eleanor has put a lot of effort into balancing income and expenditure.

But now, with this unexpected windfall of resources, she can finally act freely.