Elven cultivators

At the end of the year 9404 in the Dawn Calendar, the entire continent was still immersed in the aftermath of the Dragon Court's destruction.

Countless races cheered and celebrated for this.

They celebrated the collapse of the behemoth that had oppressed all races for nearly ten thousand years.

Taverns, markets, ports... everywhere people were talking about the war that had lasted for nearly thirty years and had finally come to an end.

Those races that once trembled under the dragon's might finally unleashed the humiliation and resentment that had been building up for nearly ten thousand years.

For a time, the mainland was filled with jubilation.

At the same time, many other forces turned their attention to the power vacuum created by the destruction of the dragon race.

Beneath the surface of universal celebration, a much larger undercurrent is slowly gathering.

Meanwhile, after breaching Holy Dragon City, the armies of the five major powers did not withdraw.

They remained stationed in the Holy Dragon Mountains and began discussing the distribution of the spoils of war.

As for the specific details, the outside world has no way of knowing.

In the northern part of the continent, the Qazadum Mountains.

This vast mountain range has sparse vegetation.

At first glance, there is no lush greenery, only the ruggedness forged by rocks, steel, and fire.

In the very center of the mountains, a majestic and awe-inspiring fortress city is embedded in the belly of half of the mountain range.

The battlements jut out from the mountainside, with massive steel cables anchoring the entire city to the rock face, and below them, unfathomable clouds and mist.

The streets spiral upwards through the fortress, like a giant steel dragon coiled around the mountain.

The workshop's chimneys peeked out from all directions, spewing out grayish-white plumes of smoke day and night, turning the sky into a chaotic, leaden gray.

The air was filled with the pungent smell of coal smoke, rust, and lava.

This is precisely the most distinctive mark of the dwarf civilization.

On a mountaintop on the outermost edge of the mountain range, Anton stood with his hands behind his back, gazing at the giant fortress in the distance.

Before long, an aura rapidly approached from afar.

Anton smiled faintly, turned around, and saw Igna land on the ground from the air and stride toward him.

The dwarf wasn't wearing armor today; instead, he was dressed in a dark brown leather coat, and a hearty smile graced his rugged face.

"Why don't we go into the fortress? I was thinking of having a drink with you."

Anton shook his head: "Never mind, it's not convenient for me to go in."

Igna laughed and didn't say anything.

Anton is both the leader of the forces and a top legendary expert. If he wants to enter the fortress, the Heart of the Mountains will definitely keep a close eye on him, which is indeed troublesome.

"It's so lively over at the Holy Dragon Mountains, why are you back?" Anton asked with a smile.

Igner's eyes flickered, and he said vaguely, "I'm not good at negotiating, and there was no point in staying there, so I came back."

Anton noticed the change in his expression and understood.

At this point, the five major powers had most likely already begun to have conflicts.

Igna probably returned to the Qazadum Mountains to avoid an awkward meeting with the other four members of the Five Star Pillars.

Anton didn't dwell on the topic and got to the point: "I'm here to discuss a deal with you."

Igna raised an eyebrow, his expression becoming more serious: "What deal?"

Anton calmly said, "I want the method to open the rift in the elemental origin plane of the Heart of the Mountains."

Igner was taken aback and instinctively asked, "How did you know about this?"

The Forge Dwarves are no longer a secret on the continent; many factions are aware of their existence.

They even knew that they used fire element crystals and fire element cores to enhance their bloodline power.

But only the higher-ups of the Heart of the Mountains knew about opening up the rift in the elemental primordial plane. How did Anton know?

Anton smiled faintly: "Besides this method, do you have any other channels to obtain enough fire element crystals and fire element cores?"

Igna remained silent, but his brows remained furrowed.

This reason is insufficient to explain why Anton knew about this.

But Anton clearly had no intention of telling him the real reason.

After a moment of silence, Igner didn't press further, but instead asked, "What do you intend to offer in exchange?"

Anton said, "The skills of all civilian magic crystal technology of the Silvermoon Clan."

"Not enough." Igner shook his head without hesitation. "The method to open the rift in the elemental primordial plane is the core secret of the Heart of the Mountains. The skills of civilian magic crystal technology alone are far from sufficient."

He looked into Anton's eyes and said, word by word, "If you want a way to open the rift in the elemental origin plane, you can exchange it for the manufacturing process of the Spirit Fire Talisman and the Sensing Spirit Stone... or the manufacturing process of that airship from before will also work."

Anton chuckled, "What kind of core secret is the method of opening up the rift in the elemental origin plane? It's more like a rune conduit system."

Upon hearing this, Igna stared wide-eyed at Anton, his face filled with astonishment and shock.

How did this guy know that?

The rune conduit system, which integrates elemental crystals and elemental cores into the body, is the true trump card of the Heart of the Mountains.

Even within their own race, few people knew this secret; only a few high-ranking members of the Heart of the Mountains and the lava dwarves were aware of it.

Where did Anton find out?

For a moment, Igner looked at Anton with a mixture of surprise and uncertainty.

The more he interacted with Anton, the more he felt that this guy was simply unfathomable.

Whether it's their strength or their intelligence capabilities, they are completely unfathomable.

Seeing that Anton was just smiling and not saying anything, Igna was so angry that he gritted his teeth.

But after weighing the options repeatedly in his mind, he still looked helpless.

"Alright, we can forgo the manufacturing process of Spirit Fire Talismans and Sensing Spirit Stones, but the Heart of the Mountains' procurement quota for Spirit Fire Talismans and Sensing Spirit Stones for the next thirty years must be doubled."

Anton gave him a deep look, realizing that the Heart of the Mountains was probably already preparing for war and was stockpiling strategic materials in advance.

However, he didn't say much, pretending to ponder for a moment before nodding in agreement.

"Can."

Anyway, I just got a lot of magic stones from the dragons, so I have plenty of materials to refine spirit fire talismans and sensing spirit stones.

If the Heart of the Mountains wants more, just give it to them; the clan will definitely profit anyway.

Igner's expression softened slightly, and he nodded, saying, "I'll go back and report to my superiors right away. I'll let you know as soon as I have the results."

Anton nodded slightly: "I'll wait for your news in the Eldron Plains."

Watching Igna depart, Anton also transformed into a sword of light and soared into the sky, leaving the Qazadum Mountains.

Anton didn't really care much about the technology of civilian-use magic crystals.

He heard from Eleanor that a disciple of a vassal race named Nordwin had begun researching a magic core with spirit stones as the main material, and had made some progress.

Once Nordwin's research is successful, the entire Magic Crystal Technology system will undergo a comprehensive upgrade due to the change in energy.

By then, the current magic crystal technology will be outdated and its value will drop significantly.

It would be better to use it now to trade for something useful.

Moreover, in Anton's vision, Magic Crystal Technology was merely a transitional phase.

Technology that uses spirit stones as energy is the future trend.

Once the spirit stone veins are fully converted and the spirit stone production increases, magic crystal technology will eventually evolve into spirit stone technology.

This is the true foundation for the future of the Silvermoon Clan.

……

The Heart of the Mountains operates with high efficiency.

Three days later, a dwarven delegation arrived in the Primordial Spirit Realm.

The two sides exchanged skills on the spot and discussed the specific details of increasing the transaction amount.

After obtaining what he wanted, Anton delegated the specific tasks to his subordinates and returned to his quiet room to begin researching methods for opening rifts in the elemental origin plane.

The method developed by the dwarves is actually quite simple in principle.

There are natural, unstable, invisible spatial folds between the elemental primordial plane and the material plane.

Under certain specific conditions, such as when the energy of the leyline nodes bursts, when spatial magic vibrates violently, or when a large amount of elemental energy of the same attribute is highly concentrated, these folds will be torn apart, forming temporary dimensional rifts.

The core technology of the Heart of the Mountains lies in artificially simulating and amplifying these conditions to actively tear apart spatial folds and create a controllable and stable temporary fissure.

Its underlying logic can be summarized in three keywords:

Resonance, guidance, and anchoring.

The specific steps involve first building an elemental resonance tower to generate energy fluctuations at the same frequency as the original plane of the target element, triggering resonance and tearing apart spatial folds.

The second step is to establish an element-guided array to expand and stabilize the tiny cracks torn apart by resonance, making them passable channels.

Finally, the same method is used to anchor the spatial rift, making it a stable passage.

Of course, it seems simple in theory, but in reality it is very complicated in detail and difficult to implement.

Whether it's building an elemental resonance tower or setting up guiding and anchoring arrays, it requires a large number of rare materials and demands a high level of expertise in alchemy, enchanting, and array manipulation from the implementer.

Fortunately, neither of these was a major problem for Anton.

On the contrary, the location for opening up the rift in the elemental origin plane is relatively more troublesome.

The target location must have relatively abundant elemental energy.

For example, the First Flame Furnace in the Heart of the Mountains is one of the places with the most concentrated fire element energy on the continent.

The dwarves must have opened the rift in the primordial plane of fire element here.

"For water element, the Nether Trench is a suitable location."

"For the wind element, it corresponds to the wood element in the Five Elements theory, so the vicinity of the Eternal Tree is fine."

"But the fire element..."

Anton shook his head. He figured the Heart of the Mountains probably wouldn't be happy to let him use the Primal Flame Furnace, so he'd have to find another place.

There's also the Metal Element Law, which doesn't have a corresponding elemental origin plane; one can only comprehend it step by step.

Regardless, Anton was already quite satisfied with having resolved the issue of comprehending the three principles of water, wood, and fire.

It can at least halve the time required to integrate into the laws.

Later Golden Core cultivators of the clans could also use the same method to accelerate their strength improvement.

It is worth mentioning that the dwarves did not specify in this document how they lured the elemental spirits and elemental giants out of the elemental plane.

Fortunately, Anton doesn't need to use this.

All he needs to do is access the laws that dissipate from the elemental origin plane.