Elven cultivators

The area is characterized by whirlpools and volcanic activity.

Celine passed through an archway made of coral rock and stepped onto the corridor leading to the mining area.

The seawater flowed slowly around her, pushing her downwards until she reached the entrance of the mine.

Two rows of waterproof crystal lights were fixed between the sturdy stalagmites and metal supports, illuminating the large area of ​​the originally dark seabed as if it were a shallow sea.

Looking ahead from the entrance, you can see a wide alleyway sloping diagonally into the rock strata of the underwater mountain range. More magic crystal lamps are embedded on both sides of the alleyway, one every few feet, illuminating the interior of the alleyway.

A dense crowd of people are busy inside and outside the mining area.

The creaking of chains and pulleys echoed through the seawater, heavy and muffled, like the slow breathing of some deep-sea monster.

The stone basket was pulled out of the mine along the laid track. The basket was filled with dark blue ore, and its surface was inlaid with silvery-white natural thunder patterns.

Seawater churned around the edge of the basket, stirring up the fine mineral fragments, which then sank back down.

Celine's gaze shifted from the ore to the figures carrying stone baskets.

It includes both sea creatures from the Tide Temple and members of vassal races from the Silvermoon Clan.

Sea creatures move freely in the water.

The vassal races of the Silvermoon Clan are even more peculiar. Each of them is surrounded by a waterless cavity two meters around them, and the seawater is pushed away by an invisible force, as if gently parted by an unseen hand.

As they walked back and forth, the seawater would automatically slide away along the edge of the cavity, as if the water flow itself was actively avoiding them.

Celine had heard from the steward in charge of the mines that the Silvermoon Clan members always carried a magical item called a water-repelling bead.

Simply wear it to keep out seawater, allowing you to move freely even in the deep sea.

The Silvermoon Clan has many similar magical equipment items that are not high-level but have ingenious and practical functions, and they are not sold to outsiders.

If it weren't for the collaboration with the Silvermoon Clan to mine the veins, Celine wouldn't have known that the Silvermoon Clan's alchemy and enchanting skills had reached such a high level.

Thinking of this, Celine couldn't help but sigh.

When she first heard about Anton's deeds from Grant and Alicia, she treated it as mere hearsay and didn't pay much attention to it.

After all, the mainland is vast and full of geniuses.

Every year, dazzling geniuses emerge, but only a handful ultimately reach the top.

Not to mention that she herself is one of the geniuses.

At that time, there was still a significant gap between Anton and her, who was one of the five pillars and a candidate for the Temple's Holy Maiden.

But no one expected that Anton would rise to prominence so quickly, like a comet.

So much so that now, she is the one who has to look up to Anton.

Even Her Highness the Holy Maiden values ​​him highly.

Celine had a vague feeling that Her Highness the Saint might have seen some of the future through prophecy.

In those future times, Anton will undoubtedly play a crucial role.

That's why Her Highness hinted that they should be on good terms with Anton.

This made Celine even more curious about the elven swordsman.

Unfortunately, since that one meeting, she has rarely had the opportunity to speak with Anton alone.

The latter spends most of his time cultivating in the area northeast of the mine, which is shrouded by a magic array.

Out of curiosity, Celine once approached to investigate.

As a result, I witnessed firsthand the rift within that magic array that simultaneously maintained four elemental primordial planes.

At that time, she was far away from the magic circle, separated by surging ocean currents and distorted heat currents, but she could still clearly feel the four elemental energies of earth, water, fire and wind converging, colliding, and being redirected and balanced in that area.

The magic array is like a precise net, firmly controlling four distinct energies within the same space, allowing them to advance and retreat without eroding each other.

She considered herself to have some skill in magic arrays, but that scene still amazed her for a long time.

I had long heard that Anton was highly skilled in the field of magic arrays.

The core territory of the Silver Moon Clan, the Primordial Spirit Realm, has a large-scale defensive array system built by Anton, covering an area of ​​over a thousand square kilometers.

Now it seems the rumors were indeed true.

Lost in thought, Celine had already arrived at the mine's temporary command post.

Several sea creature managers were gathered around a stone table, whispering among themselves while looking at an open map of a mineral vein.

These are all highly skilled personnel personally appointed by the Tide Council, responsible for coordinating mining affairs with the Silvermoon Clan.

Upon seeing the arrival of the candidate saintess, the sea creatures immediately stopped talking and respectfully bowed.

"Where's Roman?" Celine asked, looking around.

Upon hearing this, the sea creatures looked at each other with strange expressions.

Upon seeing this, Celine immediately understood: "She went to see Solius again?"

The leader of the Selchi people coughed lightly: "Lord Roman came to the mining area early this morning, took a look, and then left."

Celine nodded slightly, without saying anything.

Roman was a high-ranking member of the Silvermoon Clan sent to oversee mining operations.

But after she arrived, she basically didn't care about the mining area. Instead, she would go and fight Solius every few days.

They called it "exchanging ideas and learning from each other."

At first, the sea creatures were startled by the commotion caused by the battle and thought something had happened. They quickly sent people to check, only to find that it was a false alarm.

After it happened many times, everyone got used to it.

Since it wouldn't affect the mining work, and Anton didn't say anything, the temple decided to pretend they didn't see it.

"...You guys continue, I'll go take a look over there."

Celine waved to the stewards and turned to leave the command tent.

Not long after, she broke through the sea and flew up, heading towards the sea area where Solius lived.

When they were still far from their destination, Celine sensed intense energy fluctuations ahead.

The crackling of thunder, mixed with the muffled roar of surging waves, carried from a great distance, causing the water to tremble slightly.

Celine slowed down and stopped above a raised ridge.

A kilometer ahead, two figures, one large and one small, were fiercely clashing in the churning ocean currents.

Solius floated in the middle of the sea, hundreds of tentacles of varying lengths hanging from the edge of his umbrella, gleaming faintly in the dim light.

Its body spread out wide, stirring the surrounding seawater as if it were boiling.

On the other side, Roman was enveloped in a dazzling silver-white lightning.

Nine golden, wheel-shaped phantoms lined up along her spine, from her tailbone to the top of her head, each slowly rotating.

With each rotation of the wheel, fine arcs of electricity burst forth from its rim, traveling along its surface and electrolyzing the surrounding seawater into tiny bubbles.

The lightning rose and fell slightly with her breath, and every rune on her armor flickered under the light, making her figure stand out in the shadows of the deep sea.

boom!

Roman gripped his axe with both hands, his body suddenly rising up, accompanied by hundreds of fine arcs of lightning, and slashed heavily at a tentacle that was whipping towards him.

As the axe blade pierced the whiskers, lightning suddenly surged, scorching a charred line into the translucent tissue along the cut.

The tentacles paused slightly, then pulled back at an even faster speed, but more tentacles simultaneously rolled in from the other side.

Roman spun around to dodge, his battle axe drawing an arc around him.

Nine golden wheels lit up simultaneously for a moment, and a bolt of lightning as thick as an arm shot out from her back, deflecting the swirling tentacles from their trajectory.

However, after only a slight pause, the whiskers attacked again.

Celine saw it all clearly from the side.

Thorius never really exerted his full strength.

Although the tendrils moved quickly and rapidly, they were all measured. When the force landed on Roman, it was often mostly deflected by her golden wheel protection. The remaining force would at most knock her back a few steps, but would not cause any real damage.

More importantly, Thorius never used the power of the Shadow Abyss Laws from beginning to end.

Rather than a friendly exchange, it was more like a training exercise.

Even so, the power Roman displayed was astonishing.

She is a power-type warrior with explosive power and relentless attacks. Her fighting style is wide-ranging and aggressive, and ordinary legendary warriors would probably not last more than a few rounds against her.

Her lightning magic and golden wheel protection allowed her to withstand Thorius's attacks head-on and unleash dazzling combos when counterattacking.

With the strength she has demonstrated so far, she would be among the top even among the legendary powerhouses of the entire Great Whirlpool Sea.

"At just over two hundred years old, he already possesses the strength of a seasoned legend. I never imagined that the Silver Moon Clan, besides Anton, would have such a genius."

Celine sighed inwardly.

Given the lifespan of elves, it's almost certain that Roman will be promoted to the Saint rank in the future, barring any unforeseen circumstances.

Furthermore, Celine noticed that Roman's equipment was of exceptionally high quality.

Both the battle axe in his hand and the leather armor he wore were clearly ancient-grade magical equipment.

During her previous observations, she had also seen Roman use several other legendary magical equipment.

A rough count reveals that there are at least five or six pieces of legendary equipment alone.

Judging from a single leaf, one can imagine that the Silvermoon Clan must possess a considerable number of ancient-grade magical equipment.

Add to that the water-repelling beads that every member of the Silvermoon Clan's vassal races possessed, and all sorts of other strange and unusual equipment... The more Celine looked, the more she felt that the Silvermoon Clan's wealth in terms of equipment had exceeded the scope of a normal first-rate power.

Just as Celine was pondering this, the battle in the distance had come to an end.

Roman's final axe strike was firmly blocked by a tentacle, dissipating all its force.

She smoothly withdrew her axe, stepped back several feet, hoisted the battle axe onto her shoulder, and exhaled a long breath carrying tiny arcs of electricity.

"happy!"

"Thanks, Solius, that's enough for today."

Solius gently wiggled his whiskers twice in response.

Roman noticed Celine at that moment, flew over, and laughed, "Celine, why didn't you say anything when you arrived? How long have you been standing there watching?"

"You haven't been here long," Celine smiled. "Congratulations, your skills have improved again."

Roman's smile deepened upon hearing this: "Thanks to Solius for sparring with me, otherwise I don't know when I would have been able to reach my current level on my own."

The core of cultivating and improving one's strength through the three transformations lies in "proving the Dao through strength" and "cultivating both internal and external strength."

Simply put, it means breaking through the shackles of physical body through extreme power tempering and blood and qi accumulation, and moving towards the "indestructible golden body".

In addition to accumulating vital energy daily, one must also continue to temper the physical body.

The former, needless to say, involves absorbing the energy of heaven and earth through the daily practice of cultivation techniques, as well as consuming the flesh and blood of spirit beasts and rare and precious materials to transform into essence and energy.

The latter is to allow vital energy to permeate every inch of bones, muscles, and meridians.

During this process, the physical body will undergo tempering and sublimation until it reaches the state of "indestructibility".

In order to achieve the tempering effect, many cultivators of strength will seek extreme environments to cultivate.

Its purpose is to use the power of heaven and earth to force the physical body to undergo a transformation in the cycle of "destruction and repair".

Some cultivators also choose to temper their physical bodies through intense life-or-death battles.

In extreme battles, a cultivator's vital energy is stimulated to its limit, resulting in a tempering effect far exceeding that of normal cultivation.

Roman naturally falls into the latter category.

Just then, the two of them simultaneously changed their expressions and turned to look into the distance.

In their perception, the energy fluctuations that had been stable in that direction suddenly changed.

"Anton has emerged from seclusion!" Roman's eyes lit up.

As soon as she finished speaking, she transformed into a bolt of lightning and sped off in that direction.

Celine was only a beat behind and followed.