Elven cultivators

As winter approaches, the temperature drops day by day.

The Eternal Tree's protection keeps Silvermoon Forest lush and green, but a chill has crept into the air, and the breath exhaled is clearly visible in the beams of light filtering through the leaves.

The Forest Healing Place is where elves treat their injuries and illnesses.

Treehouses are nestled deep within ancient trees, where sunlight filters through layers of branches and leaves, casting dappled golden shadows.

A babbling brook meanders around the house, the air is filled with the bitter scent of mint and silverleaf chrysanthemum, and the occasional birdsong adds to the tranquility of the forest.

But today, this tranquility was shattered by a series of hurried footsteps.

Several elven warriors rushed in carrying the wounded, shouting urgently, "Where's the healer? Come out quickly, someone's injured!"

A doctor in a white coat hurried out of the treehouse. When he saw the injured man with blood streaming down his back and lying unconscious, his expression immediately turned serious.

"Was it the lizardman's doing?"

"That's right." The elven warrior carrying the wounded gritted his teeth. "It's those damned, cold-blooded reptiles!"

The doctor said no more and gestured to carry the person into the treehouse.

After a period of chaos, the elven warriors hurriedly departed with grave expressions.

In the nearby corridor, Anton and Roman witnessed the entire scene.

"Winter is almost here." Roman frowned, his fingers clenching the axe handle until they turned white. "Those reptiles are here again."

Anton also looked solemn.

A large lizardman tribe lives in the northern part of Silvermoon Forest.

As winter approaches, the lizardmen, facing food shortages, invade the Silvermoon Forest, cutting down trees for firewood and hunting wild animals for provisions.

The Silvermoon Clan would not tolerate such aggression, and thus they fought several bloody battles with the Lizardmen every year.

In the movies and novels Anton had watched in his previous life, lizardmen were mostly minor enemies, serving as background figures to highlight the protagonist's strength.

However, on the continent of Dawn, the lizardmen are a ferocious race known for their formidable fighting prowess.

This is because they have the blood of dragons flowing through their veins.

Even though this bloodline is extremely rare, it endows them with power and ferocity far exceeding that of ordinary races.

Every year, the Silvermoon Clan suffers considerable casualties in their efforts to repel the Lizardmen.

Many orphans in the clan had parents who died in the war against the lizardmen.

"One day, I will wipe out those reptiles."

Roman looked down at the battle axe in his hand and whispered to himself as if making a promise to himself.

Anton said calmly, "Count me in."

Roman looked up at him, a smile on his face, and nodded emphatically.

"good!"

After leaving the place of healing, the two walked side by side on the forest path.

Roman quickly reverted to his usual carefree demeanor, looking at the wicker bag Anton was carrying, and asked疑惑地问道, "I've been wanting to ask this for a while now, what's the point of buying all this stuff?"

"You wouldn't understand magic anyway," Anton said casually.

Roman paused for a moment, muttered a few words, but didn't ask any more questions.

After questioning Anton about constructing a magic circuit, she was thoroughly humiliated the next day and was ridiculed by Anton several times for it. Since then, she has become less confident in speaking about magic.

This saved Anton the trouble of explaining.

The contents of the wicker bag were naturally the materials needed to draw talismans, which he had to buy from many different places.

After a month of testing, Anton has basically figured out which materials are suitable as spiritual guides for drawing talismans, and has also accumulated a lot of drawing experience. He is confident that he will successfully draw the first spirit-gathering talisman today.

After entering the residential area, the number of people on the road gradually increased.

Along the way, many Pokémon smiled and nodded at Anton. Several young Pokémon of similar age, whom he had met at the training ground before, even raised their hands to greet him.

Society's evaluation of people has always been both realistic and fascinating.

Before learning magic, Anton's unconventional behavior was seen by others as that of an oddball who didn't fit in.

But when he revealed his super-magical physique and successfully constructed a magic circuit in just one day, his previous eccentricities naturally turned into straightforward, individualistic, and extraordinary actions.

People around him gradually became more friendly and enthusiastic towards him, even to the point of deliberately trying to befriend him.

This made Anton, who had lived two lives, sigh, perhaps this is the privilege of genius.

Back in the treehouse, Anton went to the table, skillfully prepared all the materials, and then began to draw the talisman.

The paper used is moonskin paper, a type of paper made primarily from moonskin moss, which is the most cost-effective paper among all the papers that Anton has tested.

It is soft and flexible, has excellent spiritual energy conductivity, and costs only one-tenth of the price of secret parchment.

The ink is a special spiritual ink made from the blood of the Scaled Rock Lizard and the juice of Starshine Grass.

The Scaled Rock Lizard is a dragon-like creature that lives in the hills south of Silvermoon Forest. It is one of the descendants of the sub-dragon species "Rockhorn Dragon".

Because of the faint dragon blood within its body, the blood of this lizard contains considerable elemental energy and is a commonly used material for making low- to mid-level magic scrolls.

Swish!

The room was completely quiet, with only the faint sound of a quill pen writing echoing in the air.

Anton held his breath and focused intently, drawing one intricate and mysterious pattern after another on the blank paper.

Wherever the brushstrokes go, the ink flows like dragons and snakes, subtly embodying some profound truth of the universe.

At the same time, the spiritual energy gathered in his dantian began to flow slowly, flowing down his palm to the tip of the pen and merging into the strokes of the brush.

As the number of runes gradually increased, the paper slowly acquired an inexplicable spiritual quality.

A moment later, as the last stroke was made, the paper suddenly burst forth with a mesmerizing shimmer.

The pale blue halo rippled outwards like water, forming visible energy ripples in the air that lasted for several seconds before slowly receding and disappearing.

Anton let out a long breath and smiled with delight.

"It's done!"

Looking at the successfully drawn spirit-gathering talisman on the table, Anton was overjoyed. Now the problem of materials for drawing talismans was completely solved, and he could start drawing talismans in batches.

It took him a while to come back to his senses from his joy. He quickly picked up the spirit-gathering talisman, stuck it on the wall with the window, and then infused it with spiritual energy to activate it.

A sudden burst of light flashed across the surface of the talisman, and in the next second, countless energies of heaven and earth surged in from all directions, as if drawn by an invisible vortex, filling every corner of the room.

Anton could clearly feel that the concentration of celestial and terrestrial energy in the air was rapidly increasing.

Once the energy fluctuations subsided, the energy concentration inside the treehouse had increased significantly.

Without delay, Anton immediately sat cross-legged on the bed and began practicing the "Primordial Return to the Source Technique".

After a round of breathing exercises, feeling the changes within his body, he couldn't help but grin.

The efficiency of breathing exercises has increased by more than 30%!

This means that what used to take five years to refine a single wisp of primordial spiritual energy can now be done in just over three years.

At this rate, he could refine eighteen primordial spiritual energies and advance to the mid-stage of Qi Refining in just over sixty years.

"It's a pity that the effects of the Spirit Gathering Talisman cannot be stacked, otherwise, if I used a hundred or eighty talismans, my cultivation speed would skyrocket."

After the initial joy, Anton felt a pang of regret.

There is a limit to the energy concentration that a spirit-gathering talisman can achieve; even if several are applied at the same time, it cannot exceed this limit.

Shaking his head, Anton cleared his mind of distractions and began to consider the next steps.

Refining spiritual energy step by step is a given, but the key is to find a way to further accelerate the cultivation speed.

If given a choice, Anton would naturally want the Spirit Gathering Array the most.

Unfortunately, both setting up and controlling the formation require extremely high levels of spiritual strength.

Qi Refining stage cultivators who have not yet awakened their divine consciousness cannot even set foot in the realm of formations.

Some large-scale formations that mimic the rules of the universe require cultivators to be able to sense those rules, which is something that at least Nascent Soul stage cultivators can do.

The next best option is the Peiyuan Pill.

Although the Peiyuan Pill is only a low-grade pill, it is a treasure for cultivators in the Qi Refining stage. It can greatly temper the physical body, expand the Qi Sea, and thus refine spiritual energy more quickly.

If there were enough Qi-nourishing pills, Andong was confident that he could successfully establish his foundation in less than a hundred years.

However, the prerequisite for refining pills is mastering a spiritual fire technique. Unless one breaks through to the mid-stage of Qi Refining, one cannot learn such techniques.

The next best option is to follow the path of blood-feeding body refinement.

Simply put, it means devouring the flesh and blood of spirit beasts, absorbing the spiritual energy and life force contained within, and transforming it into nutrients for tempering the physique, thus accelerating the refining speed of spiritual energy.

In the orthodox world of cultivation, this kind of blood-feeding body-refining technique is considered an unorthodox, quick-fix method. Although it leads to rapid improvement, it is often accompanied by great hidden dangers.

The ferocity remaining in the flesh and blood of spirit beasts can erode one's mind, requiring a strong will to suppress it; otherwise, there is a risk of bestiality and madness.

However, as long as there are top-notch cultivation techniques to eliminate the remaining ferocity, blood-feeding body tempering is a good supplementary method.

The "Primordial Return to the Source Technique" that Anton is currently cultivating, with its five elements rotating and all laws returning to the source, is more than enough to suppress and eliminate malevolent forces.

Although the effects of blood-feeding body refinement are not as good as those of the Spirit Gathering Array and the Qi Cultivation Pill, it is the best option that Anton can currently access.

"The Dawn Continent doesn't have the concept of spirit beasts, but magical creatures... they should be similar, right?"

There are countless blood-refining techniques in the Great Dao Jade Slip. As long as you get your hands on beast meat, you can start cultivating immediately.

Anton quickly made a decision—to hunt the Scaled Rock Lizard!

The flesh of the Scaled Rock Lizard can be used to cultivate blood-eating body refinement, and its blood can be used as a spiritual guide for talismans, achieving two goals at once.

This saves us the money we would have spent on buying blood from the Scaled Lizard.

He has been buying materials on a large scale over the past month, and his savings are almost gone.

After setting the goal, Anton frowned and began to think about specific action plans.

The Silvermoon Clan strictly forbids its members from leaving the Silvermoon Forest without permission, especially underage elves like him.

To this end, the clan set up a series of guard measures around the forest, both to prevent the invasion of external enemies and to prevent clan members from going out without permission and encountering danger.

Trying to sneak out hunting without anyone noticing isn't that easy.