The Elven Cultivator

As winter approached, the temperature dropped day by day.

The protection of the Eternal Tree kept the Silver Moon Forest lush and green, but a sharp chill now laced the air. Puffs of white breath were starkly visible in the shafts of light filtering through the canopy.

Within the forest lay the healing ward, a place where the Elves treated their sick and wounded.

Treehouses were hidden deep among the ancient trees, and sunlight dappled through the layers of branches and leaves, casting mottled golden shadows.

A stream gurgled past the houses, and the air was filled with the bitter fragrance of mint and silver-leaf chrysanthemum. The occasional birdsong only accentuated the forest’s tranquility.

But today, that tranquility was shattered by the sound of hurried footsteps.

Several Elf Warriors rushed in carrying the wounded, shouting anxiously, ”Where’s the physician? Come quickly, someone’s been hurt!”

A physician in white robes hurried out of a treehouse. His expression immediately grew grim when he saw the unconscious, blood-soaked victim on one of the warrior’s backs.

”Was it the Lizard-men?”

”That’s right.” The Elf Warrior carrying the wounded man gritted his teeth. ”Those damned cold-blooded crawlers!”

The physician said no more, gesturing for them to carry the person into the treehouse.

After a flurry of activity, the Elf Warriors departed, their faces grim.

From a nearby walkway, Anton and Romance took in the whole scene.

”Winter is almost here.” Romance’s brow furrowed, her knuckles white as she gripped the handle of her War Axe. ”Those crawlers are back again.”

Anton’s expression was just as solemn.

A large Lizard-man tribe lived to the north of the Silver Moon Forest.

Every year as winter approached and food grew scarce, the Lizard-men would invade the Silver Moon Forest. They came to fell trees for firewood and to hunt the forest’s beasts for their winter stores.

The Silver Moon Race would naturally not tolerate such an intrusion, so every year they fought several bloody battles against the Lizard-men.

In the movies and novels Anton had seen in his past life, Lizard-men were usually just cannon fodder, minor mobs that served as a backdrop to show off the protagonist’s strength.

But on the Dawn Continent, the Lizard-men were a ferocious race renowned for their formidable combat prowess.

This was because the blood of Giant Dragons flowed through their veins.

Even though this bloodline was extremely diluted, it still granted them strength and ferocity far beyond that of ordinary races.

Each year, the Silver Moon Race suffered considerable casualties to repel the Lizard-men.

Many of the orphans in the Clan had parents who had died in the wars against the Lizard-men.

”One day, I’m going to wipe out those crawlers.”

Romance whispered softly, staring down at the War Axe in her hands as if making a promise to herself.

Anton replied calmly, ”Count me in.”

Romance looked up at him, a smile spreading across her face as she nodded firmly.

”Alright!”

Leaving the healing ward, the two walked side by side along a forest path.

Romance quickly returned to her usual carefree self. Looking at the wicker bag in Anton’s hand, she asked, ”I’ve been meaning to ask, what are you going to do with all that stuff you bought?”

”It’s Magic business. You wouldn’t understand even if I told you,” Anton said casually.

Romance froze for a moment and grumbled to herself, but she didn’t press him further.

The last time she questioned Anton about constructing a Magic Power circuit, she was proven completely wrong the very next day. Anton had teased her about it several times since, so she no longer spoke with much confidence when it came to matters of Magic.

This saved Anton the trouble of having to explain himself.

The items in the wicker bag were, of course, the materials needed to draw Talismans. He had run all over the place to gather them.

Over the past month of testing, Anton had basically figured out which materials were suitable as spiritual mediums for drawing Talismans. He had also accumulated a great deal of drawing experience and was confident he could successfully create his first Spirit Gathering Talisman today.

As they entered the residential area, the paths grew more crowded.

Along the way, many Elves smiled and nodded at Anton. A few young Elves around his age, whom he had seen at the training grounds, even raised a hand to greet him.

Society’s judgment of people was always both pragmatic and fascinating.

Before he started learning Magic, Anton’s habit of doing things his own way was seen by others as the strange behavior of an outcast who didn’t fit in.

But once he revealed his Super Magical Physique and successfully constructed a Magic Power circuit in a single day, his previous strangeness naturally transformed into the straightforward, individualistic actions of someone who stood out from the crowd.

The attitudes of those around him gradually grew warmer and more familiar, some even making deliberate efforts to befriend him.

This made Anton, a man of two lives, sigh with emotion. Perhaps this was the prerogative of a genius.

Back in his treehouse, Anton went to his desk and, with practiced ease, laid out all the materials before beginning to draw the Talisman.

The paper he used was Moonlight Moss paper, made primarily from Moonlight Moss. Of all the papers Anton had tested, it offered the best value.

It was pliable yet tough, had excellent Spiritual Qi conductivity, and cost only a tenth of the price of sheepskin paper for Secret Techniques.

The ink was a special Spiritual Ink concocted from the blood of a Scale Rock Lizard and Starlight Grass Juice.

The Scale Rock Lizard was a type of Dragon Beast that lived in the hills south of the Silver Moon Forest, one of the descendants of the sub-dragon species, the Rock-Horned Dragon.

Because of the faint Dragon Blood in its body, this lizard’s blood contained considerable elemental energy, making it a common material for creating low to mid-tier Magic Scrolls.

SCRITCH, SCRITCH!

The room was silent, with only the faint scratching of the quill pen echoing within.

Anton held his breath, concentrating as he drew one complex, arcane line after another onto the blank paper.

Wherever the tip of his quill moved, the ink flowed like a swimming dragon or a slithering snake, subtly aligning with some profound principle of the universe.

At the same time, the Spiritual Qi gathered in his Dantian began to flow slowly, moving through his palm to the tip of the quill and infusing into each stroke.

As the Runes multiplied, the paper gradually took on an ineffable, Spiritual quality.

A moment later, as the final stroke was completed, the paper suddenly burst forth with a hazy, brilliant light.

A pale green halo rippled outward like water, forming visible energy ripples in the air that lasted for several seconds before slowly receding and vanishing.

Anton let out a long breath, a joyful smile spreading across his face.

”It’s done!”

Looking at the successfully created Spirit Gathering Talisman on the desk, Anton was overjoyed. The problem of materials for creating Talismans was now completely solved. He could now start mass-producing them.

After a while, he came back to his senses from his elation. He quickly picked up the Spirit Gathering Talisman, stuck it to the wall with the window, and then infused it with Spiritual Qi to activate it.

A brilliant light flashed across the Talisman’s surface. The next second, countless streams of worldly energy surged from all directions as if drawn in by an invisible vortex, filling every corner of the room.

Anton could clearly feel the concentration of worldly energy in the air climbing rapidly.

By the time the energy fluctuations settled, the energy concentration inside the treehouse had increased significantly.

Without delay, Anton sat cross-legged on his bed and began to cultivate, circulating the Taichu Hiding Skill.

After a full breathing cycle, he felt the Transformation in his body and couldn’t help but grin broadly.

His breathing efficiency had increased by more than thirty percent!

This meant that what originally would have taken five years to refine one wisp of Taichu Spiritual Qi would now only take a little over three years.

At this rate, in just over sixty years, he could refine eighteen wisps of Taichu Spiritual Qi and advance to the Middle Stage of Qi Refining.

’It’s a shame the effects of the Spirit Gathering Talismans can’t be stacked. Otherwise, if I put up a hundred of them, my cultivation speed would skyrocket.’

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

There was a limit to the energy concentration a Spirit Gathering Talisman could achieve. Even if he posted several at once, he couldn’t surpass this upper limit.

Shaking his head, Anton cleared his mind of distracting thoughts and began to consider his next steps.

Refining Spiritual Qi step by step was a given, but the key was to find a way to further accelerate his cultivation speed.

If he had the choice, what Anton wanted most was naturally a Spirit Gathering Array.

Unfortunately, both setting up and controlling an Array required an extremely high level of Divine Sense.

A Cultivator in the Qi Refining Stage who hadn’t yet awakened their Divine Sense couldn’t even begin to touch the field of Arrays.

Some large-scale Arrays that emulated the rules of the world even required a Cultivator to be able to sense and utilize those rules, something that only a peak Foundation Establishment Cultivator could achieve at the very least.

The next best option was the Nourishing Yuan Pill.

Although the Nourishing Yuan Pill was only a Low Tier Pill, it was a priceless treasure for Qi Refining Stage Cultivators. It could significantly temper the physical body and expand the Qi Sea, thereby allowing one to refine Spiritual Qi much faster.

If he had a sufficient supply of Nourishing Yuan Pills, Anton was confident he could reach Foundation Establishment in less than a hundred years.

However, the prerequisite for refining Pills was mastering a Spiritual Fire Technique. He wouldn’t be able to learn any Techniques until he broke through to the Middle Stage of Qi Refining.

The next option down was to follow the path of blood-food body refinement.

Simply put, this involved devouring the flesh and blood of Spirit Beasts, absorbing the Spiritual Qi and Life Force contained within, and converting it into nourishment to temper the body, thereby accelerating the speed of Spiritual Qi refinement.

In the orthodox Cultivation Realm, this type of blood-food body refinement Cultivation Technique was considered an unorthodox shortcut. Although it offered rapid improvement, it often came with great hidden dangers.

The residual ferocity in the Spirit Beast’s flesh and blood could corrupt the mind and had to be suppressed with a powerful will. Otherwise, there was a risk of bestial transformation or madness.

However, as long as one had a top-tier Cultivation Technique to eliminate the residual ferocity, blood-food body refinement was a decent supplementary method.

And the Taichu Hiding Skill that Anton was currently cultivating, with its rotation of the Five Elements and its principle of all techniques returning to the origin, was more than enough to suppress and eliminate that ferocity.

Although the effects of blood-food body refinement weren’t as good as a Spirit Gathering Array or Nourishing Yuan Pills, it was the best option currently available to Anton.

’The Dawn Continent doesn’t have the concept of Spirit Beasts, but Magical Creatures... should be more or less the same, right?’

The Taoist Jade Scroll contained countless blood-food body refinement Cultivation Techniques. As long as he could get his hands on some beast meat, he could begin cultivating immediately.

Anton quickly made a decision—he would hunt Scale Rock Lizards!

The meat of a Scale Rock Lizard could be used for blood-food body refinement, and its blood could serve as a spiritual medium for Talismans. It was killing two birds with one stone.

He would also save the money he would have spent buying Scale Rock Lizard blood.

After his massive shopping spree for materials over the past month, his savings were almost gone.

Having set his goal, Anton frowned and began to think about a concrete plan of action.

The Silver Moon Race strictly forbade its members from leaving the Silver Moon Forest without permission, especially underage Elves like him.

To this end, the Clan had set up a series of security measures on the outskirts of the forest, both to guard against external enemies and to prevent its own people from leaving without permission and running into danger.

It wouldn’t be so easy to slip out unnoticed to hunt.