The Elven Cultivator

As if sensing Anton’s silent complaints, the sighing sound from the Sighing Cluster suddenly grew louder. The fissure in its center abruptly widened, shooting a hazy gray ray toward him.

Anton had no intention of testing the ray’s power with his own body. He decisively released his Separation Fire Shield, and a translucent Crimson Gold Light Curtain instantly enveloped him.

The moment the hazy gray ray struck the Separation Fire Shield, Anton felt a strange energy surge toward him like a tide, attempting to penetrate the light curtain.

The energy had a cold, solidifying quality, as if it wanted to freeze and petrify anything that moved.

However, the Crimson Gold Light Curtain only trembled slightly. The flame-like runes on its surface flared, completely blocking the petrifying energy. Not a single trace managed to seep through.

The Sighing Cluster faltered, seemingly not expecting its attack to be completely ineffective.

After recovering, its spherical body contracted slightly. The frequency at which its crystals opened and closed suddenly increased, and the sighs it emitted grew shrill.

A barrage of hazy gray petrification rays shot out from its central fissure, raining down upon the Separation Fire Shield.

The Crimson Gold Light Curtain rippled but remained as steady as a boulder, completely unshaken.

With a placid expression, Anton summoned a flash of silvery sword light from his chest. It split into eight beams in mid-air and then erupted, striking the Sighing Cluster from all directions simultaneously.

With the Separation Fire Shield protecting him, he had no need to worry about defense and could focus entirely on the attack.

With a series of sharp CRACKS, fragments of grayish-white crystal flew from the Sighing Cluster’s surface like hailstones.

In just a few moments, the Sighing Cluster’s entire body had shrunk by a full size.

Anton then directed the eight beams of sword light to strike the same spot repeatedly, tearing a huge gash in the crystalline shell.

Deep within the gash, a mass of ethereal purple light was faintly visible.

That was the Sighing Cluster’s crystal core.

Its vital core.

Anton’s gaze narrowed. The eight beams of sword light surged forward, streaking through the gash in the shell like lightning to strike the ethereal purple light with pinpoint accuracy.

BOOM!

A muffled boom echoed through the cavern.

The ethereal purple mass of light flickered violently a few times before dimming.

The Sighing Cluster’s spherical body suddenly stiffened. The movement of its crystals ceased, and even its ceaseless sighing came to an abrupt end.

The massive sphere swayed a few times in mid-air before crashing heavily to the ground with a loud THUD.

Anton stepped forward.

The Sighing Cluster’s crystalline shell had lost its luster, turning a deathly gray. Cracks spiderwebbed across its surface, radiating from the point of impact.

WHOOSH!

A beam of sword light entered the Sighing Cluster’s body through the gash.

The next moment, the Sighing Cluster’s crystalline shell shattered, dissolving into dust.

The crystal core within had also vanished, completely devoured by the Sword Pill.

In its place, several new draconic runes appeared on the surface of the Sword Pill.

Anton nodded in satisfaction.

The Sighing Cluster was a sub-dragon species, so it was only natural that the Sword Pill could devour it for sustenance.

Although the effect was slightly less potent than that of a Dragon Race official, it was still quite good.

After retracting his Sword Pill, Anton stored the Mind Flayer Overmind’s corpse in his Dimension Ring. He checked the area one last time for anything else of value before heading toward the cave entrance on the far side.

After leaving the cavern, Anton proceeded with even greater caution.

Sighing Clusters were social creatures.

A single colony could have anywhere from dozens to over a hundred members.

This meant that the Mind Flayer city-state was now occupied by at least several dozen Golden Peak creatures.

Although Anton was tempted to hunt the Sighing Clusters to empower his Sword Pill, he knew he had to abandon the idea for now.

If he got entangled with them, he would be lucky to escape with his life.

Fortunately, the Sighing Clusters’ senses weren’t as keen as the Mind Flayers’. With his Wuyin Protective Talisman and Shadow Travel Skill, he shouldn’t be discovered as long as he was careful.

And things turned out just as Anton expected.

The Sighing Clusters were all concentrated in the caverns on the other side of the city.

Along the way, he encountered numerous Sighing Clusters.

These creatures were greedily absorbing the dense elemental energy, oblivious to their surroundings and completely unaware of the uninvited guest passing in the distance.

After a considerable effort, Anton finished exploring the entire city-state.

He made a rough estimate: there were about fifty to sixty Sighing Clusters currently in the city-state.

Counting those inside the buildings, the number could only be higher.

Moreover, the vast majority were adults.

The thought of such a force was enough to make one’s skin crawl.

Anton didn’t disturb the creatures. Instead, following the intelligence he’d extracted from a Mind Flayer, he navigated his way to the city-state’s resource depot.

It was a natural rock pillar on the western side of the city-state.

From the outside, the pillar blended seamlessly with the surrounding geology. Its surface was covered in dark gray moss, showing no signs of artificial excavation.

Even the Mind Flayers’ slaves wouldn’t have given it a second glance.

Anton circled around the pillar to a crevice on its shaded side.

The crevice was so narrow that a person could only squeeze through sideways. Its uneven edges made it look like a natural fissure in the rock.

He squeezed through sideways. After about twenty paces, the fissure suddenly opened up.

Before him was a steep, nearly vertical, downward slope.

Anton simply used the Wind Manipulation Technique, his body drifting down like a falling leaf.

At the bottom of the slope was a stone door.

Pushing open the stone door revealed a natural cavern over a thousand square meters in size.

The cavern’s walls had been hewn perfectly flat and the floor paved with stone slabs; it had clearly been meticulously modified by hand.

Hundreds of metal shelves lined the walls, piled high with wooden crates, crystal caskets, and leather pouches of all sizes.

Anton’s gaze swept over the shelves, a slight smile playing on his lips.

’The Mind Flayers operated in this region for countless years. The resources they accumulated are truly astonishing.’

He did a quick survey before selecting the most valuable resources and stuffing them into his Dimension Ring.

He carried more than ten Dimension Rings, all of which he had seized from members of the Dragon Race over the years.

But even that was nowhere near enough to hold everything in the cavern.

By the time he had filled all his Dimension Rings, more than half of the resources in the cavern remained.

Without a hint of reluctance, Anton turned and left.

’I’ll just have to come back for the rest later.’

After leaving the city-state in silence, Anton glanced back. He could still faintly hear the overlapping sighs from within.

The Sighing Clusters had clearly made this their new habitat.

Anton averted his gaze, and his figure vanished into the shadows outside the city-state.

...

When Anton emerged from the crevice, he found that a large group had already gathered in the mine.

The three elders, Cedric, Elena, Darian... even Romance and Eleanor had come.

Nearly all of the Clan’s Golden Tier and Silver Peak combatants were present.

Furthermore, his Divine Sense detected thousands of forest guards stationed outside, all on high alert as if facing a major threat.

Clearly, after receiving his message via the Sound Transmission Paper Crane, the Elder Council had immediately mobilized all available personnel to seal off the mining area.

The group let out a visible sigh of relief as Anton emerged from the crevice.

”Anton, are you alright?” the Great Elder asked, striding forward to look him over.

”I’m fine,” Anton replied, shaking his head.

The Great Elder nodded. ”What’s the situation in the Mind Flayer city-state?”

Anton briefly recounted what he had found.

When they heard that the Mind Flayer city-state had been destroyed and even its Overmind was dead, looks of astonishment appeared on everyone’s faces.

”Who did it?” the Third Elder asked instinctively.

”The Sighing Clusters,” said Anton.

’Sighing Clusters?’

The Elves exchanged confused glances.

They had clearly never heard of such creatures.

The Great Elder, however, pondered for a moment before saying with a grave expression, ”I’ve heard of them.”

As all eyes turned to him, he briefly explained the origin of the Sighing Clusters.

Everyone was amazed to learn that the Sighing Clusters were a sub-dragon species involved in the great schism of the Dragon Race nearly ten thousand years ago.

After all, the Elf Race had experienced a similar event.

The Dark Elves of the Dark Nether Realm had also been exiled from the Elf Race, so one could say they shared a similar fate.

But their expressions quickly changed when the Great Elder mentioned that Sighing Clusters were a rare, colonial sub-dragon species, and that adults possessed Golden Peak strength.

”You mean... that city-state now holds dozens of Golden Peak-level monsters?” Elena’s eyes widened.

The others were equally horrified.

’Dozens of Golden Peak warriors!’

’Not even Kresol Dragon City has that many top-tier combatants!’

’Even if you gathered all the Golden Peak experts from every faction on the Eldron Plain, you might not be able to muster such numbers.’

The number was far beyond their imagination.

A shadow of dread fell over everyone.

They had finally dealt with the threat of the Mind Flayers, only for something far more terrifying to take their place.

”Don’t worry,” Anton said, seeing their concern. ”Sighing Clusters don’t need to eat. They survive by absorbing the ambient elemental energy in the air. Their desire to hunt or attack is extremely low.”

”The only reason they attacked the Mind Flayer city-state was that they were drawn to the Earth Vein Node beneath it.”

”True to their nature, they’ll settle down after occupying the Earth Vein Node. They won’t leave, and they certainly won’t attack the surface world.”

The Great Elder nodded. ”That’s right. Sighing Clusters rarely invade the territories of other creatures.”

Everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief at this news.

”So, as long as we don’t provoke them, they shouldn’t attack us.”

”That’s right.”

”That’s a relief.”

Seeing that everyone had relaxed, Anton got down to business. ”I found the Mind Flayers’ resource depot and brought back some of their supplies. There’s still a lot left. I plan to sneak back into the city-state a few more times to retrieve the rest.”

Eleanor hesitated. ”Won’t that be too dangerous?”

Anton glanced at her and smiled. ”Don’t worry. I’m confident I can handle it.”

Seeing his confident expression, Eleanor nodded and said no more.

The mood in the group instantly became cheerful.

With these resources, the development of the Silver Moon Clan would accelerate significantly.

They would no longer lack materials, whether for expanding the Gathering Spirit chambers, crafting Rune Equipment, or brewing potions.

The Great Elder’s face lit up with undisguised joy. ”Then we’ll leave this matter in your hands.”