The Elven Cultivator

Delayed by the members of the Ring of Annihilation, the behemoth had already recovered a good deal of its strength and was struggling to get up from the ground.

When it saw Anton’s gaze fall upon it, the creature opened its massive maw and let out a deafening roar.

Its murky yellow eyes were still filled with savagery and madness, showing not a single trace of reason.

Anton didn’t waste any time with it. With a flash of his sword and a surge of Beiming True Water, he quickly finished the creature off.

Upon its death, the massive body of the earth elemental behemoth began to disintegrate.

Countless grayish-yellow rocks sloughed off its body, crashing to the ground with heavy, muffled thuds.

Its once-bloated humanoid form gradually blurred. From limbs to torso, and from torso to head, it collapsed and shattered, layer by layer, until it was nothing but a huge pile of rubble scattered in the center of the valley floor.

Amid the pile of rubble, two items stood out.

The first was a crystal the size of a fist.

It had a deep amber hue and emitted earth elemental fluctuations so dense they were almost tangible.

Merely looking at it, one could feel a gravitas as immense as a mountain, as if it were not a small crystal but a great peak shrunk down countless times.

”An Earth Element Origin Crystal.”

A flicker of joy appeared in Anton’s eyes as he beckoned with his hand.

The Crystal Stone instantly flew up from the ground, tracing an arc through the air before landing securely in his palm.

It felt warm and smooth in his hand, with a considerable weight.

Amber streams of light swirled slowly within the crystal. With each pulse, it sent visible ripples through the surrounding air, like the beating of a heart, full of a rhythmic vitality.

”Not bad at all.”

Anton nodded in satisfaction.

’With this as a Spirit Seed, the time it takes for the Spirit Stone Vein to form can be cut by more than half.’

’It was well worth the long journey.’

The objective of his trip to Wulei Valley was finally accomplished.

After stowing the Earth Element Origin Crystal in his Qiankun Bag, Anton’s gaze fell upon the second item in the pile of rubble.

It was an irregularly shaped mass roughly the size of a human head.

Its surface was pitted and uneven, like a rock weathered by years of exposure.

It was the elemental core of the earth elemental behemoth.

This was the crystallized essence of the earth elemental behemoth, containing an extremely abundant supply of earth Elemental Power. It was a top-tier material for crafting Ancient Level, and even High Tier, Magic Equipment.

The power of a large-scale Array would be significantly enhanced if this were used as its core nexus.

For Warriors and Casters stuck at the peak of the Upper Gold tier, long unable to awaken or manifest the Power of Law, an elemental core was a priceless treasure.

Through prolonged contact and meditation on the Elemental Power contained within, they could greatly increase their chances of awakening or manifesting the corresponding Power of Law.

On the Dawn Continent, every elemental core was a strategic resource that the major powers vied for. They were so rare they couldn’t be bought, even if one had the money.

However, this particular earth elemental core was different from the ones Anton remembered.

A normal earth elemental core should be a clear, earthen yellow.

But this one was a murky, grayish-yellow.

More strikingly, wisps of grayish-black mist seeped from cracks on the core’s surface. They coalesced in the air, forming twisted faces that seemed to be screaming silently before quickly dissipating.

’It seems this is the source of the earth elemental behemoth’s abnormal state earlier.’

Anton studied the earth elemental core in his hand, his brow furrowed slightly.

He sensed a familiar aura from it.

It was very similar to the aura emanating from the members of the Ring of Annihilation, only far more distinct and potent.

It was a power completely antithetical to life and vitality, a force that seemed to want to drag everything into silence and decay.

”Death energy.”

Anton muttered the two words under his breath, a thoughtful look in his eyes.

’The core of an earth elemental behemoth has been infected by death energy.’

’That’s not something you see every day.’

Elemental creatures are, by nature, aggregations of pure elemental energy. They are extremely resistant to all foreign, non-native energies.

This was especially true for something like death energy, which was completely incompatible with the stable, grounding nature of the earth element.

Under normal circumstances, it would be impossible for it to invade an elemental’s core, much less leave behind such a persistent infection.

’The only explanation for this is that the behemoth must have spent a considerable amount of time in an environment with an extremely high concentration of death energy.’

Considering that the Ring of Annihilation had specifically set a trap to capture this very creature, a theory began to form in Anton’s mind.

In the original history, the Undead Calamity that swept across the entire Dawn Continent and devastated countless lives originated from a plane called the Nether Abyss.

The Nether Abyss was also known as the ”Land of Echoing Dead” and the ”Forgotten Final Battlefield.”

It was not a naturally formed plane, but a ”scar” left behind by an ancient cataclysm, one that surpassed any disaster in modern records.

Legend had it that before the rise of the Dragon Race, the Dawn Continent had experienced an era that later generations would call the ”War of Eternal Annihilation.”

Countless ancient races—including Titans, Progenitor Giants, ancient elemental lords, and the First Generation Dragon Species—as well as long-extinct invaders from the Otherworld, had waged a thousand-year war across the continent.

When the war finally ended, the battlefield was piled with hundreds of millions of corpses.

The Residual Souls, resentments, and lingering Power of Law of the powerhouses who fell in the war intertwined, coalescing into an ever-present dark cloud that hung over the land of the dead.

Intense death energy permeated the earth, altering the flow of the world’s ley lines and causing an irreversible distortion of the regional Law.

Ordinary methods were powerless to purify this land, which had been thoroughly corrupted by death.

In the end, the surviving great powers of the ancient races joined forces. They stripped the entire blighted battlefield from the material plane, sealed it, and banished it into the void.

That was the origin of the Nether Abyss.

In the original timeline, the Undead Calamity had erupted precisely because the seal on the Nether Abyss was broken, allowing it to reconnect with the Dawn Continent.

The Undead, who had slumbered in the Nether Abyss for countless years, were awakened and began their invasion of the Dawn Continent.

And behind it all was the shadow of the Ring of Annihilation.

Anton suspected it was the Ring of Annihilation that had broken the seal, re-establishing the connection between the Nether Abyss and the Dawn Continent and triggering the Undead Calamity.

After all, the Nether Abyss was a deathtrap for the living. Anyone who stayed there too long would be assimilated by the death energy and become one of the Undead.

Only the Undead, and creatures converted through necromantic rituals, could survive in the Nether Abyss for extended periods without being affected.

And the Ring of Annihilation, as it happened, had a great number of such members.

As for this earth elemental behemoth, Anton speculated that it had likely stumbled into the Nether Abyss by some coincidence and spent some time there.

After all, while the Nether Abyss couldn’t connect to the Dawn Continent, it still maintained connections with the four Elemental Origin Planes.

In the extremely rare event of a collision between the two planes creating a fissure, a nearby earth elemental behemoth could be pulled through into the Nether Abyss. While exceedingly rare, the odds of this happening were not zero.

And during its time in the Nether Abyss, the creature’s elemental core had been continuously eroded and permeated by death energy, causing an irreversible mutation that resulted in its current state.

The reason why the Ring of Annihilation had targeted the earth elemental behemoth was also easy to guess.

An elemental core infected with death energy from the Nether Abyss would retain an extremely faint, transplanar connection to the plane itself.

This connection could be used as a coordinate to locate the Nether Abyss.

With those coordinates, the Ring of Annihilation could use some Secret Technique to pinpoint the Nether Abyss’s spatial location and then attempt to break the seal.

At this, a thought suddenly struck Anton.

’In the original timeline, this earth elemental behemoth disappeared right before the Dragon Slaying War broke out and was never seen again.’

’Looking at it now, it probably didn’t just disappear. It was likely killed by the Ring of Annihilation.’

’They would have then obtained this elemental core tainted by the Nether Abyss’s death energy, allowing them to locate the plane and setting the stage for the future Undead Calamity.’

’Only now, I’ve disrupted that process.’

’So, does this mean the Ring of Annihilation won’t be able to enter the Nether Abyss?’

Anton pondered for a moment before shaking his head.

’Probably not.’

’An elemental core infected with death energy is probably not the only thing that can be used to locate the Nether Abyss.’

’And using coordinates is probably not the only way to enter the plane.’

’The Ring of Annihilation wouldn’t pin all their hopes on a single elemental core.’

’They must have other plans.’

’Otherwise, they wouldn’t have sent just a single Legendary Tier expert to handle it.’

As for whether his interference might delay the Ring of Annihilation’s discovery of the Nether Abyss and, in turn, postpone the Undead Calamity, Anton thought it unlikely.

The butterfly effect he had set in motion had already caused drastic changes to the timeline.

’Who knows what the future holds now.’

’Perhaps the Undead Calamity, like the Dragon Slaying War, will now happen even earlier than in the original timeline.’

It was useless to overthink it. Anton quickly pushed the matter to the back of his mind.

Rather than worrying about things that hadn’t happened yet, it was better to focus on the task at hand.

He casually placed a restriction on the earth elemental core, sealing the death energy within to prevent it from contaminating other items, then stored it in his Qiankun Bag.

An elemental core infected with death energy no longer contained pure earth Elemental Power.

If used to aid in comprehending the Law, not only would it fail to increase one’s chances of awakening, but it might even lead to one’s soul being corrupted and one’s body decaying from the death energy.

That said, the earth elemental core was still an extremely high-quality material. It might prove useful someday, so there was no harm in keeping it.

Then, with a flicker, Anton appeared beside Xavier’s corpse.

’A pillar-level Legendary Powerhouse should have plenty of good loot.’

His Divine Sense swept over the body and quickly located a Dimension Ring.

Probing it with his Divine Sense, he found it was, as expected, piled high with various rare materials, magic items, and a large quantity of Magic Stones and Gold Coins.

After a quick scan of the contents, a satisfied smile spread across Anton’s face.

’Not bad. Another small fortune.’

After securing the Dimension Ring, Anton casually beckoned with his hand. The Storage Items from the other members of the Ring of Annihilation flew out one by one and landed in his palm.

They were all just Dimensional Bags and Low-Tier Dimension Rings, their contents nowhere near as valuable as what was in Xavier’s.

Anton didn’t find anything of particular value, so he packed them all away, planning to sort through everything more carefully later.

”Time to head back.”

With a final glance at the clouds above Wulei Valley, Anton turned and transformed into a streak of light, speeding away in the direction of the Eldron Plain.

This trip to Wulei Valley had resulted in another considerable boost to his strength.

Next, he just needed to methodically refine the remaining forty percent of the Pill Poison. Then he could break through the Shell Barrier and advance to the Golden Core Second Stage.

At that point, his power would reach a whole new level.