The Elven Cultivator

In the golem workshop, Anton withdrew the last trace of Magical Power from his fingertips.

The chest of the Legendary Golem before him slowly closed, and the incandescent white light at its core died down completely, like a snuffed-out candle flame.

The entire golem stood silently on the workshop’s central platform like a lifeless sculpture, its dark gray metal surface reflecting the cold white light of the Light Source Stones on the ceiling.

Anton let out a long breath, a hint of a satisfied smile in his eyes.

Dozens of consecutive days of research had given him a fairly in-depth understanding of this ancient golem’s structure.

From its external alloy to its internal core structure, from the way its joints were driven to the energy conduction paths of its rune circuits, he had repeatedly deliberated and carefully studied every aspect until he had completely grasped the principles behind them.

Although the process was mentally taxing, it had given him a deeper understanding and insight into the field of Alchemy Puppets.

Overall, although many of this golem’s design concepts and structures were completely different from the mainstream Alchemy Puppet systems of the Dawn Continent, its Legendary Tier combat power ultimately came down to just two things.

Its materials and its energy core.

First, the materials.

The alloy that constituted this golem was of astonishingly high quality.

Its hardness, toughness, energy conductivity, and stability all far surpassed any metal that the existing powers could mass-produce.

That included the Spiritual Fire Refined Metal currently sold far and wide by the Silver Moon Race.

Even alloys that Anton personally refined multiple times with his Spiritual Fire showed a visible inferiority in quality compared to this ancient alloy.

Furthermore, this alloy also possessed a special memory property.

When damaged, it could automatically restore its original form and structure as long as it was supplied with enough energy, possessing a self-healing ability just like a living creature.

This was also why it had been able to repair itself in such a short time after being shattered by the Profound Yellow Dragon-Grasping Hand.

”I can’t believe the metallurgy of the ancient civilization was this incredible,” Anton couldn’t help but marvel.

In the historical records of the Dawn Continent, the ancient era had always been vague and mysterious.

The various races could only catch glimpses of the ancient civilization’s glory through the occasional unearthing of ruins and artifacts.

The appearance of this golem was, without a doubt, further proof of the power of that ancient era.

But amazement was one thing; Anton didn’t dwell on it.

He was currently only at the Golden Core Stage, so the grade of his Spiritual Fire was limited by his Cultivation Level. Naturally, the metals he refined had their limits.

Once he broke through to the Nascent Soul Stage, his Spiritual Fire would become Nascent Fire. Its grade would rise accordingly, and the quality of the metals he refined would experience a qualitative leap.

At that point, he might even be able to surpass the metallurgical prowess of the ancient civilization.

Then there was the energy core.

If the materials determined the upper limits of the golem’s body, then the energy core was its soul, determining how much power it could exert and how long it could last on the battlefield.

An empty shell without a soul, no matter how good the materials, is nothing more than a pile of inert metal.

And this golem’s energy core was fundamentally different from the mainstream Magic Cores currently used on the Dawn Continent.

It didn’t use Magic Stones or magic crystals as raw materials, but instead employed some kind of ancient technology that Anton had yet to fully decipher.

What was certain, however, was that this energy core’s energy density far surpassed that of a Magic Core—by several dozen times, in fact.

The stability and sustainability of its energy output were also far superior. It could maintain a prolonged energy supply during high-intensity combat without fluctuating or failing due to rapid consumption.

More critically, its energy conduction efficiency was extremely high.

The energy released by the core could be transmitted to every joint and rune circuit in the golem instantaneously and with minimal loss, showing almost no lag.

It was precisely with the support of such a powerful energy core that the golem could power its massive body and unleash Legendary Tier combat strength.

Materials and core—the two were complementary and indispensable.

Without high-enough quality materials, the golem’s body would be unable to withstand the terrifying energy unleashed by the core.

Without a powerful enough core, even the best materials would be nothing more than an empty shell.

It was precisely because the Dawn Continent of today lacked both of these that no Legendary Tier Alchemy Puppet had ever appeared.

In fact, Anton was now facing the same problem.

His lack of progress in refining Golden Core Stage Daoist Soldiers was ultimately because he was stuck on the same issues: materials and cores.

Anton’s original plan was to wait for Demon Crystal technology to develop further and for breakthroughs in materials science and energy core technology before starting to refine Golden Core Stage Daoist Soldiers.

However, based on his knowledge of the developmental history of Demon Crystal technology, that process would take several hundred years at the very least.

But now, the appearance of this ancient golem had offered him a completely new path.

This Legendary Golem was powerful, to be sure, but he was unable to control it.

After all, he didn’t know the Legendary Golem’s ”command key”—a general term for the authentication method of an Alchemy Puppet—so he naturally couldn’t activate or control it.

But this didn’t mean the golem was worthless.

Quite the opposite, its value was far beyond imagination.

Anton’s plan was simple and direct.

He would completely dismantle the golem, erase all traces of the ancient civilization, and keep only the purest of its materials and its core.

Then, he would use those materials to refine his own Golden Core Stage Daoist Soldiers.

As for which Daoist Soldier to refine, Anton already had an answer.

The Six Ding and Six Jia.

In the Daoist system of Guardian Divine Soldiers, the power of the Six Ding and Six Jia far surpassed that of the Five Camp Divine Soldiers.

If the Five Camp Divine Soldiers were mass-produced, standardized weapons that were all more or less the same, then the Six Ding and Six Jia were custom-forged divine armaments, each one a unique individual.

The twelve Guardian Divine Generals were divided into the Six Ding and the Six Jia.

The Six Ding were yin deities: D Mao, D Si, D Wei, D Yoou, D Hai, and D Chou. They specialized in defense, support, trapping enemies, and stealth, with each possessing a unique authority over certain Laws.

The Six Jia were yang deities: Jia Zi, Jia Xu, Jia Shen, Jia Wu, Jia Chen, and Jia Yin. They specialized in offense, damage output, formation breaking, and slaying enemies, with each also possessing their own unique authority over certain Laws.

Upon successful refinement, each Guardian Divine General would possess power surpassing the Golden Core Third Stage.

When all twelve were gathered, they could deploy the ”Six Ding and Six Jia Formation.”

The auras of the twelve divine generals would link, yin and yang would complement each other, and their offense and defense would become one, making them powerful enough to match a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator.

After carefully evaluating the materials on hand, Anton decided that the golem’s alloy was most suitable for refining the Jia Shen Divine General of the Six Jia.

Jia Shen was associated with the Metal element and governed sharpness.

Its authority lay in two words: ”Absolute Severance.”

Once refined, the ferocity of the Jia Shen Divine General’s attacks would rank among the very top of the Six Jia.

Of course, the materials from a single golem were far from sufficient to refine the Jia Shen Divine General.

It would also require a vast amount of rare metals and Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures as supplementary components.

Fortunately, the Silver Moon Race had amassed a great fortune over the years. The materials harvested from Kresol Dragon City, the Mind Flayer city-states, and various mines in the Dark Nether Realm were piled high as mountains—more than enough to support this endeavor.

Furthermore, the difficulty of refining the Six Ding and Six Jia was not to be underestimated.

The refinement process for the Jia Shen Divine General was far more complex than that for the Five Camp Divine Soldiers, involving thousands of runic seals and restrictions.

With his current Cultivation Level and skill in Artifact Refining, the process would take a considerable amount of time, even if he had all the necessary materials.

It could take several years at a minimum, or even more than a decade; it was not a task to be completed overnight.

However, once the Jia Shen Divine General was complete, it would be an incredibly powerful trump card in his hand.

Whether facing powerful enemies or future turmoil, it would be a decisive, game-changing asset.

’And the technology contained within the golem can be combined with Demon Crystal technology.’

After obtaining Demon Crystal technology from the Heart of the Mountains, Anton had spent immense effort analyzing its core principles and had reaped substantial rewards.

He planned to use his memories to create Demon Crystal products from the next several hundred years far ahead of their time.

More importantly, by combining Demon Crystal technology with the Dao of puppets, he could create more efficient Magic Cores and more cost-effective Daoist Soldiers.

His research into the Legendary Golem gave him even more inspiration and ideas.

Take the Magic Core, for instance.

Anton’s original plan had been to combine the advantages of Demon Crystal technology and Daoist Soldier Tokens to refine a more effective Magic Core.

But after studying the core within the Legendary Golem, which possessed a higher-quality form of energy, he had a new flash of inspiration.

Perhaps he could refine a Magic Core far more outstanding than he had originally anticipated.

If he succeeded, the quality of all future Daoist Soldiers he refined would rise by a whole new level.

This would undoubtedly be a massive boon for the development of the Silver Moon Race.

’But first things first, I need to dismantle this golem.’

Anton’s gaze fell once more on the silent behemoth before him. He took a deep breath and began the next phase of his work.