The Elven Cultivator

It was an open cavern, incredibly spacious. A quick glance suggested it was at least a thousand square meters.

High above, stalactites hung like inverted swords from the cavern ceiling, while the floor below showed signs of being artificially excavated.

Hundreds of mine tunnels stretched out in every direction. Their openings were orderly and the edges precise, a stark contrast to natural rock fissures.

And right then, hundreds of figures were toiling away in the center of the cavern.

Anton focused his perception and quickly identified the race of the figures.

Kobolds.

They were a species of small humanoids, short and slender, their bodies covered in rough, brown scales.

Their appearance was somewhere between human and reptile. They had protruding snouts filled with fine, sharp teeth, and their eyes were a murky yellow, giving off a faint phosphorescent glow in the darkness.

Kobolds were very common in the Dark Nether Realm, the slave of choice for many subterranean races.

This was because they reproduced quickly, consumed little, endured hardship without complaint, and were extremely adaptable to harsh environments.

Moreover, they had low intelligence, were easy to domesticate, and were the perfect workforce.

However, something was clearly wrong with these Kobolds.

Their movements were mechanical and their gazes vacant. With pupils as unfocused as a dead fish's, they resembled walking corpses, their souls torn away.

This was a sign of being mentally controlled by a Mind Flayer.

Anton understood.

A Mind Flayer's psychic control was no mere temporary mental manipulation; it was the utter destruction of a target's consciousness, transforming them into a living puppet that would obey any command.

A creature completely under its control could no longer be called a living being.

Their souls had been utterly consumed, leaving behind nothing but empty shells mechanically executing commands.

Even if the Mind Flayer was killed, its victims could not be saved.

Clearly, this was a mining area occupied by Mind Flayers.

Anton's Divine Sense continued to extend deeper into the cavern, and he soon found the beings controlling these Kobolds.

Deep within the cavern, on a platform built of Obsidian, four figures stood looking down upon the mining site below.

Their bodies were entirely light purple, their skin smooth and cold, covered in a layer of reflective mucus that glistened wetly under the glow of the fluorescent moss.

The most striking feature was their octopus-like heads, from which grew four writhing tentacles. Their eyes had no pupils, appearing as a vacant, milky white.

Four adult Mind Flayers.

Their appearances were almost identical; at a glance, it was impossible to tell them apart.

Mind Flayers are hermaphroditic and have no distinction of gender, which is directly related to their unique method of reproduction.

Mind Flayers are not "born," but "made."

Their reproductive process is cruel, precise, and irreversible.

Each Mind Flayer can produce an egg sac twice in its lifetime. Each sac contains over a thousand eggs. After hatching, they become tadpole-like larvae that live in a brain pool at the center of the community for at least ten years.

The survival rate of these tadpoles is extremely low. Only about one in a thousand lucky ones survive to adulthood; the vast majority are devoured by the elder brain soaking in the same pool.

The surviving tadpoles are implanted into a humanoid host. The tadpole burrows into the host's head, completely devouring and replacing the host's brain and personality within an hour. It then completes the body's reconstruction within seven days, and a new Mind Flayer is born.

No Magic can reverse the entire process.

Once parasitized, the host's soul vanishes irrevocably, and the newborn Mind Flayer does not inherit any of the host's memories or personality.

One of the main reasons Mind Flayers are detested, feared, and dreaded by so many races on the Dawn Continent is their cruel method of reproduction.

Anton did not act rashly. His figure hidden in the shadows, he silently observed the Mind Flayers on the stone platform.

The strength of a Mind Flayer colony depends largely on their age and experience.

A young Mind Flayer that has just completed its transformation is not even at the Black Iron Tier. Its Spiritual Energy has not yet fully matured, and the power of its psychic attacks is limited.

An adult Mind Flayer, however, can generally reach the Black Iron Tier.

Those High Tier Mind Flayers that have lived for hundreds or even thousands of years have extremely powerful Spiritual Energy, and their strength can generally reach the Golden Tier, or even the Golden Peak.

As for Mind Flayer elders, they are beings of the Legendary Tier, and they are exceedingly rare.

Only a few city-states have beings of this level.

Anton's gaze shifted between the Mind Flayers.

Judging from the fluctuations of Spiritual Energy they emitted, their strength was at most at the Silver Tier.

For him, at his current level, they were nothing to fear.

But these Mind Flayers were just low-level personnel sent by their city-state to oversee the mines. Killing them would only tip off the Mind Flayers and put their entire city-state on alert.

Anton's gaze passed through the layers of figures and landed at the end of a mine tunnel.

There, a large hole had been chiseled into the rock wall, revealing the ore vein beneath.

The ore vein looked like clusters of deep purple, coppery mushrooms growing in the rock crevices. Its surface bore many natural patterns that vaguely formed a ghostly face.

Connecting this with the sweet, coppery smell that could be detected from far away, Anton quickly guessed what kind of ore vein it was.

Ghost-Mushroom Copper.

A rare ore.

It was worth mentioning that Ghost-Mushroom Copper happened to be the main material for refining the Cyan Dragon Soldiers, one of the Five Camp Divine Soldiers.

Anton suppressed the flicker of excitement that rose in him, withdrew his gaze, turned, and left to continue exploring other areas.

Afterward, he discovered several more veins of rare metals.

Including Tearful Skull Gold, Abyssal Silver, Lightless Iron, and so on.

Like the Ghost-Mushroom Copper, these rare metals could also be used to refine Daoist Soldiers.

What surprised Anton even more was that in a cavern near the Mind Flayer city-state, he also discovered a Mithril vein.

'Now this is a real find.'

Mithril had excellent conductivity for Magic Power and was a top-grade material for creating High Tier magical items and high-level enchantments.

A pound of Mithril was worth hundreds of pounds of Gold.

On the surface, Mithril veins were extremely rare. The vast majority were monopolized by Dragon City, and the market price of circulating Mithril remained high year-round.

Even if it was just a small Mithril vein, if it could be developed, the Silver Moon Race's finances would be secure for the next few hundred years.

Unfortunately, all Anton could do for now was look on helplessly.

The Mithril vein's location was less than two kilometers from the Mind Flayer city-state.

Even in the complex terrain of the Dark Nether Realm, this was a very short distance.

The moment he made a move on the Mithril vein, the Mind Flayer army would arrive in an instant.

The defensive forces of this Mithril vein also far surpassed those of the other veins. Not only were there large numbers of the Stone-blind Barbarian Race and ogres stationed there, but also dozens of Mind Flayers.

Anton gave the Mithril vein one last, deep look, then turned and left.

In just one day, he had found multiple metal deposits, including the Mithril one. The mineral resources of the Dark Nether Realm were indeed exceptionally abundant.

The Mind Flayers had occupied this area for who knows how many years; the resources they had accumulated were likely an astronomical figure.

If he could uproot the Mind Flayer city-state, all of these things would belong to the Silver Moon Race.

However, for now, it was just a thought.

A Mind Flayer city-state capable of occupying so many resources… it was hard to say if they had a Mind Flayer elder, but there was definitely more than one High Tier Mind Flayer at the Golden Peak. They would not be easy to deal with.

Before he had a clear understanding of the city-state's strength, it would be unwise to rashly start a war between two major powers.

After a moment of thought, Anton suddenly slapped his forehead.

"The Dark Nether Realm is vast and boundless, why should I limit myself here?"

"I can just bypass the Mind Flayer city-state and head to other regions that are free of subterranean factions. I'll gather resources to stock up my inventory first."

"As for the Mind Flayer city-state, it won't be too late to deal with them later."

Anton was a man of action. He immediately set off, looking for a path while continuing to complete his map.

But after a great deal of effort, when he finally finished mapping the area, he was left speechless.

The area had only two exits in total.

One was the fissure he had come through, which led to the Thousand-Rock Hills on the surface.

The other was the only passage leading deeper, which happened to be blocked by the Mind Flayer city-state.

This meant that any other creature wanting to leave this area would have to pass through the Mind Flayer city-state.

It was essentially a suicide mission.

Fortunately, this was no problem at all for Anton, who had mastered the Earth-moving Technique.

If there was no road, he would make one himself.

Before the Earth-moving Technique, no rock wall, however thick, could stop him.

Anton quickly chose a suitable location and was about to use the Earth-moving Technique to move aside the rock and earth, but as soon as his Divine Sense penetrated the rock wall, he sensed something was wrong.

'There are warning Arrays inside the rock wall!'

Anton's heart skipped a beat. Without hesitation, he spread his Divine Sense and quickly scanned the insides of the surrounding rock walls. As expected, they were all fitted with warning Arrays.

So he immediately followed his map to survey the area again and found that, except for the side with the fissure, all the rock walls and underground currents in the other three directions were rigged with warning Arrays.

"Using thousands of warning Arrays to turn the entire area into a cage, not allowing any creature to leave… What an overbearing display of power."

Anton tsked.

Obviously, only the Mind Flayer city-state could have done something like this.

As for why the side with the fissure wasn't rigged with warning Arrays, it was likely because the Mind Flayers had detected that it was backed by layers upon layers of rock strata, so they got lazy and didn't bother. As a result, a burrowing worm just happened to dig a tunnel straight to the surface.

In short, this area had now become the Mind Flayers' cage.

Any creature that tried to leave would immediately trigger the warning Arrays and attract the Mind Flayers' pursuit.

"This is a bit tricky."

Anton frowned slightly.

'It wouldn't be that hard to force my way through. I could create a tunnel and leave this area long before the Mind Flayers could respond to the alarm.'

'But the problem is, getting out is easy; coming back would be dangerous.'

'I'd most likely be walking into a Mind Flayer ambush.'

'Those Spiritual Energy monstrosities have always been cunning; there's a high chance they'd set a trap.'

Just as Anton was pondering his next move, he suddenly felt a stir in his mind.

Four invisible psychic assaults, like awls, stabbed at him from four directions. They were silent and traceless, yet carried a bone-chilling cold that made one's scalp tingle.

'Mind Blast!'

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