The Elven Cultivator

In a narrow, cramped cave.

Anton leaned against a flat rock, gazing at the Soul-Suppressing Bell hovering above his palm.

The bell, originally a dull bronze, had now completely transformed into a clear, bright silver-white. Its entire body glowed as if forged from moonlight, and all the glyphs on its surface were illuminated.

This was a sign that its Soul Power storage was full.

Over the past two days, Anton had fought dozens of battles, large and small, including several brief skirmishes with the Golden Peak High Tier Mind Flayer hot on his heels.

During that time, the Soul-Suppressing Bell had absorbed an untold number of Mind Blasts and Spiritual Assaults, converting them all into stored Soul Power.

The Soul-Suppressing Bell's capacity was not infinite. Once its Soul Power was full, it could no longer absorb energy from attacks, thus losing its ability to defend against mental and spiritual assaults.

Therefore, the stored power had to be released promptly once it was full; he couldn't get greedy.

Anton flipped his hand, stowing the Soul-Suppressing Bell. He stood up and gazed in the direction of the Mind Flayer city-state.

Ever since the Mind Flayer mastermind changed its strategy, he had been unable to raid the mining veins for resources as freely as before. Instead, under the siege of three High Tier Mind Flayers, his room to maneuver was gradually being squeezed.

If this continued, it wouldn't be long before he was forced into a direct confrontation with the three High Tier Mind Flayers.

Although he was confident that with Sword Escape, escaping wouldn't be a problem, it was still best to avoid putting himself in a dangerous situation if he didn't have to.

He had already gained more than enough from this exploratory trip.

'It's time to leave.'

"But before I go..."

A glint flashed in Anton's eyes.

'Tucking my tail and running just isn't my style.'

Since he was leaving, he had to give the Mind Flayers a lasting memory of him before he went.

The moment the thought occurred to him, Anton's expression shifted slightly as he looked outside the cave.

"Right on time."

He executed Sword Escape, transforming into a streak of light and darting out of the cave.

His Divine Sense quickly picked up auras approaching rapidly from three different directions.

With a calm expression, Anton used Sword Escape to play hide-and-seek with his pursuers, just as he always did.

However, what was different this time was that during the chase, he deliberately increased the distance between himself and two of the pursuers, leaving only one still hot on his heels.

「A moment later, by a subterranean river.」

Anton abruptly stopped and turned to face the High Tier Mind Flayer relentlessly pursuing him from behind.

Seeing Anton stop, the High Tier Mind Flayer was visibly stunned for a moment, but it quickly accelerated its pursuit. The spiritual fluctuations it emanated grew active and greedy, like a predator that had found its prey exhausted.

Its milky-white eyes suddenly lit up. An invisible Spiritual Assault erupted from its head, forming a cone of psychic energy that shot violently toward Anton.

At the same instant, Anton's thoughts stirred, and he struck the wall of the bell with his Divine Sense.

VMMMM!

A deep chime exploded throughout the cavern.

The Soul Power the Soul-Suppressing Bell had accumulated for two days was released in a thunderous burst.

An invisible sound wave, like a tsunami, swept toward the High Tier Mind Flayer, distorting the very air in its path.

The two formless, intangible shockwaves collided violently in mid-air, creating a visible distortion.

After only a moment's stalemate, the Mind Blast released by the High Tier Mind Flayer was crushed and annihilated.

The Soul-Purifying Wave continued onward unabated, striking the High Tier Mind Flayer hard.

The creature's body suddenly went rigid.

Its milky-white eyes widened abruptly, and its four tentacles convulsed violently.

It only had time to let out a short psychic scream before its entire body plummeted from mid-air, crashing heavily onto the rocky ground.

This was the moment Anton had been waiting for.

Four streaks of silver sword light tore through the air, like four bolts of lightning ripping through the sky, piercing the High Tier Mind Flayer's head from four directions at once.

Blood splattered.

The High Tier Mind Flayer's body convulsed a few more times, then went completely still.

From the release of the Soul-Purifying Wave to the Mind Flayer's death, only a blink of an eye had passed.

A Golden Peak High Tier Mind Flayer had died such an ignominious death.

Anton shot forward, collected the High Tier Mind Flayer's corpse into his Dimension Ring, then wrapped himself in sword light and sped toward the fissure without a backward glance.

It wasn't until a dozen or so seconds after he left that the other two High Tier Mind Flayers finally arrived.

They hovered in mid-air, their milky-white eyes scanning the empty ground as an invisible spiritual fluctuation vibrated violently in the air.

It was an emotion woven from anger and horror.

...

Despite succeeding in one strike, Anton didn't relax in the slightest.

The main reason he could kill a High Tier Mind Flayer so cleanly was the element of surprise.

The Mind Flayers had never expected him to possess a killing move like 'Soul Suppression'.

Catching them unprepared, he had managed to kill one instantly with a full-power attack.

The next time they were on guard, it would be much harder for the attack to be effective.

Furthermore, Anton had also deliberately chosen his target for this kill.

The three High Tier Mind Flayers had awakened the Powers of Law of Soul Subjugation, Fog of Fear, and Siphon, respectively.

Among them, Soul Subjugation and Siphon were both sub-laws of the Soul Law, within the Mystery category of Law.

Fog of Fear was a sub-law of the Curse Law, also in the Mystery category.

Of the three Laws, the easiest to deal with was the Law of Soul Subjugation, which was completely countered by the Soul-Suppressing Bell.

The hardest to deal with was the Law of Siphon.

This Law allowed the user to condense a special Spiritual Energy barrier on their body's surface. When hit by an enemy's attack, the barrier would absorb a portion of the energy and dissipate it as harmless heat.

It was especially effective at defending against Magic.

Compared to the Soul-Suppressing Bell's power, the Law of Siphon lacked a killing move like 'Soul Suppression', but it offered much stronger defense against physical attacks.

Taking everything into account, Anton ultimately chose the High Tier Mind Flayer that had awakened the Law of Soul Subjugation as his target.

If it had been the one with the Law of Siphon, he wouldn't have been confident in a one-hit kill.

Perhaps frightened by seeing their companion killed in a single exchange, the other two High Tier Mind Flayers did not continue the chase.

But Anton didn't slow down because of this.

The Mind Flayer mastermind was no fool.

It would soon figure out that he couldn't use that last move easily, or else he would have used it much earlier.

When that happened, what awaited him would be an even more frenzied and ferocious pursuit.

The sword light sped through the dark tunnels, moving so fast it left a trail of afterimages in its wake.

The fissure soon appeared in his field of vision.

Anton charged into the fissure without hesitation, using the Stone-Shifting Art to seal the passage behind him as he rushed toward the surface.

Before long, Anton leaped out of the fissure and was back on the surface.

At the same time, the last piece of rock and earth sealed shut, blocking the passage once again.

Anton had just breathed a sigh of relief when he turned and caught sight of the Third Elder sitting on a flat rock not far away.

Seeing Anton emerge, the Third Elder visibly relaxed, a look of joy on his face as he stood and strode over.

"You're finally back."

The Third Elder looked Anton up and down a few times. Seeing that he was uninjured, he finally set his mind at ease.

"If you hadn't come back soon, I was thinking of going down to find you myself."

Anton had been gone for three days, which had worried them sick. They were terrified something had happened to him in the Dark Nether Realm.

"I've made the elders worry," Anton said with a slight smile. "I'm fine. And I've gathered a lot of intelligence on this trip."

The Third Elder's expression brightened. "Let's head back to the Silver Moon Forest first, we can talk there."

Anton nodded and left the mining area with the Third Elder.

The matter was of great importance, so after returning to the Silver Moon Forest, the two of them hurried straight to the Eternal Hall.

Having received the news, the Great Elder and the Second Elder were already waiting there.

Anton didn't waste any words, directly recounting the intelligence he had gathered over the past few days.

After he finished, all three elders were somewhat stunned.

Their first shock was that Anton had actually killed a Golden Peak High Tier Mind Flayer!

And while being hunted down and besieged, no less!

Even though Anton claimed he only managed the counter-kill by taking advantage of the element of surprise, it was still incredible.

Only thirty years had passed since his battle with Zhuo Gu, yet Anton's strength had unknowingly increased by so much again.

He hadn't even awakened a Power of Law, yet he could already take down a Golden Peak expert on his own.

This level of strength was in no way inferior to the recently famous Canglan.

Even the three elders, who were used to seeing Anton create miracles, couldn't help but sigh in admiration inwardly.

Shaking off his shock, the Great Elder's expression quickly turned grave. "So, you're saying that the Mind Flayer city-state has already gained complete control of the area around the fissure."

The good news was that they didn't have to face multiple subterranean factions.

The bad news was that a Mind Flayer city-state with complete control over a region would undoubtedly be powerful.

The fact that they could send three Golden Peak High Tier Mind Flayers to hunt Anton meant that the Mind Flayer city-state possessed far more than just three Golden Peak combatants.

After all, they would also need to leave personnel to guard their main base and mining areas.

"You did the right thing," the Great Elder said, his gaze filled with relief and admiration for Anton. "Now is not the time for a direct confrontation with the Mind Flayer city-state. The safest approach is to gradually weaken their forces first."

The Second Elder and Third Elder nodded in deep agreement.

"We'll have to trouble you for what comes next," the Great Elder said seriously. "If you need any support from us, just say the word."

Before launching an all-out assault on the Mind Flayer city-state, they could only rely on Anton to gradually weaken the enemy's strength.

After all, no one else possessed Anton's ability to come and go as he pleased.

Anton didn't stand on ceremony. "I need more Magic Cores."

"No problem," the Great Elder agreed instantly, without a second thought. "I will personally speak with Thorvin and convince Gray Rock Castle to increase the trade volume of Magic Cores."

They would definitely have to share the intelligence about the Dark Nether Realm with Gray Rock Castle.

Of course, they would do so with reservations.

After all, this intelligence was obtained through Anton's risk-taking; they couldn't just let Gray Rock Castle benefit for free.

More importantly, this fissure leading to the Dark Nether Realm could be the key to the Silver Moon Race's future growth and prosperity.

They had to keep it firmly in their grasp, no matter what.

Even if they were to cooperate with Gray Rock Castle to develop the Dark Nether Realm in the future, the Silver Moon Race must maintain the dominant position.

"Oh, right. There's one more thing," the Great Elder suddenly changed the subject. "We've got a lead on the Moonlight Spiritual Liquid."

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