The Elven Cultivator

The night was as black as ink, the moonlight like flowing water.

In the quiet room of the treehouse, Anton sat cross-legged, his eyes gently closed. His breathing was long and fine, like a silken thread.

He focused his mind and calmed his breath, concentrating his entire consciousness on the Shanzhong acupoint.

This point was the hub of the human body’s Qi Sea, connecting to the ”Celestial Court” above and the Dantian below. It was the most suitable place to nurture Sword Qi.

The Dao of the Sword Cultivator first and foremost emphasized intent.

Without established intent, the sword could not be formed.

The so-called Sword Qi was not created from nothing. Rather, it was formed by guiding qi with intent, infusing formless Sword Intent into True Essence. This imbued the True Essence with the sharpness and ferocity of a sword, thus transforming it into Sword Qi.

Anton closed his eyes and focused. The outline of a sword gradually appeared in his mind.

The entire sword was like autumn water, with a long, slender body and an edge as thin as a cicada’s wing. A faint five-colored radiance flowed along its spine.

This was the form of the sword he had visualized.

It was not any sword he had ever seen, nor the black steel sword he had once used. Instead, it was the purest understanding and imagining of the concept of ”sword” within his heart.

Sharp, fierce, and indomitable.

The Sword Qi was the seed of the Sword Pill. The stability of this step would directly affect the quality of the Sword Pill in the future.

Therefore, he did not dare to be the least bit negligent.

Taking a deep breath, Anton’s thoughts stirred. A wisp of Primal True Essence instantly separated from the Qi Sea in his Dantian and flowed into the Shanzhong acupoint.

Immediately after, he repeatedly compressed and refined that wisp of True Essence within the Shanzhong acupoint, while slowly infusing the visualized Sword Intent into it.

This process was not difficult, but it was extremely mentally taxing.

An unknown amount of time passed. In the instant the final wisp of Sword Intent merged completely with the True Essence, the True Essence suddenly transformed, becoming an incredibly minuscule sword that floated silently.

The sword’s body was completely transparent, almost formless, yet it contained a heart-palpitating sharpness.

”Success!”

Anton slowly opened his eyes, a trace of joy flashing within them.

The Sword Qi was formed. The next step was to continuously feed it with True Essence and infuse it with Sword Intent, allowing it to grow stronger until it reached its limit.

The stronger the Sword Qi, the higher the quality of the Sword Pill’s seed, and the greater the potential of the final product.

This process would take a considerable amount of time, but Anton had plenty of patience.

After all, he hadn’t obtained the right materials yet.

And besides serving as the seed for a Sword Pill, this wisp of Sword Qi could also be used in combat.

It was even one of the most powerful offensive methods for many prospective Sword Cultivators who had yet to forge their Sword Pills.

Because the Shanzhong acupoint was also known as the Central Court, this strand of Sword Qi was called the Sword of the Central Court.

Anton stood up, left the quiet room, and went to the backyard.

In a corner of the yard stood a stone man wearing a set of Rune Scale Armor.

This was a humanoid target that Anton had specially placed in the yard to practice and test Techniques and martial skills.

His gaze fell on the target. He opened his mouth abruptly, and in that instant, a pure white Sword Qi shot out like a white rainbow piercing the sun. It shot straight through the target, its momentum unabated, and continued onward, striking the ground with a soft THUD and leaving a small hole.

Seeing this, a satisfied smile appeared on Anton’s face.

Although the Sword of the Central Court was only in its nascent form, not yet nurtured and strengthened over a long period, its sharpness already far surpassed that of ordinary Techniques.

It could even effortlessly pierce Micro-Light Level magical items. Its power was self-evident.

’Not bad. Now I have another ace up my sleeve.’

Anton retracted the Sword Qi and returned to the quiet room in a pleasant mood, opening the Taoist Jade Scroll to look through it.

After successfully reaching Foundation Establishment, the original Dragon Yuan Pills had become far less effective for him. He had to find a new type of Pill to aid his cultivation.

After searching for the past few days, Anton already had a target.

The Origin Pill.

A type of Pill that could rapidly strengthen one’s True Essence.

Just like the Nourishing Yuan Pill, the Origin Pill also had countless variant recipes, an exaggeratedly large number of them.

Anton selected a recipe from among them that used the blood of dragon-type species as the main ingredient.

However, unlike the Dragon Yuan Pill, the Origin Pill had higher requirements for material quality. The blood of ordinary Lizard-men, no matter how much it was tempered and purified, could not meet the standard. Only the purified blood of Dragon-Lizardmen could be used.

Fortunately, in the battles a few days ago, the Clan had captured several Silver Tier Dragon-Lizardmen, which would now come in handy.

’Looks like I’ll have to capture more Dragon-Lizardmen in the future.’

Anton mused to himself.

The speed of refining True Essence was much slower than refining Spiritual Qi.

Without external aid, relying purely on one’s own cultivation, the speed at which True Qi grew was simply outrageous.

Fortunately, the mining area provided a steady supply of Rift-Spine Dragon Beast meat for his Blood-Nourishment Body Tempering technique. Before long, he would also be able to use Origin Pills, and his cultivation efficiency would surely leap by a large margin.

His thoughts turned to the Spirit Gathering Array.

Anton had read a great deal about Arrays these past few days and had already gained a preliminary understanding of them.

Simply put, the essence of an Array was to use array patterns to simulate the Laws of heaven and earth’s operation.

The more powerful the Array, the more Power of Heaven and Earth it could command, and the stronger its might would be.

Generally speaking, an Array has four essential elements: the array diagram, the array foundation, the Array Hub, and a power source.

The array diagram refers to the Array’s blueprint. It is the integration of the array patterns and determines the array’s structure, equivalent to the design schematic for a Magical Artifact or the recipe for a Pill.

The array foundation refers to the physical base that carries the Array, including mountains and rivers, ley lines and spiritual springs, the positions of stars, and so on.

The Array Hub is the core nexus of the Array, generally served by an Array Disc or array flag refined by the array master.

Finally, there is the power source, which provides the energy required for the Array to operate.

In the Cultivation Realm, the power source for Arrays is usually Spirit Stones.

Of course, some Arrays can also absorb the energy of heaven and earth on their own. As long as the array foundation and Array Hub remain intact, they can operate indefinitely.

’The array diagram for the Spirit Gathering Array is easy to solve. The Taoist Jade Scroll has plenty of variant diagrams.’

’The array foundation isn’t a problem either. The Spirit Gathering Array has extremely low requirements for its foundation. As long as it’s not in a spirit-null zone, the array can be set up.’

’As for the Array Hub, I’ll use an Array Disc to act as the core nexus. Coincidentally, there’s still a large amount of Frost Pattern Silver in the storeroom, which can be used as the main material to refine the Array Disc.’

A Spirit Gathering Array’s Array Disc was, at most, at the level of a Talisman. For Anton, with his many years of experience refining Rune Equipment, it would be a piece of cake.

’As for the power source...’

Anton’s expression grew pensive.

Due to its special nature, a Spirit Gathering Array must have a power source to provide energy to maintain its operation; it cannot absorb the energy of heaven and earth on its own.

However, Spirit Stones did not exist on the Dawn Continent, so he had to find other similar Energy Crystals to serve as a power source.

For example, Magic Stones, Demon Crystals, and elemental crystals.

Among them, Magic Stones were natural Energy Crystals formed deep underground over tens of thousands of years of geological movement and elemental deposition.

Each Magic Stone contained pure and stable elemental energy. They could be directly used by Casters, Alchemists, and artisans to quickly restore Magic Power, create magical items, or set up Arrays, making them a precious strategic resource.

Demon Crystals, on the other hand, could be considered artificially created Magic Stones.

They were artificial energy crystals formed when a Caster infused their own Magic Power into natural jade, which was then compressed, solidified, and sealed using special alchemical techniques.

Limited by the skill of their creator, the quality of Demon Crystals was often inconsistent.

A good Demon Crystal could be comparable to the highest-grade Magic Stone.

A poor Demon Crystal, whether in terms of energy density, purity, or stability, wouldn’t even have half the quality of a low-grade Magic Stone.

As for elemental crystals, they were crystalline bodies with a stable physical form, created when pure elemental energy became highly concentrated and solidified under specific conditions.

For instance, the Life Source Crystal was actually a type of elemental crystal.

Besides that, there were also Thunder Soul Crystals, Flaming Blood Ambers, Wind Chime Stones, and Earth Vein Crystal Marrow, among others.