Chapter 298: Chapter 271: Successive Breakthroughs

The matter of Ye Tong becoming a disciple of Taichu City caused a great uproar within his own clan and among the many Vassal Races.

But Anton, who had orchestrated the entire affair, paid no mind to the turmoil within the Clan.

After handing over the subsequent matters to Eleanor, he dove headfirst into his busy schedule.

In the days that followed, his life was divided into several fixed parts.

His time was split between entering the Subspace to hunt Dragon Souls and find spatial nodes, modifying the Taichu Spirit Realm’s Mountain Protection Array, refining new Dao Comprehension Steles, and researching methods to accelerate Law comprehension for those at the Legendary Tier.

He alternated between these four tasks, day after day, with almost no free time.

Time slipped by quietly amidst his busy work.

In the year 9388 of the Chenxi Calendar, the allied forces successfully destroyed the ninth spatial node.

In the summer of 9389, Chenxi Calendar, Laine successfully achieved Foundation Establishment, becoming Taichu City’s second Foundation Establishment Cultivator after Eleanor.

Before this, Laine was already unofficially regarded as the head disciple among the disciples of Taichu City.

Whether in terms of his Cultivation Level progression, his conduct, or his care for his junior disciple-brothers and sisters, he was worthy of the title.

After this achievement, no one disputed the title any longer, and it became official.

For Taichu City, Laine’s breakthrough also marked a new step forward in the training of its disciples.

That winter, Furlo also succeeded in her Foundation Establishment, becoming Taichu City’s third Foundation Establishment Cultivator.

In the year 9390 of the Chenxi Calendar, Anton completed the modification of the Taichu Spirit Realm’s Mountain Protection Array.

The original Great Derivation Cyan Profound Array and the Primordial Five Elements Grand Array were completely merged into one.

He named the new Array the Great Derivation Five Elements Cyan Profound Array.

With this, the layout of the Taichu Spirit Realm was finally complete.

In the same year, Elena advanced to Golden Peak and mastered the technique Wind-Feather Evasion Shadow.

After stabilizing his cultivation, the Second Elder also joined the Subspace hunting team.

In the year 9391 of the Chenxi Calendar, under the leadership of Anton and Grant, more than ten elite teams from the allied forces joined together to destroy the tenth spatial node.

In that battle, before the eyes of the allied elites, Anton decisively slew the Flame Crown Dragon guarding the spatial node, thoroughly proving his strength at the peak of the Legendary Tier.

Before this, although his record in Ranfeng Hall attested to his peak Legendary-tier strength, no one had witnessed it personally, and some people still harbored doubts.

It wasn’t until after this battle that all voices of doubt completely vanished.

Anton used all the Contribution Points he earned from destroying the spatial node to exchange for ancient Golems. He acquired eleven of them in one go, planning to use them all to refine Six Ding and Six Jia Guardian Divine Generals.

In the year 9392 of the Chenxi Calendar, Anton successfully refined the sixth Dao Comprehension Stele, the Stele of the Space Law.

In the same year, Cedric broke through to the Third Transition of Force.

The Silver Moon Clan welcomed its fourth Legendary Powerhouse.

On the day Cedric came out of seclusion, Anton presented him with several Divine Techniques from the same lineage as Mountain Suppression, for him to choose from.

After careful consideration, Cedric finally chose a Divine Technique called "Taiyue True Form."

Taiyue True Form’s name means "the original form of a primordial mountain."

This Divine Technique no longer merely pursued an external suppressive force. Instead, it turned that suppressive force inward, condensing and tempering it to be reforged as the foundation of one’s own body.

A Cultivator would use this suppressive force to repeatedly temper every inch of their flesh, bones, and meridians, gradually bringing their physical body closer to the original form of a "primordial mountain."

Legend has it that in primordial times, when the world was first born, mountains were not inanimate objects but one of the most ancient forms of life.

They breathed over eons, their pulse the movement of tectonic plates. Their "true form" contained the most fundamental power of the earth, capable of bearing all things without toppling and withstanding countless blows without crumbling.

The Taiyue True Form used the physical body as a mold and the Laws as a chisel, forging the Cultivator’s body into a walking "primordial mountain."

Those who cultivated this Divine Technique would not only possess a mountain-crushing suppressive force in every move, but their physical strength would also climb to an astonishing level.

At the highest levels of cultivation, one could even withstand attacks from Profound Artifacts with their bare body.

After receiving the manual for the Divine Technique, Cedric once again entered seclusion to focus on his cultivation.

And just one year after Cedric’s breakthrough, the Third Elder and Romance also achieved breakthroughs of their own.

The former successfully manifested the Light Unification Law and advanced to the Legendary Tier.

The latter broke through to the Third Transition of Force.

When it came to choosing a Divine Technique, Romance unhesitatingly selected the Nine-Wheeled Golden-Vein Thunder Body, which was in the same lineage as the Golden Wheel Thunder Body.

The former was essentially a simplified version of the latter, much like Dark Heavy Water is to Beiming True Water.

By transitioning to the Nine-Wheeled Golden-Vein Thunder Body after having already cultivated the Golden Wheel Thunder Body, the time and energy required would be greatly reduced.

This Divine Technique was also a top-tier one for the Third Transition of Force, fusing the ferocity of thunder with the sharpness of metal.

A Cultivator uses their spine as an axis to forge nine golden wheels, one by one, from the base of the spine to the crown of the head. As the wheels turn, they generate thunder. The thunder strengthens the body, and a stronger body allows the wheels to spin even faster, creating a self-sustaining cycle.

Upon achieving Great Success with this Divine Technique, one’s bones would be covered in thunder patterns and their blood would turn to golden liquid. The physical body transforms into a thunder body, impervious to myriad techniques and unscratched by ordinary Profound Artifacts.

Furthermore, the power of the nine wheels could be unleashed as a thunder seal.

Wherever the seal landed, all things would be shattered.

It could be called the ultimate offensive and defensive Divine Technique for a force-based Cultivator.

Crucially, the Nine-Wheeled Golden-Vein Thunder Body was perfectly suited for Romance’s ferocious and savage fighting style, as if it were tailor-made for her.

After obtaining the cultivation method for the Nine-Wheeled Golden-Vein Thunder Body, Romance immediately and joyfully threw herself into her training.

With the successive breakthroughs of Cedric, the Second Elder, and Romance, the number of Legendary Powerhouses in the Silver Moon Clan increased to six.

In terms of top-tier combat power, they had finally started to make up for their deficit.

Although there was still a significant gap compared to the number of Legendary Combat Powers in first-rate factions, they were already catching up at full speed.

And this was only the beginning.

In the year 9393 of the Chenxi Calendar, Lucius successfully achieved Foundation Establishment, becoming Taichu City’s fourth Foundation Establishment Cultivator.

To no one’s surprise, upon achieving Foundation Establishment, Lucius resolutely chose to walk the path of a Sword Cultivator.

After paying his respects to Anton and learning about the various philosophies for refining a Sword Pill, he unhesitatingly chose the Sword Intent Condensation Skill.

The core idea of this method was to not rely on any physical materials, but to purely condense the Sword Pill from Sword Intent. This best matched the Sword Cultivator’s essence of "controlling the sword with intent."

The advantage was that a Sword Pill refined in this way could advance alongside its master’s breakthroughs in cultivation, without the need for constantly investing rare materials to temper and strengthen it.

Furthermore, in battle, the Sword Pill could transform into an ’invisible sword’—without shadow or trace, form or substance. With a mere thought, the sword would fall, and the enemy would die without ever knowing what killed them.

But the disadvantage was that it placed extremely high demands on the Sword Cultivator’s innate talent, requiring exceptional comprehension and concentration.

Lucius’s talent in the Sword Dao was widely acknowledged.

His focus and purity regarding the Sword Dao were even more beyond doubt.

But even so, refining a Sword Pill with the Sword Intent Condensation Skill was still a task of considerable difficulty for him.

It was even possible that after investing a great deal of time and energy, he would still end up with nothing to show for it.

However, Anton did not stop him.

Cultivating the Dao is a personal matter; others cannot do it for you.

As a teacher, all he could do was present the paths, point out the risks, and then leave the choice to the student himself.

Since Lucius still chose this path after careful consideration, what Anton had to do was respect his decision, not obstruct it.

The year after Lucius succeeded in his Foundation Establishment, Mia followed closely behind and also achieved Foundation Establishment, becoming Taichu City’s fifth Foundation Establishment Cultivator.

In the same year, the allied forces destroyed the eleventh spatial node.

The offensive and defensive war in the Subspace had entered its second half. With fewer and fewer spatial nodes remaining, the allied forces’ advance was gradually picking up speed.

In the year 9395 of the Chenxi Calendar, Eleanor reached the peak of Foundation Establishment.

...

「Ninefold Celestial Tower, Celestial Essence Hall.」

In the spacious hall, only Anton and Eleanor sat facing each other.

Light from the Light Source Stones cascaded down from the dome, casting faint shadows behind the two of them.

"Have you made up your mind?" Anton asked.

"I have."

Eleanor nodded with a solemn expression, her eyes holding no hesitation, only a tranquil certainty.

"I know very well that my talent is not as great as yours. A First-Grade Golden Core is too remote and ethereal for me. I don’t want to strive for something so unrealistic."

"Even a Second-Grade Golden Core would be extremely difficult."

"With my aptitude and comprehension, if I were to force an attempt at Second Grade, the probability of failure would be very high."

"All things considered, I believe a Third-Grade Golden Core is the most suitable choice for me."

Anton listened quietly, a flicker in his eyes.

It was an ironclad rule of the Cultivation Realm that one could not hope to reach Divinity Transformation with a Golden Core below the Third Grade.

But as long as one reached the Third Grade or higher, the gap between the grades of Golden Cores was not actually that great.

Whether it was a Third-Grade or Second-Grade Golden Core, one had a chance to reach for the Void Amalgamation, Dao Integration, or even Tribulation Transcendence realms.

At most, the hope of achieving the Mahayana realm was exceedingly slim.

That was a realm that only those with a First-Grade Golden Core were qualified to pursue.

Of course, the potential of a Second-Grade Golden Core was certainly superior to that of a Third-Grade one.

Given the same opportunities and the same amount of effort, a Second-Grade Golden Core Cultivator’s chances of breaking through to a higher realm were undoubtedly much greater than those of a Third-Grade Golden Core Cultivator.

However, compared to potential, the success rate was what a Cultivator at the peak of Foundation Establishment should consider most.

Everyone wanted to form a higher-quality Golden Core, but they first had to be capable of doing so.

If one overreached and failed in their core formation, the light consequence was damage to their Divine Soul, requiring decades of recuperation to recover.

The severe consequence was damage to one’s foundation, rendering them unable to ever break through again for the rest of their life.

For a Cultivator, the latter was no different from death.

Therefore, every Cultivator at the peak of Foundation Establishment was extremely cautious when choosing the grade of their Golden Core.

Eleanor’s choice of a Third-Grade Golden Core was a pragmatic one, made after recognizing her own limits.

This clarity and self-awareness were far wiser than blindly pursuing a higher grade while ignoring one’s own condition.

"I’ve already prepared the Condensation Pill for you."

Anton flipped his wrist, and a pill the size of a longan appeared out of thin air in his palm.

The Pill Body was perfectly round and covered with seven Pill Patterns as fine as hairs. The five colors of red, white, cyan, yellow, and black were interwoven, along with one gold and one silver. The seven-colored brilliance slowly swam across the pill’s surface as if it were alive.

A clear, tranquil medicinal fragrance instantly filled the entire hall.

It was a high-grade Condensation Pill.

Eleanor’s gaze fell upon the pill, and her eyes lit up slightly.

With a gentle wave of Anton’s hand, the pill slowly drifted toward the Elf Maiden.

"Thank you," Eleanor said, joyfully accepting the Condensation Pill.

Watching her, Anton felt a wave of emotion.

Back when he first refined a Condensation Pill, he had to rush around everywhere, painstakingly gathering the main Five Elements materials and the two energies of yin and yang.

It took him decades of exhaustive effort to barely gather all the ingredients.

But now, with just a single order, he had people under him who would run the errands, quickly gathering all the materials needed to refine a high-grade Condensation Pill.

Even the Mind Flayer brains used to create the Heart Demon Guide were regularly collected by exploration teams from Nine Nether City, so he never had to worry about it.

’This is the benefit of establishing a faction.’

’No matter how strong one person is, their energy is ultimately limited.’

’But a faction can mobilize countless people and endless resources to accomplish things that one person never could.’

"How are your preparations for the Heart Demon tribulation?" Anton asked.

"No problem." Eleanor nodded, a trace of confidence appearing in her expression. "I’ve used the Heart Demon Guide to repeatedly temper my Dao heart over the years. I’m confident I can face the Heart Demon tribulation for a Third-Grade Golden Core."

Anton nodded to himself.

The intensity of a Heart Demon tribulation for a Third-Grade Golden Core was much lower than that for a First-Grade one.

With the foundation she had built by using the Heart Demon Guide dozens of times over the years, there was basically no need to worry about the possibility of failure.

"In that case, go ahead."

A smile appeared on Anton’s face.

"Core formation will take some time. Don’t worry about the Clan’s affairs. With Furlo here, nothing will go wrong during this period."

The time required for a Cultivator to form their core varied, depending entirely on their individual aptitude and accumulated foundation.

This was especially true for the Heart Demon tribulation.

Some Cultivators broke through their Heart Demon tribulation in just a day or two.

Others, however, wandered in the Illusion Realm for several years before breaking through.

Back when Anton formed his core, it took him a total of three months from start to finish, which was considered very fast.

It was normal for an ordinary Cultivator to spend three or four years on it.

Eleanor carefully put away the Condensation Pill, gave Anton a serene smile, and then left the Celestial Essence Hall.

Anton didn’t stay either. He left the Celestial Essence Hall and headed out of the city.

Eleanor was about to break through, and he couldn’t afford to slack off either. He had to strengthen his Magical Power and Golden Core to their limits as soon as possible, and then begin condensing a Magical Power True Seal.

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