The Elven Cultivator

It was a Giant Dragon over a hundred meters long.

Its entire body was covered in dark red Scale Armor, and between the gaps in its scales, molten streams of crimson-gold light pulsed like subterranean fire.

Its wingspan exceeded a hundred meters, the membranes a dusky blood-red, and the thick wing bones were lined with thorns that glinted with a cold light.

A long, powerful neck supported its proud draconic head. A row of sharp spines ran from its neck to the tip of its tail, three to four meters wide at their base, radiating a terrifying aura.

With the Giant Dragon’s appearance, a terrifying pressure descended abruptly.

This wasn’t merely the aura of a powerful being, but the suppression from a higher life form—an existence at the apex of the food chain.

In that instant, every Elf and Dwarf present felt as if a heavy boulder had been dropped on their chest, crushing the air from their lungs.

The Lizard-men fared even worse.

Whether they were ordinary Black Iron Tier Lizard-men or Silver Tier Draconic Lizard-men, they all collapsed to the ground. Their scales stood on end, and terrified whimpers escaped their mouths as if they had encountered their natural predator.

Even the few Golden Tier Draconic Lizard-men turned deathly pale. Their legs grew weak, and they barely managed to stay standing, their vertical pupils filled with horror.

Fear.

An instinctual fear originating from the depths of their bloodline, etched into the very core of their souls.

It was the most primal reaction of a lesser bloodline to a superior one, independent of willpower or strength.

This fear even overshadowed their dread of death, making them forget to flee or fight, leaving only the instinct to tremble uncontrollably.

The Giant Dragon didn’t even slow down as it soared over the battlefield.

Its crimson-gold, vertical pupils swept indifferently over the dense crowd of figures below before it casually retracted its gaze and continued flying into the distance.

There was no curiosity in its eyes, no concern, not even contempt.

Because ants were not even worthy of contempt.

It simply flew over the battlefield, the shadow cast by its enormous body like a moving thundercloud, blanketing more than half the area.

A moment later, the Giant Dragon’s figure vanished over the horizon, leaving only a lingering, scorching heat in the air and the figures on the ground who had yet to break free from its draconic might.

Silence.

A deathly silence.

After an unknown amount of time, Great Elder Leonard was the first to recover. He let out a long breath and spoke, his voice hoarse, “The Radiant Ash Dragon…”

The others snapped out of their daze as if waking from a dream, gasping for air like drowning men finally breaking the surface.

Many of the Elves and Dwarves were pale, their foreheads beaded with cold sweat, and even the hands gripping their weapons trembled slightly.

The three Dwarf elders also looked grim.

Hagrid, his face a mixture of shock and doubt, lowered his voice. “The Radiant Ash Dragon from Kresol Dragon City… Why would it be here?”

No one answered his question.

Everyone exchanged glances, their expressions filled with horror and lingering fear.

The Radiant Ash Dragon of Kresol Dragon City was widely acknowledged as the most powerful existence on the Eldron Plain, a Legendary Powerhouse far surpassing the Golden Peak.

One could even say it was the ruler of the Eldron Plain.

The vast majority of Elves and Dwarves had only heard legends about it and had never seen it in person.

After this fleeting glimpse today, they realized the Giant Dragon was far more terrifying than the stories described.

Its pressure alone was enough to extinguish any thought of resistance.

’So this is a Giant Dragon…’

The same thought flashed through the minds of many Elves and Dwarves as they silently processed their shock and terror.

Among the crowd, only Anton remained relatively calm.

In his previous life, after the Dragon God Ayo fell, the Dragon Court was destroyed, but the Dragon Race was not completely wiped out.

Even up to the eras of the [Undead Calamity] and [The Rise of the Gods], a small number of the Dragon Race still existed on the Dawn Continent.

Anton had fought the Dragon Race more than once, so the mystique was gone for him.

At least mentally, he had developed a strong immunity to the pressure exerted by the Dragon Race.

Right now, he was more concerned about something else.

’Why is the Radiant Ash Dragon, which is supposed to be guarding Kresol Dragon City, here? And where is it heading?’

Gazing in the direction the Radiant Ash Dragon had disappeared, Anton was lost in thought.

“That direction… seems to be the Dragon Court?”

A sudden thought struck Anton, flashing through his mind like lightning.

According to his memories, the Ten Thousand Races confirmed that the Dragon Court had completely lost the protection of the Dragon God Ayo around the year 9882 of the Chenxi Calendar.

’So when did the Dragon Court itself discover that it had lost the Dragon God’s protection?’

The Dragon Race’s domination of the Dawn Continent relied on the protection of the Dragon God.

Through the Dragon God’s power, they could unleash a might far beyond their own tier, even killing enemies of a higher rank.

A Golden Tier Giant Dragon, with the blessing of the Dragon God’s power, was strong enough to contend with a Legendary Powerhouse.

This was the fundamental reason the Dragon Race had been able to rule the Ten Thousand Races for nearly ten thousand years.

And once the Dragon God fell, the most obvious sign would be the inability to bestow power upon its followers.

The Giant Dragons guarding the various Dragon Cities, upon realizing they had lost the Dragon God’s power, would surely contact the Dragon Court to ask why, and might even abandon their posts to rush back.

’Could it be that the Dragon Race has already lost the Dragon God’s protection at this very moment?’

’Is the Radiant Ash Dragon rushing back to the Dragon Court to find out what happened because it sensed the loss of the Dragon God’s power?’

Anton’s eyes glinted. The more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed.

The reason for the Dragon God Ayo’s fall had always been a mystery.

Before he transmigrated, the officials had never announced the cause of the Dragon God’s fall, only vaguely hinting that it was related to version 5.0 of the game.

The only thing certain was that the fall of a Divine Spirit was not an instantaneous event.

Unless a Divine Spirit fell directly in a war between gods, its Divine Format and divinity completely devoured by the victor, a being of such power would typically undergo a long period of decline before its final demise.

This process could take hundreds, or even thousands, of years.

’Perhaps at this point in time, even if the Dragon God Ayo hasn’t completely fallen, it has weakened for some reason to the point where it can no longer grant power to its followers.’

’If that’s the case, perhaps I can leak the news early and bring about the fall of the Dragon Court sooner.’

However, as soon as this tempting thought emerged, Anton quickly suppressed it.

Setting aside the difficulty of verifying the information’s accuracy and convincing the other races to believe it, with his current Cultivation Level, recklessly getting involved in such matters would mean certain death at the slightest misstep.

’For now, it’s best to continue developing steadily.’

’If I really want to pull chestnuts out of the fire, I should at least wait until I break through to the Golden Core Stage.’

While Anton was lost in thought, the others had recovered and begun to deal with the remaining enemy forces.

The Golden Tier Draconic Lizard-men had already lost their will to fight due to Zhuo Gu’s death. Shaken to the core by the dragon’s might, they still hadn’t fully recovered. Faced with a siege, they were powerless to resist and were quickly subdued one by one.

As for the Lizard-man soldiers collapsed on the ground, they had no strength to resist at all. The Elves tied them up as easily as gathering firewood and marched them away in long lines into the depths of the forest.

In a way, the Radiant Ash Dragon’s appearance had saved the allied army the trouble of chasing down the remnants.

Only a few stone-skinned Giant Demons were left on the battlefield, still putting up a desperate struggle.

The reaction of these low-intelligence creatures to the dragon’s might was far less intense than the Lizard-men’s. They had merely frozen in place, and once the Radiant Ash Dragon left, they became lively again, cluelessly resuming their attack on the allied forces.

However, without the Lizard-men’s support, the remaining dozens of stone-skinned Giant Demons couldn’t make any waves and were quickly wiped out by the allied army.

The battlefield gradually fell silent.

The air was thick with the heavy stench of blood, mixed with the complex smells of scorched flesh, earth, and metal.

The ground was soaked in blood, sticky and slick underfoot, and littered with broken weapons and shattered scales.

The Second Elder, Cedric, and Elena took a portion of the troops and headed straight for the Molten Spike Tribe, accompanied by Knut and two hundred Dwarf Warriors.

The main forces of the Molten Spike Tribe had either been killed in action or captured; they were essentially all lost in this battle.

The remaining forces in the tribe’s settlement numbered no more than two thousand at most. This contingent was more than enough to handle them.

The Elves who remained on the battlefield began to clean up and take stock of the spoils.

The Dwarves gathered in small groups, talking and laughing loudly, sharing tales of the battle’s perils and the joy of victory.

More people, however, found their gazes drawn to the slender figure standing at the edge of the battlefield, wiping his Long Sword clean.

For the allied army of the Silver Moon Clan and Gray Rock Castle to achieve such a decisive victory today, Anton deserved the highest merit.

If he hadn’t single-handedly carved a path through the Lizard-man army, released the Yellow Turban Warriors to disrupt the enemy’s formation, and finally dealt a devastating blow to Zhuo Gu with that bizarre technique to secure the win, the outcome of this war would have likely been completely different.

“That kid Anton… he’s becoming more and more inscrutable.”

Third Elder Casian watched Anton from a distance, his face full of admiration.

In all his long years, he had seen countless so-called geniuses, but never one like Anton.

Alchemy, potions, combat… no matter the field, he could achieve a level of mastery that ordinary people couldn’t reach in a lifetime.

The key was that Anton was still so young.

By the standards of the Elf Race’s lifespan, he wasn’t even an adult yet.

The Great Elder deeply agreed, his gaze toward Anton also filled with wonder.

Recalling Anton’s performance just now, he still couldn’t hide the astonishment deep in his heart.

’That lightning, which even a Golden Peak powerhouse who had awakened the Power of Law couldn’t withstand… was it some kind of Magic, or a combat skill?’

He could tell that Anton’s move required a significant amount of time to prepare.

But compared to its astonishing power, this drawback was hardly worth mentioning.

To be able to create such a powerful move, Anton’s talent had far surpassed his understanding.

For a moment, all sorts of different gazes on the battlefield focused on Anton.

Only Romance, as carefree as ever, pulled Eleanor over to Anton’s side, curiously asking about the secrets of his recent move.

After being fobbed off with a casual answer by Anton, she put her hands together and started begging for Yellow Turban Warriors.

The previously crafted Yellow Turban Warriors had all been prioritized for the war effort, so she still didn’t have a practice partner.

Now that the war was over, she naturally came to ask for one right away.

After a bout of pestering, Anton not only agreed but also gave her three Yellow Turban Warriors at once, making the girl beam with joy as she grabbed his arm and shook it happily.

Beside them, Eleanor watched their interaction with a smile, the occasional glances she threw at Anton filled with a hint of admiration and worship.