The Elven Cultivator

Chapter 140: Chapter 138: The Cultivating Eleanor

With the full support of the Elder Council, Anton could finally work without restraint, pouring all his energy into this immense project.

The most tedious and time-consuming part of the Mountain Protection Array was, without a doubt, inscribing the array markings.

The Great Derivation Cyan Profound Array, with the Eternal Tree as its main Array Hub, required array markings to be inscribed onto the surfaces of the vast majority of the tree’s roots.

However, the Eternal Tree’s root system was unimaginably vast.

Like countless gnarled pythons, they plunged deep into the earth beneath the Silver Moon Forest, spreading in every direction to cover almost the entire expanse of the forest.

The sheer number of roots involved was mind-boggling.

If Anton were to do it alone, he might not be able to finish even after several decades.

In light of this, Anton decided to contract out most of the project’s workload.

He would personally inscribe the most critical array markings on the core roots near the Eternal Tree. The markings on all the other roots would be entrusted to the Clan’s Enchanters.

The only problem was that the other Enchanters knew next to nothing about array markings and were completely incapable of undertaking the work.

To that end, after consulting with the Elder Council, Anton decided to establish a special course to systematically teach the Enchanters about runes.

In essence, array markings were a type of rune.

More accurately, they were the extension and combination of runes in a spatial dimension.

As long as they mastered the basic techniques for inscribing runes, they could copy the array markings from a template, even without understanding the art of Arrays.

Anton didn’t require them to truly understand the principles of Arrays or the meaning of the array markings. They just needed to master the inscription technique and be able to meticulously replicate the markings onto the root surfaces, stroke by stroke, using a given template.

This was somewhat similar to transcribing Magic Scrolls. The only differences were that the medium had changed from sheepskin paper to roots, the ink was now a specially made Spiritual Ink, and the Magic Power was replaced by Spiritual Qi from Sensing Spirit Stones.

The runes of the Dawn Continent and those of the cultivation system appeared stylistically different on the surface, but their origins were fundamentally the same. The only differences lay in the methods of energy activation and the logic of their composition.

The greatest obstacle preventing the Elves from learning to inscribe runes before had been their lack of Spiritual Qi.

While Magic Power could activate many magic runes, its energetic properties were completely different from what the cultivation system required.

The advent of the Sensing Spirit Stone completely solved this problem.

This was far easier than learning the entire cultivation system from scratch.

When news of Anton’s class spread, not only did the Enchanters sign up enthusiastically, but many Casters who didn’t even specialize in Enchantment came to sit in on the lessons.

Eleanor was among them.

Eleanor had always specialized in Alchemy and had hardly any experience with Enchantment.

But to Anton’s surprise, Eleanor demonstrated a talent for learning runes that far surpassed everyone else.

Rune structures that others needed to practice dozens of times to master, she could successfully inscribe after only a few attempts.

She could even occasionally extrapolate from what she learned, asking questions that took even Anton by surprise.

In just a few short months, Eleanor’s progress had far outstripped that of the other students.

Anton had to start giving her special instruction, explaining more High Tier content to her privately after each class.

「A year passed in the blink of an eye.」

When Anton saw Eleanor successfully inscribe a complete array marking on a sheet of sheepskin paper, a thought couldn’t help but surface in his mind.

’Don’t tell me Eleanor is a genius at Arrays, too?’

Anton clicked his tongue in amazement.

The greatest obstacle the Elves faced when learning the knowledge of the cultivation system was their difficulty in grasping its most fundamental concepts.

Dao, Yin-Yang, the Five Elements, the Qi Sea, Divine Sense... These concepts, considered fundamentals in the Cultivation Realm, were like an arcane tome to the Casters of the Dawn Continent.

Their perception and ways of thinking, solidified over decades, or even centuries, of practice, made it difficult for them to accept a completely different foundational logic.

Only children who had never been exposed to any system of practice, their minds a blank slate, could perhaps absorb these concepts smoothly if they were educated in the cultivation system from a young age.

But Eleanor’s case was somewhat special.

While she couldn’t grasp the concepts that made the other Elves tear their hair out in a single go, she at least found a structured way to learn them. She would stumble along the way, but she could still manage to grasp them in the end.

Anton tried explaining some preliminary theories about the generation and suppression cycles of the Five Elements and the mutual balance of Yin and Yang. He found that while her understanding wasn’t perfect, it was already far better than anyone else’s.

Overjoyed, Anton began to seriously consider the feasibility of teaching Eleanor a Cultivation Technique.

In fact, as Anton had revealed more and more of his abilities over the years, the Clan’s upper echelons had already faintly realized that the power system he practiced was completely different from that of a typical Warrior or Caster.

It was just an unspoken agreement among them all, something no one brought up.

It wasn’t that no one had considered asking Anton to teach them. But Anton had hinted early on that it was impossible to master his power without being willing to abandon all the Magic Power painstakingly accumulated over years of practice and start over from scratch with a completely new system.

And even then, there was no guarantee they would achieve the same results he had; they might even end up weaker than they were before.

Upon learning this, everyone had given up on the idea.

But after hearing Anton’s proposal, Eleanor locked herself in her treehouse to think for two days. In the end, she resolutely agreed.