Chapter 289: Chapter 262: This Kid is a Little Too Uncanny

The familiar voice from behind was like a bucket of ice water poured over his head, freezing the smile on Byron’s face.

He whipped around.

Through the gaps in the crowd behind him, three figures were approaching, walking side by side.

The Elf leading them... who else could it be but Anton?

The color drained from Byron’s face.

’He didn’t die in the Subspace!’

The surrounding crowd now noticed the newcomers and gasped in astonishment.

"It’s Anton! He’s not dead!"

"How is that possible? Didn’t he enter the spatial node?"

"What in the world is going on?"

The crowd erupted like boiling water, their gazes of shock, confusion, and disbelief all converging on Anton.

Rek’sa frowned, a flicker of hard-to-detect surprise and suspicion in his vertical pupils.

Only Grant was stunned for a moment. Then his expression relaxed, and he strode up to them.

"Anton, you finally made it out! The rumors are flying that you took your team into a spatial node. What really happened? Were they false?"

Anton smiled faintly. "They’re true."

Grant was taken aback. "Then how are you..."

’If Anton really entered the spatial node, how could he be standing here, safe and sound?’

Before Anton could answer, Romance, beside him, said with a proud laugh, "Anton destroyed the spatial node. That’s how he got out, naturally."

To the crowd, his words were no less than a bombshell.

A hush fell over the surroundings, immediately followed by a tidal wave of clamor.

"Destroyed a spatial node? For real?"

"Are you kidding me? That spatial node was guarded by a royal Giant Dragon and at least several dozen other Giant Dragons. Even with a peak Legend leading the way, it would take at least a dozen squads combined. How could three Elves possibly pull that off?"

"Yeah, that’s just absurd!"

Voices of doubt rose from all sides; no one believed Romance.

It wasn’t that they had anything against Anton.

It was simply that the claim was too much of a challenge to their common sense.

Ever since the war against the Subspace began, every single time the coalition had successfully destroyed a spatial node, it had required deploying dozens of squads, hundreds of elites and powerhouses, and always came at the cost of heavy casualties.

And now, someone was claiming that a mere three Elves had done what normally took hundreds of the coalition’s finest.

How could they believe that?

"Exactly." Byron had recovered his wits and immediately chimed in to object. "If you said three peak Legends working together destroyed it, that might be believable. But there isn’t a single peak Legend among you! With what could you possibly have destroyed a spatial node? It’s absurd!"

As he spoke, he glanced from Rek’sa to Grant, searching their faces for some sign of agreement.

Unfortunately, neither of them looked at him.

Rek’sa’s gaze flickered, his thoughts unreadable.

Grant, on the other hand, was staring intently at Anton, as if waiting for him to confirm it himself.

Anton ignored Byron as well, simply giving Grant a slight nod, tacitly confirming Romance’s words.

Grant’s eyes widened slightly. He opened his mouth, but for a moment, he was at a loss for words.

Rek’sa’s expression, however, darkened, and he suddenly spoke. "How many Giant Dragons were in that spatial node?"

Romance heard the suspicion in his voice. He wrinkled his nose, a hint of displeasure coloring his tone.

"Fifty-six Giant Dragons, including a peak-Legend Rock Dragon. You think that’s a lot, or a little?"

Hearing this, the crowd grew even more astonished.

A defensive force of that size was considered quite substantial among the spatial nodes that had been discovered so far.

’Could three Elves really have taken it down?’

Romance was about to say more, but Anton stopped him with a raised hand.

He gave Grant a small smile. "We need to go to Ranfeng Hall to submit the record crystal. I’ll find you for a drink later when I have time."

At his words, the crowd froze for a second before a sudden realization dawned on them.

’That’s right. You can’t just say you destroyed a spatial node. You need a record crystal as proof.’

The coalition had dedicated departments and personnel responsible for verifying these record crystals, checking everything from the authenticity of the footage to the plausibility of the combat process.

If any discrepancies were found, they would activate contingency measures, monitoring energy fluctuations in the Subspace to confirm if the number of nodes had actually decreased.

With these two methods for cross-verification, faking it was nearly impossible.

’Could Anton have been telling the truth? Did he really destroy a spatial node with just two of his clansmen?’

Grant and Rek’sa had thought of this as well, and their expressions shifted.

Anton was already leading the Great Elder and Romance toward Darkness Fortress.

The crowd exchanged glances and followed without another word.

If they didn’t get to the bottom of this today, they wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight.

Upon arriving at Ranfeng Hall, Anton didn’t immediately turn in the record crystal. Instead, he first had someone arrange for an alchemy lab.

Leaving the Great Elder and Romance to stand guard outside, he entered the alchemy lab, took out the record crystal, and began deleting the footage of the Jia Shen Divine General.

’An Alchemy Puppet approaching the level of a Saint is just too sensational for now.’

’If other people find out about this, it will definitely attract a lot of unwanted attention.’

’Anton didn’t want any unnecessary complications; it was better to keep a low profile.’

As for whether the coalition would acknowledge the record crystal after some of the footage was deleted, Anton wasn’t worried.

The coalition would surely see that the record crystal had only been partially deleted, with no signs of actual tampering.

Edited footage wasn’t the same as forged footage. As long as the key parts of the battle and its outcome remained intact, it would be enough to prove the authenticity of his achievement.

Besides, the coalition had its own methods to confirm whether the number of spatial nodes in the Subspace had decreased, so forgery wasn’t a concern.

Record crystals were a derivative of Demon Crystal technology. For someone like Anton, who had already mastered this technology, making a few small alterations was effortless.

Within moments, he had finished the deletions. He then left the alchemy lab and handed his identity plate and the record crystal to a staff member.

Ranfeng Hall had already heard the rumors and immediately assigned ample staff to inspect the record crystal. Simultaneously, they activated their contingency protocol, contacting Coalition Command to request an immediate verification of the number of spatial nodes in the Subspace.

Both verification channels proceeded simultaneously to ensure there would be no mistakes.

Furthermore, since the Silver Moon Squad was the only team involved in the battle, there were no other squads to split the Contribution Points with, making the final tally relatively simple.

As a result, the verdict came in less than an hour.

The Silver Moon Squad had indeed destroyed a spatial node.

The moment the news was announced, the crowd waiting in Ranfeng Hall erupted.

"Unbelievable, it’s actually true?"

"Three people destroyed a spatial node. It’s simply incredible."

"Gods... What kind of monster is the Fallen Dragon Sword Saint?"

The hall was in an uproar.

Everyone was left dumbfounded by the result.

Before today, if someone had told them that a single squad of three Elves had destroyed a spatial node, they would have scoffed and not believed a word of it.

And yet now, this inconceivable feat had been laid bare right before their eyes.

It felt so surreal, it was like being in a dream.

In a corner of the crowd, Byron’s face was flushed so red it looked ready to bleed. His lips quivered, but he couldn’t force out a single word.

He recalled what he had said earlier, right in front of the Subspace entrance.

His gloating, confident assertions now felt like a series of resounding slaps across his face.

Although everyone was too deep in their own shock to pay him any mind, he still felt like a complete fool.

Deep within the hall, Grant and Rek’sa had already used their respective networks to acquire more detailed intelligence.

Soon, they both learned a crucial piece of information.

Anton had managed to conquer the spatial node by using some unknown means to grievously wound the guarding Rock Dragon.

But even setting that aside, his performance in the battle was undeniable proof of one thing: he now possessed the power of a peak Legend.

Upon learning this, both Grant and Rek’sa fell silent, speechless for a long while.

...

「North District of the Fortress, Jade Royal Court Headquarters.」

As Alvin listened to his subordinate’s report, his hand trembled, nearly spilling the Moon Dew Tea in his cup.

For a mighty Legendary Powerhouse to lose his composure like that showed just how shocked he truly was.

The Elf before the desk kept his head lowered, not daring to even breathe too loudly.

After a long while, Alvin finally spoke, his voice laced with an indescribable complexity.

"A peak Legend... I really underestimated him."

...

「Logistics Department.」

Alicia sat behind a long table, a slight smile playing on her lips as she looked at the sheepskin paper in her hand.

Ignatius sat across from her, gulping down hard liquor.

"You called it. Anton didn’t just rush into that spatial node on some hot-headed impulse."

The Dwarf’s tone was joyful, yet laced with confusion and bewilderment.

"But I’ve wracked my brain, and I still can’t figure out how in the world he did it."

"That kid’s just too damn uncanny."

"If you can’t figure it out, don’t waste your time on it." Alicia set down the sheepskin paper, glancing at Ignatius with an enigmatic smile. "It’s not the first time, after all."

Ignatius choked on his words and sullenly put down his cup.

"You Elves... do all of you have to be so brutally honest?"

Alicia just smiled faintly without replying. She turned her gaze back to the sheepskin paper, but a certain slender figure involuntarily surfaced in her mind.

’A peak Legend...’

’The young Elf she had first met on the Eldron Plain, who had only just advanced to Legend, had now joined the ranks of the continent’s top experts.’

’Of all the geniuses she had ever known, herself included, none had ever grown at such an insane rate.’

’He really is an impossible person to read.’

...

Within a day, news that the Silver Moon Squad had single-handedly destroyed a spatial node spread throughout all of Darkness Fortress.

From there, it rapidly spread through various channels across the entire Dawn Continent.

Some marveled at Anton’s strength.

Others were curious about what methods he had used.

Still others began to re-evaluate the standing of the new and upcoming power that was the Silver Moon Clan.

But regardless, everyone understood one fact.

The continent now had one more peak Legendary Powerhouse.

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