The Eternal Saint of Alchemy

As dusk deepened, the surroundings turned a deep blue, and all was quiet except for the rustling of the wind through the bushes at the edge of the depression.

He returned to the carriage, leaned against the wall, closed his eyes, and sorted through the information in his mind.

This Grandmaster of Alchemy's plans far exceeded his imagination.

The nine towers are merely a superficial seal; the true hidden array lies in the array bases, recesses, and winding paths scattered across the frontier and remote areas.

Someone helped him break the deadlock, and all he had to do was win the second half of the game before it ended.

He took out the tattered scroll that Wei Huoshou had given him and began to peruse it by the light of an oil lamp. Inside the bronze box at Kugu Ridge, he found a sentence: "Heaven and earth have a gap."

The Nine Towers cannot seal all the restrictions.

Taixu Dansheng left these scattered array base systems on the edge of the area in order to plug the gap.

One by one, the array bases were taken away, and no matter what the person's purpose was, he had to stop them.

He closed the rubbing, unfolded the sheepskin map, and by the light of the oil lamp, drew a mark on the area beyond the southwestern border.

Let's set off first thing tomorrow morning.

As night fell, a light suddenly appeared on the distant wilderness, before darkness returned.

The next morning, before dawn, the carriage started moving.

Once you cross the border, the roads become even more difficult. The official highways have long since been destroyed, leaving only a few dirt tracks worn into the ground by animals and pedestrians.

Han Fei slowed down the carriage, fearing that if the carriage jolted, the axle would fall apart.

Xiao Fan sat on the carriage shaft, his divine sense extending towards the southwest.

The yin energy drew closer and closer, and he could even feel a scorching heat from it. It was a special sensation formed by the fusion of Taiyin fire and earth fire, like the black stone platform at the bottom of the rift valley.

In the afternoon, a dark, undulating shape appeared on the horizon, resembling a small mountain.

The entire mountain was dark gray, almost black, with a bare top, devoid of any vegetation, and from a distance it looked like a giant piece of charcoal.

On the southern slope of that low, black mountain, there is a fissure, only a few meters wide, that extends all the way into the mountain.

Xiao Fan stopped the carriage at the foot of the mountain, jumped off, walked to the crack, and sniffed the scent emanating from it.

The Yin energy was so dense it was almost tangible, as if someone had used the entire mountain as a furnace to activate all the array bases, and the resulting residual energy was poured into the mountain.

Just as he was about to step inside, a sudden tremor came from beneath his feet.

A muffled thud came from deep within the crack, as if some heavy object was collapsing from the depths of the earth.

Immediately afterwards, a stream of purplish-black gas gushed out from the crack, carrying a pungent sulfurous odor that assaulted the senses.

Xiao Fan took half a step back. In front of him, the Creation Flame automatically formed a crimson-gold barrier, blocking the airflow. It was like raindrops hitting a red-hot iron plate, making a hissing sound.

"There's movement inside." Yun Ruoxi walked over and looked at the churning purplish-black vortex.

Xiao Fan nodded, without saying anything more. "He's setting up the last array base. Perfect timing."

After saying that, he turned to Gu Yuan and Han Fei and said, "You two, stay here and keep watch. If anything happens—"

"Understood, send the signal." Master Gu Yuan nodded, already holding the talisman.

Xiao Fan turned around and walked into the crack.

The space inside the crack was much larger than the entrance, and the walls were covered with charred marks, as if they had experienced countless cycles of hot and cold.

The further one went, the stronger the aura of the earth fire and the Taiyin star became. The two completely opposite auras kept colliding with each other. If it weren't for the protection of the Creation Fire, one would have already damaged their meridians.

He walked down the crack, and after a few hundred steps, the view suddenly opened up before him.

This is a hollowed-out space inside the mountain, covering an area of ​​several tens of feet high, with smooth walls like a mirror and runes and patterns everywhere.

These runes share the same origin as the black stone platform at the bottom of the rift, but are more complete. They are neatly distributed on the surrounding walls and the ground, forming a complete giant array.

A figure sat cross-legged.

He was still wearing a gray-black robe and a hood that covered most of his face.

But this time, he gave off a completely different feeling than Xiao Fan had seen him at the edge of the Black Sand Sea—back then, he had been concealing his aura, but now, his aura was being released completely.

A dense layer of Yin energy swirled around him, forming a hazy, semi-transparent film that slowly merged with the massive array beneath his feet.

Three array bases were placed in front of the gray-robed man. One was embedded in the groove in front of him, while the other two floated beside him, slowly rotating and emitting a uniform and persistent hum.

The three base pieces were finally assembled. Then, he placed the last piece on the core of the formation.

The moment Xiao Fan stepped into the mountain's interior, the gray-robed man looked up. His eyes, hidden beneath the hood, stared directly at him, calm and unperturbed.

"We're too late."

Xiao Fan remained silent. He took a step forward, and the rune array beneath his feet suddenly lit up upon contact with the aura of the Creation Fire, as if a giant beast had awakened from its slumber and slowly opened its eyes.

He raised his hands, and a ball of golden flame and a ball of silver lightning shot out from his hands, intertwining in mid-air to form a long pillar of light that headed straight for the magic array suspended in mid-air.

"I won't stop you from taking the array bases. But now, you must place all three array bases into the array eye." Xiao Fan's voice echoed in the empty cave.

His power, with absolute precision, coiled around the array base suspended in mid-air, creating a stalemate with the array power activated by the gray-robed man.

The gray-robed man's pupils contracted slightly, and his body stiffened for a moment.

During this brief stalemate, Xiao Fan's divine sense penetrated the spiritual energy shield on the surface of the formation and saw something hidden deep within it: the place where the three energy channels converged, with an extra interface that could be attached.

The size and shape of the slot corresponded exactly to the array base within his sea of ​​consciousness.

It dawned on him.

The entire array diagram is empty. If someone were to bring the fourth array base, they could connect to this grand array from the side, causing a dramatic change in the flow of power within it.

This is a trump card left behind by a Grandmaster of Alchemy.

The last array base is located in the sea of ​​consciousness.

Without any hesitation, he took out the purplish-gray array base from his sea of ​​consciousness, wrapped it with the Creation Fire, and then pushed it into the groove next to the array eye.

The gray-robed man's eyes widened.