The Eternal Saint of Alchemy

Yun Ruoxi also leaned out of the window, looking at Yun Ruoyan's back, her brows furrowing. "It doesn't look like it was caused by geological activity."

Xiao Fan nodded, without saying anything more. He placed his hand on the stone wall, and the spiritual power of the Creation Fire climbed a short distance upwards along the spiral pattern.

The feedback sent a shockwave through him—these patterns still contained extremely fine spiritual energy veins, ancient and stable, like meticulously designed irrigation channels.

This was crafted by the Supreme Pill Master Taixu.

He gestured for Han Fei to slow down, and they slowly made their way through the canyon while observing the direction of the spiral patterns.

After walking for about two hours, the valley suddenly narrowed into a narrow passage that could only accommodate one carriage. There were deep carvings embedded in the rock on both sides of the passage, and the shape of those carvings was the array base in his sea of ​​consciousness.

"We've arrived." He jumped off the carriage and looked ahead. Beyond the mountain pass was a low-lying basin, shrouded in a layer of hazy fog. The fog was neither too thick nor too thin, making it difficult to see the situation in the center of the basin, but it didn't completely obscure the view either.

In the gray fog, some undulating outlines could be vaguely seen, resembling collapsed stone pillars and crooked stone walls. Xiao Fan had Han Fei park the car in a sheltered spot outside the mountain pass, and then led Yun Ruoxi and Gu Yuan inside.

The air in the fog was unusually dry and cold.

What I was stepping on wasn't mud or sand, but fine white particles.

Xiao Fan squatted down and pinched the particles with his fingers. They were hard and had angular edges, and were indeed bone fragments, but they were too old to be seen in their original shape.

"Where is this place?" Gu Yuan looked around, staring at the collapsed stone pillars.

These stone pillars are as thick as two people can hug, and are engraved with countless runes, but most of them have been eroded by time and mist and are no longer visible.

Xiao Fan stepped forward and brushed the dust off the stone pillar with his hand.

Below the stone pillar, there is a line of text, exactly the same as the handwriting of the Grandmaster of Elixir, but much younger than that in the Nine Pagodas Diagram, with sharp strokes and a spirited air.

"The first time the fire was forged, it burned away three thousand white bones."

As he looked at those eight characters, a guess slowly surfaced in his mind.

The broken bones in this basin are remnants left behind by the Grandmaster of Alchemy after he experimented with various strange fires. Countless spiritual materials and bones were burned and purified here, piling up to form a gray, misty land.

"There's something good inside." He clapped his hands and turned to walk towards the center of the basin.

Gray mist swirled around him, as if awakening from a deep sleep.

The gray mist in the center of the basin was much denser than that on the outskirts, making it possible to see only a few feet away. Xiao Fan slowly walked forward, forming a crimson-gold barrier centered on the Creation Fire, keeping the gray mist at bay for at least half a foot.

After walking more than a hundred steps, a complete stone wall appeared in front of everyone.

The stone wall is not high, only about one and a half people tall. A large gate is carved on the wall, and the runes on the gate are much better preserved than those on other parts of the wall. The lines are smooth, as if they were carved with a knife.

Xiao Fan stood in front of the gate and penetrated it with his divine sense.

At that very moment, the array base in his sea of ​​consciousness stirred slightly, as if it had sensed something.

Immediately afterwards, the runes on the door frame began to emit a faint silver light, which extended from the top of the door frame to the bottom, as if someone were carrying an invisible lamp and walking back and forth along the edge.

With a "click," the stone door was pushed open a crack.

Xiao Fan squeezed through the crack, revealing a small stone chamber. The walls of the chamber were polished to a very smooth finish, as if they had been meticulously sculpted.

Facing the wall is a row of stone shrines, each containing a pottery jar or wooden box; some are broken, while others are well-preserved.

He walked up to a perfectly intact wooden box and gently opened the lid.

Inside the box was a thin, yellowed parchment, even better than the one he had obtained at Dry Bone Ridge.

Upon opening it, one finds an extremely detailed diagram of the flame structure, with the path of flame transformation marked in tiny print.

Xiao Fan's eyes lit up after seeing only a small part of it.

The refining methods recorded in this book are far more advanced than Wei Huoshou's fragmentary manuscript. It not only explains how to purify the flames, but also how to fuse different flames together to form a completely new flame.

"Yin-Yang Furnace," he murmured, reading the words on the parchment.

The Great Sage of Alchemy had attempted the method of yin-yang fusion long, long ago.

Every wooden box and pottery jar in this stone chamber records different stages and proportions of the fusion process, including failures, successes, semi-finished products, and finalized forms.

He carefully rolled up the parchment, tucked it into his pocket, and then opened a clay pot.

A small handful of dark red powder was sealed inside the jar. This powder was the essence left over from the fusion of Yin Fire and Yang Fire. Although the quantity was small, the purity was very high, making Xiao Fan somewhat dazzled.

He spent half an hour turning all the well-preserved wooden boxes and pottery jars in the stone chamber upside down.

Finally, he obtained three parchments, a small jade bottle containing the essence of fire, and a bronze disc.

This was a palm-sized disc with a groove in the center, the size of which was perfect for the Thunderfire Token. Xiao Fan took out his Thunderfire Token, tried it out, and it fit perfectly.

The bronze disc emitted a deep hum, and a faint halo appeared on its surface. Within the halo, a small map emerged, marking the locations of the other two secret chambers in the valley.

The core of the Grandmaster of Elixir is hidden underground, while the surface is merely a front hall.

Xiao Fan put away the bronze tray, stood up, and looked at a not-so-obvious crack in the stone chamber floor.

The direction of the slit was exactly the same as the entrance to the first stone chamber on the bronze disc.

"Only the last two floors are left." He squatted down, took out the Thunderfire Token from the copper plate, and injected spiritual power into the cracks in the floor.

The ground silently sank down, revealing a stone staircase leading underground. At the end of the staircase, a warm light emanated.

He walked down the stone steps.

The area of ​​this underground stone chamber is at least three times that of the surface chamber.

Xiao Fan was stunned by what he saw as soon as he reached the last step.

In the center of the stone chamber stands a two-colored bronze furnace, as tall as a person. Half of it is red and the other half is gray. The two colors meet at the heart of the furnace to form a winding dividing line, like a river solidified in steel.