The Eternal Saint of Alchemy

Xiao Fan nodded, without saying anything more.

"I know who owns that trading company. You mentioned before that word has spread about your research on Yin Fire, so perhaps someone is trying to stop your cultivation."

Ye Ruolin smiled nonchalantly and casually dusted off the door frame.

"Come on. I've seen plenty of people blocking the doorway, and I've seen even worse things. But you..."

At this point, she looked at Xiao Fan and said, "If you had shown up here today, you might have been resented by some people."

Xiao Fan stood beside her, watching them disappear around the corner. "You could say that. Anyway, I don't lack that little bit of money."

Ye Ruolin glanced at him sideways, a slight smile playing on her lips. Without saying a word, she turned and entered the courtyard, waving her hand and saying, "Come in and have a cup of tea."

Xiao Fan followed her into the courtyard.

The fire-elemental materials in the courtyard have been dried to a near-complete state, neatly stacked on bamboo boards. The smell of burnt wood in the air has faded considerably compared to a few days ago, replaced by the warmth of the sunlight.

Ye Ruolin poured him a full cup of tea, then poured one for herself. She sat down on the wooden bench in the corridor, crossed her legs, and looked much more relaxed.

Do you know who's behind them?

Xiao Fan sat down next to her and blew on his teacup. "More or less. You've only been at the Pill Tower for a few days, and something like this has happened. Or rather, someone has been watching you all along, or watching the Pill Tower all along."

Ye Ruolin held her teacup in silence. She sipped her tea quietly, then suddenly placed the teacup on the armrest and turned to look at Xiao Fan.

"I originally planned to leave the capital in a few days. But now it seems that there are far more people hiding on this road than I imagined."

"Xiao Fan, could I ask you a favor? We've run out of Fire Marrow Crystals. Are you also going to go into seclusion with the Grandmaster of Pill Refinement?"

Xiao Fan paused in his act of picking up his teacup, then said, "I plan to go."

"Take me with you," Ye Ruolin said in an unquestionable tone. "I need a stable environment for cultivating Yin Fire, and you need a partner to help you relieve the pressure in the underground copper furnace. We can each take what we need, and it'll be good to have someone to look after us on the way."

Xiao Fan pondered for a moment, then picked up his teacup and took a sip. "Okay," Wang Yao replied.

Ye Ruolin smiled, picked up her teacup, and clinked it against his. A crisp sound lingered in the quiet courtyard.

A night breeze carried the scent of dried fire-attribute spiritual materials from the bamboo basket, mixed with the aroma of tea and the sweet fragrance of newly blooming autumn flowers in the courtyard.

The night before his departure, Xiao Fan made a list of everything he needed to bring.

Three parchment manuscripts, a copper plate from a two-colored bronze furnace, a thunder and fire token, a gray-purple array base, fire marrow crystals, and some samples collected in swamps and tunnels.

Ye Ruolin had also packed her luggage, which contained nothing but a simple backpack and a short sword.

She was wearing a gray-blue dress suitable for a long journey, with her hair tied in a high ponytail, and stood at the living room door waiting for Xiao Fan to come and meet her.

When we set off, it was just getting light, and the road to Danta Mountain was covered with a thin layer of frost, which made a crunching sound when we stepped on it.

Han Fei drove the carriage forward, yawning as he did so, while Yun Ruoxi sat in the carriage reading a geography book.

Ye Ruolin rode the horse sent by the Ye family, following behind Xiao Fan. Every now and then, she would talk to him through the carriage window about the Yin Fire tempering and the process of opening the underground copper furnace.

After leaving the Danta Mountains, the road becomes steeper as we head south.

Along the way, villages became fewer and fewer, and forests became denser and denser.

Xiao Fan leaned against the carriage wall, closed his eyes, and reviewed the terrain data around the basin recorded on the parchment given to him by the Grandmaster of Pill Refining.

On the fourth day of the journey, the road suddenly became blocked.

It looked as if a large chunk had been forcibly shaved off, revealing the dark brown rock underneath.

The exposed rocks are covered with spiderweb-like cracks, and wisps of heat seep out from the cracks, causing the surrounding air to distort slightly.

Han Fei pulled on the reins and turned to shout into the carriage, "Brother Xiao, we can't get any further ahead."

Xiao Fan jumped out of the car and looked towards the roadside. The rocks on the cross-section were of uneven colors, with the bottom layer being a thick layer of black rock, covered by a layer of dark brown weathered rock.

There were strange scratches on the black rocks, as if some heavy object had been dragged across them, extending into the dense forest below the cliff.

He bent down, looked at the scratches, and reached out to touch the deepest one. The stone wall was covered with a thin layer of black dust, which felt cool and smooth to the touch.

"Someone's been here." He stood up, looking at the scratches. "There's something in the woods below the cliff."

Ye Ruolin dismounted and frowned slightly as she looked at the scratch. "Judging from its shape and width, I've seen a type of transport tool in an old book at home."

My ancestors recorded that when the Grandmaster of Alchemy was moving things, he liked to use a kind of iron frame with grooves at the bottom. When dragging it across stones, it would leave these marks.

Xiao Fan's gaze fell on her. "Does your ancestor still remember these things?"

Ye Ruolin nodded, as if it were a matter of course. "Our Ye family has studied the notes of the Grandmaster of Pill Refining for three generations. He even wrote a notebook to prevent future generations from not knowing how to restore what he built."

Xiao Fan glanced at the woods again.

If these scratches were indeed left by the Grandmaster of the Void Pill, then there is very likely something hidden beneath this mountain forest.

He closed his eyes and extended his divine sense. Sure enough, about thirty feet above the ground, there was a huge cave with an ancient and stable spiritual energy fluctuation inside.

He shared his discovery with everyone.

Master Gu Yuan took out two Earth-Probing Talismans and stuck them on the ground to verify the results. The results were exactly the same as what Xiao Fan had sensed with his divine sense before—there was indeed a cavity deep underground, and the cavity was mixed with a kind of spiritual energy resonance similar to metal, like something that had been used for a long time.

"Let's go." Xiao Fan turned to Ye Ruolin and said, "If this really is something left behind by the Grandmaster of Pill Refining, perhaps there's something else he didn't take with him."

Ye Ruolin tied the horse to a tree by the roadside, then took out two lanterns from her backpack, one for Xiao Fan and one for herself.

"Let's go," he said.

The path in the woods was much more difficult to walk than I had imagined.

The forest is covered with thick humus, which is soft and spongy underfoot, and you can easily sink up to your thighs if you're not careful.

Xiao Fan took the lead, using the Flame of Creation to clear the way, followed closely by Ye Ruolin, Yun Ruoxi, and Gu Yuan, while Han Fei was responsible for looking after the horses.