The Eternal Saint of Alchemy

About half an hour later, a natural crack appeared ahead, the entrance of which was completely covered by vines.

Xiao Fan pushed aside the vines and crawled inside. The light from the spirit lamp illuminated a downward-sloping passageway. On the stone walls on both sides of the passageway, there were several rows of rusty steel frames, but the distance between each row was very even, indicating that the passageway was carved out by man.

At the end of the passage was a small underground stone chamber.

In the center of the stone chamber sat a box wrapped in sheet metal, its surface rusted, revealing a box inside wrapped in layers of oilcloth. Xiao Fan bent down and peeled off the layers of oilcloth one by one.

Deep within the tarpaulin was a palm-sized white jade box. The surface of the box was smooth and glossy, seemingly having endured countless years, yet it remained intact.

He gently opened the box, and inside lay a pearl the size of a pigeon's egg, its deep blue color shimmering with tiny golden light, like countless tiny stars embedded in a deep sea.

The bead felt cold to the touch. When Xiao Fan infused it with his spiritual power, the array base in his sea of ​​consciousness suddenly began to pulsate violently, as if it were being influenced by something distant.

He stood up, holding the dark blue beads, and looked at the people around him.

"This item can resonate with the array base, so it must have been left behind by the Grandmaster of Pill Refining."

He carefully placed the beads into his bosom, then wrapped the jade box again with a dry cloth and put it into his bag.

There was nothing else in the stone chamber.

Xiao Fan took one last look at the surrounding stone walls to make sure there was nothing he had missed before leading the team back the way they came.

It was already afternoon when we emerged from the woods and returned to the cliff edge.

Sunlight pierced through thin clouds, warmly illuminating the exposed brown rocks.

Seeing that the others were safe and sound, Han Fei was relieved and quickly handed over the dry rations he had prepared.

Xiao Fan leaned against the carriage, eating a biscuit. The coolness of the deep blue beads seeped through his clothes and intertwined with the heat of the Fire Marrow Crystal, forming a wonderful balance.

He leaned against the carriage wall, looking at the forest in the distance, which was brightly lit by the sunlight. He felt even more excited about this trip to the basin—the things that the Grandmaster of the Void had left behind in every corner far exceeded his expectations.

The carriage wound its way around the cliff for two days, and finally arrived at the edge of the basin at noon on the third day.

Xiao Fan jumped off the platform and walked towards the mountain pass, but what he saw there stunned him.

When he left, most of the gray fog had dissipated, leaving only a thin layer of gray fog deep in the basin.

When I came here again, the entire basin had been much cleaner. The sun shone brightly on the earth, and the collapsed stone pillars, the gray-white bone ground, and the collapsed ruins were all so peaceful.

Ye Ruolin rode forward and looked at the stone pillar ruins covered with runes from afar. Her pupils contracted slightly, and her eyes were filled with shock.

"Although these runes are ancient, their structure is more complete than that of the Taixu Pill Sacred Relic. They are at least more than ten years old."

Xiao Fan nodded and led everyone into the valley, arriving at a stone chamber.

The bone fragments were crushed and crackled underfoot, and the entire canyon was quiet except for the whistling wind.

Pushing open the door, the furnishings inside were exactly the same as before.

He walked to the crevice in the stone, squatted down, and poured spiritual energy into the array base. The stone slab sank silently. He turned to look at Ye Ruolin.

"Watch your step on the stairs, some parts are slippery."

The crowd filed out.

At the end of the stone steps was a huge stone chamber, inside which stood two bronze censers of different colors. The censers stood quietly, half red and half gray-white, emitting a soft glow under the light of the spirit lamp.

Ye Ruolin looked at the bronze furnace, paused slightly, and stood on the stone steps for a moment before continuing down.

"Yin and Yang in harmony." She stepped forward, stretched out a hand, and hovered it in the air, sensing it carefully. "The last page of the tattered scroll left by my ancestors says 'Yin and Yang in harmony, Heaven and Earth unite.' At the time, I thought it was a metaphor, but now it seems to be true."

Xiao Fan didn't speak again. He walked to the wall, took out a copper plate, and put the Thunderfire Token inside.

The map on the bronze disc lit up again, and this time he could see it more clearly. In addition to the two marked underground stones, there was a thin line that extended all the way to the third space.

The dark pattern was not located in the large stone chamber where the bronze furnace was placed, but in the deepest part of the basin.

He crouched down, placed the copper sheet on the ground, and slowly moved it along the black lines, finally stopping on a floor tile in the northeast corner.

The size, color, and width of that floor tile were all exactly the same.

However, when the copper sheet was applied, the halo shifted noticeably.

Xiao Fan placed his hand on the ground, only to find that the floor tile remained completely still.

He then used the True Fire of Creation to probe into the cracks between the bricks and found that there was an extremely fine, sticky substance between the bricks, which looked like ore that had been melted and solidified at high temperatures.

He stood up. "There's a tunnel here, but it's been sealed off now. The tunnel is very thick; forcing your way through would make too much noise."

Ye Ruolin walked to the stove, squatted down, and carefully inspected it. She then took out a copper tube about the thickness of a finger, removed the copper stopper, and dripped a drop of pale blue liquid onto the floor, making a crisp sound.

The liquid seeped out from the cracks in the bricks, making a hissing sound and emitting wisps of white smoke.

"This is my family's heirloom molten lava. It can soften ore without damaging it." She carefully put the copper tube away. "In a few minutes, I can open it."

Xiao Fan raised an eyebrow, said nothing, and stood quietly to the side, waiting.

After waiting for the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, he once again probed the Creation Fire into the crack between the bricks, and as he expected, it easily penetrated the sticky substance.

Master Gu Yuan handed Xiao Fan an iron pry bar, and with a forceful pry, the thick stone bricks immediately loosened, revealing a dark hole from which Xiao Fan emerged.

The entrance to the cave was small, only wide enough for one person to pass through, but a strong spiritual energy fluctuation could be felt when the wind blew through it.

It was an ancient yet surging spiritual energy, as if a deep underground vein had been carved open by human hands.

Xiao Fan carried the lantern and walked to the cave entrance. Several feet below the cave, there was a platform with a wide stone staircase leading into the distance.

"Let's go." He flashed into the cave first.

The group went downstairs and looked down by the light of the spirit lamps—the stone staircase was much longer than expected, about three zhang wide, with smooth, mirror-like steps. On each side was a thick, long square pillar painted with flames of two colors, red and gray alternating upwards.