The Eternal Saint of Alchemy

The stone platform was smooth as a mirror, and a palm-sized jade tablet lay quietly on it. The tablet was entirely black, with faint gold patterns faintly visible on it.

Xiao Fan walked to the stone platform and his gaze fell on the black token in his hand.

Golden patterns coalesced into a line of small characters on the token, the handwriting vigorous and powerful, exactly the same as the handwriting in the Burning Bone Abyss.

"On the day of your attainment of the Dao, take this decree and go to the West. The origin of the Moon is still the long, dark night."

The moment he held the token in his hand, the spiritual energy fluctuations in the entire space suddenly accelerated, but quickly returned to normal.

The jet-black token felt cold to the touch, and the floating golden patterns on it gradually calmed down, eventually forming a complete rune.

When he held the token in his hand, he felt a slight resonance between the array base in his sea of ​​consciousness and the token.

The direction is west. The distant west.

Xiao Fan carefully put the token away. This time, the direction he sensed was farther than ever before, crossing the mountains and deserts of the entire continent, extending all the way to another place he had never been before.

Xiao Fan briefly told Gu Yuan and Yun Ruoxi about how he obtained the black token.

Neither Han Sen nor Master Gu Yuan spoke.

"That's no joke. Once you cross the border of Daqing and travel three thousand miles west, no one will remember you anymore."

Xiao Fan carefully put away the token and fell silent, his mind replaying the words he had just spoken the entire way. "Moon Source Eternal Night."

Nine towers seal the Yin, the Burning Bone Abyss contains Yin and Yang, the capital has a formation eye, and Qingyun Mountain has a cave.

The three key points of the formation advanced layer by layer, firmly sealing the gaps in the eastern half of the continent. But the token told him that the true source was still in the west.

After returning to the Pill Tower, he didn't leave it for the past two days. Each time the 'Creation Fire' fell, a golden line would appear on it, and these lines all pointed in the same direction—west.

The token is made of neither gold nor jade, but somewhere in between. Whenever it is activated with spiritual power, one can feel a faint heat, as if there is a layer of faint energy fluctuations that are constantly spreading outward.

He organized all the information he had gathered during this period and finally made up his mind to head towards the far west.

Before setting off, he needed to improve his cultivation. The third rank of the Tribulation Realm was already considered a very strong combat force for a rogue cultivator, but it was probably still not enough to face the Source of Yin.

The lower half of the Burning Bone Abyss records a detailed method for reconstructing the spiritual energy structure after reaching the third rank.

He spent ten days packing and planning his journey. There was a volcano to the south of Burning Bone Abyss, a shortcut to the west; beyond it lay the true western wilderness.

Further west, not knowing what he might encounter, he discovered a note he had overlooked: the location of Taixu Dansheng at the westernmost point of the map, marked with a tiny circle, "West Fire."

The Great Sage of Elixir remained in the West.

After passing through the volcanic area, we traveled westward for more than half a month, and the terrain had completely changed.

The black lava plain beneath our feet was no longer the same as before, but a reddish-brown desert. Along the way, there were no villages, no travelers, only withered trees and saline-alkali soil as evidence that water had once been found here.

On the seventeenth day at noon, Xiao Fan saw a figure walking towards him from a dried-up riverbed.

A new line of footprints appeared on the riverbed. It was a small complex of buildings, with about twenty or thirty houses arranged in a neat and orderly fashion. There were no walls or guards around it, only a few bright flags flying high and fluttering in the wind.

As he got closer, he noticed that the flag was embroidered with a flame pattern he had never seen before. It was an inverted triangular flame with two forks, like a pair of wings, completely different from the flame totems commonly seen in the Central Plains.

Just as he reached the entrance of the small building, a burly man with his upper body bare walked out. The man glanced at him, his voice carrying a slightly accented tone, and it took Xiao Fan a while to understand what he was saying: "Are you from the east?"

"I am from the Great Qing Empire. I have been traveling westward and am passing through this place. I would like to rest for a while," Xiao Fan said politely.

The burly man turned around and called out behind him. A moment later, a middle-aged man in a dark blue robe quickly approached. He glanced at Xiao Fan and asked in standard official language, "A fire-elemental cultivator?"

Xiao Fan nodded silently. The man's gaze swept over the spiritual materials and magical artifacts in his hand, and he suddenly said softly, "You've received his inheritance?"

Xiao Fan was slightly taken aback. He had never shown his face in the outer realms before, and he hadn't expected to be recognized at a glance. Seeing that he didn't answer, the middle-aged man became even more certain of his thoughts and said, "Come with me, someone wants to see you."

He led Xiao Fan through some low earthen houses and into a very spacious hall.

An elderly woman with gray hair sat in the hall. Her face was withered, but her eyes were bright and sharp. She was using a small chisel to carve something on a palm-sized stone slab.

Hearing footsteps, she looked up and saw that it was Xiao Fan, at which point she stopped chiseling.

"You obtained the Western Paradise Token?"

Xiao Fan paused for a moment, then pulled out a jet-black token from his robes. The token emitted a faint golden light, a result of the dry air of the Western Fire Land.

The old woman stared at the token in her hand for a long time before slowly putting down the chisel, standing up, and bowing slightly to Xiao Fan.

"The sect leader of the Western Fire Sect, surnamed He, once met a successor. In the past, the Great Void Pill Saint traveled the world and left the Fire Dao inheritance to the Western Fire lineage. He made a promise that one day, if someone went to the West with this token, the Western Fire lineage would definitely do its best to help. I have been waiting for this day for almost a hundred years."

Holding the token, Xiao Fan was completely stunned. A complex yet warm feeling welled up in his heart. The Taixu Pill Saint Shop's connections far exceeded his imagination.

The old woman sat down again and began to recount the origins of Xihuomen and its development over the past hundred years.

The Western Fire Gate was founded by a local cultivator whom the Grandmaster of the Void casually pointed out when he passed through this area. It primarily uses desert fire and is known for its endurance. This token was left behind by the Grandmaster of the Void.

"Since you're here, why don't you stay here?"

The old woman waved to the middle-aged man in the dark blue shirt and said, "Let Aping take you to a cleaner house."

The markings on the Western Fire Token indicate a deeper place, and there's still a long way to go. Given your strength, you'll likely encounter some trouble. You should learn the Way of Sand and Fire first.

Xiao Fan bowed to Old Woman He and said, "How could I dare disobey?"

He has stayed at Xihuomen for the past few days.