The Eternal Saint of Alchemy

The moment he passed through the crack, Xiao Fan felt a gentle, warm force envelop him, transporting him to another place. When the white light dissipated, he found himself standing in a completely different location.

Tianhuo Plain.

The ground was dark red, covered with fine golden patterns, like marks left by flames.

The air was filled with a dense, almost burning fire elemental energy. With each breath, a stream of energy flowed into the dantian through the trachea.

Looking around, the terrain of Tianhuo Plain was undulating, with golden patterns constantly emerging from the ground, forming transparent heat waves.

He stood still for a while to adjust, and soon he felt the spiritual core in his dantian begin to operate automatically, as if it had encountered a more concentrated spiritual energy and automatically adjusted its output.

He used the token to sense the direction and found that a pointer was pointing directly to the northwest.

After walking in this direction for half a day, he encountered many strange creatures living on the Heavenly Fire Plain—there were reddish reptiles that looked like lizards but were nearly ten feet long, which poked their heads out to sniff his scent before shrinking back.

A flock of firebirds flew past them, flapping their wings and scattering sparks.

The spiritual energy fluctuations emanating from these beings were only at the early stage of the Tribulation Realm, posing no threat to him whatsoever.

After traveling for another two days, a huge dark shadow appeared on the horizon.

Only when you get close can you see clearly that it is a solitary black stone mountain, barren and devoid of any vegetation, with only an extremely thick pillar of spiritual energy shooting straight into the sky, exactly the same as the one on the square tablet.

Xiao Fan strode towards the rocky mountain.

At the foot of the mountain, he saw a middle-aged monk wearing gray armor, who was squatting behind a boulder, carefully examining the footprints on the ground.

Sensing someone approaching, the man abruptly looked up at Xiao Fan. A flicker of joy crossed his eyes when he saw the badge.

"You came out of the rift?" The other party clapped his hands and stood up from the ground.

Xiao Fan nodded in agreement.

The gray-armored cultivator looked Xiao Fan up and down, then introduced himself as Cheng, a rogue cultivator from Tianhuo Plain who made a living by hunting fire beasts.

He pointed to the spiritual energy pillar on the mountaintop: "There's a Heavenly Rank Fire Lizard there, which has been sleeping for countless years. It's been emitting heat these past few days, so it must be about to give birth. After the fire lizard lays its eggs, its spiritual energy fluctuations will be reduced by half, making it a perfect opportunity to hunt it. However, I alone am no match for it."

Xiao Fan glanced at the mountain peak.

The information fed back by the spiritual core was exactly the same as what Master Cheng had said—there was indeed a huge spiritual force in the mountain, which was contracting at a uniform frequency, like a sleeping giant beast breathing.

How much longer until the eggs are laid?

Master Cheng thought for a moment and said, "Within three days, it shouldn't be too long. If you can help me out, we can each have half of the spirit cores, and you can keep the rest of the materials."

Xiao Fan nodded without hesitation.

He had just arrived at Tianhuo Plain and needed a guide familiar with the local terrain. Master Cheng looked like a seasoned veteran and didn't seem like the type to stab someone in the back.

The two immediately set up camp at the foot of the mountain, and Cheng Xiushi even took out a piece of dry rations and shared half of it with Xiao Fan.

The dry rations tasted a bit rough, but they contained a lot of spiritual energy. After eating them, the spiritual core in the dantian started to operate automatically, with excellent results.

On the morning of the third day, the spiritual energy fluctuations on the mountaintop indeed weakened by more than half and then stopped.

The two climbed to a shady spot on the rocky hill.

The monk Cheng was agile, climbing up the steep mountain wall with one hand, clearly very familiar with the terrain.

Xiao Fan followed closely behind, the spiritual power of the Extreme Fire Abyss Technique continuously flowing into his body, allowing him to keep up with his speed.

At the summit of the mountain, there is an irregularly shaped cave entrance, about two zhang in diameter.

The two peered down into the cave and saw a dark red light slowly pulsating, and in the center of this light, a huge figure was crawling on the ground.

Master Cheng made a gesture, meaning to wait until it was fully hatched before taking action.

Xiao Fan nodded, the Thunderfire Token in his hand already poised to be unleashed.

Half an hour passed before the red light in the pit gradually stabilized, and the spiritual energy fluctuations on the fire lizard's body also dropped to their lowest level, as if it had fallen into a deep sleep.

The opportunity is here.

Xiao Fan took the lead and jumped directly into the cave. The Thunderfire Token in his hand released a bolt of lightning and struck the fire lizard's neck.

Cheng Xiushi landed, and with a flick of his wrist, a grayish-white dagger enveloped the blade in a layer of earthy-yellow spiritual energy. He then sliced ​​into the fire lizard's abdomen from the side.

After being hit twice in a row, the fire lizard suddenly raised its head and let out a low roar.

Its egg-laying process was interrupted, and its huge body twisted violently, its tail covered with dark red scales sweeping out in a gust of wind.

Using the power of lightning and fire, Xiao Fan dodged the attack by sidestepping. At the same time, he raised his right hand, and the Lava Sword flew out of the spatial artifact and landed in his hand.

The heavy sword, imbued with crimson flames, struck the fire lizard's ribs.

The blade sliced ​​a huge gash in the scales, but with the enhancement of Xiao Fan's seventh-grade spiritual power, the force of the strike was immense, directly cutting a half-foot-long gash in the original cut, from which bright red blood flowed out.

In excruciating pain, the fire lizard became even more enraged, opening its blood-red maw to bite Xiao Fan. Between its snow-white teeth, a burst of blazing flames erupted from its mouth.

Xiao Fan sidestepped, his heavy sword held horizontally in front of him. The pillar of fire was split in two, grazing past his body, and his sleeves were burned and curled up.

While the fire lizard was focused on Xiao Fan, Cheng Xiushi circled around to its lower abdomen from the side, accurately plunging his short knife into the first wound, then twisting the tip of the knife.

The fire lizard let out a shrill scream, its body convulsing as it collapsed to the ground. Dark red blood continued to flow from the wound in its abdomen, and the fluctuations of its spiritual energy grew weaker and weaker until it finally fell silent.

Cheng Xiushi pulled out his dagger, took a few steps back, wiped the blood off the blade, and gave Xiao Fan a thumbs up.

"Sleek," he uttered a single word.

The two worked together to break open the fire lizard's abdomen and retrieved a dark red, bowl-sized spirit core.

The surface of the spirit core shimmered with iridescent light, and a ball of fire-attribute spiritual energy, so dense it was almost solidified, was slowly rotating.

The cultivator Cheng cut the spirit core in his hand in half, giving one half to each of them.