The Eternal Saint of Alchemy

He used his lightning and fire power to scan the puppet's body, discovering that it would pause for a second after each attack. Then, after the third dodge, he slipped through the gap and unleashed a pure flame of creation, imbued with the power of the spirit core, into the gap in the puppet's chest.

The moment the axe blade pierced the core of the spirit armor, the entire puppet exploded, turning into specks of blue light that dissipated into the air.

As the light disappeared, the stone gate opened.

Passing through the stone gate, what comes into view is a square hall made entirely of pale gold crystal.

There was a shallow groove in front of the gate, exactly in the same position as the white tower. Runes were embedded in the groove, and the gate opened silently to both sides.

The space inside the hall far exceeded its apparent size; the dome was seven or eight zhang high, and soft golden light poured down from all directions, giving the entire hall a soft halo.

An open metal page floated in the center of the hall. The page was connected by several extremely thin, dark gold metal plates, which were covered with densely packed runes.

Xiao Fan stepped forward, reached out, picked up the bottom metal plate, and gently flipped it over, revealing the contents of the second page. It was a complete cultivation roadmap, detailing the cultivation path after reaching the ninth rank of the Tribulation Realm, as well as methods to improve one's cultivation level.

"Above the Heavenly Steps," Xiao Fan said softly.

The "above the Heavenly Rank" mentioned by Mo Yuan is explained in detail here. The Grandmaster of the Void refers to the realm above the ninth rank of the Tribulation Realm as the "Transformation Realm". Each minor realm is a qualitative change in spiritual power, rather than a simple accumulation of quantity.

The metal pages contain a technique specifically designed to guide ninth-grade Tribulation Realm cultivators towards the first level of Transformation Realm, called the "Transformation Yuan Technique".

Xiao Fan carefully closed the golden pages and placed them into a box that had been prepared beforehand.

As the pages of the book were closed, a crystal platform, more than half a person's height, slowly rose from the ground. It was inlaid with three identical crystal cores, in red, silver, and gold. Each crystal core emitted a different spiritual power, yet they resonated with each other.

Clearly, these three crystal cores are all used to break through bottlenecks.

Ning Yao leaned closer to take a look, her face lighting up with delight: "Three elemental cores, any one of which could be exchanged for a city. Shall we use them now?"

Xiao Fan put the three crystal cores into his storage space one by one.

The red one has a very high compatibility with the fire attribute, the silver one comes from the same source as the Thunderfire Token, and the dark gold one has a high compatibility with the spiritual energy structure of the spirit core and the short axe.

"Each one can last for several months."

The group carefully inspected the Wan Yao Hall to make sure there were no secret passages or hidden compartments before leaving the hall with the metal pages and three crystal cores.

When Hao Ren stepped out of the temple gate, the pale golden sky had turned into a warm orange hue; it was dusk.

On their way back to the compound from Wanyao Palace, the group encountered another group of people in front of a tower that had collapsed halfway.

The opposing force numbered about the same as their own, around seven or eight people, all dressed in uniform gray-black outfits. The leader had a muscular face with a scar on his face and a thick-backed broadsword hanging from his waist.

The man following behind the burly man looked around, seemingly there to scout ahead.

The two met at the corner of the tower and then stopped in their tracks.

The scarred man sized Xiao Fan up and down, then glanced at the token at his waist and his spatial artifact, before speaking in a condescending tone, "Where did you come from? Did you touch anything here?"

Xiao Fan said calmly, "The Aurora Plains are vast; let's part ways."

Scarface frowned, took a step forward, and the men behind him followed suit.

Cheng Xiushi walked silently to Xiao Fan's right side, while Ning Yao stood still, holding a hammer in her hand.

"I come from the western part of Aurora Plains, so all the ruins here belong to our Westwind Fortress. If you want to take anything from here, you must get my permission."

The scarred man's voice suddenly rose, and at the same time, he released his spiritual power, emanating a powerful aura of a peak seventh-grade Tribulation Realm expert, which directly approached Xiao Fan.

Xiao Fan stood there motionless.

The spirit core automatically adjusted its output frequency, dispelling the oppressive aura. Then, it took out the metal page, weighed it in its hand, and said, "This paper is indeed from the Myriad Radiance Palace. What do you plan to do with it?"

The scarred man stared at the long box and reached out to grab it.

Xiao Fan dodged to the side, his short axe already in his hand. He spun the handle to block the scarred man's wrist.

Scarface's hand stung from the axe blows. He instinctively pulled his hand back and looked down to find a deep scorch mark on his gauntlet, still smoldering.

"You—" The fierce look on the scarred man's face disappeared, replaced by fear and vigilance.

Those behind him could see clearly that Xiao Fan's movements were too fast to be seen. In addition, the scorch marks on his wrists indicated that his spiritual energy output was no weaker than theirs.

Xiao Fan sheathed his axe, stood still, and said calmly, "I've already taken this page. If Westwind Keep wants a share, I'll give them one after I've finished organizing the copies. If you try to steal it now, the cracks in your axe will be even bigger."

The scarred man glanced at the dark gold short axe in Xiao Fan's hand, then put it down and said irritably, "Copying? How much longer until it's delivered?"

Xiao Fan stored the axe in his spatial magic item. "Have someone go to the third floor to get it. You just need to tell me my name."

Scarface didn't say anything more and turned to leave.

The group continued towards the camp. Ning Yao walked up to Xiao Fan and asked in a low voice, "Is three months enough? This book is so thick, just copying it will take more than three months."

As Xiao Fan walked, he said, "It's not necessary to copy the entire thing; just extract the content of the first level of the 'Transformation Yuan Technique.' Two months should be enough."

After returning to the Gray Domain White Tower, Xiao Fan began refining the crimson crystal core.

He sat cross-legged beside the magic array on the third level, using the Creation Fire to envelop the crimson crystal core, which slowly melted away.

Under constant nourishment, the spiritual energy within the crystal core gradually emitted pure golden-red spiritual energy, which flowed along the meridians into the dantian and merged with the spiritual core.

As he absorbed the spirit core, his body underwent significant changes.

The golden surface is covered with fine, reddish-gold patterns, each pattern forming a fixed cycle under the flow of spiritual energy.

He could feel that the concentration and output limit of spiritual energy in his dantian were increasing at the same time, and his meridians were also expanding.

When the crimson crystal core completely merged into the spiritual core, his aura rose steadily, reaching the eighth rank of the Tribulation Realm.