The Eternal Saint of Alchemy

Xiao Fan put away the envelope and looked up at the sky.

The sun was just rising; there were still about two hours until noon.

Xiao Fan couldn't wait until noon, so he set off alone.

Half an hour after sunrise, he walked alone toward the temporary camp to the north.

Ning Yao and the cultivator Cheng wanted to follow, but Xiao Fan stopped them, telling them that he would go on his own.

The remaining three people instinctively assumed a defensive stance when they saw him approaching, including the sinister-looking cultivator who had previously made provocative remarks.

Xiao Fan stopped ten steps away and said calmly, "I need to use the spatial fragment that your leader took."

The sinister cultivator's expression changed, and the magical artifact in his hand glowed: "We retrieved this secondary artifact from the crack; why should we give it to you?"

Xiao Fan remained noncommittal.

With each breath, the seven-colored halo on his spiritual core slowly circulated.

Upon seeing this, the sinister cultivator's pupils constricted sharply, and the magical artifact in his hand began to flicker violently.

Under the natural pressure of the star-level spiritual power, the spiritual power structure on the magic weapon in his hand became extremely chaotic, and its light quickly dimmed.

"What about the secondary component?" Xiao Fan asked again.

The sinister-looking cultivator's lips twitched, but in the end he said nothing and stepped aside to let the tent door open.

Xiao Fan lifted the curtain and went inside. He saw a "secondary component" on a stone platform in the center of the tent. It was a deep purple crystal, slightly smaller than the Starfall Core. The patterns on it complemented the seven-colored halo, without clashing with it.

The two are like two branches of the same spiritual energy network, rather than conflicting entities.

Xiao Fan held the dark purple crystal in his hand, and his spiritual core resonated with it gently.

This crystal is a branch control node in the Starfall Original Spiritual Power Network. If it is used in conjunction with the Starfall Core, the coverage area of ​​the entire spiritual power network can be greatly expanded.

The "incompatible attributes" mentioned in Xie Changfeng's letter were either a misjudgment on his part, or he deliberately left a vague statement so that Xiao Fan could personally verify the true function of the crystal.

He put away the dark purple crystal, stepped out of the tent, and the three cultivators were full of doubts, but none of them dared to step forward to stop him.

When he returned to the camp, Ning Yao was standing at the edge of the camp waiting. When she saw him return, she looked him up and down for two seconds and then smiled slightly.

Xiao Fan took out the dark purple crystal and handed it to Ning Yao and the cultivator Cheng to examine, explaining the crystal's function briefly.

Once the purple crystal was embedded in the exclusive slot next to the white tower, the holographic projection of the entire white tower instantly became clear and complete, and the boundary between the silver-white plain and the aurora plain was clearly displayed on the projection for the first time.

He stood at the window on the third floor of the tower, gazing at the new boundaries extending from the holographic projection, sketching out a complete overall map of the spiritual energy network in his mind.

The three-tiered system of stars, moon, and sun recorded on the metal pages of the square platform corresponds exactly to the hierarchical structure of the entire Starfall Plains spiritual power network: the star tier governs the main control nodes of Starfall Plains, the moon tier corresponds to the undeveloped secondary nodes deep within Aurora Plains, and the sun tier points to the unknown areas that the white tower projection cannot cover and that are far beyond the gray domain.

As for further exploration, that's a matter for later.

The day after the dark purple crystal merged with the white tower formation, the rebel leader returned to the camp with three reinforcements.

The man glanced at the open stone door to the east, then at Xiao Fan standing in the doorway, his lips twitching slightly.

"You're out," he called out to Xiao Fan. "Where's my copy?"

Xiao Fan walked down the steps of the white tower and stopped at the edge of the camp.

He took out a dark purple crystal from his spatial artifact, twirled it in his palm, and then put it away.

"How did the things I took from the spatial rift anchor become yours?"

The leader's face grew increasingly grim, and the three henchmen behind him also wore solemn expressions.

Among the three, there was an elderly man dressed in a black robe, exuding an exceptionally powerful aura, whose cultivation was around the peak of the ninth rank. He wore a dark green robe embroidered with rune patterns different from those in Xingluoyuan.

On one corner of the robe was a small, dark red mark—the mark was none other than the signature Xiao Fan had seen under a mural in the Myriad Radiance Hall of Aurora Plains.

"My surname is Zhou, and I am a three-hundred-year-old Splitter," the old man said slowly. "The deep purple crystal that Young Master Xiao took was buried by the Splitter faction at the spatial anchor point hundreds of years ago to balance the spiritual energy network of Starfall Plain."

It's not that it's unowned. If you take it, the spiritual energy network of Starfall Plain will shift, and over time, the foundation of the entire eastern part of the city will become unstable.

Xiao Fan narrowed his eyes slightly as he looked at the dark red mark on the old man's robe.

"When you laid the anchor points, you used ice-attribute spiritual power, which is different from the seven types of spiritual power of the original owner of Xingluo."

That crystal, buried underground for a hundred years, has become out of sync with the main system's frequency. Taking it out won't cause this shift; on the contrary, when you place it into the White Tower's magic circle, the shift will disappear.

The old man in black robes' expression changed slightly.

The leader suddenly turned around, looking completely bewildered.

The old man paused, then lowered his voice and asked, "How did you know about frequency adjustment?"

Xiao Fan remained silent.

The handwriting of the Grandmaster of Alchemy in his later years is clearly visible in the sunlight: "The anchors planted by the separatists will naturally synchronize with the main network a hundred years from now."

The old man in black stared at the words for a few seconds, then slowly closed his eyes.

The leader's face darkened, and the other three helpers also withdrew their spiritual power, no longer assuming a fighting stance.

The old man in black robes turned and walked north.

"If what you're saying is true, the separatists won't care about you anymore."

After the group left, Xiao Fan watched them disappear into the dim Starfall Plains.

Ning Yao walked to his side and lowered her voice, asking, "How did he know about that page you were looking at?"

Xiao Fan closed the booklet and put it into his spatial magic item.

"If what Taixu Dansheng said is false, he won't be able to explain it to others when he goes back."

That afternoon, the projection area of ​​the entire White Tower Domain expanded again, and the spiritual connection between Starfall Plain and Aurora Plain became smoother than ever before. The previously blurry area also became clear at this moment.

Xiao Fan stood in front of the projection for a long time and finally confirmed that there was a place deep in the Aurora Plain that he had not noticed—that is, the star resonance frequency that he broke through when he was in seclusion.

After entering the Star Rank, his mental strength and spiritual power were greatly enhanced. Even in the Gray Domain, he could clearly feel the faint echo coming from the northwest.