The Eternal Saint of Alchemy

At the same time, Xiao Fan's spiritual core also sensed that several spiritual energy fluctuations had suddenly been activated on the walls on both sides of the hall.

It was a wave pattern exactly like the circular runes on the door frame. They were activated quickly, and almost the instant the roar sounded, several vertical cracks silently appeared on the walls on both sides of the hall, from which emerged humanoid puppets with silver-white bodies.

There are six puppets in total.

They are all about eight feet tall, with limbs and torsos similar to humans, and wear silver masks on their faces.

Each puppet held a dark silver halberd, the tip of which reflected a cold, dark gold light.

Bai Ye was the first to come to her senses.

The moment the Silver Frost Sword was drawn, a silver arc of light shone from the hall, accurately slashing at the neck of the nearest puppet.

A piercing metallic scraping sound rang out, and a wound appeared on the puppet's neck, but it did not break. The halberd continued to sweep across.

At the same time, Xiao Fan made his move.

The short axe shot out from the spatial artifact and landed in his hand. Golden spiritual power was poured into the axe head, and it collided with the halberd of another puppet.

The sound of axes and halberds clashing echoed throughout the hall. Under the impact of the Moon-Rank spiritual power, the puppet was forced back half a step, and a tiny crack appeared on its silver mask.

Cheng Xiushi and Ning Yao also made their moves.

Cheng Xiushi kept stabbing the third puppet's knee with his short knife, while Ning Yao slammed the fourth puppet's abdomen with her large hammer.

Although the six puppets blocked the four people's attacks, their metal bodies were too tough, and they could continue to fight even after taking several hits.

At the same time, the Earth Core Golden Mane Beast pounced on the fifth puppet from another direction.

It lowered its head, and the scales on its forehead slammed hard into the puppet's knee.

The impact caused the puppet's knee joint to make a metallic twisting sound, and it staggered a few steps.

Taking advantage of the moment when Xiao Fan knocked the puppet away, Bai Ye lunged forward, his Silver Frost Sword instantly condensing into a stream of light that pierced the crack in the puppet's mask.

Silver sword energy pierced through the crack, and the puppet's body stiffened abruptly. Its spiritual core became disordered due to the high-frequency resonance, and within a few seconds it collapsed to the ground, unable to move an inch.

With the fall of the first puppet, the coordination of the other puppets was disrupted.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Xiao Fan inserted his short axe into the gap in the shoulder of another puppet; Cheng Xiushi and Ning Yao each restrained one, while the Earth Core Golden Mane Beast tightly entangled the fifth one.

After dealing with the first puppet, Bai Ye did not stop and continued to charge towards the sixth one, his Silver Frost Sword piercing the joint of the sixth puppet with perfect precision.

The six puppets lasted only a short time before being dealt with one by one, leaving six dark silver metal remains lying on the hall floor.

Bai Ye sheathed his sword and stood there, looking at the new scratch on the blade. His expression was calm, but his breathing was much more rapid than usual.

Xiao Fan put the axe into his spatial ring, walked to the first puppet, squatted down and examined the joints on its neck—the spiritual energy inside had completely dissipated, leaving only traces of spiritual energy identical to the runes on the door frame.

Although this ancient sect's defense system has not been used for a long time, it is still functioning normally.

The Earth Core Golden Mane Beast jumped off the fifth puppet, shook off its scales, walked to the relief on the wall, and looked up at the crystal relief on the altar.

It let out a low growl and lightly scratched the platform at the bottom edge of the relief with its claws.

Xiao Fan stepped forward, squatted down, and poured the Creation Fire into the cracks of the statue's base.

The stone slab on the platform sank down, revealing a hidden compartment about the size of a palm.

Inside the hidden compartment was a small, transparent crystal, shaped exactly like the rhombus crystal on the relief. Silver light flowed within the crystal, with the same frequency as the Moon-Rank Spirit Core, emitting a soft and stable glow in the darkness.

He took out the crystal and felt it in his palm.

The spiritual energy structure of this crystal is the same as the rune structure on the door frame, and it also overlaps with the seven different attribute spiritual energies of Starfall Plain, but they are not exactly the same. It is like sediments from two different eras on a river.

Bai Ye walked to his side, looked down at the crystal in his hand, and the blade of the Silver Frost Sword suddenly lit up, resonating with the crystal.

"This is a fragment of an ancient sect's spirit core," she said. "This was mentioned in Silverfrost Sword's memories. Originally, there were at least three pieces, each corresponding to a different function. If there is more space beneath this relic, the other two pieces should be there as well."

Xiao Fan put away the crystal, stood up, and looked through the reliefs in the hall to the faint outline of the next archway on the wall at the end of the corridor.

The Golden Mane Beast from the Earth's Core had returned to his side, its golden mane shimmering in the dim light.

He stepped toward the next archway.

Cheng Xiushi and Ning Yao followed closely behind, with Bai Ye holding the Silver Frost Sword on either side; the Earth Core Golden Mane Beast followed closely behind, like a living compass, guiding them to the next exit.

Beyond the second archway lies a straight corridor, but instead of being paved with stone slabs, it is composed of countless tiny star-like patterns.

Each star pattern has a different shape, and they are arranged in a cyclical manner, like fragments of a huge star map spread across the earth.

Xiao Fan stopped and crouched down to carefully observe the first star pattern.

The edges of the star pattern are extremely fine, and the width of each line is controlled to the point that it is almost invisible to the naked eye.

He took out a fragment of a low-grade spiritual material from his spatial artifact and gently placed it on the star pattern. As soon as the fragment touched the star pattern, it was firmly fixed by a uniform suction force and could no longer move.

"The entire tunnel is filled with suction." He stood up and tried stepping on his boots. There was a thin layer of suction between the soles and the star pattern, making it difficult for him to take each step.

This design limits the player's movement speed, but it also restricts the player from running or dodging quickly in the passage.

The Golden Mane Beast's feet seemed very stable as it walked on these patterns, as if its feet were integrated with them, allowing it to walk on them without any effort.

Bai Ye followed behind, and after walking more than ten steps, the patterns on the Silver Frost Sword began to flow, and the speed increased.

She paused, listened intently, and said, "The arrangement of these patterns is exactly the same as the backup memory on the Silverfrost Sword."

Xiao Fan bent down, placed his hand on the ground, and swept the spiritual power of the Moon-Rank Spirit Core along the trajectory of the star pattern stroke by stroke.