The Eternal Saint of Alchemy

Xiao Fan glanced at the map and confirmed the location of the ancient tower, which was a branch of the spiritual energy network below the Twin Realms Platform.

He drew a circle on the branch line where the ancient tower was located with his red short staff. "The base of this tower should be connected to underground pipes. This ancient tower itself is meant to support the entire spiritual energy network. If an outsider is guarding this place, it could very likely affect the surrounding pipes."

The young master of Qinglu Manor glanced at the route drawn with the short staff, raised his head, and suggested, "How about each side send ten people to explore the ancient pagoda together, and then discuss the next steps of the takeover plan?"

Xiao Fan nodded in agreement.

Immediately, Master Cheng selected ten people, who, led by Ning Yao, walked forward.

The day before they were to depart, Bai Ye arrived from the south, holding the Silver Frost Sword, and stood on the periphery of the group.

The twelve cultivators from Qinglu Manor had gathered in front of the stronghold's gate, awaiting the order to depart.

They traveled for six days across a 700-mile snowfield.

This pagoda is much simpler than described in the books. It is made entirely of gray rocks and has five layers. The base is thick and the pagoda gets narrower as it goes up.

The entire ancient pagoda was covered in snow, with no trace of human activity.

The people of Qinglu Village are located to the east, near the ancient pagoda, while the people of Shuangjietai are located to the southwest.

Xiao Fan met up with the young master of Qinglu Manor and examined the rune structure on the door frame. He found that the door did not have any powerful restrictions, only a weak spiritual energy chain that would open automatically with a light touch. It was a basic restriction with no offensive or defensive power.

Pushing open the wooden door on the first floor, the space inside is much larger than it appears from the outside. The first floor is about four meters long and is paved with neat bluestone slabs.

A massive stone pillar, three feet in diameter, stands in the center of the hall, its surface engraved with patterns identical to those on the bronze disc beneath the Twin Realms Platform.

Bai Ye planted the Silver Frost Sword into the stone pillar, and the light on the sword began to flow faster, eventually reaching a constant resonant frequency.

Bai Ye sheathed the Silver Frost Sword, confirming Xiao Fan's guess: "This pillar is the core of the entire ancient tower, equivalent to the underground pipe network of the Twin Realms Platform."

Xiao Fan instructed the cultivators of Qinglu Manor to inspect the pagoda layer by layer, checking the remaining spiritual materials inside to confirm that the pagoda's main functions were still intact and that it could be used normally.

Each layer is covered with a thick layer of dust, bearing the marks of time, yet the overall structure remains intact. The top layer offers an excellent view, allowing one to take in the entire snowfield stretching for miles.

The rooms were kept clean and tidy, serving as their temporary residences, while the hall on the first floor could accommodate dozens of cultivators.

He inserted the red staff into the crack in the stone slab at the base of the tower, confirming that the pipe connections at the base of the tower were intact. He only needed to reconnect the main network to reconnect to the Twin Boundary Platform.

Bai Ye glanced at the flowing spiritual lines on the pillar, then at the boundless snowfield outside the window, and said, "Once the ancient tower's spiritual power system restarts, this will be the outpost that the Twin Realms Platform has established in the northern part of the Aurora Plains."

After determining the ownership of the ancient tower, Xiao Fan began to adjust the pipe network in the first-floor lobby and connected the spiritual energy with a short stick.

Just as the connection node restarted, a deep humming sound came from the bottom of the tower, and a faint halo appeared on the tower wall, gentle and stable, like a tall tower that had been sleeping for a long time, slowly awakening.

The light-storing crystal at the top of the tower emits a faint glow, not enough to illuminate the entire city, but enough to keep it lit for several hours at night.

The day after taking over the ancient tower, the young master of Qinglu Manor discussed something with Xiao Fan: six guards would be stationed at Qinglu Manor to be responsible for guarding and patrolling. The remaining four would be responsible for maintaining the spiritual energy transmission pipes at the base of the tower.

The garrison is rotated every three months.

Bai Ye recorded the coordinates of the ancient tower on the Silver Frost Sword and then synchronized them with the database of the Twin Realms Platform.

She closed her notebook and looked towards the snow-covered plains to the north: "The defenses here are even better than those at Shuangjietai. Once war breaks out, this will be our most important base in the north."

Xiao Fan made a new mark on the map, with a line of small text next to it: Shuangjie Taipei Border Outpost Base, officially launched.

The six cultivators from Qinglu Manor moved into the rooms on the first floor and cleaned up the top room to use as their own living quarters.

The Earth Core Golden Mane Lion circled the ancient tower once, then returned to Xiao Fan's side. It pawed at the ground to make sure there was nothing unusual before lying down to rest.

Upon returning to the Twin Realms Platform, Cheng Xiushi immediately reported the opening of the Northern Ancient Tower and adjusted the patrol area of ​​the entire stronghold.

The opening of this ancient pagoda means that Shuangjietai has expanded more than 700 li to the north.

Half a month after the North Tower was put into use, Black Rock Pass took the initiative to submit a draft agreement, which stipulated that Black Rock Pass and Twin Boundary Platform would jointly manage the underground pipeline network north of Aurora Plain and how to coordinate defense.

The main contents of the draft are: to set up joint guard posts in the border patrol areas between the two countries; to prioritize the supply of military defense materials from Black Stone Pass to Shuangjietai; and to allow the two sides to jointly send troops if a third party intervenes in disputes within their jurisdiction.

Xiao Fan read through the draft word by word and made only two changes: the first was the rotation system for cultivators at the joint guard posts, and the second was the fluctuation of the supply price of military spiritual materials.

The next day, the gatekeeper of Black Stone Pass reported back, agreeing to all the terms that Xiao Fan had revised, and stamped the last page with his official seal.

A new copy of the Black Stone Pass Covenant appeared on the bulletin board of the Twin Realms Platform Hall. Master Cheng placed it in a special file box for future reference.

Three days after the alliance was signed, the first batch of supplies from Black Stone Pass was included in the Shuangjietai supply allocation list in accordance with the agreement, and the rotation of the northern patrol team was also put on the agenda.

Leng Tiefeng from Tiefeng Fort sent a secret letter with ambiguous contents, asking whether the alliance at Black Stone Pass would affect the border between Shuangjietai and Tiefeng Fort.

Xiao Fan wrote in his reply: "The original mining area boundary agreement is valid, and the Guta trusteeship agreement does not affect the original agreement between the two parties." The next day, Tiefengbao replied.

Before the spring snow melted, all the cooperation, defense, and pipeline connections were completed.

By the depths of winter, Shuangjietai's influence had expanded from a small outpost, with the ancient tower outpost in Aurora Plains to the north and the supply point in Rust Rift Valley to the west. Diplomatically, it had formed an alliance with Blackstone Pass, and Qinglu Manor and the Crimson Iron Gang had also established a stable cooperative relationship.

As the spring snow melted, the spiritual energy of the array flags at the four corners of the city wall circulated more smoothly, and the array chamber was filled with spiritual energy. The notice board on the wall was densely covered with letters, memorandums and various cooperation agreements.

Cheng Xiushi listed all the revenue and output of this quarter in the quarterly report, and assigned all the new work to Xiao Fan as the execution plan for the next quarter.