The Eternal Saint of Alchemy

After the snow melts in spring, the scenery in the northern part of Aurora Plain becomes more open.

During a routine patrol, the guards of the North Tower noticed something unusual: several long plumes of smoke rising from the horizon in the far north.

The smoke column was a dark color, unlike the thick smoke produced by natural combustion, but rather like the exhaust gas from some kind of industrial or spiritual material processing.

The guard leader on the tower sent a messenger on horseback to report to Shuangjietai.

Upon receiving the news, Xiao Fan immediately summoned the Earth Core Golden Mane Beast.

He climbed to the top of the tower and used a red crystal staff to probe the north.

Data transmitted back by the detectors indicates that, further away, there are indeed stable spiritual energy fluctuations at the source of the smoke, and this has been going on for several days.

This is an army equivalent to a medium-sized camp.

Xiao Fan put away his staff and said to Bai Ye, "There's a force stationed in the north that's been there for quite some time."

He stood atop the tower, looking in the direction from which the plume of black smoke rose into the sky. He estimated the distance to be about two or three hundred miles north of the tower.

Bai Ye scanned the location of the smoke column with his Silver Frost Sword and determined that it did not originate from a scattered hunting party or expedition team, but from an organized camp.

She sheathed her sword and said, "It is located on the edge of Black Stone Pass, at the junction of Twin Realms Platform and Black Stone Pass."

Xiao Fan immediately sent a message to Blackrock Pass.

The reply from the Black Stone Pass commander arrived two days later. The letter stated that the scouts had expanded their reconnaissance range to the north and discovered a newly built medium-sized camp at the source of the smoke column. The camp was surrounded by simple wooden fences and watchtowers, and the number of people was about one hundred, but the exact number was unknown.

From that point on, the situation began to change significantly.

Xiao Fan summoned Cheng Xiushi, Ning Yao, and Bai Ye to the residence of the Twin Realms Platform Master and reported on the situation of the Northern Camp.

Master Cheng stated that Shuangjietai currently only has twenty-five guards, and if the Northern Camp and Shuangjietai were to clash head-on, their current strength would be insufficient.

Ning Yao has already established three backup passages between the collection point in the Iron Rust Rift Valley and the tower. These passages have been reinforced and strengthened so that the foundation of the tower will not be greatly affected should a conflict occur with the north.

For the next week, everyone at the base was busy working towards their goals.

In the third week, the flag was raised at the northern camp.

It was a dark gray flag with a silver wolf's head embroidered in the center, howling at the sky.

Master Cheng recognized it at a glance; it was a tribe called the "Ice Wolf Tribe".

The Ice Wolf tribe spends most of their time in the far north of Aurora Plains and rarely leaves Blackrock Fortress.

The Ice Wolf Tribe sent an envoy to the foot of the tower. His attitude was polite, but his message was clear: the Ice Wolf Tribe would establish an outpost two hundred kilometers north of the tower to support their southward exploration.

The watchtowers of the Ice Wolf tribe were some distance apart, so it wouldn't affect the normal operations of either side. However, the Ice Wolf envoy still added, "We've discovered that the watchtowers are currently under guard, so we're informing you."

Xiao Fan received the envoy in the tower. He did not deny that the tower belonged to the Twin Realms Platform, nor did he reject the Ice Wolf Tribe's proposal to expand southward. However, before the envoy left, he added one more sentence.

"Shuangjietai is also one of our regular patrol areas. If the two teams have to cross paths, we can discuss the route and time in advance to avoid unnecessary conflicts."

As soon as the messenger left, Bai Ye came down from the second floor and stood at the entrance of the main hall, saying, "The Ice Wolf Tribe has already sent someone to inform us, clearly they don't want a direct conflict with us. However, this location is two hundred kilometers north of the tower, which is the northern end of the Twin Realms Platform's backup network."

Xiao Fan marked the outpost of the Ice Wolf Tribe on the map.

As Baiye said, this is the northern end of the Shuangjietai backup network, which is the last node of the Black Stone Pass.

If the Ice Wolf tribe accidentally discovers this node, that would be fine.

The outpost of the Ice Wolf tribe was quickly built.

In just over ten days, a complete camp had been built more than two hundred miles north of the tower. Wooden fences, watchtowers, and rows of neat wooden houses were scattered in the center of the camp. As before, a plume of black smoke rose from the center of the camp every day.

Holding a short staff, Xiao Fan observed the progress of the camp expansion day by day, confirming that the Ice Wolf Tribe's plan was well-organized and did not seem to be hastily put together.

Cheng Xiushi led two guard squads along the patrol route north of the watchtower, arriving ten miles in front of the Ice Wolf Tribe's outpost.

The vanguard of the Ice Wolf tribe also sent out some people. The two sides faced each other from a distance on the snowfield, but did not launch any attack.

Both sides stepped back and returned to their respective patrol areas.

Brother Cheng reported the patrol situation to him.

Bai Ye scanned the spiritual energy structure of the Ice Wolf Outpost with his Silver Frost Sword, confirming that the camp was located at the northern end of the Dual Realm Platform's backup network.

If the Ice Wolf engages in a lot of spiritual activity in the camp, it is very likely to trigger that node and cause an abnormal reaction in the pipes.

Xiao Fan decided to have the guards on the watchtower strengthen their surveillance of the north, and at the same time, adjust the short stick in the Dual Realm Array Mage's room to be a node for the northern segment of the backup network.

If there is any anomaly at that node, the array room will receive immediate feedback.

On the fourth night after the monitoring mode was activated, the crimson staff in the array room suddenly flickered.

When Xiao Fan arrived at the array room from the main room, the crystal on the short staff had lit up again, but there was a line of small words on the crystal—the northern backup node was activated that night, with only a slight gap, but it was quickly sealed off.

That evening, Bai Ye arrived at Shuangjietai.

She used the Silverfrost Sword to read the spiritual energy record on the short staff and confirmed the characteristics of the spiritual energy emitted by the short staff at the moment of activation. It was an abnormal fluctuation, rather than a naturally formed one.

That night, the scouts of the Ice Wolf tribe deliberately touched the surface structure of the backup node, wanting to explore or activate it.

"This is a test." Bai Ye sheathed his sword, looked at Xiao Fan, and lowered his voice, saying, "The Ice Wolf Tribe sent people to operate at night, which means they have already determined the location of the node. If someone didn't provide a map, it means they already knew about the spiritual energy channels here."

Xiao Fan stood in the array room for a while, memorizing the fluctuations of spiritual energy.

The backup node automatically recovers the moment it is activated, without any real connection or activation.

However, now that the Ice Wolf Tribe has located the node, it's only a matter of time before they take further action.