The Eternal Saint of Alchemy

As dawn broke, Xiao Fan put down his pen, copied down the newly made markings, and asked Bai Ye to keep them as a backup for the Silver Frost Sword.

Bai Ye glanced at the map on the table, then looked at it again, and said, "Although all the tests were blocked, these four tests combined are enough to hold back the defenses of the entire Twin Realms Platform."

Putting away the map, Xiao Fan walked up to the high platform on the second floor.

The northern winter night was not yet fully lit, and a faint blue light appeared on the horizon.

The wind blows across the ice field, carrying the scent of snow and earth, vast and long.

The subsequent maintenance work on the northward geothermal tunnel is progressing smoothly. After two or three rounds of guidance, the energy conduction efficiency of the tunnel's inner wall has been restored to more than 90% of its original level.

After completing the final maintenance, Ms. Shi from Tiezhenji volunteered to provide Shuangjie Station with the scattered records that Tiezhenji had collected over the years regarding the distribution of geothermal activity in the far north of Aurora Plain.

Xiao Fan compared the compiled data with some data about Baituo Ridge and found that the records of Tiezhen Mountain provided more accurate information about places not recorded on the Baituo Ridge map.

A letter arrived from Tiefengbao, at the coldest time of winter.

This letter was written by Leng Tiefeng himself, and its content was more direct than any of his previous letters. The gist of it was: "Tiefengbao has noticed an increasing trend in the flow of people and goods north of Aurora Plain. We are willing to establish a joint observation mechanism with Shuangjietai in the vast area north of the border."

After reading the entire letter, Xiao Fan believed that Leng Tiefeng's suggestion would help reduce the overlap of patrols on the northern border, so he signed the letter.

Brother Cheng archived both the original document and a copy of the reply, and added a note to the northern patrol plan to match the patrol route of Iron Peak Fortress.

Bai Ye traveled south from Xingluo Plain to Shuangjietai and left the Silver Frost Sword in the magic array room for a full night of synchronous scanning, confirming that the overall flow of spiritual energy between the northern and central parts of Aurora Plain was stable until the end of winter.

The next morning, she took out the Silver Frost Sword and saw that a uniform and regular pattern had appeared on the blade, which briefly shone in the sunlight.

After the depths of winter, Shuangjietai received an urgent report from a messenger from Baituo Ridge, who braved the wind and snow to deliver it.

The report also included a simple map showing an unnamed mountain pass leading to the center of Aurora Plains, extending all the way to the end of the geothermal passage.

The letter stated that the camel caravan at White Camel Ridge encountered a group of fellow monks surnamed Tong, whose chisels bore a mark never before seen in the records of Aurora Plains.

It was a three-overlapping pointed shape, the shape of which matched the descriptions of an even older power recorded in the old archives of Starfall Plains.

Xiao Fan copied the badge and then compared it with all the files in the array room.

On the appendix of Volume 5, he saw a yellowed page with three sharp corners arranged in a triangle, exactly like the missing part on the Silverfrost Sword.

The mark on the Silverfrost Sword reads: "A branch of the Southern Continent Ancient Sect, which has not appeared for a long time."

Bai Ye stood by the window of the magic laboratory, looking at the badge. He remained silent for a long time before turning around and speaking.

"People thought that the ancient sects of the Southern Continent had been wiped out, but the Silver Frost Sword recorded that they possessed a special mental energy cutting technique that could bypass ordinary seals and directly enter the core structure."

The tools on White Camel Ridge all bear this mark, indicating that the ancient sect's lineage still exists, and is even more complete than that of the Tong family cultivator.

After marking the location of the nameless valley on the map, Xiao Fan contacted the messenger at White Camel Ridge and asked him to pass on the message.

After seeing the messenger off, he looked up at the gray, overcast sky of late winter.

Under Bai Ye's watchful gaze, he redraws the emblem with its three overlapping horns, this time clearer and more accurate than before. The hidden route marked on the White Camel Ridge map is located at the edge of the Shuangjietai backup network.

Having confirmed the existence of this hidden passage, Master Cheng selected three members familiar with the terrain of the central Aurora Plain to form a reconnaissance team, which then set off towards the nameless valley following the route provided by White Camel Ridge.

On the evening of the fourth day after the reconnaissance team set off, the first report came back: a temporary camp hidden deep in the mountains, containing a large number of abandoned chisels and spiritual energy replenishment devices, with markings exactly the same as those in the array room's files.

The reconnaissance team found several discarded parchments outside the camp, marked with spiritual energy indicating several pipe nodes north of Aurora Plains, along with their corresponding spiritual frequencies.

Master Cheng glanced at the report and found that two places had just been reinforced, while two other places had not yet been reinforced, one of which was at the pipe connection between Shuangjietai and the North Tower.

Xiao Fan quickly compared the spiritual energy frequencies on the scroll and confirmed that the parameters on the paper were incorrect. This was because the person who annotated the paper already possessed the basic ability to detect nodes, but did not yet have a sufficient understanding of the true structure and frequency distribution of the dual-boundary platform's pipeline network.

Bai Ye added, "This reduces the intelligence the enemy has. They haven't accessed the core data of the pipeline network and can't control the entire dual-realm platform network structure; they only have the spiritual energy characteristic parameters of specific locations."

He kept the torn page and put it in the archives of the magic array laboratory. The messenger from White Camel Ridge delivered a topographical map of the far north as agreed, along with the message: This camp has been abandoned.

After the depths of winter, the four major gangs—Iron Peak Fortress, Green Deer Manor, Red Iron Gang, and Twin Realms Platform—gathered together to discuss countermeasures.

The meeting was initiated by Qinglu Village to discuss matters such as patrols, coordination, and resource allocation in the northern region for the next season.

Leng Tiefeng, the young master of Qinglu Manor, the one-eyed dragon of the Chitie Gang, Xiao Fan, Bai Ye and others all came.

The first half of the meeting went smoothly, and the coordination plans, such as patrol routes and resource allocation, were determined in an orderly manner.

During halftime, Leng Tiefeng sat down at Xiao Fan's table and said in a low voice, "The North hasn't been peaceful lately. Do you know about the White Camel Ridge incident? The reappearance of the Southern Continent Ancient Sect's insignia means that the people here are no longer a disorganized bunch, but are being controlled."

Xiao Fan put down his teacup and said calmly, "The Twin Realms Platform has already been reinforced once, so there's no need to worry about the north being breached. If Lord Leng has information about the movements of the ancient sects in the Southern Continent, we can exchange information."

Leng Tiefeng nodded, but before he could speak, he heard the sound of rapid hoofbeats coming from afar.

A cavalry unit of more than twenty men galloped in from the south and stopped outside the council hall.

The leader was a thin man wearing a thick brown leather robe with several spiritual energy crystals hanging from his waist; he was the cultivator surnamed Tong.