The Eternal Saint of Alchemy

Xiao Fan compared the fragment found in the crack with the spiritual energy fragment taken from the narrow passage and confirmed that the shape of the groove and the edge of the fragment were consistent.

The item that was taken away beforehand also showed signs of wear, indicating that it had been used outside the control range of the Dual Boundary Platform.

He recorded the comparison results in the logbook of the array room and added the coordinates of the cracks to the spare network layer of the bronze disk.

Bai Ye glanced at the comparison records and said, "The items taken from that alley should have been used by the Ancient Sect during the summer. They've already found the passage, but they haven't used it against the Twin Realms Platform yet."

In the fourth week of autumn, an urgent message came from Iron Anvil Village: a crack had suddenly appeared on the rock wall at the end of the Dark River Ruins, and a very thin spiritual energy aura, which had never been recorded near Iron Anvil Village before, was gushing out from the crack.

This aura is extremely similar to the ancient sect ruins recorded on the Silver Frost Sword. It's like a straight line, with one end connecting to the empty passageway outside the Twin Realms Platform and the other end connecting to an unmarked building beneath the ruins of the Southern Continent Ancient Sect.

The woman surnamed Shi has stopped mining, ordered the miners to evacuate, and sealed off the exits.

After receiving the report from Master Cheng, Xiao Fan brought Hunter Pei and Bai Ye to Tiezhenji early the next morning.

The group followed a dry riverbed to the end of the crevice, which stretched from left to right and was about a finger's width wide. The rocks at the edges were darker in color, as if they had been repeatedly washed by a thin layer of spiritual energy.

Pei the hunter squatted in front of the crevice and tapped the rock walls on both sides of the crevice with the back of his knife to confirm that there was a hole behind the crevice, which was the same width as the passage.

Xiao Fan inserted the crimson crystal deep into the crack. Through the crystal's feedback, he confirmed that the spiritual energy fluctuations behind the crack were consistent with those in the jade box in the narrow corridor stone chamber, and the frequency also matched the records of the ancient sect ruins.

Between the Tiezhenji mine and the Guzong site lies an entire unexplored stratum, the connection between which was previously unknown.

Now, this crack proves that the connection is real, and the crack is still expanding, while the hollow cavity behind the crack points to ancient ruins.

Using the coordinates of the crack as the origin, Xiao Fan drew a dotted line diagonally across the entire copper sheet, connecting the narrow corridor and the underground river crack with the horizontal extension of the ancient ancestral site.

That evening, the woman surnamed Shi organized a group of people to thoroughly reinforce the passage and seal the cracks with temporary sacrificial materials.

Since then, Shuangjietai and Tiezhanji have maintained daily contact. Shuangjietai has also dispatched a patrol team to Tiezhanji to inspect and monitor the passages on both sides of the underground river every day.

In the fifth week of autumn, while patrolling north of the tower, the patrol noticed a group of about twenty soldiers moving south along a road parallel to the underground river at Anvil. They were moving quickly and deliberately avoiding the patrol route.

Upon receiving the news, Cheng Xiushi immediately reported to Xiao Fan, mobilized the garrison, and ordered the Hunter's Vanguard Battalion to encircle the area from the southeast via the Iron Rust Rift.

An hour later, the Hunter's Vanguard Battalion had assembled and were all in their positions.

This group of people is heading towards the underground river in Tiezhenji.

If the other party is indeed after the Iron Anvil Underground River ruins, Twin Realms Platform only needs to track their movements before they arrive at the underground river.

That evening, the Hunter's Vanguard Camp encountered the enemy in a low-lying area north of Iron Anvil Village. The two sides stopped when they were about ten steps apart. The cultivator surnamed Song led the six members of the Hunter's Vanguard Camp to spread out horizontally, blocking all the exits on the south side of the low-lying area.

The cultivator surnamed Song directly revealed his identity, stating that he came from the Hunter's Vanguard Camp of the Twin Realms Platform.

The enemy remained silent for a moment, then began to move to the sides, attempting to disengage from the battlefield, but maintained their formation without launching an attack.

When the cultivator surnamed Song saw that they were starting to organize their group and wanted to leave the low-lying area, he led his group to follow them at a distance and recorded their movements.

That evening, the vanguard battalion submitted a detailed intelligence report to Shuangjietai, including the enemy's route of movement, its connection with the underground river, and the enemy's operational characteristics and equipment traces.

In his patrol battalion record, Brother Cheng added special attention to the northern route of Tiezhenji and prepared contingency plans.

The Tiezhenji underground river bypass crack monitoring system has been operating normally since the accident, and the data recorded daily has remained basically stable with no new changes or expansions observed.

After entering winter, the expansion rate of transverse fissures in the Tiezhenji underground river slowed down significantly, and the width and depth of the fissures remained basically stable.

Ms. Shi confirmed in her winter week report that the cavity after the crack showed no new changes and remained in a natural, static state.

Xiao Fan conducted a comprehensive winter maintenance inspection of the pipeline network during the second week of winter.

During the inspection, he linked the three coordinates of the narrow corridor, the dark ditch, and the ancient ancestral site together, and then connected the three locations with a thick line.

The next day, when Bai Ye obtained the data for the Silver Frost Sword, she noticed the complete form of this route.

"That narrow corridor, that river, that ruins—these three points are connected. If the Ancient Sect obtained information about this path, then they know more about the underground structure around the Twin Realms Platform than we imagined."

Xiao Fan did not adjust the winter prevention plan for Shuangjietai, so the daily inspection data of the underground river fissures remained relatively stable.

He stood at the entrance of the main hall, watching the banners on the wall gleam faintly in the winter sun.

Cheng Xiushi walked out of the registration office, reported the consumption of supplies for this season to Xiao Fan, and then took a document handed to him by Xiao Fan.

Although the number of missions on the bounty board is not as high as in autumn, it is still maintaining a steady pace.

A routine patrol signal came from the direction of the North Tower, indicating that the Shuangjietai (Shuangjietai) station had entered winter operation.

The Golden-Maned Lion from the Earth's Core lay at the entrance of the magic laboratory, its pale golden mane shimmering in the brief sunlight. It hadn't seen any cracks in the underground river for several days.

After the last blizzard of winter, the sentries on the watchtower saw a group of figures moving south along the ice field.

Those figures were taller than ordinary people, and their movements were heavy and steady, unlike those of the rogue cultivators.

The garrison immediately raised the alert level and reported the situation to Shuangjietai.

After receiving the news, Master Cheng began to check the remote observation records transmitted from the tower. They showed twelve figures dressed in animal skins, each carrying a long package wrapped in animal skin on their shoulder.