The Eternal Saint of Alchemy

According to reports from White Camel Ridge, the increased activity on the edge of the Silver Plain during winter was mainly caused by a few small settlements, and the Rock Skin People were not in this area.

Elan came to the edge of the forest for the last time before winter arrived. He placed a bundle of fiber ropes specially made by the forest dwellers on the eastern edge of Shuangjietai. These fiber ropes are very soft and have good cold resistance, and can be used for temporary construction and outdoor work.

After lowering the ropes, he said, "The plants at the edge of the forest freeze easily in winter. These ropes are dried in the wind and will remain elastic even in the cold. They might be useful to you."

Xiao Fan inspected the fiber ropes in the hall, and after confirming their tensile strength and cold resistance, he handed the ropes over to the Iron Anvil Group so that they could carry out outdoor operations and transport reinforcement during the winter.

Master Cheng included "a bundle of fiber rope, winter supplies for the Linju tribe" in the winter supplies list.

This was Bai Ye's first time at the Twin Realms Platform. He checked the operation of the pipeline network and then used the Silver Frost Sword to measure the spiritual energy frequency at the eastern edge of the forest, confirming that the spiritual energy distribution in this section was normal.

This was the coldest week since the beginning of winter. Young Master Qinglu Manor sent some winter ingredients and several jars of specialty winter wine from Aurora Plain as a routine gift between him and Shuangjietai before winter.

After confirming that the winter wine and ingredients had arrived, Xiao Fan had Cheng Xiushi take out some dried mushrooms from the storeroom of Shuangjietai. These were a specialty of the Iron Rust Rift Valley, and as a return gift, he had the envoy take them back to Qinglu Manor.

That evening, Bai Ye, along with Xiao Fan, Cheng Xiushi, Ning Yao, Old Hunter Pei, and others, sat in the hall and ate a simple New Year's Eve dinner.

Inside the main house, the charcoal fire roared, the bowls and chopsticks were neatly arranged, and the aroma of food slowly wafted through the air.

The Golden Mane Lion from the Earth's Core lay at the entrance of the array room, its pale golden mane shimmering under the warm light, with rays of light occasionally emanating from inside the array room.

The fixed marker trees on the east side of the forest and the reinforced structure of the narrow corridor of the anvil set each remain stable. The double boundary platform maintains its winter operating rhythm with a constant temperature, and the halo constantly emitted by the array flags maintains its normal operation.

After the last snow melted at the end of winter, mining operations at Tiezhenji Shoal fully resumed to normal.

After a whole winter of continuous monitoring, no signs of structural loosening or subsidence were found in the reinforced structures on both sides of the tunnel.

In the second week of spring, the edge of the Elam Forest once again appeared at its fixed boundary.

This time, he brought nothing with him. He stopped at the boundary between the forest edge and the open area, checked that the marker was still there, and then turned and walked into the depths of the forest.

In his patrol log for that day, Master Cheng wrote: "Spring inspection of the Linju tribe, no abnormalities found."

From the beginning of winter to the beginning of spring, there was no news from the Rock Skin tribe. And since things returned to normal in the spring, no trace of the Rock Skin people has been found at White Camel Ridge.

In the spring, the young master of Qinglu Manor sent a letter to Shuangjietai, saying that the distribution of spiritual energy in the forest northeast of Aurora Plains had stabilized, and the spiritual energy activities of the Forest Dwellers were as frequent as in previous springs.

The road from Shuangjietai, Beita, Tiezhenji to the Tiexiu Rift Collection Point in spring seems to grow longer from day to night.

Under the sunlight, the Earth Core Golden Mane Beast returned to its room. In the array chamber, the red crystal on the short staff was still shimmering, resonating with the light patterns on the Silver Frost Sword.

The fixed marker tree, located at the eastern edge of the woodland, has its branches pointing outwards, maintaining the exact same orientation as at the end of winter.

That fiber rope is proof of the connection between the Linju tribe and Shuangjietai. It remains in its original position. When the wind blows across the open space, one end of the rope sways slightly before returning to its original state.

In late spring, news came from Iron Anvil Village: the Rock Skin People had once again appeared in the dried-up valley.

This time, however, it was not a migration. Instead, it was six adult men, each carrying a heavy stone tool and a box wrapped in animal hide, accompanied by a burly woman.

Upon arriving, they did not set up camp, but instead lit a small campfire on the edge of the dry valley.

Xiao Fan, Hunter Pei, and Miss Shi arrived at the dry valley.

The first to speak was a woman from the Rock Skin tribe. Her voice was steady, and she spoke much more fluently than the previous immigrants: "We have reached the designated area and found a place in the south where we can live long-term. We have returned to thank Shuangjietai for allowing us to enter during the migration and to bring a gift."

As she spoke, she gestured for the Rock Skin tribe man to open a leather chest and take out the contents.

The box contained more than ten dark gray stones, each one meticulously polished and identical in size and shape.

She took out a component and said, "This is the unique stone finishing technique of the Rock Skin Clan. After multiple polishings and fine-tuning with spiritual energy, it can be used to make high-precision spiritual artifact parts."

We found many of these stones in the settlement, and the first batch has now been completed, ready to be exchanged via Shuangjietai and trade routes.

Xiao Fan picked up one of the items and examined it carefully.

Its structure is dense and uniform, containing a powerful spiritual energy conduction capability that far surpasses that of the Dual Realm Platform. With these components, the Dual Realm Platform can greatly improve its precision in both forging spiritual weapons and maintaining formations.

The woman surnamed Shi and the representatives of the Yanfu tribe determined the quantity and time limit for the transaction at the edge of the dry valley.

Starting next month, the Rockskin Clan will transport a batch of stone pieces from the Anvil Field to the north every month. The Twin Realms Platform will exchange some of the ore and dark sand from the Anvil Field for resources, while the Anvil Field will be responsible for the transportation and coordination of materials at both ends.

Xiao Fan returned to the main building, archived the spiritual power test report of the Rock Skin Clan parts, added the technical cooperation section to the Rock Skin Clan's cooperation agreement, and added a sentence: "The Rock Skin Clan's stone refining technology is incorporated into the dual-realm platform's spiritual weapon forging material system."

During the first week of summer, Elan appeared once again at the edge of the forest.

This time, he brought back a group of completely different plants—straight stems, slender leaves, dark green foliage, and a thin sheen.

He placed the bundle of plants next to the boundary marker and said, "This is the Gale Vine that my Forest Dwelling Clan has cultivated for three generations. It's a natural material for conducting spiritual energy; it can be used to make bowstrings, spiritual artifacts, and array flags. If you want to cultivate it, I can provide you with seedlings and planting instructions."

Xiao Fan took the specimen of the Gale Vine back to the array master's room to study it.

The Wind Vine fiber has a far superior conductivity of spiritual energy compared to all currently used plant fibers, and it also has extremely strong cold resistance and toughness, which fully meets the requirements of the Dual Realm Platform.