The Eternal Saint of Alchemy

The draw was held the day before the start of the competition.

In terms of spiritual power, Xiao Fan was assigned to the first group, and Bai Ye was assigned to the third group. Their first opponents were two senior cultivators from the northern part of the Silver Plains.

Pei Hunter looked at his team and said, "The opponents of the first and third teams don't start until after the second match."

On the very night that Xue Han and the cultivator surnamed Song arrived at the auction house, they went inside and looked around. There were several shelves filled with spiritual materials and utensils that were about to be auctioned, each with a number and a brief description.

The first day of the spiritual power competition was already packed with people.

Xiao Fan's first opponent was a senior cultivator from the northern part of the Silver Plains, with a peak ninth-grade cultivation level. He held a spiritual energy longsword in his hand and wore a ring on it.

He stood on the arena, sizing up Xiao Fan. He noticed that the spiritual energy emanating from the short staff at Xiao Fan's waist was much more stable than that of ordinary spiritual weapons. So he didn't rush to attack. Instead, he used his long sword to draw an arc in the air, wanting to test his opponent's strength.

The spiritual energy fluctuations emanating from the short staff were blocked by the natural spiritual energy emanating from the staff itself. There was no collision or rebound; it was as if it had touched a calm water surface and naturally melted away.

The man tried three times, and each time he was blocked at the same time.

Before the fourth attack, the spiritual energy on the short staff extended slightly forward, and the direction in which the longsword was drawn by the spiritual energy field shifted slightly, deviating from the center of the arena.

Taking advantage of the moment when his opponent adjusted his position, Xiao Fan darted forward, used his short staff to block the side of the long sword, and forced his opponent to the edge of the arena.

The referee ruled that the opponent had crossed the boundary line and awarded the victory to Xiao Fan.

Voices began to ring out from the viewing platform, confirming the grade of the magical artifact and the grade of the short staff.

Bai Ye completed the first round of the three groups in the same way, without wasting any time.

On the very first day, the old hunter Pei had already passed the first round of preliminary selection. Both the short axe and the longbow were recognized by the merchant guild's appraisers, both in terms of their materials and the uniformity of spiritual energy transmission.

The next day, Xiao Fan faced a late-stage ninth-rank cultivator recommended by the Central Chamber of Commerce of the Silver Plains. He was armed with a set of spiritual artifacts and worked in perfect harmony, even faster than in the first round.

From the start of the match, he launched attacks from different angles, trying to disrupt Xiao Fan's defensive rhythm. But each time, his short staff would deflect his attacks, causing them to deviate from their original trajectory.

He adjusted his angle, intending to attack from below, but the short staff was already positioned between him and his target, drawing his attack out of the arena.

After confirming that the opponent had crossed the boundary, the referee ruled that Xiao Fan had won.

In the second match of the third group, Bai Ye also won steadily and surely.

Xue Han said, "The opponents for the first and third groups have been determined after the second round, so you will not be disturbed in any way before the third round."

The Twin-Dimensional Longbow submitted by Elder Hunter Pei received unanimous approval from the judges for its material precision and spiritual energy transmission pathways, especially the obvious integration of the bow arm support structure and fiber processing method.

On the third day of the spiritual power competition, which was a rest day, a grand auction was held at the Central Chamber of Commerce for the participants from the seven sects.

The auction hall was packed with people, and display stands were being carried up, showcasing carefully selected spiritual materials and tools from the Chamber of Commerce's secret vault.

The first few lots were all spirit material powder and high-purity ore, and the sales were relatively stable, which was in line with market expectations.

When the auctioneer announced the sixth item, Xiao Fan's gaze involuntarily fell on it. It was a dark gray stone slab, only the size of a palm, with patterns carved on it that were exactly the same as the circular symbols at the end of the route map. The edges of the slab retained the same silver-gray halo as the Rift Valley Stone Gate.

The auctioneer said, "This stone slab comes from the outskirts of an ancient ruin in the northern part of the Silver Plains. After being appraised by the Chamber of Commerce, it has been determined to be an ancient node marker. The starting bid is 1000 spirit stones."

As soon as the bidding started, the price rose from one thousand to two thousand five hundred.

When the price settled at 2,500, Xiao Fan raised his sign and increased his price to 3,000.

The hall was silent for a while. Then, someone in the northern stands raised a sign and increased the price to 3,500 gold coins.

Xiao Fan continued to raise the price, increasing it to 45000.

When the price climbed to four thousand five hundred, no one bid anymore from the north stands.

The auctioneer's gavel fell.

After the auction, when Old Man Pei received the stone slab, he discovered that the silver-gray halo on the slab was exactly the same material as the Rift Valley Stone Gate, and the scratches on the edge of the slab were also very similar to the stone box of the Low Tower.

Xiao Fan did not immediately enter the auction hall. Instead, he put away the stone slab and went to the back of the auction room. He added some high-quality spiritual material powder to the array room and conducted the transaction according to the normal procedure.

The spiritual power competition has entered its fourth day, and the matches between the first and third groups have begun.

In the semi-finals, Xiao Fan's opponent was a Gray Domain cultivator whose attack style was very compact and continuous.

As the distance closes, the concentration of the other party's spiritual energy will also decrease, although the decrease is very small, only about one-tenth.

The spiritual energy field on the short staff formed a ring during the enemy's continuous attacks, pulling the enemy into the area covered by the spiritual energy field.

After Xiao Fan finished his move, he immediately stopped. By the time he finished, his opponent had already retreated to the edge of the ring, and the referee announced that Xiao Fan had won.

Bai Ye used very little time in the semifinals of the three groups.

On this day, both of them stood out from the first and third groups and entered the final round.

The contestants from the Star Pattern Sect and the Green Rock Sect were both in the second and fourth groups.

Of the four advancing contestants, Shuangjietai occupied two spots. When their names were posted on the bulletin board, the area in front of the bulletin board was already crowded with people. Next to the bulletin board, there was an additional line of small print listing the contestants' names and past achievements.

That afternoon, the Chamber of Commerce's recorder added the information about advancing to the final four to the Shuangjietai archives.

Xiao Fan had already examined the dark gray stone slab that he had won at the auction, and he confirmed that the scratches on the slab matched the edge of the low tower box.

The shape of the central depression in the stone slab matches the circular symbol at the end of the route map, and it is also the material source of the gray-white halo layer in the Rift Valley Stone Gate, but it has not yet resonated with the stone slab.