The Eternal Saint of Alchemy

The Star Pattern Sect members were already waiting at the end of the road. The silver-gray halo on the stone base became clearer and brighter as the road signs connected, more concentrated than ever before.

When Xiao Fan brought the ring close to the surface of the stone base, there was a groove on the edge of the ring that matched a very shallow groove on the stone base.

After the ring is inlaid into the stone base, it fits perfectly into the groove. As the ring is embedded, the silver-gray halo on the surface of the stone base gradually shrinks until it shrinks to half of its original size.

A narrow crack appeared on the north side of the stone base.

The color of the rock fissures at the edge of the fissure is the same as the color of the fissures at the edge of the rift valley, and there is a layer of silver-gray halo at the bottom of the fissure, which is exactly the same as the light source in the rift valley stone gate.

After the crack appeared on the north side of the stone base, the people of the Star Pattern Sect had already completed the on-site record, without going deep into the bottom of the crack.

Xiao Fan inserted the short staff into the crack, confirming that the gray light was stable, consistent with the wavelength of the mark, and exactly the same as the stone chamber inside the rift valley stone gate.

After confirming the location of the rift, the Star Pattern Sect members took Bai Ye back to the Twin Realms Platform's headquarters.

In the second week of summer, Shuangjietai had completed the first formal exploration of the rock base fissure in the northern part of the Grey Rift Valley.

Cheng Xiushi confirmed the list of all equipment, supplies, and personnel. Xingwenzong provided a preliminary explanation of the structure beneath the rift, while Bai Ye created an independent recording layer on the Silver Frost Sword to record the trajectory of spiritual energy flow beneath the rift.

Before the formal exploration, the fissure in the stone base had been identified as a short passageway, only wide enough for one person to pass through. This passageway was exactly the same as the passageway in the rift valley, and at the end was a stone chamber about two zhang in diameter.

In the center of the stone chamber, there is an open stone box, the same size and material as the stone box in the niche of the low tower, but it is empty.

A silvery-gray halo surrounds the platform, moving synchronously with the halo layers in the gray rift valley, without any color deviation or breakage.

After inspecting the structure of the stone chamber and confirming its safety, the monk surnamed Song sent a confirmation signal to the Twin Realms Platform.

After confirming the sealing mechanism of the short passage entrance fissure and the activation status of the sign system, Xue Han included it in the summer observation list of the Shuangjie Station, and marked the opening conditions and the time window for the next opening.

After the beacon connection was completed and the base was opened, the short staff in the array room recorded two independent wave nodes. These two wave nodes maintained a relatively stable synchronous state in subsequent operation.

Under the summer sun, Bai Ye sheathed his longsword and stepped down from the Twin Realms Platform. The light patterns on the Silver Frost Sword formed a continuous silver band of light, which stretched from the hilt to the tip of the sword without weakening or forking.

Inside the stone chamber beneath the crack in the stone foundation, the opened stone box was empty, but Xiao Fan noticed that the stone box was not as thick as it appeared on the surface. Its thickness was almost twice that of the sides. At the edge of the stone box, there was a thin silver-gray line, exactly the same as the internal passage of the lamp base inside the rift valley stone gate.

He attached the crimson-gold crystal at the tip of the short staff to the halo on the surface of the base. As spiritual energy was injected, the base emitted a slight spring-like turning sound, and the base split open from the middle to both sides, revealing a narrow space underneath.

Within that interlayer, there was a bronze bell resembling an ancient bell, but made of silver-gray material, with a thin coating covering its surface, just like the silver-gray halo in the rift valley.

There was a line of small characters engraved on the bell, exactly the same as the ancient script in the old records of the Star Pattern Sect.

"The real thing has been taken away."

When Xiao Fan took out the silver bell-like object, the bottom of the stone box returned to its original state.

Bai Ye scanned the silver bell with the Silver Frost Sword, confirming that its material was from the same source as the six beacons, but its internal spiritual energy structure was different, and the frequency of its spiritual energy waveform was one-tenth lower than that of the bronze bell.

The Star Pattern Sect deacon confirmed that the handwriting of the words matched the residual spiritual energy fluctuations in the stone box in the niche of the low tower during the period when the moss dried. This matched the replica left behind by the Gu Ling family after they took the genuine item from the low tower.

Xiao Fan placed the silver bell and six road signs separately into his storage artifact, which was inscribed with: "Replica, belonging to the Ancient Bell lineage."

There was nothing in the stone chamber except for a stone box. Xiao Fan checked the condition of the stone chamber and made some notes before leading everyone back to the ground.

After everyone left, the cracks in the stone base closed automatically, and a layer of silvery-white light enveloped the surface of the cracks once again.

Just three days after the Stone Foundation Rift was explored, a similarly brief golden pillar of light rose from the north of the Rift Valley. However, this time it was not in the north of the Scale Ridge, but directly south of the Rift Valley, near the control area of ​​the Twin Realms Platform.

The day after the beam of light appeared, the patrol team found a copper bell in the area.

The bells were exactly the same style as those carried by the Ancient Bell Clan, and they looked very clean, as if they had only been in use for a short time.

When Xiao Fan was examining the bronze short bell in the array room, the Silver Frost Sword reacted briefly, confirming that this bell was significantly different from the silver-gray replica.

The Gu Ling clan had long known that the Twin Realms Platform had discovered a fake bell hidden in the stone box's inner lining and had placed a real bell inside to transmit a message.

Upon receiving the news, the Star Pattern Sect proactively contacted the Twin Realms Platform, expressing their willingness to send someone knowledgeable about the history of the ancient bell to help them decipher the spiritual energy fluctuations of this short bell.

Xiao Fan agreed to the Star Pattern Sect's request, and the Star Pattern Sect sent an old man who specialized in studying the ancient bell lineage's classics.

The old man examined the bronze bell and confirmed that its material and manufacturing method were early artifacts of the Ancient Bell Clan, but it contained a simple spiritual code.

The code was translated into a short message: "The genuine item is on the altar at the northern end of the Scale Ridge; whoever holds it will obtain it."

Bai Ye looked at what he had translated and then said, "The Gu Ling clan has kept this item in a replica, waiting for the person who gets the replica to go to the altar at the northern end of the Scale Ridge to make the transaction."

After receiving this news, Xiao Fan did not rush to the altar. Instead, he first determined the specific location of the altar before deciding whether to go to the Twin Realms Platform. At the same time, he also needed to coordinate the relationship between the bronze bell and all the components inside the Twin Realms Platform.

In the third week of summer, the Twin Realms Platform and the Star Pattern Sect jointly dispatched an expedition to the northern end of the Scale Ridge, where they first determined the location of the altar.