The Eternal Saint of Alchemy

Xiao Fan didn't hold back and briefly introduced the power of his natal soul that the Great Void Pill Saint had hidden in the jade slip.

Grandma Miao nodded, not asking any further questions. She simply patted Miao Chengtang on the shoulder and said, "Then let's strike while the iron is hot and get this done. Before dark, I'll clear away the black lotus near the base of the pagoda, and tomorrow morning, I'll begin repairing the pagoda itself."

Xiao Fan nodded, channeled the golden energy back into his palm, and then reached for the next black lotus bud.

Xiao Fan spent an entire afternoon cleaning up all the black lotuses near the tower.

He first cleaned the black lotus flowers around the base of the tower, then worked his way out from the inside.

Every time the golden divine power touched the flower bud, the bud withered quickly, like a candle meeting a flame.

Ado and Acai also joined his team and began burning the remains of the black lotus, burning all the seeds to ashes.

By the time the outer perimeter of the third lap was cleared, it was getting dark.

Xiao Fan sat up straight and rubbed his slightly sore wrists. The wisp of golden divine soul power within his sea of ​​consciousness had been almost completely depleted.

Fortunately, the harvest this afternoon was quite substantial. All the black lotus within a ten-meter radius of the pagoda base was cleared away, revealing the gray stone slabs underneath.

"We'll deal with the rest tomorrow." Granny Miao stood at the entrance of the valley and said loudly, "At night, the miasma will rise, and it's not safe in the valley at night."

The group retreated to their temporary encampment at the edge of the forest. A'duo and A'cai started a fire, set up an iron pot, and brewed medicinal tea and some dry rations.

Master Gu Yuan picked up a cup of hot tea and drank it down, then exhaled a long breath: "Today I've truly witnessed what it means to have a specialized skill. Young Xiao's Golden Palm is more effective than any medicine."

Xiao Fan sat down by the fire, took the teacup from his hand, and said, "But this golden energy has its limits; we can't rely on it completely. That large patch of black lotus outside still needs to be slowly cleared away with medicinal liquid."

As soon as he finished speaking, his expression turned serious.

Within his consciousness, there was an extremely faint fluctuation of spiritual energy emanating from the forest in the northeast of the valley.

If he hadn't cultivated the Qiankun Refining God Technique to its peak, he wouldn't have noticed at all. He calmly put down his teacup and stood up: "I'm going to relieve myself."

Yun Ruoxi looked at him without saying anything, but her gaze secretly drifted to the spot where he had just been looking.

Xiao Fan left the area shrouded in firelight and, taking advantage of the darkness and the cover of the grass, moved silently northeastward.

Driven by the Qiankun Refining God Technique, his divine sense spread out in all directions like a thin net.

The surge of spiritual energy was coming from behind a large banyan tree.

Xiao Fan walked around to the side of the banyan tree, and under the cover of the hanging aerial roots, he saw a dark figure crouching behind the banyan tree.

The man was wearing a dark cloak with a hood over his head, obscuring his face. He was very thin and was squatting on the ground, digging at something with his hands.

Xiao Fan didn't alert the man, but quietly watched the scene unfold. After digging for a while, the man took out a small object, tucked it into his pocket, and prepared to leave.

Just as the other person turned around, a corner of the hood slipped down, revealing a pale profile—a young woman of about twenty years old with narrow eyes, a high nose, and pale lips.

Xiao Fan's heart was pounding.

It was a face he had never seen before, but the fluctuation of spiritual energy gave him a sense of déjà vu. It was a kind of cold and yin energy, yet it also carried a trace of fiery heat, somewhat like the fire of yin, but not pure enough.

Xiao Fan did not chase after him.

He walked to the banyan tree, squatted down and examined the pit that had been dug. The pit was not deep, and there was a black tile about the size of a palm with obvious scorch marks on the edge of the tile.

He picked up the tile and found a faint black flame on it, just like the black flame on the chest of the skeleton in the Black Sand Sea Tower, only much weaker.

"Are they collecting the remaining black fire?" Xiao Fan put away the tiles and strode towards the camp.

Everyone was resting around the campfire. Xiao Fan returned to his seat, and Yun Ruoxi gave him a wink. After chatting for a few minutes, they all went to bed.

Only when only a pile of ashes remained on the campfire, and A'duo and A'cai's breathing became steady, did Xiao Fan recount what had happened.

Master Gu Yuan frowned upon hearing this and said, "There are still people outside the valley? Aren't those the same guys?"

"It should be one of them." Xiao Fan took out the broken tile. In the firelight, faint charred marks could be seen on the tile's surface. "She's digging. She's collecting the black flame residue left over from when she broke the tower."

Yun Ruoxi glanced at the fragments and said, "These black flames will slowly dissipate when they leave the tower. If they are not collected in time, they will disappear in a few days."

So her presence here tonight indicates that the people in the camp haven't gone too far, but have temporarily left the valley to retrieve anything they've forgotten.

Xiao Fan nodded: "She will definitely come back. Tomorrow we need to leave one person to guard the valley entrance and keep an eye on the woods to the northeast."

Gu Yuan volunteered, saying, "I'm no problem guarding this place with my old bones."

The night passed peacefully.

The next morning, Xiao Fan continued to clean up the remaining black lotus.

By noon, the black lotus on the base of the pagoda had been completely cleared away, revealing the surface of the pagoda itself.

He walked to the tower gate, placed his hand on it, and probed inside with his divine sense.

The tower was much more spacious than I had imagined. It was octagonal in shape, and most of the runes on the walls were dull and lifeless, with some even broken and missing.

In the center of the dome hangs a bronze lamp, covered in rust and completely empty, without a drop of oil.

However, a line of text on the lamp base made Xiao Fan look at it even more carefully—

"The Hand of the Void, the Azure Lamp. Using soul power as oil, once lit, it can seal off a hundred miles away."

Xiao Fan's eyes widened. Soul power is oil?

Powering the green lamp with the power of the soul.

The Grandmaster of the Void left these Soul-Suppressing Lamps in every tower as a last line of defense, but the lamps in this tower in the Southern Frontier had already dried up a thousand years ago.

Now, a trace of golden divine soul power left behind by the Great Void has appeared in his sea of ​​consciousness.

He slowly withdrew his palm and made a decision.

"I want to go into the tower." Xiao Fan turned around and looked at the people in the group.

Grandma Miao frowned first: "There's only a gap wide enough for two fingers. You think you can fit through?"

"There is a crack in the tower, the widest part is on the west side, just big enough to crawl through."