The Eternal Saint of Alchemy

"It's cleared," he said. "There was originally a living fire vein here, but it was covered up by Yin Fire. Now that the seal is broken, this fire vein will automatically burn away all the gas."

Gu Yuan also walked over, looking at the streaks of dark red light, and exclaimed, "The person who set up this seal must be incredibly powerful."

Anyone capable of this must be at least at the late-stage Tribulation Realm. This is very strange; why would he do such a thing? Was it just to hide this remnant of the Taiyin energy?

Xiao Fan remained silent, glancing at the dark red figures slowly disappearing on the ground. "Perhaps he just wanted to test the waters, not hide."

"try?"

"Try to fuse the Taiyin embers and the earth fire vein together, and see how long this balance can be maintained, and see if there is a way to break it."

Xiao Fan turned around and retraced his steps. "This place is like the bronze box in the Bone Ridge, or more like a training ground left by our predecessors."

These words drifted away with the wind, scattered by the dry, cold winds of the Gobi Desert. Master Gu Yuan looked back at the scattered stones, shook his head slightly, and followed them inside.

After leaving the White Bone Beach, the sun gradually began to set in the west. Han Fei sat on the carriage shaft, his cotton-padded coat wrapped tightly around him.

Xiao Fan leaned against the carriage wall, closed his eyes, and ran his fingers along the parchment.

A thought struck him: if these nodes were being used for experiments with the remnants of the Taiyin, then what exactly were they trying to do?

Outside the car window, dusk was falling, and a faint purple light flashed by on the gray-brown horizon.

Traveling westward from Baigutan, another day later, the scene before us was completely different.

The gravel in the Gobi Desert has disappeared, replaced by rolling sand dunes. A gentle breeze blows, and the tiny grains of sand run along the ground like rivers.

Xiao Fan traversed one sand dune after another, spending most of the day, before finally discovering the third place marked on the map—a stone formation buried by sandstorms.

The stone pillars lay scattered on the ground, some broken into several pieces, half of which were buried in the quicksand, with only the gray-black tops showing.

He walked to the center of the stone formation and probed the ground with the spiritual power of the Creation Fire. To his surprise, he found that the embers of the Taiyin here had almost completely dissipated. Only a thin layer of residue remained at the base of the stone pillars, as if it had been cleaned up beforehand, or perhaps it had simply dissipated naturally.

"No need." Xiao Fan squatted down and used the Creation Fire to burn the residue. The whole process took less than a minute. He stood up, clapped his hands, and a strange expression appeared on his face.

Yun Ruoxi asked, "What's wrong?"

Xiao Fan glanced at the scattered stone pillars on the ground and said in a deep voice, "It's been at least several months. Someone beat us to it and took away most of the Taiyin Embers."

Master Gu Yuan said with a solemn expression, "You mean, someone beat me to it?"

"It's not necessarily cleaning." Xiao Fan walked around the stone pillars and finally stopped in front of a well-preserved one. There was a shallow mark on the pillar, as if half of a rune had been cut off by a sharp blade.

He reached out and touched the mark; his fingertips were smooth, clearly having been carefully polished.

"He took the Taiyin Embers." Xiao Fan withdrew his hand, his expression calm, but his tone became serious. "The purity of the Taiyin Embers at this point is still acceptable. Someone must have used some unknown means to extract eighty percent of it. The rest is all garbage, and he didn't want to take it with him at all."

Gu Yuan gasped, quickly shutting his mouth, afraid of inhaling a mouthful of sand. "Who? How could they have found these nodes and extracted the Taiyin Embers before us?"

Xiao Fan remained silent. He stopped looking at the stone pillars and instead gazed at the entire ruins of the stone formation. A sandstorm howled through the gaps between the pillars, making a mournful sound, as if something was whispering.

"Let's go," he suddenly said.

The carriage turned a corner and returned along the same route. A silence fell over the carriage. Gu Yuan, after much hesitation, finally couldn't help but ask, "Do you think it's the Black Fire Sect? Or the Earth Fire Hall?"

Xiao Fan opened the parchment again, drew a circle next to the third node, and then drew a horizontal line on it to indicate that there was nothing left to take.

"In his letter to me, Wei Huoshou mentioned the Thunderfire Token. This means he has at least heard of the Taiyin Remnants, but how much he knows about them is another matter. As for the Blackfire Sect..."

At this point, he put away the parchment. "Back when the Blackfire Sect went to Southern Xinjiang to steal Tawa, they also carried the aura of the Taiyin Remnants, which is why they did it this way."

If they came in search of the remnants of the Moon, then discovering these nodes is not surprising.

Han Fei, sitting on the carriage shaft, listened to their conversation and couldn't help but ask, "So, should we go to the next node?"

Xiao Fan pondered for a moment, then nodded and said, "Let's go. There are still nine nodes on the map that haven't been processed. Even if they've been cleared, I still need to check them again. And—"

He looked out the car window at the swirling yellow sand and said, "If the Blackfire Cult is indeed collecting the remnants of the Moon, then their traces should be near these nodes."

Before he could finish speaking, a gust of wind blew in, and Han Fei coughed a few times. "The wind's picking up!"

Gu Yuan shouted and grabbed the carriage shaft with one hand to steady himself.

The once clear sky had suddenly turned dark.

On the western horizon, a patch of yellowish-brown sky was rising at an extremely fast speed, like a giant wall rising from the ground.

The wind grew stronger, its howl turning into a low rumble, whipping up sand and gravel that lashed against the carriage with a crackling sound.

Xiao Fan lifted the curtain and glanced outside, but could only see a sky full of yellow sand; beyond that, everything was a blur. The carriage had already stopped, and the horses were pacing anxiously in the face of the approaching storm, refusing to go any further.

"Quick, find somewhere to hide!" Xiao Fan shouted, "Behind the sand dunes, or in a depression!"

Gu Yuan narrowed his eyes, glanced around, and pointed: "There! There's a sand dune; we need to find shelter from the wind!"

Han Fei quickly lashed the horse's back with his whip, and the carriage made a difficult turn, heading towards the sand dunes on top of the sand dunes.

The wind grew stronger, the carriage windows were covered in sand, and the interior was pitch black. Yun Ruoxi raised her hand and created a thin ice wall on the carriage wall, keeping the sand out.

The carriage finally stopped at the other end of the sand dune. It was indeed a sheltered spot, and the wind had subsided considerably, but the sky was still filled with yellow sand, and the darkness made it seem as if dusk had already fallen.