So, Grace and Evan Xiao went together to ask Minister Zhuo what was going on.
Minister Zhuo explained that he planned to use the upcoming military campaign as a cover for the three of them to secretly travel to the Vermilion Kingdom.
Since any Spirit Practitioner leaving the country must pass through multiple checkpoints, sneaking out in secret isn't easy.
To avoid drawing attention, Minister Zhuo decided to have Grace join the campaign with them...
"Why didn't you tell me earlier?" Grace asked. "I almost slipped up just now!"
"I meant to tell you... but with what happened to your mother, it slipped my mind," Minister Zhuo said. "Um... Evan, could you handle her enlistment paperwork in the next few days?"
Evan Xiao glanced at Grace and nodded.
"But if we all leave, what about my mother?" Grace frowned. "The person who poisoned her could strike again at any moment!"
"You don't need to worry about that," Evan Xiao replied. "For the next year, her Winterbane poisoning won't flare up again. She'll be just like a normal person. Besides, Lady Vivian Zhu is a fourth-rank Spirit Practitioner—ordinary people can't match her."
Grace nodded. "Since Father has arranged everything, let's go with his plan!"
"Come to the General's Manor tomorrow afternoon," Evan Xiao said. "I'll get you a special permit."
Grace nodded.
...
After Evan Xiao left, Grace hurried back to Serenity Pavilion and entered her Sanctum.
Last time in the Infernal Drake's hatchery, Cutie Pie helped her find a square jade slip.
As soon as Grace touched it, the jade slip transformed into a book.
The book seemed to exist only in her mind—no one else could see it, only her.
Even Cutie Pie couldn't see the book.
On the book's cover were three bold characters: Alchemist's Tower.
Opening to the first page, she read: "Alchemist's Tower, my divine artifact, the culmination of tens of thousands of years of achievement, all hidden within. Whoever obtains it, obtains the world."
The signature on the following page read: Luke Kee.
It was the same name Leon Zane had just mentioned.
Luke Kee.
The Alchemist God.
Legacy Treasure...
Grace gazed at the six-story ancient tower inside her Sanctum, her heart racing.
Could this be the treasure?
Did she really obtain it?
If so... doesn't that mean the cure for Winterbane might be hidden inside this tower?
Excited, Grace flipped through the book.
This book recorded the method for unlocking each layer of the ancient tower.
For example, the instructions for the first layer read:
Only those with the Celestial Five-Element Root may enter my Sanctum.
A drop of blood for the Blood Rite—if compatible, the tower will open and you will become my legacy disciple, forbidden to ever take another master.
If not compatible, you die.
When Grace first saw these words, she recalled how she had unlocked the first layer of the ancient tower in her previous life.
Back then, she hadn't obtained the Legacy Stone and didn't know how to open the tower's gate.
But before entering the Sanctum, she'd just fought a fierce battle with the giant python guarding the cave entrance—covered in blood from head to toe.
She wandered around the tower entrance, poking here and there, and somehow, it just opened on its own.
Looking back now, she realizes she practically had a brush with death!
If her blood hadn't matched the tower's five elements, wouldn't she have died right then and there?
From the second layer onward, the book only listed the conditions required to unlock each layer.
Below that, the page was blank.
Only the first layer's page had the most writing, detailing not just the unlocking method but also the purpose of the first layer.
The first layer was a pill refinement chamber called the Alchemist's Hall of Illusions.