At the beginning, I cleaned the Sutra Library and completed the incomplete skills.

Li Lan calmed down and carefully pondered the reasons for his failure.

Like a slideshow, he repeatedly recalled the refining process in his mind.

He didn't miss a single detail.

After fully absorbing the valuable experience of failure,

Li Lan waited until his mana and mood were adjusted to their best state before starting to refine the Artemisia Annua Burning Cloud Talisman again.

Opening the cauldron, steaming the materials, melting the slurry…

This time,

Li Lan was extra careful and cautious, striving to do his best in every small detail.

As time passed,

the Artemisia Annua mud once again slowly fused with the spiritual plant pulp.

He mustered all his spirit and didn't dare to slack off in the slightest.

This time, with the previous experience, the entire fusion process was finally uneventful.

It wasn't until the talisman paper was shaped and the temperature had completely cooled down that

Li Lan breathed a sigh of relief.

The most difficult step had been overcome.

The next thing would be much simpler.

He took out a spiritual writing brush, dipped it in spiritual ink, and drew a small fire-type rune on the talisman paper.

As the last stroke fell,

a blue-green light flashed on the tan talisman paper.

The entire Artemisia Annua Burning Cloud Talisman was finally completed.

Careful observation reveals that

the spiritual energy on this talisman is subtly maintained at a balance point under the influence of various spiritual inks, spiritual materials, runes, etc.

When fighting with others in the future,

you only need to inject a trace of spiritual energy to break this balance.

Activate that small fire-type rune to produce even the slightest spark.

This seemingly inconspicuous talisman will instantly become a deadly weapon.

Li Lan looked at his work with satisfaction and carefully put it away.

Now, he can be regarded as having a real trump card.

In the days that followed,

Li Lan didn't stop. In addition to daily absorbing spiritual energy to cultivate,

he took advantage of the situation and refined the second Artemisia Annua Burning Cloud Talisman with the remaining materials.

At this point, all three Artemisia Annua plants were exhausted.

Although only two talismans were successfully refined from the three portions of materials,

the success rate doesn't seem to be high, but Li Lan is already very content.

In the world of cultivation, there is no absolute certainty.

This is the case with fighting with others, and it is also the case with alchemy and weapon refining.

It is normal to have losses and deviations.

In addition to refining the Artemisia Annua Burning Cloud Talisman,

Li Lan also tried to refine the Breakthrough Pill.

Although he had only just broken through to the fourth level of Qi Refining not long ago, and it was still early before he reached the bottleneck,

he didn't intend to wait until the last minute to prepare.

Making preparations now will ensure that he is prepared for anything in the future.

The materials for the first half of the Breakthrough Pill's recipe are quite common outside this Immortal Trace Valley,

but the materials for the second half of the recipe are quite difficult to find.

It took Li Lan nearly a year to barely collect them.

Compared to the Artemisia Annua Burning Cloud Talisman, this low-level Breakthrough Pill is not difficult to refine.

After failing once or twice, Li Lan had already mastered the trick.

In the end, he successfully refined three finished pills.

He was not in a hurry to show these results to Miao Chenfeng.

Li Lan was very clear that once he proved his worth, it would be difficult to find these quiet cultivation days again in the future.

Maybe he would be taken back to Spiritual Plant Peak and become a ruthless alchemy machine, squeezing out all his value.

Therefore, Li Lan chose to hide his clumsiness.

Every once in a while, he would bring unfinished waste pills to Miao Chenfeng.

Each time he brought back the waste pills, their quality would be a little better.

Let him know that while he is working hard, he is also making slow progress.

During this period,

Li Lan also took advantage of Miao Chenfeng's relationship to quietly collect the auxiliary materials for setting up the Earthbound Thousand Machine Diagram.

This formation diagram is also not difficult, and it is not his first time refining it, so the success rate goes without saying.

At this point,

Li Lan can be considered to have some initial self-protection ability.

Time flies like an arrow, and five years have passed in the blink of an eye.

With the help of the abundant spiritual power in Immortal Trace Valley, Li Lan successfully condensed the mana in his dantian to the limit.

His cultivation realm reached the bottleneck of the fourth level of Qi Refining.

After setting up the "Earthbound Thousand Machine Diagram" formation near his new cave and making all preparations,

Li Lan began to try to break through to the fifth level of Qi Refining.

Taking a deep breath and adjusting his state to the best,

he gently sent the refined Breakthrough Pill into his mouth.

The pill melted in his mouth, and a majestic and gentle medicinal power dissolved along the esophagus.

Then, like a trickle, it converged towards the dantian.

Breaking through from the fourth level of Qi Refining to the fifth level is not as simple as simply adding realms.

It is also a watershed between the early stage of Qi Refining and the middle stage of Qi Refining.

Only by crossing this threshold can a cultivator truly break away from the mortal womb.

Those who step into the middle stage of Qi Refining

can initially abstain from grains and not eat for a hundred days.

In addition to the increase in mana,

the cultivator's Qi perception will also be further enhanced, and the efficiency of circulating the heavens to transform mana will be significantly improved.

This means that cultivators in the middle stage of Qi Refining are not only much deeper in mana than those in the early stage of Qi Refining.

They will also be better than their opponents in terms of cultivation speed at ordinary times.

This is the first qualitative change in the essence of life in the cultivator's long journey of cultivation.

This leap is like ordinary iron being forged into a spiritual sword, and a silkworm breaking through its old cocoon. It is the beginning of the transformation from a "flesh and blood mortal body" to a "semi-spiritual body."

However, it is not easy to break through the bottleneck and complete the leap.

The first test to face is the problem of condensing the mana vortex.

At this time,

there are already four mana vortexes in Li Lan's dantian.

When breaking through to the fourth level of Qi Refining, he found the balance point between the four vortexes.

They can be considered safe and sound with each other.

But if you want to break through to the fifth level of Qi Refining, you must condense a brand new mana vortex.

The appearance of this fifth vortex will inevitably break the delicate balance in the dantian.

At that time,

Li Lan will need to use at least five parts of his mind to control the operation of each mana vortex.

This is easy to say, but it is extremely difficult to do.

For cultivators in the early stage of Qi Refining, their divine sense has not been significantly increased with the realm.

Controlling four mana vortexes at the same time is already the limit.

Adding one more is too reluctant.

Looking at the entire world of cultivation, except for those who are known as the darlings of heaven, the Heavenly Spiritual Roots,

even the True Spiritual Roots, without years of precipitation,

and special training in divine sense, would not dare to try to break through the bottleneck of the early stage of Qi Refining.

That's almost the same as seeking death.

At this time,

the role of the Breakthrough Pill is fully reflected.

After the medicinal power of the pill dissolves,

a part of the medicinal power slowly forms a layer of liquid film on the inner wall of the dantian.

The other part is incorporated into the four mana vortexes.

In an instant,

the mana vortexes that were originally running slowly seemed to have been added with a retardant, and their speed suddenly slowed down.

It became full of inertia and was no longer as active as before.

This greatly reduced the difficulty of Li Lan needing to divert his mind to control.

Seeing this situation,

he hurriedly entered meditation and began to frantically absorb and operate the surrounding heaven and earth spiritual energy.

As strands of spiritual energy were purified and refined,

a new prototype of the mana vortex gradually began to condense in the dantian.

Under the effect of the Breakthrough Pill,

the four already formed mana vortexes did not seem to notice the birth of this uninvited guest.

They did not produce a repulsive reaction and were still operating in a stable and orderly manner.

Seeing this, Li Lan was secretly determined.

He hurriedly accelerated the speed of refining the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.

As long as he can condense this fifth vortex before the four mana vortexes react,

the most difficult step can be considered to have been overcome.