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

Li Lan commanded the spirit bean soldier, who reached out and unceremoniously embraced the heart of the red sandalwood tree.

Perhaps it was due to their shared origin, but the five-hundred-year-old red sandalwood tree always maintained an attitude of indifference towards all the spirit bean soldier's actions.

Now that the most important spirit core had been taken away, these dark vines showed no reaction, continuing to stretch and writhe into the distance.

"On your own, without any magic power, you definitely won't be able to escape, so you should come with me.

Don't worry, if your home is gone, I'll find you another spirit stone mine to settle down in sooner or later."

Regardless of whether the red sandalwood spirit core could understand him, Li Lan casually said a word of comfort to make it follow him obediently.

Immediately.

He controlled the spirit bean soldier, stuck a Swift Steps Talisman on it, and quickly left the place.

Within the central area of Immortal Trace Valley, the purplish-black vines that had once been almost everywhere had now completely disappeared without a trace.

It was clear that the old red sandalwood tree had truly exerted all its strength to deal with the three Grand Elders.

But in the end, it was still slightly inferior.

Li Lan didn't know how long the illusion that controlled the three Grand Elders would last.

Therefore, he didn't dare to be negligent in the slightest.

Running at full speed, the spirit bean soldier quickly returned to his side.

Li Lan casually put away the bean soldier, and then took out a container specifically for storing spirit plants, placing the red sandalwood spirit core inside.

Immediately afterwards,

He left this temporary hiding place without looking back.

At this moment.

Many Guangji Temple disciples were wandering around the outer areas of Immortal Trace Valley.

They didn't know the true purpose of the elders' visit here,

They still thought that Guangji Temple really just wanted to reclaim this abandoned spirit vein,

And each of them was dutifully intercepting the remaining rogue cultivators who hadn't had time to leave.

Perhaps in order to better conceal their true goal,

The Grand Elder had made strict requirements when selecting these disciples,

All the outer sect disciples who came with them

Were all those who had just joined the sect not long ago, and were at the early stage of Qi Refining.

The three Grand Elders probably couldn't have imagined,

That it was precisely because of this measure,

That it provided convenience for Li Lan.

With the extensive vision provided by the spirit bean soldier, it was as if he had entered a no-man's land,

And he easily avoided the search of these Guangji Temple disciples.

Just like that, evading, hiding, dodging, and concealing all the way,

Li Lan also left the Immortal Trace Valley range without any close calls.

Although he had successfully escaped danger,

Li Lan knew that this matter was far from over.

After all, the three Grand Elders were Foundation Establishment stage cultivators, and they would eventually discover the disappearance of the red sandalwood spirit core.

It was inevitable that they would suspect that an outsider had taken the opportunity to steal the tree core.

Judging from the Demonic Path cultivators' inherently suspicious and vengeful habits,

Guangji Temple and Immortal Trace Valley would probably not be peaceful for a long time to come.

Li Lan's current cultivation realm,

Was still far from being able to bear the consequences of being targeted by a Foundation Establishment stage expert.

Therefore.

He didn't pretend to be clever and return to Guangji Temple with the idea of hiding in plain sight.

Nor did he continue to linger in areas where cultivators were active.

Li Lan went directly to the mortal world, where the spiritual energy was exceptionally thin compared to the immortal mountains of the major sects, to hide.

He plunged headlong into the uninhabited deep mountains and old forests.

Although the spiritual energy in this area was scarce,

Li Lan still had a considerable stock of spirit stones left over from mining spirit stone mines this year.

With these resources,

No matter where he was, his cultivation would not be greatly affected.

It was just a matter of how long it could last.

Li Lan planned to avoid the limelight here for the time being,

And make plans after this storm had passed.

He found a remote natural cave,

Simply tidied it up, and settled down there.

As usual, he distributed the spirit bean soldiers around the cave to scout,

And Li Lan began to consider the gains and losses of this trip.

This time, encountering A'hua, the Grand Elder, and his group one after another, the incident happened too suddenly.

If he hadn't prepared relatively well in advance,

He was afraid that he would have really fallen into A'hua's hands.

At this moment.

Li Lan now had only one Artemisia Annua Burning Cloud Talisman left on him.

More than half of the formation auxiliary materials for the Earthbound Thousand Machine Diagram had been destroyed,

In the absence of materials, this formation could not be used for the time being.

There were now 31 of the walnut-sized twenty-year-old red sandalwood spirit beans left.

With Li Lan's current cultivation, the spirit bean soldier with the Qi Refining first layer realm,

He could probably control four at the same time.

But after fighting with A'hua,

Two spirit bean soldiers with the Qi Refining first layer had been destroyed under the Artemisia Annua Burning Cloud Talisman.

He now had only two refined red sandalwood spirit beans left in his hand.

Looking at it now,

Although the spirit bean soldiers' cultivation was not high, they could still be of great use at critical moments,

And they must be replenished as soon as possible.

As for ordinary year spirit bean soldiers,

Li Lan now had no difficulty in refining them.

Such materials were not scarce, and he still had many reserves in his hand,

As long as he wanted to, he could refine a large batch of them at any time.

In this battle with A'hua,

Although Li Lan also obtained a talisman treasure from the other party,

From the results, his losses were indeed not small.

Li Lan recalled the situation at that time and carefully summarized many experiences and shortcomings.

Striving to win the next time he fought with others,

And no longer consume so many resources.

Compared to the direct contact with A'hua,

Li Lan's gains from witnessing the battle between the Grand Elder and the red sandalwood spirit tree

Were much greater.

The Foundation Establishment stage's use of magic weapons, talisman treasures, and spells was obviously far beyond that of Qi Refining cultivators.

This gave him great inspiration,

And made him suddenly enlightened in many half-understood places.

Leaving aside these gains in experience,

Li Lan got an unexpected surprise without paying any price.

Thinking of this.

He took out the five-hundred-year-old red sandalwood spirit core from his storage bag again.

The situation was urgent before, and he didn't have time to take a closer look.

At this time, Li Lan carefully looked at it,

And found that this thing seemed to have been carefully carved by the years, and the whole body exuded an ancient and mysterious aura.

It was about a foot in length,

And the whole body presented a rich and almost deep purple color,

As if all the essence of heaven and earth that the old red sandalwood tree had absorbed over the past five hundred years had been condensed into it.

On its surface, there were circles of annual rings engraved,

And the lines of each annual ring were particularly clear,

Just as if this world used time as ink and personally engraved natural runes.

Compared with the old red sandalwood tree,

This tree core was not so active,

And looked more like a lifeless dead object.

Li Lan looked at it up and down for a moment and found that except for the overall toughness, which was not much different from the bark of the red sandalwood tree,

He didn't find any other special features.

After thinking for a moment,

He temporarily put it aside,

Preparing to study it slowly when he had time in the future.

Li Lan took out some spirit soil from the storage bag and evenly spread it in a corner of the cave.

Then he planted some spirit plants that he might use in the future in it.

This spirit soil was taken from near the old red sandalwood tree and had been influenced by it for many years, and had already grown into a special spiritual material.

The abundant spiritual energy contained in it was not inferior to some spiritual plants.

Although this place was located in the mortal world and the spiritual energy was thin,

With this spirit soil, it was not a problem to cultivate some ordinary spirit plant seedlings,

After doing all this,

Li Lan took out some spirit stones from the storage bag again,

Preparing to lay them in this simple cave to create a good cultivation environment for himself.

But at this moment,

The red sandalwood spirit core, which had been silent all along, suddenly reacted again.