Immortal Path in the Palm of a Mortal's Hand

Chapter 11 Bottlenecks and Hidden Worries

For the past two years, he has made sure to replenish his talisman supply at that particular shop whenever he goes to the market. Now, he always keeps a stable number of talismans in his storage bag, around a hundred: forty fireball talismans, thirty ice cone talismans, twenty earth wall talismans, and ten golden bell talismans. He also keeps several wooden vine talismans and lightning strike talismans as backup. The mid-grade fire python talisman remains hidden deep at the bottom of his bag, never to be used.

This was all the wealth he had accumulated over two years of arduous training.

Not particularly generous.

However, it is sufficient for use.

Chen Fan rose and walked to the stone window. The rain had stopped, and the clouds had parted, allowing a few rays of sunlight to filter through, reflecting a damp, shimmering light onto the rain-soaked rocks halfway up Fire Cloud Peak. Looking towards the main peak of Spirit Beast Mountain, several streaks of light darted swiftly beneath the low-hanging clouds, their speed astonishing and fleeting.

Those were high-level cultivators at the Foundation Establishment stage or above.

He withdrew his gaze and looked down at the area below the window.

The armored creature lay prone, now the size of an adult's fist. Its carapace was completely hardened, displaying a deep, heavy bronze hue, and the natural patterns on its surface were increasingly intricate and mysterious, faintly forming runes. The pair of sickle-shaped bone blades on its forelimbs had grown to over two inches long, their edges gleaming coldly in the remaining sunlight. At this moment, it was holding a piece of spirit stone about half the size of its palm, slowly and deliberately nibbling at it. Its mouthparts appeared small, but its bite force was astonishing; the hard spirit stone was crushed and swallowed like a crisp biscuit in its mouth.

Two years have passed, and the armored mantis has grown from an early-stage first-order larva to a mid-stage first-order larva, its strength roughly equivalent to a cultivator at the eighth or ninth level of Qi Refining. The Golden-backed Demon Mantis's growth cycle is inherently long, and given that Chen Fan didn't use Spirit-Feeding Pills to force its maturation, this speed is normal. However, slowness also has its advantages; naturally grown demon mantises have shells with far greater hardness and toughness than those that are artificially matured, and their foundation is much more solid.

In about a year, the Ironclad will be able to advance to the late stage of the first tier. At that time, its defense will be able to withstand a full-force attack from a Qi Refining Grand Perfection cultivator, and its attack will also be able to threaten the lives of cultivators of the same tier. Then, in the Crimson Forbidden Land, this insect will be a reliable trump card.

Chen Fan reached out and lightly touched the bronze-colored back armor of the armored creature with his fingertips. The armored creature paused slightly in its gnawing motion, its whiskers stood up high, and swayed from side to side a few times. After confirming that it was its master's aura, it buried its head in the spirit stone again.

He turned around and sat cross-legged on the prayer mat again.

There is still one step left to reach the Great Perfection of the twelfth to thirteenth level of Qi Refining.

He must take this step carefully in this final year!

……

The cultivation beyond the twelfth level of Qi Refining was far more difficult than Chen Fan had anticipated.

In the first two years of revising the "Great Evolution Prison Suppression Scripture," I climbed from the tenth to the twelfth level. Although each step required a massive amount of elixirs and time, the increase in my magical power was real and tangible. It was like pouring water into a water tank ladle by ladle; though slow, the water level eventually rose.

However, after stepping onto the twelfth floor, this sense of clarity gradually faded.

He continued to swallow Qi-refining pills daily, circulating his cultivation technique to gradually refine the medicinal power into his dantian. His magical energy was indeed increasing, but at an alarmingly slow pace! If previously his daily cultivation would increase his magical energy by "a ladleful," now it was at most "half a ladleful"! With the same effort, the gain had decreased by more than 60%!

This is not just his predicament; it is a universal law governing the final hurdle of the Qi Refining stage. The first twelve levels of Qi Refining focus on accumulating the "quantity" of magical power, while the thirteenth level, the Great Perfection, requires a qualitative transformation of that power! The dantian and qi sea are nearing saturation; simply increasing quantity only narrows the space. Only by making the magical power increasingly condensed and pure can one lay the foundation for condensing true essence and attempting to break through to the Foundation Establishment stage.

Qualitative change is far more difficult than quantitative change.

This is an inevitable hurdle for every Qi Refining cultivator who reaches this stage.

Chen Fan was not entirely unprepared for this. He had perused many of the cultivation insights left behind by senior cultivators in the Spirit Beast Mountain Scripture Pavilion. Many of them mentioned this bottleneck, some saying they had been stuck for three years, others for five, and still others for ten, ultimately giving up their hopes of Foundation Establishment and becoming mere disciples in charge of miscellaneous tasks. Those with three spiritual roots generally spent more time at this bottleneck than those with two or heavenly spiritual roots.

The only thing he could do was increase the time he spent cultivating. He had previously cultivated his magical power for three hours a day, but now he increased it to four. His comprehension of the third level of the *Dayan Zhenyu Jing*, "Zhenyu," was thus somewhat compressed, slowing his progress slightly, but this was a necessary measure. With the Blood Forbidden Land about to open, he had to first ensure his magical power cultivation reached the Great Perfection of the thirteenth level of Qi Refining! Otherwise, even if he entered the forbidden land, his insufficient strength would only make him a sitting duck for others.

Four hours of arduous magical cultivation, coupled with the daily refining of fifteen Qi Refining Pills, plus the nourishment from the iron armor and simple training, fragmented his day, leaving him with almost no moment to catch his breath. Yet Chen Fan felt no hardship. He was already accustomed to this seemingly endless, day-to-day existence. The path to immortality was long and arduous, built through painstaking effort; there were no shortcuts.

What truly weighed heavily on his mind was not the slow pace of his cultivation, but another hidden worry.

The first three levels of the Great Evolution Prison Suppression Scripture are about to be completed!

The second level, "Transforming Thoughts," was already perfected. He had studied the third level, "Suppressing Prisons," countless times over the past two years, the words and phrases now ingrained in his mind. The core of "Suppressing Prisons" was to construct a "Prison Suppressing Wall" in the center of his sea of ​​consciousness! Built upon highly condensed divine consciousness, this wall not only protected against external demonic divine consciousness but also forcibly suppressed the inner demons that arose within himself! Once the inner demons were suppressed, they could no longer disturb his Dao heart; instead, they were constantly worn down and refined by the Prison Suppressing Wall, ultimately transforming into pure divine consciousness power that nourished him!

This method is truly defying the heavens!

However, extraordinary achievements are always accompanied by arduous journeys.

With his current spiritual strength, he would struggle to even construct the "foundation" of the Prison Suppression Wall, let alone a complete barrier! According to the cultivation method, constructing the Prison Suppression Wall requires at least the spiritual strength of a Foundation Establishment cultivator! Although his spiritual strength far surpasses that of his peers, it is still far inferior to that of a Foundation Establishment cultivator!

This means that even if he thoroughly comprehends the third level of the mental cultivation method, he will have absolutely no chance of truly mastering "Prison Suppression" before breaking through to the Foundation Establishment stage!

The more crucial point is that the cultivation technique recorded on that page of the golden book abruptly ends at the third level!

The first three levels of the cultivation method are: the first level "Concentration of the Mind," the second level "Dissolving Thoughts," and the third level "Suppressing Prisons." After completing these three levels, there are no further texts on the golden book. The subsequent techniques can only be revealed after the fourth level of restrictions is lifted.

This fourth layer of restriction can only be activated by cultivators at the Foundation Establishment stage!

When True Immortal Chiyun gave him the golden book, he made it clear that he only possessed the first four levels of the *Great Evolution Prison-Suppressing Scripture*, covering the stages from Qi Refining to the early Foundation Establishment stage. Chen Fan didn't ask further at the time, knowing it would be pointless. How could a mere Qi Refining disciple like him possibly break the restrictions set by a Core Formation cultivator?

Now, however, as the third level of the cultivation technique nears its limit, the immense pressure from this restriction truly weighs on his mind. If he cannot break through to the Foundation Establishment stage, his "Great Evolution Prison Suppression Scripture" will stop at the third level! A fragmented technique, no matter how profound the first three levels are, cannot be continued at the early Foundation Establishment stage. At that time, he will either have to abandon the technique and start over, wasting most of his years of hard work; or he will have to spend countless years and effort searching for that elusive successor, and his cultivation path will inevitably stagnate for a long time.

Either way, the cost is too heavy to bear!