Seeing Yani step into the final stage, Xuanyan finally lifted his gaze.
"Senior sister Yani, be careful,I am going to attack now." Xuanyan suddenly spoke.
’Uh.’ Yani’s attention was imdiately drawn toward him. Her bright blue eyes turned to Xuanyan as she continued refining the Gu.
’Finally attacking? But what is the reason for warning beforehand?’
She was instantly on full guard, her eyes sharp and tracking every small movent he made. Her hands continued working through the final stage by instinct alone, but her mind had already left the refinent entirely.
Xuanyan chuckled when he saw her reaction. "Senior sister Yani, be careful. This attack might ruin your refining."
Ten seconds passed. Then twenty.
Nothing happened.
Yani’s patience began to slip. She could not sense any incoming technique, yet Xuanyan had clearly warned her twice. The tension slowly built in her mind as she waited for sothing to happen.
"Junior brother," she finally said before she could stop herself. "Why aren’t you attacking?"
Before she could hear Xuanyan’s answer, Yani suddenly realized sothing was wrong. The fla beneath her vessel had grown too weak. Its temperature had dropped lower than what the recipe required for the refinent to succeed and for the Ember Breathing Gu to co alive.
Yani’s expression changed imdiately. She shifted all of her attention back to the refining vessel and quickly strengthened the fla, forcing it to rise to the correct temperature before the Gu embryo beca unstable.
Xuanyan did not look up and did not attack her during that mont. Instead, he continued focusing on his own refinent. He calmly adjusted the fla beneath his vessel. The materials inside had already broken apart under the heat, their physical forms dissolving as the spiritual energy within them slowly released.
The Blazing Ember Beetle shell, the dried grass, the seeds, and the bone fragnts no longer existed as separate materials. Under Xuanyan’s control they had rged into a single mass, a swirling mixture of fire essence, vitality, and elental energy slowly condensing within the vessel.
anwhile Yani finally reached the last stage of her refinent. The process was almost complete. Only one final stabilization remained before the Ember Breathing Gu would awaken.
Victory was only monts away.
A small smile appeared on Yani’s face. At the start of the duel she had not expected to push herself this far. Even now she had to give her full strength just to keep up with junior brother Xuanyan. If she had taken the duel lightly even once, she would have already lost.
For the first ti, Yani clearly felt the difference between them. She finally understood why Mother had chosen Xuanyan instead of her as a personal disciple.
"Sigh... talent really is sothing else," Yani thought quietly as she looked toward Xuanyan. His refinent had almost reached the sa stage as hers. At most it would take him three more minutes to finish. Thinking about it carefully, the situation felt absurd. She had practiced alchemy her entire life and only reached this level through countless failures, yet Xuanyan, who had never refined a Gu before today, was already about to succeed in his first attempt.
The recipe i Lingyao had given them only had a forty percent success rate. For most disciples, failing several tis was normal before finally succeeding once. Yet both of them had reached the final stage on their first try.
This realization did not make Yani proud. Instead, a faint bitterness appeared in her heart. Years of effort suddenly felt very light when placed next to soone born with overwhelming talent.
Her gaze unconsciously drifted toward Xuanyan again. At that mont their eyes t for a brief second.
Yani clearly saw Xuanyan’s lips move slightly, as if he had murmured sothing toward her. However, the distance between them was too far, and the faint sound of burning flas inside the chamber drowned out whatever he had said. She could not hear a single word.
"Then—!"
Whoosh!
The spiritual flas in Yani’s hands suddenly erupted with a loud surge. Her expression instantly changed.
The carefully balanced heat inside the vessel lost control, and the Gu embryo that had almost stabilized began to tremble violently. Yani’s expression changed as she tried to suppress the flas, but the unstable fire essence had already scattered.
A crackling sound ca from inside the vessel as the unstable energy burst apart. The embryo structure shattered, and the condensed fire essence scattered into chaotic sparks. Materials she had spent an hour carefully refining collapsed into black ash at the bottom of the vessel.
Her body trembled slightly as a trace of heat rushed back through her channels, disrupting her breath. Yani quickly suppressed the backlash, but her face still turned slightly pale as she forced the remaining fire energy out of her body.
Her refinent had failed. The Black Ash residue at the bottom of the vessel clearly showed the result of a refinent collapse.
Her fingers hung frozen in the air. For a brief mont, Yani could not even understand what had just happened. Just a second ago the refinent had been perfectly stable. The Gu embryo was already close to awakening.
She had been about to win. Yet in the next instant, everything had collapsed.
What... just happened?
Yani was lost for words. She slowly sank to the ground beside the refining table, one hand pressing against her chest as she steadied her breathing. Her ntal energy was already scraped dry after maintaining several killer moves throughout the entire duel. The constant pressure of Xuanyan’s steady pace had pushed her further than she’d expected — and then at the very final mont, when her fla surged without warning and tore the embryo apart from the inside, she hadn’t been able to understand what went wrong.
Even now she still couldn’t. Maybe... it was just my bad luck.
After a mont, Yani slowly lifted her head. Her gaze drifted toward i Lingyao.
i Lingyao sat calmly at the side, leisurely drinking tea as if nothing unusual had happened. Not even the slightest change appeared on her face. Her attention was not on Yani at all, but completely focused on Xuanyan, who had also reached the final stage of refinent.
Seeing this, Yani could not help but follow i Lingyao’s gaze. Even though her own refinent had already failed, she still wanted to see the final result. Throughout the entire duel, Xuanyan’s refinent had remained steady and precise. His fla control had not shown even the slightest instability.
Yani quietly watched the vessel in front of him. Junior brother... you must succeed, she thought.
She had already failed as his senior sister. If Xuanyan could complete the refinent successfully, then at least this duel would not end in embarrassnt for their side. After all, the person standing there was her junior brother and also Mother’s personal disciple.
For so reason, Yani suddenly found herself hoping more for Xuanyan’s success than she had hoped for her own victory earlier.
Her eyes stayed fixed on the refining vessel, silently waiting for the mont when the Ember Breathing Gu would finally awaken.
However, the next mont sothing happened that Yani had never expected. The spiritual fla beneath Xuanyan’s vessel suddenly trembled. The steady rhythm he had maintained for the entire duel showed a brief disturbance. Inside the vessel, the nearly ford Gu embryo shook as the balance of fire essence collapsed.
Yani’s eyes widened slightly as she stared at the vessel.
Junior brother Xuanyan’s refinent... had also failed.
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