Yani and Xuanyan walked in silence for a while after leaving the hall. The long refinent duel had drained most of their ntal strength, and neither of them felt like speaking at first. The corridor remained quiet except for the soft echo of their footsteps.
After walking so distance, Yani finally slowed her steps and turned toward him. Her brows were slightly furrowed, as if she had been thinking about sothing ever since they left the hall.
"Junior brother," Yani said, "how did your refinent fail? I watched your entire process carefully. I didn’t see you make any mistake, especially at the final mont."
She continued walking beside him as she spoke. "I know the last step is the most delicate part. Even the smallest fluctuation in the fla can ruin everything. But still... we both failed almost at the sa mont." She shook her head slightly. "It feels strange."
"I really thought you would succeed. Your fla control was steady from the beginning. Even when I used killer moves, you maintained the sa pace without any instability."
Her voice softened slightly. "Maybe... it was just our bad luck during refinent. Mother did say this recipe only has a forty percent success rate."
Xuanyan listened quietly while she spoke. He knew the real reason behind the failure, but he did not respond to her words. After all, the mistake during the refinent had been made intentionally by him.
Xuanyan was also not sure how Yani would react if she learned the truth. Her own refinent had collapsed because of his interference as well. For now, it was better that she believed it had simply been bad luck.
At the crucial mont, when Yani had reached the peak of her refinent and the Gu embryo was almost ford, Xuanyan had secretly learned a basic mortal technique recorded in the outer sect’s Martial Pavilion. The technique itself was simple, and learning it only required about one hundred system points.
The cost was low because the technique already existed in the system’s records from the Martial Pavilion. Xuanyan did not need to purchase a new technique. He only used the system to quickly learn the recorded thod, which required far fewer system points than normal.
The technique was not grand or spectacular. It was only a simple illusion thod. Even Xuanyan himself was not completely sure whether it would work, but the system insisted it was the best option after analyzing the situation during the duel.
The technique was called False Perception Technique. Although it was only a mortal-grade thod, it belonged to the wisdom path, which was not an easy path to cultivate. Even within the sect, Xuanyan had never heard of an elder who had reached the Foundation Establishnt Realm through wisdom path cultivation.
Of course, Xuanyan was not entirely certain about this either. Most of his knowledge ca from webnovels he had read in his previous life, and those novels were not always reliable guides for the real cultivation world.
Because of this, Yani had no way to counter the technique. She did not cultivate soul path, information path, or rule path—paths that might have allowed her to notice sothing unusual. Her attainnt in other paths was also not high enough to recognize such a subtle interference during refinent.
In truth, most cultivators did not learn many counter techniques in the first place. The cultivation world contained far too many different paths and abilities. Trying to prepare a counter for everything would require enormous ti and effort, and in most situations it simply was not worth it.
At the Qi Condensation stage, cultivation was mainly about speed. The faster a cultivator advanced through the minor stages, the lower the chance of getting stuck at a bottleneck later.
Those with higher aptitude or better resources usually reached Stage Nine much faster than ordinary disciples. Spiritual energy inside the body was generated through the cultivator’s spiritual core, and the amount it produced largely depended on one’s natural aptitude.
Because of this limitation, most cultivators rarely spent ti learning techniques from other paths. Even if they learned them, they could not properly use them. Under the rules of heaven, a cultivator normally could not cultivate two different paths at the sa ti unless they possessed a special thod or a rare physique that allowed it.
So why would a cultivator waste ti learning such techniques?
There was another reason. Once a cultivator reached the Foundation Establishnt Realm, their divine sense would fully awaken. At that stage, they could easily perceive subtle disturbances in spiritual energy and even detect hostile intent from others.
Qi Condensation cultivators also possessed divine sense, but it was extrely weak. Even so, Yani’s divine sense was still stronger than Xuanyan’s, and she had many years of experience using it during Gu refinent. Under normal circumstances she would have easily noticed such a small interference.
But at that mont, she was already ntally exhausted. The pressure of the duel and Xuanyan’s steady progress had pushed her concentration to its limit. When the False Perception Technique quietly affected her senses, she misjudged the situation without realizing it.
Her fla had not weakened at all. The temperature inside the vessel was still perfectly correct.
However, Yani perceived it differently. Believing the fla had beco too weak, she instinctively strengthened the spiritual fire. The sudden increase in heat broke the delicate balance of the Gu embryo, and the entire refinent collapsed at the final step.
Seeing that Xuanyan had nothing more to say, Yani did not continue questioning him.
"Well, thinking about it now won’t change anything," she said with a tired sigh. "Let’s clean up first. Mother will probably call us back later."
Xuanyan simply nodded. The two of them walked a little further down the corridor before reaching the point where their paths separated. Without saying anything more, they went their own way to freshen up, both still exhausted from the long refinent duel that had pushed them to their limits.
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