An Extra Villain in Cultivation World-Chapter 77: Dual : IV

Seeing Yanmei step into the final stage, Xuanyan finally lifted his gaze.

"Senior sister Yanmei, be careful,I am going to attack now." Xuanyan suddenly spoke.

’Uh.’ Yanmei’s attention was immediately 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 me beforehand?’

She was instantly on full guard, her eyes sharp and tracking every small movement he made. Her hands continued working through the final stage by instinct alone, but her mind had already left the refinement entirely.

Xuanyan chuckled when he saw her reaction. "Senior sister Yanmei, be careful. This attack might ruin your refining."

Ten seconds passed. Then twenty.

Nothing happened.

Yanmei’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 something to happen.

"Junior brother," she finally said before she could stop herself. "Why aren’t you attacking?"

Before she could hear Xuanyan’s answer, Yanmei suddenly realized something was wrong. The flame beneath her vessel had grown too weak. Its temperature had dropped lower than what the recipe required for the refinement to succeed and for the Ember Breathing Gu to come alive.

Yanmei’s expression changed immediately. She shifted all of her attention back to the refining vessel and quickly strengthened the flame, forcing it to rise to the correct temperature before the Gu embryo became unstable.

Xuanyan did not look up and did not attack her during that moment. Instead, he continued focusing on his own refinement. He calmly adjusted the flame 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 fragments no longer existed as separate materials. Under Xuanyan’s control they had merged into a single mass, a swirling mixture of fire essence, vitality, and elemental energy slowly condensing within the vessel.

Meanwhile Yanmei finally reached the last stage of her refinement. The process was almost complete. Only one final stabilization remained before the Ember Breathing Gu would awaken.

Victory was only moments away.

A small smile appeared on Yanmei’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 time, Yanmei 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 something else," Yanmei thought quietly as she looked toward Xuanyan. His refinement had almost reached the same 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 Mei Lingyao had given them only had a forty percent success rate. For most disciples, failing several times was normal before finally succeeding once. Yet both of them had reached the final stage on their first try.

This realization did not make Yanmei proud. Instead, a faint bitterness appeared in her heart. Years of effort suddenly felt very light when placed next to someone born with overwhelming talent.

Her gaze unconsciously drifted toward Xuanyan again. At that moment their eyes met for a brief second.

Yanmei clearly saw Xuanyan’s lips move slightly, as if he had murmured something toward her. However, the distance between them was too far, and the faint sound of burning flames inside the chamber drowned out whatever he had said. She could not hear a single word.

"Then—!"

Whoosh!

The spiritual flames in Yanmei’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. Yanmei’s expression changed as she tried to suppress the flames, but the unstable fire essence had already scattered.

A crackling sound came 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. Yanmei quickly suppressed the backlash, but her face still turned slightly pale as she forced the remaining fire energy out of her body.

Her refinement had failed. The Black Ash residue at the bottom of the vessel clearly showed the result of a refinement collapse.

Her fingers hung frozen in the air. For a brief moment, Yanmei could not even understand what had just happened. Just a second ago the refinement had been perfectly stable. The Gu embryo was already close to awakening. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

She had been about to win. Yet in the next instant, everything had collapsed.

What... just happened?

Yanmei 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 mental 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 moment, when her flame 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 moment, Yanmei slowly lifted her head. Her gaze drifted toward Mei Lingyao.

Mei 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 Yanmei at all, but completely focused on Xuanyan, who had also reached the final stage of refinement.

Seeing this, Yanmei could not help but follow Mei Lingyao’s gaze. Even though her own refinement had already failed, she still wanted to see the final result. Throughout the entire duel, Xuanyan’s refinement had remained steady and precise. His flame control had not shown even the slightest instability.

Yanmei 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 refinement successfully, then at least this duel would not end in embarrassment for their side. After all, the person standing there was her junior brother and also Mother’s personal disciple.

For some reason, Yanmei 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 moment when the Ember Breathing Gu would finally awaken.

However, the next moment something happened that Yanmei had never expected. The spiritual flame 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 formed Gu embryo shook as the balance of fire essence collapsed.

Yanmei’s eyes widened slightly as she stared at the vessel.

Junior brother Xuanyan’s refinement... had also failed.