An Extra Villain in Cultivation World-Chapter 79: Aftermath : II

Yanmei and Xuanyan walked in silence for a while after leaving the hall. The long refinement duel had drained most of their mental strength, and neither of them felt like speaking at first. The corridor remained quiet except for the soft echo of their footsteps.

After walking some distance, Yanmei finally slowed her steps and turned toward him. Her brows were slightly furrowed, as if she had been thinking about something ever since they left the hall.

"Junior brother," Yanmei said, "how did your refinement fail? I watched your entire process carefully. I didn’t see you make any mistake, especially at the final moment."

She continued walking beside him as she spoke. "I know the last step is the most delicate part. Even the smallest fluctuation in the flame can ruin everything. But still... we both failed almost at the same moment." She shook her head slightly. "It feels strange."

"I really thought you would succeed. Your flame control was steady from the beginning. Even when I used killer moves, you maintained the same pace without any instability."

Her voice softened slightly. "Maybe... it was just our bad luck during refinement. 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 refinement had been made intentionally by him.

Xuanyan was also not sure how Yanmei would react if she learned the truth. Her own refinement 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 moment, when Yanmei had reached the peak of her refinement and the Gu embryo was almost formed, 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 method, which required far fewer system points than normal.

The technique was not grand or spectacular. It was only a simple illusion method. 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 method, 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 Establishment Realm through wisdom path cultivation.

Of course, Xuanyan was not entirely certain about this either. Most of his knowledge came from novelkisss he had read in his previous life, and those novels were not always reliable guides for the real cultivation world.

Because of this, Yanmei 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 something unusual. Her attainment in other paths was also not high enough to recognize such a subtle interference during refinement.

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 time 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 time 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 same time unless they possessed a special method or a rare physique that allowed it.

So why would a cultivator waste time learning such techniques?

There was another reason. Once a cultivator reached the Foundation Establishment 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 extremely weak. Even so, Yanmei’s divine sense was still stronger than Xuanyan’s, and she had many years of experience using it during Gu refinement. Under normal circumstances she would have easily noticed such a small interference.

But at that moment, she was already mentally 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 flame had not weakened at all. The temperature inside the vessel was still perfectly correct.

However, Yanmei perceived it differently. Believing the flame had become too weak, she instinctively strengthened the spiritual fire. The sudden increase in heat broke the delicate balance of the Gu embryo, and the entire refinement collapsed at the final step.

Seeing that Xuanyan had nothing more to say, Yanmei 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 refinement duel that had pushed them to their limits.