"No, grandfather, you've misunderstood me! I really can't control this fire." The young Daotian was still putting on an act.
"Hehehe. You dare to deceive me — you clearly don't take me at all seriously. Very well, I won't take your life then. Let the fire swallow you whole. You think Gu refinement is some simple, perfectly safe endeavor? You deliberately caused this failure during refinement — you've brought this upon yourself! Die, then, die! This is your stubbornness, all of it your own doing." Sand Owl sneered repeatedly.
His words had not yet faded when the flames surged outward violently, instantly engulfing the young Daotian.
"How can this be?" The young Daotian tried to burst free, but a tremendous suction force emanated from within the flames, fixing him in place — he couldn't move at all.
Just as he was about to be consumed by the fire, Fang Yuan discovered that he could once again control the young Daotian's body.
"Why do I feel like I'm constantly cleaning up after the young Daotian?" Fang Yuan felt a twinge of exasperation.
However, he did not panic.
The Gu recipe that Sand Owl had given to the young Daotian — Fang Yuan had already encountered it.
It was a First Transformation Gu recipe, and as a Grandmaster of the Refinement Path, Fang Yuan could see through it at a glance. The principles within the recipe were perfectly clear to him, understood down to the last detail.
Though the young Daotian had made a mistake, in Fang Yuan's eyes, the situation was not beyond saving.
Sand Pit Gu.
Fang Yuan took control of the young Daotian's body and, aiming precisely at a certain spot within the flames, threw the Sand Pit Gu directly in.
He did not activate the Gu — instead, he used it as nothing more than a refinement material, tossing it in raw.
The Gu insect's body was frail. It immediately drew the flames toward it and was quickly reduced to a pile of powder.
The flames' suction force diminished sharply. Seizing the opportunity, Fang Yuan leaped backward and broke free.
He rolled across the ground several times, extinguishing the remaining flames clinging to his body.
The injuries were severe.
The young Daotian's face, neck, arms, and other exposed areas were all badly burned — nearly unrecognizable.
But Fang Yuan paid no attention to the wounds. Instead, he directed his full focus toward the fire.
The young Daotian was not yet out of danger, because the Gu refinement process had not truly been terminated.
If the flames were left to burn unchecked, they would inevitably surge back toward the young Daotian's body once more.
So Fang Yuan activated the Cooking Smoke Gu, producing plumes of smoke that enveloped the basin-sized ball of fire.
Layer upon layer of smoke wrapped tightly around the flames.
The danger gradually decreased, and Fang Yuan also felt his connection to the fire weakening rapidly.
"If this continues — using the smoke to extinguish the fire — the refinement can be terminated. There will still be some backlash, but his life can be saved."
Having reached this point, Fang Yuan had done all he could.
After all, the young Daotian had been far too reckless, deliberately attempting to fail during the refinement process.
This attempt at Gu refinement had actually caused his strength to decline, because he had lost the precious Sand Pit Gu.
Just then, an unexpected change occurred.
The cooking smoke was violently absorbed into the heart of the flames.
"What's going on?" Even Fang Yuan was caught off guard.
But when he saw the phantom figure of an infant within the flame's core, he immediately understood: "There is something seriously wrong with this infant! Its constitution must be extraordinary — exceedingly peculiar!"
The infant had been added to the fire as a refinement material.
Fang Yuan had been observing from the sidelines and had not carefully inspected the infant, so he had not noticed anything unusual among the materials.
This anomaly exceeded Fang Yuan's expectations.
The flames surged once more. The infant's phantom figure leaped and frolicked within the fire's heart, lunging toward the young Daotian.
"This is bad — his life is in mortal danger." Fang Yuan sighed inwardly. If the young Daotian died, his exploration of this dream realm would fail along with him.
Just as the flames were about to envelop the young Daotian's body once more, a sudden flash of inspiration struck Fang Yuan's mind.
"I've got it!"
He first threw out the Cooking Smoke Gu.
The moment the Cooking Smoke Gu appeared, it immediately drew the attention of the child phantom in the flame's heart. The infant let out a gleeful cry and pounced directly on the Gu, devouring it in a single bite.
Seizing the chance, Fang Yuan retreated several steps rapidly, widening the distance between himself and the flames.
But soon, the child phantom in the flame's heart, still chewing on the Cooking Smoke Gu, came charging toward Fang Yuan once again.