Chapter 171: Digging a Pit for You to Jump Into!

Even without Ye Yuan’s reminder, Fang Yaojiang would not let this opportunity slip.

Just as Ye Yuan was locked in a standoff with the original essence flame of the Pure Sandalwood Sacred Flame, Fang Yaojiang finally made his move!

He flew swiftly to the vicinity of the Pure Sandalwood Fire Lotus itself, his hands rapidly forming hand seals as a mass of primal power wrapped around the fire lotus.

The Pure Sandalwood Fire Lotus seemed to sense trouble and desperately tried to recall its original essence flame, but the flame was firmly held back by Ye Yuan, unable to return no matter how it was summoned.

That mass of primal power instantly enveloped the body of the Pure Sandalwood Fire Lotus. The fire lotus twisted incessantly, as if trying to break free from the restraint!

“Hahaha… I never thought Fang Yaojiang would actually be able to subdue a fourth-order primal flame. Heaven truly has opened its eyes! Pure Sandalwood Fire Lotus, stop struggling and obediently become my lifebound primal flame!” Fang Yaojiang burst into wild laughter, clearly very pleased with himself.

Seeing this, Ye Yuan couldn’t help but grumble inwardly: Is this guy out of his mind? He just jumped right into the pit I dug?

Jumping in is one thing, but he’s even so smug about it.

Is he missing a screw in his head?

Ye Yuan was now drenched in sweat, his teeth clenched tightly, looking as if he was struggling immensely and could be devoured by the Pure Sandalwood Sacred Flame at any moment.

In reality, he was far from strained—he had no pressure at all!

The reason he pretended to be struggling so hard was to create the illusion of a standoff with the original essence flame, tricking Fang Yaojiang into jumping into the pit himself.

Ye Yuan had originally worried that Fang Yaojiang might not take the bait, in which case his carefully laid trap would fail. After all, with Yuan Fei not by his side, the only thing he could rely on now was this Pure Sandalwood Fire Lotus.

Who would have thought that Fang Yaojiang, this fool, would be so naive and simply jump right into the pit.

It was bad enough that he jumped in, but he had to arrogantly shout something like 'Heaven has opened its eyes.' Ye Yuan couldn't stand to watch anymore.

Actually, Ye Yuan was wronging Fang Yaojiang. He was originally a very cautious person; this could be seen from how he managed to sneak into this underground cave and ambush Ye Yuan.

For an ordinary martial artist, no matter how brilliant, confronting the source essence fire in such a situation is extremely dangerous. Whoever faces this cannot easily withdraw their primal force, or else the backlash from the source essence fire would lead to a miserable end.

Therefore, Fang Yaojiang believed that under these circumstances, Ye Yuan had no choice but to cooperate with him in subduing the Pure Sandalwood Fire Lotus.

He tried to understand Ye Yuan with common sense, not knowing that Ye Yuan was an existence beyond his common sense.

It would be unjust if he wasn't tricked.

How could Fang Yaojiang know that Ye Yuan was essentially an ancestor of playing with fire?

In his previous life, Ye Yuan had refined nine types of primal fires, from first-rank to ninth-rank, missing none.

Moreover, with Ye Yuan's attainments in the Dao of alchemy, his application of primal fire had reached a miraculous level. In the entire Divine Realm, few could surpass him in the art of playing with fire.

Ji Qingyun and his son had their own specialized technique for collecting primal fire, called the 'Fire Source True Scripture,' which was also a top-tier fire-controlling technique in the Divine Realm.

Ji Qingyun had long practiced this technique to perfection. Although his strength was somewhat lacking now, dealing with a newborn fourth-rank primal fire was really not a big deal.

However, even with Ye Yuan holding back the source essence fire of the Pure Sandalwood Fire Lotus, refining its main body was not that easy.

Fang Yaojiang pushed his primal force to the extreme, wanting to refine the Pure Sandalwood Fire Lotus as quickly as possible.

"Senior, are you done yet? I can't hold on much longer!"

Ye Yuan pretended to be at his limit, his hands trembling, and the source essence fire nearly flew away.

Fang Yaojiang was startled by this scene, his hands also trembling, almost ruining all his previous efforts. Only after Ye Yuan regained control of the source essence fire did he let out a long sigh, but the sweat on his forehead wouldn't stop.

"Little brother, hold on just a little longer, it'll be over soon! Just a little more!" Fang Yaojiang said hastily.

"Alright... alright, senior, please hurry up, I really can't hold on much longer!"

As Ye Yuan spoke, his hand trembled again, once more scaring Fang Yaojiang out of his wits.

"Little brother, after this is done, I'll give you a bottle—no, five bottles of third-grade pills, and five bottles of second-grade pills! Just... just hold on a little longer and it'll be fine!" Fang Yaojiang was sweating profusely.

He thought that as a grand alchemist, offering ten bottles of pills would be enough to tempt Ye Yuan, not knowing that pills were the last thing Ye Yuan lacked.

The pills Fang Yaojiang refined, even third-grade ones, were nothing but a pile of crap in Ye Yuan's eyes.

"Alright, you... you hurry up!"

Still, Ye Yuan pretended to reluctantly accept, exerting a bit more force to stabilize the origin essence flame.

Ye Yuan watched Fang Yaojiang's refining process; the guy was unbelievably slow.

With the origin essence flame held back by him, if he had almost finished refining by now, Fang Yaojiang hadn't even refined a third, yet he talked about holding on a little longer.

If it were anyone else, they would have been burned to ashes by now.

But of course, Ye Yuan wouldn't really let Fang Yaojiang finish refining; he was just wearing down Fang Yaojiang's vigilance.

Fang Yaojiang's slow refining was actually because part of his attention was on Ye Yuan.

If Ye Yuan withdrew immediately, Fang Yaojiang would certainly retreat even faster.

In short, Fang Yaojiang still didn't trust Ye Yuan, and couldn't fully trust him.

So Ye Yuan used the excuse of not being able to hold on to pressure Fang Yaojiang into speeding up his refining. Once he sped up refining the Jingtan Fire Lotus, he naturally wouldn't have the energy to watch Ye Yuan's movements.

Sure enough, after Ye Yuan said he couldn't hold on two or three times, Fang Yaojiang indeed focused his mind and began refining seriously.

Once serious, the refining speed indeed increased significantly.

Soon, Fang Yaojiang's refining neared its end, and he was overjoyed inside.

"Just one more step, speed up a bit more, and this Jingtan Fire Lotus will be mine!" Fang Yaojiang's heart trembled.

And just then, a warning sign suddenly arose.

Fang Yaojiang only saw a blur, and a pale yellow light appeared before his eyes in an instant!

"Sizzle..."

A burnt smell spread, and Fang Yaojiang flew backward without any suspense.

Caught completely off guard, hit head-on by a fourth-grade elemental fire, how could a martial artist at the Condensing Crystal first layer withstand it?

At this moment, Fang Yaojiang lay quietly on the ground, like a roasted suckling pig, severely injured.

Just now, Ye Yuan released his restraint on the Jingtan Sacred Flame. As soon as the Jingtan Fire Lotus could communicate with the Jingtan Sacred Flame, it unhesitatingly called it back to attack Fang Yaojiang.

The Jingtan Fire Lotus never thought of attacking Ye Yuan, because all this time it wasn't confronting Ye Yuan; rather, Ye Yuan was unilaterally suppressing it.

In the eyes of the Jingtan Fire Lotus, Ye Yuan was far more dangerous than Fang Yaojiang!

The Jingtan Fire Lotus had no intelligence; all its actions were purely instinctive, so it chose to attack Fang Yaojiang first!

Poor Fang Yaojiang, thus fell into the pit dug by Ye Yuan...