Refusal, Room to Maneuver

Hearing Elder Yao's request, Lin Yuan smiled slightly, his gaze moving between Elder Yao and Xiao Yan as the corners of his mouth curved in amusement.

"Synthesized Strange Flame. So that's what this is about!"

The moment he saw Elder Yao and Xiao Yan arrive together, he had vaguely guessed it had something to do with this.

Inside the hall, the atmosphere turned subtle for a time. Sunlight poured in through the windows, casting mottled patterns of light and shadow across the floor. Those shadows swayed gently with the breeze, as if they too were wavering over the matter.

In the end, Lin Yuan shook her head. "Senior Yao, this request of yours really does put me in a difficult position!"

"I refuse!"

"You cannot possibly think that a Heavenly Flame of such high quality is something that can be easily created, can you?"

"Creating a Synthesized Strange Flame requires consuming sub-flames, and separating Heavenly Flame Sub-Flames also consumes a large amount of a Heavenly Flame's origin. Once this Heavenly Flame Origin is depleted, it is not so easy to replenish... ordinarily, without several years, it cannot recover at all!"

"Creating the two Synthesized Strange Flames for Senior and Dan Chen has already used up the stock of sub-flames I had."

"In addition, creating a high-quality Synthesized Strange Flame with only a small amount of sub-flame also requires one of my friends to contribute effort, and the price paid in the process is truly not small."

"Under such circumstances, asking for an advance—even I couldn't be that generous."

As Lin Yuan's words fell, the atmosphere in the room immediately stagnated somewhat.

To the side, Elder Yao and Xiao Yan exchanged a glance. A trace of disappointment flashed through both their eyes, yet in the end, they could not say anything