A long green bamboo, which did not seem like a plant but looked like it was carved from jade, was revealed at the center of the broken big tree.
Ou Yangming and Big Yellow stared with bright eyes at the bamboo that suddenly appeared. If the young fellow did not have the sudden urge to chop the innocent tree, nobody would have thought that something like that grew inside an ordinary tree with no abnormalities.
Although they could not identify what kind of treasure the long bamboo was, they felt like they stumbled upon something precious when they saw it.
When the bamboo was exposed to the void, a peculiar fluctuation suddenly gushed out of the bamboo and spread in all directions.
Ou Yangming reached out without any hesitation to grab the bamboo tightly.
Nonetheless, it was then when he was startled because while he was holding on to the bamboo, he felt like it was going to slip away. It was as though he was only seizing an illusion instead of the bamboo itself.
Even so, Ou Yangming could swear that he was indeed gripping the bamboo.
“Woof…”
Big Yellow barked fiercely all of a sudden, but Ou Yangming also saw that the bamboo in his hand was slowly fading away and was going to escape just like that.
‘Does this bamboo have intelligence?’
Ou Yangming unleashed his mental power and circulated his essential Qi inside his body while his other hand continuously made strokes in the air to apply various spells to support him. Nevertheless, none of the spells could affect the bamboo as it still took its time to fade away.
At the spur of the moment, the Military Fire in his sea of consciousness flickered.
Even though Ou Yangming was very worried that the Military Fire would burn the bamboo if he released it, he could not consider that much anymore because the bamboo was about to fully disappear.
As he grunted, his Military Fire emerged from his palm to envelop the bamboo.
Needless to say, under Ou Yangming’s control, he did not refine the bamboo as though it was any other material; he only wanted to seal its flight path.
An unusual change happened at that moment. When the Military Fire lingered around the bamboo, instead of growing faint, it suddenly became firm. It was as though a mysterious power had pulled it back to the reality from the void.
At the same time, the bamboo appeared to be greener than before. In particular, its pointy tip swayed a little as if it was willingly submitting itself to Ou Yangming.
Ou Yangming was moved. He withdrew most of his Military Fire but left a tiny flame on it.
The Military Fire was unconventionally domineering as it would burn anything if Ou Yangming did not control it. On the contrary, the tiny flame did not burn the bamboo; it became assimilated into the bamboo and flowed upwards until it appeared at the pointy tip.
If one looked from below, the bamboo would seem like a giant green candle, where the tongue of a flame kept swaying at its tip, making it look like a beacon that lit up the whole area.
Ou Yangming raised his eyebrows. He had an odd look on his face as he quietly sensed the flame at the tip.
“What’s that?” Big Yellow widened its eyes. It witnessed the entire unforeseen event, but it did not know what happened.
The young fellow twitched his mouth and answered slowly, “Big Yellow, I think… We might’ve obtained a node.”
“What?” Little vortexes were somehow seen in the big yellow dog’s eyes. It wondered, ‘Please speak in dog language. Why can’t I understand you?’
Ou Yangming cleared his throat and noted, “I meant that we found a portable interspatial node.”
Big Yellow blinked before it came to a sudden realization and questioned in disbelief, “A node? Did you mean this thing?”
The young fellow nodded. “I sensed its power property. When the bamboo and my Military Fire combined, interspatial energy seemed to have greatly increased. If I incite my power, I can use this as a node to open an interspatial door.”
“Where does the door lead to once it’s opened?” The big yellow dog wagged its tail excitedly.
“If I open it here, we’ll likely return to the endless space,” Ou Yangming answered after some thought, then he asked Big Yellow with a smile, “Do you want to give it a go”
Big Yellow immediately stopped wagging its tail. It subconsciously tucked its tail between its legs and shook its head. “No! There’s no need to!”
Traveling with a node would indeed be something worth writing a great deal about, but if they were to return to the dark and lifeless place through the node, they would not be able to stand it.
“We can find a place to test it out,” Ou Yangming suggested after some time and added with bright eyes, “This node is a bane to every forbidden area.”
Big Yellow’s eyes gleamed, and it shouted eagerly, “Yes, we’ll hunt for treasures! We’ll hunt for treasures since we have every forbidden area’s bane!”
Ou Yangming gained some information from the little red bird because he found the Phoenixes’ treasure map.
Almighty Beings had set up destructive prohibitions around some treasuries that stored items without owners, by which one that tried to barge in would only cause damage to both sides. As such, all would perish together. It would be incredibly difficult to remove those prohibitions, so much so that it would be impossible.
Having said that, there was a feasible shortcut to get rid of the prohibitions. It could be done through interspatial power.
If one could avoid the prohibitions and access the spaces inside and outside of a treasury, would that not mean that one could give and take anything one wanted?
Of course, it would be difficult to achieve that because the treasury’s owner would definitely be well-prepared. If something were to go wrong, the worst outcome would still happen.
However, what if one accessed the spaces through a node?
As far as Ou Yangming could remember… No, based on the Phoenixes’ memories inside the little red bird’s spiritual world, there seemed to be no such thing as active nodes.
If Ou Yangming was not holding the bamboo and did not sense that the space it was in was a node, he would not have believed that this could happen to him.
Ou Yangming glanced at Big Yellow and responded snappily, “If we’re going to hunt for treasures, we’ll at least have to know where the treasures are, right? Let me observe and consider this thoroughly first. Don’t cause any more troubles.” He scoffed.
Big Yellow was extremely displeased with Ou Yangming’s response, but it also understood that it could not fiddle with the item.
It was content about finding the spiritual item through its instinct. As for what exactly the item was and the wonderful effects it had, they were beyond the big yellow dog’s considerations.
Just as Ou Yangming was fidgeting with the long bamboo in his hand, his face changed abruptly, and he turned to look into the distance.
Over there, an enormous and evil aura was quickly approaching them. It was menacing and appalling.
Ou Yangming shook his wrist and instantly kept the candle-like bamboo into his Long Feather Band. Of course, instead of the space where the lazy turtle was in, he stored the bamboo in the band where the massive aerolite was in.
Following that, he turned around and retrieved his suit that comprised magic tools as fast as he could to face the enemy.
Big Yellow sensed the evil intent from the aura too. It opened its mouth to spit out its battle suit, then it quickly put it on.
They had kept the pieces of the Thunderbolt-resist Equipment that they wore earlier. After all, those pieces of equipment were the best tools to use against the Heavenly Disaster, but they would be abused if they used them against an enemy.
“Roar…”
An earth-shattering roar was heard as a humongous figure descended from the sky and landed somewhere in front of Ou Yangming and Big Yellow.
It was a leopard, which was a spirit beast with an immensely fearsome aura.
While its aura was not as frightening as that of Multi-armed King Kong, it was not inferior to the goshawk’s.
The spirit leopard was more than twice as big as Big Yellow. It seemed as though formidable spirit beasts in the Spiritual World were much larger. In terms of this, the big yellow dog looked like it was inherently weak because it grew up in the lower realm.
Instead of attacking right away, the spirit leopard scanned Ou Yangming and Big Yellow with its sharp eyes as soon as it appeared.
In particular, its eyes glowed when it noticed the suit on Big Yellow’s body.
Big Yellow took a step forward to the side of Ou Yangming. It could tell from the disparity between its aura and the leopard’s that it would not be a match for its enemy. Even with the help of its magic skill tools, the big yellow dog felt like it could not defeat the spirit leopard.
Despite that, Big Yellow was not alone. With Ou Yangming beside it, it bared its teeth and let out threatening growls to not show a weak impression.
‘Do you want a 1v2, or a 2v1?
‘A 1v2 means that you’ll be fighting against the 2 of us!
‘If it’s a 2v1, the 2 of us will be going against you!’
Ou Yangming twitched his mouth and thought, ‘What a foolish dog…’
He reached out to press the big yellow dog’s head to block the ferocious look in its eyes. Subsequently, he nodded at the spirit leopard and said, “I’m Ou Yangming from the Humans, and you are…”
Since the spirit leopard did not attack them as soon as it appeared, it meant that there was room for discussion.
It was Ou Yangming’s first time at such a noble place, hence he did not want to fight anyone or anything due to some confusion. At the very least, he would figure out what was going on before he fought.
The spirit leopard withdrew its intimidating look, then it replied to the young fellow in an unwelcoming voice, “I’m Silver Ridge. Why have you entered my territory, fellow friends?”
Ou Yangming was stunned. He looked around and could not help but smile bitterly.
He initially thought this was an inhabited place, thus he did not expect a powerful spirit beast to be hiding here.
“Woof!”
Big Yellow barked as it was displeased. “Your aura was nearly non-existent, so who are you trying to fool by saying that this is your territory?”
Silver Ridge answered with a hostile look on its face, “This entire forest’s in the Silver Ridge’s boundary. Though it’s at the border, it’s still my territory.”
The big yellow dog was about to refute when Ou Yangming waved his hand and spoke, “I see, so we were the ones that offended you. We’ll be leaving now, so please forgive us, Your Excellency.”
Silver Ridge glanced at the scattered pieces of the big tree and uttered, “You may leave, but only if you return the treasure you found!”
The atmosphere became tense and dangerous at once.