After leaving the Beast King Sect, Ou Yangming and his companions were no longer restrained.
Bai Zhiyi did them a great favor by not taking back the badges that he gave Ou Yangming and the others. Instead, he let them carry the badges with them. Although the badges only represented their identities as the sect’s outer sect disciples, they would not be obstructed throughout their journey if they showed the badges.
Nonetheless, Ou Yangming and the spirit beasts did not meet up with Xia Zizhen in a hurry.
They found a remote area, where Ou Yangming began to smith all sorts of equipment.
The young fellow had only conveniently smithed pieces of equipment for Fat Antelope when he first entered the Spiritual Realm, but he put in a lot of effort this time.
When 4 equipment sets were finished, Fat Antelope and the Silver Ridge Giant Antelope looked at each other. They could tell from each other’s eyes that they were glad and delighted. Sure enough, they made the right choice by staying by Ou Yangming’s side, and they managed to gain great benefits.
Not to mention low-rank spirit beasts, even for high-rank spirit beasts and even top-grade spirit beasts, the 4 equipment sets would be handy.
Once the pieces of equipment were smithed, Ou Yangming retrieved the antelope’s fur and refined it into a cloak using the cold-and-hot burning method. It was just a shame that even though Fat Antelope had many fur, they could only be refined into a cloak for the young fellow alone.
Ou Yangming’s eyes lit up after he sensed the cloak’s properties. There was a subtle change in his eyes when he gazed at the fat antelope’s bald body.
‘When will this fella’s fur grow again?’
They left the secluded area after everything was well-prepared, then they hastened to Xia Zizhen’s manor.
Xia Zizhen and Poisonous Saber Gentleman were elated upon seeing the arrival of Ou Yangming and his companions. They had been waiting for some time and were afraid that they would one day receive the news of the young fellow joining the Beast King Sect and could not show up anymore.
Therefore, they were relieved when Ou Yangming finally arrived.
In actuality, before obtaining the poisonous saber, they had set their hearts on the matter but were not so anxious.
After receiving the poisonous saber and having a caster’s word, their mentality changed drastically.
Ou Yangming cut to the chase. “Gentlemen, I’m a caster, so I’d like to bring a few helpers along since we’re going to a dangerous place.”
Xia Zizhen and Poisonous Saber Gentleman looked at the 3 spirit beasts behind him. They smiled and agreed with it right away.
Perhaps they would be slightly concerned if Ou Yangming wanted to bring high-rank spirit beasts along, but they did not attach much importance to the 3 low-rank spirit beasts. Instead, they praised the young fellow’s act because bringing greater forces along meant that he was more set on the matter.
Xia Zizhen gave a few orders, then he left the manor with Ou Yangming.
The secret realm that he and Poisonous Saber Gentleman were talking about was quite a distance away and was almost outside the Beast King Sect’s zone of influence.
Nevertheless, Ou Yangming was happy to be at leisure since his acquaintances were leading the way. He enjoyed the scenery throughout the journey and looked relaxed.
Even so, Big Yellow was the only one that knew Ou Yangming was not as relaxed as he seemed. Given his abilities at the moment, he was far from being able to resist Danzhou’s Nine Great Sects, hence apart from secretly looking into the matter, there was nothing he could do.
Xia Zizhen showed the way and walked for nearly a month before he stopped outside a mountain.
Ou Yangming looked up and noticed that the mountain looked the same as any other ordinary mountain, but he sensed an unusual chillness when he moved closer to it.
Needless to say, the temperature change was obscure. Without distinguishing it on purpose, one would not be able to notice at all.
“Brother Ou, the secret realm’s entrance is hidden inside this mountain. Hehe, can you sense it?” Xia Zizhen asked in a deep voice.
Ou Yangming could not help but laugh. “Are you testing me?”
Xia Zizhen waved his hand and responded, “Brother Ou, you’re kidding me. I was only casually asking.” Having said that, he was looking forward to an answer.
The young fellow was moved. ‘Did Xia Zizhen and Poisonous Saber Gentleman insist on inviting a caster here for another reason?’
He curbed his thoughts and released his mental power.
“Woosh…”
There was instantly an enormous change in his mind as everything in the outside world including the falling leaves seemed to have been imprinted as mirror images.
It was an extremely peculiar change, and it was 100 times clearer than releasing his mental power for probing. This was a unique ability that resulted from the merging of his Military Fire and mental power, and it could be called a spiritual world or a mirror world.
Ou Yangming closed his eyes and quietly sensed everything inside the mirror world.
Over here, he seemed to be an almighty deity, such that he could sense even the slightest and the most unordinary changes.
Xia Zizhen and Poisonous Saber Gentleman exchanged glances. They naturally sensed the difference in the atmosphere around them.
They wondered, ‘Can Ou Yangming really sense the secret realm? If he can, wouldn’t it mean that we’ve found the right person?’
Ou Yangming opened his eyes after a brief moment. Instead of measuring with his eye or questioning the gentlemen, he walked straight in a direction.
Xia Zizhen and Poisonous Saber Gentleman followed closely behind him. They were surprised and overjoyed because they knew by the direction that the young fellow was not deliberately mystifying things. They were elated that the caster was truly skilled, but they were also pressured if their companion was more potent than them.
Before long, Ou Yangming stopped in front of a spot deep in the col.
A dark and hollow cave could be seen here, and a threatening chillness lingered outside. If one were to walk past this spot, one would surely stay away without wanting to get close.
Ou Yangming furrowed his eyebrows and asked, “Were you the ones that set up this poor formation?”
He was not a formation master, but formations were formed by evolving and combining runes. He had learned many combinations for formations from Elder Universe, and he read about them from secret manuals.
Of course, knowing these alone would not make one a formation master but even by having superficial knowledge, one was already better than Xia Zizhen and Poisonous Saber Gentleman.
Xia Zizhen flushed and replied to the young fellow embarrassedly, “Hehe, we were the ones that set it up. It’s a formation map that we purchased, and we set it up here to prevent wild beasts from accidentally intruding into the place.”
Ou Yangming turned around and noted, “I wouldn’t be interested in a cave that can be found everywhere if I walk past this area, but I might be intrigued if an average formation map is set up here.”
The faces of Xia Zizhen and Poisonous Saber Gentleman changed. The latter expressed after some thought, “Master Ou, it’s unlikely for casters like you to come to this barren hill.”
“I’m only speaking my mind; I don’t mean to blame you at all.” Ou Yangming shrugged and smiled. He then took a step back and said, “Since you’re the ones that set this up, please withdraw it.”
As said earlier, this was the simplest formation map that could be found, thus even Ou Yangming, who only had little knowledge of formations, was not afraid of it at all. Despite that, he could not get past it without damaging or alarming it.
Xia Zizhen quickly went forward and crossed the formation according to specific steps, then he retrieved the formation board.
Ou Yangming was deep in thoughts as he watched Xia Zizhen’s movements.
‘If those steps can prevent the formation map from attacking a person, how exactly was it set up?’
He hesitated for a while before he asked with a smile, “Brother Xia, could you give the formation board to me as a gift?”
Xia Zizhen was startled. His heart ached, but he still answered cheerfully, “Of course.” As he handed the formation board to Ou Yangming in a heroic spirit, he secretly sighed and thought, ‘There goes my 1,000 spirit ores.’
Those were 1,000 spirit ores, which was not a small amount for him.
Ou Yangming touched the formation board and enveloped it with his mental power.
Since the formation board was not activated yet, there were no consequences when Ou Yangming touched it. However, when his mental power penetrated the item bit by bit, its secrets were exposed in his spiritual world.
The formation board was formed by assembling 5 Rune Combinations.
Ou Yangming was in awe of formation masters upon seeing this.
He needed to attempt countless times to build a Dual Skill Rune, so much so that he would die from exhaustion for the numerous experiments.
On the other hand, formation masters might seem mediocre, but they could suddenly impress by making 5 Rune Combinations just like that…
Moreover, the 5 Rune Combinations were not separated as they were connected through a mysterious technique. Ou Yangming could not find the start and the end even when he observed closely.
The young fellow found it incredibly odd because the technique was much more notable than the Spirit-gathering Formation casually set up by Elder Universe in the past.
Could this be the strength of formation masters in the Spiritual Realm?
In actual fact, Ou Yangming overestimated formation masters because he had never met one.
There were many more runes in a formation board than in a piece of equipment, but the former was not the latter and could not be used to increase one’s strength. Besides, advance preparations must be made for one to release a formation board’s power.
If a formation master was asked to fight a martial artist in a situation where formations were not set up, one would be beaten up in the blink of an eye.
Ou Yangming fiddled with the formation board in his hand. While analyzing and understanding it in his spiritual realm, he followed Xia Zizhen into the cave entrance.
The cave entrance was not massive, but they did not feel constrained when they walked inside. Due to the fact that the cave was exceptionally deep, they arrived at their destination only after half an hour. According to Ou Yangming’s estimation, they had reached the bottom of the mountain.
All of a sudden, Ou Yangming’s eyelids twitched because Xia Zizhen, who had been walking in front of him, disappeared, and a ripple could be seen in the space where he vanished.
He turned to look at Poisonous Saber Gentleman, who nodded hard at him.
Following that, Ou Yangming chuckled and advanced with Big Yellow and the others into the secret realm.