The depths of the dense forest was indeed fearsome and full of danger.

Nonetheless, after getting past the area occupied by the bee colony, Ou Yangming and his companions did not encounter greater disasters.

After all, encounters in the forest depended on probabilities.

From the beginning of their journey, they had stumbled upon a group of Long-armed Devil Apes, a pack of giant wolves, and a colony of poisonous bees. It was evident that they were not in good luck.

Needless to say, they came across some dangers in the next few days too, but the troubles were not worth mentioning when compared to their bad luck before that.

On this day, just as Ou Yangming continued to scout ahead, He Liangce approached him out of the blue. "Brother Ou, we're almost there."

Ou Yangming deeply admired He Liangce's fantastic ability to identify directions, hence he did not doubt the statement, and his eyes lit up instead.

The rare bamboo was the best material to smith a spear handle, and Ou Yangming was not only planning to smith one for Chen Yifan.

Therefore, his heart skipped a beat when he knew they would soon arrive at the strange bamboo forest.

"Brother He, the great ancestors warned us about a half-spirit beast here. If it's true, please stall it for us while we quickly retrieve some bamboo," Ou Yangming requested.

"Okay." He Liangce smiled, but he suddenly asked, "Brother Ou, are you interested in fighting the enemy together?"

Ou Yangming chuckled and responded, "I won't miss it if I could, but I'm afraid…"

He Liangce quickly said, "If you have insufficient power, it'll be a different matter."

They nodded at each other and reached a consensus through the short conversation.

Nevertheless, they did not have high expectations.

Ni Jingshen was only at the peak of Yang Grade when he faced the half-spirit beast, but many years had passed since, and the elder had already become a Supreme Great Ancestor. Would the half-spirit beast remain at the same spot?

Ou Yangming and his companions gathered and advanced slowly. He was observant and alert. His vigilance was at its peak because he would be courting death if he did not gather his energy at this moment.

At last, there was a huge change in the environment in front of them.

It was still a part of the dense forest, but the trees in the area ahead seemed to be spiritless. Even the lush big trees looked sick, as though they did not grow well.

Ou Yangming wandered his eyes about and was confused.

On the other hand, He Liangce remarked, "Those peculiar bamboos are powerful indeed to be able to steal nutrition from nearby plants for their own. Heh, they even have a sense of propriety by not stealing excessively. This small but steady method is almost supernatural."

Ou Yangming nodded, and he became even more intrigued by the bamboo.

Despite that, even after going around the area, they did not notice the odd bamboos at all. If it was not because of bizarre plants around them, they would suspect they were on the wrong path.

The three of them looked at each other and were at a loss.

Ni Yinghong suggested after some thought, "Lil' Ming, try using your mental power to sense it. Master once said that the weird plants don't belong to our world, so they can't be easily identified through the naked eye, but they can occasionally be sensed through mental power."

In actual fact, she had a certain amount of mental power too, but there was a huge disparity between hers and Ou Yangming's.

Ou Yangming nodded and curbed his thoughts before he focused on the point between his eyebrows.

Next, the whole world seemed to have undergone a wonderful yet unconventional change through Ou Yangming's eyes.

It was the mysterious state of a mountain that was not a mountain and water that was not water after the integration of Heaven and man and the thoroughly meticulous state. Under the state, he not only saw the surfaces of substances, but he was also prying into the world's origin and truth.

Of course, based on Ou Yangming's cultivation base at the moment, he was still unable to see through something at first glance.

Even then, the mysteries in this area were plainly visible to him.

Veins.

Yes, Ou Yangming was looking at veins.

Weird lines appeared beneath their legs, each one representing a vein for energy.

Ou Yangming's eyes were glowing with unusual lights. He looked like he was exploring with his eyes, but he was actually tracking with his mental power.

Inside the veins, there were energy flows. The energies were not powerful because they were far from the ones absorbed by Ou Yangming from flesh and blood through the Devouring attributes.

In spite of that, the energy flows in the veins were endless.

Besides, the streams were not one-sided; they interacted with each other. That said, Ou Yangming noticed an imbalance in the interactions.

It was caused by the difference between energies where one side transported a substantial amount of energy while the other side returned only a tenth of the energy given. However, the notable difference was being maintained through an incredibly queer method.

Ou Yangming furrowed his eyebrows a little because he understood what was going on in the veins.

It was stealing—an out-and-out robbery.

'But if this goes on, the plants that are being robbed would've died long ago instead of being half-dead.'

Struck with an idea, Ou Yangming focused again to identify one of the veins' location, then he began digging with his military saber.

He Liangce and Ni Yinghong were bewildered, but they knew Ou Yangming must have noticed something to be acting like that.

Once Ou Yangming pulled out his military saber from the ground, he took out some roots.

Ou Yangming exhaled deeply and curbed his mental power. When he paid attention to the roots in his hand, he could not help but look surprised.

The roots belonged to not one, but two plant species. One of them was negligible whereas the other one was clearly different from normal plants. In fact, the special root shone in rare gold luster in his hand.

"Hey, that… A spiritual root!" He Liangce exclaimed.

"What are the uses of spiritual roots?" Ou Yangming was moved.

"Spiritual roots have endless magical effects. It can be used for pill refinement or the smithing of pieces of high-level equipment," He Liangce answered seriously and asked Ou Yangming, "Brother Ou, how did you notice it?"

Ou Yangming giggled and pointed at his eyes. "I saw it."

He could confirm that He Liangce could not notice the spiritual roots.

Moreover, he was sure that the spiritual roots were the uncommon bamboo's root system. When the bamboo stole energy from plants around them, it also gave back a part of its energy to the plants.

Although it only gave back a tenth of what was given to it, its energy was of a higher level, which was why the plants around it did not die.

It was a high-level theft or survival method, and Ou Yangming was in awe.

After a moment of hesitation, instead of questioning Ou Yangming, He Liangce cut to the chase. "Brother Ou, since you can spot the spiritual roots, can you see the strange bamboo?"

Ou Yangming nodded and expressed, "Come with me."

By releasing his mental power once more, he instantly found the veins' direction of flow and followed it.

Before long, they arrived in front of some shrubs.

Ou Yangming stopped and said with an uncanny look on his face. "They're inside."

He Liangce and Ni Yinghong were speechless because they had come here earlier, but they left because they did not find anything. They did not expect the mystifying bamboo to be hidden in the shrubs.

It was worth noting that the shrubs were quite untypical too because they were more than 3.6 meters tall.

Nonetheless, there were numerous weird and rare beings in this dense forest and many of them were ten times more abnormal than the shrubs. Ou Yangming and his companions only studied the shrubs for a short while because none of them wanted to get to the bottom of it.

Ou Yangming drew out his military saber and sighed. "I'll do it."

He moved his wrist and swung his saber at the speed of light like a cutting machine. With that, half of the shrubs in front of them were cut in a flash.

At the next instant, he changed his saber's momentum upward and slashed with an unexpected angle.

He Liangce's eyes glowed. "Eureka!"

Sure enough, a black bamboo was revealed at the spot where Ou Yangming had avoided on purpose. The bamboo grew amid the shrubs.

Ou Yangming bent over and cut faster with his military saber.

When the bamboo's roots were finally exposed, his eyes turned bright and he slashed with his saber.

The bamboo's bottom section snapped. Following that, Ou Yangming reached out to exert force on the broken part to pull it out.

It was a bamboo that was around 3.6 meters long. Even though its bamboo joint at the top was still present, it was tiny. Furthermore, the bamboo was peculiar because both of its ends were of the same thickness. If it was not because one of them had an obvious crack, it was hard to identify which one of them was the root.

Ou Yangming said, "The great ancestors said the bamboo isn't tough at first, but it'll quickly harden after it's chopped off; it'll turn into an indestructible material in an hour."

As he explained, he retrieved a spear tip, which he had prepared in advance, and embedded it in one of the bamboo's ends.

Subsequently, his Military Fire was vaguely seen.

It was then that Ou Yangming halted abruptly. He looked up and focused on the dark area ahead.

His muscles tightened, and he was also having goosebumps.

On top of that, Ou Yangming subconsciously released a rich aura. Almost at the same time, He Liangce's face changed as well. His robe fluttered as if the wind was constantly blowing at it.

"That fella's here."