Ou Yangming looked at Silver Ridge and said, "Your Excellency, you must be mistaken; we didn't find any treasure."

The Silver Ridge Giant Leopard sneered. "Did you really not take what was inside the tree?"

'Was the spiritual item—the long bamboo—guarded by this giant leopard?' Ou Yangming was secretly surprised, but he came to a sudden realization when he saw the cunning look in the leopard's eyes.

If the giant leopard was guarding the item, how could it be far away? Besides, there were no hints of its aura nearby, which was evident that it never came to this area. If Ou Yangming and Big Yellow had not exposed their auras, the leopard could not have been drawn here.

Ou Yangming grinned and answered, "We were exchanging blows here for fun, but the big tree suffered a miserable fate when we were too immersed in our fight. As for its pith, I decided to keep it because it looks interesting. Hehe, you're not going to ask us for compensation, are you?"

Big Yellow still looked menacing as it widened its eyes behind Ou Yangming. Even so, it mumbled to itself, 'The leopard probably won't believe you even if you make up a brilliant story. Instead of wasting your time, let's just fight it.'

Sure enough, the Silver Ridge Giant Leopard roared and remarked, "How dare a tiny human like you lie to you? You should be punished…" It opened its mouth and spat out an ice arrow.

The ice arrow carried an intense chillness, causing the temperature around it to lower the instant it appeared.

Nonetheless, the ice arrow was not shot out; it was floating above Yin Lin's head. The spirit leopard stared at Ou Yangming and Big Yellow as it uttered, "I'll give you another chance. Where…"

"Boom…"

Before the leopard could finish its sentence, a powerful energy fluctuation emerged from the ground beneath it. An enormous stone awl surfaced and was after its abdomen.

Big Yellow made quite an exaggerated response as it struck first. In fact, it went all-out without showing any mercy.

After all, it would be courting death if it showed mercy to an evenly-matched enemy that it encountered in the wild.

The Silver Ridge Giant Leopard stopped talking, but it reacted very quickly and rolled to the side as though it transferred into a strong wind. At the same time, it shot its ice arrow at Ou Yangming.

Although Big Yellow was the one that sneaked an attack on it, its target was Ou Yangming.

A spirit beast's combat power was remarkable, but one would likely be at a loss one tried to smith pieces of equipment. On the other hand, pieces of equipment smithed by the Humans were not only great and practical, but they could also be provided to beasts.

The Silver Ridge Giant Leopard could tell from Ou Yangming and Big Yellow's armors who the master was.

Faced with the whistling ice arrow, Ou Yangming simply sneered. Even though he did not want to fight the leopard, he was not afraid when a fight broke out.

Since he could achieve greatness in the lower realm, he would not flinch in the Spiritual Realm.

As he shook his wrist, his shield tilted to block the ice arrow's path.

Protected by the shield, no matter how forceful the ice arrow was, Ou Yangming believed that it could not hurt him. After all, his shield was more than just a magic tool; it was attached with a skill, which would be activated if it faced irresistible powers. The Silver Ridge Giant Leopard was outstanding among spirit beasts, but it would not be able to destroy the young fellow's shield with an ice arrow.

"Woosh…"

The ice arrow zoomed toward Ou Yangming, but he got into position and was ready for the attack.

This would be their first exchange of blows, and he wanted to test the gigantic leopard's power too.

Just as the ice arrow almost hit his shield, it suddenly flashed and left a wonderful afterimage in the air, then it went to his side to stab him.

Ou Yangming widened his eyes.

'A turn?

'An ice arrow that turns…'

This was the only thought that crossed his mind at that instant.

Wu Hanning was also adept in ice-mastery spells, and she never held back in front of Ou Yangming. Therefore, the young fellow had a similar Skill Rune in his sea of consciousness, where he could also release ice arrows if he utilized the rune.

Nevertheless, whether it was ice arrows or runes, he never came across anything that could turn halfway.

Even Multi-armed King Kong and the goshawk never displayed anything similar.

Ordinary cultivators would definitely suffer small losses if they encountered the unforeseen change, but Ou Yangming's states of the integration of Heaven and man, as well as the thoroughly meticulous, came into play at this moment.

His mental power increased, and time seemed to have slowed down.

With a flash of thought, an intense yellow light emerged from Ou Yangming's body.

It was the Indestructible Defense, which was Big Yellow's natural ability. It had long been attached to Ou Yangming's armor, and he stimulated the skill without any hesitation.

Due to the light, the ice arrow's speed and momentum declined. Though it managed to get past Ou Yangming's line of defense and stabbed his armor, that was all to its threat because it completely drowned in the yellow light.

Ou Yangming evaded the unforeseen attack, but he became extremely alert.

Given that an insignificant ice arrow could change so unbelievably, how many more abilities did the Silver Ridge Giant Leopard have?

The spirit leopard was humongous, but it was incredibly nimble. While being continuously attacked by Big Yellow, it jumped with ease to dodge the sudden attacks from the ground.

In terms of power only, the damages from the stone awls were probably greater than that of the ice arrow. Having said that, Big Yellow only controlled the stone awls in one way, which was much more childish as compared to the Silver Ridge Giant Leopard. As such, the stone awls did not give the spirit leopard too much trouble.

"Is that all you've got? A domestic spirit beast without its wild nature basically doesn't have a future at all!" The Silver Ridge Giant Leopard sneered after a brief moment, and it widened its mouth in mid-air to release ice arrows continuously until there were 100 of them. As it roared, the ice arrows were shot at Ou Yangming and Big Yellow.

Ou Yangming sighed and smiled at the big yellow dog. "Big Yellow, we're being underestimated."

Big Yellow barked as if it was responding to him, but unusual lusters could be seen in its eyes.

Ou Yangming chuckled and reached out his hand to quickly make strokes in front of him.

The Indestructible Defense, the Bones of Steel Art, the Air Wall Defense…

Almost in an instant, defensive runes appeared one after another around Ou Yangming and Big Yellow.

The runes were not profound secret techniques; Ou Yangming had secretly learned them from the newly-advanced Supreme Great Ancestors from the lower realm.

It was worth noting that the secret techniques did not exist as runes at first, but the marvelous effect was incited when they used various unique abilities. In a way, Ou Yangming had secretly learned the numerous magnificent secret techniques created by the Humans during the last millennium.

While the secret techniques were only basic runes, there were plenty of them.

With that, Ou Yangming and Big Yellow were instantly drowned in peculiar lights. If one looked from afar, it would seem like they were bathing in a multicolored sea of lights, such that even their faces could not be clearly seen.

The Silver Ridge Giant Leopard widened its eyes. The 100 ice arrows danced in the air, each one drawing beautiful tracks in the air.

As long as Ou Yangming and Big Yellow exposed their weak points, the ice arrows would attack them in an unbelievable way and would aim for their flaws until the very end.

However, since the two were completely enveloped by defensive lights, how could there be any weak points?

The spirit leopard had a feeling that if it released the ice arrows, they would be destroyed and would never come back. As for the damage that would be inflicted on its enemies… The more it stared at the intense defensive lights, the more uncertain it was.

It was dispirited and indignant at the same time as it stared at Ou Yangming. 'How exactly did this human caster learn those magic arts? Why does he know so many low-ranked defensive spells?

'Is he a unique caster groomed by an influential family? But even if that's the case, based on his capability, he couldn't have grasped so many different spells, can he?'

While the leopard was looking at Ou Yangming and Big Yellow and was deep in its thoughts, it did not realize that it had accidentally jumped to the center of those emerging stone awls.

Ou Yangming's eyes lit up. He turned his wrist and generously released lights on Big Yellow.

The Berserk Art, the Great Force Art, the Vigorous Art…

Over 10 assistive spells were attached to Big Yellow's body in an instant, causing its Qi and blood to surge, and its spiritual power circulated so much that it was going to explode.

Big Yellow curled its mouth and thought, 'Did you underestimate me? Let me show you my true powers.'

Followed by a sudden roar from the big yellow dog, the towering and tough stone awls exploded in the massive leopard's direction.

The Stone Awl Explosion was a spell comprehended by Big Yellow.

Initially, the spell's power was very limited, by which it could not be used to hurt equal-ranked powerhouses. After Ou Yangming used many assistive abilities on the big yellow dog, the mightiness of the Stone Awl Explosion rose to a greater height.

The countless shards from the explosions carried fatal energies, which were so forceful that even the formidable giant leopard felt deeply threatened.

As the leopard shrieked, its skin expanded, making it look as round as an inflated rubber ball.

That said, the ball was soon drowned by numerous shards.