'5 days!'

Ou Yangming's eyelids could not help but twitch hard. He initially thought that he had not spent too much time exploring his Military Fire's origin; it felt like it had only been an hour or two at most. Who knew, 5 days passed just like that after he shut his eyes.

He smiled bitterly and thought, 'No wonder I felt like my mental power was consumed so quickly and is almost depleted in the blink of an eye. It turned out that time passed so differently when I was in the midst of an exploration.'

The young fellow later nodded at Fat Antelope. He could not help but laugh when he saw its bald body.

He had shaved all of the antelope's wool to refine cloaks. Although it would grow again after some time, the antelope's appearance was quite a ghastly sight indeed at this moment.

"Uhm, Brother Antelope, your wool… Grows quite slowly." Ou Yangming chuckled while having an ill intention.

The cloak was too useful, hence he was waiting to harvest the next batch of Fat Antelope's wool when it would be ready again.

Fat Antelope shuddered. It always felt that Ou Yangming was harboring bad intentions toward it.

"Master," the face on the tree wall spoke all of a sudden, "If you're worried about the insect Venerable One, how about you stay here for the time being? Heh, even if it finds the secret realm's entrance, I'll guarantee that it won't be able to leave."

The eyes of Fat Antelope and the Silver Ridge Giant Leopard lit up when they heard how overbearing the Wutong Tree sounded. Even Big Yellow nodded and agreed to the suggestion.

Ou Yangming and Big Yellow went all-out to go against the Twelve Walkers this time. They had fruitful victories, but those were all sneak attacks, and they never fought their enemies head-on.

High-rank spirit beasts were already so difficult to deal with, so Big Yellow could not imagine the outcome if they were up against a Venerable One. Therefore, it agreed with the idea of Ou Yangming staying inside the secret realm.

'If I stay here, I won't need to worry about Ghost-clawed Venerable One indeed,' Ou Yangming thought.

Based on the Wutong Tree's strength, even if it could not defeat Ghost-clawed Venerable One, it could at least protect itself.

Nonetheless, Ou Yangming's biggest concern at the moment was not Ghost-clawed Venerable One, but the fearsome feeling inside his heart.

After pondering for a long time, he shook his head firmly and said, "No, I must go outside."

He had a feeling that even if he stayed inside this secret realm, he would not be able to hide from the incoming frightening being.

Needless to say, while the being was terrifying, the fire inside him did not sense any evil intention. Instead, it was cheerful and looked forward to the being's arrival. If not, the young fellow would have thought of escaping instead of simply leaving the secret realm.

Big Yellow and the others looked at each other. They were naturally unaware of Ou Yangming's concern but since he made his decision, none of them could disobey him.

The Wutong Tree hesitated for a while, then a rattan appeared from afar out of the blue. It was seen coiling around a sprouting branch.

"Master, this is a Substitution Branch that I cultivated. Take it with you as it can shift your injuries. As long as this branch is alive, you won't have to worry about your life."

Ou Yangming was slightly stunned. He touched his waist sash and removed it.

There was also a Unique Attribute for substitution on the waist sash.

The Wutong Tree glanced at it and commented with a smile, "Master, your waist sash's material's too poor. You can make do with it if you're not a Spiritualist but now…"

Ou Yangming nodded. The Wutong Tree had a brilliant eye. As he became more capable, the waist sash's properties became less valuable to him. In particular, he dared not use the Substitution Power once he entered the Spiritual Realm.

This was because he knew there would only be one outcome if he used it, by which the gem would shatter but his injuries would remain.

Nevertheless, the situation was completely different now that the Wutong Tree gave him a Substitution Branch.

Ou Yangming pondered for a brief moment, then he shook his hand slightly. A powerful flame emerged from his hand at that instant, and it enveloped the Substitution Branch.

The face on the tree wall widened its eyes right away, and it stared at the flame with a yearning look. Having said that, it knew that the bit of fire was insignificant toward its enormous body.

If it wanted to receive a mighty fire from Ou Yangming, it would have to wait for him to grow slowly.

Other living beings might not be willing to wait, but the Wutong Tree had lived for countless years. It was a period that had "10,000" as its unit, thus the tree was not anxious at all.

After all, it had waited for such a long time, so it would not be a big deal for it to wait several 1,000 years more.

Ou Yangming's fire grew larger, but his face changed.

Earlier when he meditated, he consumed plenty of mental power to explore his fire's origin, so he almost could not hold out anymore. The young fellow retrieved a jade bottle from his interspatial bag without any hesitation and poured the immortal liquid inside into his mouth.

As several drops of the immortal liquid entered his stomach, they turned into a surging warm current that recovered his mental power a little.

It was actually extremely extravagant and wasteful to use an immortal liquid as a drug to compensate one's mental power. Moreover, it would also not yield the best effect. Especially if this was compared to the Devouring attribute's efficacy, it was much less effective.

Even so, Ou Yangming did not have other options at this time.

However, the face on the tree wall raised its eyebrow and extended one of its branches toward Ou Yangming.

The tip of the branch moved down slightly and went straight into the jade bottle. The immortal liquid inside the bottle had been finished by Ou Yangming in one mouth but next, a clear stream appeared on top of the branch, and it dripped into the bottle to make it just full.

There were tens of drips from the clear stream. Judging from the branch, it definitely could have provided more if the jade bottle was not so small.

Ou Yangming was dumbfounded. He glanced at the tree wall and wondered, 'How could I forget about this old fella?'

The big lazy turtle accumulated the immortal liquid from spiritual flowers and herbs but in terms of the flowers and herbs, what could be mentioned on equal terms with the old fellow in front of him?

It probably had a good deal of such an immortal liquid. Even if the big lazy turtle squeezed the spiritual flowers and herbs dry, it would not be able to harvest one in ten-thousandth of what the Wutong Tree could.

When Ou Yangming sniffed the liquid, he was surprised to find that it was odorless.

An immortal liquid was incredibly precious, and it had a strong fragrance that would make one feel refreshed if one picked up its smell.

Why was the immortal liquid given by the Wutong Tree so different?

The young fellow hesitated for a while, but he finally tilted the jade bottle and poured a drop of it into his mouth.

As soon as the drop of immortal liquid entered his mouth, it spread and disappeared before he could even taste it.

Ou Yangming blinked as he was puzzled. 'This thing… Doesn't seem to be useful at all.'

That said, his face changed at the next instant. This was because he realized that his nearly-depleted mental power suddenly became as abundant as gushing spring.

1 drop.

Only 1 drop of the Wutong Tree's immortal liquid was needed to let him fully recover his mental power. In fact, the power was recovered to its peak state.

As calm as Ou Yangming was, he was tremendously shocked.

The drop of immortal liquid was even more effective than the concentrated immortal liquid. Perhaps only the Devouring attributes could be on par with it.

Despite that, the Devouring attributes had a shortcoming, after all, so even Ou Yangming dared not use it without any restraint for a long time. On the other hand, there would be no problem for him to consume immortal liquids as they had no side effects on one's body.

Ou Yangming looked deeply at the Wutong Tree. The old fellow had only shown another one of its abilities, but he already regarded it with special respect.

As Ou Yangming curbed his thought, the fire in his hand finally boiled. He began to use his mental power without holding back.

The branch slowly softened and flattened after a brief moment, and it finally became a waist sash. Nonetheless, waist sashes that were made using a Wutong Tree's branch were exceptionally rare in the world.

Ou Yangming was not satisfied yet after he did a basic refinement of the waist sash. He pondered for a while then retrieved many Power Ores and Agility Ores.

These were considered ordinary ores in the Spiritual Realm. He added a bunch of them into his storage before he left the Beast King Sect, but he was going to use them at this moment.

With that, Power Ores and Agility Ores were tossed into the Military Fire one after another, causing the equipment's luster to become brighter. At last, 2 White Silver Lights to be seen. Yes, those were 2 White Silver Lights, which represented that the waist sash had 2 different White Silver Attributes.

In actual fact, White Silver Attributes were notable, but a piece of equipment must also meet high requirements.

As remarkable as a magic tool was, one could normally be attached with 1 White Silver Attributes. If 2 of such attributes were to be bound to a piece of equipment, even if a blacksmith was capable of doing it, the equipment might not be able to withstand the process.

Nevertheless, when Ou Yangming took the Wutong Tree's branch, he sensed a significant life force and unparalleled endurance.

He decided to make an attempt and sure enough, the 2 dissimilar White Silver Attributes would not burden the material at all. Furthermore, they were promising materials for the equipment.

Ou Yangming's Military Fire continued to flicker, causing peculiar veined patterns to surface on the equipment.

The Wutong Tree's branch was immensely tough, such that the Heavenly Phoenix Fire was probably the only thing that could change extrinsic and intrinsic properties.

Even if a blacksmith was 10 times more skillful than Ou Yangming, one would not be able to modify the material as one wished.

After a long time, Ou Yangming curbed his fire and completed the waist sash.

[Item: Substitution Waist Sash]

[Equivalent Rank: Magic Tool, High Grade, Rank One]

[Attributes: Toughness +31, Power +1 (White Silver), Agility +1 (White Silver), Durability 31]

[Skills, Substitution (Substitute injuries), Illusion Formation]