'The Dragon God!'

There was a subtle change in Ou Yangming's expression when he heard the name.

He was familiar with the legendary Dragons because he had witnessed the appearance of the dragon and the phoenix in Lil' Red's spiritual world. It felt like it was just yesterday the young fellow was in awe of what he saw. Besides, the Heavenly Phoenix Fire that he possessed was also an exemplary art of the Phoenixes, which were on par with the Dragons.

In a way, Ou Yangming could even record and reflect the appearance of the dragon and the phoenix because he possessed the Heavenly Phoenix Fire. Therefore, he knew more about the Dragons than most people.

'But this shield was actually refined by an Almighty Being from the Dragons by using a Black Turtle's carapace?'

Ou Yangming could not help but feel dubious after he heard about it. Even so, if it was true, it could explain why the round shield's outer shell did not fear even his Military Fire.

The Heavenly Phoenix Fire was mighty, where it could be used to deal with items of lower ranks effortlessly. Nevertheless, it was inevitable for the fire to suffer a loss against something refined by a powerhouse from the Dragons.

Needless to say, it was not because the Phoenixes were inferior to the Dragons, but because Ou Yangming was not capable enough to fully unleash the Heavenly Phoenix Fire's potential.

If Ou Yangming's Military Fire was a lighter, it could be easily used against an ant. However, if a bucket of water was poured on it, not to mention making a fire, the lighter itself might be damaged.

Ou Yangming took a deep breath, then he hesitated for a while before he asked, "Where did you hear that from?"

Cheng Yuhong answered without any hesitation, "Xu Jia and I were exploring an ancient tomb when we found an ancient manual and found some clues. We searched bit by bit according to the clues and stumbled upon an ancient battlefield, but it had long been found and occupied by our sect. Only after asking around for some time, we managed to locate the round shield."

At this time, Cheng Yuhong was already deep in an illusion, hence he would answer all of Ou Yangming's questions without hiding anything.

Ou Yangming furrowed his eyebrows and raised another question, "Where's the ancient manual?"

"We burnt it."

The young fellow glared at him because petty people like him were the reason lesser ancient manuals were passed down.

Having said that, for all Ou Yangming knew, he might have done the same thing if he was in the elder's shoes.

"What else was recorded in the ancient manual? Tell me everything?"

Sure enough, under the illusion's influence, Cheng Yuhong did not resist at all; he told the young fellow the content of the ancient manual as much as he could.

In actual fact, there was not a clear description in the manual. It was only stated that there was a huge secret behind the round shield, and that one that could unveil it would benefit greatly.

Spiritualists might not be moved if the reward would only be normal, but it was clearly written in the manual that the round shield was smithed from a Black Turtle's carapace by the Dragon God. Putting aside everything else, the Dragon God's identity and a Black Turtle's carapace were enough to move anyone.

Of course, other people might still be doubtful, but Ou Yangming had inspected the shield himself.

If the shield was not related to the Dragon God, how could it block the Heavenly Phoenix Fire?

Despite all that, it was evident that the ancient manual was not left behind by the Dragon God. Much of its content was unclear, and there were more speculations instead of research, thus Ou Yangming was rather disappointed.

Ou Yangming shook his head as he knew he could not get anything else out of the Spiritualist. Once he waved his hand gently, the peculiar aura slowly disappeared.

Cheng Yuhong shook his head hard. He looked dazed, which was obvious that he did not understand what happened earlier. This was the power of an Illusion Formation, one would not notice it at all if one was absolutely suppressed.

For some reason, Cheng Yuhong felt a chill in his heart when he saw Ou Yangming smiling with his eyes squinted, but he flashed a smile and said, "Master Ou, I'd like to discuss something with you."

Ou Yangming chuckled and responded, "Didn't you tell me already?"

"What? I told you already"

"Yes, you said that you want to purchase the round shield that I got, but I rejected you," Ou Yangming answered with a smile.

Cheng Yuhong was dumbfounded for some time. He could not remember telling the young fellow anything like that, but it was true that that was the reason he visited.

Ou Yangming grinned and added, "I don't know what the round shield is, but I'm planning to give it to Yuqi the Venerable One as a gift."

"Ah? You… You're going to present it to Sir Venerable One?" Cheng Yuhong widened his eyes in shock.

They might still be able to get the round shield back if it was with Ou Yangming, but they would not be able to see it anymore if it ended up with Yuqi the Venerable One.

Ou Yangming smiled and nodded. "Yes, Yuqi the Venerable One's quite interested in it, so I'll send it away after I study it for 2 days." He paused for a while before he added, "I promised Sir Venerable One, so there's nothing I can do. That said, you could request to purchase it from Sir Venerable One."

Cheng Yuhong was speechless.

'Requesting something like that from Sir Venerable One?

'It's fine if I die, but I don't want to drag my children and grandchildren into this.'

Following that, Cheng Yuhong sighed and bid his farewell with a bitter face. After hearing that Yuqi the Venerable One was involved, he immediately gave up on wanting to purchase the shield.

Yuqi the Venerable One was a potent being that must not be offended no matter what in the Beast King Sect. Cheng Yuhong and Xu Jia were members of the sect's subsidiary clans, but they would be overestimating themselves if they wanted to compete with the Venerable One.

In fact, they did not even have the right to have an audience with Yuqi the Venerable One on their own.

By using Yuqi the Venerable One's name, Ou Yangming sent Cheng Yuhong away. He believed that both the elder and Xu Jia would remember this well after they heard about it and would not have the guts to ask the Venerable One.

After returning to his room, Ou Yangming hesitated for a brief moment before he retrieved the round shield and the coffin again.

The 2 items somehow stuck close to each other the second they met. Although Ou Yangming exerted all his force, he still could not separate them. For this reason, he even wanted to burn them with his Military Fire.

Nonetheless, now that he was aware of the round shield's origin, he was no longer anxious.

Since it was related to the Dragons, it would only be right for him to study it slowly.

Ou Yangming reached out to touch the round shield and the coffin gently because he wanted to figure out the relationship between them. He eventually slowed down and realized that the connecting point happened to be the notch in the shield's corner. In other words, what was really connected to the coffin was not the shield's outer shell but the real shield inside.

Furthermore, after examining for some time, Ou Yangming was surprised to find that a certain attribute in his sea of consciousness became eager when the round shield and the coffin were in contact for a longer time.

It was the Devouring attribute.

The attribute, which was enveloped by a purple fire, drifted slightly as though it was calling out to him.

Ou Yangming was not a pedant. Even though he could not tell what the Devouring attribute's role was here, since the attribute was restless, he would not stint on giving it a chance.

With a flash of thought, the Devouring attribute flowed out and was attached to a Fine Grade magic tool by Ou Yangming.

The young fellow had grasped the trick and became familiar with smithing Fine Grade magic tools, so it was also a piece of cake for him to attach an attribute to one.

"Ding…"

Ou Yangming jabbed the dagger forward and touched the connecting point between the coffin and the round shield.

Next, an unusual change occurred.

Unimaginably enormous power was transferred through the dagger.

The power was incredibly odd as it did not impact Ou Yangming's body but was directly reflected in his spiritual world.

A weird creature appeared in his sea of consciousness out of the blue. It looked like it did not have a body, where it only had a giant skull, as well as an abnormally strange and fearsome mouth.

As Ou Yangming stared at it, its mouth slowly opened and released a frightening suction as if it was going to swallow the whole universe.

"Pow…"

Ou Yangming turned pale at once. The dagger in his hand fell to the ground as he lost his grip on it.

One suck—one suck from the creature's mouth was all it took for Ou Yangming to realize that his mental power, which had reached an Intermediate Spiritualist's standard, had been depleted. The creature's mouth contained an unbelievable power, which was not something that he could resist at the moment.

Nonetheless, Ou Yangming was quite glad that the giant skull and mouth stopped as his mental power was depleted.

Ou Yangming barely managed to reach out for a jade bottle from one of his interspatial bags, then he consumed all of the immortal liquid inside without any delay. It could not be compared to the concentrated immortal liquid, but it was also a great treasure, which also had a unique effect on recovering one's mental power.

After 15 minutes, Ou Yangming finally calmed down. He smiled bitterly and looked warily at the coffin and the round shield.

Those items had separated at this moment as though the magical power that was nurtured by them had disappeared.

Ou Yangming was the only one that knew the power had not vanished but had entered his sea of consciousness.

His sea of consciousness underwent an intriguing change, where a giant skull could be seen above the runes. It was worth noting that the humongous mouth on the skull was even more horrifying.

The Devouring attribute, which was subdued by Ou Yangming's Military Fire, was nowhere to be seen because it had assimilated into the queer skull.

By now, even a fool would know that the skull was related to the Sky-devouring Devil God.

'But isn't this round shield from the Dragons? Why does it have anything to do with the terrifying Devil God?'

Ou Yangming suddenly made an unreliable guess. 'Is the Sky-devouring Devil God, which is said to be the most powerful being according to legend, actually a part of the Dragons?'

As Ou Yangming sensed the mighty yet mysterious skull in his sea of consciousness, he eventually had a weird look on his face.