Ou Yangming came to a sudden realization when he noticed the bitter and furious looks in the big yellow dog's eyes.

He slapped his forehead and blamed himself for the mistake. Earlier on, he was muddle-headed after being mentally attacked by the powerful Black Magic Crawler through a strange method, hence he forgot about the big yellow dog's identity.

'The fella's valiant and has mighty combat power, but it's not a human. It's just a big yellow dog.

'No matter how nimble it is, it is born with paws that aren't able to hold weapons used by humans.'

"Endure it," Ou Yangming uttered and gritted his teeth when he saw the big yellow dog being covered in blood. Following that, the Military Fire flashed in his hand as he withdrew the Devouring attributes from his military saber, then he stabbed the big yellow dog with the saber.

The big yellow dog turned a blind eye to the saber, but it was already clenching its teeth.

When Ou Yangming turned his saber slightly, part of the dog's flesh and blood flew out with a mouthpart that was rooted inside.

Ou Yangming worked at the speed of light and dug out all the mouthparts in the big yellow dog's body in a flash. Nonetheless, the dog was already powerless due to the immense pain, so much so that it could only roll its eyes.

After looking at the mouthparts, Ou Yangming immediately realized that something was odd about them, or the big yellow dog—a half-spirit beast—would not seem so weak.

The more he understood, the more grateful he was toward the yellow dog.

Ou Yangming retrieved the Incised Wound Medicine that he brought to bandage the big yellow dog's wounds.

He said to the dog, which looked distraught due to the pain and seemed like it would pass out at any time, "Big Yellow, don't worry, I'll definitely return you a perfect body, but you mustn't sleep now or I can't go on."

All of a sudden, intense gnawing sounds were heard outside the cave.

The big yellow dog's face changed, and it tried its best to crane its neck to look outside.

Ou Yangming chuckled and assured, "Big Yellow, don't worry, I've checked earlier and noticed that the stones here are exceptionally tough. With their mouthparts alone, not that I'm belittling them, they can't peck through even if they gnaw for ten years."

In actual fact, the stones that were piled up by Ou Yangming in a hurry were unreliable.

If an Extreme Grade powerhouse or a man with brute force was present, one could easily make an opening by hammering the stones with a giant hammer.

On the other hand, the Black Magic Crawlers were great in numbers and had powerful mouthparts, but their strength… Even an ordinary person could throw them out to the street effortlessly.

Sure enough, Ou Yangming's observation under the thoroughly meticulous state was accurate.

He had grasped the Black Magic Crawlers' weakness and knew that they could not do anything to the cave for the time being.

The big yellow dog cast a strange glance at Ou Yangming.

It meant to ask what difference it would make even if the Black Magic Crawlers could not enter the cave; they were still trapped inside.

Ou Yangming giggled. "I have an idea, and we can give it a shot."

Subsequently, he turned to pick up a stone.

The stones inside varied in sizes, but they shared a common feature; their toughness was unbelievable. In fact, featured steel would be inferior to the stones.

Ou Yangming inhaled deeply and said, 'Hopefully, everything goes well.'

By using his mind, he released the Military Fire to burn the stone.

Ou Yangming's forehead was already covered in beads of sweat after a brief moment. As expected, the stone's toughness was beyond his expectations. However, not only was he going to melt the thin layer on its surface, but he also wanted to reshape the stone as he wished, so the difficulty increased by a huge margin.

The Military Fire successfully burned the surface layer, but when it tried to go deeper, the process exceeded Ou Yangming's ability.

If Ou Yangming's mental power was at its peak at the moment, he could at least refine the stone slowly to melt it, but he could not endure it any longer as he had just gone through a big fight.

Suddenly, the purple light in Ou Yangming's mind was released.

Therefore, a purple hue was seen in the burning Military Fire.

When the hue appeared, the stone in Ou Yangming's hand melted right away as though it had turned into butter.

Ou Yangming was overjoyed, and he quickly made the adjustments. Before long, a strange piece of equipment that was similar to a gauntlet was produced.

He nodded with satisfaction when he studied it for some time.

[Item: Extraordinary paw gauntlet (Red)]

[Equivalent Rank: Ordinary Tool, Fine Grade, Rank Five]

[Attributes: Sharpness +20, Toughness +20, Power +5]

Fine Grade. The equipment smithed using the material found inside the cave could actually achieve Fine Grade.

Needless to say, it was the result of adding attributes that were stored inside Ou Yangming's mind. Besides, he had a vague feeling that the ore's limit was not the peak of Fine Grade Rank Five; there was a limit to the number of attributes he could attach to the equipment even though he used the Military Fire.

If Ou Yangming wanted to smith it to a higher level, it would likely fail and crack.

He dared not take the risk due to his body condition.

After a moment of hesitation, Ou Yangming fixed 1 Point of Devouring attribute to the equipment.

Afterward, he approached the big yellow dog to put the gauntlet on one of its paws.

The big yellow dog was clearly unhappy about his action, and the gauntlet was inconvenient as it did not need the equipment given that it was such an inappropriate timing.

That said, just as it wanted to get rid of it, Ou Yangming squatted beside it and said with a serious face, "I'm a human."

The big yellow dog was stunned, but it thought, 'You don't say.'

"I'm a human, so I have human Qi, and the Qi we cultivate is known as essential Qi," Ou Yangming added, then pointed at the dog and said, "You're a dog, so you have dog Qi. Do you cultivate animal Qi?"

The big yellow dog was startled for a while, and it glared at Ou Yangming to the extent that its eyeballs seemed like they would fall out. Fortunately, the dog could not speak, or it would have cursed at Ou Yangming long ago instead of being so calm.

"I don't know what Qi you cultivate, but no matter what it is, you must exert it," Ou Yangming continued and disregarded the dog's looks. He proceeded to fully insert the gauntlet into the big yellow dog's front right leg and said, "If you'd like to live and regain your health, bring out your dog Qi, animal Qi, spiritual Qi, or whatever."

His last sentence sounded like he was reproaching the dog.

The big yellow dog shivered and subconsciously tensed up, causing the Blood Meridian Power inside its body to flow into the gauntlet. Next, it felt the pleasant sensation that came from the equipment upgrade.

Ou Yangming grinned and dragged over one of the dead Black Magic Crawlers. "Try piercing its body with your claws."

The big yellow dog was hesitant for a while. Based on its character, it would never touch a dead body, but it finally gave in after seeing how confident Ou Yangming was.

"Puff…" It pierced its claws into the Black Magic Crawler's dead body.

Later, the big yellow dog roared in a surprising manner, and its eyes were filled with indescribable joy.

Ou Yangming nodded. He knew that the dog had finally experienced the equipment's real power.

He turned around to kick the remaining dead Black Magic Crawlers, which he had either left in the cave or kicked in from the outside, to the big yellow dog. The dog answered his expectations by sticking its claws into the dead bodies one by one.

Seeing as the dead bodies disappeared in front of the big yellow dog one after another, Ou Yangming let out a soft sigh.

He had initially planned to never reveal the Devouring attribute to anyone, but in order to get out of trouble and to save the dog, he was forced to show it.

Although the big yellow dog was not a human and could not perfectly communicate with a human, it was more or less still a hidden trouble…

Nonetheless, Ou Yangming could not bring himself to eliminate Big Yellow when he saw how it jumped happily and barked from time to time.

'In any case, this fella saved me a while ago when my life was at risk, and it was only bitten by the Black Magic Crawlers because it wanted to save me.'

The big yellow dog stopped after devouring the flesh and blood of twelve Black Magic Crawlers.

Its bloody wounds had actually recovered and only faint blood traces could be seen. If one did not look closely, one could probably not notice that it was injured before.

Additionally, the dog was releasing powerful Qi and blood power from its body without any reservation. Its high spirits made it seem like it had become a different… Dog.

The big yellow dog jumped beside Ou Yangming after noticing that he was looking at it, and it seemed like it was fawning on him with a big smile. Yes, do not ask Ou Yangming how he understood the dog's expression because he just did, and he saw a flattering look through its eyes.

After that, the big yellow dog wagged its tail happily while reaching out its other paw to Ou Yangming.

Ou Yangming could not help but laugh when he saw the empty paw that was not equipped with anything.

He knocked the big yellow dog's head softly and uttered, "Wait."

Through the Military Fire and the Devouring attribute, Ou Yangming kept absorbing the Black Magic Crawlers' flesh and blood for energy. He could sense a mysterious power gushing into his body, causing his mental state to arrive at a peak condition in a short span of time like never before.

The Black Magic Crawlers were not big in size as they were only as big as a human baby, but their bodies contained humongous energy. A few of them were enough to fulfill Ou Yangming's needs, and his mental power was faintly upgraded too.

Indeed, the Black Magic Crawlers' flesh and blood were able to upgrade mental power.

Ou Yangming looked at the remaining stones in the cave, the dead Black Magic Crawlers, and the big yellow dog's eager face.

He grinned and said, "Now, I can start working!"

The big yellow dog cheered. It suddenly felt confident even though they were in the cave that seemed like a dead end.

'This time, we'll definitely go back alive.'