"Young fella, did you really memorize every rune?" Elder Universe mumbled.

Ou Yangming nodded while he smiled with squinted eyes. "Yes, it's not that difficult to remember them, is it?"

Elder Universe twitched his mouth and wanted very badly to teach the young fellow a lesson, but it was an undeniable fact that Ou Yangming had memorized the runes. This completely surpassed his perception of the matter, so he could not pride himself on being a veteran anymore.

The elder had a question in his head at that moment, 'Could this young fella be a peerless freak who was born with knowledge?'

In any case, he would not believe that a person could grasp more than ten runes in a short period. Even if the truth was right in front of him, he was unwilling to believe it.

This was because it was no longer a matter of memory.

Ou Yangming had only used the Military Fire to carve rune routes on the steel, but Elder Universe was able to judge with his great vision and experience that the routes were not just for show; they were official runes that could stimulate Heaven and Earth's power.

The fact that Ou Yangming could draw the runes proved one thing.

He was not merely memorizing the rune routes; he truly visualized them.

If Ou Yangming could achieve such a result by relying on his memory alone, it would only be because he had drawn the runes for a thousand, if not ten thousand, times and had fathomed the mysteries behind them.

There was only one explanation for why he could grasp the true meaning of runes after having drawn them once.

Ou Yangming had successfully visualized all of them.

Nonetheless, to visualize more than ten strange runes in one go… Even if Ou Yangming's mental power was doubled, he could not have done it, could he?

Elder Universe stared at Ou Yangming in confusion. He was certain that the young fellow had a secret, and it had something to do with mental power.

Ou Yangming's hair stood on their ends as he was being stared by the old man. He forced a smile and asked, "Senior, you're…"

"Young fella, you're very lucky." Elder Universe sneered.

'What does he mean?' Ou Yangming thought to himself as he was startled.

"You're that little girl's sweetheart, or else… Hehe…" Elder Universe added plainly.

Ou Yangming had goosebumps when he looked at the weird smile on Elder Universe's face. He continued to force a smile and said, "Senior, I suddenly remember that I have something else to attend to, so I'll be making a move first!" Following that, the young fellow turned and fled without any hesitation.

Elder Universe could not help but laugh when he watched Ou Yangming leave.

'This young fella is gifted and smart, but he's too timid.

'I'm curious about him, but I'm already so old. Besides, for the sake of the little girl, how could I do anything to him?

'But…' Elder Universe stroked his beard as he recalled how unbelievably fast Ou Yangming learned the runes. For some reason, the elder was feeling hopeful.

'Perhaps he'll be the key to the upgrade of Humans' pieces of equipment.

※※※※

Ou Yangming left the vegetable farm in a hurry as if he was being pursued by a monster; he dared not stay on the farm any longer.

He sighed a breath of relief after he returned to his courtyard in the Ni residence.

The odd expression on Elder Universe's face at the end was truly appalling.

Although Ou Yangming's strength had changed so much that he could resist even a Supreme Great Ancestor, he knew his limitations. Perhaps the young fellow could escape if he relied on pieces of equipment, but it was wishful thinking if he wanted to defeat or kill a great ancestor in Extreme Grade.

Nevertheless, since Ou Yangming had returned to the Ni residence, Elder Universe would not capture him even if he wanted to.

Ou Yangming immediately felt weary. He consumed a great amount of energy to smith molds in the military camp, and his meeting with Elder Universe also resulted in a consumption greater than if he had fought a Supreme Great Ancestor.

Once he returned to a safe place, he could not hold on any longer.

He closed his eyes and became soundly asleep in a split second.

In his sleep, Ou Yangming dreamt that he slaughtered yet another formidable half-spirit beast, employing the Devouring attribute to transform the creature's blood and flesh into his power.

Despite that, just as he was cheerfully absorbing energy from the blood and flesh, his dream was crushed, and he woke up just like that.

Ou Yangming shook his head and looked at the time and realized that he had slept for three hours.

Sleep was crucial for martial arts powerhouses like him, but two hours of deep sleep was actually enough for him to be fully recovered.

It was evident from the fact that he slept for three hours how much energy he had consumed earlier.

Somehow, Ou Yangming recalled his dream, and his heart pounded as though he was still immersed in the wonderful feeling of absorbing energy from the half-spirit beast's flesh and blood.

The young fellow looked like he was bewitched, but he regained his senses before he fully indulged in the moment.

'What's happening to me…'

Ou Yangming looked around him warily and confirmed that he was not affected by any external force, but why did he suddenly have that untimely and intense feeling?

He inhaled deeply to calm his throbbing heart.

The Devouring attribute was extremely mighty and important to him. It played a huge role in letting him survive for so long.

That said, after the dream earlier, Ou Yangming became cautious of the Devouring attribute; the powerful attribute was not as wonderful as he imagined it to be.

Unfortunately, Zhang Yinli and Cheng Bingyu had died, or he could interrogate them about it.

Ou Yangming wondered if anyone else from the Zhang family knew about the secret. If someone else knew, he must find a way to get to the bottom of it.

After a long time, Ou Yangming curbed his thoughts and put aside the matter about the Devouring attribute.

When he recalled everything that happened in the past few days, the runes were the ones that gave him the deepest impression.

He also envied and admired Elder Universe for being able to toss Rune Stones out of nowhere in the courtyard.

Moreover, it was quite unbelievable that roughly ten stones could change Heaven and Earth's energy in an area.

Ou Yangming knew that the stones were unordinary, but he knew nothing about them because there were no records of them in the Ni family's ancient books.

Needless to say, he had not read every single book in the library, hence he could not be sure if there was such a record in one of the ancient books.

Ou Yangming closed his eyes and focused on his sea of consciousness.

This was an ability that came with having a certain level of mental power.

Inside his sea of consciousness, apart from the purple Military Fire and the hundreds of different attributes, which were wrapped up by purple lights, there were also about ten runes floating around.

Some of the runes were solid while some were obscure.

Among them, the most solid rune was the one that could upgrade an arm guard''s grade and rank.

When Ou Yangming focused on the rune, he came to the shocking realization that it seemed to have turned into a solid body.

It looked like a sign that Ou Yangming had such a deep impression of the rune that he would never forget it.

On the other hand, he was rather worried when he observed the other runes.

In particular, the floating runes did not seem reliable, which was not what he had in mind.

Even though the purple lights remembered these runes, Ou Yangming's mental power was not great enough, so there was a possibility that the runes would shatter.

Without any hesitation, Ou Yangming focused his consciousness on the runes.

He did not want his hard work and effort to go down the drain.

As he paid attention to the runes, the mighty mental power in his sea of consciousness was instantly triggered. It gushed toward the drifting runes to channel hints of energy to them.

Followed by the constant flow of mental power, the runes underwent subtle changes; they slowly became steadier, unlike their miserable state at the beginning where they would rupture at any time.

At last, Ou Yangming sighed a breath of relief because every rune had been reinforced with his mental power.

At the spur of the moment, he was struck with a thought.

If the runes were engraved on unique stones and arranged according to a fixed proportion, Heaven and Earth's power in an area could be changed.

What if the ratio was replicated in his sea of consciousness?

Ou Yangming was a typical representative of actors; since he thought about it, he would act on it.

Next, the runes in his sea of consciousness drifted and were arranged according to what he saw in the courtyard.

The instant the last rune was arranged, Ou Yangming's sea of consciousness shook.

An unbelievable change was undergoing as the space in his mind was influenced by Runes Power.

Ou Yangming did not know what was happening, but he had a vague feeling that the change was beneficial to him.

Eventually, he sensed that the still mental power in his consciousness was moving.

This portion of mental power was usually still in his sea of consciousness, and they would not move an inch like a pool of stagnant water unless he gave an order. However, the mental power was slowly flowing at this moment, and the situation was similar to when Ou Yangming cultivated under the bright moonlight.

Ou Yangming was elated, and he could not suppress the emotion.

He discovered a magical way to cultivate mental power, and it was not limited by the condition of having to cultivate under the moonlight. As long as the young fellow constructed the runes in his sea of consciousness and arranged them according to a certain order, he could cultivate without an end.

With that, Ou Yangming stumbled upon the wonderful method by accident, and he was swamped with indescribable joy.