The black figure flashed on the main road for a brief moment before it disappeared into the pine forest.

Although the man in black kept a straight face, he was vaguely feeling mad. The intelligence that was collected by his clan clearly showed that Ou Yangming was traveling together with the convoy, but the young fellow was nowhere to be found when he arrived.

He was not feeling irritated because he did not succeed; he was infuriated that his clan's intelligence system was negligent.

'How did they not find out that Ou Yangming traveled alone? Those fellas are too useless.'

"Great Ancestor, you're back." An elder walked out from the forest and flashed a flattering smile at the man in black.

The elder was He Defu, the He family's Yang Grade powerhouse. There was a glimpse of a confused look in his eyes as though he was quite surprised about seeing the man in black returning alone.

"Defu, how did you carry out the task?! Ou Yangming left the convoy long ago and entered the capital by himself. Didn't you receive any information at all?" The man in black scoffed.

"Great Ancestor, please make a clear judgment; we really didn't receive any information!" He Defu was stunned, and his face took on a ghastly expression. He gritted his teeth and remarked, "Ou Yangming is unusually cunning. Not only did he lie to Young Lady Ni, but he also fooled Eldest Young Master. Perhaps the fella noticed something, so he adopted such a dirty trick."

"Hmph!" The man in black uttered coldly, "A bunch of trash!"

"Yes…" He Defu dared not defend himself anymore, thus he lowered his head, but he developed a stronger hatred for Ou Yangming.

'If it isn't because of the young fella, why would I be rebuked by the great ancestor?'

Nonetheless, he did not realize that he would not have ended like this if he did not ask for trouble in the first place.

"I heard that Ou Yangming's the Ni family's chief tributary?" The man in black asked all of a sudden.

He Defu quickly answered, "Ou Yangming is quite capable indeed, and he's particularly gifted in appraisal art, but he was only appointed as the Ni family's chief tributary because he captivated the Ni family's little princess through sweet talk."

"The Ni family's Three Great Ancestors couldn't have made a wrong judgment. Since he's the Ni family's tributary, his capability definitely reflects it." The man in black glanced at him, then he paused and sighed. "Ah, if it isn't because the beast tide is coming, I wouldn't want to hurt a bright young man like him."

"Great Ancestor, a man of great ambition won't bother about trivialities. For the sake of all living creatures, you mustn't be soft-hearted!" He Defu raised his eyebrows and commented.

The man in black waved his sleeve and said, "I know what to do. Quickly head to the capital and find out about him."

He Defu did not have the guts to say anything else, hence he bowed with respect and left in a hurry.

On the other hand, the man in black stood still on the same spot and kept quiet for some time before he mumbled, "Ou Yangming, I don't care how much the Ni family's Three Great Ancestors value you, but for the sake of the people in the world, I can only sacrifice you…"

He spoke in a calm tone, but his resolution was irresistible.

It seemed like as long as he decided on something, he must carry it out thoroughly.

※※※※

Hu Yicheng's convoy traveled on the main road. When they passed the next town, he surrendered all the captives with his status as an official.

Without the burdens, the convoy traveled faster than before.

Ou Yangming sat in the carriage, where he undulated according to the carriage's swaying movements.

The undulation seemed to have an extremely wonderful frequency, and it was so subtle that it was almost unnoticeable.

Even though the He family was formidable, it never occurred to the man in black or He Defu that Ou Yangming did not immediately make his way to the capital after he left his original convoy. Instead, he was sitting in one of the carriages which was not far ahead.

Due to the curious coincidence, Ou Yangming somehow stayed out of the He family's radar and vanished like an invisible man.

Nevertheless, Ou Yangming did not realize it at that moment.

He paid full attention to the study of interspatial bags.

It was true that he knew every step to refine an interspatial bag and had suitable materials with him, but it did not mean that he could refine one easily.

Ou Yangming had confirmed through a test that he had a certain talent in the understanding of space, but it was not easy to transform the talent into usable skills.

He slowly extended both his hands and moved them in front of him.

When this happened, energy waves, which were invisible to the naked eye, flowed around his hands. They were his mental power.

Back then, the usage of Ou Yangming's mental power was only limited to a fireball's release and its attachment to martial arts momentum, which were frightening.

He could release a fearsome aura, which was not inferior to a Supreme Great Ancestor's, by displaying his martial arts power.

On that day, Ou Yangming could scare the drawing and capture him with ease because his mental power unleashed a sufficiently powerful effect.

Despite that, after going through a life-or-death battle with great foreign willpower, Ou Yangming's control over his mental power improved once more.

In particular, he advanced after he accepted the knowledge in the crystal ball. It was still impossible for him to agglomerate his mental power into substance to attack another person's sea of consciousness. However, he could attempt to carry out Space Slicing to an extremely small extent by attaching a hint of his mental power to his palm.

As Ou Yangming turned his wrist, he could clearly sense an exceptionally peculiar change in the space in front of him.

He had entered the integration of Heaven and man, as well as the thoroughly meticulous state. Moreover, the purple luster in his sea of consciousness was vaguely present. Through his eyes, some unique and magical nodes appeared in the world before him.

Ou Yangming needed to slice the dispensable spaces with his mental power according to the nodes.

The nodes were not fixed as they seemed to be constantly flowing according to an indescribable rule. As Ou Yangming controlled his mental power, he kept using his hands to cater to them.

During the process, not only did he have to explore the flowing pattern of the nodes, but he also had to find a way to slice the nodes from the space.

Yes, he had to slice the nodes, as well as the space that they were revolving around.

The spaces had different sizes, and each Node Space was a priceless treasure to Ou Yangming, but it was incredibly difficult for him to slice them.

Ou Yangmingʼs hands were dancing at a tremendously high frequency, to the extent that they were also becoming blurry. That said, the speed was lacking as compared to the flowing nodesʼ speed.

As soon as his palm touched a node, and when he began to release his mental power to slice it, he could feel a heavy obstruction ahead.

It was as though his palm, which was initially in the air, had entered a stream of water. On top of that, the water was flowing against the current, and the sudden obstructive power made it tough for him to perfectly control his mental power.

Therefore, instead of slicing space, it was more like he was adapting to the process.

Ou Yangming exhaled deeply after a long time. He opened his eyes and smiled bitterly.

'Iʼm too weak…ʼ

After multiple tries, though he was unwilling to admit it, he understood something very well.

In the face of the mighty interspatial power, he was truly too weak.

The huge disparity was similar to the difference between a martial artist who had just entered Force Grade Class One and a Supreme Great Ancestor.

Even if the Force Grade Class One martial artist was told what to do, he did not stand a chance against a Supreme Great Ancestor because of the huge gap between their strengths.

Ou Yangming could resist a Yang Grade powerhouse or even kill one while he was in Yin Grade.

Other than his superb mental power and unique equipment set, at the end of the day, he was already in Yin Grade.

Without the support of the Yin Grade Boundary, he could not have killed a Yang Grade powerhouse at all.

As for a Supreme Great Ancestor, Ou Yangming could contend with one if he caught one off guard with a surprise attack. However, if he wanted to hurt a powerhouse like that, the only way would be to use the Mental Power Fireball.

Once again, Ou Yangming experienced the intense feeling of powerlessness, which was despairing and suffocating.

One needed to have great mental power to slice space, but Ou Yangmingʼs mental power was already amazing, and he somehow still lacked the power to go against space.

An increase in mental power—Ou Yangming needed an increase in mental power, and it could not be an insignificant increase of only a point or two.

Following that, Ou Yangming rubbed his hands and released the Appraisal Light.

The light landed on his body, revealing his properties.

[Race: Human]

[Equivalent Rank: Ordinary Human, Yin Grade, Class Five]

[Power: 10]

[Agility: 10]

[Physique: 14 (10+4)]

[Mental Power: 45 (43+2)]

[Skills: Martial arts skills, Military Fire Smithing Art, appraisal art, Precious Stone Embedding Art, Blood Flight, Substitution (Passive), Runes Formation, Space Slicing]

[State: Integration of Heaven and man, thoroughly meticulous]

Ou Yangming was slightly dumbfounded when he saw the properties.

This was because the list of martial arts skills that he learned disappeared from the Skills section, and they were replaced by a generic term—martial arts skills.

He had a vague feeling that maybe it was because he slowly grasped more martial arts skills and could integrate them together, thus appraisal art merged all the skills into one.

As for the additional skill—Space Slicing—he had just grasped… No, he had just begun to explore its ability.

Among Ou Yangmingʼs properties, his mental power was unquestionably the most exaggerated one as it arrived at 45 Points. Even if the points from his equipment were deducted, it still amounted to 43 Points.

The number had far exceeded a normal standard.

Ou Yangming had a thought; the fact that he could smith magic tools, help two of the Ni familyʼs great ancestors attain the integration of Heaven and man, and release a giant fireball to kill a great-ancestor-level half-spirit beast was related to his superb mental power.

Under normal circumstances, the mental power was enough to make him laugh proudly in the martial arts world.

However, he felt that it was not enough—far from enough.

How could he increase his mental power swiftly?

Just as Ou Yangming pondered seriously but was still clueless, a purple light in his sea of consciousness flickered out of the blue, and it caught his attention.

Ou Yangming widened his eyes when he sensed the purple light, and an extremely strange thought filled his mind.