"Build… A nest?"

Ou Yangming had an unusually strange look on his face. He never expected to hear such an absurd request from the weird tree.

Nonetheless, on second thought, he immediately understood what was going on. 'This enormous living tree regards me as a member of the Phoenixes.

'The Phoenixes are supreme beings among the birds in the world.

'But as mighty as they are, they're birds. Since that's the case, isn't it the most normal thing for birds to build nests?

'The problem is—how would I know how to build a nest?'

"Woof… How can the nest be built?" Big Yellow blinked and barked probingly. Being protected inside the Wutong Tree, they did not sense the powerful aura that instantly burst out from it earlier. If not, the big yellow dog would not have had the guts to attempt this, which might cause it to be killed.

The face on the bark glanced at Big Yellow. It was clear that the tree person completely ignored its existence, but when it thought about how the little fellow came here with Ou Yangming, it decided to respond to it.

"To build the nest… Of course, it'll be up to sir." The tree person continued proudly, "I've been preparing for over 10,000 years, where I hid endless treasures for sir to use." Next, numerous different images appeared above the face on the bark.

Although the tree person did not introduce them, even a fool would know that those were images of incredibly precious treasures.

Nevertheless, Ou Yangming was embarrassed because he did not recognize any of them.

Big Yellow questioned as it was interested. "How long will it take to build the nest?"

The tree person looked carefully at Ou Yangming as though it was sensing his power. It answered after some time, "It won't actually take too long. Based on the Divine Fire possessed by sir, it'll be done after 10,000 years."

Ou Yangming's eyelids twitched hard. He was close to vomiting blood.

'10,000 years?'

'My corpse and bones would've disappeared by then.'

The tree person quickly added after it noticed the hostile look on Ou Yangming's face. "Sir, if you build a rather crude one, it can somewhat be done within 7,000 to 8,000 years."

"Shut up." Ou Yangming waved his hand with force. For some reason, he subconsciously forgot about the disparity between their strengths when he faced the tree person, and he also became hot-tempered and impatient.

The tree person shut up right away and looked at Ou Yangming with worry.

Needless to say, it was not concerned about its safety, but the fact that Ou Yangming might leave because he disdained it.

Ou Yangming asked after some thought, "Must it take such a long time?"

The tree person looked troubled. "Sir, the time can naturally be shortened if you become more capable but…"

Ou Yangming relaxed and chuckled. "I see. In that case, I'll come back to… To build the best once I'm capable enough."

The tree person looked bitter. It took so long for it to come across this ability, but Ou Yangming was unwilling to proceed.

If it let this sir slip away, it did not know how much longer it would have to wait to complete the mission of its kind.

"Sir, you can choose to build the nest after you grow stronger, but why don't you leave a mark here first? If you do that, this secret realm will become one of your residences." The tree person looked eagerly at Ou Yangming.

Ou Yangming was moved. He recalled the unknown treasures that were shown by the tree person just now.

He might not need them for the time being, but it would not be a bad choice to have such a base area. Having said that, his only concern would be that it would be unfair for Xia Zizhen and Poisonous Saber Gentleman.

The young fellow raised another question after a moment of hesitation, "If I choose to do that, can I seal this secret realm?"

"Of course. As long as you're the master of this place, everything here belongs to you," the tree person answered at once and blinked its eyes by imitating Ou Yangming. All of a sudden, it noted, "Sir, your other companions seem to be having an internal strife."

"An internal strife?" Ou Yangming's face darkened. Countless thoughts crossed his mind in a flash.

In particular, the food mentioned by the tree person before this gave him a terrible feeling.

"You've been here for so many years, but haven't other people found you?" Ou Yangming asked in a deep voice.

"There were other living things that came, and they were either from the Humans, the Beasts, or other special races, but they all became my nourishment." The tree person laughed.

Ou Yangming frowned. "You killed them?"

"No, they willingly offered souls, flesh, and blood, so I followed the ancient contract and allowed them to pick up some trash," the tree person quickly explained and added, "Don't worry, they only took the most useless items. As for your treasures, I've been keeping them well."

"They willingly offered? What's that about?" Ou Yangming's face changed.

At this point, the tree person had realized something. 'This sir seems to be an idiot… No, I mustn't disrespect sir like that. Sir just likes to ask more questions.'

It answered honestly, "Sir, using your appearance—a human—as an example, as long as they send me a Spirit Grade caster for me to absorb the caster's nutrients, mental power, and soul, I'll open up a certain area for them to collect some trash for 10 hours."

Ou Yangming scoffed, and he had an extremely cold look in his eyes.

It turned out that this was what Xia Zizhen and Poisonous Saber Gentleman had been planning to do.

'If it isn't because I possess the Phoenixes' power, causing this foolish Wutong Tree to misunderstand… Oh, it'll be better for this fella to remain a fool. If it finds out about my real identity, I'll probably die a graveless death.'

Struck with a thought, Ou Yangming asked, "Since you've been here for so many years, how could new people find the secret realm's entrance."

Even though the Wutong Tree claimed that it only gave away trash, that was only its opinion. To Xia Zizhen and Poisonous Saber Gentleman, the most worthless treasures were considered rare items to them.

Throughout the years, as long as the first living thing grasped the rule, one could naturally bring up formidable forces and latch on to the secret realm's entrance.

Apart from finding the entrance, Xia Zizhen and Poisonous Saber Gentleman even entered the realm several times and survived, which was too unbelievable.

The tree person laughed and replied to Ou Yangming, "Sir, the secret realm's entrance is shiftable; it can be moved once every century. That said, it's not until now that I'm finally graced by your presence."

Ou Yangming nodded and curbed his thought. He asked, "What's the situation of the fight outside?"

"Your human companions are forcing your beast companions to get closer to the oasis. This is odd—why are they having internal strife?" The tree person answered without any hesitation.

"Can you catch all of them here?" Ou Yangming sneered.

"Of course, please wait for a moment."

As soon as its voice died away, a few black figures flashed in front of Ou Yangming and Big Yellow. In just a split second—the young fellow and the big yellow dog could swear on their lives that it only took a blink of an eye—4 figures that were being wrapped into meat dumplings appeared in front of them.

Whether it was Xia Zizhen and Poisonous Saber Gentleman, or Fat Antelope and the Silver Ridge Giant Leopard, they were in a trance and felt like throwing up.

They were fighting outside the oasis before this happened. While Fat Antelope and the Silver Ridge Giant Leopard were equipped with equipment sets gifted by Ou Yangming, in terms of absolute martial arts value, they were very inferior to the 2 men.

As they exchanged blows continuously, the spirit beasts involuntarily moved toward the oasis.

If Xia Zizhen and Poisonous Saber Gentleman had not wanted to use them to test how the oasis would react, their blood would have been spilled long ago.

Just as the fight was getting intense, all of their visions went blurry, and they felt like they were on a rollercoaster. Of course, only if they knew what a rollercoaster was…

All in all, when they were instantly brought inside the oasis by the tremendous pulling force, it was also unbearable for them despite their physical qualities.

Xia Zizhen and Poisonous Saber Gentleman finally came back to their senses after feeling dizzy for a brief moment. However, their faces changed when they saw who was standing in front of them. At this moment, they even hoped that they were still muddle-headed.

Ou Yangming looked coldly at them and smirked. "Gentlemen, it's nice to see you again."

"No, impossible…" Poisonous Saber Gentleman mumbled, "How did you do it?"

By now, even a fool knew who exactly brought them here.

Ou Yangming laughed out loud and said, "You had such a well-thought-out plan. I'm really lucky to have survived."

Xia Zizhen was blue in the face. When he saw the tough and indestructible rattan around his body, he could not help but feel hopeless.

"Master Ou, we admit defeat. We didn't think you could survive after communicating with the Wutong Tree." Xia Zizhen looked at Ou Yangming and asked, "I just want to know—how did you do it?"

Ou Yangming sneered. "Are you trying to avoid dying from an unknown cause? But I'm not obliged to reveal the truth to someone that tried to harm me."

"Master Ou, we were wrong." Poisonous Saber Gentleman shook his head and shouted, "Please forgive us this time. We'll sweat a blood oath that we'll be your most loyal servants." His body could not move as he was being restrained, but it did not stop him from begging for mercy.

The young fellow shook his head and sighed. "Unfortunately, I never believe people who try to harm me." He turned around and uttered coldly, "Get rid of them."

"Yes."

The tree person responded to him. With that, the rattans that tied up Xia Zizhen and Poisonous Saber Gentleman kept contracting. It was such a forceful power that the men were crushed into meat pastes in a flash. At the same time, 2 green illusory figures rose from the rattans. They kept screaming with hideous looks on their faces as if they were suffering endless pains.

Subsequently, the face on the bark opened its mouth and sucked the illusory figures.

Their blood, flesh, and souls vanished from this world just like that.