The atmosphere was lively again when Ou Yangming returned to his residence and met Multi-armed King Kong and the others.

He had not been home before this, but Big Yellow—a big mouth—told the others about everything that happened since they entered the Spiritual Realm.

As compared to Multi-armed King Kong and the others, who had been put under house arrest on Mount Wuzhi, Ou Yangming and Big Yellow had a much more interesting experience. The king kong and the rest also understood that they were suddenly being treated so differently because of the young fellow.

Ou Yangming had worked hard and made a name for himself, so much so that a powerhouse from the Phoenixes was attracted to the Spiritual Realm, which was why his companions were treated with special respect by Mount Wuzhi.

At this point, Multi-armed King Kong and the others became even more grateful for Ou Yangming, and they admired both him and Big Yellow.

When Ou Yangming and Big Yellow first entered the Spiritual Realm, they were still newly-advanced Rudimentary Spiritualists. After being separated from the others for just several months, not only did they become famous, but they had also become Intermediate Spiritualists. Not to mention Wu Yuanwei, who was a local from the lower realm, even Multi-armed King Kong and the rest were envious.

Big Yellow stated that they would definitely benefit from following Ou Yangming, and this was agreed upon by everyone else.

After some greetings, Ou Yangming looked at Wu Yuanwei and wanted to ask something but was hesitant.

The Wu family's greatest powerhouse understood him right away. "Master Ou, I also don't know much about the lower realm, but Lingfeng the Venerable One has agreed to welcome your closed ones to the Spiritual Realm as soon as possible."

Ou Yangming finally beamed. This was the thing that he cared about the most, and he felt that his hard work would be worth it if the problem could be solved perfectly.

Nonetheless, he did not know that some unexpected figures were also included in the list of the people that would be brought here the soonest.

After settling down everyone, Ou Yangming returned to his courtyard.

He first composed himself and recalled everything that he saw and heard today.

Gu Jiacheng's performance during the refinement of the pills had impacted him greatly. Although he did not know how to refine pills, he managed to learn by analogy and comprehended something new when he observed the process.

Now, he wanted to apply what he learned on equipment smithing.

Ou Yangming opened his interspatial bag and picked some materials. The materials were not rare nor precious; they were the most ordinary items in the Spiritual Realm. Even so, once the materials were merged, they could be used to refine a magic tool of Good Grade or above.

The young fellow took a deep breath. He immediately gathered his energy, essence, and spirit, which he increased to their peaks in a split second.

Being an experienced blacksmith, Ou Yangming would make sure to be in his best state each time he began to smith. This had become something subconscious to him.

Ou Yangming's Military Fire burned and quickly enveloped all of the materials. Normal blacksmiths would usually choose to add in the materials one by one if they had to fuse so many of them. It would be a slower process, but the spiritual fire's requirement would be lower, and the effect would be better.

Nevertheless, Ou Yangming possessed a Heavenly Phoenix Fire. Not to mention these few materials, even if he had to merge twice the number of materials, he could burn all of them in one go.

The materials began to melt swiftly into one another inside the enormous Military Fire.

This was the Heavenly Phoenix Fire's unique ability. When the fire enveloped the materials, it could easily melt them regardless of their melting points.

The ability was simply the biggest cheat code for blacksmiths.

In comparison, alchemists had much lower requirements for their fires as they were more adept at controlling the details. The 2 professions that involved fires were dissimilar, and their meanings were naturally Heaven and Earth apart.

The strange thoughts were fleeting as Ou Yangming quickly cast them aside. He had always been an authentic blacksmith, so he would only be slightly involved in alchemy but would not change his profession.

Inside the forceful flame, the materials slowly merged and formed a shield.

The shield was not too large, and it was done by imitating a part of the Dragon Shield's model on a certain level. Despite them, this round shield and the Dragon Shield had entirely different qualities.

As soon as the round shield was formed, Ou Yangming focused and uttered softly, "Come out…"

Something beside him flew up out of the blue and spun in mid-air.

It was the thing-in-itself of the poisonous pill's spirit—the poisonous pill that came from an insect powerhouse.

After undergoing numerous changes, the poisonous pill had gotten a new lease of life, making it completely different from ordinary poisonous pills.

Ou Yangming entered the poisonous pill with his mental conception and instantly sensed the omnipresent starry sky and nebulas. As for the nebulas that had not been condensed, they were drifting freely inside the world.

The young fellow vaguely sensed that if the nebulas were condensed into substances one day, the world would be totally different.

Having said that, the day should be quite far away.

With a flash of thought, one of the insignificant nebulas drifted toward Ou Yangming's conception. Driven by his conception, the nebula floated in the empty area.

Ou Yangming's mental conception became more focused like never before. What he was about to do next would also be a first for him.

'Capture!'

Without warning, Ou Yangming's mental conception gave an order to capture the nebulas.

Fixating a nebula with invisible mental power was certainly a pioneering undertaking; even Ou Yangming dared not guarantee that he could have succeeded.

However, when the massive mental power gathered again, it could unleash an unparalleled power. It took only a blink of an eye for Ou Yangming's mental conception to bring the nebula out of the poisonous pill's world.

The poisonous pill's spirit looked at Ou Yangming in confusion as it did not know what he was trying to do.

In actuality, once Ou Yangming's mental power left the poisonous pill's world, instead of stopping, it directly landed on the round shield in his hands.

"Hiss…"

A weird sound was heard as dense whose smoke rose from the young shield. It was as though a newly-smithed weapon was suddenly submerged in clear water, causing vapor to be released.

Ou Yangming's eyelids twitched. He wondered, 'What's going on? Did I fail?'

As he continued to use his Military Fire, the round shield's properties were displayed in his mind.

[Item: Round Soul Shield]

[Equivalent Rank: Magic Tool, Good Grade, Rank Five]

[Attributes: Toughness +30, Durability 30]

[Unique: Contains active power (Unhatched)]

Ou Yangming was slightly stunned. He even looked bewildered.

He had expected to produce a magic tool of Good Grade Rank Five, so he did not find this unusual. That said, the round shield underwent a mysterious change after he channeled part of the nebula's power into it.

The change was not directly reflected on the equipment's specific properties. Instead, a new property that was labeled as "Unique" appeared. What baffled Ou Yangming more was the fact that the active power was remarked as unhatched.

Ou Yangming smiled bitterly and shook his head. He was so speechless that he felt like asking Heaven for help.

He had been smithing weapons for many years. Even though it was not a long time for normal blacksmiths, he had made a substantial amount of various pieces of equipment. Moreover, the young fellow could read all kinds of books and seek help from seniors, hence he was familiar with properties found in peculiar pieces of equipment.

Nonetheless, it was his first time encountering something so unique that it was even remarked as unhatched; he never heard of anything like that.

Ou Yangming fell silent for some time. Instead of acting rashly, he kept the round shield and left to head to one of the peaks.

Inside the Beast King Sect, the Smithing Hall and the Alchemy Hall were the 2 most important halls for sure, and each of them was being watched over by a sect elder. The sect elders were the greatest figures in the respective aspects.

The Alchemy Hall's sect elder was Gu Jiacheng while the Smithing Hall's sect elder was the renowned Peng Yanbing.

It was worth noting that the peak that Ou Yangming went to was the Smithing Hall's headquarters. As soon as he arrived, he was recognized by some people, who reported his arrival.

Before the war between the Humans and the Insects, perhaps not many people recognized Ou Yangming. Ever since the young fellow became the Phoenixes' messenger, it was extremely rare for people to not recognize him.

Ou Yangming smiled bitterly and expressed to the people that he wanted to meet Peng Yanbing.

A middle-man came forward at once. He led Ou Yangming into a building and served him tea without asking his purpose of meeting Peng Yanbing. After just 15 minutes, the sect elder arrived.

Upon seeing Ou Yangming, Peng Yanbing laughed and commented, "Master Ou, you finally thought about the Smithing Hall—how rare!"

Ou Yangming flushed. He was a blacksmith but after entering the Beast King Sect for the second time, this was his first time setting foot in the Smithing Hall.

He cleared his throat and said, "Sect Elder Peng, am I not here now?"

Peng Yanbing scoffed and asked, "You went to the Alchemy Hall first before coming to the Smithing Hall. Master Ou, do you think that the Smithing Hall isn't as great as the Alchemy Hall?"

Ou Yangming twitched his mouth and thought, 'You're talking nonsense.'

Nevertheless, he had come to seek help from the sect elder, thus he would not make vicious remarks.

He copped his hands and apologized, "It was Yuqi the Venerable One's order, so I had to obey it."

Peng Yanbing was struck dumb. He did not know if it was true but since Yuqi the Venerable One was involved, it would be better for him to not get to the bottom of this matter.

He nodded and questioned, "Master Ou, why have you come today?"

Ou Yangming had been waiting for this question. He turned his wrist to retrieve the newly-smithed round shield from his interspatial bag, then he handed it over to the sect elder.

Peng Yanbing was taken aback. He looked at Ou Yangming in confusion but still reached out to take the equipment.

He had scanned the round shield several times but concluded that it was only a Good Grade magic tool. However, the shield somehow carried a mysterious power, causing him to be unknowingly drawn to it.