When the old macaque looked, the Illusion Formation Map seemed to have disappeared. After the black fog disappeared, the area became desolate and unusual, causing one to have a lingering fear.

In the lonely mountain forest, a forceful momentum suddenly burst old from the old macaque's body. The mountains shook, and gravel rose in the air, stirring up the remaining fog and spread in all directions. As for the macaque, its eyes were bloodshot, and it widened its eyes so much that they were going to burst.

It did not think that Ou Yangming would be captured by Blood Shadow in an unbelievable way while they were about to enter the secret realm to look for the Phoenix Fire Bamboo. Moreover, everything happened under its nose, hence it could not take it.

Putting aside the old macaque's image, if news about this were to spread, the whole of Danzhou would be in turmoil. Whether it was the 10,000 Beasts Ridge or the Beast King Sect, they would struggle to advance and would be treading on ice.

It was worth noting that Master Ou's smithing art was not the only astonishing thing. Whether it was his identity as a caster, or his ability to refine flying carpets and Eternal Pills, they were reasons for the Beast King Sect to protect him at all costs. More importantly, the young fellow also had an identity that would overwhelm everyone; he was the Phoenixes' messenger.

That identity alone was enough to make everyone in the Spiritual Realm afraid of breathing heavily.

The Phoenixes were not a reasonable race. In particular, Lil' Red got along very well with Ou Yangming.

If it was infuriated and brought an adult phoenix powerhouse to the Spiritual Realm, the powerhouse could easily destroy everyone in the realm with one breath.

The old macaque became extremely anxious at that thought. It had seen the vicissitudes of life and the aspects of the world, but it actually perspired due to nervousness. The macaque felt like it was being suffocated underwater, where it became hard for it to breathe. Before long, its clothes were already drenched in sweat.

'If… If anything happens to Ou Yangming, I'll hardly be able to absolve myself from the blame.'

"Come out! Come out here now!" The old macaque roared at the sky with red eyes as its momentum broke out.

A red figure was hidden in the dark. Given that he was covered in red, his expression was unnoticeable.

Nonetheless, a red light was emitted from his eyes, and it somehow gave off a feeling that he had a dull look in his eyes as though he was not in the right mind. The figure laughed with a horse and cold voice.

As the figure made finger gestures quickly, red vapor that flowed out from between his fingers spiraled at the speed of light, causing one to see things in a blur. Following that, a peculiar aura entered and left his body.

After some time, the figure pushed his right hand down. Numerous light red spots glowed out of the blue, and countless curved lines connected to tightly envelop an area that extended hundreds of meters. In fact, the lines kept spreading as they were targeting the old macaque.

The old macaque kept a straight face as it focused. The muscles on its backs bulged, forming a frightening arch as it took a deep breath.

Its body seemed to have transformed into a black hole, where a powerful suction force burst off. Instead of retreating, the macaque advanced half a step and let out an odd soundwave, making it sound like neither a beast nor a human.

"Destroy!" It was not loud, but once the word was uttered, the entire space paused unconventionally, by which the sky, plants, mountains, rocks—everything—halted. Heaps of palm-sized green wind blades were formed along with the macaque's voice. They kept spinning like shooting stars with wings, where they drew semicircles in the sky. As a result, the quiet sky looked like it became fragmented. The green lights were shocking to see, and they suddenly zoomed straight toward the red light that appeared out of nowhere.

Just as the lights were about to clash, the dim look in the old macaque's eyes faded away; it had a strange look in its eyes instead.

The old macaque shrugged. It squeezed its hands and shot out a green light from its fingertip.

With that, the green wind blades quickly overlapped and combined like withered and fallen flowers. As for the green light that was released, its intent remained.

The air shook slightly as the layered wind blades elongated with the wind. They finally turned into spinning wind blades with roughly 3-meters diameters, and they carried such cold auras as if they could slash everything.

When the lights met, there was no earth-shattering explosion. Instead, it was silent as though there were pitter-pattering raindrops from spring rain.

When the faint red light flickered, ripples appeared on the formation's light curtain, and they immediately devoured the wind blades.

The old macaque's pupils shrunk, and it shrieked. "How is this possible?" It was previously trapped by the Illusion Formation, but it quickly drove away the black fog that appeared. On the other hand, the red fog seemed to be stronger than the black fog as it could directly devour its wind blades.

All of a sudden, a loud sound was heard coming from the red figure's wrist as a round Illusion Formation Map appeared in his hand.

He bent his finger and pointed, then his body's vigorous force burst out. Subsequently, he bent his arm and tossed the round Illusion Formation Map. The red fog began to surge at a visible speed, where it quickly spread to fill the area that it covered. Before the old macaque could react to the situation, it was enveloped by the formation map. If one looked from above, one could see that the formation map had shrouded the gully between the 2 mountains.

The old macaque lifted its arm to stir up a palm wind. Consequently, a bucket-sized tornado spun into the air to disperse half of the red fog. It had a gloomy look on its face.

At that instant, a red figure came into view but only for a fleeting moment.

"Blood Shadow! Come out…" The old macaque flapped its sleeves. Its power as a Venerable One was incredibly cold and fearsome, such that it could slash a mountain or crack a rock. Sure enough, Venerable Ones were so mighty that every hit they made contained the universe's power.

Nevertheless, the red figure disappeared right after he flashed, causing the old macaque to stomp its foot out of anger. The same thing repeated several times, but the red figure kept slipping away without revealing any loophole.

It was then when a thunderous sound was heard coming from the sky. The incoming figure could be heard before it even arrived.

"Shatter…" It was a cold sound. A humongous figure in the sky suddenly raised its right arm and pointed at the sky. Accordingly, the sky shook intensely like ripples that were formed in a lake. The shake traveled from a further distance and slowly shattered the curtain in the sky, causing it to turn into faint lusters. As for the illusion formed by the formation map, the red fog surged fiercely while the mountains quaked as if the world was coming to an end.

The formation map's light curtain shook quickly and turned into countless thumb-sized fragments, which dispersed like dandelions that were blown by a breeze.

An imposing figure appeared in the void. It was the king of 10,000 Beasts Ridge—the formidable 10,000 Beasts Venerable One.

It shattered the Illusion Formation in one hit.

The red figure inside the formation was also crushed into meat paste and turned into ashes by that hit. The 10,000 Beasts Venerable One was puzzled, but it lunged forward to descend from the sky and landed in front of the old macaque. "Elder Macaque, long time no seen."

It looked around but did not see Ou Yangming, thus it asked in a deep voice, "Elder Macaque, where's Master Ou?" Although the young fellow was only an Intermediate Spiritualist, given that he was the Phoenixes' messenger, it would not be too much to address him as a master.

The old macaque's expression changed. Its arms turned weak as it responded in a low spirit, "I followed Master Ou to a secret realm to nurture a Phoenix Fire Bamboo for the refinement of Eternal Pills, but Blood Shadow set up an Illusion Formation with a formation map in advance. Luckily, Master Ou saw through it beforehand."

"Master Ou has an attainment in formation maps too?" The 10,000 Beasts Venerable One asked as it was surprised. 'Even if he learned while he was in his mother's womb, he couldn't have grasped so many skills, could he? A smithing master that can refine interspatial bags and flying carpets… He even learned formation maps cursorily now. What does he not know?'

The old macaque sighed. It nodded and replied to the Venerable One, "Yes, Master Ou said that he had only learned them cursorily but from my perspective, he's unordinary. That said…" It tensed up a little before it continued, "Just when I hit one of the spots in the Illusion Formation, plenty of black fog emerged. I drove the fog away but only to find that Master Ou has been captured by Blood Shadow?"

"Captured by Blood Shadow?" The 10,000 Beasts Venerable One's voice turned cold, so much so that the temperature of the air around it lowered.

The old macaque was shocked. Its junior had reached the peak of a Venerable One, where it was abundant in Qi and blood and was exceptionally mighty. Perhaps it was the only promising candidate from their race to take the leap.

Moments later, the macaque curbed its thought and expressed silkily, "It was my fault—I didn't protect Master Ou well!" It looked around and furrowed its eyebrows. "Blood Shadow's abilities were quite unusual today. He was using the formation power as if… As if he's trying to buy time."

The 10,000 Beasts Venerable One responded after some thought, "Mm, it's quite unusual indeed."

While they conversed, numerous blood light spots shone again from the Illusion Formation, which had been crushed by the 10,000 Beasts Venerable One in one hit. The light spots emitted red lights, which connected and turned into red lines with the widths of a thumb to envelop the 2 Venerable Ones. A formation map was seen floating in mid-air, and a red figure floated around it. Upon seeing this, the 2 Venerable Ones exchanged glances and had grave looks on their faces. "Blood Shadow?"

The 10,000 Beasts Venerable One charged forward without warning and leaped into the sky. It looked like a war god, and it was so swift that its body formed a rainbow in the air. Soon enough, the Venerable One appeared before the red figure, where it slapped the figure's back and released an enormous power from its palm. As the Venerable One's True Qi raged inside the red figure's body, the body exploded and turned into red fog. The red fog in the Illusion Formation then dispersed, and the light curtain was curbed once more.

Furthermore, the round formation board fell from the sky as well!

The 10,000 Beasts Venerable One pondered for a while. Its eyes flickered as it noted, "This isn't Blood Shadow; it's an illusion clone."

"An illusion clone?" The old macaque had unknowingly arrived beside the 10,000 Beasts Venerable One and repeated what it said.

"Yes, it's an illusion clone, which is here to trap you and me." The 2 Venerable Ones were gloomy, and they thought, 'Why is Blood Shadow going through all the trouble?'

Once, twice, the Illusion Formation kept lighting up.

However, the 10,000 Beasts Venerable One crushed it easily each time it appeared. As for the old macaque, it lamented to itself, 'Ah, I'm old and no longer useful!'

After 9 times, the 10,000 Beasts Venerable One stepped on air and landed on a green mountain rock. It asked in a low spirit, "Why does Blood Shadow have so many clones? Whenever I eliminate one, another one will appear after just a few breaths. They're like sticky candies that I can't get rid of." It was impatient because the more the time that was delayed, the more unfavorable the situation would be for Ou Yangming.

The old macaque sulked, and it felt regretful.

'If I was more careful, we wouldn't have ended up in such a difficult spot. He's the Beast King Sect's hope, and yet I don't know if he's dead or alive now.'