Ou Yangming looked around the room for some time before he collected himself and began to consider his situation at the moment.

He had followed Xue Haiya here to hide his identity but deep down he was also intrigued by the Self-examination Mirror.

Needless to say, since Ou Yangming had become acquainted with the people from the Xue family, according to his conscience, he would not seize the item from them by force. Nonetheless, given that the Xue family had the ability and the opportunity to bring out the item from the Big Ruins, it meant that they had a certain understanding of the place.

This was what moved Ou Yangming the most.

The Big Ruins was his biggest objective here in Zhangzhou, but he found out from Qiu Chengwang's memories that the place was not at all peaceful.

It was an extremely dangerous place, so much so that even a Venerable One would not dare to anyhow set foot inside.

Therefore, Ou Yangming chose to hide his identity in Zhangzhou and stayed here instead of looking for the Big Ruins and head there recklessly.

The only thing was that the Xue family would probably be easily frightened due to the situation at the moment.

If Ou Yangming were to bring up the Big Ruins, he did not know what consequence it would bring. Since he chose to help the Xue family before this, he was not willing to become enemies with them.

Just as Ou Yangming was wondering what he should do, he was suddenly moved as he vaguely sensed a strong mental conception approaching him from a certain direction. Without any hesitation, the young fellow immediately became alert and made a move. The mental power inside his sea of consciousness surged and searched in that direction.

The mental conception was powerful, but it was inferior to that of Ou Yangming in terms of the power intensity alone.

Although Ou Yangming had remarkable martial prowess, where he could even yield his spear in front of a Venerable One, at the end of the day, he was a caster that was skilled at using his mental power.

Hence, when someone spied upon Ou Yangming, he could always beat that person to it and react right away.

Next, he found that the mental conception came from a masked man, who had entered the courtyard without a sound. Judging from how the man acted, he was likely coming for the young fellow.

Ou Yangming furrowed his eyebrows. He had only come into contact with the person for a split second, but he had already found out that the man was an Advanced Spiritualist. Even though he was not afraid of anyone with that cultivation base, given the identity that the young fellow had portrayed so far, he should react as if he was confronting a formidable enemy.

Struck with a thought, Ou Yangming increased his energy, essence, and spirit again, causing the masked man's every move to slow down in his perspective. Moreover, the person's aura was revealed to him bit by bit and was matched to someone that he recalled.

Xue Boren—the Advanced Spiritualist that he had just parted with—was lurking outside as a masked man.

Ou Yangming saw through his intention almost instantly.

He shook his head and sighed, but he still retrieved an Illusion Formation Board that he had refined back at the Beast King Sect.

Since he was not in the wilderness, he could not make a big fuss out of this, so he simply waved his hand and threw the formation board outside.

The formation board transformed into a stream of light and flew in Xue Boren's direction.

Xue Boren was advancing carefully when he halted because he sensed an unordinary power lingering around him. He was surprised. 'Has Yu Tianrui noticed me already?'

Quickly after, his vision went blurry as something flew in his way.

He subconsciously extended his hand forward, where his palm grew and was swung hard at that object as though it was a giant concrete iron.

"Pow…"

Following a soft sound, the object was hit high into the sky, but it was at that time Xue Boren saw that it was a formation board.

'A formation board? Used to hit someone?'

Xue Boren was considered an experienced cultivator, but he was somewhat baffled at the moment.

He never heard that formation masters would use their formation boards like that.

Nevertheless, his face changed very quickly because he suddenly realized that his environment had changed drastically.

Unbeknownst to him, mists appeared out of thin air around him. They grew denser and gushed out in the blink of an eye to confuse him. What felt stranger and more unbelievable was how he was witnessing the process but could not figure out where the mists came from.

Xue Boren tensed up and knew at once that he had entered an illusion.

He planted his feet on the ground and stayed still like a towering pillar, then he scanned his surroundings with bright eyes as if he was looking for the Illusion Formation's loophole.

After a short while, he had to admit that this was his first time seeing such a mysterious Illusion Formation.

At this point, he no longer doubted Xue Haiya's words; the young fellow was indeed a formation master.

'He probably threw the formation board to distract me while he discreetly set up the formation while I was dumbfounded. His wonderful yet unpredictable trick is simply unbelievable.'

Being an Advanced Spiritualist from the Xue family, Xue Boren had come across some formation masters in the past but if they were compared together with Yu Tianrui, they were Heaven and Earth apart.

Outside the formation map, Xue Yan and Wu Xiaohuang, who were hiding in the dark, looked at each other and were appalled.

'What a mystifying method to set up a formation. In this aspect alone, those rogue cultivators can't be compared to him.'

In actuality, whether it was pill refinement, equipment smithing, or formation maps, those pieces of knowledge needed to be accumulated over long periods. Furthermore, they could normally only be learned in large sects.

Especially for knowledge on formation maps, it was not something that small sects could dip their fingers in. Without an inheritance from past generations, even if a sect had 1 or 2 members with superb qualities, they would not be able to figure out anything.

Nobody could tell anything before Ou Yangming made a move but once he did, Xue Yan and Wu Xiaohuang knew his technique was definitely from a famous sect.

Having said that, they did not know Ou Yangming's way of setting up a formation used to be very crude, but it changed substantially after he gained Qiu Chengwang's memories. On a certain point, the technique was really a unique secret technique from Reborn in Paradise.

Inside the formation map, Xue Boren observed carefully but still could not find anything. Despite that, the Illusion Formation was not unchanging. The dense mists used to only circle around the periphery, but they slowly closed in and approached the center.

Xue Boren became alert in an instant. He did not know anything about formations, but he knew he could not be seized just like that.

With that, he scoffed and turned his wrists to retrieve a saber with each hand.

Ou Yangming's eyes gleamed a bit. Every Spiritualist was adept in different abilities, but one that used dual blades was rare. It was the young fellow's first time meeting one.

All of a sudden, Xue Boren moved his wrists, and the sabers in his hands danced. They seemed to have come to life at this time as saber-lights surged and condensed into 2 giant white pythons. The giant pythons were lifelike and seemed to be covered in fearsome scales. Whenever they moved, they carried strong killing intents.

No Advanced Spiritualist was simple; when they performed their strengths, they could not be compared by Intermediate Spiritualists.

The giant pythons turned over and charged into the dense mists. Consequently, the mists, which seemed to have filled the whole space, were stirred up intensely by the pythons, so much so that even terrifying sounds that sounded like thunderbolts could be heard.

Disguised, by the mists, the giant pythons seemed to have become more energetic. When they turned their enormous bodies, the dense mists were forced to move several meters to the sides.

Even so, Xue Boren was not happy at all though he looked like he had the upper hand. This was because he realized that while he fully exerted his power, everywhere he slashed was empty. In other words, no matter how hard the elder worked, he was only faced with the air and did not know where his enemy was.

No matter how fast or forceful her sabers were, if he could not hit his enemy, would it not mean that his efforts were futile?

Besides, Xue Boren's saber-lights were becoming more violent and invincible, causing his consumption to increase, hence he could not hold it out any longer. When the elder composed himself and curbed the saber-lights, the ferocious giant pythons disappeared at once.

However, it was then when Xue Boren suddenly had goosebumps, and he was overwhelmed by an exceptionally frightening sense of crisis.

It was an indescribable feeling as if an ancient giant beast was lurking around and was about to launch a fatal attack against him.

Without any hesitation, the saber-lights that had just dispersed emerged again. On top of that, the 2 giant pythons that were condensed from the lights became more vicious and grew bigger.

That said, when Xue Boren unleashed his potential and put up an impenetrable defense, the sense of crisis that he had subsided like a tide. If the elder did not have a clear memory of everything, he might even think that the feeling was a misconception that he had.

Xue Boren sighed a breath of relief and widened his eyes to find the source of the crisis.

Nonetheless, he realized that he was already surrounded by dense mists and could not spot anything at all.

After some time, just as Xue Boren attempted to curb his power a little, the feeling of danger appeared out of the blue again and was much more intense than before.

Xue Boren poured out his endless grievances and dared not ignore the feeling at all. With that, he was forced to unleash his potential again and pushed his mightiness to a higher level.

However, each time he went all-out, the sense of crisis would disappear. Whenever he relaxed a bit, the feeling showed up again.

Xue Boren had a bitter look on his face and cried internally, but there was nothing he could do.