“Bing! You’re with me today!” Ying decided.

“I guess my plans for today are completely out the window.” He sighed.

“Lei Zhi, you’re coming along too!” Ying included him as well.

“I’ll help anyway I can.” Lei Zhi smiled.

“Qing you can come along too if you want. But you can’t come Hu Tao.”

“I have some training to do today. I can’t come with you.” She said as she stood next to Jing.

“I’m coming along anyway.” Hu Tao smirked.

  He wouldn’t have come along with the brats if she didn’t include that smart ass comment at the end. But now he’s going to do his best to ruin Ying’s day. Just because she didn’t want to include him. This’ll teach her to run her mouth so much.

“What are we even doing, Ying? Shouldn’t we stay put with most of the sect looking at us trying to get as much information out of us as possible?” Bing suggested.

“No way.” Ying and Hu Tao responded together.

They looked disgusted that they thought of the same reply.

“Sitting around with our thumbs up our asses isn’t going to help anything.” Hu Tao commented.

“And I need to figure out how to open this stupid book already!” Ying still could not open the cultivation martial art Jing’s gifted to her.

“Are we going on a task together?” Lei Zhi wondered.

“Yeah. I picked out a nice easy hunting task.” Ying said.

“Easy huh...?” Bing narrowed his eyes at her.

“It is easy! With all of us together, we should be able to deal with a beast in the Qi Consolidation stage.” Ying was confident in their strength.

“I’m not helping by the way.” Hu Tao made sure to mention.

“I didn’t include you anyway! Why are you still following us!?” Ying shouted.

“We’re still in the Qi Gathering stage and you think we can deal with a spirit beast in the Qi Consolidation stage?” Bing questioned, not really expecting an answer but more of a realization on Ying’s part.

“Yep.” And that realization was completely missed by Ying.

“What is this spirit beast we’re hunting?” Lei Zhi asked. He still hasn’t yet summoned another beast after Xiurong’s passing. Quon took her spot and he hasn’t found the strength inside himself to replace her with another. So, for now it's just him and Quon.

“A fire spirit beast.” Ying replied simply.

“We’re going to die.” Bing could already tell that it was going to be an incredibly dangerous fire beast.

“Don’t be such a baby, Bing. We’ll be fine.” Ying believed.

“If you all die, I’ll make sure to find good replacements for you all.” Hu Tao comforted no one’s worries.

“We won’t die! I got the perfect technique.” Ying claimed.

“Oh yeah that reminds me... How the fuck are you progressing so quickly?” Hu Tao asked.

“Because I'm a genius.” Ying boasted.

“Bullshit Princess. You and me both know your growth isn’t natural. I don’t know what treasure you found in the Treasured Plains but the sooner you tell us, the easier it’ll be on you.” Hu Tao advised.

“Is it really that easy to notice?” Ying asked before regretting saying anything at all.

  If an idiot like Hu Tao could notice, then of course the rest have already saw through her. Including Jing... Perhaps she should apologize when they come back to her house and she’ll forgive her once she shows her what Hao Gang can do. Ying didn’t know what else she could do to make Jing forgive her.

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“It's fucking obvious to anyone with two eyes.” Hu Tao scoffed.

“I had my suspicions that it was all the fights you had with Hu Tao that improved your martial ability but... it was just so quick, you know? There was no way you could’ve stayed as an unknown Qi Gatherer with your personality and that skill.” Bing added.

“I had absolutely no idea at all.” Lei Zhi shared without shame. “I just thought you were secretly training without us.” Lei had the least martial talent out of all of them.

“I’ll show you guys when we return... I thought I could keep it a secret for a while longer but we will be stuck together for a while. It would be stupid of me to keep it as a secret when I could be helping you guys too.” Ying still didn’t plan to let Hu Tao inside. If she let that monster inside there was no way she could possibly catch up to him ever in this lifetime.

“Hmph. Good girl.” Hu Tao tried petting Ying’s head only to receive a powerful elbow in his side, forcing him to clutch his abdomen in pain.

“Ah yea, that treasure is something really fucking good. Your hits actually hurt now without needing to use your sword.” He smiled.

  Ying ignored his indirect insult on her past strength. One day, she’ll make him take her seriously. Serious enough to go all out against. And then she’ll defeat him with all her power and prove that he isn’t the top dog of the world. He isn’t the only one aiming to be the best in their group!

“Is this spirit beast in the Immortal Forest?” Lei Zhi asked.

“Kind of. It’s on Dead Immortal’s Cliff.” Ying answered.

“Is that really the name?” Bing chuckled.

“Yeah it’s kind of a stupid fucking name. Dead Immortal? Immortals don’t die.” Hu Tao agreed.

“Who cares about the name!?” Ying responded.

“It’s just silly.” Bing kept laughing.

  Ying secretly agreed with Bing but didn’t want to agree with Hu Tao again. The four of them were planning to get there on foot but Hu Tao had a faster way of traveling that surprised them all. Ying, Bing, and Lei Zhi happily bounced on top of Hu Tao’s white cloud. Ying couldn’t help herself from embracing the crazy soft clouds and taking a chunk of it in a hug. Not knowing that she was pissing off Hu Tao by doing this. However, if she knew, she surely would make an even bigger show of it. Which is why he didn’t bring it up.

“This is pretty valuable. How’d you come across something like this Tao?” Lei Zhi wondered.

“Jing gave it to me after completing a task.” He replied.

“No way!” Ying exclaimed. “Do you think I could ask for this as a reward!?” She was so excited at the possibility of getting a cloud of her own that she didn’t even realize who she was talking to.

  Seeing her smile so innocently, made Lei Zhi’s heart warm. He sometimes forgets that these three are still just kids brought up in a world that forced them to kill, fight, and grow just to survive. When he gets children of his own, he promises he’ll let them stay children for as long as possible. No rush to grow up, no rush to gain strength, just enjoy themselves and be who and what they want to be.

“Probably. I don’t know. Just stop looking at me like that and quit fucking around with my ride!” Hu Tao yelled, disgusted with Ying’s friendly attitude right now.

  They were currently flying through the sky right now and with how much of the cloud Ying was pulling around herself, it felt like they were actually falling down to the ground! This was just his imagination though. When the clouds around them starting to increase in number, they realized it was getting harder to see just exactly where they were flying. Lei Zhi gave Hu Tao directions on where to go as the clouds didn’t affect his sight like it did the rest. If it wasn’t for the old man, Hu Tao was sure that he’d flown them straight into the damn mountain because he couldn’t see shit.

“I’m starting to want one of these too...” Bing liked the feeling of the cloud on his ass and skin.

  Plus, this thing could carry his weight without any issue. Ever since gaining Devil’s Physique, his weight has been slowly growing heavier and heavier as he trained it. As he is now, his body does not match how much he weighs. Even if he didn’t have his round gut and chubby body, he would still weigh more than he looked. Once he reached the advanced mastery in his Devil’s Physique, his weight would increase 100x fold and he would gain the ability to control his weight at will. But as of now, he was still at the elementary mastery, not even at the initial mastery that could make his body impervious to steel weapons. All martial arts begin at the elementary realm then they go to the initial realm, the intermediate realm, the advanced realm, and then reach completion. Bing hasn’t gained the necessary resources to properly progress his Devil’s Physique to the next stage.

“The view up here is nice but I'm still more of a fan of walking.” Lei Zhi was very nervous off ground.

  At the speed they were going, it was hard for him to properly “see” his surroundings. He could see the outlines of Tao, Bing, and Ying along with the cloud underneath them but everything else was somewhat of a haze. Just trying to lead Hu Tao through these clouds was difficult. In actuality, he wasn’t leading him all that much. He just needed to warn him before they slammed straight into a mountain side. That was something he should be able to sense ahead of time.

“I can’t see shit Old Man, so, make sure you tell me where to go and when to stop.” Hu Tao said.

“Why the hell are there so many clouds!? Stop our cloud Hu Tao! I’ll deal with this crap!” Ying stood up with some difficulty and nervousness.

  She wasn’t sure how much of this cloud could hold her weight while standing. At this height, if she fell there was only one outcome for her. Hopefully Lei Zhi would be able to fish her back up before she fell too far down. If not, she might have to learn how to grow wings real soon.

“Whatever you say Princess.” Hu Tao rolled his eyes and brought the cloud to a halt.

  Ying pulled out her greatsword and faced the infinite sea of clouds in front of her.

“This cannot be natural, right?” Bing questioned.

“I guess we’re going to find out.” Lei Zhi shrugged.