Ying grabbed a piece of Hu Tao’s cloud and tore it off.

“Hey! What the fuck are you doing!?” Hu Tao yelled, wrapping his chains around her wrist with the cloud.

  Ying smirked before tossing the small piece of cloud and yelling, “Eat Hao!” Her sword’s eye opened up and the cloud fell straight into its mouth. It chewed the cloud like a piece of candy and began to transform in front of their very eyes. The giant blade that looked terrifying enough to give both children and grown men nightmares was now something completely different. The eye near the handle of the blade was much cuter in everyone’s opinion. Everyone but Hu Tao who was pissed that Ying’s sword just ate some of his fucking cloud. But besides that, the body of the blade was now pure white fluffyness that didn’t look like it could cut a leaf.

  With a light wave of her sword, the hundreds of clouds surrounding them were now under her control. She forced them into merging with Hu Tao’s cloud with her qi, clearing up their view and increasing the amount of space on the cloud. Hu Tao released Ying’s wrist after seeing this. He could feel his control over his ride increasing because of her. He wasn’t going to thank her but a simple nod was enough to express his feelings.

“We have company...” Lei Zhi informed, looking down below at a group of cultivators.

“Do you think it was them that made those clouds? I thought it was just the Immortal Forest being mystical.” Bing asked.

“Who else could it be?” Ying responded back.

“Hmm. They don’t look that strong. Fuck em.” Hu Tao flew past them.

“We are so going to regret letting those guys go...” Bing muttered to himself.

  Lei Zhi was glad they avoided an altercation that would’ve definitely led to bloodshed. Tao probably wouldn’t have held back if he asked unlike Ying. She knew of his general dislike for violence and meaningless death. And she respected it, even if she could never understand it. Tao most likely would laugh in his face. Lei definitely needed to boost his personal strength if he wished to communicate with Tao on an equal standing.

  Up ahead, Heaven’s Angels finally saw their destination. A menacing fear-inducing cliff that nearly rose higher than the giant trees in the Immortal Forest. Flying spirit beasts of all kinds flew in and out of the cliffside on the mountain. Many of the beasts looked in their direction as they were nearing Dead Immortal’s Cliff. It would be strange if they ignored them. They were riding a giant cloud straight towards the mountain. A few of those spirit beasts even came to investigate by picking at the cloud with their beaks and talons. Others came to investigate the fleshy humans riding on top of the cloud. And a small number of them were hostile and wanted to eat the humans.

  For those hostile birds, Lei Zhi weakened and paralyzed them with the help of Hu Tao who caught them with his chains. His God’s Fingers prevented them from moving around too much and Bing used this chance to get a quick meal in before they arrive. He plucked the feathers off the birds with his hands and then he went to work on cooking them with some heating talismans.

  Everyone took part in the eating despite no one asking for any. It was just assumed that since he was cooking, they were taking part in it as well. Bing didn’t respond to this. He certainly didn’t think he was cooking a meal for himself. Not for a single second did he believe that he was whipping up some food for one. No one noticed a small tear drop from his eye onto the cloud as he was tearing into the deliciously cooked bird.

“Where are we landing, Princess?” Hu Tao asked, picking meat from his teeth with a bone shard.

“Somewhere near the bottom. I saw on the task that it lives underground near lava.” Ying told him. A small burp slipped out of her after saying it but no signs of embarrassment or shame was on her face.

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“Cute burp, Princess.” Hu Tao grinned.

“Shut up and get this thing moving down.” She scoffed.

  Hu Tao did as she said and the cloud started floating downward at a leisurely pace.

“So, what even is this spirit beast we’re going to deal with?” Bing asked.

“A Flame King Hippo.” Bing almost fainted after hearing her say this.

“She’s trying to kill me. She wants to shorten my lifespan on purpose. She doesn’t understand what common sense is...” Bing muttered as if he lost his mind.

“Quit blubbering Fat Ass and get moving. If you’re all going to die, I wanna be there to watch it firsthand.” Hu Tao kicked Bing into the dark opening in the cliffside. He instinctively balled himself up and buffed up without even thinking.

  Lei Zhi and Ying carefully descended down the hole Bing fell down while Hu Tao followed Bing’s route and just hopped down the hole. Ying and Lei Zhi didn’t have tough bodies like those two so they could only progress at a slow and careful pace. Once they made it a far enough down into the hole, they could see a red light down below and feel a hot wave of air splash against their face. This was definitely the right place.

“If you don’t get any realizations about fire during this task, I don’t know what will help you.” Lei Zhi joked.

“If I have to jump inside a volcano to open that book, I will.” Ying was completely serious.

“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that for our sake...” He was a bit nervous she might invite them to that expedition as well.

  She didn’t respond to that comment, worrying him even further.

“Ho ho, look who finally decided to fucking make it. Took you two long enough. Maybe you should ask Jing for something to toughen up your bodies. Fat ass here could survive a fall like that with only a few broken bones and I doubt he was even trying.” Hu Tao mocked.

“I suppose we could ask. The sect isn’t that generous to give us talentless disciples much in terms of resources. Asking Jing for resources after a task could allow us to train both our bodies and qi.” Lei Zhi reasoned.

“Where are we...?” Bing’s head spun after his fall. Was he dead? Whose voices was he hearing right now? Did he at least die in a not shameful way?

“Alright. Now where is this hippo of yours at?” Hu Tao asked, completely ignoring Bing.

“Give me a second. I should be able to find it with my auxiliary martial art.” Ying began to utilize the specific breathing patterns within the Overbearing Amalgamation of Flames technique.

  A warm red hot aura of qi formed around her body. This aura of hers licked and lapped at the fire qi in their surroundings. Getting a taste for the weakest, strongest, and most diverse. Sadly, there was no mystic flames in this mountain but there was an especially powerful fire qi some distance away from them. Ying led the group towards this source of danger, leading them as a type of sensor or scout for Heaven’s Angels.

“This place is hot as hell.” Sweat dripped from Hu Tao’s forehead and down onto his bare chest.

“I have to agree.” Lei Zhi weakly smiled.

  Being on the ground was far nicer than being in the sky. He could sense his surroundings so much more in depth now. Although the heat was unpleasant, Lei could tolerate it due to the comfort in being able to completely see around him again. Being in the sky reminded him of the time when he didn’t have Blind Man Can’t See, his auxiliary martial art.

“Wait a moment Ying. Up ahead there’s a 9th stage beast at the Qi Gathering realm.” Lei Zhi warned.

  Ying’s body lit ablaze at his words, brightening up the area near them and heating them up even more.

“I think we should try and deal with this. You should save your strength.” Bing quickly said to Ying.

“Yeah, turn those fucking flames off. It’s hot as shit and you want to make it even hotter?” Hu Tao agreed.

“Shut up, Hu Tao. I’m only doing this to save my strength like Bing suggested. Not because you told me to.” Ying’s flames extinguished themselves as she crossed her arms.

“I don't really give a damn Princess. I’m just trying to not sweat to death.”

  Bing and Lei Zhi stepped forward. The spirit beast had yet to sense them yet so they figured they should take the first move. Bing lowered his center of gravity and crouched like a bull ready to charge. Lei Zhi pulled out his familiar pink fishing rod and tossed the hook straight ahead behind the boulder the creature was behind. With the sound of a loud screech, Lei Zhi pulled in the creature of sizeable proportions straight towards them. Whatever it was, it was very hairy and huge! Bing used Swift Devil and charged towards the incoming spirit beast.

“Haha show that bitch who's boss Fat Ass!” Hu Tao cheered.