With his shield aimed in front of him, Bing almost speared himself straight through the beast’s torso. The two collided against the rocky formation in the cave and Bing tried to use his Devil Hand to eat the beast before it could resist but he underestimated its physical prowess. The spirit beast tossed him away rather easily only to have Lei Zhi and Ying sneak up on its sides. Lei Zhi’s needles stabbed forward at the same time that Ying’s sword came swinging towards the beast’s neck. In the dangerous position it was in, it tried roaring out with qi to send them flying away but the two Angels were faster.

  Lei Zhi changed the angle he was previously aiming for, the head, and went to strike the animal’s lungs instead. Their combination attack worked and Lei Zhi’s needles pierced the lungs of the spirit beast, stopping it from roaring out with qi. Ying’s attack was blocked but at the cost of the furry creature’s paw being cleaved off by Ying’s sword. It yelled out in pain but the pain it was feeling soon came to an end as Ying’s swing wasn’t just a normal swing. She used the momentum and heavy weight of her giant blade to slash again as it spun her around after slashing the first time. It was her second style of the Giant Blade Manual: Moving With The Blade! After numerous training sessions with the shadow in her Void World, Ying understood that this style couldn’t only be used for defense. It could be used for unpredictable acrobatic unstoppable offense too!

  A bodyless furry head rolled past Bing’s foot, signaling the end of this sudden encounter without any injuries to Heaven’s Angels. Hu Tao scoffed at their performance but kept his eyes on Lei Zhi during that battle. The Old Man’s sense for combat wasn’t anything special but he was probably more dangerous than Ying in combat potential. His qi could barely be sensed by anyone without some talent in sensing the qi of others along with his surprisingly light steps and quick feet. Once he got in without anyone knowing, he could disrupt their entire body with a single needle! No cultivator is used to fighting with a handicap and the Old Man could paralyze one of their arms or legs with a few quick stabs. It wasn’t a surprise that Hu Tao was thrilled to see this. He couldn’t wait to fight Lei Zhi once he got a little bit stronger.

“Anyone need a beast core?” Ying asked.

  She lightly stabbed into the carcass of the animal and a dark dim red orb could be seen within its chest cavity.

“Quon would appreciate it.” Lei Zhi crouched down and pocketed it for his octopus.

“I’ll take the body then.” Bing spoke up, his devil hand stabbing into the flesh of the corpse and draining it of all its flesh but leaving the blood and skeleton behind. The blood was sucked into his shield after he dipped it into the puddle of red.

“Then let’s get moving again. Follow me.” Ying reactivated her Overbearing Amalgamation of Flames and led the group deeper inside the hot caverns.

  They traveled in silence with their senses alert for any signs of more spirit beasts. Until Hu Tao decided he was bored and wanted to whistle as loud as he could. But Hu Tao didn’t know how to properly whistle so instead of whistling he was actually just making an annoying noise that heavily grated on the group’s ears. Bing knew better than to fall for Hu Tao provocations, it would be similar to falling into a trap you could see a mile away. He just acted as if the sound didn’t bother him even though it was butchering his ears. Lei Zhi wasn’t the type of person to ignore someone. He wanted to teach Hu Tao how to whistle the correct way instead.

“Nah, I’m good.” He smirked as he kept whistling an awful tune.

“I swear if you don’t shut your mouth, I’ll shut it for you! At least save this for when we are on our way back!” Ying balled her fist.

“How do I know you all won’t kick the bucket by then and I have to return to Jing just by myself? I won’t have anyone to annoy then. Except the Bitch but she isn’t nearly as fun as you are Princess.” Hu Tao complimented.

“I’m starting to hope I die so I won’t have to listen to your shitty whistling anymore!” She retorted.

“Now don’t say that Fire Crotch. In a few more months you’ll definitely become fun sparring partner for me. And in a few years, maybe, just maybe, you could consider yourself my student.” He said as if it was some great milestone to become his student.

“Death is sounding like a better alternative.” She snarked.

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  Both Bing and Lei Zhi laughed at this as the group arrived inside a part of the cave with a boiling hot lava lake. Lei Zhi could see spirit beasts slowly swimming inside the lava as if it was a normal water lake. Ying could sense the fire qi swirling inside these lava beasts. Bing and Hu Tao could only hear the bubbling of lava around them. Neither of them had martial arts for sensing others. Hu Tao’s natural instincts usually helped him sense foes for a fight but in this scenario, unless something was at the 9, 8, or 7th stage of the Qi Consolidation realm, he had nothing to fear.

“I didn’t know there were spirit beasts that could live in magma.” Lei Zhi commented.

“What?!” Bing’s eyes immediately looked at the lava lake. But his eyes couldn’t pierce through the orange liquid surface.

“Yeah. They’re swimming, crawling, walking down there inside that lava.” He informed with a smile on his face.

“I can’t survive lava. Can I?” Ying crouched over the edge of the lava pool and focused her eyes down on it. Wanting to reach down inside with her finger to see what happens.

“Let’s test that for another time! We have a hippo to hunt remember?!” Bing grabbed Ying from under her arms and lifted her up. Taking her away from the lava lake and making sure to avoid touching her boobs.

  Surprisingly Ying didn’t say or do anything after Bing’s physical contact with her. Everyone expected her to lash out violently or say something incredibly mean but she only held her sword in front of her face and walked away. Only she and Hao Gang would know of the small blush on her cheeks. Ying herself didn’t even expect a reaction like this!

  Ever since she saved him from the cusp of death in the Great Tower, Ying found herself thinking about Bing more often. It was incredibly embarrassing the things she thought of them doing together. She just didn’t understand why she was feeling this way toward Bing! When she pictured herself doing the things she dreams about with Bing with the others, it just feels wrong. Maybe she was sick or something. One of the plants from the Treasured Plains was still affecting her and she’s yet to get over it. Maybe Lei would be able to fix her sickness...

“He’s down there.” Ying told them.

“How do we bring it up to the surface?” Bing asked.

“I think I can help with that.” Lei took a squat next to the large body of magma and pulled out his fishing rod.

“Won’t that thing burn up?” Hu Tao asked.

“It’s pretty resilient, I’ve come to understand.” He tossed his fishing hook in.

“Huh... I guess all of our weapons might be similar.” Bing tried dipping his shield into the lava only for it to stab out with bone shards and attach itself to his hands, stopping its descent inside. “Ow! Okay! You only want to be dipped in blood, I get it!” The shield absorbed the blood from Bing and pulled back its spikes.

“Hao, can you survive lava?” Ying asked her sword. He immediately started crying and begging her not to drop him in lava.

“Shut up! I wasn’t going to drop you if you couldn’t!” Ying lied. She was totally thinking about putting the tip of her blade in the lava and seeing if it could withstand it.

“I don’t do this often but don’t let anyone know your weapons have souls.” Hu Tao seriously warned the two.

“Huh? Why not?” Ying asked.

“The only weapons that are alive are Heaven-ranked weapons.” He answered

“That’s impossible...” Bing muttered. “The Empress couldn’t have gotten ahold of 2 heaven-ranked weapons. No one would trust someone with a single heaven-ranked spirit weapon! Not to mention 2! It doesn’t matter what background the Empress has, she couldn’t have gotten 2 of them and gifted them away as if they were nothing!” Bing’s mouth moved on his own. Unable to process the information Hu Tao just gifted them.

“Does Jing know?” Ying asked, also taking this seriously.

“I doubt it. If she did, she would’ve warned you herself.” Hu Tao said.

“How could the Empress not know?! I just don’t understand. I can’t understand! All this time I've tried to avoid thinking about the Empress’s background knowing that it wouldn’t do any good for a simple cultivator like myself with no connections or power. But heaven-ranked spirit weapons?!” Bing was about to go insane.

“Maybe Jing isn’t who we’re thinking she is...” Lei Zhi brought up. “Perhaps she isn’t a descendent of an ancient cultivating family but perhaps an incredibly lucky girl who finds stuff like this on a regular basis. Someone blessed by the heavens in finding valuable treasures without even trying.” Lei Zhi hypothesized.

“I guess that could explain why she doesn’t know about some things that every cultivator should know...” Bing didn’t refuse this explanation.

“I just thought the crazy bitch was abandoned as a baby in the mortal world.” Hu Tao shrugged.

“Or maybe in the eyes of her ancient clan, her talent was considered trash to them and they abandoned her with us.” Ying added to Hu Tao’s theory.

“Here he comes!” Lei shouted, bringing their attention back to the task at hand.

  An incredibly thick spirit beast burst through the surface of the lava pissed beyond belief. And an insightful thought suddenly rose through the Angels’ heads.

‘How in the world are we going to fight that thing all the way over there in lava?!’