“Ying, do you have a recovery cake on you?” Bing suddenly asked.

“Yeah, why? Are you hurt?” Ying responded back.

“I was just wondering. Ying, Jie, get close to me!” Bing yelled at the two.

  Ying was about to jump out to beat these pieces of crap to death with her fists but Bing must have a plan if he told them to come near him. Jie listened to the abomination that was still considered Bing and stood close to him with her sword drawn. Ying didn’t put up a fuss about it either as she trusted Bing. With the two directly behind him, Bing directly split open his flesh and fed his shield his golden blood.

“If you don’t want to die, please run away for now!” Bing warned everyone that didn’t want to kill them.

  Unfortunately, his warning fell on deaf ears as no one took him seriously. Bing sighed. He gave them a chance to live. Now it was up to their own ability to survive now. Not to mention, bystanders who just watch people die are sometimes just as bad as the murderers themselves. Especially if they have the ability to do something about it.

  While Bing was also one of these despicable bystanders, he still hasn’t fixed his negative karma yet. Eventually, he’ll be a hero of legend. Rescuing and saving innocent people across the lands for the sake of improving his karma. His heart might be black as the night itself but that didn’t mean he couldn’t do some good for the world. If the trash of the world took itself out, then naturally there would only be good things left, right?

“Heheheh! Who is this fatty kidding?”

“Ooh! We’re so scared! Please don’t kill us Mr. 9th stage Qi Gatherer.”

“We’ll do anything to survive! Please don’t use your secret technique!”

  As they were mocking Bing, they decided to stop attacking his incredibly tough shield. They split up and surrounded the trio. Bing’s shield could only defend in one direction. If they attacked in all directions, then they were nothing but sitting ducks waiting to be cooked!

  Ying and Jie readied themselves to take on the cultivators leaping at them. Only a few people managed to sense the brief but amazing spike in qi coming from Bing’s shield. After sensing this spike, they felt something in the ground below them. Their eyes widened as they suddenly jumped far into the sky. Everyone else who couldn’t sense this change in qi was helpless against the sudden attack.

  All at once, several lives were lost simultaneously. An innumerable amount of pure white bone spikes shot up from the ground. The men jumping towards them were either pierced and hung above the ground or got split in half from moving so fast before getting spiked. Those standing by just watching didn’t even realize they were impaled until it was already too late. Their blood dripping onto the sharp jutting bones as their lives were fading by the second.

  All of those who had been pierced had their blood drained completely from the bones. The luster and shine of the already gleaming bones increased evermore. Bing’s eyes locked onto the dangerous few that managed to sense his attack coming beforehand. There were three in total. Two girls and one guy. He only recognized one of the girls, the other two were a complete mystery to him.

  Xiao Hong. Even the most ignorant disciple heard of the Ice Princess, Xiao Hong. One of Golden Serpent Sect’s Rising Dragons. A new ranking for all of the recently recruited disciples that were prodigies. It would be simpler to think of them as the new generation of prodigies compared to the Great Prodigies who are a generation above them because they entered the sect sooner.

  Bing didn’t know the other two. He rarely ventured outside of Ying’s void world at the sect except when he had to find ingredients for Ying to make cakes for him and fulfilling his five tasks for the sect required each month. One was a girl with a cute round face but cold dead eyes that had a grape vein growing out of her head. The only boy had icy blue hair, a strange look on his face, and a long metal staff in hand.

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  Both girls only looked his way before retreating into the forest. The guy, however, pulled out a talisman that glowed brightly before he suddenly appeared in front of him.

“You three... Are you a part of Jing’s group?” He asked. His eyes eyeing their weapons.

  Bing didn’t know who this guy was, how he knew about Jing, what his relationship to Jing was, or if he was hostile to them. But considering he didn’t feel any killing intent coming from him, he didn’t control his bones into skewering right through him. Since this guy wanted to talk instead of fight, Bing would be happy to do so. But he didn’t let his guard down either. He was ready to kill him within a single moment with his bone spikes if he tried anything funny.

“Who are you?” Ying glared at him, stepping to the side of Bing.

“My name is Zhai Shang.” He was slightly surprised that they didn’t know about him.

  Zhai Shang may have finally gotten the woman that had his heart but he knew almost nothing about her. Getting to know her followers to know her better would be good. He was sure they knew plenty of things about her that he didn’t know right now. Since he couldn’t find Jing herself to spend time with, her followers would be a good alternative for the time being.

“Is that supposed to mean anything to us?” Jie confirmed his suspicions.

“So, she hasn’t told you all yet...” Shang muttered to himself.

“Told us what? You know the Empress?” Bing questioned.

“Empress?” Was this how her followers referred to her?

“He means Jing. Do you have some sort of relation with Jing? Is that why you came to talk to us?” Ying was still hostile towards him. He hasn’t explained why he approached them yet.

“I would like to join you three.” Shang asked.

  If Jing hasn’t told her followers about their relationship yet, then he wasn’t going to tell them either. It wasn’t like he was going around screaming to those he knew that he had a girlfriend either. He’d rather spend as much time with her as he can while no one knew about them yet. Because once people realize they are together, trouble and annoyances would definitely come soon after. Hopefully, he’ll be able to meet Jing by sticking together with her group.

“No way punk! You’re suspicious as hell! Who in their right mind would allow some weirdo to join them without knowing anything about them?” Ying yelled at him.

“I know him...” Jie spoke up.

“You do?” Ying looked at her.

“He’s one of the Rising Dragons. A prodigy spellmaster that’s known for his combat ability and comes from a long lineage of spellmasters. I don’t know his relation to Jing though.” Jie shared.

“I see. I am rather suspicious now that you describe it in that way. How about this, in exchange for allowing me to travel with you, I'll share with you these talismans.” Shang pulled out several paper slips from his pocket.

  Considering none of them seemed to know what they were, he spoke first to explain their value. “These are Ghost-seeking Talismans. By injecting your qi into the spells, you will be able to sense any ghosts near you. The more qi infused into the talisman, the further the search range increases.” Shang knew it would be difficult to convince them with just words so, he showed off the usage of the talisman right in front of them. He surged his qi into the paper slip before vanishing a moment later.

  In the next moment, Shang could be seen with his metal staff in the distance. He thrust his pole into the air before a shrill screech rang out. With this loud screamer impaled on his staff, he returned back over to the trio. Bing, Ying, and Jie saw a ghost stuck through Shang’s weapon. This ghost had vicious claws, a long tongue, and a pure white transparent body. Shang grabbed his amulet and touched the ghost with it, capturing it inside.

“Deal!” Ying spoke for the rest of the group as she seemed eager to acquire these ghost-hunting paper slips.

“It was nice doing business with you.” Shang gave the slips to the orange-haired girl and smiled within his heart.

“Hehe... No problem, Zhai. Just make sure to don’t get in the way and everything will be good.” Ying warned him with a big smile on her face.

  With these ghost-finding talismans, Ying didn’t have to restrain herself and control her fire qi anymore to hunt stupid ghosts! She’d find them with the talisman before capturing them by force! Now she could pass this portion of the test without straining herself at all. It’d be like hunting spirit beasts! A piece of cake!

“Are you aware, you have a dangerous spirit residing next to you?” Shang walked over to Bing, seemingly staring at something far taller than him.

“...”