Seeing the frightful retreat of the Demon God Thief meant that Bing’s plan wasn’t just a gamble. Shang and Jie looked at one another before hearing the sounds of someone munching on something. They looked over to the bloody Bing and saw him stuffing a wedding-sized cake down his gullet.

‘To think he was in the mood to eat even after suffering such a deep wound...’ Shang was honestly impressed.

  Ai’s willpower was not to be underestimated. Not to mention his wit and willingness to sacrifice himself. Shang knew he wouldn’t be willing to place his life in the hands of others. Ai was the only person that Shang could think of that would propose a plan like this and make himself the one to take a life-threatening injury. Zhai Shang has met plenty of people in his life but none of them had the slightest bit of courage that Ai had.

‘It hurts! It really hurts! Why does it hurt even though its healing!?’ Bing complained.

  Eating the recovery cake was enough to mend and heal his wounds despite how deeply Jie slashed him. He wished he could describe the experience as pleasant but that would be a big fat lie. Bing’s just lucky that Ying was able to tame the Mystic Flame so soon. While he was able to manipulate his flesh to a certain extent, he didn’t believe he could control his internal organs. Faking his death competently isn’t something he could accomplish just yet. Perhaps there’s a near-death pill or something but as of now, he had no idea if such a thing existed.

“Should we leave our escape to Ying?” Jie asked.

“Seeing how quickly he flew to the ceiling, I suppose she stands a good chance of surviving on her own.” Shang shared.

“No... We should help her.” Bing slowly got up, rubbing his previously split belly.

“Won’t we just get in the way?” Jie questioned.

“It's better to have four against one than just a one on one.” Bing explained.

“I see your point... I only assumed she could handle him on her own because of how terrified he looked. But there is nothing wrong with being cautious. Especially against an old ghost like this.” Shang nodded his head.

“Are you good to fight?” Jie looked towards Bing. There was not even a scar left on his stomach.

“I won’t die.” Bing brought out his two shields and bulked up.

“I’ll never get used to seeing you do that...” Jie had to look away because of how disgusting the transformation looked.

“I certainly wished you warned me of that...” Shang said to Jie. His eyes had the unfortunate opportunity to see Bing’s flesh moving on its own and weaving itself around him like a type of armor.

“I’ll go in first to distract him. Lin, help me out so that I can touch him. One of you two will explain the situation to Ying. And please make it before I die.” Bing took a deep breath as he was about to face death head-on once again.

“Swift Devil.” And with that, he was gone.

“You explain the situation to Yue. I’ll set up a formation to help us survive.” Shang told Jie.

“Got it.” Jie started running towards Ying.

  A Ying who was busy celebrating her victory of claiming a second Mystic Flame for herself. Acquiring this Mystic Flame was a whole lot different from how it was taking it from Fu Kang. This was a Mystic Flame that wasn’t taken by anyone. She had to prove that she deserved to own this naturally-forming treasure from the heavens.

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  Ying was taken to a world filled with nothing but the dead. An endless landscape of spirits floating about. Their eyes were unfocused. They only traveled forward. She tried talking to them, attacking them, and doing anything to get them to notice her but nothing worked. Her voice, words, and fists passed right through them. Kindness, violence, indifference, the spirits didn’t seem to care about anything but reaching their destination.

  The ghosts traveled in all directions. As Ying journeyed further and further in the white land, more and more ghosts began to fill her vision. Eventually, ghosts with the faces of her friends and family showed up as well. Ying tried interacting with them as well but just like how it was with the other ghosts, they didn’t respond to her. It wasn’t until she saw herself as a ghost that something unusual happened.

  Ying felt like she was traveling for months before she met herself as a ghost. It stared into her eyes and this slightly startled Ying. Despite traveling a seemingly endless distance, she hasn’t met any ghost that acknowledged her. So, when she encountered a ghost that could see her and looked like herself, a number of emotions erupted within her.

  This eruption being expressed in the form of a powerful punch to the face. Ying’s fist landed squarely on the face of her ghost twin. But instead of sending it flying off into the distance, Ying had suffered too much to let it off easily like that. She lifted her fist upward slightly before smashing the ghost into the ground with all of her anger.

  The white world split into a giant ravine. All of the fury building within Ying exploded with the force of that one punch. Ying wasn’t a patient person. So, when she was forced into a situation where she had no choice but to be patient, it was easy to see how she would feel upon seeing the person who made her go through a situation like that.

  Ying’s punch split the world in two and millions of ghosts fell down into the black ravine. However, Ying’s vengeance didn’t end with just a single punch. It’d be crazy to assume that she’d be satisfied with just one good punch. She hasn’t been learning Infinite Heaven Fist Style for nothing.

“Infinite Heaven Fist Style: Never-Ending Fists!” She shouted.

  A white aura coated her fists as she let off punch after punch on the ghost clone of herself. 10 blows, 100 blows, 1,000 blows, 10,000 blows, 100,000 blows. Ying didn’t stop her fists from swinging until she was suddenly transported elsewhere. This greatly disorientated her as she felt herself making a breakthrough with her Infinite Heaven Fist Style.

  She was now in a darkly lit room with a small purple flame being the only source of light. Ying took a step forward and could feel the fear emanating from the flame.

“You’re scared of me?” Ying asked.

“...” It provided no response.

  She took another step and the flame fiercely shivered in response. Ying rolled her eyes. This little bastard was the whole reason she was put through that annoying trial! Like hell, she would feel bad for her tormentor, even if it was a stupid child.

  Ying made it over to the flame trying its best to burn her with its flame in great terror. Her fist came crashing down on its center as a white-bluish flame came out of her back. This flame slowly shaped itself into her figure and came toward the purple flame. It gently kissed the flame as it comfortingly took hold of it and held it in its hand. Once Frost Flames started walking towards Ying, the purple figure began to shake in fright once more.

“Quit being so annoying! You’re mine, you stupid flame! I, Yue Ying, will never give up something that I want! As a member of the Yue Family, asking me to give up something I want is the same as asking me to die! My conviction isn’t so weak that I would lose to a barely developed flame like you.” Ying shouted at the Mystic Flame.

  The Mystic Flame could feel that while it didn’t want to be claimed by a wielder like this, she was in fact worthy. Ghost Flames wanted the one to pass its test to be one with patience, the ability to walk forward even with the death of those close to them over their shoulder, and cool-headed. Even though this human didn’t seem to have any of those qualities, she did have a very important quality. Absurd Strength.

  Once Ghost Flames was fully integrated inside her dantian, she finally made it back to the real world.

“Ying! Bing needs your help with that flame!” Jie shouted in her face.

“Huh? What are you-” Ying's question got caught in her throat as Bing’s body was sent flying past her.

  With a groan, he slowly got up to his feet with blood dripping down his face. He struggled to raise his two shields up but eventually managed. The pained look in his eyes suddenly brightened once he saw Ying. To Ying, there was nothing in the world that could feel better than being looked at this way by Bing. Seeing him try so hard just for her sake, she felt an endless amount of power flowing through her body.

  Ying locked eyes with the ghostly figure floating above her with a smirk on his face. A fierce scowl appeared on her face as a contained burst of purple flames erupted from her body. Jie flinched at the sudden fire but soon felt that she couldn’t feel anything radiating off of Ying. No warmth, heat, or cold. It was like she wasn’t on fire at all.