“Let’s hope I'm as lucky as you are.” Bing grinned, taking out both of his shields. “My new eye isn’t warning me of any danger in my match but you can never be too careful.” His right eye shined with a light azure color.
“Eugh...” Lin Shu shivered in disgust remembering the sight of Bing’s eye being pulled out back then. “I’m not going to have to do something like that, will I?” She asked while shaking.
“Not anytime soon.” Lei Zhi had to think about his lesson plan for his students.
“How soon is soon...?” Lin Shu’s stomach was getting queasy.
“No idea.” Lei Zhi couldn’t lie. It depended on how quickly the kids learned what he planned to teach them.
“Just know that I might have to run away the day you decide we need to learn how to transplant eyes into people.” Lin Shu shared.
“I see...” Lei Zhi took note of that for the future with a strange smile on his face.
“Don’t smile like that! I really mean it! It was so gross when she tore it out like that! Are all of our eyes like that!? Oh heavens, I don’t wanna find out...”
“I guess I was lucky I was unconscious and couldn’t feel anything.” Bing chuckled, rubbing the back of his head.
He heard the sound of someone sniffing him from behind and couldn’t help but freeze up in shock and confusion.
“You smell strong but act weak. I don’t get it.” Jue shared her thoughts.
“Thank you?” Bing took a few steps away from Jue as he used his blood to adjust the size of his bone shield to match the new shield given to him by Jing that he has yet to fully use.
“You can’t go around sniffing people. It’s weird.” Runt commented.
“But how am I supposed to find out if someone is strong or not if I don’t smell them?” Jue argued.
“You can sniff someone without getting that close to them.” Runt replied back.
“But you’re all weird! He smells strong but doesn’t look or act strong.” Jue pointed at Bing. “He smells weak and acts weak but my stomach says he isn’t.” Jue pointed at Lei Zhi. “She smells weak but acts strong.” Jue pointed to Lin Shu. “And you are the strangest of all Little Bro! You smell very strong! Scary strong!” Jue explained.
“Hey! I’m not weak!” Lin Shu retorted.
“Are you trying to say our smells are mixing together?” Bing tried to understand this girl with a few screws loose. Jue nodded.
“And because of that, you need to stand closer to us and sniff us to see how strong we are?” Lei Zhi asked. She nodded again.
“Why do you need to see who is strong in the first place? You should just save that for when you’re fighting someone. Not people you aren’t fighting.” Runt explained.
“I guess I don’t need to see who is strong out of all your friends, Little Bro. But I've always done this to find out who was strong around me. Is it bad...?” Jue didn’t want her Little Bro to get mad at her again.
“Just ask me before you go around sniffing anyone. Eventually, you’ll learn when it is okay to do it and not.” Runt sighed. ‘I hope.’ It would be useful for him to know who is strong or not in the future if he can’t tell for himself.
“Yes, Little Bro!” Jue rapidly nodded her head.
“Wait a second, does Runt smell like the strongest out of all of us?” Bing suddenly asked remembering that she said he smelled scary strong.
“Yes.” Jue answered confidently.
Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.
“Hmm?” Lei thought to himself on his experience with Runt in the Endless Plains of Yin. “Ah. I see why.” He figured something out.
Everyone looked at him for an explanation. Lei Zhi looked toward Runt, seeing if it was okay for him to say. Runt shrugged. It didn’t matter that much to him.
“It's this.” A black liquid that was underneath his robes appeared on top of his hand.
“It is this!” Jue exclaimed as she huffed the scent of the black puddle crazily.
“Boss left this behind for me to protect me.” Runt explained. “I guess it still has his scent on it or something...” He had a look of disgust on his face as he looked at Jue still sniffing.
“Hu Tao... That makes sense.” Bing nodded in agreement. If there was someone to be described as very strong and scary strong it would be him.
“Heh, even when he’s gone, he’s still with us.” Lei chuckled.
“Who is Hu Tao?” Lin Shu asked.
“My boss. Me and Jie are only angels because of him.” Runt explained.
“Is he super strong?” Lin Shu asked next.
“I guess he’s the second strongest person in Heaven’s Angels.” Bing answered. “The Empress being first.”
“Empress?” It only took a second for it to click inside Lin’s head before she realized who Ai was talking about. “Ooh... I can see it.” Lin Shu nodded. “But wow, he’s even stronger than Yue and Qing?” She soon asked after.
“Yep.” Bing felt no shame in telling the truth. “But he also has a problem where he loves to cause trouble for himself and others. That problem of his is the reason why he isn’t here now and why we aren’t trying to help him out currently.”
“What kind of trouble?” Lin thought that everyone was pretty nice and not at all like the other disciples in the sect.
“Let’s just say, a majority of the disciples hate his guts because of his personality.” Bing tried to explain it as simply as he could.
“Will I hate him?” Lin turned to Lei who could only awkwardly chuckle.
“There’s a high chance you will.” He answered.
Eventually, it was time for Bing to show his stuff to the sect. He walked up to the right side of the stage with his two shields in hand, a skull necklace around his neck, and multiple metal discs flying around his body. Bing’s allies chose to leap on stage instead of walking like he did. None of them recognized each other but they recognized that many people were interested in Bing because of the loud chanting in the crowd.
“Fatty!”
“Fatty!”
“Fatty!”
“Man-Eating Abomination!!!”
Bing actually couldn’t help himself from blushing hearing people excitedly chant for him. Maybe now that he was famous for being in Heaven’s Angels, he could get a girlfriend soon.
“Hello. I’m Ai Bing. You can rely on me to protect you.” Bing shook his two shields.
“Name’s Lee. I’m an alchemist who only made it this far because of luck.” Lee honestly shared.
“Xiuwen. A swordsman who relied on his talent and hard work to get this far.” An obvious glare was sent toward the weakling Lee who ended up on his team.
He seemed to have no issue with Bing which Bing thought was great! Maybe those cheers from earlier really helped him out in avoiding problems with this guy.
“Can you defend yourself?” Bing asked Lee.
“Not that well...” Lee replied.
“That’s fine, I can protect you. Do you have any pills that could boost our strength?” Bing asked after.
“Yes! As long as you can protect me from getting hurt, I can throw pills to you whenever you need them! Recovery pills, a single Qi Burst Pill for emergencies, a Qi Recovery Pill, Focusing Mind Pill, Blood Recovery Pills, almost anything you would need in a fight!” Lee softly exclaimed with the two.
“I guess you won’t be as useless as I thought.” Xiuwen might have been hasty in his judgment of this trash. He wasn’t trash at all but just a pill refiner. Everyone knew they were weak in combat.
“I say we should go about it like this, but please feel free to speak up if you disagree with my plan.” Bing spoke up. “I will stand in front of Lee and protect him from any harm. Xiuwen, you will aim for their weakest member. If they try to defend their weakest member like I am doing, then aim for the one who isn’t being defended or defending. I want you to face one of their members in a one-on-one and win, can you do that?” Bing asked.
“Hmph. I don’t know who you are or why you’re so popular but my strength isn’t something for you to doubt.” Xiuwen scoffed. “Just leave whoever they are to me. You just make sure you defend that weakling well enough for him to show our cooperation skills to the elders.”
“Sounds good to me.” Bing smiled.
“Oi, alchemist, give me a qi recovery pill. I plan to go all out from the beginning.” Xiuwen didn’t turn to look at Lee.
“Here!” Lee reached into his spatial pouch on his waist and threw a white pellet at Xiuwen.
Xiuwen caught the pellet without looking and swallowed it as he unsheathed his sword. Bing rose his shields while planting his feet on the stage and stood in front of Lee. The multiple skulls around his neck had their eye sockets began to glow. Three large purple skulls made from qi flowed out of the skeleton necklace and circled around Bing. Four metal discs continually spun around Bing and Lee to protect them.
“Begin!” The elder shouted, seeing both teams were ready to begin.