LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 235/236: Heaven's Angels.
“I swear... I told you everything I know about the other Ghostly Kings... Please just put an end to my existence already. I beg of you.” The glowing verdant skull somehow cried black tears.
“What is this?” Jing pulled out the Ultimate Bottle that could always land on its head when flipped and collected the black tears of the Ancient Fist Immortal.
“It looks tasty.” Li Li licked his lips.
“Tasty?” Jing looked at the boy.
She felt repulsed looking at this bottle filled with black sludge-like liquid. It gave off an aura that instinctively rejected the living. Ever since Jing came back from the heart demon test, she still retained knowledge of all the martial arts she learned during that time. Meaning, any special qi that wasn’t blocked behind a bloodline was available for her to use at some point. Despite mastering only water qi in this life, she could very easily use multiple elements. Lightning, Thunder, Fire, Earth, Yin, Yang, Wind, and more. However, she saw no point in doing such a thing as water qi was more than enough for her right now. Jing would say that there was no one that knew more about her than H2O in this life but that would be foolish. Just because she’s lived over 10,000 lives didn’t mean that she was a supreme being that none could match.
Obviously, she couldn’t match the being that sent her here because she was still here instead of ruling as an Immortal in the heavens above. There was also the fact that she couldn’t forget things anymore ever since she refined herself. Jing could tell that a part of her memories was missing because she couldn’t remember meeting the god but can remember her first life on the Earth and then waking back up on the steps of the Heart Demon Test. If this being could easily erase her memories despite her power being at its peak in her ten-thousandth life, then it proved that she wasn’t supreme.
“Tears of an ancient ghost that’s at the Spirit Emperor realm...” Li Li muttered. “I feel like it's very valuable for ghosts and people who have a lot of yin qi in their bodies.” He told her.
“Do you want it?” Jing asked, shaking the bottle.
Li Li shook his head. While he would be stronger if he drank the black tears, it wouldn’t be that much of a difference. He’d be better off enslaving or swallowing the ancient ghost instead.
“It's too weak!” He claimed.
“Tortured, humiliated, and now you’re insulting me... Even in the afterlife it seems I can’t escape being persecuted for how I am...” Ancient Fist Immortal whined.
“You’re quite sensitive for an old ghost, aren’t you?” Jing asked.
“...” Ancient Fist Immortal stayed silent.
“He looks pitiful. I’ll take him as my first ghost with the Soul Lantern.” Li Li raised the lantern glowing with a bluish-white light and an L symbol etched itself into the Ancient Fist Immortal’s skull.
An ear-piercing screech came from the body-less skull. Li Li’s lantern was forcefully burning his symbol onto the Ancient Fist Immortal’s soul. Jing and Li Li couldn’t guess how much pain this old ghost could be in. Any injuries to the soul were incredibly sensitive as the soul was a person’s entire being in the universe. Unfortunately for the Ancient Fist Immortal, ghosts couldn’t exactly pass out from pain either. Something that Jing personally tested herself, meaning that there was no way for the ghost to lessen or fight the pain.
A few seconds later, the ghost was sucked into the lantern. Now it was shining with a deep blue light. Neither Jing nor Li Li knew what this meant. Jing didn’t know because the system didn’t bother giving her any information on objects that weren’t SCPs or SCP-related. Li Li didn’t know because this was a gift given to him by his mother that didn’t know much of anything about it. He did know that he could summon the Ancient Fist Immortal anytime he wanted though. But it would be a little pointless right now as his soul was very weak and on the verge of disappearing because of his mother’s teaching lesson.
Thankfully, Li Li could sense that being branded by him shared a little of his own soul power with the captured ghost, and being inside the soul lantern has made it so that they recovered faster. Li Li couldn’t tell what was the strange light inside the lantern was but he knew it was very beneficial to the growth of spirits. A cool spirit tool that could help him understand more about the soul and ghosts. His cultivation was focused on eating souls. His mom told him it would be better to understand what he was eating. He couldn’t just go around putting things he didn’t understand in his mouth or he’d get sick or a tummy ache. Neither of which, he’s ever experienced so far, and based on how his mother described them, he really didn’t want to find out...
“Alright, let’s go find these other Ghostly Immortals. The Ancient Fist Immortal had quite a lot of treasure stored up despite being so weak.” Jing stood up from her water-created chair and started walking out of the cave, one of the seven forbidden areas inside the Endless Plains of Yin.
“Mom, why do we need treasure when you can make anything you want?” Li Li asked.
“That’s a good question, son.” Jing gave a small smile. “I believe that you can never have enough treasures.” She answered him.
Out of her 10,000 lives, it was spirit tools and spirit weapons that lengthened her lifespan the most during those lives. Eventually, she relied less on tools and more on her martial arts as she was nearing her ten-thousandth life, but it was still quite useful to rely on spiritual objects from time to time. They helped lessen the necessary effort required for other matters that would take time or energy from herself. Why do something yourself if you can have something else made for doing that, do it?
“But what are we going to do with all that treasure in the first place? I don’t think we really need anything.” The only people Li Li could think this treasure would be useful for were the other Ghostly Kings and that bald guy back at the sect.
“It’ll come in use with time. We might not need it now but there is no guarantee that we won’t need it in the future. And when I become sect leader, it's not like I can go around making things for everyone anymore. That’ll be below me. However, with all this treasure, I can just give it to my followers without exerting myself at all.” She explained.
“I think I understand.” Li Li didn’t look like he understood but Jing didn’t put him on the spot.
“Curiosity is good.” Jing rubbed Li Li’s head as they made their way out of the cave.
“But too much is bad, right?” Li Li giggled.
“It depends on the situation.” She shrugged.
After all, it was her curiosity for understanding the world that allowed her to progressively get more powerful during her Heart Demon Test. She had used countless men, women, and children to understand things she couldn’t find information on no matter how hard she looked. Qi, souls, the different types of qi, the best way of utilizing qi, martial arts, etc. Perhaps hundreds of millions had died for her curiosity overall out of her 10,000 lives. Jing did not regret what she did in those lives though. While she didn’t know that those people weren’t real and everything would be reset if she died, it was all for the sole benefit of empowering herself with knowledge. Knowledge was everything and a lack of it could lead to death.
“What do you mean?”
“Sometimes the thirst for knowledge is not worth pursuing if the cost is your life. But some things in life are worth going for even if you have to sacrifice yourself. I never felt this way but I've seen others who have.” Jing shared.
“...” Li Li’s child-like superbrain was doing all it could to process the information he was receiving at the moment.
Jing took the lead and went towards the next Ghostly King’s territory. Her storage ring had infinite capacity after all thanks to SCP-914. She could probably absorb the entire planet and still have room to stuff things. There was no limit to the number of things she could take.
‘Wait!’ Jing suddenly came to a startling realization about her storage ring.
It would be possible for her to store the Great Tower into her storage ring, wouldn’t it...? In fact, why stop at just the Great Tower? Couldn’t she take whatever he laid her eyes on? As long as it wasn’t a living human or living animal, she could put it inside her storage ring. This would be very fun to play around with... Jing had to think of a few fun ways to utilize this information to its full potential.
“Let’s see if I can suck up this annoying fog.” While Jing could see clearly and far with her refined eyes, it was still a bother to see nothing but fog, trees, and occasionally ghosts.
Jing’s storage ring lit up with purple light as Jing indicated with her qi that she wanted to suck up the fog. Then a great change happened within the Endless Plains of Yin.
It took quite some time before people started to return to the ancient palace but once they realized that Hu Tao was no longer in the area, they went back to standing around the locked door. All the Golden Serpent Sect disciples could do was wait. They only had two plates out of the required three and brute force or any trickery was pointless in front of the palace doors. It was the third and final day of the second portion of the test. There was no point in going out to search for the third plate by now because once they return, the test would already be over by then! So, they could only hope that the person with the third plate would show up sometime soon.
“I could’ve collected so many ghosts by now...” Ying felt like tearing her hair out.
At her core, Ying was not a very patient girl. If there was one thing she hated, it was waiting. In her opinion, why wait for something to happen when she could go and make it happen herself? This didn’t count when talking about confessing her feelings to Bing though. Why not? Because it just doesn’t!
If she had the time, she would storm out of this crowd and search this stupid creepy place up and down to find that third plate. Thankfully, there was someone willing to do that. Tang Wuying let out an annoyed sigh as he got up from his place on the stairs. Everyone below him quickly split apart to make room for him. Tang was one of the few disciples capable of killing one of Hu Tao’s clones. Clones that didn’t have Hu Tao’s power but all of his skills.
Everyone that was able to defeat the clones had their status rise because it proved that they were skilled martial artists that shouldn’t be messed with recklessly. Not just anyone could defeat Hu Tao. Even beating a weakened Hu Tao is still an achievement in the eyes of these disciples because very few people could claim they beat Hu Tao at all in a one-on-one fight! Ying and the gang said nothing once they found out about the trouble that Hu Tao caused moments ago. They didn’t want to be the target of everyone’s hatred by pointing out that they were allies with Hu Tao.
“Well, it is Hu Tao.” Bing smiled and shrugged.
If there was anyone willing to go against the Inner Court factions just by themself, it would definitely be Hu Tao. The only way Bing could see himself doing something so suicidal was if the Empress ordered him to or... if his friends’ lives were in danger? But if something happened to everyone in Heaven’s Angels, Bing doubted that his strength would be enough to save them all. In his opinion, he felt that he was one of the weakest angels, excluding Hu Tao’s followers. Bing wasn’t blind to his own power but compared to the others, he felt that all he had was a strong body and powerful strength. Didn’t a cultivator need more than just that to be recognized as strong?
“He’s going to get us caught up in some annoying problems one of these days and we’ll have to clean up his mess.” Ying was annoyed.
Right now, they were completely surrounded on all sides by disciples who were harassed by Hu Tao. Some of their friends and siblings died at his hands from his attack earlier. She was sure that they would love to let out the anger they were feeling right now out on them even if they didn’t do anything. While Ying felt empathy for their situations, it didn’t mean that she would allow herself to be a target for them to release that pent-up hatred they’re feeling. Ying would cut them down with no remorse.
If they’re really upset about Hu Tao’s actions, then get stronger and deal with him by themself. That was the way of the world. Strength was king and weakness was the source of misery. Ying knew if she lost someone she cared about to Hu Tao, she would train her mind, body, and soul to pass their limits to kill him herself. Luckily for her, there were few people she cared about in this world. And no, Hu Tao was not one of them.
“That does sound like it makes sense...” Jie agreed. “Eventually we’re going to be recognized as Hu Tao’s companions and forced to deal with the problems he creates.” She muttered.
“...” Shang stayed silent as he just listened to as much information as he could.
Apparently, this Hu Tao fellow is a follower under his woman that regularly causes trouble for others. Shang wondered if Jing was bothered by Hu Tao as well. If she needed help, he could discipline him for her. But he wasn’t going to assume that just because everyone else in her group was troubled by him, that would mean that she was troubled by him too. For now, he would continue to follow her followers around, help them out when they needed it, and listen to more information.
“Hehehehe...” Ying suddenly started giggling with a mischievous smile on her face.
“I don’t like the sound of that...” Bing mumbled.
Ying took out Heaven’s Angels message talisman and began writing something for all the members to read.
“Next time Hu Tao causes trouble and forces us to deal with it, how about we team up next time we meet and pummel him together?” She wrote.
Bing pulled out his talisman and looked at Ying as if she was crazy.
“Sounds interesting...?” Lei Zhi responded.
“Do you really think we’re strong enough to deal with Hu Tao even together?” Bing messaged.
“We’ll be enough.” Wan Qing’s message came flying in.
“Hahahaha! We’ll teach that annoying bastard a lesson for causing us so much trouble! Qing, do you know what mess he just caused recently?” Ying asked.
“No, but I have a feeling it had something to do with the place where the plates are supposed to go.”
“Plates?” Jing’s message came flying in.
“Did you find a plate, Jing?!” Ying’s attention was momentarily taken away.
“I might have. I’ll send a clone to deliver it to you. It isn’t getting much use out of being in my hands anyway.” Jing told her.
“Please send it as fast as possible! It's almost time for us to leave the Endless Plains.” Ying kindly reminded.
“Oh, that is true, isn’t it?” Lei remembered.
“How are things going on your end, Lei?” Bing asked.
“Things are going relatively well I’d say... Runt and I are doing our best to save as many people as we can while collecting any ghosts that come our way.”
“Why are you doing that?” Ying questioned.
“To further my skills and it turns out that the youth are a lot more willing to listen to reason after being saved from dying. I believe I can use my skills in healing to reform the youth. By being indebted to me for saving them, asking them to be kind enough to save another or treat others with the respect you wish to receive isn’t much, in my opinion, to ask of them.” Lei Zhi answered.
“Sounds dumb to me. They’re just going to take advantage of your kindness and continue being the person they were before meeting you.” Ying told him her honest thoughts.
“Please don’t tell me you’re healing them for free!” Bing added.
“I’m not that naïve, Bing. I can recognize the value of my skills and always request something of value depending on the extent of the patient’s injuries. And I can only hope that things don’t turn out that way, Ying.” Lei Zhi responded.
“Where is Hu Tao?” Jing asked.
No one responded and this made everyone slowly realize that something unusual was going on. Hu Tao wasn’t the type to hold his tongue or quietly watch things unfold in front of him. Ying was confused on why Hu Tao didn’t respond earlier when she made the plan to beat him up with the rest of the angels. She felt that he would’ve definitely said something like, “Bring it on!” with a bunch of curses or something similar to that. And there was also the fact that Hu Tao would never ignore Jing of all people. Meaning that something has happened to Hu Tao and he’s unable to read the message talisman.
“He didn’t get sealed again, did he...?” Bing was scared of the possibility.
The last time Hu Tao got sealed, both he and Lei Zhi nearly died! If it wasn’t for Ying’s timely assistance, they would be dead right now! So, Bing was hoping with all of his heart that Hu Tao didn’t get sealed again. Because only Jing would have the knowledge or power to break him out of whatever formation he got trapped in. Hopefully, they wouldn’t have to go out of their way to save him but Bing was not very hopeful about this.
“We don’t have to save him, do we, Jing? Can’t we leave him sealed for like 5... 10... maybe a hundred years and then go save him?” Ying pleaded.
“I say he does deserve some time to stay sealed. How long has it been since he was sealed last time? If we let him stay sealed for a few years, maybe we can avoid having our reputation ruined by that fool.” Wan Qing suggested.
“I’m in favor of keeping Hu Tao sealed for the time being.” Lei Zhi agreed.
“Very well. We’ll put off Hu Tao’s rescue for now but you all will need to find a fitting replacement for him soon.” Jing conceded to their feelings. “I also would like to know who sealed him in the first place.”
Despite how useful Hu Tao was, if he was bringing nothing but trouble and headache to his teammates, he could only blame himself for having his rescue delayed. Jing couldn’t very well ignore the feelings of her followers. It would be unfortunate for Hu Tao but it was his own fault. Some time to cool his head and rest may help him. His actions had consequences and it seems the karma for his actions has finally caught up with him. Not that Jing believed in karmic retribution in the first place. Plus, if being sealed was all he got as payback from karma, Jing believes that the law of karma is quite forgiving and lenient.
“Understood, Empress!” Bing’s message came.
“I might have a good replacement option!” Ying’s eyes hungrily stared at the useful, coolheaded, and non-troublesome Zhai.
“Well, I can’t wait to meet them. Hopefully, they’re as good as you think they are.” Jing left the group with that message.