Ying lifted her blade into the air and swung it down for the 500th time. She was mildly sweating but this wasn’t anywhere near her limit. This was one part of her training, swinging her blade till she couldn’t swing it anymore. The other part was image training. Lei Zhi is the one who gave her the idea after she complained about not being able to train her sword technique without cutting people apart. 

  She had to give the old man credit, this image training was a perfect way of testing everything she’s learned and raising her martial arts at the same time. She wondered how an old coot like him could think of something like that and Bing asked for her thankfully.  

“Lei Zhi, how did you think of this training method?”  

  He chuckled sadly before answering. 

“I wanted to find a way of making myself stronger without risking my life against the other disciples. So, I watched the strongest disciples fight against each other and imagined myself fighting against them. And since I knew that I had no possible chance against them, they were the perfect opponents to help me train myself as I believed that they would be able to react to anything I could pull out against them.” He told them. 

“That’s pretty smart...” Bing complimented. 

“But what if you can’t think of anyone that strong?” Ying asked. 

“My only advice would be to find someone that you believe is unbeatable. I was always weak and even now I still believe I'm weak. That’s why it’s not that much of a problem for me to image multiple cultivators that I believe I wouldn’t stand a chance against.” Lei Zhi responded. 

  Ying was stuck thinking about multiple people inside her head. 

“Why don’t you just imagine Hu Tao?” Bing asked. 

“That shitty bastard is strong but he’s not unbeatable! Just wait till I catch up to him in cultivation!” Ying growled. 

“What about any top rankers?” Lei Zhi suggested. 

“I don’t know much about any of them. None of the people in the Outer Court really gives me a dangerous feeling.” 

“Why are you only thinking about the people in the Outer Court?” Bing asked. 

“You could even think of your own father, mother, sister, or grandfather. Anyone whose fighting style you have a clear understanding of.” Lei Zhi added. 

“Hmm...” Ying closed her eyes and three figures appeared in front of her. 

  Jing, Manchu, and her Grandfather stood in front of her. Jing’s copy immediately disappeared as she didn’t understand how she fought. Ying was indeed terrified of her strength but she didn’t know how she used that strength in a fight. Manchu would be the perfect opponent if that shitty bastard, Hu Tao, wasn’t always going off about how he’s hiding his real strength and never really goes all out in his ranking matches. His copy also faded away, leaving her grandfather as the only person she can battle against. Her grandfather was an incredibly strong cultivator and there was only a single time she’s ever seen him going all out. It will have to do. 

  Bing was doing a different type of training from Ying and Lei Zhi. As a cultivator that uses a shield to battle, his main focus in training was to increase how long he can endure. Endurance is what he needed to train first over his strength, speed, and skill. From what his shield art told him, a shielder than can’t last in battle is a useless shielder. Even if his shield were to break, as long as he can keep moving, that is all that matters. 

  He was repeatedly using his movement martial art, Swift Devil, to wear his body out. Swift Devil is a leg-based technique that is quite different from others. Qi is an important part of using it but the skill places more strain on the body rather than just using up qi. The more Bing uses Swift Devil, the stronger his body becomes in the long run.  

“Swift Devil!” Bing sped across the open grass land. “Swift Devil!” Bing shot back towards where he began and continued this until the pain and strain of his body told him he couldn’t use Swift Devil anymore without serious injuries to his legs. 

  Lei Zhi was focused solely on image training for the most part. It wasn’t until near the end of the day that Lei Zhi fished out his second aquatic spirit beast that would mark him as a beast master from now on. Lei Zhi tossed his fishing hook into the colored spatial gash leading into the strange world filled with an uncountable number of aquatic creatures and pulled out a very strange beast. Both Bing and Ying stopped their training to get a good look at this mysterious creature. Their curiosity was piqued. 

  The beast was so clear that you could see completely through it! It was shaped like a bell with a large bulbus head and had very long thick tentacles on the underside of it. It was floating in the air as if it was underwater. The creature’s horizontal slant eyes looked at them with curiosity. 

“What kind of spirit beast is this?” Ying asked as she accidentally brushed against the bottom of one of the tentacles, trying to touch the translucent bell-shaped head. 

  Ying’s sudden ear-piercing scream and convulsing shaking on the ground scared both Bing and Lei Zhi out of their skins. The spirit beast quickly grabbed onto Lei Zhi and started turning into the colors of his outfit, seemingly turning invisible. 

“Get a recovery pill!” Lei Zhi shouted. 

“I’m on it! I'm on it!” Bing frantically dug into his pocket and crouched down to feed Ying a pill. 

  She was still screaming to the top of her lungs and her hand was red and swollen. The reddening was slowly crawling up her arm. Her veins were popping out from every inch of her body until Bing forced her to swallow the recovery pill. She nearly shattered the bones in his arms holding onto him as he was feeding her from her immense strength. 

  Bing had to also give himself a recovery pill after healing Ying.  

“It still hurts...! What the hell did that thing do to me!?” Ying fiercely lashed out by smashing the ground with her fist, creating a small crater in front of her. 

“I think only you can tell us that. What happened when you touched his arm?” Lei Zhi asked. 

“I just barely touched the stupid thing before feeling like I was stabbed by something and then it felt like I was burning alive! It was like I decided to jump into a pool of lava and every inch of my insides were feeling it! My Burning Eruption martial art is all about fire, heat, and burning! I know what it feels like to burn and that pain was nothing like my flames!” Ying yelled. 

“Maybe it’s a type of poison...” Bing guessed. 

“A poison that causes severe pain instead of sickness?” Lei Zhi questioned. 

“Well I don’t know for sure. We’d have to test it on an animal or spirit beast and watch how they react to the sting.” Bing responded. 

“I believe you’re right. This is going to be my spirit beast for the time being. I should get to understand and know what he can do.” Lei Zhi said carefully rubbing the head of the squishy being and avoiding the numerous tentacles. 

“If it was up to me, I’d burn the damn thing up!” Ying angrily shouted. 

“Come on Ying. It’s not like it tried to hurt you. It was just an accident. Surely it doesn’t deserve to die over something like that?” Bing tried to reason. 

“YOU didn’t get stung by it and felt what I felt! So, shut up!” The two boys could see that Ying was still in pain and was just acting tough to try and take her mind off the pain. They would let her be angry for a while. 

  Bing did as she said and both men decided it would be best to let Ying cool off. They wandered off into the immortal forest together to see what else the squishy spirit beast could do while Ying decided to let off some steam by training even harder than before with only one hand. 

---

  Qing looked in wonder and complete amazement at the gifts she received from Jing. She just got done testing her new weapon and couldn’t help but express her joy with a wide smile. Even her golden panda cub got something for itself from Jing. Butterflies of all sorts of colors were flying around the talented disciples and her new pet. Ni Xong, her pet panda, was running around trying to catch them with its new weapons. 

  These butterflies that were swarming around them wasn’t just any group of butterflies. They were actually from her weapon she got from Jing. It looked like a giant iron fan. It was a shiny black fan when closed but when It was opened, a surplus of colors appeared on the inside of the fan. But if one was to take a closer look, they would notice that the colors seemed to move with life and grace. And if one was to take an even closer look, you could see that the entire fan was made up of living butterflies! 

  Qing’s new weapon was a group of strange butterflies that mimicked the appearance of a giant iron fan! They could do a lot more than that though. It was such a fascinating and beautiful weapon that Qing could barely believe something like this existed! Who would ever think that there was a group of insects that could be used as a weapon!? Who knows just how many other miraculous species out there that could compete with something like this? 

  Ni Xong’s weapon was more normal compared to her’s. Two giant metal golden gloves that it could somehow lift even though it was still a baby. Qing just chalked it up to him being a mutant. Looking at the two weapons, of course Qing wondered how in the world did Jing possibly get ahold of these two things. If there was a group of bugs that could be used as weapons then why wouldn’t there be other cultivators raising these bugs for themselves? It was impossible for Jing to be the only one to know of these insects... 

  Just what kind of person did she get herself involved with...?  

‘I still don’t regret taking her hand back when I was about to pass on. In the past, I would rather kill myself than place myself under another but after my close experience with death... Jing and her grand ambition will only help me in what I wish to accomplish myself.’ Qing thought. 

  Wan Qing suddenly turned around and focused her eyes on 3 figures hiding among the trees. If it wasn’t for her new weapon, she wouldn’t even have noticed them watching her. Somehow, the butterflies could communicate with her as well. 

“Come out or I will force you out myself.” She grabbed her fan and partially opened it. 

  The three slowly walked out and revealed themselves. They surely weren’t any friends of hers and were people she wouldn’t mind taking out herself. It was Ping, Shan, and Li Quang. They looked surprised at her being able to notice them but walked with confidence as they strolled up to her. 

“So, you did manage to get your hand on the sky-ranked weapon...” Ping said with his voice laced with disgust and some jealousy. 

“I guess that also explains why the golden panda cub is here as well. Where did you find those gloves? Was there another spirit weapon hidden inside the cave?” Li Qiang asked. 

“A disgusting freak like you having weapons like that is only a waste. You should quickly hand them to us along with the mutant cub, if you know what’s good for you.” Shan threatened. 

“So, this is why you’re here? To rob me? Is that right?” Wan Qing asked to make sure. 

“If you wish to keep your life, then it would be best to surrender them to us.” Ping softly spoke with killing intent bearing down on Qing. 

“Trying to steal from me? Maybe if you tried this during the hunt for the weapon you could’ve killed me but now, you won’t even be able to touch me.” Four butterfly wings made of qi appeared out of her back and she flew into the air.  

  Ni Xong ran and hid behind some trees as Wan Qing swung her fan down at the three cultivators. Ping was one stage above her, Li Qiang was at the 6th stage just like her, and Shan was one stage below her. Her fan generated powerful winds that forced both Shan and Li Qiang to be launched into the air. Ping kept himself from flying away by stabbing his feet into the earth that kept himself grounded. Li Qiang managed to hold onto a tree as the fierce winds continued to blow at them. Shan was unable to grab hold of anything and was sent flying through the skies above the giant trees in the Immortal Forest. Whether he’ll be alive by the time he comes down is something no one could tell. 

  The winds died down and Ping leapt towards her with great speed and power. He was a body cultivator. One of the most unrefined type of cultivators in Qing’s opinion but strength is strength no matter what it looks like. One of the harshest lessons Qing had to learn when she joined the sect was that strength is everything and face is second. You could be the biggest scum hypocrite in the world but if you had strength that no one could contend with, you were the one who was in the right and in control. 

  Qing easily flew out of the way of Ping’s lunge but after fighting with him on more than a couple occasions, they’ve learned a few tricks from one another. Ping landed on a tree with his foot and jumped after Qing after she dodged his first grab. Knowing that Ping would just keep bouncing from tree to tree with his speed increasing after every bounce, Qing flew above the trees where there was nothing to bounce off from. 

  Ping was forced to land or he would be risking his life if he missed and fell from that great height. Li Qiang sent a qi slash from his sword towards Qing, forcing her to block with her fan or she could be split apart from it. Wan Qing swung her fan a second time, sending out numerous razor winds that sliced apart anything they touched! The branches on the trees, the trees themselves, the skin on Ping and Li Qiang’s bodies, and caused several gashes in the earth below. 

  Ping clicked his tongue in annoyance. It would be impossible for a fighter like him to defeat Wan Qing in a situation like this. His best bet would be to throw something at him but he could just fly out of the way with those annoying wings. He was too hasty. He should’ve investigated Wan Qing in secret before planning out this ambush. It pissed him off but he would have to retreat and take Wan Qing’s out another time. 

  Ping jumped towards Li Qiang and grabbed him before fleeing. Wan Qing let out a loud mocking laughter at the sight of the two retreating, just to rub salt into their wounds some more. She didn’t even get to try out all the abilities of her new fan because of how quick the fight was. Maybe she’ll get lucky and encounter Ping in the Plains. She won’t let him escape from death then! 

  Ni Xong came out from behind the tree and looked at Wan Qing before running over and hugging her leg. Qing comforted the scared little boy and wondered how in the world was she going to train this little guy. If a fight like that was enough to send him running in fear it's going to be a while before he’s ready to fight something. She doesn’t have much time before the Treasured Plains open either... 

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