The group slowly made their way through the cramped narrow space within the cave. They could only see blackness and hear each other’s breathing in this tight space. The only path forward was going straight. If anything came towards them during this time, they wouldn’t even have enough room to try and take out their weapons! This is another reason why Bing decided to take the lead. 

  Bing was a body cultivator which meant that even without his weapon, he wouldn’t be helpless to any attacks. He could use his bare hands to try and eliminate any threats. Lei Zhi and Wan Qing were qi cultivators. They could strengthen their bodies by layering qi over themselves but this would wear out quickly against an equal or stronger opponent. Their main focus is in causing as much damage using martial arts that don’t involve infusing qi into their bodies. 

  Ying could have also taken this task as she’s a body cultivator just like Bing but Bing decided to take this task over for himself. He did use a shield after all. What would be the point of having his shield if he didn’t use it to protect himself or the people around him? It’d be no better than an accessory. 

“Ying, you sense anything up ahead?” Bing asked. 

“Hold on. Give me a sec, I gotta feed this hungry little runt again.” Ying responded as she fed the great sword another spirit stone in its eyeball. Her sword felt embarrassed after Ying said this out loud. 

  As everyone else stopped moving to wait on her, the great sword began to transform into the incredibly long and sharp blade from before. Her sword’s transformation only lasted ten minutes and when those ten minutes were up the new abilities it gained would slowly vanish along with reverting back to its original appearance. Ying searched with her qi. She didn’t feel any other qi ahead besides those in her group. 

“There is an open space we will reach soon and when we get past there, the spirit tool will be sitting on top of something.” Ying relayed. 

“Got it. Let’s keep moving then.” Bing said. 

  The group continued their way forward slowly and carefully. There was no going backward in this tight path. If something happened up ahead, they would have to rely on Bing to handle it or they’ll all be screwed. None of their martial arts could be used with their arms and legs so restricted, even trying to reach for their weapons would be a wasted effort. No movement arts, weapon arts, auxiliary arts, or body arts could be used to defend from something attacking them. 

“Hold on Bing, I hear something up ahead.” Lei Zhi suddenly spoke. Bing stopped in his tracks while everyone else matched him. 

“We’re about to reach the open area! You probably just heard some rocks falling or something.” Ying dismissed. 

“Rocks don’t sound like metal...” Lei Zhi responded. 

“I’m telling you, I don’t sense anything with qi ahead of us. And if you didn’t know, every living thing has qi inside them! Even people that don’t cultivate have qi.”  

“There could be something that doesn’t have qi inside them...” Bing pondered. 

“How is that even possible?” Wan Qing asked. 

“I guess we’ll have to find out. Follow me, I'm going in.” Bing walked at a slightly faster pace with his hands ready to block or catch anything coming towards him. 

  Bing swelled himself up with his Devil’s Arms and grew an extra pair of arms out of his palms to increase his reach. As they got closer to the opening, everyone else could also hear the sounds Lei Zhi heard.  

“Damn it!” Ying cursed under her breathe. 

“Hehehe.” Lei Zhi innocently chuckled, prompting a smile from Wan Qing. 

“I see light up ahead!” Bing told them as he squeezed his way into the open cave area. 

“Grr...” The growling startled Bing but he did not lose his composure. He saw multiple black metallic dog-like beasts running towards him. 

“Yea! There’s definitely something we have to deal with besides the spirit tool!” Bing pulled his 2nd pair of arms back into his body and held his shield in front of himself. 

  There were about a ten of these strange beasts in all. Three were attacking from his front, two from his left, two on his right, and three from above. If he stood here and blocked, he would get flanked by the four on his sides. Those sharp maws of theirs look like they can tear right through his flesh with no problem. He wasn’t going to take a needless risk.  

“Get ready to fight once you’re in here! Swift Devil!” Bing shouted, ramming his shield into six of the canines. 

  The remaining four quickly dashed after him, allowing the others to come inside the open area. Ying pulled out her transformed sword and dashed after the dogs chasing Bing. Lei Zhi reached for his pink fishing rod on his back and tossed its hook towards the metal beasts. Xiurong leapt off of Zhi’s shoulders and grew to the size of a tiger. Quon’s thick tentacles extended and reached for any dogs he could grab. Wan Qing couldn’t use her fan’s wind ability in a place like this without affecting her allies, but that wasn’t her only method of fighting. She grabbed her fan like a club and flew after the strange beasts. Ni Xong hid behind a rock and watched. 

  Bing smashed six of the dogs into the wall with enough strength that he partially lodged them inside. They continued to snap and bark at him without a care in the world. Bing’s body being strengthened by his Devil’s Physique allowed him to pull off tasks that cultivators a few stages higher than him couldn’t dare to try. In the Qi Gathering stage, the main difference in the stages is physical strength. Your qi is mostly unaffected until you get to the late stages where you become more accustomed to qi and learn how to use it more naturally. Such as being able to infuse it into weapons, infuse it into their limbs separately, and creating their qi pool in preparation for the next realm. 

  The metal beasts were starting to claw and bite their way out of the cave wall. Bing really didn’t want to take on six of them at once. So, before they could free themselves Bing slammed his shield into the immobile metal beasts, sending them deeper and deeper into the cave walls. Unfortunately, his shield was only so big. He could only trap two inside while the other 4 got free and leapt towards him with their maws wide open for a bite. He gritted his teeth as he prepared himself for the incoming pain. 

“I got you Bing!” Qing said as she batted the four away with a single swing, her fan was opened all the way to catch each beast. 

“Thanks. You don’t know how scared I was of getting bit.” Bing wiped his sweaty forehead. 

“You looked pretty brave to me.” Wan Qing smiled. 

“That’s good to know I didn’t look as frightened as I felt.” 

“It would’ve been fine either way. Women like a man who isn’t afraid of showing his emotions.” 

“Thanks...?” Bing said confused. 

“You’re still young, maybe you’ll understand when you fall in love.” Qing giggled. 

“Love? What are you---” One of the metal canines came flying right past Qing and Bing, crashing into the wall. 

  Ying came over and glared at Bing. 

“How about we save the flirting for later?” She coldly spoke while slashing the metal beast in half with her blade. 

“Flirting?” Bing was only getting more confused as time went on. 

“You don’t need to worry Ying. I'm not a thief.” She chuckled as Ying’s face blushed heavily. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” She released her embarrassment on the sliced dog and ignited her sword.  

  The heat coming off her long blade melted the metal beast into silver molten. She then ran off to deal with another beast while Bing’s mind was running in circles trying to process Qing and Ying’s words. Wan Qing flew off to help out the others leaving Bing alone with the two trapped dogs in the wall. Realizing that standing there trying to understand the conversation between Qing and Ying wasn’t helping anyone, He got to work on trying to kill the two stuck beasts in the wall. 

  Lei Zhi hooked onto one of the creatures with his fishing rod. The hook snagged onto the top of its maw and he reeled it in at incredible speeds. The metal beast couldn’t even hope to resist against the unbelievable strength of the fishing rod. Lei Zhi felt like he was reeling in a goldfish with how effortless it felt. He mentally asked for Xiurong to help him out. 

  Xiurong reached out with her claw and as it was about to zip past her, she caught it in-between her claw and snapped it in half. The creature’s separated body fell to the ground and Lei Zhi went over to take his hook out of its jaw. He made sure to give Xiurong a congratulatory rub on the head before reaching over to take the hook out. Just as he was about to reach into the mouth of the fallen beast, it quickly snapped its jaws to bite his hand off. 

  Lei Zhi’s hand moved with the swiftness of a gazelle as he barely managed to save his hand in time from the sneak attack. If it wasn’t for his auxiliary martial art enhancing his senses, Lei Zhi would have had to say goodbye to his left hand right there.  

‘How frightening... I just started back on my path of cultivation and nearly became even more crippled than I was before.’  

  Could Jing’s mysterious background even replace a hand? Lei Zhi really didn’t want to find out. Xiurong crushed the metal dog with her claw as soon as she saw what happened. She used all her strength as she smashed her fist into the two halves, turning it into flat metal scrap. Lei Zhi rubbed Xiurong’s shell to calm her down and show her that he’s okay. Xiurong was still very pissed that something bad could’ve happened to Lei. She blurped something at Quon and he hopped on top of her shell as she charged towards the other metal beasts. 

“The metal dogs can stay alive even after being cut in half!” Lei Zhi shouted. 

“What?!” Ying exclaimed as she just sliced upwards with her blade and split a metal beast in half. 

  The two parts of it fell to the ground lifelessly before twitching and then rising back up and merging back together into a whole. 

“Annoying!” The metal beast she just dealt with came after her with a friend. 

  Ying ignited her sword as Qing flew in and bashed the friend away. Quon caught it in the air with his tentacle and began to crush it with powerful strength. He used his other tentacles to fold it into a small cube so that it couldn’t hurt anyone even if it was still alive like this. Qing smiled as she saw Zhi’s spirit beasts working together.  

  Ni Xong was just hiding behind a rock watching them. She’s really going to have to teach that boy not to be so afraid of fighting. If she doesn’t, he’s going to have a rough time in the future. He might be a baby but other spirit beasts his age would be already be having lessons on how to hunt with their parents. During her time in the Treasured Plains, she’s going to have to give him some confidence. 

  Once the group learned how to deal with the metal creatures, they stopped behaving like wild animals. They watched as the dogs ran away to one side of the cave and started shaking together. Bing’s eyes widen as he saw the place they needed to go wasn’t blocked off anymore. During the fight earlier, a group of those metal beasts would always be near that part of the cave and refuse to let anyone past it. Now they can head straight for the spirit tool! 

“Sorry about this Ying!” Bing swept Ying off her feet like a princess and started running for the room where the spirit tool was in. “Follow me! We don’t need to fight that thing, we just need to get the spirit tool!” He yelled. 

“Put me down Fatass!!! I told you that a Yue never retreats! I’m going to kick that things ass and you can’t stop me!” Ying fiercely struggled. Everyone else followed behind him as they agreed with his point. If there wasn’t a point to fighting then why fight? They wouldn’t get any benefits fighting this metal beast. 

“We’re not retreating! We’re just leaving for a moment! You can deal with it after we’re done!” Bing held onto Ying’s slim waist tightly. 

“You’re a bad liar and a stupid fat headed idiot!” Ying’s face was as red as an apple while Bing’s strong arms were held around her. Did he think she was some weak defenseless girl?! She could take care of herself without his help! Why the hell was he making her so irritated lately!? Just looking at him made her feel upset but being held in his arms like this made her realize that she wasn’t that opposed to it. 

  What Bing and the others didn’t realize was that they had people behind him them. The cultivators from the cliff that followed them into the waters. They also showed up on the cave’s beach and went through the narrow hole just like they did. Only to stumble upon a giant metallic wolf staring them down as they came out of the narrow hole. 

“GO BACK! GO BACK! GO BACK!” 

“I can’t! I can’t turn my body!” 

“Fucking get out of my way!” The cultivator tried pushing the guy back but it didn’t save him in time when he tried to squeeze back inside. The upper half of his body was chomped by the wolf, scaring the disciple into the wall so badly, he froze. Seeing his peer’s internal organs spilling out of his upper and lower body caused his soul to momentarily free itself from its mortal chains. 

  The metal wolf got up close to the small hole in the wall and sneered as it made eye contact with the frightened cultivator. A smelly yellow stream started to pool around his feet. This sent the beast into a frenzy. It started to ram into the wall with its entire body to get at the cultivator inside, shifting the cave entirely. 

“What’s going on up there!?” 

“Who’s fucking around at a time like this!?” 

“Stop playing and get moving! It's hot back here!” 

“We’re all gonna die....” The cultivator who urinated cried with tears down his eyes. 

“Fucking move you shithead!” 

“What’s that loud noise?! Are you trying to bring the whole cave down on us?!” 

“If you retards forgot, we’re still underwater in this cave! If this cave caves in, we’re so far deep in the ocean that none of us will make it back alive!” 

“Maybe drowning won’t be so bad... We’re still in an illusion so we might just reappear back on the cliff completely fine.” 

“If you want to drown yourself, go ahead and do it by yourself, you damn fool! Some of us don’t want to experience death and just want to break out of this god damn stupid illusion array!” 

“I was just saying... Maybe drowning wouldn’t be that bad of a way to go. Didn’t need to get so pissy...” 

“Shut your stupid fucking mouth and try to figure out what the hell is happening up ahead. Being trapped with so many sweaty guys is pissing me off.” 

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