Chapter 154: Some Thinking & A Funeral?

  SCP-999 was perhaps one of the strongest creatures in the world from what Jing just learned. But she did not mean strongest in the form of physical strength or anything like that. No, this SCP had a special quality to it that could prove quite useful to Jing when she returns back. Its anomalous ability was essentially personified happiness and joy in the form of an infant slime. Even now, it was gurgling and trying to hug her with its little slime arms. Jing stopped it with a tendril of water as she wasn't in the mood to be happy right now.

  Through touch, SCP-999 was able to bring delight and jubilation to anyone. This feeling of happiness is increased the longer you stay in contact with the gelatinous blob and doesn't wear off immediately when that contact is broken. Jing already knew of a situation in where she could use these effects to her advantage but first, there were a few things she had to test first with this thing... She wasn't exactly keen on being affected by its ability but knew sooner or later it would have to happen. How could she properly put this thing to use without first testing of its ability herself? A question she would only ask herself regarding an SCP like this that can't harm her in a sense where she would get hurt.

"I might have to make you a friend inside Ying's Void World. Perhaps Lei Zhi could help me with that." She muttered as SCP-999 crawled over to Drill and hugged him.

  A strange look on his face appeared as he began to start squeaking. This squeaking soon turned into a full-blown rabbit laughter and maybe some pleading as well? SCP-999's tickling didn't stop even after the bunny begged for mercy. It was only when he looked towards Jing that she gave him a helping hand as he soon passed out with a wide smile on his face after catching his breath.

"Dangerous little thing..." Jing narrowed her eyes as she looked at the orange bundle of joy coming towards her while giving high-pitched coos and gurgles.

  Just like before, she captured it with water before it could physically touch her. The next one was SCP-871. A food-related SCP that had the potential to engulf and destroy worlds. On paper, once its anomalous ability was read out, a person's first thoughts wouldn't lead to an outcome like that. But Jing saw through the simplicity of it. This cake, when consumed by a human or humans, would be replaced approximately 24 hours afterwards with a similar cake. It appears on any flat surfaces near the area where the last cake was eaten. Now here's where things began to get interesting.

  If an instance of SCP-871 was damaged through other means, including being devoured by beasts, then it will be replaced instantaneously. While any cake not consumed, will create a new cake after 24 hours with the same anomalous properties as the original cake. Creating two self-replicating cakes and if these two aren't eaten they would make two more replicating cakes, creating four in total. That 4 would turn into 8, 8 to 16 and so forth. And from there, you can see how things could get out of hand very quickly if a large number of these cakes weren't eaten with 10% of the instance's mass left before 24 hours were up.

  Jing had some thoughts on what to do with this SCP. It would be her first step in expanding outside the sect and inside. She could get started now while she was still just a disciple and then when she becomes sect leader, that was when she would share her business with the world at large. Something that would only be possible if her business was worth it. And for that, Jing had no doubts on the potential of her future products. With SCP-914, what part of the market at large couldn't she completely dominate?! SCP-871 was just an interesting direction to start with.

  Jing took out her mask and placed it on SCP-999.

"Can you turn into a fly?" She asked.

  He didn't do it and managed to shock Jing with a brief moment of excitement as its pseudopod slightly rubbed the back of her hand. The sudden spike of positive emotions surprised Jing as she quickly pulled back her hand. Considering the danger of the thing, Jing no longer wanted to test it anymore. Not being in control of her emotions was something she was hesitant to admit but it was one of her fears. This thing being able to make her feel whatever it wanted was like handing control of her emotions over to it. An infant that knew of nothing but trying to bring happiness to others, eating sweets, and being kind. It frightened her but she refused to let her fear control her actions.

  She would just... save the testing for the future. When she wasn't afraid of the power of SCP-999. Jing wasn't so childish that she couldn't admit her true feelings to herself. Out of all the SCP's she summoned so far, this one was the scariest by far. Her inner thoughts and emotions were everything to her. And to have this thing violate that by forcefully making her feel a certain way? No thank you.

"I guess I better get back now. See what I missed while I was gone." Jing muttered to herself. She grabbed SCP-999, SCP-871, and Drill before teleporting away with a talisman.

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  Quite a few things have happened since Jing went missing at the sect. The Grand Tournament was coming up in a few days and everyone was preparing themselves for it. Many of Jing's acquaintances have been going on with their own lives while wondering what the hell has happened to her. Inside Ying's Void World, frequent arguments rang out during the time she was missing.

"So, you just left her alone to face an Earthly Immortal!?" Hu Tao shouted.

"We didn't leave her! She teleported us away! You can't try and pin the blame of us when we had nothing to with it! All we did was what we were told by Bleep herself!" Wan Qing yelled back.

"Then why didn't you go after her!?"

"And do what!? Die pointlessly?! Even if all of us teamed up together, none of us would stand a chance against an Earthly Immortal even with the gifts Bleep gave us!"

"She's right, Hu Tao." Ying agreed.

"An Earthly Immortal is just too far out of our league to take on." Bing added.

"So, none of you even went to search for her corpse huh? Fine. I'll go on my own then. Fuck you pussies." Hu Tao put up the middle finger and was about to exit the Void World before a little bird landed on his shoulder.

'My mother is still alive.' Li Li linked to his soul and communicated.

"What? How do you know?!" He asked, shocked.

'I can still feel her soul out there but that's the only thing I can sense.' Li Li may have seemed calm on the outside but he was anxious beyond belief.

"Let's go find her and bring her soul back then." Hu Tao grinned.

'Let's.' His foot tapped repeatedly on Hu Tao's shoulder.

"Wait. I'll come with." Wan Qing stopped him, feeling somewhat responsible even though everything that happened wasn't her fault at all.

"Me too." Ying and Lei offered at the same time. They felt sad for Li Li.

"The Empress does deserve a proper burial for all she's done for us." Bing muttered.

  Ying let them out of the Void World and then began traveling out of the sect. Wan Qing led the way until Li Li took over when they reached the ravine. Nobody but him could see or sense souls. Li Li led them straight to his mother's soul. Upon reaching the blood puddle, a hazy figure in the form of Jing appeared above it. It stood hovering in the air without any particular emotion on its face. It turned when Li Li neared and stared him in the eyes.

'Mommy...' Tears came flowing down his eyes. His anxiety, fear, and sadness caught up to him. He was worried without belief after hearing what happened and seeing that she hasn't come home in several days.

'Son?' Li Li immediately tried pulling on her soul and bringing it inside his soul palace but she resisted.

'Stop. I am fine. Me being a ghost is only temporary.' She reassured him.

'What do you mean? The dead can't come back to life...' As a child given enhanced intelligence and remarkable abilities, of course he would play around with souls and living beings for fun. He knew the things that souls could and couldn't do.

'I will recover back to my original form. That puddle of blood you see now will turn back into my original body. You are the same way as me. When I refined you, there were only slight differences I made because you were a bird. But both of us are essentially immortal. We do not age past our prime, we cannot take fatal injuries to our bodies, and we can regenerate from nearly any wound. The only vulnerability we have is our souls. I cannot refine souls as they aren't objects, I can interact with SCP-914.' She shared with him.

'So, you're going to be fine?' Snot dripped down his nose as he tried to sniff it back up.

'Li Li, wipe your tears and get that snot off your beak. I'm going to be fine. I'll see you all when I'm back in my normal form. It won't be that long, I think.' She gave a gentle smile and tried massaged his feathers. 'Oh, and make sure to tell them I'll be fine. It looks like Hu Tao is planning to make a giant tombstone in memory of me. I still have quite a few things to do before I plan to die after all.' She floated back over to her blood puddle.

'Stop! My mom's not dead yet!' Li Li connected their souls.

"The bird can talk!?" Runt and Jie exclaimed. Ever since Hu Tao's journey to Dragon City, the two of them found themselves apart of his Badass Angels.

"I don't know how the hell that crazy bitch is still alive when she's nothing but a pool of blood on the ground but hey! What can't she do?!" Hu Tao happily exclaimed as he stopped digging the ground in preparation for the funeral.

"Bleep is still alive...?" Wan Qing crouched over the puddle and stared into it to see if she could gleam anything about it.

'Her soul said she'll recover from this. She just needs time.' Li Li said with joy, his face still a mess.

"Then that's good news for us." Ying cleaned up Li Li's face. "If something like this isn't enough to take her out, then it looks like we're set for becoming the strongest faction in the sect." She added.

"She could be sealed in a formation." Bing brought up.

'No, she's not invincible. If someone targets her soul, she's just as helpless as anyone else.' Li Li supported.

"Okay! She's not unbeatable! But still, pretty close, huh?"

"So this Bleep person... who is she...?" Jie asked in a quiet voice. A little bit freaked out that the name they're saying isn't coming out properly despite she seeing their lips say the name.

"The woman I love with all my heart." Hu Tao answered without shame. This caused several emotions to rise within Jie.

"The boss has a girlfriend!?" Runt exclaimed.

"No. He's just in love with her." Ying clarified.

"Oh." Both Runt and Jie responded.

"It's only a matter of time before that crazy girl falls for me." Hu Tao confidently boasted.

"I thought you only liked people with nice behinds." Bing blurted.

"That's different Fatass. This is true love. Not that shallow shit. I don't want to just fuck Bleep's brains out, I want to spend the rest of my life with the psycho bitch." He laid his heart bare, only to receive a kick from Li Li that sent him flying through multiple trees.

'My mother requested I stopped you from talking.' Li Li explained his behavior.

"Still love you babe!" Hu Tao groaned as he soon passed out.

"Haah... How unfortunate can I be to fall in love with someone that already has another person in his heart..." Jie sighed with all her heart.

"I don't see how you could fall in love with that thing in the first place." Ying scoffed with an agreement nod by Qing.

"Neither do I..." She went over and lifted up the knocked out Hu Tao over her shoulder.

"Should we begin heading back?" Lei Zhi spoke up after staring intently at Jing's blood since they got here.

"Yep. Now that we know Bleep is fine, we don't have any reason to be here any longer." Wan Qing responded.

"Heaven's Angels. Move out!" Ying childishly shouted. The reddening of her skin after saying it was enough to explain just how embarrassed she was to say that but she felt it was the only opportunity to say something like that.

"Cute." Wan Qing stated.

"Ah, Youth is nice." Lei smiled.

"Let's get a move on then, Angels." Bing chuckled.