Chapter 157: Baking A Cake!

"What are you doing Bleep?" Ying came over and asked. She just recently broke through into the Qi Consolidation realm and was curious on what Jing was doing over here.

  Jing was reading a thick book with a giant cauldron in front of her. Ying had no idea where this cauldron came from as she only had a small one near the garden. Apparently, Jing had free access to her Void World and could seemingly take and bring anything she wants! She didn't quite know how to feel about this.

"I'm baking a cake." Jing answered.

"A cake? For who?" Ying asked.

"For the Supreme Commander."

"Huh!?" Ying didn't believe she heard what she just think she heard.

"It's a good thing you're here, come learn how to make cakes with me. You're learning how to refine pills, aren't you? This'll be good practice."

"What!?" Ying was completely lost, confused, and out of her element. How was making cakes going to help her learn how to refine pills better?

"Watch me." Jing stepped up the ladder and opened up the cauldron's lid.

"Hand me that cake." Jing pointed to the wedding cake.

"How am I supposed to..."

"Have you already forgotten what realm you're at?" Jing gave her a look.

"Oh, yeah." Ying used her qi to grab the cake and floated it up to Jing's hands. But then she realized, couldn't Jing just have done it herself!?

"Don't lose focus and pay attention. But don't simply just watch me, experience the art of alchemy with me." Jing grabbed several ingredients and had them float behind her.

  The cake was already inside the cauldron but Ying noticed that it was being shielded by a qi barrier that prevented it from being melted by the flames. The actual refining didn't begin until the flame was at a certain temperature. Jing then got to work on the first ingredient, Silver Leaves. Silver Leaves were a basic ingredient used in pill refining to slightly increase the potency of the finished pill. Ying watched as Jing plucked each leaf off the branch before crushing them into tiny pieces and throwing them into the pot.

Instantly a white mist rose from the pot that gave off a pleasant fragrance.

"Heat up the flames." Jing asked.

  Ying fired a stream of flames from her hand at the fire. While she was doing this, Jing threw the branch into the pot and watched as the white mist slowly changed colors until it was as silver as the leaves that grew from it. She told her to stop heating up the pot and then threw several ingredients inside that soon reacted violently together from Jing using her qi to try and forcefully merge them together. Jing masterfully used her qi to calm and control the herbs into playing nice with each other before dropping several beast cores into the pot.

"What are you doing!?" Ying instinctively shouted out.

  Even an amateur pill refiner like her knew that a beast core was an item you should never include in any recipe! The wild energy inside a beast core was too volatile and uncontrollable. It would ruin any synergy and mixture made inside the cauldron. Completely messing up the pill formula and possibly injuring yourself from the explosion it would make afterwards.

  And just like Ying expected, a large explosion combusted from inside the pot. Jing's response to this situation was something she didn't expect at all though. Normally when something like this happens, the pill is already considered a failure. The pill refiner's next choice of action would be immediately getting a safe distance away from their pill furnace. However, Jing didn't do that at all. She stayed exactly where she was and created a barrier of qi around the top of the cauldron that fit nicely around it like a cloth, stopping any of the pill essence from escaping into the atmosphere.

  Something like this was only possible because it was Jing doing it. No normal cultivator has enough control and strength with their qi that they can do something like this. It was only a scene that could be awed, respected, and admired. Not replicated or followed. Which made Ying question exactly what she was supposed to be learning here...

  An intoxicating smell emanated from the pot that nearly took Ying off her feet. How could there be such a delicious smell in this world? Is that what the cake was for? But, how? Somehow Jing managed to combined the medicinal properties into a cake! Basically, making a cake that could give the same effects as a normal pill! Why would she do this and how?! Ying has never heard of anything like this being done before ever.

"Is this supposed to happen...?" She asked the void world's shadow.

It rapidly shook its head from left to right at the sight.

"Tada." Jing smile as she lifted the cake out of the cauldron.

  The mouth-watering smell quickly spread all over the void world. In no time, Heaven's Angels quickly followed their noses to the source of the smell at stared at the cake. Bing was the first to arrive with drool leaking from his mouth. He tried wiping it away when he noticed Qing's disgusted look but in only a few seconds even more drool took its place.

  Jing took out a plate from her storage ring and sliced off a small piece of the cake to put on top of it. This should be enough for the Supreme Commander. As everyone else came to investigate what that smell was, Jing looked at their hungry faces and then gave them permission to dig in. Or at least that is what she would've done, if she wanted them all to explode from the inside.

"Don't take a single bite or you will explode." She smiled like an innocent young maiden.

"Isn't it just cake?" Hu Tao reached for the cake only to have his hand slapped by Jie. "What the fuck!?"

"Didn't you just hear her?! Exploding cake!" Jie shouted. She didn't flinch when Hu Tao raised his hand to slap her. Her eyes dared him to. After what they've gone through, she's beginning to change somewhat from his influence upon her.

"Tch. Annoying bitch." Hu Tao scoffed and turned away.

"Why does it smell so good...?" Wan Qing was displeased by how much her stomach was wanting it.

"Will I really explode if I eat it...?" Bing's stomach was doing flips, tumbles, twirls, and all sorts of acrobatics in anticipation of eating the cake.

"The only person that could eat it and live would be me or Li Li." Jing answered. "But don't worry. Ying is about to make a similar cake for you all on her own."

"I am?" Ying questioned.

"Princess's cake isn't going to be as good as yours. I don't think she's cooked a thing in her life except roasted rabbit or something." Hu Tao spoke.

"I can make a good cake!" Ying felt insulted.

"Good. Here's your chance to prove it then." Jing handed her the big book she was reading earlier and flipped to the first page.

"Spirit Concentration Cake..." Ying read with her shadow hanging over her shoulder reading along.

  Spirit Concentration Cake will boost the eater's concentration. Allowing them to focus on multiple things at once with relative ease, gain unbreakable concentration no matter what activity they are doing, or giving them the ability to focus their control over their qi or body. All of those options are available to those that eat this cake, it is their decision on what to use their enhanced concentration on.

  To make this cake, all Ying needed was a cake and the ingredients required to make a Qi Recovery pill, Mind Clearing pill, and the Soul Cleansing pill. Ying took no time in turning the page to an easier Spirit Cake and decided on the Qi Recovery Cake. Unlike the last one where it required 3 different pills that had their own specific recipes to make them, this one only needed the ingredients for a Qi Recovery Pill and a cake. She read the instructions to how to make Qi Recovery Cake and then looked at Jing.

"Where did you get this book from...?" Something like this had to be priceless and unheard of.

"Make the cake! Make the cake! Make the cake! Stop wasting time and make the cake!" Hu Tao shouted.

"Shut up! Just give me a moment to read the recipe!" Ying yelled. "Besides, it's going to take a few hours before it's done anyway."

"What!? How long did it take Bleep to make her's?" He asked.

"I'm not Bleep! So, shut up and wait or starve to death for all I care!" Ying pushed Hu Tao out of her mind and began memorizing the very precise and detailed instructions listed in the book.

"Li Li, come with me. We have some business to attend to." Jing said.

"Wait! Bleep, before you go. What if I ruin the cake?" She felt embarrassed to ask.

"Just go buy some more. Any pastry will do, it doesn't have to be the same as the cake I did." Jing explained.

  Li Li stuck his head out of the cake with his entire body covered in it. He shook himself clean before flying over and landing on Jing's shoulder. Jing threw a special teleporting talisman on the cake and herself, teleporting them out of Ying's void world. Her and Li Li teleported to her home while she sent the cake elsewhere as a future seed for some fun later in time. She gave herself some time to prepare for the worst in case this meeting turned out for the worse. Ever since her experience in the Treasured Plains, Jing knew that she wasn't invincible. Even with the Gacha System.

"Let's go show our loyalty to the sect, I guess." Jing left her home with the cake on top of the plate.