Chapter 159: A Nice Relaxing Day.

"Making cakes feels easier than concocting pills..." Ying said to herself.

  She was currently in the process of finishing up a recipe for a Wild Flaming Cake that would allow her to gleam deeper into the inner nature of fire itself. It would help in increasing the rank of her cultivation technique. Once she and the shadow had glanced over some of the thousands of Spirit Cake recipes inside the huge book Jing gave her, they started out trying to make some of the easier ones. The shadow would go first to learn and master the art of making Spirit Cakes then it would teach Ying as her teacher.

  The two of them got so caught up in learning how to make Spirit Cakes that they haven't stopped since Jing gave them the book some days ago! She's been constantly feeding the other angels cakes that would aid them in their cultivation, martial arts, or other matters she wasn't so keen on wanting to know. Eventually, she demanded that they provide her the ingredients to the Spirit Cake they wanted her to make and to not share with her the reason why they need the cake. Ying could most likely figure out the reason on her own but at least with this way, it's wasn't a confirmation.

"Ying! I brought the ingredients you wanted! And in good condition this time!" Bing yelled

  He came running behind her with blood dripping down his face and dirt all over his clothes while holding up some Spirit Plants in his hand. The sight of him warmed her heart and at the same time pissed her off. She knew he was relying on the Spirit Cakes to raise his body art but that didn't mean he had to show her that stupidly cute smile every time she made a cake for him. And afterward seeing him eat with such bliss on his face was like a reward in itself for Ying. To see him enjoying her cooking like a proper wife towards her husband. Even though they weren't even in a relationship yet, it still felt nice to imagine.

  Ever since Jie joined Hu Tao's group, she's started to understand her own feelings towards Bing. Seeing how Jie acted around Hu Tao, it was embarrassingly obvious that she held feelings for the round boy. She hoped that she was the only one aware of her feelings towards him but had a sneaky suspicion that Wan knew and secretly had fun in teasing her about it. Ying didn't know what she was going to do about these feelings now, but eventually knew that she would have to tell them one day. It wasn't a part of the Yue Family's nature to keep their feelings hidden inside. Maybe once she returned from dealing with her family's situation after the Grand Tournament she would ask him out.

"Place them over there and I'll get to it. Which cake are you trying to eat this time?" She asked.

"Something that'll boost my qi or give me insights to Yin and Yang." He requested.

"For a Spirit Cake dealing with Yin or Yang, you'll need much rarer ingredients than what you brought me. But I can make some Qi-related Spirit Cakes." Ying didn't mind spending the time and effort into making cakes for the group as she was enjoying the process of making Spirit Cakes more than refining pills.

"Make me everything you can with these." He placed down the ingredients where she told him to.

"It'll be done in a few hours." Ying took out her Wild Flaming Cake from the furnace.

  Essentially it was a cake that was on fire. The heat was nothing to her but to someone else, they would feel scorching heat rushing into their noses and whipping across their faces if they got close to it. Bing covered his nose as she placed the cake inside her storage ring and got to work on his cakes. Her mastery and control of the flames and ingredients increased every cake.

  All she needed was a close reading at the recipe book and that was mostly all it took for her to get started. With some heating of the flames, she went over the properties of the ingredients in her head. Starting in the order listed in the book, the herbs and plants danced in the air. Some were crushed into dust, others were diced into the furnace, and a few were squeezed of their juices before being thrown inside as well. Ying's control over the innate wild nature of fire qi increased exponentially from the hundreds of failures she went through when starting out. The cake that Hu Tao and the others wanted from her yesterday when Jing met wasn't successfully made until the next day. An inferior-grade Spirit Cake.

  Spirit Cakes could be classified within 5 grades. Inferior, mediocre, average, excellent, to perfect. It worked the same way as pills were graded. Inferior meaning that 50% of medicinal essence was lost. Mediocre with 40%, average with 30%, excellent with 10%, and perfect with none. Ying was dissatisfied with producing such a trashy-grade Spirit Cake for her first success but nevertheless everyone else still wanted to eat it. Its smell was great and its taste was out of this world. Hu Tao even gave her a compliment for how good it tasted. Well, as good of a compliment as a person like Hu Tao could give her.

"It isn't shit so, I guess you pass." He told her while chewing.

"This is really good." Jie said.

"I never ate anything that tasted half as good as this..." Runt said with tears in his eyes.

"It is really delectable. I can't wait to see how a perfect-grade Spirit Cake tastes." Lei said.

"I could get addicted to this..." Wan frowned. That wouldn't be good for her figure.

"I will do anything you ask if you can make more of these cakes for me." Bing dropped to his knees and bowed.

  So, now Ying's position in the Heaven's Angel has risen quite a bit because of these cakes. But her recent fascination with making Spirit Cakes have cut into her martial arts training. This couldn't go on or her ranking in the tournament would be affected. She enjoyed making the Spirit Cakes but gaining strength came first. Of course, Ying would resume her training after she gained her fill of looking at Bing's stupidly silly face while eating her cakes. That was nonnegotiable.

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"Aren't you a cute fella?" Lei Zhi said, petting the strange orange blob.

  His body jolted in response from the influx of positive emotions welling within him. He continued petting the adorable little beast as happiness and joy sprouted from his heart. Soon, he began to laugh in enjoyment along with the cooing and high-pitched squealing of the Spirit Beast. SCP-999 then jumped onto his lap and began tickling him.

"Hahahaha! That's enough, little one! You're going to make me feel so happy that I might die from it!" He loudly laughed.

  Eventually, Lei Zhi was worn down to the point of near exhaustion from laughing so much and SCP-999 sat next to him with a smile on its face before crawling off to make the next person in sight feel as happy as he made the fishing man. SCP-999's eyes locked on to Hu Tao's figure in the distance, training Jie and Runt. Before passing out from joy, Lei Zhi realized that if he managed to tame that cute little guy, maybe his plan of reforming youths could be easier and more viable without relying purely on strength. Forcing his ideals upon others despite how they were raised won't feel as horrible if he didn't go about it using only violence.

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"Oi? What the fuck is this thing on my leg?!" Hu Tao suddenly yelled as he felt a warm thing stick to his leg.

"That's Bleep's pet, isn't it?" Runt asked.

  Neither him nor Jie knew of Jing's real name even though they've spent more than a few weeks as Hu Tao's Badass Angels. Since everyone called her Bleep, they too started to call her Bleep because of it.

"Hmm? What the hell?" Hu Tao began to feel quite strange with this thing on him.

"I didn't think you were afraid of cute things." Jie giggled, putting down her sword and walking over to Hu Tao.

"I feel good..." He muttered with a scrunched forehead.

  He was happy but at the same time he was pissed that he was feeling happy. This damn thing was making him break out in a smile even though he wanted give it a hug until it burst into pieces. Wait? A hug? That isn't what he was thinking! He freaking loved this stupid orange blob!

  Hu Tao immediately tried distancing himself from the beast but its grip was tight and it wouldn't let go until it made Hu Tao feel nothing but joy. His fist rose and smashed the ground in exhilaration, cracking the ground apart as he held nothing back and focused his attention on his shadow in the distance just resting on the ground.

"I'll take all this fucking happiness out of you!" His leg came down towards the shadow's neck as it was resting.

  The two began fighting in a battle that no one but Jing or Li Li could interfere in without sustaining injuries. Both had an uncontained smiled on their faces as they gave each other their all. Hu Tao's mad laughter echoed throughout the void world, fighting brought him joy so, it was no surprise that that SCP-999's anomalous ability wasn't enough to put him out of commission like it did for Lei Zhi or Drill. It wasn't until Hu Tao and his shadow knocked each other out that he finally calmed down. He peacefully slept with a massive grin on his face and happily muttering.

"I don't think I've ever seen the Boss act like that before..." Runt said.

"I have but not to where he had to take a break." Jie added.

  The two slowly backed away once they saw SCP-999 lock its eyes on the two of them. Once it started crawling towards them like a snail would but with none of the speed that a snail has, Jie and Runt ran away at full speed. After seeing it aid in knocking out Hu Tao, they knew that they stood no chance against it. They've only recently joined Heaven's Angels but they very quickly realized the absurdity of all the members. More Jie than Runt as Runt was nothing more than a regular mortal some time ago. So, all of the things he was seeing for the first time was amazing and unbelievable to him.

"Don't bring that thing over to me." Wan Qing warned after seeing what happened to both Hu Tao and Lei Zhi from on top of her fan.

  The two of them ran over to Bing instead who was excitedly waiting for the rest of his cakes to finish. He had no idea of the danger making its way over to him. Only that Hu Tao's girlfriend and his follower was running past him. As if they were having fun by running away from the beast. By the time he realized that something was not right, SCP-999 was already on top of his face. It quickly enveloped his body and began tickling him into submission.

"Bwahahaha! Gwahaha! Stop! Stop! Please! My stomach, it hurts! Gahahahaha!" Bing cried out for mercy.

  Hearing that pure laughter sparked curiosity and interest from Ying. So much in fact that she actually got distracted in the middle of making the third cake and nearly ruined it! It was at this point that Ying wished she had a second head or a way of seeing things directly behind her!

"I want to eat it..." Hao Gang muttered, staring at SCP-999.

"No." Ying refused him.

"Why not?" He asked.

"It's Bleep's. Do you really want to eat her pet?" She smirked.

"Nevermind..." Shivers ran through his body, thinking about Jing finding out that he ate her pet.

"Go and save Bing for me before I mess up the quality of this Spirit Cake even more." Ying couldn't focus with him laughing like that. She really wanted to see how he looked right now but knew at a crucial point like this where she needed to mix and merge the ingredients with the cake evenly, she couldn't look away.

"He doesn't look that tough! I can handle him!" Hao confidently smirked as he ran towards the tasty looking orange blob tickling Bing.

"Wait... no, get off me! Mom! Help! I can't beat him! Hehehehe! Hahaahahaha!" He was soon conquered as well. Runt and Jie gained even more fear in their hearts after seeing the bodies left in its wake.