As Hu Linglei left the clearing, she wondered to herself just what that mysterious Tianqi which Su Qingcheng unleashed onto her Emperor Demon Puppet was. In her entire life, she could only recall two people who could utilize that mysterious Tianqi power – Yao Meiyue and her disciple when she was still alive… Nie Ran, who was, of course, Su Qingcheng’s mother. Of course, while Su Qingcheng displayed only a weak understanding of the Tianqi energy, it seemed even more mysterious than when Yao Meiyue used it in her life. Hu Linglei herself already knew that Su Qingcheng was Nie Ran’s daughter after she settled down with Su Zhan. Sighing as she continued to walk out of the forest clearing, she wondered in her heart if Yao Meiyue was still alive out there somewhere, watching over and blessing Su Qingcheng, who happened to be her disciple’s treasured daughter…

That moment…

Hu Linglei probably recognizes the Nightflower Tianqi. Yao Meiyue lamented into Su Qingcheng’s mind. That’s why she retreated the Emperor Demon Puppet so decisively despite knowing you wouldn’t be able to do any significant damage to it. There’s some things you need to know about this fearsome character. In fact, when I was still alive, I had exchanged blows with her. She definitely recognizes that you used a very rudimentary level of the Star Vortex Fist.

“But surely Master must have demonstrated it to a much higher level than me.” Su Qingcheng muttered as she returned to the Su clan residence.

To be honest, the Nightflower Tianqi you created is especially pure; perhaps even better than when I first started creating it in my youth. Only half a month and you could already create the essence for the Star Vortex Fist? Don’t tell me you’re greedy for more? This is already heaven-defying. It’s beyond my expectations. Yao Meiyue scolded Su Qingcheng for acting a bit too ambitious. Beyond that, Hu Linglei even gave you the technique manual for ‘Dark Cosmos Fist.’ It would be a lie if I said I didn’t know it, as I had even seen Hu Linglei try to comprehend it when I was alive. That means she really didn’t get it after all these years. Seeing your monstrous talent, she probably thought you could get some ideas from it…

“Isn’t it a bit too ambitious on her part to assume a Tianqi User like me could comprehend even a little bit of it?”

Right, but there’s no rush. If you’ve already comprehended Star Vortex Fist, we may as well simply expedite your training. Within the next month or so you should be able to break through to the third rank of Tianqi User. By then, you should already have displayed an intermediate mastery of the Star Vortex Fist. But by all means, the Star Vortex Fist on its own can’t do any real damage to the enemy.

By this point in the conversation Su Qingcheng was already about to enter the dining room when she saw the stares of her fellow family members looking at her as if they’d seen a ghost. Yao Meiyue immediately concealed her presence and dared not to say anything to Su Qingcheng lest that Su Ran had discovered her spiritual imprint lingering in the room. Yao Meiyue after all had the inkling that a lot of Su Qingcheng’s martial talent came from her mother.

“Sit,” Su Ran sighed. “I heard the commotion at the Tang Gu Market. What the hell were you thinking?”

Su Qingcheng sighed. “It was a mistake. I was training a movement technique…”

“You’re freaking lucky it was that Hu Linglei, the old woman who just won’t die,” Su Ran cracked her knuckles. “If it’s not for the fact I had an old relationship with her, you would have died trying to pull off that mischief.”

Su Zhan and the others were speechless, watching the mother scold the daughter rather scathingly. “Don’t even think about it, you don’t think I don’t know about that Emperor Demon Puppet? I am well-traveled and know many things…” Su Ran grumbled, causing Su Qingcheng to be alarmed. The more she thought about it, the more she thought her own mother’s background was even more mysterious than Su Yanran or her own! If Yao Meiyue were here right now, Su Qingcheng dared not to imagine what scene would happen.

“You and I need to talk after dinner. You will meet me in your room at the Tiger’s Den,” Su Ran sighed. “The others don’t need to mind. Dear Qingcheng’er may have recovered her body, but it’s just as well, she needs to be disciplined. If she wants to break out of the marriage agreement, she can’t be that cocky… She needs to grow in a steady manner.”

Su Zhan could feel the aura leaking out of his wife, this was really too scary. He looked worryingly at Su Qingcheng, who appeared to be sweating despite not showing any real signs of being intimidated by her mother. After a few tense moments, the atmosphere gradually calmed down. Unfortunately, it remained a bit tense and awkward as dinner passed by quickly without anyone really saying a word. At that time, Su Qingcheng and Su Ran both went together to the training room which Su Qingcheng had been using for the past half a month. Soon, Su Qingcheng stared at her mother’s arm – a galactic vortex appeared to churn from it. While it was similar to the Star Vortex Fist which Su Qingcheng had used against the Emperor Demon Puppet, it seemed a bit weaker, but due to the level of power and proficiency which was being displayed, it could definitely be considered to be worthy of Yao Meiyue’s praise.

“Come out, Teacher Meiyue,” Su Ran sighed, staring at the necklace concealed beneath Su Qingcheng’s clothing. Soon a spiritual body suddenly whisked out of the necklace whether or not Su Qingcheng wanted it to, but since the situation had already developed to this point, there was no use in hiding it either. “You bewitching fox. I didn’t think you’d wake up after all these years.” Su Ran looked at the ghost which was as beautiful as a goddess. The galactic swirl soon disappeared into nothingness as Su Ran calmed herself down.

Nie Ran…

“Don’t. Don’t call me that anymore. I have settled down and made a family with the man I love. He may be weaker than me, but he is by no means a pushover. But if you think about even doing anything with my daughter, I won’t hesitate to—

“Mother, stop…” Su Qingcheng growled. “Please, stop. Master is the reason why I was able to recover my body…”

“…So that commotion was caused by you, huh Teacher?” Su Ran sighed.

Yes, I had asked Qingcheng’er to gather the ingredients to make the Rainbow Phoenix Elixir. That doctor you usually call isn’t qualified to brew a godly elixir like that. You would know if you had continued to stay under my tutelage.

Su Ran scowled. “Shut up. Don’t think I can’t eliminate you now that you’re just a spiritual body. I can be grateful towards you for watching over my daughter. But if you think about getting her killed, I can snuff you out in an instant.” Soon, the aura of a Tianqi Emperor was unleashed from Su Ran. Though slightly weaker than Hu Linglei, Su Qingcheng could estimate it was at the second rank, which was still absolutely horrifying. Of course, such a talented lady could be worth being the disciple of Yao Meiyue. The spiritual body shook in place.

“Mother, please calm down.”

“I’m not done with you yet. You almost caused me to have a heart attack. What the heck were you thinking, trying to take pointers from someone of the Tianqi Emperor level? Don't tell me you thought you could even do any damage to Hu Linglei’s Emperor Demon Puppet?” Su Ran gawked incredulously at Su Qingcheng as if she were an idiot.

“Mother, trust me on this!” Su Qingcheng shuddered, letting her Nightflower Tianqi boil in her veins. Over the trip back, she had already absorbed the essence in the air and restored her reserves, this was on top of the essence she stole from the Emperor Demon Puppet after she first unveiled her Star Vortex Fist. Now, she was attempting to do it again.

Su Ran soon observed the vortex coiling around Su Qingcheng’s arm with a shocked expression as she realized that Su Qingcheng being a Penta-Essence User qualified her to learn Yao Meiyue’s Nightblossom Techniques which all required the five essences, with the basis of the Nightflower Tianqi. As Su Ran was also a former disciple of Yao Meiyue, she could easily detect that the energy in Su Qingcheng’s hands was far purer than anything she could make herself. Su Ran was just a Quad-Essence user, she was unable to use Fire essence.

This inability to channel Fire essence was a reason why Su Ran willingly disavowed herself to continue studying under Yao Meiyue, who placed a great emphasis on Fire essence in her techniques being an apothecary. Watching her daughter being able to match her teacher in terms of talent and ability ended up changing her own opinion of her daughter in a big way.

“Qingcheng’er…” Su Ran sighed as her gaze softened even more. Su Qingcheng then calmly weakened her own vortex. “If you want to train, you can come to me. Don’t even bother looking for strangers. You are still weak at the moment. Those techniques Yao Meiyue can teach you don’t allow you to deal significant damage to your opponents. They’re all used for trickery, or being clever.

“Then, can you help me with this?”

Su Qingcheng took out the Dark Cosmos Fist scroll she acquired from Hu Linglei, which caused Su Ran’s expression to darken for a moment before she laughed loudly. “That woman. She really gave you the Dark Cosmos Fist technique just like that?” Su Ran seemed to immediately recognize that the scroll came from Hu Linglei.

“What does mother think?” Su Qingcheng asked. Yao Meiyue on the side could only watch the discussion between mother and daughter. Truthfully speaking these two could be considered to be both her disciples whether Su Ran had left or not. Such a sight filled the spirit with a strange but positive feeling.

“I can help you train it,” Su Ran laughed. “This Dark Cosmos Fist… Hu Linglei had it for so long. She had this scroll even before I got married to your old man,” she continued. “It’s actually because I was the one who found it in the first place.”

“What?”

Su Qingcheng felt like a hammer had hit her in the head. What kind of old monster was her mother back in the past? She was the one who found the scroll and just gave it to Hu Linglei? Didn’t that mean Su Ran was quite familiar with Hu Linglei in the first place? Suddenly, Su Qingcheng felt like it made more sense that Hu Linglei would bother with her. Naturally Su Qingcheng could be seen as the talented daughter of a close friend who could fight on a similar level as her. Of course Hu Linglei would be a bit interested.

“I could only comprehend up to the first section of the Dark Cosmos Fist, though,” Su Ran sighed. “But it could already be considered to be very tyrannical. Unfortunately, it requires a huge amount of Tianqi and at your level you could only throw one or two punches before you pass out. Therefore, when learning the first movement of the Dark Cosmos Fist, you can only use it during life-threatening situations.” Su Ran explained.

“Let me demonstrate to you just how powerful it is.” Su Ran nodded as with the flick of her sleeves, a training dummy appeared in front of a giant rock in the corner. Spreading her legs slightly, Su Ran covered her right fist with her left hand, pulling it backwards. The Tianqi aura she exuded soon retreated, but Su Qingcheng quickly observed that the aura sunk into her right fist. What appeared to be dark matter soon coiled around Su Ran’s right fist as she immediately uncovered it and threw a fierce punch at the dummy.

Su Qingcheng watched as the dark matter collided into the training dummy. A dark hole soon swallowed up the training dummy, erasing a big portion of it out of existence. What was left of the dummy was the pole that kept it upright. The rest of the dummy which was swallowed up by the black hole disappeared without a trace. Though the movement was very simple, Su Qingcheng saw that it even took a lot of effort from Su Ran to even throw that punch.

If it caused a Tianqi Emperor that much effort, then what about Su Qingcheng? She stared in disbelief as she realized she couldn’t even learn the first movement, let alone comprehending the rest of the manual. “Mother, are you telling me that the Dark Cosmos Fist is a space-time technique?!”

“That’s right, you catch on quickly, it should be said that Teacher Meiyue had a good eye for you.” Su Ran coughed as she exhaled turbid air.

This can only be considered because you gave Qingcheng’er the necklace. Yao Meiyue folded her arms as if dismissing Su Ran’s praise. It seemed the two of them shared some kind of complicated relationship.

“The might of the Dark Cosmos Fist… Is it truly within my comprehension?” Su Qingcheng asked with an exhilarated voice.

“That depends on your training, sweetheart,” Su Ran smiled. “Anyway, I would have disciplined you properly, but we got distracted because you somehow acquired this technique manual. I guess we can say it was finding fortune out of misfortune. Get some rest and continue training tomorrow. Don’t leave the residence unnecessarily. If anyone asks, I will say you are undergoing closed-door training.” She then promptly left, leaving Su Qingcheng and Yao Meiyue alone.

Don’t worry. Your mother is a meticulous person. She won’t let this matter be so easily leaked. Keep the Dark Cosmos Fist manual with you. You’re not qualified to practice the first movement now, but under my training you will be strong enough to use it once after you break into Geomancer stage.

“Yes, Master.”

Su Qingcheng clenched her fist, determined to build her strength. The matter of the Dark Cosmos Fist was eye-opening for her, not to mention the matter of meeting the Tianqi Emperor Hu Linglei and discovering that her own mother could be considered an ancient old monster in the martial world. All of this made Su Qingcheng incredibly hot blooded and eager to become stronger so she could stand side by side with her mother and those old fellows…