The next day, Su Qingcheng eagerly retreated to her training room in the Tiger’s Den. This is where she would begin to try and break through to the next rank of Tianqi User, this would increase her power and stability by a good margin. Su Yanran had excitedly opted to stay outside of the room to protect Su Qingcheng’s privacy. Though this was also requested by Su Ran, Su Yanran herself most likely would have gone without any prompting from her mother. Silently watching the hallway like a hawk, Su Yanran sat cross legged in front of the door.

Inside the training room, Su Qingcheng also sat cross legged in the middle of the space as Yao Meiyue appeared this time, her body floating a bit behind her. Sitting quite still, Su Qingcheng slowly began to relinquish her control over the Nightflower Tianqi in her body. Yao Meiyue had instructed her prior to this that in order to break through, she was to allow the Nightflower Tianqi to go a little unrestrained throughout her body. Though Yao Meiyue warned her that this process would be a little painful, Su Qingcheng didn’t complain which impressed the spirit a little bit.

As Su Qingcheng sat there and let the Tianqi flow through her veins freely, she could feel the energy also leak out, normally this wouldn’t happen if she controlled herself to do so but the concept behind a break through using this Tianqi is to become unfettered and to enter a state of freedom. However, the price of this was that the Tianqi could sometimes go out of control. While in the stories this might be akin to causing some kind of deviation to damage your body, all this would do in Su Qingcheng’s situation was to cause an immense amount of pain until the storm was weathered or it was deliberately suppressed.

However, the idea behind this method of breaking through a new rank was to allow the energy to roam freely and batter the body so it should be able to withstand further amounts of energy recoil. Not to mention, the results of this weathering would be highly beneficial for Su Qingcheng as her body would be able to contain more Tianqi, on top of this the degree of which she could absorb or release energy would also be increased to a new level. These benefits greatly outweighed the possible pain she would have to endure. However, you still couldn’t underestimate it, as Yao Meiyue did warn her previously that some poor fellows in the past couldn’t handle it and usually died. No, they didn’t get crippled. They just died – their veins ended up exploding.

This point did perturb Su Qingcheng a little bit but she wouldn’t try to let that get to her. With her eyes closed and the energy now roiling into a sort of fierce spatial aura, Yao Meiyue soon observed that the room became dark once again and became much like she was in space. Stars began to shoot out from various parts of Su Qingcheng’s body, which caused the youth to start sweating profusely. Her clothes stuck to her body from the sheer wetness, allowing Yao Meiyue to see Su Qingcheng’s rapidly reddening body. Though it was already a bit tempered and well-built, Su Qingcheng’s expression continued to look rather grim despite her shut eyes and seemingly calm face.

She soon shuddered as she felt the energy rip through her skin and body. Fortunately she didn’t feel her veins bulge which was a very good sign that she would make it through. Quickly, Su Qingcheng regulated her deep breathing as she let the energy shoot out still, battering her veins and piercing her skin. A galactic vortex began to circle from behind her as the stars that emanated from her body converged into a singular point behind her and coagulated into that circular vortex. Su Qingcheng continued to breathe deeply as she could feel something pricking her from behind.

The vortex began to drill into her back as the energy funneled back inside her, causing the mass amounts of energy to slowly drip and enter her body, flooding it and inundating it with refined Nightflower Tianqi, powered by the galaxy itself. Su Qingcheng’s breathing grew increasingly labored as she tried to bear this intense pain. Yao Meiyue continued to watch intently. Su Yanran who was outside the room began to feel the door next to her vibrate. However she did not interrupt. Anyone who walked by and noticed this phenomenon would be faced with Su Yanran explaining that Su Qingcheng was undergoing a very intense closed-door training.

Meanwhile, back in the room, Su Qingcheng remained seated, though her body began to emit a nebulous blue glow, the vortex shrank and shrank as the refined energy went back into her body freely without Su Qingcheng doing anything. It was incredibly painful as she felt her skin burning up. Her body itself was bright red and Yao Meiyue got the feeling that she would burn up. But that fearful scene so far never happened, fortunately for both of them. Su Qingcheng continued to maintain her breathing as the energy now frothed up within her. Su Qingcheng could feel a strange tingling sensation in her lower body, this would most likely be where the ‘dantian’ of a typical story of this nature would be.

The Nightflower Tianqi began to swirl around in place. The vortex was incredibly small, about the size of a thumb-tip, yet it was there. The vortex of Tianqi continued to swirl in place, causing a chain reaction of physical sensations to erupt all over Su Qingcheng’s body, causing the youth to moan and groan in a way that one could not tell if she was experiencing pain or pleasure. Even Yao Meiyue felt a bit flushed by Su Qingcheng’s moaning. However, a few prolonged moments later, Su Qingcheng slowly settled down and smiled, opening her eyes only then and there. Clenching her fists and unclenching them, wisps of Nightflower Tianqi exploded in her fists. “Have I succeeded?” Su Qingcheng panted out, her entire body drenched in sweat, her now-well-sculpted body and form (easily visible beneath her sweat-drenched clothes) quite in display for Yao Meiyue.

I believe you have done well, my disciple Yao Meiyue smiled and nodded with approval. Congratulations on breaking to the third rank.

Su Qingcheng slowly stood up and did a celebratory fist-pump. “Yes!! I did it!” Su Qingcheng happily exclaimed to herself. The pace at which she could coagulate the Nightflower Tianqi in her fists was about three times as fast as she could do before, which she was sure was because of the tianqi vortex she kept in her body. “Now… Next is to get acclimated to this newfound power…” Su Qingcheng muttered to herself.

That moment…

On the top floor of a tower very far from the Tang Gu City where Su Qingcheng was, stood a beautiful woman with long black hair. She wore very traditional clothing, and stared out a large window in the general direction of the aforementioned city. “Something is going to happen in Tang Gu City,” the woman said with a voice that seemed neither happy nor sad. “It looks like the inheritor of Nie Ran’s Ghost Calamity Palm has been decided…” the woman bluntly said, idly making mention of Su Qingcheng’s mother once again.

Behind the woman stood two young ladies who looked a bit battered and beaten. Funnily enough, these were the two ladies who were originally hired by Xiao Tie to do a sneak attack on Su Qingcheng.

“Mistress, are you telling me that the young lady who that stupid guy asked us to attack is one of the daughters of the Tianqi Ghost Empress?” one of them frowned.

The woman who was known only as the Mistress then turned to face her two subordinates. “Mmm. It’s fine if you didn’t recognize her. Nie Ran has married into the Su Clan and deliberately kept a low profile. After all, she said back then that she no longer wishes to fight and travel. Her ‘Ghost Calamity Palm’ has taken too many lives… Regardless, Ling’er, you and Miaoyu are to first recover your injuries. Then go back to the Tang Gu City and monitor the situation of the Su clan. If that Xiao clan brat sees you again, you are free to beat him up.”

The two women, Gu Ling and Mo Miaoyu were actually high-ranking subordinates of this beautiful women. They could be considered to be very strong compared to pretty much everyone in the Tang Gu City beyond a handful of people and definitely they were no match for the old monster Su Ran. They were confident they could easily fulfill the task given to them by their mistress. They nodded respectfully towards the woman and then left the chambers quietly and without a trace. Their steps did not even make a single sound, only the sound of the wind blowing along with their movements could be heard.

The black-haired Mistress soon turned her gaze into the distance through the window. “Old friend… You and I must catch up one of these days. I would like to meet the lucky girl who would inherit your technique in the future!”