Suddenly a beautiful woman swooped in to the scene. She was dressed in a backless dress with slits on the side, exposing her voluptuous thighs yet slender legs. The sight of such a beauty with long black hair was enough to even make Su Yanran, who was about to be assaulted by Master Shi, lower her guard and stare in amazement. Even Su Qingcheng completely forgot about resisting the Darkwood Vines constricting her. Master Shi, on the other hand, looked in horror as he pointed at the woman. Naturally, this woman who didn’t even bother to conceal her identity, was Fang Li, the Snake Empress.

“That old fart won’t forgive me if I let any of you disgusting scums touch these two lovely ladies,” Fang Li chortled. “Besides, I especially like the little one over there. Do you think your puny Darkwood Vines can stop me, though? And besides, isn’t it a bit too shameful to be bullying these two young ladies? Why would a fogey like you resort to bullying the younger generation?”

Master Shi stepped back involuntarily. “What the hell!? Nobody told me you two girls had the Snake Empress as your backer!!”

Su Qingcheng blinked. “Huh? I don’t know anything about this.”

Fang Li grinned as with the flick of a wrist, fiery tianqi shaped like snakes suddenly emerged from the ground near the bandits that were under Master Shi, engulfing them all in flames. By the time the flames dissipated, they had burned to nothingness. Not even ashes remained. Such a terrifying flame was enough to make weaker ones piss themselves. Though Master Shi was a distinguished Tianqi Lord, Fang Li was still a Tianqi Sage, a whole stratum stronger. Plus, her mastery over Tianqi was unparalleled. Yet here she was, protecting these two seemingly inconsequential ladies because their mother was even stronger than Fang Li was.

And Fang Li was already threatened once by Su Ran, who really possessed the power to crush her like an ant. She figured she could get into Su Ran’s good books now and then see if she could get closer to Su Qingcheng. “Don’t be alarmed. Your mom and I know each other. I figure I can get her to owe me a favor if I save you two now!” she grinned.

Master Shi grumbled. “What? What kind of person is your mother, to be able to get the Snake Empress to owe her a favour?” he questioned at Su Qingcheng, who was still bound by Darkwood Vines. Clearly, Fang Li liked her in this state or she would have freed her by now. Fortunately, Master Shi’s fear had already urged him to weaken the grip on the vines.

“A mere frog in the well!” Snake Empress Fang Li bellowed out, as if mocking Master Shi. “She is Nie Ran! Imagine if she found out you tried to kidnap her daughters to slavery, huh? Do you think she would let you still live?”

Master Shi gulped. He indeed heard of the Tianqi Ghost Empress, Nie Ran. However, he only heard terrifying stories about her and did not know that she had settled down and married into the Su clan to live a peaceful life. If he knew that he was dealing with the two precious daughters of the Tianqi Ghost Empress, he would never have sent out his men to attack them. Nor would he have attempted to provoke these two ladies.

In a way, Master Shi was inwardly grateful the Snake Empress showed up instead. He would rather be burned to ashes by her Snake Flames than to have his soul crushed by the Ghost Calamity Palm. Fang Li grinned. “I don’t think I can let you off so easily either, though. There’s two ways we can go about this. You can let us pass, or simply just screw off and die.”

Master Shi already knew his Ghost Bandits entourage had faded into nothingness mere moments ago. He hurriedly retreated backwards. If he had any enmity now, it was totally gone because he didn’t want to deal with anyone who was related to the Tianqi Ghost Empress. It didn’t matter if she was living a peaceful life now. If she had a family, Master Shi was certain she would be happy to revert to her tyrannical ways to anyone who dared to threaten her family, let alone her children.

Master Shi ran away incredibly fast. Unsurprising for a Tianqi Lord, but it was only at this time that Fang Li released the vines constricting Su Qingcheng by burning them. The youth then stretched herself and ignited her palms with Nightflower Tianqi flame to check that she was alright. Su Yanran had been silent the whole time, staring at Fang Li, who obviously noticed this.

“You must be Su Yanran,” Fang Li smiled. “You are really a beautiful woman. I would definitely say you are prettier than Gu Ling.” She nodded in approval.

“And this child… you’re the one…”

“Me?” Su Qingcheng pointed to herself in confusion.

“I originally intended to watch you at the White Spirit Competition. As for those two ladies who attacked you under that Xiao clan brat Xiao Tie’s orders, they were actually under me. I don’t know how they were convinced to work for him for a bit, but I had already disciplined them” Fang Li shrugged.

“What do you know about me? And why are you so interested in us?”

“Like I said, I have a bit of a past with your mother… And of course, I would be interested in knowing how her two lovely daughters are doing.”

“She has a son too…” Su Yanran rolled her eyes.

“Don’t care about Su Mujian,” Fang Li scoffed. “Even then, your mother told me he’s recovering from an injury. I hope he does get better, but I have no interest in men. They cannot perform the Ghost Calamity Palm.”

“The Ghost Calamity Palm?” Su Qingcheng asked quizzically.

By now, the carriage drivers who were still alive had recovered and returned to the scene to find Su Qingcheng and Su Yanran mostly unharmed, chatting casually with an imposing Tianqi Sage.

“Y, Young Misses… That’s…” one of the carriage drivers asked. Fang Li turned to face him with a vicious smile.

“Not to worry. I’ll be joining these two young mistresses to Bailing City. With me, the Snake Empress around, no one will dare to attack us.” Fang Li grinned. Her hope was that she could encourage Su Qingcheng to reveal all her tricks at the White Spirit Competition in the hopes she could probe her capacity to inherit Su Ran’s Ghost Calamity Palm. Actually, the truth of the matter is, outsiders could only get the technique for themselves if they shared strong enough bond of love with someone who practiced it. Though Su Qingcheng was many, many years younger than Fang Li, the latter would even resort to despicable means herself to acquire the technique.

In the past, Su Ran before she got married had already rejected Fang Li’s advances when they were still young. In fact, Su Ran rejected her many times. However, they still remained somewhat awkward friends. That bond still persisted even though Fang Li became the mistress of the tower and Su Ran had already married herself off to a man. However, Fang Li’s desire to acquire the Ghost Calamity Palm for herself never died. Instead, it became even stronger. Thus, she would use Su Qingcheng as that stepping stone instead.

However, this required Fang Li to lower herself a bit to the point she would act as the elder sister figure to both Su Yanran and Su Qingcheng. In fact, she was only vaguely sure that Su Qingcheng was the potential inheritor. It could, actually, be Su Yanran who had the real aptitude for it after all. This was why watching them at the White Spirit Competition was crucial.

“Let’s all get back into the carriage then. We’re not too far to Bailing City,” Su Qingcheng said as she pointed into the distance. “We’ll be troubling Senior to accompany us.” She cupped her fists and bowed.

Inside the carriage the next moment…

“Senior Snake Empress,” Su Qingcheng frowned. “I appreciate all the help you’ve given us, but…”

“I’m not expecting anything in return other than that you give me a good show at the White Spirit Competition,” Fang Li smiled. “Like I said, I’ve known your mother for a long time. She was really a peerless figure in her youth, but here she is squandering it away for some silly notion like ‘peace…’”

“Mother is a good person,” Su Qingcheng frowned. “Don’t badmouth her like that, Senior.”

“She may be a good person now, but when she was young, she really used everyone as a stepping stone to reach her level of power. She had an incredibly powerful teacher that was also half a step into becoming a god… But something happened and then that’s when it all went downhill.”

Naturally, Su Qingcheng knew that Su Ran’s teacher was Yao Meiyue. Fang Li would probably vomit blood and go into a hole and hide if she found out that the very same Yao Meiyue who taught Su Ran was currently teaching Su Qingcheng in the form of a powerful spiritual body. “Do you know the details? My mother’s background… Is really too mysterious. She never tells sis Yanran or me anything about it.”

Su Yanran nodded in agreement. Clearly she was a woman of few words in front of other people, especially outsiders. However, this outsider was connected to their mother, so she could only help but listen intently, curious about her story. Su Yanran was much more aware about the strength of the Snake Empress and her ability to strike terror into anyone in the empire who dared provoke her. In fact, most people treated her tower as an information network. They would pay her to scout for information. As Fang Li had a powerful network of spies and infiltrators, she would often conduct deals with the various imperial powers to get news on neighbouring countries and kingdoms and empires.

“There’s still time before we get to Bailing City. By then, we should have about a day or so to prepare for the competition. I guess I can talk about it for a while.” Fang Li sighed, not expecting things to turn out exactly like this, but if she could make Su Qingcheng respect her or even treat her as a senior martial aunt, then that would make things a lot easier…

“Now, where exactly should I start?” Fang Li asked the two young ladies with a smile.