Su Yanran shivered in place for a long time. Su Qingcheng had already been whisked off by the girl in rags who had yet to give a name. This was not only depressing but also humiliating. Her dear sister had been subdued by an incredibly powerful existence, and didn’t even deign to give her a name. And now this year’s White Spirit Competition ended prematurely; and in a tragedy also. News of this event would travel throughout the entire Bailing Empire. And as for Su Ran getting this news, Fang Li told her directly and in person. Naturally this infuriated her.

“What? My Qingcheng’er, kidnapped? By a girl who can control lightning without the use of natural thunderstorms? What kind of freak is that? You could call my daughter a freak, but compared to that anomaly…” Su Ran was trembling. She had gotten incredibly emotional. Even Fang Li now felt rather guilty after everything sunk in. She indeed planned to get Su Qingcheng to reveal her trump cards, but everything backfired since her hired thugs were intercepted by another group. If Fang Li had not put up her scheme, none of this would have happened. Fang Li would still have had a chance. Now, she had to face Su Ran’s wrath.

Su Ran glared at Fang Li, and her hands were wrapped in a demonic, terrifying flame. “Give me one reason why I shouldn’t erase you from the face of the continent right now, Fang Li.” For once, Su Ran did not address Fang Li by her title. She addressed her by name. She was thoroughly incensed by everything.

“M, ma’am… I couldn’t do anything against that,” Fang Li frowned. “Besides, she clearly was meant to stay alive. Her captor claimed that she had a prior relationship with her. It seems really weird, I’d never heard of her before. If you’ve never heard of her before, how could Miss Qingcheng even know about it? I’m innocent. If I had attempted to fight her off, she really might have killed her.” Fang Li attempted to justify herself. Su Ran, having many years of experience under her belt, ended up having to endure.

“Fuck’s sake,” Su Ran cursed under her breath. “Fine. You need to help me find out where she is. And don’t even think about asking for payment. You’re partially responsible for this. I don’t give a damn about your reasons, but you and I both know you have some fault in it.” Su Ran hissed. Though Fang Li didn’t directly admit to it, her account of the events made it seem like she indeed played a part. How could Su Ran not figure it out? Her demeanor had become incredibly terrifying and demonic, like her old self when she roamed the empire. Fang Li was now very afraid for her life.

“Y, yes. Yes ma’am. I’ll definitely do everything in my power to help you find your Qingcheng’er,” Fang Li stuttered. Deep down inside, she decided maybe she really should abandon her initial plans after all. Su Ran was just too terrifying. And she felt incredibly guilty. She wanted the “Ghost Calamity Palm’s” power, but she didn’t want things to turn out like this. This was too much, beyond her own expectations. “I’ll take my leave and mobilize my intelligence agents. Rest assured, we’ll definitely find her. By the way, you had best hurry up and see Miss Yanran also. Her spirit had been crushed and was unable to even move. To be honest, given her character, I feel like she’s worse off than Miss Qingcheng.” Fang Li frowned.

Su Ran furrowed her brows. Indeed, Su Qingcheng was more adventurous and straightforward than Su Yanran. Given the former’s character, she definitely wouldn’t just give up without a fight. She would probably try to escape also. And even then, Su Qingcheng had Yao Meiyue as a trump card. Even if she couldn’t escape easily, it was also a hidden opportunity for her to be tempered in the real world.

That moment…

Su Qingcheng woke up in a large dungeon cell – while she was being taken away, the constant shocks of the electric net had caused her to pass out. Though it was a dungeon cell, it was considerably more luxurious than your typical prison cell. The other cells on the same floor were smaller and not as luxurious. It reminded Su Qingcheng of the high-class prison cells in Europe back on Earth. She sighed and looked around, trying to channel her Nightflower Tianqi. By now, her body had fully recovered. ‘Master, where are we?’ Su Qingcheng mentally asked.

I’m not sure either. This structure is relatively new. It should be some sort of castle. A very big castle. I can sweep out my spiritual sense to get a better look, but I risk compromising my existence. Now that we’re stuck in this prison, we can’t afford any more risks. You must escape before the one year agreement time comes up. By my estimation, that gives us… About eight months. We have eight months to escape or for someone to break us out. If we fail to get out soon, your mother might be lucky enough to find us. Yao Meiyue explained in a rather hurried manner.

“Snake Empress is probably getting her agents to look for me. If this is a new structure, it may take some time,” Su Qingcheng frowned. “For the meantime, since this place isn’t as bad as I thought it would be, it seems we’re valued quite highly. I should take this time to get my bearings.” She muttered inwardly to herself.

After an hour of calming down and stabilizing her body, the door to her cell opened. The door itself was just a regular kind of grilled prison door. Nothing remarkable about it, except for the fact it had no handle and no material lock – it was a magical array formation much like the Revival Suite back in the Golden State Inn of Bailing City. The girl in rags who captured her walked in, except her face was not covered in rags like the rest of her body.

Su Qingcheng peered at the eyes of this girl, who actually was a young woman. Several years older than her, but something about her face was very familiar. “You are…?” Su Qingcheng asked her in a polite, submissive tone. She knew that her captor could easily paralyze her again if she acted haughty, so she endured and pretended to be subservient.

“It’s just you and me here now, so I can introduce myself – my name is Fan Yu,” she smiled, causing Su Qingcheng’s eyes to widen. Upon seeing this, Fan Yu smiled. “You seem like you remember something.”

“You… you can’t be! That’s impossible.” Su Qingcheng frowned, shivering.

“Well, it doesn’t matter what you think. You won’t be able to escape from this Heaven Thunder Prison,” Fan Yu smirked. “It’s a maximum security prison complex where we capture all the freaks of the land and keep them here for analysis purposes. Since you are a rare Penta-Essence user, we must see what makes you tick, no? And furthermore, you took that Elixir which rebuilt your paths. They made me capture you since lightning no longer damages your Tianqi paths, which preserves your body.” Fan Yu explained.

“Why are you telling me all this?” Su Qingcheng frowned.

“Like I told your sister. I have a prior relationship with you.” She said. “But I don’t have time to talk about that with you. Just wait here patiently until it’s your turn. If you dare to escape, we will kill you on sight.”

Su Qingcheng gritted her teeth. “You… you can’t be her… Right? You can’t be, there’s no way…” she thought inwardly to herself, wondering if this Fan Yu who seemed so familiar was related to her former lover back on Earth who backstabbed her. How could someone like her be here? It was impossible, virtually unheard of that someone who died after she did would be here and somehow be older than her. Or was this continent connected to Earth somehow? Su Qingcheng was thinking about all this when she was snapped out of her reverie by the sounds of a gate closing. Fan Yu was already leaving.

“Girl, forget about struggling. Whether your mother is lucky enough to find you and bust you out, we’ll see. Just remember – if you dare to escape by yourself, you will die.” Fan Yu hissed threateningly before walking away.

Su Qingcheng sighed. Qingcheng’er. Forget about her for now. We must focus on escaping. We have eight months to either get out or wait for Su Ran to break us out. Since they plan to keep us alive for dissection, there’s no way they will just mistreat us. We can use this opportunity to nourish you further.

“That is a gamble, Master. If they discover I’ve been using this time in captivity to train, they may force us to come out earlier.”

That’s what I’m planning on. The stronger you become, the higher the chance of you leaving this cell. Once we leave the cell, we will have the biggest chance to escape. However, that depends on your speed. At this point, your body and control isn’t good enough to match against the prison guards for sure. You need to raise your power by at least a rank before that happens.

“How will I do that?”

I will impart to you a new meditational method that I used before. It will help you comprehend the might of the Nightflower Tianqi better, as well as increase your control of it to a granular level. Instead of being able to channel it in clumps, you would be doing it in strands, which allows you to accelerate and decelerate much more easily. Strands travel through the body much more quickly than clumps. In any case, we don’t have much time. Let me teach it to you now…

Somewhere else in the Heaven Thunder Prison…

Fan Yu, now totally covered in rags, could be seen standing before a majestic woman wearing an iron clown mask sitting on a throne. The throne itself was empowered by electricity, suggesting that she was a figure similar to Fan Yu, an anomaly capable of manipulating lightning without needing to call upon it naturally. Fan Yu then bowed down in reverence to the woman seated on the throne.

“Your Majesty, the girl is put in the cell you requested. May I ask why you told me to tell her that story?” Fan Yu asked very politely.

“Fan Yu, my only disciple, you must understand that Su Qingcheng is not only a Penta Essence user, but she is also the daughter of the mighty Tianqi Ghost Empress. If we touch Su Qingcheng, she will definitely try to kill both of us, and I have no doubt that she can do it as easily as stomping on an ant. Even with our lightning powers, the flames of the Ghost Calamity Palm are too strong, like the flames of the undying Netherworld. It will burn us to ashes without a chance to resist,” she explained. “At this point, we can’t touch Su Qingcheng. We can only have her undergo tests. We can analyze her performance that way. It is a technique that the Snake Empress often uses to try and probe the powers of people she has a crush on.”

“Your Majesty…”

“I had you tell her that story because I am already well aware of Su Qingcheng’s temperament. I know she will try to escape. She will think we will really slice her up, so… You know…”

“Ah… I understand. Your Majesty, you are too clever!” Fan Yu stifled a laugh.

“Silence… No one is to know about this. Everything would be ruined if Su Qingcheng figures out the plan. I’m already aware of the agreement. Therefore, no matter how fast or how slow she improves, we only take her out of the cell six months from now. Got it?”

“Your wish is my command, your Majesty,” Fan Yu acknowledged respectfully. “Shall I take my leave now?”

“You may leave. Go get some rest. These six months will be a tribulation for Su Qingcheng. I wonder if she’ll really escape from this prison. Hahahaha…” the woman on the throne laughed cheerfully as Fan Yu quietly left the room.