While Su Qingcheng was resting, Yao Meiyue was busy trying to figure out the next steps into her training plan. There were approximately two months remaining for Su Qingcheng to become a Terraformer. Normally this would be incredibly difficult, but Su Qingcheng’s constitution had become abnormal due to her various experiences. Therefore, the most difficult part of breaking through would be mutating her Tianqi paths so that the Tianqi energy she channeled could solidify after leaving her body. This required lots of medicines and herbs. Now that Su Qingcheng was a member of the Tianqi Ranking Boards, she could be eligible to check the herb market. However, Yao Meiyue would bank on Su Ran to check what was available while Su Qingcheng could take the opportunity to roam around and gain more outdoor experience.

She had been doing closed-door cultivation so much that Yao Meiyue felt it was necessary for Su Qingcheng to go outside again. Since the threat had been killed already after Su Ran blew up the Heaven Thunder Prison, there most likely wouldn’t be any new intruders. The concept was to create a miracle water that Su Qingcheng would bathe in, fully naked, to allow the energy and essences of the concoction to invade her body and forcibly re-adjust and remold her Tianqi paths. This was similar to the concept of reshaping or modifying one’s meridians directly through an external force.

On top of this, in order to facilitate the process, Yao Meiyue would make Su Qingcheng perform Thunder Blossom Cultivation inside the medicinal spirit concoction she would create, which would expedite the process. This would have the unfortunate side-effect of predisposing Su Qingcheng to becoming more in-tune with lightning, but at the moment, there was not enough time, and she was banking on the skill that Nature’s Warlock would give her in order to rebalance her natural aptitudes. Next problem to solve was the location of the cultivation. As far as she could recall, obtaining a Mark of the Paragon required the person challenging the breakthrough to undergo a heavenly tribulation. As Su Qingcheng was only going to become a Terraformer, the lightning would not be strong, it would only be a single-colored heavenly tribulation. However, to avoid the lightning from destroying the place, they would need to do it outdoors.

Finally, though she would urge Su Qingcheng to supplement the cultivation using Thunder Blossom Cultivation method, the main challenge was to undergo the tempering process consciously… This would cause an immense amount of fiendish pain and was one of the reasons why the Variant Tianqi Emperor was called a fiend. Only a demon or a freak would be willing to go through such pain in pursuit of true strength. Yao Meiyue used her spiritual force to read the manual that Su Qingcheng was keeping in her Dragon Hoard Ring to review the contents of Faceless’ experiences.

Yao Meiyue discovered that the reason why the process was so painful was because the method to summon the heavenly tribulation was in fact as abnormal as it sounded. It involved reversing the process of typical cultivation, one would forcibly release Tianqi in a gaseous state. And this would mean forcibly releasing their synthesized Tianqi instead, and then re-absorbing the gaseous substance mixed with the pure natural essence. Normally, one would absorb the natural essence first before creating the Tianqi, but to summon the tribulation that would allow one to gain a Mark of the Paragon, they needed to defy the heavens and go against convention!

Yao Meiyue was startled, as she even didn’t know the intricacies behind this method. Her interest piqued, she began to keep reading through the manuals as Su Qingcheng continued to sleep.

When Su Qingcheng woke up, a piece of paper containing a list of herbs and other ingredients was already left on the desk. Su Qingcheng figured out it was most likely Yao Meiyue who created this list of things. Su Qingcheng inquired what the concoction was called but didn't get any answer. After that, she didn’t need any prompting to go and immediately find Su Ran, who was sitting casually in the main gathering hall of the residence.

“Mother, here’s a list, I need as many of these ingredients as possible,” Su Qingcheng yawned. “They can be obtained, right?”

There was now a tacit understanding between the mother and daughter pair. “Yeah… I can probably get most of these. The others you may need to hunt by yourself.” Su Ran nodded. She began to cross out a list of ingredients that she said she could easily find after committing them to memory, before handing back the list to Su Qingcheng. “Everything that I have not crossed out here is too rare to find in the market. You need to either get them via auction or hunt for them.”

“Noted, thank you very much.”

“Why do you need these?”

Su Qingcheng looked around sheepishly. “I am planning to use these for cultivation.”

“They’re so rare. You’re only a—“

“I’ve received some advice and some pointers. Once I go on this new path, there’s no turning back. I want to be the strongest I can be. It must be fate that I can get this opportunity. Do not stop me.” Su Qingcheng declared, interrupting her mother.

Su Ran sighed and didn’t bother talking back. “Fine, I won’t stop you. But you must be careful. I don’t want you blowing yourself up by mistake… Please don’t hide it from me. I know you are trying to become like that abnormal freak of nature.” she sighed, as if already knowing what Su Qingcheng was planning to do. Then she walked past her and proceeded to leave the premises. She had a very unsightly expression, while Su Qingcheng simply stood there with a surprised expression.

She’s just worried about you.

“Like I can do anything about that,” Su Qingcheng grumbled. “As long as I have you, this should be fine, right?”

Yeah, you can count on me to help.

Su Qingcheng looked at the list of ingredients on her list. A majority of them were crossed out but there were still three that were untouched. According to Su Ran, the three materials – Soul-stirring Grass, Flower of the Cursed Drake, and finally the Fruit of Desire. This was apparently within Yao Meiyue’s expectations as she didn’t seem to have a strong reaction to the new list. “What do you think?” Su Qingcheng asked.

Soul-stirring Grass should be commonly found in auctions. Flower of the Cursed Drake… we either forage for it or pray that there’s someone who we can trade it with. The hardest ingredient to obtain is undoubtedly the Fruit of Desire… I don’t actually know if it’s possible to acquire it here in Bailing Empire. We might have to pray that it’s within fate’s expectations to drop the ingredient for us within this important period of time.

Su Qingcheng was startled.

“Looks like we’re going to need a lot of money.”

You think your mom will help?

“I don’t think she will.”

You wanna go rob some people?

“Oh, come on! I’m not that kind of girl!”

Where else are we going to get the capital to acquire a Soul-stirring Grass? Let alone if we have to trade with someone else to get the other ingredients.

“Let’s go and meet up with some old friends then.” Su Qingcheng sighed.

Time to take a visit to the Xiao clan…