Su Ran’s face twisted into one of rage and anger, though all of it was redirected on the news which Qin Fa gave her – that the Demon Flame Sect had restarted their operations on the continent. Su Ran already knew that this meant the Ancestor was not totally killed, and was merely heavily defeated. Thus he spent many years in the Infernal Lands recuperating and rebuilding the sect underground. Finally, after he had recovered to a certain extent, he was able to send disciples and elders back onto the surface to act in secret. Worst of all, they began having designs on her most talented daughter, Su Qingcheng. This was definitely something to be concerned about.

“Do you recognize any of the two men who ambushed you?”

“I don’t recognize the young kid, but the old fogey who was able to deflect my attack must be the eccentric elder, Huan Tao. He’s usually the one responsible for creating and inventing the eclectic mystic spells of the Demon Flame Sect. He was able to use his soft sleeve to deflect my attack, it felt like I was striking hard adamantite.”

“Huan Tao… Humph, that bastard sure is smart. He was even able to devise such a technique which used the principles of fighting hardness with softness. He could even block your Palmblade Attack!”

“It seems that the Demon Flame Sect are intent on trying to get revenge on you. They somehow knew that little Qingcheng is your kid though, which means…”

“…I’ll talk about it with Qingcheng’er tomorrow. It seems your return means she got the fruit, which can only mean she will make preparations to try and breakthrough to become a Terraformer." Su Ran spoke plainly.

“She’ll need a safe open-air place to attract the Single-Colored Tribulation thunder.”

“Yes. Her body has already been heavily tempered to resist most types of thunders, since she was already able to absorb the core of an Electric Scale Lizard into her lightning nascent soul!” Qin Fa shook her head in admiration of this young kid’s fortuitous encounters.

“A level… five or six beast would definitely improve her core and body resistance. On top of the divine battle sense from her constitution, she will definitely have a much easier time on the Path of a Paragon than Faceless, who had to persevere through all challenges without these incredibly fortuitous and absurd encounters.” Su Ran smiled weakly. “Are you going to go back now, Sis?”

Qin Fa nodded. “I ought to recuperate. I myself was imprisoned in a mystic blood cage of the Demon Flame Sect. I would have been done for if your kid hadn’t suddenly thrown a Dispelling Mudra at it.”

“What?! Dispelling Mudra of the First Mantra!!” Su Ran’s jaw dropped. She didn’t expect that Su Qingcheng was able to comprehend enough of the Dark Cosmos Fist’s First Mantra to use the Dispelling Mudra to break Qin Fa out of the Rakshasa Cage, which she had already warned Su Qingcheng about when describing the Demon Flame Sect to her.

“That’s right. Haha. It seems your kid has a much better affinity for spatial techniques than even you, who can trigger your bloodline to rip open space and acquire Netherworld Fire even though you can’t use Flame Tianqi.” Qin Fa stifled a feeble laugh.

Su Ran was renowned amongst the Tianqi Leaderboard community as being one of the only people who could use such terrifying spatial techniques, which made her incredibly feared. Hearing that her own daughter had inherited this talent, but at an even greater level, both made her quite happy for her child but also rather speechless. Wasn’t this a bit too much? This was definitely heaven-defying and absurd. It was definitely a sign of even more abnormal things to come. Unfortunately, the surprises wouldn’t end here. Qin Fa smiled, gave Su Ran a few comforting and heavy pats on the shoulder before flying off back to her place in the Imperial City.

Su Ran sighed and stood in the courtyard, motionless.

The next day.

There was a bit under a month before the agreement would come to an end. Yao Meiyue had woken up Su Qingcheng and said they needed to make the elixir with the materials they acquired and Su Ran had already purchased. Your aptitude for space is really shocking. It’s even better than myself and your mother’s. I would be inclined to say you inherited this talent from your mother, but with the degree of learning and comprehension you’re displaying, plus the experiences you shared from watching the Transcendent Cosmic Wheel, I can only help but feel that I am finding it increasingly difficult to see through you.

Su Qingcheng was alarmed. This was a very bad sign. She knew very well what this meant – the phenomenon of seeing her past life and vaguely alluding to it made those close to her suspicious, especially her almighty teacher. Even though she was in a spiritual body, her perception was still far more terrifying than her own. She would definitely be the first person to suspect that Su Qingcheng was more than what she said she was.

“I don’t know what more to say, Master.” Su Qingcheng frowned.

Everybody has their own secrets.

“That’s definitely a plot flag of some sort.” Su Qingcheng muttered under her breath.

Su Qingcheng dismissed Yao Meiyue’s questioning on the matter. “We must find a place to prepare the elixir and then find a way to call down the tribulation lightning.” Before Su Qingcheng could get up from bed, Yao Meiyue had already explained that you needed to make an open declaration to the heavens, stating your will to defy them and embark on the path of the Paragon. There were no fancy or specific incantations. You just had to impose your heaven-defying will on the sky and naturally you would attract the earth-suppressing lightning. Successfully surviving the thunderous blows would reward the person with a Mark of the Paragon, and how each of these marks manifested on a person was entirely different. Su Qingcheng’s marks may not necessarily be the same as Faceless’ marks.

The most important thing was the power and tempering surviving the lightning provided. With Su Qingcheng’s natural resistance to thunder, the Single-Colored Heavenly Tribulation would be a piece of cake. Combined with the medicinal bath, the lightning could be conducted – not only would this intensify the lightning but the absorption of the lightning would become possible. This was only possible with the Single-Colored lightning because as the person acquired more Marks of the Paragon, the lightning would gain multiple colors which contained other elemental and divine essences! Thus, the Single-Colored lightning was the best choice, since it was only of lightning essence.

After Su Qingcheng got up, Su Ran calmly walked into the room.

“I know you need to go, but we need to talk first. I’ll help find a spot for you to call upon the tribulation afterwards.” Su Ran had clearly given this visit some thought.

“What’s the rush?” Su Qingcheng looked concerned.

“Sis Qin told me about how you were attacked by members of the Demon Flame Sect.”

“Is that so… Then, Auntie must have told you that she was caught by the Rakshasa Cage. I don’t know who those two are, but I highly suspect that one of them is working with Xiao Tie.”

“What?!” Su Ran scowled. “That bastard, he’s working with heretic sects behind his own clan’s back? What is he planning!?”

“There’s no way that we would have been attacked so coincidentally if neither of them knew my identity or what I was planning to do. You might recall that I went to run an errand for Xiao Hua and her father in order to acquire some ingredients for the medicinal elixir. Xiao Tie must have been eavesdropping on our conversation and knew I was looking for Fruit of Desire.” Su Qingcheng frowned. “He then told his teacher, who must have been from the Demon Flame Sect, and then his teacher must have followed Auntie and I there with another disciple!”

“Sis Qin told me Huan Tao, that eccentric old bastard who won’t die, attacked you and escaped.”

“I don’t know about that. After I freed Auntie from the Rakshasa Cage, I passed out because using the Dispelling Mudra was too taxing on my body. I was unconscious for a couple of days.” Su Qingcheng rubbed her nose in embarrassment, but did not mention anything about the Transcendent Cosmic Wheel she saw.

“I’ll investigate this matter. If Huan Tao is really that bastard kid’s teacher, then there’s no amount of good news to be had from engaging with Xiao Tie on the day the agreement ends. That Huan Tao fellow is the creator of many mystic techniques. Even though you can use Dispelling Mudra to dispel any of the harmful magicks, your body isn’t strong enough to keep using it, even after you break through,” Su Ran said with much concern. “You have to focus on getting stronger. I’ll take you to a place. We can talk more along the way.”

Su Ran seemed to have a place in mind already. Thus, the child didn’t mind and simply followed her secretly out of the back area of the residence. They were making their way to a hilly field which was nearby the secret place Su Qingcheng used to lay in contemplation back when she was still crippled.

“Huan Tao is one of the undying elders of the Demon Flame Sect.” Su Ran explained. “I had already beaten him many times before, but who knew that guy successfully fled to the lower realm and hid there. He must have invented countless more techniques and methods. He is known to be one of the backbones of the sect, as his ‘Shura Tianqi’ method which was pioneered by him and their Ancestor was what allowed the Demon Flame Sect to flourish. He definitely must have taught Xiao Tie this basic method and then opened him up to countless more demonic arts…” Su Ran frowned as the two of them continued to walk.

“I don’t know for sure if that old fogey is Xiao Tie’s teacher, but I find it likely it is,” Su Qingcheng frowned. “The way he was so eager to kill me, it meant he knew about your relationship with me as my mother. He wanted to get revenge on you by killing me. Only someone with a strong relationship with our clan would know this. The Xiao Clan, naturally. Xiao Tie hates my guts and wants to kill me also. Therefore, he’d easily spill the beans about it. Even if Huan Tao couldn’t kill me, he would try to cripple me again so Xiao Tie could kill me himself!”

“You are terrifyingly astute,” Su Ran nodded, unable to find any flaw in Su Qingcheng’s explanation. Indeed, why would the Demon Flame Sect suddenly attack a fifteen year old girl with a Tianqi Sage known to invent countless demonic techniques? “I’m proud of you. Anyway, we are here now.”

Su Ran had taken Su Qingcheng to a large open area which looked like a crater. It was surrounded by tall hilly peaks and looked like a ritual area, even though it wasn’t. Su Ran explained that this area was rumoured to have been the result of a failed heavenly tribulation, though she didn’t know how many colors it was. Su Ran gave the regular ingredients she purchased from the Leaderboard area to Su Qingcheng, who bowed in thanks and went to the center.

“Good luck, my child.” Su Ran smiled. “You can beat this. Make your mother proud. You’re embarking on a path far more dangerous than my own. It will inspire your brother and sister, too, to become a paragon. You should be safe here; I’ll need to investigate further into the matters of the Demon Flame Sect. I may head to the Tianqi Leaderboards area to ask around. Take care of yourself!”

Before Su Qingcheng could respond, Su Ran disappeared in a flash. Despite this, Su Qingcheng felt a warm feeling rising up in her heart. Yao Meiyue soon emerged from Su Qingcheng’s necklace. “Did you prepare everything I told you to last night?”

Su Qingcheng nodded. She pulled out a large wooden basin, large enough for her to sit in. Yao Meiyue, on her part, procured the cauldron as Su Qingcheng laid out the ingredients on a large red cloth.

“Stay quiet and watch me.” Yao Meiyue sighed and began to channel her spiritual energy. She began to throw in the ingredients one by one, seemingly not caring about the order. Su Qingcheng didn’t say anything but looked very confused, as it seemed as if Yao Meiyue did not care about the usual process of elixir brewing. However, Su Qingcheng’s expression froze up as she realized that Yao Meiyue was using her spiritual energy to mash up the ingredients forcefully, creating a sort of primordial stew that was emanating a fierce energy. Dark clouds began to appear above the area where Su Qingcheng was seated and where Yao Meiyue was busy creating the elixir concoction. Su Qingcheng gasped when she saw that the elixir appeared to be letting loose sparks of electricity. After a while, a pillar of purple lightning appeared from the dark clouds above and slammed into the liquid in the cauldron, causing it to vibrate and tremble madly from the energy and collision.

“Stay back!” Yao Meiyue warned. Su Qingcheng sucked in a cold breath as she involuntarily slid back on her butt. The pillar of electricity reminded her of something she’d see in a movie or a video game. It was too amazing. After the pillar cleared, the liquid was smoking and letting loose bubbles like magma. Yao Meiyue quickly poured the solution into the wooden basin, causing it to steam up.

“Quickly, strip and get in!”

Without hesitating, Su Qingcheng did as asked and got into the basin after stripping down to nakedness, revealing her body that had undergone incredible changes. Her physique was still lithe and slender, but her features were far more toned and in the modern world of Earth, Su Qingcheng would be considered an athletic girl who had undergone bodybuilding procedures! Su Qingcheng hissed as she felt the heat of the liquid pierce through her body.

“Qingcheng’er, now! Call upon the lightning!”

Su Qingcheng gnashed her teeth, bearing the pain of sitting in the liquid without any protection. She howled and roared to the heavens. “I am in charge of my own destiny! The heavens won’t be able to prevent me from defying fate and taking charge of my own path! I shall forge my own road to become the strongest! Not even the heavens shall stop me!!”

As Su Qingcheng roared in defiance against the heavens in the sky, the dark clouds that were originally responsible for jolting the cauldron suddenly formed up again. They hovered high above Su Qingcheng’s head. After a few moments, bolts of thick purple lightning suddenly crashed down onto Su Qingcheng, causing her to roar in a mixture of pain and sheer defiance.

Yao Meiyue watched by, seemingly worried, as she saw Su Qingcheng sitting in the boiling hot medicinal liquid, clashing with the lightning head-on.