Su Qingcheng sat on her bed in the cell in deep meditative state, causing Fan Yu, who had often went to the cell to check on her condition, to be deeply shocked, and somehow could only feel a small sense of admiration towards the youth who was only fourteen years of age, about to turn fifteen within the coming months. Though she was in a trance, Su Qingcheng was constantly given guidance by Yao Meiyue, who had helped her to be able to convert the clumps of raw Nightflower Tianqi she generated into more focused, granular strands. This would allow her to focus her material attacks in a much more efficient fashion.
Yao Meiyue had emphasized that the power of Nightflower Tianqi was just too abnormal. After all, ever since Su Qingcheng took her as a master, she never actually learned what made Nightflower Tianqi so powerful compared to what others at her level could do. Now that she was stuck in prison with no one who dared to disturb her due to the lingering threat of the Tianqi Ghost Empress, she was actually in an advantageous position right now. In fact, she now had a solid seven or eight months to completely master her powers and even make a breakthrough to the fourth rank. Of course, the precondition was that she could escape the prison alive, which was a different story.
Even though she would be allowed to leave relatively unscathed, Su Qingcheng obviously didn’t know this. She still believed that she would not be spared. Therefore, she wholeheartedly focused on strengthening her internals and attempt to reach a breakthrough or a new insight as soon as possible. So it’s like this. The Nightflower Tianqi which I have synthesized in the past has been refined by you into a purer state that even I couldn’t have imagined. It is most likely related to the fact your Tianqi paths were initially destroyed by lightning. Therefore, when the Elixir reformed your paths again, they had already gone through an indescribable tribulation that made them stronger after experiencing a rebirth.
“That must be why I only passed out after being stuck in the electric net for several hours, instead of passing out immediately.” Su Qingcheng finally opened her eyes and muttered to herself as Yao Meiyue was lecturing her about the Nightflower Tianqi.
Right. It’s much like a disease or an infection, where your body has developed a strong resistance or immunity to it after surviving it and receiving treatment or a cure. After all, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. And since normally there’s no such heaven-defying treatment as the Phoenix Rainbow Elixir, how could anyone suspect the reason behind your absurd Tianqi? The Nightflower Tianqi is known by the old freaks of the land to be used as a force to corrode opposing Tianqi. The stronger the level of the user, the stronger the corrosive effect. If I were to use it, I could counteract any kind of attack in the entire continent aside from maybe your mother’s Ghost Calamity Palm.
“Master, you know about this matter too?”
Naturally. It’s how she can defeat me. Without it, she wouldn’t stand too much of a chance. That said, because I taught her almost everything I knew, she has become an existence that very few people would dare to offend. Evidently, these folks who captured us are either very brave or very stupid. Or perhaps they’re confident and believe that Su Ran won’t find us in time.
Su Qingcheng nodded. “Well, regardless…”
Right. That’s unimportant for now. What’s important now, since you have already managed to refine your control over manipulating your Tianqi, is to try and refine your techniques… But it will be hard to get practical control over the uses in this cell. And because you haven’t broken through to the Tianqi Geomancer level, your body won’t be able to handle using your Tianqi as an external influence… This will be tough. The only way for this to work out is if there was an excuse for using your battle techniques… Yao Meiyue sighed.
“Damnit. When are they going to make a move, then?” Su Qingcheng frowned as she soon broke out of her meditative state, lying down restlessly on the bed. Surprisingly, all the food she was given hadn’t been poisoned. Though it wasn’t anything amazing like spiritual food, it was definitely better than what she’d seen the other prisoners receive. As a result, the other prisoners began to get rather jealous of her, who was only a child. Soon, Su Qingcheng had an idea. If there was a way for her to engage in combat with the other prisoners, that would provide her a way to increase her battle experience. Though it was very risky, it was worth a shot.
A month flew by in the blink of an eye. During this time, Fang Li had failed to receive any significant information on Su Qingcheng’s whereabouts. Su Yanran, meanwhile, had been silent the entire time, and her demeanor had become akin to that of a depressed person. However, Fang Li did manage to report a strange happening to Su Ran – several talents from all over the continent who possessed abnormal abilities were forcibly kidnapped and captured and taken to a mysterious place only known as “Heaven Thunder Prison.” At the moment, Fang Li’s team hadn’t managed to find it yet. It wasn’t that they were incapable of doing so per se, it was just that the entire structure itself was too mysterious. It was only then when Su Yanran heard the news that Fang Li discovered some information about Su Qingcheng’s whereabouts did her mood improve. However, she felt powerless to do anything.
It should be said that though the Heaven Thunder Prison was a rather big structure. However, what nobody knew was that the prison complex itself was perpetually blanketed in a thunderstorm, which was part of the reason why it got its name. The thunderstorm was akin to a huge heavenly tribulation of thunder, and that anyone who got near it would most likely be struck down and killed. Therefore, it could be considered a maximum security prison, even if the complex itself was nothing compared to the prisons in Earth that Su Qingcheng was quite familiar with. Not due to experience, of course. That said, during this one month of time, Su Qingcheng had made leaps and bounds in her understanding of controlling and using the Nightflower Tianqi. She hadn’t gotten that moment of a breakthrough yet but the insights she gained were more than enough to make up for everything. Sighing, Su Qingcheng stared into the distant hallway. Separating her cell and that hallway to freedom was a metal gate locked by a magical array formation.
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Su Qingcheng wondered if she would be able to get the strength to break out. Yao Meiyue comforted her though, telling her that eventually she would have the power. But for the meantime, she needed to endure and not to give up. Definitely, Su Qingcheng would not give up. She couldn’t just die a second time, after all. She had been given a wonderful opportunity to reshape herself – a powerful figure like her mother in this new world, that’s what this entire incident motivated her to do. She no longer wanted to be powerless in the face of those who attacked her or her friends and family. She would surpass those freaks. A faint smile on her face, Su Qingcheng returned to her bed to resume her training. However, she heard faint footsteps in the distance. She quickly turned to the hallway and found Fan Yu coming over to check on her again. However, she was shocked after she realized that Su Qingcheng had managed to conceal her Tianqi aura by suppressing it. Even though she was just a Third Rank user, she already had this skill of control.
Su Qingcheng really did possess a heaven-defying talent. Fan Yu had received orders from her Master this time to actually bring out Su Qingcheng merely a month in captivity. Actually, this was due to her impression that Su Qingcheng was using this time to deliberately train after all. Before Su Qingcheng could react, Fan Yu immediately flicked her wrist and sent lightning energy directly at the girl, causing her wrists and ankles to be bound by terrifyingly shocking electric chains, causing Su Qingcheng to scream in agony. The nearby prisoners were shocked outwardly but inwardly happy to see this fellow prisoner finally receiving some harsh treatment, since she led such a leisurely one month before this. Wincing and gasping in pain, Su Qingcheng could only submit to Fan Yu’s command who dragged her out of the cell. Inwardly, Su Qingcheng wished to smash this girl to bits and make her escape.
Soon, Su Qingcheng was taken to a plain room elsewhere in the prison. However, this place was considerably darker than the other rooms and this shocked her. She dared not to speak her mind though, and instead simply nodded whenever Fan Yu began to ramble on about how amazing the structure was. She didn’t even talk about the origin of her powers, which was the one thing Su Qingcheng really wanted to hear from Fan Yu about. Unfortunately, no such luck. Soon, Su Qingcheng’s electric chains were removed in a jiffy. But before Su Qingcheng could move away from Fan Yu, a terrifying pressure was exerted down on her. Only then did she realize that the dark room also had a second person.
“Don’t bother resisting. Don’t worry; we aren’t going to cut you up or anything. We aren’t that ready to lose our lives yet” the powerful figure’s voice bellowed out into the room, leaving an echo.
“Master…”
So this was the Master of Fan Yu. She was indeed worthy of that title. She was definitely a low-ranked Tianqi Emperor, otherwise she wouldn’t dare to claim that Su Ran could claim her life so easily. Before Su Qingcheng could say anything, she was strapped to a metal thing – she felt her arms stretched out but her legs remained taut. If one were to see Su Qingcheng’s position right now it was as if she was being strapped to a metal cross. “What is the meaning of this, ma’am?” Su Qingcheng dared not to be too haughty in front of this mighty figure.
“We’re just going to run a test on you for this month. We’ll run checkups on you also.”
“C, checkups?”
“You ask too many questions.”
Fan Yu’s master quickly stuffed some thick cloth into Su Qingcheng’s mouth, gagging her thoroughly. She then eyed Fan Yu and nodded. “Begin the test.”
Fan Yu responded by bowing and nodding, before pressing her hands into the back of the metal cross. Soon, Fan Yu began to channel lightning into the cross, which caused Su Qingcheng’s entire body to feel the lightning shocking her directly. She was repeatedly zapped as if being seated on an electric chair. The pain was mind-numbingly bad, and she couldn’t scream even if she wanted to. She weakly moaned in agonizing pain through the mouth gag. Tears began to well up in her eyes as she was, quite literally, tortured on an electric cross. However, despite this, Su Qingcheng’s Tianqi paths were roiling with excess energy.
However, not only did the pain not go away as a result, it actually intensified. Su Qingcheng was weeping at this point as her body began to emit smoke. Though her Tianqi paths were in no risk of being crippled again by electricity, being continuously shocked like this also damaged her external body. Also, her brain was repeatedly receiving shocks that her Nightflower Tianqi tried desperately to fight against. After about three hours of being subjected to “electric shock testing,” Fan Yu was finally told to stop. Truth to be told, even Fan Yu felt bad for Su Qingcheng.
The Master removed the mouth gag from Su Qingcheng and nodded approvingly. “Yes. It appears your body is heavily tempered from the combination of the elixir and having your Tianqi paths originally destroyed by lightning. I need to continue to study this behavior. You aren’t let off yet for this month. Sadly for you, I need you to be alive to continue the testing. I’ll have my disciple escort you back to your cell. You’re a good girl. Stay strong.”
Su Qingcheng was too weak at this point to even acknowledge it. She was let off the metal cross and carried by Fan Yu back to her cell. When the prisoners saw it, they were overjoyed to notice that Su Qingcheng had suffered a great deal. She was thrown back onto her bed where she rested in immense pain.
Yao Meiyue finally revealed herself again throughout the whole ordeal. She knew that Su Qingcheng had already fallen unconscious. Endure. Stay strong. I know that if you persist through this, you’ll only emerge even stronger. I think… I think I now know what they’re planning to test you for…! Though Yao Meiyue said this, Su Qingcheng’s consciousness failed to register it. She could only concentrate on resting and recovering from the torture.
A month of this hell…? Could this be what they called “Tribulation of Heavenly Thunder?”