By the time Su Qingcheng got back home, it was already quite late. She kept the neidan of the first level magic beast in her storage ring as not to arouse suspicion. Quickly, she snuck back into her room through the window and finally removed her cloak with a deep breath. She was a bit sweaty but fortunately it wasn't that bad. She quietly left her room and then a palm gently touched her shoulder, causing her to jump from being startled. Turning around, she saw the concerned gaze of Su Yanran and then relaxed her guard. "I believe sister got my present, right?" Su Yanran spoke sweetly, her voice could cause men's knees to go weak and even collapse. Even Su Qingcheng with her abnormal mental strength (for a fourteen year old) couldn't resist blushing.
"Yes, older sister Yanran, I have received it, and I am grateful for it. Where did Yanran receive such a treasure?" Su Qingcheng bluntly asked, causing an expression of faint shock to wash upon Su Yanran's face. Though she was older than Su Qingcheng by quite a bit, her strength was only that of the peak fifth rank Tianqi Princess. Though out of the three kids Su Yanran was the strongest, it wouldn't be enough for her to roam the continent and acquire this treasure.
"Aii. Su Qingcheng's knowledge is just too frightening. You knew that I gave you the Dragon Hoard Ring," Su Yanran sighed. "Actually, it was a gift from my teacher, Long Po Tian. When I got this ring, I was deciding whether to keep it for myself but I was smitten by your courage to teach that kid, Xiao Tie, a lesson. So I decided to give it to you instead."
"Aren't you afraid I'll lose it?"
"I trust you. Anyway, mother and father have been worried about you. Let us go to eat."
The rest of the day was rather uneventful. Su Qingcheng did not let the matter of her escaping the residence and going to Tang Gu Market slip out. However, though Su Zhan believed her lies easily, Su Ran was much more perceptive. Despite this, Su Ran did not comment or try to break the lie. Eyeing the Dragon Hoard Ring on Su Qingcheng's finger, Su Ran flashed a complicated gaze at Su Yanran. Su Mujian on the other hand was unusually quiet. It should be said that Su Mujian, being the sole son of the direct lineage, was pretty boisterous and proud of his status. However, ever since the day where Su Qingcheng bravely declared the challenge in front of two Tianqi Sage grand elders, even managing to barely resist their pressure, Su Mujian's emotions ran wild. He wasn't sure whether to be happy or sad about this development. Normally, being the sole male, he would become the next Clan Leader, but he was worried that Su Qingcheng could usurp this position.
Unfortunately for him his worries would be for naught as Su Qingcheng herself actually never had an interest in that position in the first place. For now though, Su Qingcheng was just containing her excitement as tonight she would get Yao Meiyue to create the medicine. Later on, after the dinner, Su Qingcheng hurriedly retreated to her room.
Little brat, don't be too excited. That mother of yours is too frightening. If she realizes something, you could be in trouble. Even if she knows about the necklace I'm trapped in… Su Qingcheng frowned when, at this time, Yao Meiyue appeared in her spirit form and looked about frantically. "Fine, then we shall wait until the night, let us prepare our minds for this first…" Su Qingcheng sighed. While we wait, I may as well give you the one year plan.
"The one year plan?" Su Qingcheng's excitement rose. "You mean Master's training regime for me?"
Keke, that's right. After you regain your Tianqi paths and regain your penta-essence power and control, we will begin to acclimate you to the harsh trials of training. After being around you for a time I can impart to you some wisdom from my personal experiences. Also, your abnormal spiritual sense should also give you some foundations to become an apothecary like myself. Don't worry about this for now though. It's critical that you break through to Tianqi Geomancer as soon as possible though.
"Why is that?"
Hum. What I'll teach you comes from my personal writings, which I have compiled into a tome. Since you have the Dragon Hoard Ring, I can cut the material link from my soul and give it to you directly. With a swish of her illusory sleeves, a giant tome made of high quality papyrus appeared on the floor. The words for "Nightflower" were written elaborately on its cover. After a while, Yao Meiyue nodded and allowed Su Qingcheng to touch it and store it into her ring. You must not lose this training manual, otherwise, troubles will befall both you and me. Yao Meiyue warned Su Qingcheng who listened intently, nodding rather furiously. This is the Nightflower Tome, composed of my personal techniques. I will entrust them to you, my one and only disciple as of now. At the moment, you are far too weak to do anything, but after we restore your body we can begin with the basic foundational movements and hand-to-hand movements. Since you are a Penta-Essence User, even though you are of the lowest stratum, you can still directly harness the Nightflower Tianqi which is made by channeling Wood, Earth and Metal essence at the same time. This is heaven-defying already, since you need to be at least a Tri-Essence user of these three types to even begin practicing this.
Su Qingcheng let out a deep breath. She was really lucky to have been born with this monstrous talent and potential. Nodding solemnly, she looked out the window. It was already getting late. OK. I will begin the process within an hour's time. Watch closely. You'll be doing the same things sometime in the future.
Su Qingcheng nodded back in affirmation after she was no longer distracted by the shining moon outside. Eventually, after one hour, Yao Meiyue whisked out her Sky Xuan Turtle Cauldron. The ingredients that Su Qingcheng had asked for were already neatly placed on the study table, which the girl quickly took and gave to Yao Meiyue. Finally, Su Qingcheng took out the neidan from her storage ring and carefully put it on the floor.
OK, great. We have everything. These ingredients are simple, but because we are directly combining five kinds of essences together which are not necessarily compatible with one another, we need to adopt a highly specialized technique to do so. Give me the core. Su Qingcheng passed the neidan to Yao Meiyue, who casually threw it into the cauldron. It was still spherical and glowing dimly in the darkness. Soon, the spirit snapped her fingers, causing a white-ish blue ghost flame to emerge from her fingers. She created this flame beneath the cauldron, causing the neidan to quickly melt and become a golden liquid. "What flame is this, Teacher? I've only ever seen red flame."
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This ghost flame is my treasure, and the reason why I became very powerful even after my physical body was destroyed. It's the Night Lily Foxfire, which is what I named my manual after. It is one of the ten Relic-Class Natural Treasures of the continent. Su Qingcheng gulped. She was quite familiar with the Ten Relic-Class Natural Treasures of Liandou Continent, as she was trying to figure out how she could cure her broken body. In poring over ancient texts and encyclopedias, she learned that in Liandou Continent, there were ten kinds of natural phenomena that could be considered to be heaven-defying treasures or existences. One of them was the Night Lily Foxfire, which was formed when a nine-tailed fox spirit was buried beneath a full moon, and only if that fox spirit died after experiencing love while still alive, would a lily sprout on top of that grave, where a foxfire would be born. If you were strong enough, you could absorb or eat the fire and turn it into your personal weapon.
It seemed when Yao Meiyue was still alive, she fortuitously found the Night Lily Foxtail and consumed it, her constitution was obviously strong enough for her to refine it and allow her to use it without any care for the world. While Su Qingcheng was thinking about how shocking her spirit guide was, Yao Meiyue was busy boiling the neidan fluid in the cauldron. Soon, expertly controlling the flame so it was much weaker than earlier, Yao Meiyue grabbed the thousand-year-old ginseng, which she called the base. She simply dropped it into the neidan fluid, causing the ginseng to shrivel up. Once it was completely dried up and the essence entered the liquid, causing it to change color to a deep brown, Meiyue casually removed the dried up ginseng solid and put it aside. Su Qingcheng, stop staring. Get the Ocean Eye and cut it in half.
Su Qingcheng was a bit startled, but quickly she grabbed the Ocean Eye, and then before she could look for a knife, Yao Meiyue had already materialized a small jade scalpel, immediately cutting the link between it and herself. Use this. The jade scalpel is far better than anything here. Nodding, Su Qingcheng deftly cut the Ocean Eye in half, passing the halves to Yao Meiyue, who dug out a small hole inside each half, causing blue liquid to ooze out. She squeezed the liquid out into the cauldron like she was squeezing lemons. Then she crushed the Ocean Eye halves totally and let them sink into the mixture, which was now turning a bit purple. It should be said that the Ocean Eye was a medicinal ingredient that was normally grinded, cutting it required an insane type of tool to do so. But, Yao Meiyue simply crushed it like squeezing lemons. This show of strength cemented Su Qingcheng's belief that Yao Meiyue was a terrifying existence.
Yao Meiyue herself did not have any time to chat at this point. She intensified the flames beneath the cauldron, causing a sweet aroma to waft out of the liquid solution, which now began to emit a rainbow-colored light. The Demon Lemongrass and the Sunset Sky Fruit were yet to be put in. What would the solution look like after that? Closing her eyes, the spirit soon started to rapidly weaken and strengthen the flame in a sort of rhythm, causing the heat to fluctuate rapidly. Even though it was hot and boiling the solution, Su Qingcheng noticed it did not bubble like boiling water normally would. Eventually, the heat calmed down and while the aroma weakened, Su Qingcheng's room no longer felt like a boiler room. Wiping sweat from her face, Su Qingcheng anticipated Yao Meiyue's next move.
Grabbing the Sunset Sky Fruit, Yao Meiyue looked at it blankly before suddenly looking at Su Qingcheng. "Huh?"
Use the jade scalpel and cut yourself a bit. Not too much, just enough to draw blood. Since this medicine will be consumed by you, you need to mark it with some of your blood. It serves like a solution indicator to ensure that the final product contains all five essences. Since you are a Penta-Essence user, the final product should look very strange if correct. The product fails if the liquid is a single color only. Gritting her teeth, Su Qingcheng prepared to cut her finger with the scalpel.
Make sure the blood touches the solution at the same time I drop this fruit into the cauldron. On three, two… Go!
Su Qingcheng deftly cut herself, letting blood drip into the cauldron. Yao Meiyue dropped the fruit into the cauldron the same time Su Qingcheng cut herself, causing the mixture in the cauldron to bubble wildly. The cauldron itself shook too – even though this cauldron could be considered a grade under Relic-class, making it incredibly valuable, it still didn't withstand the pressure of this mixture entirely. Yao Meiyue's expression remained firm, nodding approvingly as she grabbed the Demon Lemongrass, letting the flame remain at a medium temperature, though for Su Qingcheng "medium heat" from the Night Lily Foxfire was too ferocious.
Finishing touches…! Demon Lemongrass! Yao Meiyue smiled as she used Night Lily Foxfire to burn the grass over the cauldron. The heat was so strong that the grass was beginning to melt rather than catch on fire like logic normally dictated, causing Su Qingcheng to gasp in disbelief. The Demon Lemongrass immediately disintegrated into nothing as green liquid poured into the solution being boiled up in the cauldron. After some moments of tense silence, the Sky Xuan Turtle Cauldron began to rumble madly, causing some faint noises, before the liquid glowed and made a bright flash.
Outside, in Tang Gu City, many people were woken up by a giant energy ripple emerging from the Su clan residence. Though it did not damage anything, the Tianqi interference was enough to wake up and alarm in the vicinity. Yao Meiyue sighed happily, while Su Qingcheng had already been knocked back into the wall with a thud, being closest to the epicenter of the energy ripple.
Staring into the rainbow colored goop in the cauldron, Yao Meiyue laughed as she took out a bowl from her sleeves and scooped up some of it, making it look like a psychedelic LSD soup. Su Qingcheng rubbed her eyes and stared at the rainbow soup in the bowl Yao Meiyue held. "This is…?"
The brewing was a success. Unfortunately, being a spirit, I couldn't control the energy ripple, which probably woke up everyone in the city, but I can confidently tell you that this Rainbow Phoenix Elixir has been successfully created and that only you could consume it without being burnt to ashes, since it has your blood in it!
Su Qingcheng had a big grin on her face as she grabbed the bowl. Though she expected it to be boiling hot, it was surprisingly just a good temperature for soup. Eagerly drinking it up without use of a spoon or anything, Yao Meiyue nodded in approval. After Su Qingcheng drank the soup, she didn't feel anything for the first five minutes. During this five minutes the Su clan residence had fallen into chaos. Naturally two people burst into Su Qingcheng's room – Su Ran her mother and Su Yanran. By the time these two intruded into her room, Yao Meiyue took away her Sky Xuan Turtle Cauldron (after expertly keeping away the remainder of the elixir) and disappeared.
Su Qingcheng blinked rather ignorantly at her sister and mother, who were now staring at Su Qingcheng as if they had seen a monster. "Uh?" Su Qingcheng was confused but when she looked at her hands, which were now radiating a rainbow glow, a smile crept onto her face. She could feel the warmth and coolness mixing together to form an orgasmic sensation as Qingcheng's expression warped into something full of happiness. Su Yanran was clueless but Su Ran couldn't contain her expression. Even though she displayed the strength of only a Tianqi Sage, her true power was undoubtedly higher than this, or why would Yao Meiyue be so respectful to her? She clearly sensed the new strength and power entering and building up inside Su Qingcheng.
"Qingcheng'er has recovered her Tianqi paths!" Su Ran screamed proudly and loudly, her voice booming so loudly the entire residence could hear it.