Su Qingcheng stood in the middle of the arena patiently, attempting to make the most domineering Night Lily Stance that she could. She awaited the appearance of the enemy, but she relaxed herself when she heard a voice coming from the stands. She looked up and saw a small pavilion nestled between some of the bleachers. In it she saw a heavily cloaked figure and realized that this figure was definitely a top class expert in the ranking boards. She looked up and tried not to let her heart waver too much. The experts watching from the stands seemed interested in this kid who looked like she needed more time with her mommy, but when they would realize her mother was actually Netherworld Ghost Queen, they would most likely tremble in fear. Unfortunately, the guest in the pavilion seemed to know a lot.
“Friends. Ladies and gentlemen,” the figure’s voice was strong, powerful, and most of all it was eerily calm. He did not dare to rouse the audience’s excitement. “Today is a very interesting day for us all. For the first time in 50 years, we have a qualifying challenger who is under 16 years of age. Even better. You should know that this girl in the arena is the daughter of the Netherworld Ghost Queen!”
When the figure made this earth-shattering announcement, the crowd went into an uproar anyway. However as soon as he opened his mouth to speak again, the noise instantly was dispersed. “Silence! I was not done speaking yet. So you know, Dark Lily has come with the intention to join our ranks. Therefore, our qualifying test will be slightly different. We have never had this incident where a child like this abnormal monster has appeared. So our triple threat qualifying protocol will not be followed. We will immediately pit her against number 100 on the Man ranking board. If Dark Lily wins, she will replace this fella.”
The crowd roared in excitement again as the iron gate opened up. Su Qingcheng stared into the blackness of the entrance as if she were staring at an endless abyss. Soon, a tall, lithe figure emerged from it. It was a man with long hair, but his expression was ferocious and he looked to be in his late twenties. Though his expression was fierce, his aura was deathly calm, and Su Qingcheng couldn’t help but be a bit nervous about it. His eyes had a mixture of sympathy, pity and killing intent all rolled up into one. Even though he was the bottom ranked member of the Man Rankings, this fella was still a top-tier existence or he wouldn’t even be here. From his aura, Su Qingcheng guesstimated that his level was at the low Tianqi Prince stratum. Still, she stepped up to the challenge.
“Man of few words?” Su Qingcheng asked as she prepared herself. The Lightning Wyvern Prince core had been assimilated into her body by now and materialized into a nascent soul that merged with her consciousness. It caused her body to involuntarily release small electric sparks from it, eliciting a few gasps from the crowd.
“So what if a kid like you has a thunder constitution,” the man guffawed. “I don’t care if your mother is that Ghost Queen. She was already suppressed by Void King and is no longer in her prime. Does she think her daughter, a mere brat like you, has the power to climb onto the ranking board? Just a frog in the well, you are!”
Su Qingcheng, who had just escaped a literal thunder prison, was incensed by this claim, yet she dared not to let emotions take over and influence her actions. She had already made this mistake with Xiao Tie before, she wouldn’t do it again against someone who had more than a decade’s worth of life and battle experiences. “That you dare to be so arrogant and flap your mouth in front of a junior like me shows your true colors.” Su Qingcheng snapped back viciously, causing some of the people in the audience to be a bit shocked.
“This girl, isn’t she courting death? Flying Sword is incredibly wily, even if he is ranked number 100, that sly fox has a lot of tricks that helped him to survive there. I’m afraid Dark Lily is in trouble to get into the board if she can’t beat him.” An expert ranked 44 on the Earth board, a middle-aged lady known as Jack Frost, released her opinions after she saw Su Qingcheng’s attitude. She didn’t approve of this much. However, her husband, Flametongue, shook his head. He was seated right next to her and gently held her hand. Flametongue was a monster in the Heaven board and could be considered as a true expert not only in Bailing Empire but probably the continent.
“No, she is definitely not so simple. Flying Sword beats her out in age and experience. However, his major weakness is his fleshly body. If Dark Lily can figure out his schemes, she can and will thoroughly suppress him. Flying Sword is a Tianqi Prince with the bodily constitution of a lower ranked Geomancer. How can he dare to fight against a girl with abnormal lightning constitution? She has already created a young lightning nascent soul, you tell me, is she really courting death?” Flametongue lectured his wife. As a powerful Tianqi Emperor, he could easily sense the power that Su Qingcheng had in her physical body. Her weakness is that she had not become a Geomancer yet, thus she was only limited to close combat.
Jack Frost coughed in embarrassment. Being in the Tianqi Sage stratum herself, she could only sense Su Qingcheng’s cultivation level. She could not discern that Su Qingcheng was a monster who had already harbored a divergent essence nascent soul in her body. Actually, these nascent souls were exactly how a person could manifest nature energy directly, and could only be normally acquired when they reached the Tianqi Lord stratum, but this was only with the main 5 primary essences of fire, water, earth, wood and metal. For these “divergent” ones like lightning, they could be acquired with good fortune and sufficient tempering. Su Qingcheng had fulfilled all this criteria due to her torture and experience in the Heaven Thunder Prison. Therefore, this was most certainly finding a blessing out of a disaster.
Flying Sword’s mouth twitched as he rushed forward without warning. “Courting death! Don’t blame me for being merciless!” he cried out as he suddenly waved his sleeves forward. Su Qingcheng suddenly felt a strong sense of danger as she waved her hands forward, quickly churning her lightning nascent soul, which she even didn’t realize was there at first until suddenly she saw a lightning web materialize from her hands and push Flying Sword back after hearing the sound of a sword being deflected.
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Su Qingcheng was startled. Lightning nascent soul! Qingcheng’er, this is the pinnacle of your absorption of the wyvern core! Such good timing, now, you can deflect his metal attacks with lightning strikes! Yao Meiyue had thrown caution to the wind in her excitement of seeing Su Qingcheng take the blow with little effort. However, she quickly stopped saying anything again after she realized she might be seen. After all, the Tianqi Ranking Board was full of old freaks. Su Qingcheng was still young, and could easily be seen as vulnerable. She had to make a good showing here to prove herself to everyone that she wasn’t a trash.
Flying Sword stared in astonishment at this girl who easily deflected his Invisible Air attack, where he slashed forward with a sword made of slicing air that made it look invisible. Su Qingcheng took advantage of this moment of weakness as she pounced forward, closing into Flying Sword’s blind spot. “Got you!” she cried out.
Star Vortex Fist!
Su Qingcheng cried out in her heart as she drove her fist into Flying Sword’s stomach. Suddenly, she widened her eyes as she realized that Flying Sword’s skin felt like steel, much like a real sword! Flying Sword looked down on her with a vicious smile as he thought he had tricked her. Flying Sword got his name because of a technique that allowed him to temporarily change his constitution to that of metal and his Invisible Air technique made him attack much like a real sword. If he had not used this technique now, at this moment, Su Qingcheng would have already blown him far into the air. Even as Su Qingcheng employed her Star Vortex Fist to absorb his Tianqi, the attack was not designed to do damage.
“Foolish girl!” Flying Sword derided Su Qingcheng as he countered by kicking her in the face. Su Qingcheng spat out a mouthful of blood as she was sent flying back, tumbling on the floor and looking a bit miserable. She stood up tenaciously and wiped the blood around her mouth and nose. Her face itself fortunately had not been caved in, otherwise she would have really been miserable. However, the sight of her standing up without crying out in too much pain with the blood on her face gave her a sort of bloodlust-induced charm which caused some of the audience to be secretly admired. The cloaked man in the pavilion covered his face, but he made a slight smile.
“A mere kick to the face is nothing,” Su Qingcheng growled. She had been tortured by shock “therapy” for a whole month. What kind of pain would being kicked in the face induce? This was really nothing! “If you intend to battle me with pure brute strength, please do not blame me for being merciless.” Su Qingcheng’s savage sass caused some of the audience to laugh at Flying Sword, causing him to lose some face. If he wasn’t enraged before, he most certainly was now.
“Stupid girl. You’re not even a Geomancer yet, what right does that give you to chide me?” Flying Sword’s retort caused the audience to boo him even more. Many of those experts watching the battle knew he was a sly fox with a weak body, he often relied on trickery to defeat other experts. However, Su Qingcheng was a mere Tianqi User at the fifth rank who didn’t seem too fazed at being kicked by a fellow over one entire stratum her own power. This really looked like bullying, and Su Qingcheng was a courageous underdog who seemed to have an unbridled determination in her eyes.
“This kid’s gone through a lot already,” Flametongue mused silently. “If her mother really is the Netherworld Ghost Queen, it does explain a lot. She definitely inherited her mother’s abnormal talents in the martial Way. This fool Flying Sword is using a technique which allowed him to weather Dark Lily’s punch, but once the duration runs out, he is really going to get it.”
Su Qingcheng squinted her eyes and looked at her hands. Nightflower Tianqi surged in her hands and that’s when she realized her Star Vortex Fist had absorbed an abundance of Metal essence from Flying Sword’s body. This meant that his body was using a method of metal essence which temporarily increased his defense. That would mean he was covering for a weakness, which was his body!
“Scheming to end the battle quickly,” Su Qingcheng growled with a savage smile. “Such petty tricks won’t work on me anymore!” she decided to release the excess metal essence she used by fusing it with her lightning. She would use this Metal Thunder to paralyze Flying Sword so she could buy time for his technique to wear off.
Flying Sword’s expression looked unsightly as he rushed forward, using his Invisible Air slashing attack once more.
“Break!!” Su Qingcheng yelled out ferociously as she threw her hands forward. The Metal Thunder, which was a network of thick, grey thunderbolts, rushed out from her palms like it was a real thunderstorm. In Flying Sword’s rage and haste, he was unable to dodge all of the attacks as some of these bolts collided into his air slashes. This caused a backlash that made him stumble and fly back a bit, but he didn’t expect that once the bolts touched his body, he was literally immobilized into the air.
The cloaked figure in the pavilion suddenly stood up as if he had become enamored with this fight. How could a fourteen year old girl figure out Flying Sword’s main trump card in just one punch? This was too abnormal, and his interest now was thoroughly piqued. This kid was definitely worth being called the daughter of the Ghost Queen. Flying Sword’s expression was that of disbelief and fear as he could only shake, paralyzed in mid-air, watching Su Qingcheng casually walk towards him.
“Stupid guy,” Su Qingcheng mocked him. “Your abundance of metal essence is too obvious. For most cultivators, this is fine. But unfortunately, you met me. I would have been happy to beat you in a fair fight, but you dared to mock me in front of a live audience. I’ve already had enough of that. I just got out of fucking prison. You tell me, do you want me to show you mercy?” Su Qingcheng stared at Flying Sword and noticed his right arm was showing signs of recovery.
“Humph!” Su Qingcheng didn’t let this sign of aggression go. She threw a ferocious Nightflower Tianqi punch at his right arm, causing the sounds of bone breaking to break the silence of the audience. Flying Sword grimaced in pain but couldn’t even scream; he was still mostly paralyzed. Those Tang Gu City experts in the crowd already knew about the matter of Su Ran’s daughter being kidnapped but managing to return. It was only after Dark Lily made her announcement that some of these experts recognized this daughter to actually be Su Qingcheng! Fortunately, there was an unwritten rule stating that you couldn’t refer to someone by their given name inside the Ranking Board branch premises. Furthermore, since this was an underground existence, no one would dare to spread this news out casually, lest they get killed by Su Ran. It was not worth pissing off the Ghost Queen for something like this.
Flying Sword was totally at Su Qingcheng’s mercy, but just as Su Qingcheng was about to land another fierce blow on him, the cloaked man in the pavilion yelled out one imposing word.
“HOLD!”