Rise of Nightflower (夜華上昇)

2. Unlikely Ally in Tang Gu Market

Su Qingcheng woke up the next morning feeling refreshed and confident. With Yao Meiyue's reassurance, she felt she could make her first big step towards recovery. Before she left her room, Su Qingcheng spotted a glint on her study table. Blinking, she walked towards her desk and spotted an elaborate black ring next to a piece of paper that simply said in bold, fierce lettering: GO GET THEM, TIGER. From this writing, Su Qingcheng knew already it was the doing of her sister, Su Yanran. That young lady must really have her eye on you to casually give you a storage ring like that...

Su Qingcheng was a bit startled when she heard Yao Meiyue's voice ring in her ear. Evidently this storage ring was considered to be a treasure for the voice to sound so alarmed. I don't know if it belonged to her originally, but this is a relic-class ring that appears to be gifted to her. I think this should be the Dragon Hoard Ring. Su Qingcheng had never heard of this domineering-sounding name before and was naturally alarmed by how casually Yao Meiyue described it. A relic class treasure or item could be considered to be incredibly rare on the Liandou Continent; usually these were one-of-a-kind objects that had very unique properties. In the case of the Dragon Hoard Ring, it was a storage ring that could store several times that of a regular high class storage ring, on top of that the space inside it was habitable, meaning you could store living beings inside it also.

Yao Meiyue was clearly not sure if Su Yanran was aware of such a treasure or if she just considered it to be a pretty thing. However this meant that whoever gifted it to her was either incredibly powerful or had a very strong backing. Su Qingcheng audibly gulped as she quickly wore the ring and discovered she could easily imprint her signature onto it to make it her's, meaning that Su Yanran never intended to keep it for herself in the first place. Immediately Su Qingcheng discovered that the two women directly related to her were more complicated than what you could see in first glance. Su Ran had a strong connection with her Tianqi Emperor-level master whereas Su Yanran could easily just gift a powerful treasure like that to her so decisively. Sighing inwardly, Qingcheng vowed to repay them someday.

Enough gawking. While the time is early, let's go ahead and collect the ingredients. Su Qingcheng was snapped out of her reverie and quickly proceeded to see her mother, who was currently sitting cross-legged inside a training room. Evidently, between Su Zhan and Su Ran, the mother was more martially minded than the father, who was definitely more proficient in being an administrator. When Su Qingcheng stepped in, she dared not to interrupt her mother who was in a meditating state. She could feel the Tianqi aura radiating from her mother and it was very clear that Su Ran herself was at least the third rank of a Tianqi Sage. Though Yao Meiyue seemed to disagree with this, reminding Su Qingcheng that her mother was just concealing her true strength. Sighing, Su Qingcheng patiently waited for her mother to finish.

Su Ran saw the Dragon Hoard Ring on her daughter's finger causing her to be a bit shocked. "What. Why did Yanran-er give that thing to you?" Su Qingcheng shrugged in response. She didn't know either and she wouldn't lie about that. Sighing, Su Ran simply shook her head. "Aiii. That young lady... She dotes on you more than I do. Anyway, what is it that you want?"

"I want Doctor Qian to make some medicine for me. But I need some ingredients." Su Qingcheng sighed, lying through her teeth. Lin Qian was the Su clan's on-call apothecary and doctor, someone who was capable of both creating pills and elixirs. This is actually a lofty title that is higher than even alchemists, who either specialize in pills or elixirs. However, Su Qingcheng lied as it would actually be Yao Meiyue making the elixir and not Doctor Qian.

"Huh? Medicine? Is it for your body?"

"Naturally it is. Here, this is what I need." Su Qingcheng pulled out a piece of paper from her ring, which had four ingredients written on it. Naturally, the neidan was omitted from this list.