Astral Pet Store

While the outside help had quickly gathered in the Longjiang Base City overnight, it was almost morning when Su Ping returned from a cultivation site. His eyes were bloodshot and swollen.

He had been battling in the cultivation site for more than ten days while merely one night had passed in the real world!

Su Ping sensed that he had become more skilled in combat after spending two nights in a row in the cultivation sites. At the moment he was able to easily kill a beast at the peak of the ninth rank!

No beast below the king level counted as a threat to him!

The unfortunate thing was that the Little Skeleton was still sleeping and had made no signs of waking up. But the blood cocoon had shrunk; the process was surely approaching the end.

The first thing Su Ping wanted to check out was the situation outside after he returned. He quickly freshened up and adjusted his mood. He had become numb to killing after spending such a long time in the cultivation sites. His body was crying for more killing.

He saw a few customers outside when he opened the door.

The several people present were all familiar faces.

Xu Yingxue, Xu Kuang’s sister, was also there.

Su Ping wasn’t all that surprised by the lack of customers, considering the current situation. Many people were currently in hiding or preparing for the upcoming battle.

Some with strong connections had even left the Longjiang Base City. Of course, many people were staying, most did because they had nowhere else to go!

“Mr. Su, I heard five beast kings are coming. Can you defeat them this time?”

The customer that stood by the door was the coal boss, who was also a battle pet warrior. He was in his forties but he was merely at the fourth rank.

He couldn’t have made a career as a battle pet warrior. Having no other choice, he had to inherit the family business and become a coal tycoon.

His mines were outside the base city. He had let go of all his workers in the previous beast strike. The mines and excavations were being occupied by wild beasts at the moment. As such, the man had to seek shelter in the base city. He decided to visit Su Ping’s store that day. Having his pets trained was not his major intention; he was just too bored and scared, and wanted to sound Su Ping out.

Su Ping remembered the man’s name, Liu Shufen-a common girl’s name, not a man’s.

“I will stay here whether I can defeat them or not,” Su Ping said.

He wasn’t worried about the five beast kings, but the Otherworld Heavenly King!

Of course, by the looks of it, Liu Shufen was not aware of the horrors such a Heavenly King could bring about. That was not surprising; Su Ping had not heard of it before, either. That information was exclusive to titled warriors and above.

The general public only had access to a limited amount of information!

The ones who stood higher in society were able to see more. Otherwise, one would only see the tip of an iceberg and then make ill-informed assumptions.

Liu Shufen’s nervousness lessened a bit. The others standing behind Liu Shufen were more than happy to hear that answer.

As a matter of fact, they were surprised and happy enough already after seeing Su Ping opening the door. They came to know who Su Ping had killed the beast king and forced back the wild beasts thanks to the recent press conference.

As long as Su Ping was still there, there would be hope for the Longjiang Base City!

“Mr. Su, you deserve my admiration! You’re a hero!” someone praised Su Ping.

“Mr. Su, can I join you in the next battle?” The boy that was the third in line asked. Su Ping looked at him. He was a young student at the fourth rank, same as Liu Shufen. “You’re still young. Your job is to study and cultivate well,” Su Ping answered, “This time, we will be here even if the world is coming to an end. Your turn to take our place will come in the future, when we can no longer fight. Work hard.”

“Mr. Su is right.”

“Young man, do work hard!”

The other people nodded and encouraged that brave young man.

The young man committed Su Ping’s words to memory. The fighting will made his blood surge.

This time, Su Ping and the other battle pet warriors would be the fighters.

Next time, it would be his turn!

Xu Yingxue was touched by Su Ping’s words. Regardless of rank, Su Ping was also just a young man!

But he was stepping up in the face of such a disaster!

Xu Yingxue was filled with mixed feelings. She had felt the same when she listened to the last lesson of her admirable mentor, who was assiduous and tireless when she was soon to graduate.

She had the same feelings when she was with her captain, who would always protect her.

She took a deep breath but said nothing.

Su Ping did not indulge for long in the conversation. He invited the customers to enter the store. “Professional training again?” Su Ping asked Xu Yingxue. Xu Yingxue nodded. “I will help in the battle this time!”

Some doubts had still plagued her before going there. But she became more determined than ever when she arrived and saw Su Ping.

She was an explorer, and theoretically speaking, she was a member of the civic system of the base city. She would be enlisted in the case of an imminent battle, but she had powerful enough connections to avoid such a fate!

She was wondering if she should use such connections!

However, at the moment, she felt it was nothing scary to make an effort for her hometown!

She had not been afraid when she arrived in that world. Why should she be afraid of leaving it?!

“You’re going to the front lines?” Su Ping looked at her. He remembered that explorers would be enlisted. He nodded and cautioned her. “Be careful. I don’t want to see that punk Xu Kuang coming back and not being able to see his sister. I don’t want to lose a wealthy client, either.”

Xu Yingxue laughed, “That won’t happen. I’m not as good as you, but those beasts won’t kill me that easily!”

She would have bragged even more if it weren’t for the fact that she wasn’t all that familiar with Su Ping.

She was determined. Su Ping nodded to her as a reply.

He accepted her money. Su Ping told all the customers to go back and return later in the afternoon.

Su Ping heard a man whooshing in after Xu Yingxue had left; someone familiar. It was Venerable the Blade.

“Mr. Su, I’m here.”

Venerable the Blade laughed as he strode inside.

Su Ping was moved after seeing that Venerable the Blade was really there. “Perfect timing. I’ve been meaning to ask. Are you familiar with the Otherworld Heavenly King?”

“Well, I didn’t know much and I never thought that I would have to deal with it one day, so I never asked about it. But…” Venerable the Blade meant to say that he could ask Yuan Tianchen who would be more likely to know about that Heavenly King, given that he was a legendary battle pet warrior who enjoyed a high status in the Tower. He would know something that others didn’t.

Su Ping was a bit disappointed. “Anyway, now that we decided to stay, let’s just fight!” Venerable the Blade smiled.

That’s right. Su Ping smiled. “How are things? I saw many people coming over to help as I was arriving. Indeed, most people in the world are good,” Venerable the Blade said happily. Su Ping shook his head, “I don’t know. Our mayor went to the Tower to ask for reinforcements. Things would be better for us if he could invite some legendary battle pet warriors to come.”

Su Ping didn’t think it would be a problem to save the base city if there were some legendary battle pet warriors working with him. While the Otherworld Heavenly King was intimidating, the legendary battle pet warriors could distract it while he went for the flank; the Inferno Dragon and the Dark Dragon Hound could inflict some harm.

They could simply scare away the Heavenly King if killing it was too tall an order. Those beast kings had brains. They would run when the battle turned out to be tougher than expected.

After all, the Longjiang Base City was not that different from other base cities. From a beast king’s perspective, base cities were just the same kind of food.

Venerable the Blade was relieved. “Good. I hope that the Tower can send us several legendary battle pet warriors. I heard that there are more than twenty legendary battle pet warriors, excluding those serving at the Deep Caves. Longjiang Base City will be safe if they can send over seven or eight!”

Su Ping was surprised.

There are that many legendary battle pet warriors stationed at the Tower?

More than twenty?

He had often heard that there were merely two legendary battle pet warriors from that Subcontinent District.

Were the others from the other three continents?

Venerable the Blade noticed Su Ping’s confusion. “There are more than two legendary battle pet warriors from our Subcontinent District in the Tower. But the others from our Subcontinent District don’t have any factions here. Their parents, kids, loved ones, and families have all passed away. After all, legendary battle pet warriors can live to more than a thousand years old!

“Their lives can be prolonged if they take some kinds of herbs!

“As such, those legendary battle pet warriors have the weight of the world on their shoulders. None of them are in the mood to lead their own forces in the world, they just stay in the Tower and cultivate, rarely coming out. So, few people know about them.”

That explained it.

He was right. People who enjoyed a higher status in society could see more.

But he also thought of the North King and their conversation.

He was confused. The North King mentioned that they were in dire need of more people to guard the Deep Caves. If the Tower had more than twenty legendary battle pet warriors, the Tower should have the ability to fill up the empty positions left when several legendary battle pet warriors passed away in the Deep Caves. Why would the Tower be in dire need of more?

Could it be that more than a dozen legendary battle pet warriors died in the Deep Caves?

That thought filled Su Ping with dread.

That would be a grave matter.

After all, legendary battle pet warriors were quite rare. People would say that they could only see the birth of one legendary battle pet warrior in a hundred years!

In all the continent, only a dozen would be able to reach the legendary rank over the course of one thousand years. Of course, several would reach the legendary rank within the short span of a few hundreds of years during the golden ages. The wild beasts would act less frequently in the continent during those bountiful times.

While Su Ping was thinking, he heard other people arrive.

After a gust of wind settled down, Su Ping sensed that several titled battle pet warriors had entered the store. Venerable the Blade was also alerted. Three men entered the store.

The old man who seemed to be the leader of the three saluted Su Ping, “Fate Challenger, nice to meet you.”

That old man looked familiar.

Zhong Lingtong, who was staying near the storefront, ran over and shouted pleasantly, “Grandpa!”

Su Ping remembered that the man was from the Zhong family. The other old man standing next to him was the one who had escorted him and Zhong Lingtong on their way to the Longjiang Base City.

“Fate Challenger, nice to meet you,” the other two men saluted as well.

The Zhong family had learned about what had happened during the Supreme League. A titled battle pet warrior of the Zhong family was there. As such, they were all respectful in front of Su Ping.

Su Ping was not only a top trainer but a Fate Challenger!

Fate Challengers were even more prestigious than top trainers!

A Fate Challenger was regarded not only as a form of address, but also a rank.

A rank that was higher than the titled rank, second only to the legendary rank!

“Fate Challenger?”

Tang Ruyan stared at Su Ping in a daze. Su Ping asked the three men, “What are you doing here?”

He didn’t remember having called them. Did they show up to help voluntarily?

The leader was gazing at Zhong Lingtong with fondness. He cupped his fists at Venerable the Blade and said to Su Ping, “We heard that the Longjiang Base City was in trouble and the Otherworld Heavenly King is coming. Is that true?”

“Most likely.” Su Ping nodded.

The old man was not surprised. Even so, he did look nervous. “Fate Challenger, what is your plan then?”

“Staying with Longjiang and getting through this hard time together.”

The three didn’t expect that Su Ping was planning to stay.

“Well…”

The old man felt awkward. “Fate Challenger, you could go anywhere you like. Why would you stay and take the risk?” Su Ping raised his eyebrows. “You’re not here to help?”

The old man saw that Su Ping had misunderstood him. He was about to say no when he thought of Su Ping’s attitude. He produced a forced smile, “We’re here because we are worried about our kid and you, Fate Challenger. We thought you were planning on leaving so we were going to give you a lift.”

Su Ping finally understood.

It turned out that the Zhong family was there to fetch the girl after they heard the news

“Since you’re here to pick up Xiao Tong, take her. I won’t leave,” Su Ping answered. The old man could tell that Su Ping was becoming less friendly toward him. “Fate Challenger, she’s the one most promising kid of the Zhong family. You must know that her staying here won’t be of any help. Fate Challenger, now that you’re determined to stay, the Zhong family won’t sit around and do nothing. How about this? I will leave those two men here to help you while I take Xiao Tong back with me. Then I’ll come back with more people from the Zhong family.” That sincere tone softened Su Ping’s attitude. He nodded. “You don’t have to gather more people. I am happy enough with that proposal. Getting more people here will be too much trouble and it’s not easy for the Zhong family to groom so many battle pet warriors. Those two will be more than enough.”

The two turned pale but said nothing.

Su Ping was Zhong Lingtong’s teacher and a Fate Challenger, which was rarer than a legendary battle pet warrior. The Longjiang Base City was Su Ping’s hometown. They were supposed to offer help and use that as a chance to befriend Su Ping. They would have sent over reinforcements instead of going to pick up Zhong Lingtong if it weren’t for the fact that the Otherworld Heavenly King was too intimidating.

“No, I won’t go!” Zhong Lingtong shouted. She could no longer stand quiet, since she realized that her grandpa was there to take her home. “I will be wherever my teacher is. I won’t go home!”

The old man glared at her. He was there to take her back home at the risk of offending Su Ping. If she stayed and something happened to her, the Zhong family would have labored in vain!

Also, the Zhong family’s tie with Su Ping would be cut off if something happened to Zhong Lingtong.

Zhong Lingtong was the tie! “Tong-er, be a good girl!” The old man wanted to scold her but he didn’t dare use harsh words in Su Ping’s presence. Zhong Lingtong looked into his eyes. “Grandpa, you don’t have to say anything else. I will stay with my teacher. He has not taught me training skills yet, so I haven’t finished my learning. I won’t go anywhere!”

The old man was unhappy.

For one thing, the girl was more stubborn than he had thought. For another, Su Ping had not taught her anything, even though she had been there for so long. Why was that? Although nursing doubts, the old man didn’t ask anything. He kept his discomfort to himself.

“Are you sure?”

Livid with rage, that was the only question the old man asked.

Su Ping looked at Zhong Lingtong, the determined girl. He was also surprised. They had not been together for long enough for her to be that resolute.

Su Ping was not worried. She would be staying in the store anyway, and still be safe even if the Heavenly King breached the Longjiang Base City.