Astral Pet Store (WN)

Avril was stunned for a moment; she fell silent for a moment.

"Let me ask you again. Will you let us go, or do you want us to fight our way out?"

Joanna stabbed her spear into the floor, making the temple tremble once again; her eyes were as cold as lightning.

Silence.

After a long pause, Shivalello said slowly, "We apologize for our offensive behavior today. You may leave. Mr. Su, I hope you understand that we meant no harm. I will surely welcome you in person if you come again."

Joanna's eyes glittered. She didn't expect that the Superior Gods would truly bend!

"That will be unnecessary."

Su Ping sounded rather calm; it was unclear whether he meant that the gesture was unnecessary, or that he wouldn't return.

Shivalello's expression showed a slight change after such a response, but he didn't say anything else; he didn't want to make an enemy out of Su Ping. He could always wait and handle things in the future, as long as there was a sliver of hope.

Joanna looked at the Superior Gods thoughtfully, then withdrew her divine brilliance. She then returned to where Su Ping was.

Joanna spoke in a low voice. "Let's go."

Su Ping nodded.

Heather approached them quietly. Su Ping was surprised by her move; he asked, "Senior?"

"I'll walk you out." Heather smiled. Gentleness and tranquility were restored on her visage, as if their confrontation had never happened.

Su Ping thought for a moment, but didn't comment on it.

Su Ping didn't know if she was part of the scheme in secret. In any case, she didn't attack them openly.

They left the temple; it was sunny outside.

The temple stood magnificently at the center. It had a sacred and inviolable appearance, always basked in sunlight.

Heather asked, "Are you leaving right now, or do you want to take a tour? If you don't mind, you can visit my place. Since you're here for the pursuit of true knowledge, my Divine Eye Tree might be of help."

"Divine Eye Tree?"

"The tree used to be a sapling growing near the Primordial Divine Eye, which was destroyed in the war; the sapling then ended up on this wasteland and I found it by chance," said Heather with a gentle smile.

Noticing Su Ping's confusion, Joanna added in a low voice, "The Primordial Divine Eye is the source of divine power in the Archean Divinity. It's called Divine Eye because it resembles an eye; there are also rumors that it is an actual eye, but few people believe it. It's hard to imagine that the eye of any creature could contain such a terrifying amount of energy."

"The Divine Eye Tree basked in the light of the Divine Eye when it was just a sapling, so it naturally assimilated many paths and laws. Some of the perfect paths have evolved among its branches; they might inspire you," said Heather as she stared at Su Ping.

Su Ping was no longer courteous after hearing that. "All right, let's go there and take a look."

He had made the trip and fought a battle; he didn't want to return empty-handed.

As to why Heather had invited him, Su Ping didn't care one bit.

Whatever she was up to, it wouldn't prevent him from achieving his purpose.

Heather was slightly relieved after Su Ping accepted her invitation. Her choice to not intervene in the fight had been the right one. At least she could be counted as one of the Superior Gods who was still on friendly terms with Su Ping.

She raised her hand, and the surrounding space swirled again. She quickly took everybody with the unusual movement technique she had used before.

"This teleportation technique is named 'Void Walker'. I can teach you later, Mr. Su, if you're interested," said Heather gently. She remembered the interest he had shown for the technique on the way over.

"Okay."

Su Ping nodded, not refusing her kindness.

Heather chuckled, felt somewhat reassured.

A moment passed, and the three of them arrived at Heather's temple, which floated in the sky around a beautiful garden, filled with lush grass and flowers.

"Mr. Su, would you like to taste the coffee I invented?" proposed Heather.

Su Ping shook his head. "Let's check the tree first. I'll enjoy your coffee later."

Heather's eyes glittered. Does it mean that he would come again?

She felt delighted; it seemed that Shivalello and his reckless partners didn't scare Su Ping off. Or maybe, was he fearless because the bigshot behind him was just that formidable?

All the guards and servants in the temple knelt down upon Heather's return.

Heather took Su Ping and Joanna to the garden behind the temple, where a brilliant, golden tree was planted at the very center. Divine power surged and circulated on the tree; every golden leaf emitted a dazzling light. Some of those leaves had complex patterns, while others carried unique auras.

Su Ping immediately detected voices around him; he felt he could almost hear something.

His eyes glittered as he quickly approached the tree.

Each of the leaves contain a complete path… A quick glance was enough to shock him. This tree is so amazing!

There are also perfect paths flowing among the branches. The surrounding space seems to be thinner, and somehow connected to an unknown world.

Su Ping was fascinated. He even saw some familiar paths on a couple of leaves.

The path of fire, darkness, lightning, and others were present, but Su Ping didn't see the four supreme laws after a general scanning. Were they unique?

Su Ping turned around and asked Heather, "Can I eat these leaves?"

Heather's smile immediately froze.

"?"

Eat them?

The idea had never crossed Heather's mind.

After all, the complete paths on the leaves would eventually become perfect if the tree kept growing. That would signal the tree's true maturity!

However, it would take such a long time that several generations of Gods of Rules might die of old age.

"If you want to, of course."

Heather made the decision in her heart. Holding back her regret, she said, "If you eat them, you will have a chance to feel the evolution of laws. As to eating perfect leaves, there's a good chance that your corresponding path will be completed, and a small chance that it'll be perfected!"

"Seriously?"

Su Ping was stunned and surprised.

That was truly a great treasure!

Why did he make the trip? To perfect his paths!

As long as he completed one of the paths, he would be able to touch upon the Source World, and peep at the long river that was the origin of countless paths!

"Thank you very much, senior!"

Su Ping bowed respectfully and quickly turned around. He plucked a handful of golden leaves. He felt the leave's aura as he placed them in his mouth.

Heather had a bad feeling when Su Ping bowed at her with such solemnity. Her blood was freezing when she saw how Su Ping was gulping down the leaves.

Joanna couldn't help but glance at Heather; she suddenly felt sorry for her.

It was clear that Heather hadn't realized what she had bargained for.

If the divine tree could talk, it would have said, "Thank you so much!"

Eat! Eat! Eat!

Su Ping quickly picked the leaves of the divine tree and stuffed them into his mouth. His iron teeth—lined with their own power of laws—chewed the leaves. The laws affixed to the leaves immediately seeped into his body like smoke.

Su Ping instantly saw how plenty of laws had evolved.

Fire, ice, lightning, metal, soil, and others.

Countless basic laws that could be found in every universe evolved and constructed a small world in front of Su Ping's eyes.

Su Ping was still plucking leaves as this happened; the evolution was increasing in speed. He breathed heavily as his brain quickly absorbed and learned.

Very soon, he made quick breakthroughs on some of the paths he had just grasped, then fully mastered some of them!

Behind him—Heather's eyes were twitching when she saw Su Ping's crazy methods. She was no longer able to smile gracefully.

She bit her lip hard, and her face turned pale. She clenched her fist a few minutes later.

Joanna had been staring at Heather, fearing that the latter would go on a rampage.

Even she felt that Su Ping was being outrageous. But soon, she realized that his actions weren't outrageous.

It's fine for you to eat the leaves. Why are you chomping down the branches?

Even Joanna was dumbfounded.

Heather was obviously worse; her eyes were almost popping out. It had been a long time since she had felt as angry.

Joanna took a deep breath. She pressed Heather's shivering shoulder, and said in a muted voice, "All for our homecoming!"

Heather was shocked by her answer; she gnashed her teeth and replied, "All for our homecoming!"

A few minutes later—

Heather breathed heavily; her eyes were bloodshot. "I don't want to go home anymore!"

Joanna's heart raced, and she quickly said, "Calm down!"

Su Ping gradually stopped, right when she was about to lose it. The divine tree—which had grown for so many years in the Demigod Burial—painted quite the sorry sight. It had lost a lot of its leaves; one of its branches had been broken and eaten too.

Su Ping was standing still, clinging to the tree trunk.

A long time later—flames surged from Su Ping's body, and the temperature rose quickly.

Two golden wings appeared on Su Ping's back. They were in fact the wings of a Golden Crow!

Heather's expression changed upon noticing Su Ping's aura. "Is he a descendant of an ancient Golden Crow?"

Her astonishment was pronounced. Those ancient creatures had lived much earlier, before the Archean Divinity took shape!

Su Ping was enveloped by Golden Crow flames, but they couldn't hurt the divine tree, even though they could burn anything; Heather had quickly taken action. Su Ping was apparently embracing the tree and the flames lapping its bark, but he was actually at a very distant point in space, far from the tree.

If Heather wished it so, she could take Su Ping to another point in time and space, making it look like he was still there.

The branch he just ate was a perfect path of fire…

Joanna blinked; she was quite eager to find out what would happen.