Astral Pet Store (WN)

Even though he had top rare pets, with combat ability comparable to that of top Star Lords who had grasped perfect paths, they were still too vulnerable when facing Su Ping's full-strength outburst. The sword of black flames passed.

Time stopped flowing.

No noise was heard. The pets' screams came to an abrupt halt too, as if swallowed.

An explosive energy ball that looked like a flying disc appeared in the void, emitting a terrifying aura. Time seemed to be paused; then, the energy ball expanded rapidly, instantly destroying the surrounding space.

The nearby space had been destroyed by Su Ping!

The bodies of the two rare pets were consumed and obliterated, leaving nothing behind. Lin Xiu was also consumed. There was nothing but chaos left in the void when the expanding energy was spread like a dazzling solar flare. No substance remained.

Lin Xiu was nowhere to be seen.

Utter destruction prevailed.

Su Ping breathed heavily and felt exhausted, but his appearance showed no weaknesses. He narrowed his eyes and summoned his last strength reserves to enter the chaotic area and pick up a sword plate.

It was exactly the sword plate Lin Xiu had been using

The sword plate was broken, however; all the imbued laws had been destroyed.

Su Ping took a deep breath, then grabbed the sword plate and observed his surroundings.

Present, past and future had been briefly erased in the shattered void. Space was similarly ravaged, giving off a feeling akin to the eighth space; a scary vibe at that. I think he's dead…

Su Ping's eyes glittered, but he wasn't sure; after all, he didn't see Lin Xiu's body. Maybe the man had exploded, but maybe he was just cleverly hiding through another method.

However, considering he had abandoned the sword plate, he was probably on his last breath even if he survived.

In any case, I need to focus on finding the key. Even if he survived, I can just kill him again when I meet him. It would be great if he's dead already, Su Ping thought.

He flipped his hands, and took out some second-rate medicines from the loot he had gathered earlier. He quickly consumed the medicine, then felt that his astral ocean wasn't as empty as before.

He turned around and looked at Qing Hongyue, Calivey and the others; all of them were looking back at him with stunned expressions.

Moments earlier, they had felt that they were going to be destroyed too.

Was that Su Ping's real power?

Everybody was shocked.

They had seen how tricky Lin Xiu was to deal with. They didn't know that Su Ping had been hiding his ultimate trump card until the end of the trial.

After the momentary shock, Qing Hongyue, Brian and the others soon snapped out of their stupor and searched for Lin Xiu; no traces were found.

"There's no sign of him in the deeper spaces." Brian looked at Claudia.

Claudia gave a slight head shake. She had searched for him in other times, but found no traces, either. It seemed that Lin Xiu had truly been killed, leaving no remains.

She wore a conflicted expression. Lin Xiu had left a deep impression on all of them with his stubborn and tough qualities; however, he was still unable to beat Su Ping. Seems like overkill, for such an unparalleled genius to be fighting for the legacy, Claudia thought.

Everybody searched for a moment, but none found Lin Xiu. They were all silent when they saw the sword plate in Su Ping's hand.

Su Ping was silent as he noticed their wary and upset looks. They had been comrades during the past seven days, but their trust seemed to have disappeared after Lin Xiu died.

"Guys," said Su Ping slowly, "There's only one key. I have to get it; I hope you can understand."

Everybody was silent, but they were greatly relieved.

This helped them to finally give up on the key; their sole hope was to survive.

Having encountered geniuses such as Lin Xiu and Su Ping, it was clear that they wouldn't be able to keep the key. That is, unless luck favored them, and they hid it until the end of the trial.

However, the central continent wasn't big to begin with, and it was still shrinking. They had nowhere to hide!

"We have enough tokens to enter the second trial; I hope you can help me search for the key," said Su Ping.

Everybody looked at each other in bewilderment, but none spoke.

They had already foreseen the outcome, and felt lucky that Su Ping didn't choose to kill them.

Qing Hongyue heaved a sigh and said, "It was truly unlucky to have met you people; I shouldn't have participated in this trial." "You avenged me by finishing Lin Xiu off. I'll help you," said Claudia.

Brian said with a bitter smile, "I'm fine with it. I'm hopeless anyway."

He already felt desperate when he saw Su Ping's dual small worlds. Once the latter revealed his third small world in the last battle, he realized that Su Ping hadn't tried his best when they had fought.

Su Ping had only slayed Lin Xiu until it was almost the end of the trial.

Nobody knew if that was his true limit!

To think he was only in the Star State… Are people these days this terrifying? much more than tens of thousands of years ago? Seeing no objection, Su Ping wasted no time and moved out. "Let's look for the key."

He was hoping that Brian and Claudia would help him with the search, two experts of time and space.

"Let's go."

Su Ping instantly took off.

They didn't split up, as it was unnecessary.

They walked out of the space located in a past point in time and returned to the present day; they discovered that the mountains and rivers had been significantly reduced. Going by estimation, the central continent was probably as big as two hundred middle-rank planets. It matched the information the Celestial experts had offered.

Su Ping instantly initiated a group search.

Given that the continent was shrinking, anyone hiding in the past would be forced to move; the Celestials were not just reducing the continent.

As for the future, the timeline beyond the end of the trial had been cut off; it was impossible to travel further ahead.

Adding to that… It was impossible to travel too far into the future, even if one had grasped the law of time. It was some sort of taboo that, once violated, would change the causes and consequences of the entire universe. It was very dangerous.

Once the future changed, history would change accordingly. Even the Celestials would be hard pressed when enduring the resulting backlash.

Su Ping checked the time. "There are two days to go until the end of the trial."

Two more days would probably be enough.

Everybody searched on their way, soon finding a Star Lord who was hiding in the deep space of another point in time.

The guy was floating in the seventh space, while hiding in a secret treasure that looked like a gourd; all was good until Brian found him.

Everybody gathered around and opened the gourd. Someone instantly recognized the Star Lord, and called his name.

The Star Lord was dumbfounded when he found himself surrounded by Su Ping, Qing Hongyue and the others.

He had been hiding cautiously enough, yet he was still found. To make matters worse, he recognized the ancient Star Lords, such as Qing Hongyue and Calivey.

"Why did you hide here? Have you found the key?" asked Su Ping.

The Star Lord was surprised. Su Ping seemed to be a mere Star State Warrior. Is it his place to talk?

However, it seemed that Qing Hongyue and the others were looking up to him as the leader, which was astonishing in itself.

"No, I only met a few terrifying guys. I simply wanted to survive this trial; I wasn't trying to get the key," confessed the Star Lord dutifully.

"Sorry, I cannot just take your word for it. Please don't resist; it'll be over soon," said Su Ping, raising his hand as he was about to search the guy's memories.

The Star Lord had a contorted expression as he tried to resist, but he was suppressed by Qing Hongyue and the others.

Su Ping eventually read the man's lifelong memories.

He had planned to only read the guy's memories from recent years, especially those related to the trial. However, in case the guy had tampered with his own memories, Su Ping chose to read all of it; he didn't notice any changes, so he finally let him go.

It took Su Ping several minutes to read his memories, which actually spanned through tens of thousands of years. He couldn't help but mumble, "So, you like to let other people…"

The Star Lord was stunned by the remark, then became grim.