Astral Pet Store (WN)

Su Ping immediately tried to summon the pets, but he couldn't detect any movement; it was indeed as the system said.

"Humph!"

The system scorned him, as if angered by Su Ping's probing

Su Ping didn't explain; he thought for a moment and then left the pet room. He saw that Joanna, the sutra old man, and the others were all in the living room; still, the old man and the cauldron woman weren't seated with others.

Golden Lotus, on the other hand, was seated next to Green Lady. There were a lot of other people with them, including the fat kid who had led the way for Su Ping earlier.

Everybody fixed their eyes upon Su Ping when he showed up.

The sutra old man's eyes glittered. He couldn't help but rise and walk over.

"How about it? The pill is quite effective, isn't it?" said the old man, fishing for a compliment.

Su Ping nodded. "Indeed. Do you have more of them?"

"…"

The old man almost choked. "That was a king-level Path Seeking Pill. Do you think it's just some random pill?"

"Did you use her to refine the pill?" asked Su Ping, looking at the cauldron woman.

Even though the cauldron woman was no longer as aggressive as before, she still glared at Su Ping. "What do you mean by 'use'? I'm not something to be used! That's so disrespectful!"

"You're not a human being anyway."

The sutra elder nodded, ignoring their argument. "Yes. She's a top cauldron able to refine pills and items. She'll be able to refine even more things if she's improved to the emperor level."

"If you refined the pill, you must know the recipe, right?" Su Ping asked the cauldron woman.

The latter snorted, instinctively refusing to answer the question. However, she was living under someone else's roof; the previous pressure she had endured was still haunting her like a cloud. She didn't want to experience it again. "The old monster took measures against me. I did refine it, but I never knew the complete recipe, which was acquired from him; you have to ask him for the recipe."

She kicked the ball back to the sutra old man.

The old man wasn't angry at all; he nodded and said, "That's right. If you want the recipe, I can write it down for you right now; but some of the materials listed are already extinct."

"That's all right. Just give me the recipe," said Su Ping.

The old man wasn't really bothered by it; he immediately wrote the recipe down and gave it to Su Ping.

The latter memorized it after reading it once; some of the materials had already gone extinct, but he could find them in the cultivation sites.

Even the Archean Divinity is one of the system's cultivation sites. There must be deities' places too; it's just that they're beyond our universe… Su Ping thought.

After writing down the recipe, Su Ping asked them, "You don't seem very close to Anna and the others. Why aren't you sitting together?"

The cauldron woman snorted angrily, but she didn't show it too obviously. "It's not because we're too proud; she simply thinks that we're your prisoners. That's why she doesn't want to talk to us at all."

Joanna rose and glanced at them before she said, "That's exactly what you are: prisoners. Even if I despise you, so what?"

She turned her head and said to Su Ping, "I'm not rejecting them on purpose; they've simply been maliciously asking about everything, hoping to escape as soon as possible."

The cauldron woman instantly said, "Nonsense. We were just making conversation."

"Humph. You were just trying to acquire information by chitchatting. Do you take me for a fool? I've lived as long as you have. Deities were just toddlers when the Archean Divinity was in its golden age!" said Joanna in disdain.

Even though her level was lower than theirs, she was a proud pure-blood god; nobody was prouder than a god.

"The Archean Divinity is already gone; it's just a grain of dust in history, not worth mentioning," said the sutra old man indifferently.

Joanna sneered. "How ignorant. Who says it's gone? Even though we endured a major catastrophe, it still exists even to this day; you think you can even fathom the power of our Ancestral Gods?"

"Ancestral Gods?" The sutra old man raised his eyebrows. It was evident that he had never heard of such a title before.

He was rather shocked by Joanna's claims. He narrowed his eyes and asked, "You're saying that the Archean Divinity still exists? That's impossible!"

"See? You're trying to get information again. Hmph. I won't waste my time on you!" said Joanna with a snort, unwilling to offer any more information to them. She had already learned from Su Ping that the two of them were items which had been buried in some ruins for a long time. So, they were probably eager to figure out what was new in the world.

She had simply kicked them aside when they talked to others regarding any new information, later refusing to communicate with them.

"You…" The sutra old man was infuriated by Joanna's vigilance; there was unmasked anger on his face.

"I suggest that you figure out a way right now, either suppress them or lock them in a room; otherwise they'll surely escape when you open the store for business," Joanna said to Su Ping:

The latter thought for a moment. He was planning to sign a contract with them to have them become his employees. However, on second thought, both had tried to murder him; they didn't deserve to be his employees.

"Temporary contracts are available in the store. The host may sign them with appropriate candidates," said the system in Su Ping's heart.

The prospect was quite tempting. Temporary workers?

It had a nice ring to it; they could also be great scapegoats if needed be.

"Why have you never mentioned it before?"

"It's one of the new options after the store was upgraded to level 5."

"Fine. What are the privileges of temporary workers?"

"The host can only sign temporary contracts with living creatures from the host's world. Temporary workers cannot enter cultivation sites; they cannot leave the store either once they become regular employees.

"Temporary workers may leave the store once a week, provided they return within 24 hours.

"They would be considered absent if they don't return within 24 hours, and their cultivation will drop by one level!

"Their contracts will be removed and they will be directly destroyed if they're absent for longer than 48 hours," replied the system.

Su Ping sweated hard.

The price of absence seemed rather high.

The system was truly as brutal as before.

However, temporary workers could leave the store; that was great!

So, they can be my special aides if they become temporary workers. Even though they can only stay outside 24 hours per week, it should be enough in dangerous situations, Su Ping thought with delight. The new temporary contract was quite nice.

Maybe I can lure some experts with the store's mechanism and turn them into temporary workers too… Su Ping started planning. "The number of temporary workers cannot exceed that of regular workers," the system alerted.

"That's fine. I can always find more regular employees in the cultivation sites."

"The host can only sign contracts with a limited number of regular employees, which depends on the store's level. Right now the host can only contract five regular employees," said the system.

Why was that rule not mentioned before?

Did the system just come up with the patch to prevent me from taking advantage of the bug?

"I'm glad you know it," said the system.

It had openly acknowledged it! Su Ping: "…"

Don't presume you can do anything you want just because I can't beat you!

"I know your mind inside and out. You had never planned it before, so there was no need to tell you the rule before. You came up with the plan just now, so I naturally clarified things to you. Please focus on raising pets instead of playing tricks," said the system with unusual solemnity.

Su Ping raised his eyebrows. Fine. He would just take the system's word for it.

Instead of arguing more with the system, Su Ping glanced at the old man and the cauldron woman. "I have a benefit for you two. I wonder if you want it or not."

"What?"

The cauldron woman became wary.

Su Ping was speaking in the tone used by every fraudster.

"Join my store as temporary workers," said Su Ping, "That way you'll be under my protection; you won't have to worry about the old monster ever coming to you for trouble."

"Workers?"

The sutra old man was stunned for a moment, not expecting Su Ping to propose such a demand. That's right, demand. From the way he saw it, Su Ping wasn't really giving them the chance to say no, even though it sounded like an invitation.

He glanced at Joanna and Green Lady, and then looked around at the store he couldn't see through. All of a sudden-some information that had been deeply hidden in his head popped up; his expression changed drastically.

"The Primordial Demonic Store?" the sutra old man couldn't help but ask. "What?"

The cauldron woman was considering Su Ping's proposal when she heard the old man's exclamation, someone who was always even tempered. "What demonic store?"

Unable to cover his shock, the old man looked around and said, "I should've guessed it sooner; they're too similar. Yes, that must be the case. Is this the real demonic store?"

Su Ping felt dazed for a moment. He asked, "What are you talking about?"

The old man looked at Su Ping with a troubled expression. He then asked, "Does your store focus on training and selling beasts, making money from your customers?"

????

Su Ping didn't expect him to ask such a question. He replied casually, "This isn't about making money, at all; we've only been helping our customers take care of their problems."

"What a racketeer!" The idea occurred to the cauldron woman.