Astral Pet Store (WN)

"This is Auro!"

"It's the biggest planetary system in Silvy. I don't think the trajectories of the three planets should be like this. Have they been rearranged by Ascendant State experts?"

"Of course. The three planets are now forming the auditorium."

In the spaceship—Oasis Gray, Claesabe and the others were observing in detail.

They could easily see the three giant planets around them from their vantage point in the void continent. Obviously, the planets would be the best auditorium in the upcoming matches.

The instructor was standing at the exit of the cabin as he looked at Su Ping and the others. His eyes briefly lingered on Oasis Gray and Su Ping, before he said with a smile, "You need to take care of yourselves from here on out."

Su Ping nodded with a smile of his own.

Oasis Gray seemed cold; he remained silent, then directly flew out of the spaceship.

The contestants who had arrived earlier looked at the new arrivals and whispered as they made their way over.

"Look at the guy carrying a wooden sword. I heard that he's the Sword God's heir!"

"Indeed. I've bought information about him from the Comet Organization. He's a tricky guy; he slew a Star State expert once!"

"A Star State expert? What was his level? In any case, he must be in the top tier among us!"

"Dragon Emperor, the top ranker in the Dragon Tomb Academy, is a rare genius who was born with a rare demonic constitution!"

"A rare demonic constitution? I'm raring to find out how powerful it is."

The students of the five academies also sized up the gossipers. They had learned a thing or two about the screening matches in the planetary systems and made note of the contestants with remarkable performances during their trip to the competition.

"They're all monsters!" a young man behind Su Ping said with mixed feelings.

He had also gotten one of Amir's recommendations, but his performance wasn't even as good as Ibetaluna's, not to mention Su Ping's. He felt troubled as he checked out the other competitors present.

Each person could be a brilliant star in the outside world, even the brightest individual of an entire planet.

However, they were just common and unremarkable when gathered in that place.

Guys like Oasis Gray, Dragon Emperor and Su Ping, however, were still at the top among that many geniuses.

Several Star Lords flew out of the island and then dismissed all the instructors of the five academies. "Instructors, this is the waiting area for the contestants. Please go back."

After all, they were Star Lords. If for some reason they went on a killing spree, many of the geniuses present could die.

Each of those geniuses was extremely precious. Those who had made it up to that point were almost destined to reach the Star State; they also had a 50% chance of becoming Star Lords!

Half of them would become Star Lords; the best performers could even become experts among Star Lords.

There had been historical cases when Star Lords had entered the waiting area in disguise, causing massive casualties; precautions had been taken since then.

"Sure."

"Keep it up!"

None of the instructors said anything else before they left. The students had only themselves to count on from there onwards. Being the rare geniuses they were, none had to be treated like toddlers, with instructor's taking care of them all the time.

The students of the five academies also flew towards the island after the instructors left.

Whoosh!

Three men flew out from the crowd down below and stood in the way of the Sword Deity Academy's representatives.

"Are you the Sword God's heir? I happen to love swords too. I hope we'll have a chance to fight," said a young man wearing purple armor to the young man carrying a wooden sword.

He was quite handsome, but he had ear piercings with two short swords dangling down. His eyes also looked evil.

The young man carrying a wooden sword looked up at him and said indifferently, "You're too unworthy."

All the contestants began to whisper amongst themselves. The young man in purple was the top representative of a planetary system; he had also unleashed the power of multiple laws during the screening phase. All his victories had been a breeze; nobody knew how strong he really was.

And yet, the Sword God's heir claimed that he was too unworthy to fight him?

That was the arrogance of a genius!

The stronger geniuses were, the more arrogance would be reflected on their faces. They might act in a very friendly way when talking to ordinary people, but they could be exceptionally proud before those with potential to rival them.

"Is that so?"

The young man in purple raised his eyebrows and his smile disappeared. He said with a cold and teasing tone, "I'm eager to find out if the Sword God recruited the wrong disciple!"

"You don't deserve to mention my master's name!" The young man carrying a wooden sword raised his eyes, with coldness shining in them.

The young man in purple sneered. "I certainly wouldn't offend the Sword God. I only hope that you don't embarrass him!"

After that, he turned around and walked away. "I hope you'll be my opponent."

His two companions left with him.

The young man with a wooden sword unleashed a surge of coldness. A person arrived just then and said with a severe tone, "This is the waiting area. You'll be immediately disqualified if you fight here!"

The young swordsman narrowed his eyes and spared a cold glance to the young man in purple. He kept silent and refrained from making any moves.

"Senior brother, no need to get angry over such trash."

"I'll beat him up for you later if I run into him!"

"He wasn't even admitted by our academy, and still he considers himself a swordsman?"

The other students of the Sword Deity Academy surrounded the young man who carried a wooden sword and scorned the purple-armored young man.

Everybody else had also been able to witness the conflict. The atmosphere in the waiting area immediately became exciting; passion began to spread among the contestants.

They were all geniuses; they would only respect someone until they fought.

After all, many of them had hidden their trump cards in the earlier matches, all to distinguish themselves there!

Su Ping and Oasis Gray flew to the temple found below, seeing that the conflict had ended.

Two strangers suddenly flew over after they landed.

"Oasis, it's been a long time."

The young man in the lead chuckled. He had golden hair, red eyes, milky skin, and was almost 2.5 meters tall.

A lot of new races had emerged during the colonization efforts, ever since the Federation marched farther into space. The environment of different planets had also caused physical changes too; that young man was a native of Nilan, a tier-1 planet in Silvy.

Oasis Gray showed a slight change of expression and became even colder. He didn't offer a reply.

The young man laughed and said, "How does it feel to be at the top of the Royal Rank in Amir? I didn't know that Amir, one of the four best academies, was just so-so."

It wasn't until then that Claesabe and the others finally realized that the stranger wasn't Oasis Gray's friend; he went there looking for trouble.

"What did you say? Are you doubting the power of our academy?" Claesabe was the first to step up coldly.

The golden-haired young man smiled. "No, no, no. It's not the academy I'm questioning; I'm simply doubting all of you, since the person I defeated has defeated all of you. I'm very curious… What gives you the guts to participate in this competition?"

The person he defeated?

Everybody was shocked; they couldn't help but look at Oasis Gray.

Oasis Dragon King, who was the de facto dominator in the academy, had been defeated by that guy?

Who is he? Nobody had seen or heard about him!

"You were just lucky," replied a gloomy Oasis Gray, "You wouldn't stand a chance if I hadn't been hurt by the spatial waves in the tertiary space!"

"Hehe. Luck is part of your capabilities; I predicted the danger while you failed to do so. Doesn't that mean something?" said the golden-haired young man with a smile.

Oasis Gray changed his expression and gazed at him in silence.

Claesabe and the others, however, were shocked after seeing that Oasis Gray had admitted it.

"I look forward to meeting you again," said the golden-haired young man with a smile, "I believe it'll feel great if I defeat you again while being streamed in the entire galaxy. The best student of the Amir Royal Academy, right under my feet. Ha!"

"I look forward to meeting you again." Oasis Gray gazed at him too. He had indeed lost to him in the past; there was nothing he could say to defend himself. He simply wanted to wash away his humiliation with blood.

The golden-haired young man smiled and walked away.

The others gave Oasis Gray weird looks, gradually becoming solemn.

Even Oasis Gray had lost to a guy they had never seen before. It was evident that there were too many geniuses in the world!

Not all of them were gathered in the five academies.

For instance, Su Ping didn't belong to any of the five academies; he had completely suppressed them in the mysterious realm. They had an even deeper understanding of the saying "there's always someone stronger than you."

The waiting area became even noisier once the students of the five academies joined in; their acquaintances went over to greet them, and those harboring grudges against them were making war declarations.

Although they might be from places millions of light years away, their world seemed to be really small; many of them knew each other, or had heard about each other.

The cameras on the void continent were being set up while they talked.

At this moment, two men emerged outside of the void continent; they attracted everybody's attention like the sun when they showed up.

Their bodies were like grains of dust in space and were almost negligible, but none of those present would dare ignore them. Not even the three massive tier-1 planets seemed as brilliant as them.

"Hai Tuo is here!"

"So is You Ying!"

"Both of them came as promised!"

"Did the two Ascendants show up to pick students?"

"Damn. I wish I were there, even if only as an observer; it's possible that they could detect my unusual talent while in the crowd!"

"No wonder the tickets for the matches are so expensive. I'm crying!"

The two Ascendant State experts were broadcast to all the planetary systems in Silvy thanks to the cameras from lots of media; countless people saw the two bigshots appear.

Ascendants had the power to destroy planets with ease; they were called Ascendant State experts because they were almost as powerful as the mythical gods!

They could destroy planets, revive the dead, reverse time, and make up laws!

All the audience got excited when the two Ascendants showed up!

"It's quite lively here," Hai Tuo smiled and said to his old friend.

You Ying was indifferent, not offering a reply. He was always taciturn; he wouldn't be there if Hai Tuo hadn't told him that there were a few promising geniuses among the contestants.

Everybody knew that Hai Tuo was Silvy's overlord!

The entire Silvy galaxy was Hai Tuo's territory!

Even the presidents of the five best academies—also Ascendant State masters—had to bow before him!

The upcoming matches were intended to select Silvy's most distinguished geniuses for the matches in the Golden Star Zone. Hai Tuo was there partly to inspire the contestants while he was also keeping an eye out in case he found someone particularly outstanding.

Those in the Ascendant State would spend most of their time training or traveling. They had no time to look for disciples on planets; it was more convenient for them to find disciples in the competition.

They flew and approached the void continent.

The boundaries didn't seem to exist for them. They would have been heavily injured if they were Star Lords and tried to break in.

After all, those boundaries had been set up by Ascendant State experts; they were able to instantly kill Star Lords.

The waiting area began to seethe once they arrived.

Countless people looked at the Ascendant State experts with admiration; some also looked at them with hope and eagerness, as if determined to glow just like them someday.

Hai Tuo smiled and gave an encouraging speech from a place above the waiting area. Then, he went to the special auditorium above the continent with You Ying.

He was an Ascendant State expert. He didn't need to give a long speech; a simple encouragement could be inspiring enough.