Astral Pet Store (WN)

"That guy is truly strong!"

"He looks like a sword cultivator, doesn't he? But he didn't even draw his sword!"

"It's almost humiliating. His opponent was crushed too easily!"

"Isn't he the Sword God's heir? He does know what he's doing. I wish I won't run into him; I don't want to expose my trump cards just yet."

All the contestants in the third region were more or less wary of the young man carrying a wooden sword.

They prayed that they wouldn't run into him, since he had secured a victory all too easily.

Above the continent—a palace was floating underneath a glass dome. Two men were seated in a pavilion outside the temple next to a table with dishes. What the dishes were made of was unclear, but they smelled delicious.

All the servants present were slim and pretty women clad in beautiful clothing; all of them were gulping in secret after seeing the wonderful food on the table.

Not only did the food taste delicious, it could also strengthen them.

"Is he the Sword God's new disciple?"

"He's been studying for eighty years, capturing the essence of his master's sword technique."

Hai Tuo and You Ying were eating and drinking while they looked down at the continent down below; nothing escaped their attention.

"Why didn't you let your disciple come?" Hai Tuo smiled and said after having a cup of wine.

You Ying rolled his eyes and replied, "It's been a long time since I recruited new disciples. My old disciples are too strong for this contest. If it's fine with you, I wouldn't mind letting them come here and crush all contestants."

Hai Tuo laughed and said, "It's great that you're here then. I definitely won't compete if you find any of those contestants promising."

"Humph!" You Ying snorted and said, "It remains to be seen whether I'll become interested in anyone. They'll have to at least force that young man to draw his sword. I don't want to teach stupid students!"

Hai Tuo smiled and said, "It's going to be hard, then. I'm sure someone is capable of doing that, but they must already have Ascendant State teachers. If they don't, you might still have a chance."

You Ying raised his eyebrows but refrained from replying. Instead, he had another mouthful of wine.

…

Time flew by.

The battles in all regions were even more intense. Some of them were quite eye-catching; several geniuses showed a dominating strength and grabbed a lot of attention.

"I was just watching the stream. I heard that there's a couple of tricky guys in the seventh and ninth regions."

"The third region, too. Just look at the popularity rank."

"There's already a popularity rank and a pet rank, including the highlights of the top thousand contestants. We can use that to analyze them."

"As I expected, the guys that I'm most interested in are all on the ranking list, but their places aren't as high as I thought. Are the ones above them that much stronger?"

The geniuses in the waiting areas—while watching the battles in their region—checked updates related to the other regions; they clearly were concerned about the popularity rank.

A lot of people watching from their planets throughout the galaxy were enthusiastic about the popularity rank too, which partly depended on their votes.

The popularity rank changed constantly as the battles progressed; more astonishing geniuses appeared every couple of minutes, replacing the old ones.

However, the top ten of the ranking list remained the same, all due to the outstanding strength they had displayed.

The young man who carried a wooden sword of the third region was ranked seventh!

As for the top three of the ranking, they had fought very neatly. The top was a woman wearing a hood; she didn't do anything in her battle, but then her opponent directly fell down.

Nobody saw her attack!

She was strange and mysterious!

Such action instantly turned her into a super genius that countless people admired. After all, her performance was absolutely dominating.

The second of the rank fought quite fearsomely too; he knocked away all his opponents' skills and pets with a single punch, imbued with unparalleled strength.

The third on the ranking was Dragon Emperor.

He didn't summon his pet. He made his opponent kneel and tremble with one snort.

He was almost as scary as the top ranker.

The others had won very easily too; they crushed their opponents with one punch or one roar.

Some of their opponents had also shown remarkable performances in the earlier phases.

As an example, the one fighting against the top ranker had performed remarkably earlier on. He had mastered five laws and there were four Star State pets in his arsenal.

Still, he lost to the woman without putting up any resistance.

It seems that there's plenty of geniuses out there. The five academies don't have all of them.

Su Ping saw that no one except Dragon Emperor and the young man with a wooden sword were in the top ten of the rankings; all the others were below the tenth.

However, the candidates who received recommendations were excellent in general; most were within the top hundred.

This is just the beginning. I won't be able to find out how strong the others are until the ten rounds are done. Su Ping squeezed his nose and took a breath, then patiently waited for his turn.

He stopped paying attention to the rankings because the listing was changing constantly; it didn't mean a thing just yet.

Very soon, it was Su Ping's turn.

Su Ping's opponent was a Rhine native, who had green skin and hair.

"Just surrender. You can't win."

He gazed at Su Ping coldly and added, "I don't want to waste my strength on you. There are still nine rounds waiting for me; my goal is to enter the Golden Star Zone!"

"…"

Su Ping was speechless for a few seconds, then he said, "My goal is to win the championship."

"Humph!"

His opponent sneered. Silvy's champion? It was even harder than entering the Golden Star Zone. After all, he only needed to make it to the top hundred to make it into the Golden Star Zone, but he still didn't know whether he could win the championship!

"I have to wake you up since you're still dreaming."

The Rhine native sneered and warmed up his arms; he also summoned his pet.

Seeing how slow he was, Su Ping was silent for another two seconds before he threw a punch.

Bang!

A golden fist aura was pushed out like a heavy mountain, causing a strong wind.

The smile on that Rhine native's face was frozen; his pupils were also contracted.

…

Unsurprisingly, Su Ping won again.

The Rhine native vomited blood due to the punch; his armor was shattered, and he fell on the ground in a weird posture.

Su Ping shook his head and walked away.

You're just a nobody. Why do you feel so good about yourself?

Back in the waiting area, many geniuses looked at Su Ping with solemn faces; it was known that the Rhine native had been outstanding back in his hometown.

All natives of planet Rhine were natural-born warriors, yet the man had been defeated without being completely unable to resist. Su Ping's punch was truly scary.

"Another tricky guy."

"He's as tricky as the guys before. I hope I don't run into him."

"I only want to make it to the top ten thousand and leave my name on the Astral Peak. Why do I have to see this?"

"He's good at fist techniques too? Interesting. I hope I can meet him."

Su Ping returned to the waiting area under everyone's eyes, then closed his own to take a break, not caring about what others thought of him.

There were still nine rounds left to go anyway. So far, the battles had just been appetizers; the real show had yet to begin.

…

On the Blue Planet, Longjiang Base City—

"It's Mr. Su!"

"Boss Su is truly participating in the match. He's in the fifth region!"

"Where is he? The fifth region? Damn, I was watching the seventh region. I'll switch the channel immediately!"

"Boss Su is as domineering as always. He knocked out his opponent easily, even though they were both geniuses!"

"I've watched the Rhine native fight before. He's not a weak one, at all, but he still looked awfully weak in front of Boss Su!"

"Our lord has won!"

Cheers burst out in the entire Longjiang Base City and the rest of the Blue Planet the moment Su Ping showed up.

Those who knew Su Ping were really excited. However, none of them was too surprised by his performance, especially after having seen him chase all the Star State intruders near the divine tree.

As for the rest, their awe was even greater.

"I didn't expect that the once little guy would grow to such magnitude…" Ji Yuanfeng felt conflicted. He had been confident of fighting and even defeating Su Ping back then, but he currently wasn't even able to resist one of Su Ping's fingers!

In the Qin family estate—Qin Shaotian, who was next to Qin Duhuang, also wore a complicated expression. He said with a bittersweet smile, "Such a man was born in Longjiang. He must have been blessed with the luck of the entire Blue Planet, right?"

Qin Duhuang smiled and replied, "Not just the entire planet, an entire galaxy. Look at his strength. All the geniuses he has defeated are top fighters in their planetary systems, but they are simply not a match for Boss Su. After all, he has chased and killed advanced Star State enemies before!"

Qin Shaotian felt so troubled that he didn't know what to say.

…

On a certain planet—

There was a giant mountain that rose to the sky like a sharp sword. A lot of people dwelled on the mountain, which was a great cultivation land on that planet; all of them were currently watching the streaming of the matches.

Ten regions were being streamed on the same screen.

In the crowd, a girl suddenly shivered in surprise. "Brother…"

She didn't expect to see Su Ping there.

He's participating, and is winning that easily?

"What did you say?" asked a girl next to her curiously, "Is your brother there?"

The girl came back to herself and slightly shook her head. "It's nothing," she said, dodging the question.

She hoped to catch up with Su Ping on her own!

…

Natives of the Blue Planet who had immigrated to other planets were also watching the competition. All of them were shocked when they saw Su Ping.

None of them expected that Su Ping, being the Lord of the Blue Planet, could still shine that brilliantly after entering the vast Federation stage!

On the continent floating in the void—

The first round of matches was finally over. Most people who had been to the mysterious realm had passed to the next round, except the unlucky ones who had run into super geniuses. However, those people still had a chance to advance as long as they secured ten victories!

Very soon, the second round began.

Su Ping was matched up with another guy he didn't know. He was too lazy to check if the guy was on the popularity rank; the easiest was to simply crush them.

The second round began moments after. This time, the battles were obviously more intense.

The popularity rank changed again. The young man who carried a wooden sword rose from the seventh to the fifth; his opponent was a very strong contender in the first round, but he defeated him easily without needing to draw his sword.

In addition, Holy King, Queen of the Seas and the others who ranked below the tenth were also on the rise. They were very strong, but their opponents in the first round didn't deserve their full strength, so they had kept a low profile until then.

However, they were actually really tricky and tough opponents in other people's eyes.

In the high sky, outside of the palace.

You Ying was leaning against the chair. He had finished his food; after all, the first round had taken quite some time. At the moment he was petting a little black snake in his hand, which had gem-like scales and beautiful eyes; it was gently nuzzling against his wrist.

Hai Tuo looked at the snake every now and then and smiled. "What do you think? Are you interested in any of them?"

"Not yet. All those little guys are holding back," You Ying replied casually.

"That's fine. It's still too early to decide," said Hai Tuo with a smile.

The fighting was still in progress.

The whole competition was indeed lengthy. Picking the top ten thousand from the planetary system geniuses would take a week, without much rest in between.

Stamina was also a factor in the test.

The real elimination rounds would begin after the top ten thousand were decided. A hundred from that batch would be selected to fight in the Golden Star Zone on behalf of Silvy.

The specialists on every planet were making professional analysis of the guys listed on the polarity rank to garner attention.

Su Ping, Dragon Emperor and almost all the others who came from the mysterious realm had won the ten rounds easily, without encountering a single failure.

Su Ping's consecutive one-punch victories earned him a spot in the popularity rank, too. He was the ninth.