Astral Pet Store (WN)

"Rules are only used to filter out the garbage. The Black Phoenix Palace wouldn't mind breaking the rules if we find talented students."

A graceful voice replied, which seemed to come from the palace above the black phoenix's head.

Hai Tuo was slightly surprised. Is the Black Phoenix Palace going to make an exception?

He had been watching the competition; he didn't see anyone that deserved the exception. Did I miss anything?

Outside the temple—Huan Lieshen slightly changed his expression and became solemn. He wondered if the information in his mysterious realm had been leaked; it was indeed possible. After all, Su Ping had crossed all the floors in the Illusionary God Monument. It happened all too fast for him to block the news.

These people…

Huan Lieshen became gloomy as he thought quickly. He had vaguely realized that they were there for Su Ping. He didn't think any other contestant could prompt the Black Phoenix Palace to break its rules.

Huan Lieshen quickly connected his mind to a place in the distance as he thought of the materials Su Ping had mentioned.

While Huan Lieshen took action in secret, the Old Boxer on the Heavenly Fist Mountain snorted thunderously. His voice was loud and clear, even though he was in the vacuum of space.

"The Black Phoenix Palace only has female students. Are you really going to take in a male one this time? Won't it affect the reputation of the other students?"

"That's for the Black Phoenix Palace to worry about. It's none of your business."

"Humph!"

The Old Boxer didn't continue, but he had managed to fish out what he wanted to know. She was truly going after a male student, and he knew what had happened.

Hai Tuo was confused as he stood in the void. Those two guys seemed to be going after the same target; they were already fighting for him before the match started. While they had never been the best of friends, they wouldn't have acted in such a hostile manner.

"Who are you interested in? Should I bring him here so that you can meet him?" asked Hai Tuo curiously. He was quite eager to find out who those two guys were competing over.

"You haven't realized it? Heh. Makes sense; he probably hasn't tried his best yet. However, since Huan Lieshen is here, he probably knows better than any of us who the person is," said the Old Boxer with a cold smile.

Huan Lieshen replied calmly, "You two are quite well-informed."

"Oh?"

You Ying raised his eyebrows. Are there really some sort of geniuses among the contestants?

He recalled the previous battles; there were indeed some promising young men, but they didn't deserve such competition. All the Ascendant State experts had seen too many brilliant geniuses in their long lives; they weren't easily impressed.

None of them would go through that much trouble to recruit a student.

Even peak Star Lords were just ants in front of them.

"What is going on?"

Hai Tuo looked at Huan Lieshen and figured out something. "Did any unparalleled genius emerge in your mysterious realm?"

He was still in the process of puzzling out the reason behind Huan Lieshen's voluntary visit to begin with. He then realized that the guy had come with a target in mind.

"There's indeed one. Quite talented indeed, so I'm here to see his performance." With everything coming to this point, Huan Lieshen was no longer intent on keeping it a secret any longer. He said frankly, "He likes me. I'll take him as a disciple when the competition is over."

Hai Tuo smiled and said, "He must be very distinguished to make you come here in person. He should be at least as good as the Sword God's young disciple."

"Not just as good; he's much better!" The pleasant yet indifferent voice came from the palace again. "He crossed a hundred floors in the all-class monument while being a Fate State cultivator. Not even Huan Lieshen could have done better. He has Ascendant State potential!"

"He likes you? Why did I hear that he ignored your invitation?" The Old Boxer snorted.

Hai Tuo and You Ying were both dazed. There's a guy who crossed a hundred floors of the all-class monument?

The master of the Black Phoenix Palace was right. That had truly been a display of Ascendant State potential!

With proper training, there was a good chance that he would indeed rise and become an Ascendant State expert!

Having an Ascendant disciple would make any of them twice as influential among their peers. After all, the master-disciple relationships were as important as parental ones in the Federation; most of the top experts didn't have parents that could live as long as they could.

However, Ascendant State masters and disciples could live together for a million years. They could even live for eons if they didn't explore dangerous areas!

"I didn't know that the Old Boxer was interested in gossip too," said Huan Lieshen coldly, narrowing his eyes.

Hai Tuo came back to himself and said with a weird expression, "Since you're all here for the same person, why don't we wait until the end of the matches? Let's see which of you is most attractive to him."

"Are you also going to compete for him?" asked the master of the Black Phoenix Palace coldly.

Hai Tuo smiled and said, "I won't say no if the guy you're interested in is willing to learn after me. But I definitely won't try to impress him; don't worry about that."

Being the lord of a galaxy, he had his own Ascendant State disciples, so he wasn't too desperate.

"You're truly generous, my lord. You have my admiration," said the Old Boxer and then fell silent.

Huan Lieshen was relieved; he had been wary of Hai Tuo joining the competition. After all, none of them had as many resources as Hai Tuo did.

"Who's on that planet?"

The master of the Black Phoenix Palace shifted her attention to Rhea and detected the Ascendant State covering it.

"A friend from an alien galaxy. She may be a friend to the disciple that you want to get," said Hai Tuo with a mysterious smile.

Not just the audience on the planets; the contestants on the void continent were also thrilled to see the arrival of two more Ascendant State experts.

Those who had been unfortunately eliminated could only regret that they didn't have a chance to impress those powerhouses.

The ones who had advanced, however, were beyond excited. If any of the Ascendants saw anything special in them, they could become their disciples.

Having the backing of such masters would allow them to do anything they wanted in that galaxy.

There's a lot of Ascendants here. Su Ping looked at the two newcomers in space. Taking into account the presidents of the five best academies, there were plenty of Ascendant State experts in this galaxy. It was obvious that the Federation was very powerful in the universe, virtually as good as the Demigod Burial!

It looks like the Federation is equal to three or four advanced cultivation sites in general, Su Ping thought, running an estimation.

As for the top cultivation sites—

Their differences were too massive.

Apart from the Chaotic Realm of the Undead which Su Ping was the most scared of, even the ancient world of the Golden Crows was quite remarkable. All the Golden Crow elders were Celestials. Their ancestor was very likely asleep. If it woke up, it would probably be beyond the Celestial State; such a powerful being could easily suppress the entire Federation.

That is, unless there were also beings beyond the Celestial State in the Federation.

However, as far as Su Ping knew, the Celestial State was already the top tier; they were the most important people in the Federation!

"Never mind. That's too far off anyway. Maybe I can go to the Golden Crow World to get the rest of the materials that the Solar Bulwark needs when the contest is over," said Su Ping to himself.

He already had a plan. Once he made another trip to the Golden Crow World, he would accompany Joanna to the Archean Divinity and fulfill his promise.

He had let Joanna wait for too long; he almost felt embarrassed.

Fortunately, Joanna was still saving points as an employee for the next visit to the Archean Divinity by working for the store. It was just that his first visit to the Archean Divinity had been postponed for quite a while.

Time flew.

Three days passed in the blink of an eye.

All the eliminated contestants had been relocated from the void continent; only the several hundred winners were going to fight for the top hundred on the vast stage.

The rules of the competition had been announced on the Internet a few days earlier.

The original lot-drawing mode was back, and the rules would change again once the top hundred were settled.

My opponent is… Holy King?

Su Ping was surprised to find that his opponent would be an acquaintance.

"Damn it!"

Holy King saw his opponent too. It was disheartening to find that it was Su Ping.

He would rather face the Sword God's heir, or the arrogant Dragon Emperor, than confront the genius who had crossed a hundred floors.

"You might fail." Queen of the Seas was standing next to him; her green hair dangled on her shoulders like waves. She and Holy King became enemies again after the other match ended; she was ready to crush him if they ran into each other later.

"I might?"

The Holy King's lips twitched. "I won't waste my strength on him. All of you want to see me fight him and force him to show his real strength, but I won't give you the satisfaction."

Su Ping had only fought ten of his battles at the beginning and the survival test, but he had watched the former and was sure that he hadn't used his real strength.

After all, while Su Ping's strength during the survival test was horrifying, what he showed was not representative of what allowed him to cross a hundred floors in the monument.

"Are you going to admit defeat? That's not your style," said Queen of the Seas indifferently, raising her eyebrows.

"What's my style?" Holy King sneered and said, "No need to provoke me. Instead of fighting him and wasting all my trump cards, I might as well save my strength. More than six Ascendants are watching us from the sky right now. I would rather not embarrass myself in front of them."

"To recognize the gap between you and your opponent and quit in time is also an ability. A real man knows when to give in!

"You're truly a smart man. Ha." Queen of the Seas laughed disdainfully.

"You are a smart woman too!" Holy King also laughed.

In the crowd—a few students of the Dragon Tomb Academy, including Dragon Devil, gathered around Dragon Emperor. He looked at his opponent and then put on a cold smile. "That arrogant guy from the Hugh Mia Academy has been matched with him. Let's see if he can win with a pet this time!"

"Let Holy King gauge how good he is." Dragon Emperor narrowed his eyes in relief. As the lots were being drawn, the last opponent he wanted to face was exactly the unpredictable Su Ping. No one knew how he passed a hundred floors.

On the Blue Planet—

Everybody across the globe was watching Su Ping, the lord of their planet. All of them were shocked and silent when they saw that Su Ping had to fight against Holy King.

Holy King seemed to be really strong, having performed remarkably; he had gathered plenty of identity badges in the survival test and was one of the most likely to become a champion. Even if he couldn't get first place, he would surely be among the top ten.

They didn't expect that Su Ping would encounter such a tricky guy in his first battle.

"Boss Su is not very lucky."

"I wonder if Boss Su can win. I've watched Holy King's two battles. He has two horrifying constitutions, and his attacks are very powerful too!"

"Even if he wins, he will have to pay a heavy price and expose his trump cards and his following opponent will make use of the information. It's going to be hard for him to become the champion. However, he can definitely make it to the top hundred, unless his opponent in every round is as tough as this one."

Ji Yuanfeng, Qin Duhuang and Xie Jinshui were all worried. Nie Huofeng also heaved a sigh. He wanted Su Ping to amaze Silvy, which would then boost the development of the Blue Planet and make all the inhabitants grow quickly.

At that moment—the void continent was divided into ten regions again.

Battles started in all of the ten regions simultaneously.

The hundreds of winners were allocated in the ten regions. Each region had fifty players on average.

Su Ping went to the seventh region and saw Holy King there.

He remained silent as he bided his time in the waiting area.

A battle was in progress at the moment.

The young man who carried a wooden sword, named Linghu Jian, was also in the seventh region. He fought in the third group, and his opponent was a tough one. However, he was still able to defeat the guy without drawing his sword.

Once the battle was over, Linghu Jian looked at Su Ping and frowned before he peacefully returned to a place where another student of the Sword Deity Academy was.

The fights continued.

Splendid competitions took place; some players advanced and some failed. The competitions were much fiercer when compared to those during the preliminary phase, when every contestant who had Star State pets attracted a lot of attention. Almost all the remaining contestants had Star State pets.

Soon, Su Ping and Holy King's names were announced.

Su Ping rose and flew towards the region.