Astral Pet Store (WN)

Su Ping and Linghu Jian were left alone ater the Star Lord introduced the rules.

Dragon Emperor and Oasis Gray had a duel in one of the regions.

At the same time, Su Jin'er and Hayalim fought in another region.

Linghu Jian, who stood next to Su Ping, said in a low voice, "You need to be careful about Su Jin'er later."

Su Ping was surprised since the guy had voluntarily talked to him. More importantly…

"Why? Do you think you'll lose to her?"

"I'm not sure, but I feel like she's hiding a lot of things. Besides…" Linghu Jian paused for a moment, but left it at that. The woman gave him the same dangerous feeling that he had sensed from his master.

However, he didn't believe that the woman could compare to an Ascendant State expert.

Nobody could pull off such a leap.

Let alone the Ascendant State, it was impossible for them to compare to a Star Lord!

After all, the astral power harnessed by Star Lords was ten thousand times greater than that of the Fate State.

Dragon Emperor and Oasis Gray had already started fighting while they spoke; one of them was Emperor and the other was King. There were grudges between their academies too. They had never seen eye to eye; they started fighting right after they entered the region.

Both of them used all their strength; they held nothing back.

They had realized that all of those remaining were geniuses just like themselves.

Aside from Su Ping, Linghu Jian was also tricky to deal with.

Both wanted the championship, but their rationality told them that it would be hard. That is why they chose to give it their best, showing everyone how strong they were while they could.

They were very strong. All their techniques were definitely above the standard of their level when they were on a rampage.

Linghu Jian looked at them for a while, then shifted his attention to the other battlefield.

The second battlefield was much more peaceful than the noisy one where Dragon Emperor and Oasis Gray were fighting; it almost seemed weird.

Hayalim revealed her expertise and her mental talent. Apart from her constitution, she also had a strange superpower that made her mind a hundred times more powerful than the average of her level!

It was her ultimate trump card, which was horrifying.

She had weathered through many adventures with her superpower. Nobody expected that a Fate State kid would be able to suffocate Star State experts!

But she was actually capable of that!

Hayalim had made household items fly her way while still in the womb, such as chairs and spoons. Her family moved several times, thinking that the houses were haunted.

But the situation didn't change after several relocations; they hired several exorcists, to no avail.

While her family was terrorized, she was born.

Her house collapsed on the day she came to the world, and a radius of several hundred meters was pressed down. Her parents were also squeezed and destroyed by her uncontrollable power that day.

She became an orphan. She had incredible intelligence, aside from her extraordinary superpower, since she had the intellect of a four-year-old kid from birth.

She later met a rogue Legendary battle pet warrior on her planet; he took her as a disciple and taught her. She became capable of slaying ninth-rank beasts in a few years.

After that, her talent was noticed and she entered a top organization on her planet where she continued to train.

She soon turned out to be too talented to be taught there, and was sent to a major organization in her galaxy.

She had been training in seclusion since then to compete in the Universe Geniuses' Contest.

"What a pure and evil heart!"

Inside the arena—Su Jin'er was still smiling. She said, "Your heart is filled with blood and brutality even though you're so young. Rough childhood?"

"Shut up!"

Hayalim's eyes turned cold; white vertical pupils appeared in her eyes like crescent moons. A storm of willpower surged out with the projections from her heart and flooded Su Jin'er's head. She was going to oppress her with willpower and make her kneel.

Su Jin'er shivered, but then she smiled and said, "It's useless. You might have been able to cause some damage had you used another technique. But mental power…

"Even if you were a hundred times stronger, you wouldn't even make me bat an eye."

Su Jin'er felt like laughing when her opponent tried to mentally subdue her.

Hayalim pursed her lips; the crescent moons in her pupils became sharper and bigger until they fully occupied her eyes. Her hair fluttered, and a little pet disappeared into her body like a streak of light as it merged with her, strengthening her.

Waves of horrifying mental power were swept out, even causing ripples and twisting the air in front of her.

The secondary, tertiary and fourth spaces were all twisted; countless corpses could be vaguely seen in twisted vortices.

Both of them were at a stand still, but the distorted view made everyone change their expressions.

Linghu Jian frowned as he solemnly gazed at the scene.

Su Ping saw it too, and was slightly surprised; he didn't expect the fair girl would turn out to be so violent and pessimistic. She must have been deeply traumatized.

Compressing the Force Field with your mental power to pierce your opponent's mind. That's not a bad idea. Su Ping was delighted to learn a new move.

His mental power had been polished too, and he could also compress his Force Field.

The nearby Linghu Jian suddenly asked, "Are you confident of resisting that move?"

Su Ping was stunned for a moment; he then replied with a smile, "Yes, of course."

Linghu Jian was silent for a moment. Then, he heaved a sigh and said, "Me too, but it wouldn't be easy."

He indeed could. The ultimate sword technique that his master had taught him could slay all evils.

Still, it required all his energy and resolve to gather such a sword aura; Hayalim was a formidable enemy to him.

"Still not giving up?"

Su Jin'er looked at Hayalim whose face was then showing a smile. She shook her head and said, "Let me show you what real mental power looks like!"

She dropped her smile, and then her eyes were filled with golden light.

The next moment, boom!

The twisted spaces were dissolved one after the other; the formerly unmoving Hayalim started shaking. The whiteness in her eyes was dispersed, and her original pupils were restored. However, they were filled with shock and fright, as if she had just seen something unbelievable.

Su Jin'er moved and pressed her hand down, and Hayalim instantly fell on her knees.

She won!

Outside of the region—Linghu Jian had a shocked expression.

Su Jin'er cracked such a powerful attack that easily and defeated her?

He could have cracked it too, but not as easily. How did she do it?

Su Ping narrowed his eyes. Just as he had expected, Su Jin'er had been hiding a lot of her strength.

On the other side—the battle between Dragon Emperor and Oasis Gray was still in progress. Both were wounded and furious; deep pits and burn marks were left everywhere. They had caused more damage than any Star State cultivators could. They fought from the outside world to the deeper spaces and back.

Both displayed lots of secret techniques and unusual gifts.

Su Jin'er, on the other hand, won her battle quickly, although in an intriguing manner. Many of the ordinary people had yet to realize what had happened.

"I won."

Su Jin'er flew out and smiled at Su Ping. "Let me see your other pets later."

Linghu Jian's expression changed ever so slightly, but still mostly grim.

Su Ping glanced at her and said, "Hold that thought until you defeat him."

Linghu Jian looked better, but what Su Jin'er said next made him feel bad again. "Him? Don't worry. It won't take one minute."

Two hours later.

The battle between Dragon Emperor and Oasis Gray also came to an end. Dragon Emperor won with a slim advantage. Both of them were heavily wounded; one had a broken arm, and the other lost part of his leg. Half of their pets had collapsed too.

"Who would have thought? The Amir Royal Academy did have some tough bones after all." Dragon Emperor breathed heavily on one of his bloodstained dragons.

Oasis Gray lay on the ground with swollen eyelids. "Next time, I will make you kneel and beg."

"I'll be waiting for you, humble ant." Dragon Emperor smiled proudly, but he toned down his scorn considerably. He didn't despise his opponent as much as he did before.

Very soon, a Star Lord took action and healed them.

The two of them were fully recovered in a flash; they looked at each other and saw the determination and respect in each other's eyes.

"It's your turn," said the Star Lord to Dragon Emperor and Linghu Jian.

The latter rushed to the arena like a cannonball.

Su Jin'er smiled. "Is the Sword God's disciple all as short-tempered as him?"

Once he saw Linghu Jian take action, Dragon Emperor stepped into the battlefield with fighting will in his eyes.

Their battle ended about half an hour later; Linghu Jian won with ample advantage. He compressed a few laws in his last moves that matched his sword aura perfectly.

After his win, Linghu Jian took some rest and then fought with Su Jin'er.

The result was quite odd. Su Jin'er resisted Linghu Jian's attack with ease, defeating him with a single punch.

"Did you learn my sword technique?" Linghu Jian found it impossible to accept failure. He had thought she would use the same moves as in her fight against Hayalim; he had been prepared to cut everything apart with his sword aura. Still, she defeated him with a physical technique.

"Have I learned it?"

Su Jin'er put on a helpless expression and said, "You're just too inept at using your sword technique. It would have been troublesome for me had you indeed grasped the Sky Overturning Move."

Linghu Jian's lips twitched. The Sky Overturning Move? Even his Star State senior brothers hadn't grasped it yet.

"It's our turn."

Su Jin'er looked at Su Ping with great interest.

Linghu Jian was even grimmer after seeing that, as she obviously didn't consider him a big deal at all.

He was the heir to an Ascendant State expert anyway. Had he ever been neglected like that?

"Brother Su, keep it up!"

Out of the blue, Linghu Jian cheered for someone else.

After a momentary surprise, Su Ping said with a smile, "Okay."

Su Jin'er snorted, not making much of this.

"If Su Ping fails, Su Jin'er will become the champion. Su Ping, Hayalim and Linghu Jian would then fight for second place. The rest will fight for third place!" the Star Lord announced.

It was a simple yet reasonable arrangement.

Dragon Emperor had lost to Linghu Jian, Linghu Jian had lost to Su Jin'er, and so did Hayalim. If Su Ping failed too, Su Jin'er would be the unquestionable champion!

Su Jin'er and Su Ping flew toward the arena after the announcement.

The arena was gradually closed.

"Show me your best. You may get defeated if you hold back like before," said Su Jin'er to Su Ping with hands behind her back.

Su Ping nodded. He too had sensed how extraordinary she was; he wondered how she had defeated Linghu Jian and Hayalim with such ease.

"Come on out."

Su Ping summoned Little White, the Inferno Dragon, Little Skeleton and the Dark Dragon Hound.

The four pets surrounded Su Ping like mountains. They occupied half of the sky while releasing daunting auras. They weren't as large as Star State beasts, but they looked even more intimidating.

"Huh?"

Su Jin'er raised her eyebrows. "You only have four pets? And they're all in the Fate State?"

In the high temple—

Hai Tuo and the others saw this too, and heard the fighter's conversation easily. All of them were surprised.

"All of his pets are in the Fate State?"

"Well… Doesn't he know he can get pets of a higher level?"

"…Even if he had Star State pets as trump cards, it's still a waste to have those four pets occupying four slots."

The Ascendant State experts were somewhat puzzled; the only explanation was that the four pets were as strong as the Inferno Dragon, but such a thing would be unrealistic.

If it were true, wouldn't Su Ping become even stronger if his pets broke through to the Star State before the finals?

Hai Tuo suddenly had glittering eyes as he considered this.

"Where are your pets?"

Su Ping looked at Su Jin'er peacefully after summoning the four pets.

Su Jin'er frowned. "Are you still hiding your strength? The people in the Golden Star Zone won't investigate these matches. It's pointless to hide your pets."

Su Ping replied indifferently, "I'm not hiding anything. They're my strongest pets."