Astral Pet Store (WN)

Su Ping's group passed through a forest that was as vast as an ocean; they went through a dozen battles along the way. Most of their opponents were unfortunate lone wolves that were taken down easily.

The young man who had golden wheels in his eyes and the Thousand Leaves Holy Lady took action when they met smaller groups with only a couple of members, finishing them off easily.

Beyond the forest was a desert.

Everybody marched on; they kept on looking for compatriots whenever their badges became hot.

Some were wounded, hiding in the depths of the sand; some had set up ambushes in teams of two or three.

All of them were shocked to meet Su Ping.

They didn't expect him to gather that many people in such a short time.

…

Outside of the deep-space continent, at the edge of the palace—

Ciro's eyes had been constantly moving, observing Su Ping's group for the longest time. He had thought at first that the kid was rather arrogant, but he was very satisfied with his performance at the moment; Dragon Emperor was the second.

Su Jin'er—who was as famous as Su Ping, a warrior with Ascendant State potential—had been wandering alone thus far. She didn't meet any fellow warriors from the same galaxy as she simply moved on by herself.

The other Ascendant State experts were talking about the geniuses from their galaxies while they watched the show.

"Disunion is tantamount to elimination. Those kids haven't realized the significance of this elimination contest yet!"

"I heard that they'll be sent to the border after the finals. You can't fight as lone wolves there; strength only comes with union."

The Ascendant State experts of other galaxies were watching their representatives too; all of them were heaving sighs.

Su Jin'er was not the only one who was being disobedient; most top geniuses of the other galaxies were too proud to team up with contestants from their galaxy, unless they had inevitably met in the field; most of them simply fought on their own.

"I heard that an unusual genius emerged in the Wudi Galaxy; he has awakened an ancient divine constitution, which is one of the nine greatest constitutions. Is it him? He's truly ferocious!"

"Tsk. He traveled across the sea on his own and is still strong enough to kill a sea beast. He's truly young and vigorous!"

"He's definitely the strongest contestant of our star zone."

"Indeed. I've looked at the others. Many of the younglings with Ascendant potential are horrifying too, but they're not as good as him!"

"There was also a contestant in the Yangxian Star Zone with a top divine constitution; looks like the finals are going to be splendid. The nine divine constitutions have never been ranked, except the top three. This will be a great opportunity for us to find out which ones are the best!"

…

Time flew.

More and more geniuses were eliminated as the battle went on; some of them prowled by themselves, but were later found out and defeated.

If one were to observe the deep-space continent from high above, it would be noticed that its size was shrinking as time went by. As a result, the range of activity was gradually being compressed into a very tiny area; the remaining contestants would have to fight for the top hundred in the final area!

"I don't want to be eliminated!"

On a plain—the white-robed Holy King was regretfully defeated. He had encountered multiple strong enemies in a row, being brutally crushed in the end by a top genius from another galaxy. He felt angry and frustrated; he was definitely strong enough to make it to the top hundred, but unfortunately, it was not meant to be.

Inside the Hugh Mia Academy's spacecraft carrier—all the elders of the academy were sorrowful. Both geniuses of their academy were strong; they originally had a chance of making it to the top hundred, but luck was not on their side; one of them had been killed and the other was subdued.

On the top of one of the mountains—several dozen men were roasting a strong dragon; the tantalizing fragrance of the meat was spreading out, making everybody swallow.

A woman waved her sword to cut off the most delicious leg of the dragon, then offered it to Su Ping.

He accepted and thanked her, chowing down right after.

The others quickly stepped forward to split the dragon up.

"We were truly lucky to have met Brother Su. The man we met just now was too brutal; we would have been annihilated without you!" said a golden-robed young man who was seated on a rock as if it were a throne.

It was Dragon Emperor himself; he had tracked Su Ping down with his badge and tagged along from then on.

Very soon, they encountered a group of eight people. Each was as strong as Dragon Emperor; their leader even had Ascendant State potential. Su Ping fought in person, finally forcing him to retreat with some minor injuries.

Everybody was even more awed by Su Ping.

They saw how a monster like that was stomped by Su Ping. He truly was a brutal man!

Dragon Emperor had completely abandoned his arrogant stance by then. He could only sigh; never did he expect to owe a favor to someone of his same level.

"We'll meet him again." Su Ping bit off a piece of dragon meat and diligently chewed it.

He had only defeated the man, but he got away; the latter had a powerful lifesaving treasure.

The man had the potential of becoming an Ascendant; he actually knew laws much better than the average Ascendant expert. Su Ping was completely unable to capture him.

"Where are we going next?" asked someone prudently.

Su Ping stopped eating, which made the asker's heart race as he thought the former was infuriated. However, Su Ping looked at the horizon and asked, "Do any of you feel this place is shrinking?"

"Shrinking?"

Everybody was astonished by his remark, so they quickly looked around.

Someone with keen senses exclaimed, "It's real! I just measured a mountain nearby. It shortened by one meter in a minute. That's very fast!"

"No wonder I've been feeling weird. The terrain around us is becoming smaller!"

"Are we being surrounded? Is it an ambush?"

"That's impossible! None of the contestants have the power to produce this massive change!"

"I see! The continent is shrinking. They're doing this to gather us and force us to fight!"

"Damn it. Doesn't this mean we can't hide? We'll be found sooner or later!"

"Exactly. Weaklings can't escape; the experts may get eliminated too if they don't fight in a team. The rules are truly cruel!"

All of them were gifted individuals; they were shocked, since they realized what was going on. They previously weren't really interested in joining a group, feeling they could survive until the end if they hid themselves in a corner.

However—if their guess was true and the terrains would be reduced to a very small range in the end, hiding would be pointless, as they would be detected sooner or later.

Everybody currently felt lucky to have met Su Ping.

They were already a very powerful group, with a high combat ability even in the latest battles!

"Let's just wait here since the terrains are shortening; we can accumulate strength, and prepare ambushes in the meantime," Su Ping instructed.

Nobody disagreed; everybody took out their secret treasures and established traps as Su Ping instructed.

…

Time moved on.

Some contestants from other galaxies passed by the mountain since the overall terrain was becoming smaller; they were of course ambushed.

Some of the smaller groups that wandered over were also caught and eliminated.

One day later, the previously vast continent had been reduced to the size of three planets, which only amounted to a hill to the thousands of geniuses.

Fortunately, a lot of the contestants had already been eliminated; some of the survivors were hiding in deeper spaces. Very few were still active.

In the crowd, a young man who carried a divine sword suggested, "I know a very powerful sword array; it can kill anybody below the Star Lord State if we set one in the mountains!"

He was exactly Linghu Jian, the Sword God's heir. Su Ping invited him to the group whey he passed by the mountain.

A couple of guys were following him; they were in shock due to the large number of people gathered around Su Ping!

They had nine allies in the beginning, but they ran into a lot of enemies, some of whom were as strong as Linghu Jian; four of them were eliminated in the end.

"Okay."

Su Ping nodded and gave his full approval.

Linghu Jian looked at Su Ping and then quickly set out with some of the others to search for materials that would be used to establish the array.

There were almost seventy members in Su Ping's group already, including the young man who had golden wheels in his eyes. He was on par with Su Ping.

In the crowd—Dragon Devil didn't have the guts to make eye contact with Su Ping. He mumbled, "I never expected to be under his command and receive his protection." He had been humiliated when he was defeated by Su Ping, so he swore to get revenge someday. But currently… he had completely let it go!

Linghu Jian was quick when he established the sword array; everybody held their breath and went into hiding.

A group of people flew over shortly after; there were more than thirty of them. The two men and the woman in the lead felt as horrifying as a deep ocean.

"Something's wrong!"

Hardly had they entered the mountains when a young man in the lead stopped and looked around gravely. "Someone seems to have rearranged the mountains to accumulate power…"

"Huh?"

The other man and the woman narrowed their eyes and observed.

Several sword auras flashed toward them right at that moment. In the meantime, an overwhelming number of secret techniques were gathered from the surroundings.

"You're asking to be killed!"

The trio burst into fury; there was a scary light emanating from their eyes.