Astral Pet Store (WN)

"He's indeed leading the charge. The Reincarnation Divine Constitution is truly remarkable."

"It seems that the first tier will be formed very soon."

In the balcony—a lot of Ascendant State experts were observing the situation.

Only a hundred contestants were left after the cruel competitions. The top hundred of a star zone in the early years would later become famous Star Lords, even if they couldn't reach the Ascendant State.

The rules this time were even more cruel, but a lot of people had luckily advanced with the help of others.

However, luck didn't play a role at the Heavenly Path Mountain; warriors would not stand out if they weren't impeccable in every aspect.

"The real test will begin until they cross the hundredth handle."

"Considering their abilities, more than ten of them will be able to surpass a hundredth handle."

"I wonder if the kid with the reincarnation constitution can create a miracle and go beyond the hundredth later. If he has the talent to accomplish that, well…"

The young man with a divine constitution was undoubtedly the center of attention. After all, he was an unparalleled genius who had the hopes of reaching the Celestial State!

Everybody was intent on finding out how strong a potential Lord Supreme could be while still being in the Fate State!

"Good luck!"

While standing among the Ascendant State experts, Ciro looked at Su Ping and encouraged him as he was approaching the twentieth handle.

Su Ping had shown amazing strength by fighting three top geniuses by himself. He was the genius that was only weaker than the one with the Reincarnation Divine Constitution according to everyone's eyes.

No more than three geniuses could compare to him.

If Su Ping tried harder, he could even rise to the star zone's top three!

Nobody from Silvy had ever reached the top ten of the star zone; the highest they had managed was merely twelfth place; it was just a mediocre galaxy among all the galaxies.

…

At the Heavenly Path Mountain—

Everybody was climbing the five ladders. Su Ping was at the twelfth handle on one of the ladders when a terrifying dragon head appeared in front of his eyes, extending its head from deeper spaces to snap at him.

It was an extinct and ancient ferocious dragon; its roar was thunderous and awe-inspiring.

However, Su Ping realized that none of the other climbers seemed to see the dragon; they simply kept climbing.

Su Ping had experienced the same in a previous handle; the participants could only see what they were going through. It looked like an illusion, but Su Ping was truly hurt when he tried to simply weather through the attack.

Bang!

Su Ping punched and shattered the dragon head, producing a chaotic mess of laws which contained assorted feelings, including the thirst for blood.

Su Ping waited for a while to digest them; he felt that he had gained something, so he continued climbing afterwards.

Once Su Ping reached the thirteenth handle, he discovered that the law-based attacks were obviously more powerful. It seemed that the difficulty was being increased every ten handles.

The young man with a divine constitution had already reached the seventieth handle by then, ahead of everybody else.

"You're a true dawdler!"

The young man with a divine constitution snorted upon seeing that Su Ping was only at the thirtieth handle; of course, he didn't think that Su Ping was only capable of that. He didn't feel challenged even though he was at the seventieth handle, so it couldn't be a problem for Su Ping, either; he didn't understand why the man was taking his sweet time.

Having no time to think about it, he continued his upward climb.

The more he climbed, the more powerful the attacks became. He shattered them and gained something from the broken pieces.

However, he was too strong to receive much benefit from such broken pieces; they only made him gain a deeper understanding of other laws.

Time flew.

Half a federal day passed in the blink of an eye.

Four people had already passed the hundred handles' mark. The young man with a divine constitution was still ahead of the group, being at the 120th handle, while the other three top geniuses were quickly following him.

The young man who had golden wheels in his eyes had just reached the ninetieth handle. He didn't seem to be in a hurry, and he hadn't really exerted his strength yet.

Su Ping had just reached the fiftieth handle; his speed slowed down as he tried to absorb and digest.

Many would have thought that he was a weakling who had reached that point in the competition thanks to someone else's help if they hadn't seen his performance in earlier battles.

"Seriously? How can they keep moving that fast?"

"I feel like I'm reaching my limits. I wonder if I can reach the hundredth handle."

Fang Hanxue, Shirley, Claesabe and the others were also giving it a go; they were between the seventieth and eightieth handles. What shocked them was that the attacks received in that section were already quite hard to resist. Considering the rising difficulty, it would probably be too difficult for them to surpass the ninetieth handle.

Monsters such as Su Ping, however, didn't seem exhausted at all when they got to the ninetieth handle; they seemed rather at ease.

"Why was I born in the same universe as them? I truly feel sorry for myself!"

"I thought that a genius such as myself, able to easily grasp laws without much thinking, was already terrifying. But those guys are truly eye-openers!"

Claesabe breathed heavily at the 88th handle. He looked at the young man with a divine constitution; the latter had reached the 130th handle… that made him feel an urge to curse out loud.

"I don't want to fail!"

On the other hand, Dragon Emperor held on to the 95th handle with bloodshot eyes. He had tried his best to resist the previous attack he suffered, and his body was almost torn apart. Nobody else saw the battle, but it was truly fierce.

It felt like an illusion, but his agony and the depletion of his stamina and astral power were real.

He looked up at the guys still ahead of him with a contorted expression.

He was the dominator of the Dragon Tomb Academy; everybody felt awe at the mention of his name. And yet, ten people had easily surpassed him during that test.

He felt even more helpless as he remembered that it was just one of the twelve star zones in the universe.

He wondered what kind of people could possibly reach the finals!

…

The second half of the day passed in the blink of an eye.

The climbers had obviously slowed down at the moment, including the young man with a divine constitution who still had the lead.

However, the gap between the hundred geniuses on the five ladders was already obvious. Most were struggling around the eightieth handle, while others had gone further than the ninetieth handle; only a dozen had surpassed the hundredth handle.

The young man with a divine constitution was the most horrifying of all; he was at the 170th handle. He had indeed slowed down to the same pace used by the climbers down below—while having been tangled in fierce battles at every new handle—but he had already gone much, much further than any of the others.

Many geniuses who felt that they were reaching their limits at the eightieth handle would look up and see the man who was still climbing higher than anyone else; all of them wore troubled expressions.

The man was too brilliant!

They were the top hundred selected from the pool of geniuses selected from many galaxies, and yet the man was still the most brilliant among them; it wouldn't be long before the entire universe would learn the genius's name. He would receive countless invitations, and even the attention of the illustrious Lord Supreme.

Many of them were greatly frustrated when they thought of that.

They were destined to be the background in that competition.

"He's slowing down. The attacks will involve complete paths once they get to the 150th handle."

"His opponents are at the peak of the Star State!"

"It's quite astonishing to see he's reached the 170th handle. Even Star Lords would have a hard time fighting him without using the power of faith."

"He would be able to fight early Star Lords if he happens to get his hands on a secret treasure able to resist the power of faith. That truly is Celestial State potential; he's crossed two major levels!"

"Horrifying!"

In the balcony—the Ascendant State observers were amazed by the performance of the young man with a divine constitution.

They had to admit that the young man was truly the most eye-catching among all the geniuses, eclipsing the whole lot of them.

"There are a few others who are not bad. They are also ahead of others, being the strongest of the top geniuses who have Ascendant State potential; their odds of reaching the Ascendant State are higher!

"Unfortunately, they met someone who has the Reincarnation Divine Constitution, which is absolutely unreasonable."

…

At the 82rd handle of the ladder, Su Ping formed a sword with the power of laws and cut a foggy shadow apart that was immune to ordinary attacks; it was only vulnerable to the refined power of laws.

The intensity of these laws compares to that of the advanced Star State, yet I've only crossed eighty stairs…

Su Ping was shocked when he looked up at the young man with a divine constitution, since he had managed to reach the 170th handle. Wouldn't it require the power of a Star Lord to reach that height?

The vastness of the Federation became increasingly clear to him. He had traveled to many cultivation sites; not even the Demigod Burial had that many geniuses.

It seems like the Federation I'm living in is probably more advanced than the advanced cultivation sites… Su Ping thought.

"You're overthinking. He's from a tier-1 advanced world at best," said the system.

Su Ping was stunned for a moment. Unsurprised by the peeping, he asked, "A tier-1 advanced world? Is it only inferior to the top cultivation sites?"

"That's right," said the system casually, "I'm counting the hidden beings in this universe. Otherwise, it would only be a regular advanced cultivation site considering your Lord Supreme as the strongest warrior."

Su Ping's heart shivered. "Hidden beings?"

"Don't even think about them; you're still too far off from them. I may tell you the answer by the time you reach the Path Section on this Path Erudition Mountain."

"The Path Erudition Mountain?" Su Ping was stunned. He then realized it was the system's name for the Heavenly Path Mountain; maybe that was the mountain's original name."

"What's the Path Section?"

"The area where complete paths are nurtured. It's somewhere two hundred handles above your head," said the system casually.

Su Ping looked up. Two hundred handles.

It meant that the young man with a divine constitution was almost there.

He nodded and said, "I'll try my best."

The system didn't respond. It fell silent again.

Su Ping stopped thinking and simply kept on climbing.

Suddenly, someone greeted him and said, "Boss, you're here! Keep it up!"

Su Ping looked up and saw that he was one of the guys he had protected; he nodded in response.

Su Ping climbed a few more handles and soon encountered Fang Hanxue, Claesabe and a few others.

A half of another day passed; Su Ping reached the ninetieth stair, where he saw the struggling Dragon Emperor and the Thousand Leaves Holy Lady; both flashed a bitter smile at Su Ping when they saw him.

Su Ping greeted them, "What a coincidence. See you later."

"Okay…"

Su Ping surpassed them and continued climbing.

Dragon Emperor, Linghu Jian and the others smiled bitterly when Su Ping passed them; they knew that Su Ping would surely do that, but they still felt bad when it truly happened.

Very soon, Su Ping grabbed a hold of the hundredth handle.

He sensed that the attacks were evidently more powerful. A dark monster made by laws lunged at him and let out an ear splitting roar.

The roar contained a mental shock inducer. Su Ping felt that his head trembled, as if having been hammered upon.

Still, he snapped back to reality fairly quickly. He looked solemn, as the attacks could already be compared to the ones who were at the peak of the Star State.

Su Ping quickly took action. He gathered a hundred laws and formed a sword aura to shatter the monster as easily as before. Then, he frowned and absorbed the broken laws and willpower.

The laws contained in that monster were quite profound. Almost ten of the hundred laws that Su Ping had grasped after being absorbed were improved to the advanced phase of the Star State. He would be able to touch the core of the laws.

Why do I feel like this is a gift? Su Ping thought.

He felt that the climbing was already beneficial enough, even if he couldn't win the championship; he would be significantly strengthened.

Su Ping looked up. There was a considerable distance from the young man with a divine constitution, who was at the 180th handle at the moment.

It's been a day and a half. Only half of the three days are left; I can't catch up to him with my current speed.

Su Ping's eyes glittered. He wasn't tempted to attain the championship title, but he was definitely interested in the prizes, which belonged to a Celestial being; they were beings that were actually a level higher than Joanna's original self.

I need to figure out a way to store my understanding of laws, to then digest them after the contest is over, Su Ping thought.