Astral Pet Store (WN)

"Prepare the countdown!"

An Ascendant State expert flew close with an hourglass as massive as a hill after Mu Shen's announcement, then initiated the countdown.

"Let's get inside!"

The leaders of the star zones instructed the contestants near them.

They had heard a thing or two about the trial. Apart from survival, the contestants had to loot enough Divine Cores or they would be eliminated.

A young man in the crowd quickly asked You Long, "Senior, should we team up?"

He was only as strong as Dragon Emperor; he immediately thought of an alliance since he had witnessed the screening matches in the Golden Star Zone.

Being the case, it would be much easier for them to survive and hunt for the Divine Cores.

All the others had glittering eyes too as they looked at Su Ping and Diaz.

Those two would be the greatest supporters if they were to team up.

Diaz sneered upon hearing what the young man said; he despised alliances the most. He would always remember how tigers traveled alone and only ants moved in groups. He preferred not to mingle with ants.

You Long shook his head and said, "It'll be up to luck whether or not you can team up. You'll be separated in the forsaken area, which is immense; you might not see each other at all in the next five days. It is also important to know that your enemies are not the other contestants, but the actual weirdness of the place…"

The weirdness of the place?

Everybody was surprised, feeling that their blood was freezing. What thing could possibly make a Heavenly Lord feel weird?

"Let's get inside. Try your best to hunt for the Divine Cores and survive," said You Long.

Everybody felt uneasy when he talked like that; however, they didn't have any other options at this moment.

"Junior brothers, zombies walk the remains and the Divine Cores are found right within their bodies. Attack the marks on their foreheads; it's the only way to destroy them," said You Long to Su Ping and Diaz telepathically.

Both of them were stunned for a moment. Then, they nodded.

"Let's have another competition!"

Diaz turned back and looked at Su Ping aggressively.

He never fought Su Ping when they climbed the Heavenly Path Mountain, and he never thought he was any weaker. He really wondered how he could possibly fall short when compared to that guy.

Realizing that the former wasn't convinced of his inferior power, Su Ping said with a smile, "A bet of ten again?"

"Nice try!"

Diaz was triggered by Su Ping's taunting, touching his scar. He had been fooled by Su Ping earlier, receiving a slap right smack in the face.

He wouldn't be fooled again.

"Humph. Let's find out who hunts more." Diaz snorted.

Su Ping merely offered a smile, not saying anything else.

You Long didn't stop them from arguing, as competitiveness was always a good thing; it could help them in reaching the Ascendant State sooner.

The contestants from the various star zones entered the vortex shortly after.

They looked like a swarm of locusts from a distance.

Su Ping and Diaz entered the vortex at the same time.

The former detected a stream of dense divine power coming at his face. The darkness was gone moments later, and he found himself in a wasteland.

The land was blackened, with scars and dents everywhere, as if they were traces of giant beasts having walked in the area.

Su Ping looked around and saw a ragged village in the distance. He instantly flew there.

A vague trace of divine power is flowing in the air. This truly is a domain of the gods.

Unfortunately, the divine power is thin, and mixed with the decaying aura of death. Why did they fight?

Su Ping took to the skies and observed the environment from above; he didn't see a single living creature.

Soon, he saw a ruined village. Most buildings had been razed to the ground; whatever was left was crumbling.

My perception range has been minimized. The gravity here is different too… It feels familiar. After checking his own status, Su Ping looked beyond the village and was able to vaguely see a city.

It was good that his eyes weren't affected, as he could see objects far in the distance.

His eyesight could be significantly boosted when he focused the Golden Crow's divine power on his eyes, allowing him to see a grain of dust ten kilometers away.

"Huh?"

Suddenly, Su Ping had a premonition and looked in a certain direction.

He saw a man standing next to a dry well in the ruined village.

The man wore ragged clothes; he was standing with his back against him, as if he were meditating.

However, Su Ping noticed that the man's exposed skin was purple and wrinkled. That was anything but normal.

Suddenly, the man seemed to have noticed something, so he turned around.

Su Ping narrowed his eyes the moment their eyes met.

The man's face was ulcerated; there was a horrifying opening on his chest too, which went through his ribs. All his internal organs had withered.

Any person would have died after suffering such heavy wounds.

All of a sudden, Su Ping recalled the walking zombies that Senior Brother You Long had mentioned.

Whoosh!

While Su Ping was feeling shocked, the man flashed and lunged at him, roaring. His movements were barbaric and primitive.

Su Ping's expression changed a bit. He did not sense any air of a living creature from the man, so he instantly punched.

Bang!

His golden fist punched the zombie's broken chest, which felt like a rock; the zombie didn't even bother to dodge.

The aura of the fist compressed the air behind his back, until it became fluid.

However, the ferocious punch didn't cause any damage to the zombie, which continued lunging and had quickly grabbed Su Ping's arm. Its fingernails were as sharp as blades.

Su Ping wasn't taking any chances; he wouldn't allow himself to be hurt by the zombie. The Golden Crow's flames quickly emerged on his arm, setting the zombie ablaze; such flames would continue burning until the end of time.

To Su Ping's astonishment, the zombie was still attacking despite the flames all over his body, seemingly unable to feel any pain.

Remembering what You Long said, Su Ping looked at the zombie's forehead; he did find something glittering under the divine flames.

It was a divine seal!

Su Ping quickly gathered laws on his fingertip and poked.

The zombie was fast, but unskilled; Su Ping dodged its attack and penetrated the divine seal.

There was a crack, and then the divine seal glowed and exploded.

The zombie stopped moving and slowly fell down.

It fell to the ground in the village. Divine flames spread from his body, burning the rocks into magma.

Su Ping waved his hand and absorbed the flames, then he looked at the blackened body with a mix of suspicion and shock.

The corpse was still able to move. Was it the weirdness that You Long had mentioned?

Suddenly, Su Ping noticed divine power leaking from the dead man's chest. It was an intriguing situation, so he turned the corpse over and cut its chest open, revealing a brilliant golden item. That was the Divine Core, as well as the body's heart.

So to speak, I have to fight these creatures if I want to rise to the top hundred?

Su Ping's eyes became grave.

It wasn't hard for him to finish off the zombie, but it was still bizarre. The creature was quiet, inconspicuous and relentless. It would be truly difficult to get away from a lot of them.

Su Ping studied the Divine Core for a moment and tried to cut it open, but it was really hard; it would break if he continued.

He then stored the core and continued examining the body. He thought of something, and then collected some of its blood, teeth and fingernails. He planned to find a living creature to test if those things were poisoned.

After all that, Su Ping left the village and flew ahead.

He had been vigilant all the way. Those zombies could hardly be detected remotely, and he had to keep an eye on them, or it would be a nasty surprise if they flashed to where he was all of a sudden.

Su Ping saw a giant beast shortly after; it was slowly moving outside the village.

The beast was more than thirty meters tall, and was covered in wounds and bite marks. The blood on its skin had already dried up.

Suddenly, the beast stopped and flashed away, tearing the void open and vanishing.

Su Ping was alarmed by this, so he quickly took precautions.

However, the beast didn't show up in the next few seconds; an explosion burst out in the distance.

Su Ping looked at the source of the sound and saw a rising mist. He then realized that the beast had surely detected a contestant in that location.

Just like the first zombie, the beast was also dead.

Su Ping looked at the place and considered for a moment, choosing not to go there immediately.

It was unnecessary to deal with other geniuses since the trial was about survival and hunting; he didn't want to attack.

Indeed, it was possible to rise to the top hundred by knocking out the other geniuses, but that was a rather cruel method; Su Ping didn't want to give such a nightmarish experience to the hardworking contestants.

Su Ping turned around and moved in a different direction.

He soon hovered above another city.

The city wall was already broken. It seemed that some enormous thing had broken in and caused a huge opening.

Su Ping looked around and saw a lot of creatures standing on the streets, completely unmoving, as if they were scarecrows. It made for a rather creepy sight.

Su Ping was alarmed by what he saw; he slowed down and quietly approached them.

That was clearly a dangerous city, but it was also perfect for hunting Divine Cores.

Su Ping moved closer to the city wall; there he saw a couple of men in ragged armor. Most of them had been fatally wounded. Some had lost half of their heads, some had their spines exposed while others had large holes on their abdomens.

They would have been as dead as could be in the outside world.

Su Ping lay on the ground, then observed for a few minutes before he threw a stone to the other side of the wall.

Bang.

The stone cracked on the wall, making a huge noise.

The zombies seemed to have heard it since they shook. Still, they soon became immobile again when the noise faded away.

It seems that I can't gather them with noises. Makes sense. They would be as busy as bees whenever it rains if they did rely on noises…

Su Ping shook his head in amusement as he pictured it in his head.

All the zombies in the city will probably come at me when the battle begins if I simply charge at them. All of them are capable of flashing, which would be really scary.

Su Ping's eyes glittered. It wasn't difficult to finish off a zombie, but a swarm of them would be a major problem to him.

All of a sudden, he remembered the Little Skeleton.

Whoosh!

The Little Skeleton was instantly summoned.

It raised its head and looked at Su Ping in confusion.

Su Ping instantly sent it a thought, asking it to attract the weird zombies.

All of them were lifeless bodies, and the Little Skeleton was even a "dry corpse," all things considered; he wondered if the zombies would notice it.

Once realizing Su Ping's intent, the Little Skeleton turned its head—which almost fell off of its neck—as it looked at the zombies on the city wall.

The next moment, it flashed thousands of kilometers away, repeating the action a second time.

Soon, when it was only ten kilometers away, the Little Skeleton slowly released its aura near the city wall.

The zombies on the city wall noticed it just then, disappearing at the same time. They reappeared next to the Little Skeleton and bit it.

The Little Skeleton was clearly shocked too, and its bones were clattering. It flashed away and ran back to Su Ping.

The zombies flashed after the Little Skeleton, also reappearing every time the Little Skeleton did.

Su Ping—who had been hiding in a deeper space—unleashed his most powerful attack when they moved away. He planned to finish them off as quickly as possible, so that it wouldn't attract more zombies.

Bang!

Su Ping simply gathered a sword aura with laws and pierced a zombie's forehead.

However, the zombie seemed to have predicted the danger. It looked at Su Ping with a pair of completely white eyes. It then shattered the sword aura and waved its claws dauntingly.

The void was torn open, and its arm reached Su Ping in the blink of an eye, shattering the tertiary space.

Su Ping was really shocked, as the zombie was definitely terrifying. It had as much divine power as a Star Lord did!

Su Ping felt lucky that the zombie wasn't harnessing the power of faith, or he wouldn't be able to defend himself at all; he would have otherwise needed to use the purple bracelet given by his master so he could survive.

Those things are wild and brainless; they don't use any secret techniques. They're gods in the Star Lord State, ten times stronger than Star Lords who cultivate astral power!

Su Ping was determined to fight; he wondered if he was strong enough to suppress such a Star Lord zombie.

Whoosh!

The Inferno Dragon appeared, and soon merged with Su Ping. Then, the latter asked the Little Skeleton to keep the other zombies entertained while he simply charged at the one with Star Lord level.