Astral Pet Store (WN)

Time flew.

The trial was coming to an end in the blink of an eye.

Su Ping had run into a couple of contestants from other star zones during the hunting. Some of them were attacked by zombies, but he didn't lend a hand; after all, he was in great danger too.

Some of them intended to rob Su Ping of his Divine Cores, but all of them were preemptively knocked out.

Just as Su Ping had expected, all those contestants were relocated when they were about to die, just like the eliminated players before.

I have 32,000 Divine Cores right now. I wonder what my ranking is… It shouldn't be a problem for me to make it to the top hundred, Su Ping thought. He had been hunting diligently and effectively; he didn't think he would get eliminated. With any luck, he could even make it to the top three.

I need to ask my master or Senior Brother You Long about that weird zombie and this place, Su Ping thought as he remembered the familiar zombie earlier.

He had never seen the zombie before, but its eyes gave him a strong sense of familiarity; he had certainly seen them before.

Soon, the trial was over.

Su Ping was fighting a zombie when he suddenly became light; then, he was shrouded in a magnificent force and relocated from the deeper space. He found himself back in the Chaos Grass when he reappeared.

Su Ping looked around, finding that there were much fewer people around him, only a couple of familiar faces remained.

Su Jin'er was relatively close to him. She glanced at him; there was dust on her pretty face. She smiled when they made eye contact.

Aside from her, the young man enslaved by Su Ping earlier—who had golden wheels in his eyes—had passed the trial too.

Su Ping also saw Linghu Jian, the Sword God's disciple.

Dragon Emperor and the Thousand Leaves Holy Lady were both gone. Claesabe, Ibetaluna, and the others whom Su Ping had protected had also been eliminated.

Su Ping felt sorry for them, but he knew that they could have hardly survived in those ruins.

Even someone as strong as him could have been knocked out in advance if by a stroke of bad luck he would have caught the attention of an Ascendant State zombie.

"There are altogether 294 survivors!"

A majestic Ascendant State cultivator flew over and looked down at him with the gravitas of a god. "You've met the requirement of ensuring your own survival. Now, we'll count your Divine Cores and rank you accordingly. The top hundred may participate in the next round.

"Every Star Lord's Divine Core equals five normal ones.

"Now, please present your Divine Cores to make the proper calculations."

Only 300 of the 1,200 contestants from the twelve star zones remained.

Everybody took out their Divine Cores after the Ascendant's announcement. Some carried several hundred, while others presented thousands of them.

As he was presenting his Divine Cores, Su Ping checked the other people's results; he felt greatly relieved when he found that most people had no more than a thousand Divine Cores.

It was actually quite understandable.

After all, it wasn't an easy task to hunt a thousand Star State zombies in only a few days.

Soon, many Star Lords descended and tallied the Divine Cores in front of them.

The counting was done at a very quick speed, simply scanning the Divine Cores with their minds and immediately deducing their number.

Those Star Lords wrote down the results.

Those around Su Ping exclaimed when he presented his Divine Cores, a veritable mountain of them. Even the geniuses nearby who had looted a thousand Divine Cores were wide-eyed, thinking they had collected enough to reach the top hundred, if not the top ten.

However, they had underestimated the real geniuses!

Apart from Su Ping, a few others had taken out a tremendous number of Divine Cores too.

The Divine Cores piled up in front of Su Jin'er were as high as her own height; there were ten thousand of them. However, she was stunned by Su Ping's Divine Core loot and could only smile bitterly. She never expected that she would be dwarfed by him in the end; it would be embarrassing if her real identity was exposed.

"Humph!"

A young man in bloody clothes—who had a mountain of Divine Cores in front of him—gave everyone an aggressive gaze. His expression changed to a colder one the moment he noticed that several others had almost as many Divine Cores as he did.

He thought he was unique, but it turned out that he wasn't!

Soon enough, all the Divine Cores were calculated.

"Luo Ying, of the Black Eye Star Zone, ranks first!

"He has 43,292 Divine Cores!

"Su Ping, of the Golden Star Zone, ranks second. 39,201 Divine Cores!

"Steven Relo, of the Sword Tide Star Zone, ranks third. 39,200 Divine Cores!

"Dragon Shepard, of the Heavenly Dragon Star Zone, ranks fourth. 31,382 Divine Cores!

"Fifth place goes to…"

The Ascendant State cultivator announced the top ten, while projecting the rankings of the rest with a holograph.

Everybody started looking for their names. Some would simply look at the hundredth place at the bottom; they became desperate when they saw that he had collected 8,209 Divine Cores.

They knew their own Divine Core harvest; they had already been eliminated.

I've failed to advance…

Linghu Jian felt bitter when he saw the number of Divine Cores of the hundredth position. He had only collected two thousand Divine Cores, which wasn't nearly enough.

Is this what the top geniuses of the universe are capable of?

Ever since he was born, he had been ahead of his peers, becoming the most brilliant star on his planet and his galaxy. However, he couldn't even make it to the top hundred in the vast scope of the universe.

It wasn't hard to imagine what kind of monsters had made it to the top hundred.

Second place?

Su Ping was slightly surprised by the ranking, but he soon accepted it; it was similar to what he had anticipated. He was among the top five, and fairly close to the very best.

The man collected four thousand Divine Cores more… Quite the fast hunter. Su Ping's eyes glittered. He hadn't wasted any time hunting, and his method was quite effective too. He had tried his best, even making use of the Sorcerer's Divine Constitution.

And yet, his loot still fell short by four thousand when compared to the other guy.

I was only short by one?

On another part of the crowd—a young man with a chiseled face was stunned. It was a rather amazing situation, to only be one Divine Core behind the second place.

He could not help but look at Su Ping in the crowd and observe.

Su Ping, on the other hand, was observing Luo Ying, the overall winner. He was a slim young man in black clothes; there were vague scales emitting purple light on his exposed skin.

Luo Ying was also observing the high rankers. He looked back at Su Ping when he noticed the latter's gaze. They stared at each other, neither taking their eyes away.

Luo Ying suddenly put on a smile and his eyes looked strange, implying that he was waiting for Su Ping's challenge.

Su Ping smiled, then turned to observe others.

Even if Luo Ying was the only one ranking above him, it was unadvisable to underestimate the others. After all, other players hiding their real prowess was a possibility, while some could be better at fighting than hunting.

"The top ten will be given an opportunity to visit the Soul Sea.

"You will stay there for ten minutes.

"The top tree will stay for thirty minutes.

"The champion will stay for an hour.

"The rest of you, take a good rest here and prepare for the contest two days later. By the way, the Celestial State experts have made a decision regarding the new content for the next stage of the contest. The battle to be held in two days will be extra cruel; I hope you prepare yourselves well, because you might really perish!" said the Ascendant expert casually.

Everybody's hearts became heavy when they heard that.

They knew it wasn't a threat to increase their vigilance. Death was a clear possibility.

What is the Soul Sea? Su Ping was feeling curious. The champion was given twice as much time to stay there when compared to the ones in second and third place, while the rest of the top ten could only stay there for ten minutes. It was obvious that the Soul Sea was precious.

"You ten, come with me."

Right after giving the announcement, the Ascendant expert waved his hand and took Su Ping and the other top ten to a vast temple.

There were two Ascendant experts at the gate, seemingly appointed as guards.

A vague yet overwhelming sacred air was radiating from the palace; it became evident that a Celestial State expert was inside.

The Ascendant State cultivator bowed and said, "My lords, I've brought them here. I'm now taking them to the Soul Sea."

"Okay, let's go," said an indifferent voice coming from within the temple. It belonged to Mu Shen, who had addressed the audience earlier on.

"The Soul Sea is the central area of the Divine Sea Mysterious Realm; it's a special place where you can absorb magnificent divine power. There are also a lot of thoughts and ancient whispers left there. You must stay focused on cultivation, as you may find an opportunity to reach the Ascendant State." Shen Huang's voice echoed in Su Ping's head.

Su Ping was stunned by the message; he then nodded at the palace.

The Ascendant cultivator then returned and flashed with Su Ping and the others in tow, who then found themselves in a golden world; vague red shadows were flowing inside.

"Get inside; I'll bring you back when the time is up. All you need to do is cultivate wholeheartedly while you're there. This is a rare opportunity." The Ascendant State cultivator looked at the top ten contestants and put on a smile.

Although they hadn't fully grown up yet, they were geniuses that would clearly become Ascendants in the future, the best in their level, with the possibility to be distinguished as Heavenly Lords. That was why their Ascendant chaperon wasn't acting arrogantly when he addressed them. Those kids could grow up quickly.

All the others seemed to know what the Soul Sea was about; their eyes glittered.

The next moment, everybody flew inside to seize the day.

Su Ping felt as if he were in the middle of an ocean of divine power the moment he entered the place; it seemed to be even denser than Joanna's lake of divine power. Apart from divine power, he also detected great paths that flowed around him like tangible ribbons.

Paths…

There are more sophisticated things above the paths.

Is that the feeling that the Ascendant State experts pursue?

Su Ping felt like his mind was touching what seemed to be dust, but inside the dust was a vast universe. He was shocked, then he had an epiphany: laws could be developed to become paths, and paths would turn into worlds. So, what could worlds then become?

Why did he have to understand the truth?

Gods…

Invisible, but omnipresent… That's what gods are!

Su Ping felt that his mind was blank, as if in the process of being polished. The unimaginable beings he had seen in cultivation sites were surfacing in his heart again, with even more detail, allowing him to see them with more clarity. He was even more awed and shocked by their existence.

"I feel so lonely…"

"I'm dead. You should come to the other world with me!"

"Gu Zhantian, what are you doing? Are you planning to slay the heavens on your own?"

All of a sudden, voices invaded Su Ping's head; some were cries, some were sobbing, and others were furious roars.

Su Ping was in a trance; he saw a man in white holding a marvelous void in a fragmented space. The man turned around, with everlasting determination in his eyes, then said, "What I'm about to slay are the heavenly paths, so that those things won't be able to arrive!"

"You can't go!" someone roared, but the man in white became even more daunting and brilliant.

"I have to!"

He was drowned in the fragmented space, and even more cries moved closer.

Suddenly, a voice resounded. "Time is up."

Su Ping felt that his body was light. Then, all the voices were gone. He found himself standing in the place he originally was when he opened his eyes, outside of the golden world.

Luo Ying was the only one left inside the golden world at the moment.

The other contestants had been taken out earlier; some of them had closed their eyes, as if still in contemplation, and others seemed to be wallowing in misery.

"The ideas and thoughts in there are too mixed. There are a lot of disturbances."

"It affected my understanding of the Ascendant State. Damn it!"

"I heard that it's a special ninth space, and a forbidden land at that. Even people like us were given the opportunity to enter that place, all thanks to some special reasons."

Su Ping was really surprised.

The ninth space was a very deep space.

He didn't know how many layers the universe had; however, he was only capable of tearing into the fifth space at the moment. He would often run into many horrifying void creatures that were mostly in the Star Lord State when he ventured into the sixth space!

Even Star Lords could be caught in dangerous situations when to that depth.

As for the seventh space, Su Ping didn't even dare to imagine.

He had not realized until then that he had been inside the ninth space!

He would have been instantly killed if he entered in the ninth space with his own capabilities.

The images I saw, were they legacies left in the ninth space? They must have happened in ancient times. The man who swore to slay the paths of heaven was surely an unparalleled hero back then, Su Ping thought.