Astral Pet Store (WN)

Soon, the spaceship arrived on Rhea.

"Huh?"

Mo Tianhua scanned the planet indifferently; he felt surprised, as his senses had been locked somewhere, as he sweeped everything with his senses.

The entire planet had been dismantled to the core. Nothing could be hidden.

All the residents on the planet were similarly visible.

No secrets could be hidden!

However… that one particular area was beyond his detection, like a black spot.

He chose not to investigate further, as he realized that it was probably a place where an Ascendant expert lived.

"I need to send you to the space station. Say goodbye to your friend, but leave the chatting for later, after you meet your master," Mo Tianhua said to Su Ping.

He would rather not let Su Ping alight on the spot, lest anything happened to him.

He wasn't afraid of being blamed by Lord Supreme; he merely thought it would be a great loss for humankind if such a talented kid were to die young.

"Sure."

Su Ping nodded.

The spaceship landed on Rhea, above Woffett's sky.

"Is this where your friend lives? The store over there looks mysterious," Su Jin'er asked Su Ping curiously.

The others had also noticed the store. After all, they could detect all the places in the nearby region of the universe, except for the store.

"This is a pet store. Is your friend a trainer? They must be among the best trainers in the Federation if it's an Ascendant!"

All the group was shocked after seeing the name of the store.

Trainers were not known for their own strength, but if they had such lofty cultivation, their training expertise would undoubtedly be the best!

It somehow made sense that a genius such as Su Ping would have the help of a top trainer!

Mo Tianhua's eyes glittered. A top trainer was very attractive, even to Ascendants, even an honorable guest to Celestials.

"This is my store." Su Ping smiled. He was eager to attract and impress his potential customers. "Feel free to visit if you want to train your pets. I can train Star State pets as well as the top trainers of the Federation can."

He was very confident.

He wasn't blindly confident in himself or the system. He had seen the geniuses' pets during the Universe Geniuses' Contest; all of them were all rare and powerful.

However, Su Ping had no doubt that they would have been even more powerful if he would have trained them!

Su Ping believed that those geniuses had surely sought the help of master trainers. Although he was unable to train pets whose levels were too high, he believed he was the best in his level!

"Your shop?"

Everyone was astonished by Su Ping's remark; they looked at him in shock.

A stunned Luo Ying asked, "You're also capable of training pets?"

"Yes."

Su Ping smiled. "Training pets is actually my forte."

"…"

Everybody was lost for words.

His main job is pet training?

What about fighting? Is it just for fun?

Everybody had weird looks, feeling that Su Ping was being snobbish.

Only an idiot would believe that the best fighting genius throughout the universe would truly be an expert trainer.

All of them thought that it was merely a hobby for him. He was just like some of the rich guys who claimed that they weren't interested in money.

"Why do you only use Fate State pets if you own a pet store?" asked Su Jin'er curiously.

Everybody was pondering along the same lines. Su Ping had not summoned any Star State pets in the contest, which was quite surprising. The others thought that he had other pets, but nobody was able to force his hand and make him use his truly powerful pets.

"I've been too busy with the competition to focus on training them. The battles would have been a lot easier had they been in the Star State."

Luo Ying was astonished. "You're already capable of training Star State pets?"

It required a lot of time to train Star State pets; even a simple training could be severely time-consuming.

Time was essential for people like him; none of them would spare a second if they could.

"More or less." Su Ping nodded. "So, feel free to pay a visit if you have pets you want to train."

"I will," someone in the group said courteously.

A girl emerged from the back of the store right then. Golden hair dangled from her shoulders like a waterfall; her figure was alluring, and her face was as flawless as a piece of artwork. She was none other than Joanna.

"You're finally back."

As for the Green Lady, she hid herself the moment she detected Ascendant State visitors.

After all, she could be lethally attractive to those of their level—

Eating her would allow any of them to rise to the Celestial State!

"Huh?"

Everybody was dazed by Joanna's appearance. Even the Ascendants who were protecting the geniuses had glittering eyes, amazed by what they saw.

She was exquisite.

"Amitabha, Amitabha…" Six Lives Buddha suddenly recited sutras, as if trying to keep his cool, but he couldn't stop gazing at Joanna.

Su Jin'er and Lilian were also amazed, even from their girl perspective. Su Jin'er in particular, felt satisfied with her recent, personally built reincarnation. However, the blonde girl was prettier than she could have ever imagined; she could not believe that any girl could be as extraordinary.

"Brother Su, who is she?" Luo Ying turned his head and looked at Su Ping.

Su Ping said, "Joanna, my employee and friend."

"Employee?"

Everybody was surprised. Was such a beautiful woman only a minor employee?

However, Su Ping seemed to be implying that she was mainly his friend, and was only working for him because it was a good reason to keep him company.

"She seems to be in the Fate State too, with a refined and magnificent divine power. She certainly is a genius too… Why didn't she participate in the competition?" asked Luo Ying curiously.

For obvious reasons, Su Ping couldn't tell them the truth. He simply said, "She wasn't interested."

"Huh? Not interested?"

Su Ping's excuse had stunned the others, who narrowed their eyes as they observed the girl. She had no interest in a contest where they competed fiercely. Wasn't that arrogance?

Joanna remained as indifferent as before while she stood by the entrance of the store. She glanced at Luo Ying and the others casually with her bright, golden eyes and said."I heard that you became the champion. Did you fight them?"

Su Ping nodded as he replied, "Thank you for watching over the store for me."

"You're welcome. The business has been thriving recently," said Joanna.

She knew what Su Ping truly cared about.

"Brother Su, can we visit your store?" Six Lives Buddha asked.

Their interest in Su Ping's store was high, since they had chosen to tag along. All of them were curious, wondering what the store of the best genius of the universe, who also called himself a trainer, was like.

"Of course," said Su Ping with a smile.

Mo Tianhua frowned a bit, but didn't move to stop them. He merely looked at Joanna thoughtfully. He had detected that the divine power within the girl wasn't just abundant; it seemed to have corrupted her body, turning her into something beyond human.

Everybody left the spaceship and entered Su Ping's store while people on the street watched them.

The Ascendant protectors behind them could only keep them company.

"Huh?"

Lilian suddenly turned her head and looked at one of the statues by the entrance.

There was a fat, purple-haired mouse at the bottom of the great art piece.

The Lightning Rat then opened its eyes and also saw Lilian.

It's so cute! thought Lilian. Thanks to the environment she had grown up in, she always favored strange pets, such as rats, snakes and insects, which most people would find unsavory. After all, such pets were usually ugly and disgusting.

Unfortunately, it's too weak and untalented.

Lilian examined it from a distance, immediately finding that the purple-haired rat didn't have an owner.

She looked at Su Ping and asked, "Hey, is that rat a pet from your store?"

Su Ping paused and nodded at her. "Yes. Why did you ask?"

"Can you sell it to me?" asked Lilian quickly.

Su Ping was stunned for a moment. It was the very first time anyone would propose to buy the Lightning Rat.

It had lingered close to the store entrance all this time. None of the customers had ever shown any interest, as it clearly didn't have an advanced bloodline.

He didn't expect that a top genius such as Lilian would show interest.

"Are you planning to take it as a pet? You still have an opening?" asked Su Ping.

Lilian smiled and said, "Of course I do. I have it handy in case I can sign a contract with an extremely rare pet if I ever encounter one. But I'm mainly buying this rat for fun; it's too weak to have it help me in battle."

For fun?

Slightly dazed, Su Ping shook his head and said, "The pets I sell can only be used in battle, they're not for fun. This rat is indeed weak right now, but I believe it will be able to catch up with you if it's well trained. It would even turn out to be stronger than you think."

Stunned for a moment, Lilian dropped her smile and said, "Never mind, then."

She did like the Lightning Rat, but she wasn't so crazy about it that she would give one of her few pet openings to a lowly rat.

Her eyes were keen enough to tell that the rat was merely in the Ocean State, no better than an ant in her eyes. None of the top trainers of the Federation would train it so that it would catch up with her. After all, she was a genius; few pets could grow as fast as her.

Su Ping chose not to speak further, seeing that she had abandoned the idea. He merely looked back at the Lightning Rat.

Everybody followed Su Ping and entered the store after that.

"There's a virtual arena." Someone said while observing the store's amenities. Some of the rooms were closed, but the rest of the place wasn't surprising; after all, they had seen a fair share of even more luxurious pet stores.

"That's a pet examination room? Don't you usually need an independent place for that? What if the pet blows this place up while testing skills?" asked someone in the group.

Before Su Ping answered, someone else had already stepped in. "Do you even need to ask? This place must be heavily protected. It wouldn't be destroyed that easily."

Tang Ruyan came from the back of the store while the little tour was in progress. She was awed by the visitors, especially the Ascendant State ones.

Joanna glanced at Mo Tianhua and remained as indifferent as usual, as if completely uninterested.

"Monk, care for another fight?" said Dragon Shepard to Six Lives Buddha in front of the virtual combat equipment.

Slightly dazed, the monk saw the equipment, then shook his head and replied, "You'll only fail again. My path of time and space would still work in the virtual world."

Dragon Shepard said coldly, "I simply want to find out if I can defeat you by sacrificing all my pets."

"What's the point?" Six Lives Buddha shook his head and said, "A real expert would not use such a method as a last resort. It's too wasteful, and is brutal for your pets!"

Dragon Shepard's face looked somewhat contorted. He was still regretting not having sacrificed all his pets during their last battle, especially after the trip to the Heavenly Star Pavilion. He thought he would have been victorious had he tried his best without caring about the cost.

That in itself would prove that he was worthy of fighting against Su Ping, and even get to defeat the latter!

He had never tried sacrificing all his pets. He had yet to learn his true limits.

The others glanced at Dragon Shepard, knowing that he had still not gotten over the failure, which was long overdue in their opinion.

Lilian looked at the equipment and said to Su Ping, "Should give it a try? It's a shame that we didn't get to fight each other."

Su Ping was momentarily dazed. He shook his head and said, "We can't use our full combat abilities in the virtual arena. Some of the special constitutions are not recorded in the equipment, which would make things unfair. Let's fight after we become Star Lords, or when we reach the Ascendant State."

Lilian frowned ever so slightly. Still, she knew that Su Ping had a point, so she didn't insist.

A person in the group then looked at Joanna and said, "You must be a reincarnation too, aren't you?"

Joanna—who had been standing quietly—looked at the young man who just asked, then replied indifferently, "Why? Can't I be one?"

"Of course you can. I was simply thinking that you would have made it to the top ten had you chosen to participate in the contest. Why abandon such an opportunity?" asked the young man curiously.

Most Ascendant State reincarnations had grasped perfect laws and would certainly have a good chance of rising to the top ten, let alone Joanna's abundant divine power and her seemingly strong abilities.

"Would have?" Joanna glanced at him and then the rest of the group, before she said, "Wouldn't it be seen as me abusing kids had I taken part?"