Astral Pet Store (WN)

Inside a plaza, in the city with virtual arenas.

Elder Yan quickly set up the equipment for Su Ping and set up an appointment for him. He was to challenge the 90th place on the Divine Lord Rank.

Su Ping grabbed and wore the equipment with practiced familiarity. After listening to pleasant sounding notifications, he entered the virtual battlefield.

His opponent appeared in front of him soon after.

There was a brief period of preparation, and then both parties attacked at the same time.

Su Ping didn't hesitate at all. He simply summoned the Little Skeleton and the Inferno Dragon to merge with them. Hardly had he fused with them when he sensed an unprecedented and horrifying power rising inside him.

Die!

Laws were gathered and condensed in the bone sword, with the power of faith lining its edge. Su Ping spouted Golden Crow's flames, producing a hole on his opponent's small world. He then activated the path of time and froze the flow of time around him!

Su Ping wasn't strong enough to freeze a Star Lord in the past.

After all, a Star Lord was able to strongly interfere with time and space. It was barely possible for him to freeze them while being a Star State warrior.

However, Su Ping was able to freeze his opponent for a moment after his dual merging with his pets!

A moment being frozen was already fatal enough.

Bang!

His sword aura stormed out, cutting apart his opponent's golden small world and destroying his body!

Whoosh!

The world flashed, and Su Ping found himself back at the plaza.

Elder Yan was shocked to see Su Ping exit that quickly. He asked, "You...

"You... defeated him?

"..."

Elder Yan couldn't add more words, nor close his mouth.

He knew that Su Ping was a lot stronger this time. After all, the latter's pets had risen to the Star State.

However, he didn't expect that the battle would end in only one minute.

He was unable to see the battle, but he could imagine how much of a one-sided slaughter it had been!

"Elder Yan, please make another appointment for me," said Su Ping.

Elder Yan snapped out of his stupor, yet he remained troubled. He didn't forget that the kid had just risen to the Star State, and that the gap between the Star State and the Star Lord State was massive, as one could gauge from the future selves Six Lives Buddha had summoned in the recent competition. Even a genius of that stature was unable to fight Star Lords unless he broke through to the Star State, let alone defeating them.

And yet, Su Ping had defeated a genius among Star Lords!

Those rankers were usually geniuses able to defeat opponents above their own level!

However, the higher the level, the bigger the gap in power. It was barely possible to defeat opponents above one's level while in the Star State. Su Ping was just an exception.

Still, such an exception was becoming increasingly horrifying.

"Which one do you want to challenge?" asked Elder Yan. He was getting excited. He hadn't felt like that in many years.

"The 80th," said Su Ping, after thinking for a moment.

Elder Yan smiled bitterly. He knew that Su Ping wouldn't challenge every single ranker, as every genius was there for a reason. He didn't turn Su Ping down; after all, even if he failed the challenge, nothing would be lost except some money. It could simply be considered that as the sparring partner fee.

The appointment was made soon after.

Su Ping wore the virtual equipment once again and entered the virtual battlefield.

...

While Su Ping challenged the Divine Lord Rank'”

Shen Huang'”clad in a brilliant, golden robe and ensconced in his majestic throne'”was before a group of thirty men, all Ascendant experts!

The eight men in the first row were top Ascendant experts. They were Heavenly Lords!

The brawny man standing in the middle of the first row frowned and asked, "Master, are we really in such an emergency?"

He was almost six meters tall, which made him almost a giant. It was his special Divine Tank Constitution, one of the nine divine constitutions of the Universe!

Being Shen Huang's third disciple, he had entered the Ascendant State hundreds of thousands of years before, immediately defeating eight Ascendant State opponents afterwards, earning his name as a Heaven Master!

He had gone through countless battles since then, even trying his hand against Celestials. His skills and abilities allowed him to emerge unscathed even after such high profile experts!

That is, unless several Celestials ganged up on him. But that was a nigh impossible scenario.

"Yes. The universe has just had another fetal movement. Cracks are appearing all over the void. Things that shouldn't exist are appearing again; you need to suppress them."

Shen Huang spoke with a calm, yet intimidating tone.

"Are they the remains from the deeper spaces?" asked someone. If Su Ping were present, he would've recognized the speaker, his senior brother You Long.

Shen Huang shook his head and said, "No. The things they fought against."

All the experts present narrowed their eyes after such a revelation.

They knew how horrifying the remains were, as they couldn't be worn out by time. The things they had fought against had appeared before, causing disasters with every manifestation!

"The Sages have speculated that our universe is bearing too many things. Right now, I'm planning to remove part of the timeline in our universe and erase certain things for good with the help of the other Celestials!" Coldness glittered in Shen Huang's eyes. "My original self is currently deep inside the universe. You can only take care of the cracks on your own."

"Master, don't worry. We're on it."

"The Golden Star Zone will be safe. We will defend it!"

Everybody made similar declarations.

The Golden Star Zone was Shen Huang's territory; his disciples had the responsibility to defend it. No one objected.

"Be careful. I don't want any of you to come to harm," said Shen Huang solemnly.

He had more than sixty disciples at the beginning, but only forty of them remained. Some of them were currently trapped in other places or on missions, and were thus unable to attend.

"Master, don't worry!"

Everybody smiled; they knew it was a dangerous task, but nobody flinched.

Having no more to say, Shen Huang asked everyone to retreat.

"It seems that the universe hasn't been very peaceful as of late."

Once they left the palace, several men walked together, while You Long sighed as he walked at the center. "I hope that the Age of Darkness from 300,000 years ago won't happen again. It would be a catastrophe!"

"Master said that the universe will merge before long. All kinds of disasters are bound to occur. We'll be able to protect ourselves if we can become Heavenly Lords like Brother You," said a plump young man after heaving a sigh.

You Long gave a slight head shake. "Heavenly Lords aren't invincible. They also die in real cataclysms. You must be very careful while on mission. I heard that a lot of already extinct ferocious animals flew out of relics in one of the galaxies.. Fourth Senior Sister went there to suppress them, and she came back nursing heavy wounds."