Astral Pet Store (WN)

"You've seen a lot of incomplete paths in the Divine Sea Mysterious Realm, but don't hold on to them. You will never reach the Ascendant State by emulating others. You must condense your own Divine Mark!" Elder Yan warned him again.

He had seen a lot of geniuses who worked on ancient paths, only to end up becoming too fascinated to free themselves. They could not discard what they had already learned by the time they wanted to create their own path.

"Yes."

Su Ping nodded.

Elder Yan's introduction made him realize that the paths of normal Ascendants were different from the eternal paths. However, it was really difficult to create an eternal path, which would lay cornerstones on the universe and spread to all living things.

Su Ping gave it some thought and found it impossible. The universe was already laden with eternal paths. He was unable to come up with a path comparable to fire, light, darkness, time, life, and the rest.

Elder Yan glanced at Su Ping and asked, "You've just absorbed the Immortal Phoenix's blood. How do you feel?"

"My body is a lot stronger, and my laws of fire are already perfect. I think I'm understanding their path."

Elder Yan was stunned for a moment. He sighed and said, "That is both a good and a bad thing. Having an overly deep understanding of the original paths before you create your own will make things much more difficult for you. Even if you grasp the path of fire, you cannot condense a Divine Mark with it."

"I understand."

Su Ping nodded.

Ascendants were able to copy other people's paths, but their imitations would be a lot less powerful than their own paths.

Furthermore, it would require a lot of time and effort to imitate others. Some of the original paths that prevailed till recent days were ready to be grasped by anyone, but nobody could integrate them with their Divine Marks, or bring out the paths' real power!

"Now that you've completed the first ring, let's continue with the second ring, which will expand your astral ocean and increase your power. The amount of improvement will depend on your potential," said Elder Yan.

Su Ping nodded.

"This is the Astral Soul Pill!"

Elder Yan took out a purple box and continued, "It's made of materials from thirty-six rare Star Lord dragons, which are endangered animals in the Federation these days. Their population is declining despite the care of top trainers. Such pills might not be available a few decades from now."

Su Ping was stunned for a moment. The pill's precious value was more than evident.

Su Ping had already detected a scorching power even before opening the purple box; it seemed to be about to break out.

"The easiest way to absorb the pill is with the help of the three-star Abyssal Ocean Astral Array. Take some rest first; let's wait until you're in your best condition," said Elder Yan.

Su Ping nodded and sat down in the training room. He examined his body and became familiar with it after the refinement's results.

The absorption of the Immortal Phoenix's blood had improved his body to a significant degree. His Solar Bulwark had yet to reach the fifth level, but the Golden Crow's power in his body was evidently a lot stronger, and his body became as sturdy as that of a peak Star Lord!

Su Ping realized that he could fight against the Star Lord who was ranked 75th with nothing but his physical strength!

Soon, the aura of the Immortal Phoenix that pervaded the training room was completely absorbed and consolidated within Su Ping's body.

Elder Yan had already set up the astral array for Su Ping. It rose inside the training room, invoking a streak of astral runes that hovered around Su Ping like a swirling dragon.

The elder pointed his finger at the box, and the most dazzling light instantly burst out. The light was too strong for anyone to figure out what the item actually was.

"Open your mouth."

Elder Yan sent the Astral Soul Pill into Su Ping's mouth. Su Ping felt as if he were holding a snowball in his mouth, which was thawing at a fast pace. The warm fluid began to spread along his veins, soon warming up his entire body.

Su Ping felt that astral power was surging in his veins. It soon permeated the veins and entered his internal organs.

Roar!

Su Ping suddenly heard regretful and angry roars inside his head. They expressed pain and intimidation. Anyone with a weak heart would have passed out in fear after taking the pill, and it would be useless for them.

The astral power around Su Ping suddenly reacted when the roars echoed. The dragon made of astral runes swooped down and wrapped itself around Su Ping. The astral runes stuck to Su Ping; they entered his body, echoing with his own astral power and suppressing the scorching astral power of the pill, deep into his elixir field.

In a place near his astral ocean—another astral ocean of the dragon soul was taking shape.

That astral ocean seemed to be quite spacious, which contained dragon power. It was sending out an attraction force. Su Ping had an epiphany, and immediately injected his astral power into the ocean.

Soon, the space expanded at a visible speed. The astral ocean gradually turned from deep blue to a brighter blue, almost becoming transparent in the end.

Su Ping knew that the new astral ocean had currently been expanded to its limits; it would explode with the slightest addition of astral power.

The Astral Soul Pill can create a second astral ocean inside one's body. Even an ordinary battle pet warrior would turn into a genius if they took it. After all, it can double their astral power!

Su Ping was definitely delighted. Even though the new astral ocean didn't accommodate as much astral power as his own body did, there was still a 50% increase of his reserves!

The reason for this was that Su Ping's own astral ocean was storing only half of his total astral power.

The other half was evenly distributed in his countless cells.

A long while later—

Su Ping gradually stabilized the new astral ocean and tightly combined it with his body. His astral power flowed between the two oceans smoothly.

Outside—the astral array had already disappeared, and the training room was back to normal. Elder Yan looked at Su Ping with glittering eyes. He didn't examine Su Ping with his ability, choosing only to ask politely, "How was it?"

Su Ping opened his eyes and replied, "I've already absorbed it."

"You've established a second astral ocean? Attack me with the astral power reserved in it," said Elder Yan with a smile.

Su Ping nodded. Knowing that he was too weak to hurt him, he summoned the power in the second astral ocean and pushed it towards Elder Yan using his arms.

There seemed to be an invisible obstacle in front of Elder Yan, blocking the power. He stood still, but he showed astonishment as he watched the astral power becoming increasingly denser. "Are you sure you only used the astral power in your second astral ocean?"

"Yes." Su Ping nodded.

All glittery-eyed, Elder Yan nodded. "Continue. Try your best!"

"Sure."

Su Ping released all the power in the second astral ocean, which almost drowned the training room. There was so much astral power in the room that the air became sticky.

Su Ping didn't relax his arms until he ran out of power. Then, all the power gradually returned to his body.

"You have as much astral power as forty advanced Star Lords do!" Elder Yan was shocked by the Astral Soul Pill's effect, having created such a massive astral ocean. It was absolutely worth it!

Su Ping examined himself. It was just as what Elder Yan had speculated.

Back when he was a Fate State warrior, he had already been capable of storing as much astral power as five Star State cultivators did. Now that he was a Star State warrior himself, he had even more power, and the pill brought him a 50% improvement. It was tantamount to a major breakthrough!

"Looks like it's going to be really easy for you to make it to the top fifty of the Divine Lord Rank after you're done with the training sessions," remarked Elder Yan. Su Ping's training was surprisingly effective. It was also an indicator that Su Ping had not eaten a lot of rare materials in the past; that was why his body had shown no resistance to any of them.

The improvement of the Astral Soul Pill and the blood of the Immortal Phoenix would have been less effective if he would have binged on materials in the past.

"Maybe." Su Ping was quite hopeful too.

He had noticed his soaring combat ability after the first rings were completed. His master had surely worked hard on the program.

Elder Yan nodded and said, "You've absorbed enough today. Rest for a few days; we'll go through one ring per week!"

"Sure."

Su Ping nodded.

Su Ping continued training after Elder Yan left, since he was intent on adapting himself to his new bodily conditions.

I think I can condense the third Astral Painting with the amount of astral power I have, Su Ping thought.

He immediately gathered his astral power and illuminated his cells. There had to be enough astral power inside the cells to transform them from biological cells to pure astral cells, or the stars described in the technique!

Then, the stars would have to be connected to make an Astral Painting in order to generate a special force field!

His star-gathering speed was evidently becoming much faster as the astral power flooded in Su Ping.

Time moved on.

A month passed in the blink of an eye.

Su Ping continued the training for the remaining fourth rings, namely willpower, secret techniques, laws, and faith!

Su Ping had an unparalleled willpower to begin with, so his improvement wasn't as obvious. In regards to the secret technique training, Elder Yan had taught him a sword technique named Thousand Rain!

There were altogether three moves in the technique.

Thanks to Elder Yan's interpretation, it only took Su Ping a week to grasp the first move; he soon began to get the hang of it.

The first move was already as powerful as the fourth move of Su Ping's own creation, Path of the Divine Sword, and was only second to Heavenly Fall, his ultimate skill!

According to Elder Yan, he would be able to easily annihilate Star Lords when he grasped the second move, which was more complex; it involved laws and the power of faith. The third move was similarly intricate.

The law that was taught in the fifth ring was rather surprising to Su Ping. The law taught was Vitality, one of the four supreme laws!

The mysterious supreme law was taught to him, just like that. He didn't see it coming, at all.

"While the four supreme laws are rare, they aren't as precious for Ascendants. Everybody is focused on creating their own paths. While supreme laws are powerful, they're just laws, which are not that important to Ascendant cultivators."

Elder Yan continued to expound, "However, ordinary Ascendants aren't able to fully grasp the four supreme laws. But Celestials are different; laws are just like building blocks to them."

Su Ping knew that the law of vitality wasn't a big deal to Ascendants, but it was very significant by anyone below their level. Six Lives Buddha—who mastered the path of time and space—could easily beat anyone in his level, which showed the influence of the four supreme laws.

Elder Yan's teachings helped Su Ping to gradually learn the law of vitality. His small world was further hardened and broadened thanks to this new law.

The last thing was the power of faith.

It was a simple gift.

A tremendous amount of power of faith surged into Su Ping's world. According to Elder Yan, it was Lord Supreme's special gift for Su Ping.

"Can the power of faith be given away?"

Su Ping was shocked and puzzled.

"Usually, no, but it's not a big deal for Celestials," said Elder Yan with a smile, "The power of faith doesn't come from Master's believers, but from lives he created. They're worshiping you!"

"Lives he created?"

Su Ping was surprised.

Elder Yan chuckled. "Of course. That's their special ability. Why else do you think they're called True Gods? They have all the abilities you hear in the myths. They can easily create lives from nothingness. As for the power of faith you need, they only need to create a batch of creatures and have them worship you, so that you can reap faith power from them."

Su Ping was truly astonished. Could they really do that?

If they could create lives that easily, they could almost be called Creators!

"So to speak, I have a batch of believers at my master's place? Are they different from us?" Su Ping couldn't help but ask.

Elder Yan shook his head and said, "Basically, no. The only difference is that the lives Celestials create hardly become geniuses. Even if they create with the power of laws, the lives they produce would only have a limited potential. The best they can achieve is beings with Star Lord State potential. It's a long shot for them to reach the Ascendant State!

"You wouldn't understand the reason even if I explained it to you. As for your believers, don't bother thinking about it. They were only created to provide faith power for you. They will eventually die of old age, or end up as food for the ferocious creatures in Master's world, or dispersed as original energy."