Astral Pet Store (WN)

Loulan Feng felt relieved. "I'll be waiting for your reply then, Mr. Su."

Suddenly, a voice came from the void. "Mr. Su."

A woman with an alluring body figure slowly walked out of the void. She wore a black dress that fluttered as if it were alive. It was obvious that it wasn't an ordinary piece of clothing; it had to be a treasure with divine power.

"I finally got to meet you, Mr. Su. I just heard that you have just returned from the Celestial Court and are about to travel once again. I wonder if you'd be interested in exploring the Space Tower of the Phil family," said the beautiful woman with a gentle tone.

Loulan Feng's expression changed slightly after seeing her. He said solemnly, "The Space Tower is no longer what it used to be, is it? All the beasts inside have been tamed. Not even the juniors of your own family can get anything by training there; there's no danger to be met while roaming around the place, so their potential remains dormant."

"You're wrong." The woman looked at Loulan Feng in the eye without flinching. "There are billions of beasts in the Space Tower. How can my family tame them all? We've only deployed some sentinels, to prevent our descendants from perishing. Besides, does Alisa Phil, born seven hundred years ago, mean nothing to the Loulan Feng family?"

Mr. Feng's expression changed slightly once again. Alisa was the most distinguished genius of the Phil family, the likes there hadn't been in the past thousand years, and she had already reached the Ascendant State!

She could become a Heavenly Lord someday!

"Mr. Su, the Phil family sincerely invites you to be a guest of our family. You don't need to do anything aside from accepting the title. You'll receive the privileges of a tier-1 guest!" declared the woman.

Loulan Feng's face turned cold after she said that.

Su Ping was slightly surprised. He didn't expect to be as popular. Those two seniors were Ascendants, yet they had traveled a long way to courteously extend an invitation.

Su Ping indirectly turned them down. "I need a few days to consider this."

Loulan Feng immediately said to Su Ping, "Mr. Su Ping, the Loulan family can give you anything the Phil family can. I will also have the material you need sent over immediately."

Su Ping nodded and waved at them. Then, he returned to the store.

Loulan Feng was relieved to see Su Ping accepting the materials. Even if the latter didn't accept his invitation in the end, he would still owe him a favor for the material.

According to his sources, the young man had made it to the Divine Lord Rank in only three years after winning the championship, and he was only a Star State warrior!

It was said that Lord Supreme had barred him from leaving the Celestial Court until he was capable of beating the warrior in tenth place of the Divine Lord Rank!

The fact that Su Ping was back was a telltale that he had already achieved it.

It was truly terrifying...

He wouldn't have gone there and acted obsequiously if Su Ping was merely the best Fate State cultivator of the universe. After all, being an Ascendant State expert himself, he had no need to appease anyone, except for the Celestials. However, his family had immediately sent him over after learning the news.

Reaching the top ten of the Divine Lord Rank while still being a Star State cultivator was even more appalling than becoming champion of the universe in his rank.

It was practically a given that Su Ping would become a Heavenly Lord the moment he reached the Ascendant State!

With any luck, there would be another Celestial State expert in the universe tens of thousands of years later!

The guy's massive potential was the reason why the Loulan family was willing to invest in him. Taking action while Su Ping was still weak would bring huge returns.

The nearby woman had a slight frown when Su Ping turned around and left. But then, she remembered the secrets she had found out and considered his dismissive attitude before Ascendants as understandable. After all, he would be much stronger than them once he reached the Ascendant State.

The Loulan family has one material he needs. I wonder if he'll be attracted to that, thought the woman. She had a sense of foreboding; the Space Tower didn't seem intriguing enough. After all, Su Ping had obtained a lot of resources from his master; the Space Tower wasn't a training place he would need!

Whoosh!

Two more Ascendants showed up when Su Ping returned to his store. Both were surprised to see Loulan Feng and the woman from the Phil family.

"It seems that a lot of people know that he's back," said the woman from the Phil family with a sneer.

Su Ping challenging the Divine Lord Rank was never publicized, too many people had been paying attention to him, given his renown due to winning the Universe Geniuses' Contest three years prior. Elder Yan didn't keep it a secret either; that was why many organizations had learned about the deal between Su Ping and Shen Huang.

Knowing this, all of them were shocked after seeing that Su Ping had returned from the Celestial Court.

Either Shen Huang had made an exception for him, or he had truly met the conditions!

The second possibility was much more likely to be the case'”

After all, Celestials would rarely go back on their word.

"It was fated; he would be able to go head to head against Star Lords while being in the Star State when he condensed a small world while still being in the Fate State. I just didn't expect that it would only take him three years to beat the geniuses on the Divine Lord Rank..." remarked a new visitor with mixed feelings.

He thought very highly of Su Ping. He had been appointed by his family to extend an invitation to Su Ping.

"Please report that the Myan family hopes to meet Mr. Su," said a slim old man to Yun Mu in a courteous manner.

Yun Mu shook her head and said, "Mr. Su just said to me telepathically that he will train in seclusion for a few days and won't meet anyone in the meantime."

She was quite shocked, having trouble finding more words besides her standard answer, as she wasn't expecting that many Ascendants to be paying Su Ping a visit. She knew that he was a top genius of all humankind, but hadn't yet grown to his full potential; too many human geniuses in history had died young.

"Train in seclusion?"

Slightly dazed, the old man said helplessly, "I've long heard that Mr. Su is a hardworking cultivator. I have now witnessed the fact."

Another brawny Ascendant expert smiled casually and simply waited for Su Ping, as a way to show his sincerity.

Those experts were hovering in midair; the people waiting in line were so astounded that they didn't even dare to breathe.

Even though the Ascendants were restraining their auras, their natural pressure still terrified them, making them feel that they had seen gods.

"The Loulan family? The Phil family? I heard that there's a Loulan family that has many Ascendant State experts and businesses in various star zones. Many popular games and shows are produced by them too. It's a rich and powerful family!" someone whispered in the crowd.

They were living in a space age. The Loulans were far from their reach, but people knew a thing or two about them from the Internet; the power the family showed on the surface was already shocking enough to them. Many scientists from the family were recurring figures in textbooks of a lot of planets.

Was the visitor related to that terrifying family?

At ground level'”both the young man in white and his uncle were terrified by the arrival of those experts. Uncle Wei in particular, trembled and mumbled, "They-They're all Ascendants!"

The young man next to him narrowed his eyes and asked in shock, "They're not Star Lords?"

"No, Star Lords do not exude such an aura..." said the brawny relative with a shaky voice.

The young man was dumbfounded.

...

Inside the store'”

Su Ping detected the auras of two more Ascendants after closing the door. He was certain about them coming with the purpose of extending an invitation too.

Joanna glanced at Su Ping and said, "You're quite popular right now."

Su Ping nodded. "A man as handsome as me is bound to become popular."

Joanna rolled her eyes, but Tang Ruyan said in a low voice, "How strong are they? I feel that they're as unapproachable as Sister Green."

"All of them are Ascendants," replied Su Ping.

Tang Ruyan was dazed by his response; her mouth was slightly open, too shocked to say anything.

She was no longer an ignorant kid. She was aware of the cultivation hierarchy in the Federation, and knew that the Ascendant State experts were at the very top of the pyramid!

Above them were the Celestials that governed the universe.

After seeing how shocked Tang Ruyan was, Su Ping teased her, "Work harder. You have a chance of rising to the Ascendant State too. No need to envy them."

Shiny-eyed, a hopeful Tang Ruyan asked, "Really?"

"Just work hard," said Su Ping with a smile.

Joanna saw Tang Ruyan's eyes full of yearning and excitement, so she added with indifference, "You can't get anything done with just hard work. Talent matters."

Tang Ruyan pursed her lips and said, "Are you implying that I'm not talented enough?"

"Was I too subtle?"

Tang Ruyan felt upset after such a blunt remark, but she quickly bounced back; it was evident that Su Ping was trying to comfort her. It was indeed true: not everything can be obtained with only hard work.

Su Ping dropped the subject. He merely asked them to get prepared for the trip to the Archean Divinity.

"Are you planning on having your original self do the trip?" Su Ping said to Joanna.

Joanna hesitated for a moment, but then shook her head. "No. My original self is somewhere else; it's not as easy for me to relocate. I'm also going to the Archean Divinity to train my reincarnation. I'll become a True God once I'm fully merged with my original self!"

"Original self? You have an original self?" Tang Ruyan exclaimed; this was new to her.

Green Lady said with a smile, "Every Ascendant can develop a reincarnation. It's not uncommon."

After recovering from the shock, Tang Ruyan pulled a long face and said, "So to speak, I'm the only weakling in this store who has no powerful background, at all?"

"Did you just realize this?"

The three others looked at her with surprise in their eyes.

Tang Ruyan: "..."

...

Once they went to get ready, Su Ping went and cleared his storage to also get prepared. He led the two girls to the lobby and summoned the training panel that they couldn't see.

The top planes were listed at the top.

There weren't many of them; Su Ping saw that the Archean Divinity was in the fifth spot.

Next to the title was the description of the cultivation site. It was a piece of land born in chaos, inhabited by gods, who flourished there and developed the place nonstop. It was home to all gods.

"Ticket fee: 9,000."

"Confirm your entrance."

"I confirm."

"Outstanding Employees detected. Do you wish to apply their earned privileges?"

"Yes."

A vortex-like black hole appeared soon after, enshrouding and absorbing Su Ping, Joanna and Tang Ruyan.

The nearby Green Lady watched this happen. She had always been curious about how Su Ping would take Joanna to the Archean Divinity; she didn't expect to see that they would directly teleport from the store.

"This store..."

Green Lady suddenly felt terrified. Such teleportation power was not something Su Ping could muster.

Su Ping didn't give her clearance to all rooms in the store, so there were some of them she still was unable to enter.

Their senses were suppressed in the store too, which indicated that a terrifying being was somewhere hidden inside the store.

...

Dry and warm sunlight was shining down.

Su Ping had a cozy and comfortable feeling. The only thing that made him feel slightly weird was that his body was dozens of times heavier. Fortunately, he was very strong and was soon able to overcome such difficulty.

Su Ping opened his eyes and saw a golden world before him.

The sky above was vast and cloudless. Nine brilliant suns were glowing in the sky. To Su Ping's astonishment, those nine suns seemed to be moving slowly!

They were moving at a visible speed!

However, they were moving in different directions. It was a back and forth displacement, as if they were alive!

Facing Su Ping was a magnificent mountain full of trees. There was even a temple there.

Joanna nearby said in a daze, "Is this... the Archean Divinity?"

The girl was soaking in all the things she could see, and tears were flowing out.

"Why are you crying?" Su Ping was dazed by her reaction.

Joanna wiped the corners of her eyes. She wasn't as indifferent as she was in Su Ping's store; her current self was being much more emotional. She shook her head and said, "I don't know. I just feel that this place looks familiar..."

Su Ping realized that she was just feeling weirdly nostalgic since she had returned home.

"The divine power in this place is very intense." Joanna looked around and gradually contained herself. She observed the environment carefully.. "This place does feel like the Archean Divinity. But... Why are there nine suns? I remember that six of the nine suns were destroyed in the war long ago..."