Astral Pet Store (WN)

Joanna and Tang Ruyan were obviously disconcerted by what Su Ping meant when he said "let's find out." Su Ping opened his eyes, to find himself standing on a branch.

He immediately rose to the sky and saw a vast, boundless forest around him.

Should I change my location again?

Su Ping raised his eyebrows. The Archean Divinity was extremely big, as could be inferred from the Demigod Burial, which was merely a fragment of the realm and was home to a hundred species. It wasn't hard to imagine that the Archean Divinity wasn't smaller than the actual universe.

It would actually be faster to travel by killing himself and being reborn in a random location.

Su Ping pondered over his next course of action, but then he raised his eyebrows. He stood still and raised a hand, when a streak of red light "penetrated" his body.

He emerged unscathed after that flash of light; there were no traces of blood on his body. The light was about to hit his back, but he reached out and grabbed it.

The light was not a weapon; it was a stream of condensed divine power.

Even though divine power was intangible, it was confined in Su Ping's hand. He had made use of the laws of time and space a moment earlier, to appear elsewhere. Dodging the attack was within his abilities, although he seemed to be standing still.

He raised his head a bit and looked in a certain direction.

There were four men standing on one of the trees in the forest. All of them noticed his reaction.

"He sees us," said a handsome young man who had golden hair and purple eyes.

"He's indeed something. No wonder he dared to be airborne without worrying that he would be collectively attacked."

"Did you see? He just used laws of time and space. They're supreme laws; he must be a top genius among human beings!"

The other three had similarly grave expressions. No one who took part in the trial was easy to deal with. And yet, the guy was exposing himself in such a grand manner. He was either too confident or a downright idiot. It was obvious that his case was the former.

A young man with fiery tattoos on his forehead said indifferently, "Let's see if he's going to fight back. We'll just fight him if he does."

He was obviously the leader of the team. He stood at the center, and all the others stood on either side of him.

"He's only a genius by human standards. For gods, understanding the laws of time and space isn't as remarkable," whispered the golden-haired young man.

The other two present weren't gods, but they came from high-ranked species. That was why they were qualified to take the trial along with the two proud gods.

While they observed him, Su Ping realized that the four people who had ambushed him neither fled nor continued their attacks. He brought Joanna and Tang Ruyan out from his small world and roared, "Follow me! Our dummies are here!"

Joanna and Tang Ruyan were stunned for a moment after noticing the strange environment, but they soon adapted themselves to it. Joanna immediately detected the four guys who were lurking in the woods after Su Ping pointed them out. She was slightly surprised, as she didn't expect to run into two middle-ranked gods and two members of the gods' vassal races at the same time.

However, she was from a middle-ranked clan too. Without any hesitation, she gathered a golden spear in her hand, ready to vent the fury that she had accumulated when they encountered the Rain Clan.

Respect and fear over godly ranking had prevented her from standing up against the Rain Clan, but she wasn't scared of the middle-ranked gods.

On the other side—Tang Ruyan also detected the four guys in the woods as she followed Su Ping and Joanna. She wasn't scared at all, as she couldn't be truly killed anyway. She would try her hardest to kill them if Su Ping wanted her to do so.

"Was there a god hidden in his small world?"

"That god carries the air of the middle-ranked Original Ladies clan."

"For a middle-ranked god to actually hide in a human's small world. Was she suppressed by the human being, or did she do it to ambush us?"

All of them became solemn; after all, they couldn't snub a middle-ranked god. They instantly attacked with full strength.

"Four Star Lords…" Su Ping detected their strength as they approached. His eyes were then filled with brutality; he unleashed all the fury he had repressed back in the Rain Clan.

He revealed his small world and released his power of faith. Then, he drew the sword and burst out again with the new tricks he had grasped in their recent fight with the gods.

Seventy percent of his strength!

It was the maximum strength he could muster at the moment. The violent astral power paused the energy in the world for a moment. This time, he chose the first move of Thousand Train, which had a more piercing nature.

An infinite, dazzling sword aura penetrated through space and time like a raindrop.

"Damn it, what kind of power is that?"

Facing him—the four guys were shocked by Su Ping's daunting attack; even their leader narrowed his eyes in fear.

He felt that Su Ping was only a Star State warrior, but that was clearly just a disguise. It was well known that all the participants in the trial were at least Star Lords!

However, even if the human had the same realm as them, the power he had unleashed still left him in awe!

One had to remember that all gods absorbed divine power!

Divine power was a great and honorable kind of energy. As a matter of fact, divine power was ten times as effective as astral power!

This meant that a god with the same cultivation as a human being would be ten times stronger, not to mention that the brilliant gods in the past had created countless secret techniques for their juniors, which was why gods were superior to other races.

However, the power that Su Ping had just unleashed seemed unstoppable to them.

Run!

It all happened too fast. Almost instinctively, the young man who had fiery tattoos on his forehead dodged Su Ping's sword. Still, right when he flashed with his ultimate technique, the sword jumped at him again.

A crack echoed from inside his armor. Then, a brilliant shield appeared in front of him, only to be shattered the next moment.

Another illusion appeared and reached for the sword once the shield was broken.

Bang!!

The sword aura collapsed, shattered by the illusion!

But the next moment, the illusion gradually faded away.

The young man with fiery tattoos was frightened. Both his lifesaving trump cards had been activated by Su Ping's attack!

The second trump card in particular, was a bit of soul power that a Major God of his clan had given him!

Such a defense was enough to resist a regular attack of a Major God!

Even though it had easily spared him from Su Ping's attacks, the trump card was now gone.

"Hurry! He's weakening! That attack had to be his ultimate technique. He surely had to pay a high price to use it!" roared the god with golden hair and purple eyes. He too was a genius of his clan, and saw Su Ping's weakness. He roared again and charged at him.

"Get lost!"

It was exactly then when a snort was spread out, and a glamorous woman flashed in front of Su Ping. Following that, an unstoppable spear came slashing down like a lightning bolt, forcing the golden-haired god to retreat; he felt that he would be heavily wounded if he didn't.

The latter looked at the girl from the Original Ladies Clan and said grimly, "I heard that the Original Ladies used to be the Titans' servants, and were actually carriers of their bloodline. Let's see how strong you are!"

"You're not worthy!"

Joanna turned back into the proud Goddess of War. She looked down at the god facing her, with increasing brilliance surrounding her body. "I'm too weak to beat you right now, so let me make a breakthrough first!"

A dazzling surge of divine light burst out of her body once she said that, turning the forest golden.

Her aura was rising continuously, like a flood that had just collapsed the dam. A magnificent power was instantly spreading out.

In the blink of an eye, Joanna made a breakthrough from the Star State to the Star Lord State!

The weird thing was, there was no Heavenly Tribulation in the sky above.

Once they witnessed the appalling scene and processed what Joanna said, the four gods realized something since there was no testing after the breakthrough.

"You are a reincarnation!"

"Damn it, why was a reincarnation allowed to participate? It's unfair!"

"Retreat!"

None of them were in the mood to fight anymore. It wasn't a fair deal to fight reincarnations; all their original selves were Major Gods with abundant battle experience. Such reincarnations knew much more secret techniques than they did.

"You want to leave? Too late!" Joanna yelled and flashed. She turned into countless illusions and surrounded all her opponents. Then, their spears stabbed forth, cracking and twisting the air. All the spear auras were destructive. The four gods were soon riddled with holes, bleeding profusely.

It only took a single attack for them to be heavily wounded and on the verge of death.

Their lifesaving treasures had also been activated, but that didn't free them from Joanna's blockage.

Su Ping had originally planned to detonate himself again and launch a second attack, but then he was lost for words after seeing Joanna dealing with them that fast. Is she that strong after becoming a Star Lord?

She couldn't be that much weaker than the prince of the Rain Clan, could she?

"Speak! What is this place?"

Joanna went easy on them; she didn't kill them immediately. Instead, she probed them to know more about the place.

The four gods, already prepared to beg for mercy, were stunned by her question. They gave Joanna weird looks, wondering if she was making fun of them.

You're here for the trial, yet you don't know where you are?

"You won't confess?"

Joanna was puzzled by their odd expressions, feeling that she was overlooking something. Still, she didn't choose the polite path. She simply stabbed the tattooed god in the chest, causing a bloody hole that made him grimace in pain.

"Please stop! I'll talk!" said the tattooed god quickly, "We admit defeat. We're all here for the trial. There's no need to make enemies out of us. We promise we won't retaliate… We can swear it in the name of the gods!"

"The trial?" Joanna raised her brows and said, "Swear later. What do you mean by trial?"

"…"

The four prisoners were lost for words again.

Joanna's solemn expression made them realize that she wasn't making fun of them.

Did she actually sneak into this place?

But, is it even possible?

"Well, we're here for the trial to enter the Heaven Path Institute. We're currently on level two," said the tattooed god prudently, shedding all arrogance.

After all, Joanna was a middle-ranked god too, and was obviously the leader of the three-member team.

Someone then roared and rushed over. It was none other than Tang Ruyan, who was yelling and charging with sword in hand while they talked.

All the others: "…"

The nearby Su Ping began to sweat. He didn't know what to say; the battle was already over.

Everything happened too fast. A few seconds were enough for them to finish the battle, but time was barely enough for Tang Ruyan to reach the battlefield.

Once she got close, Tang Ruyan found that Su Ping was simply standing next to the four strangers, as if they had already reached a truce. She immediately slowed down and asked in suspicion, "Why did you stop fighting?"

Su Ping glanced at her and said, "Do you think they can still fight?"

Tang Ruyan finally noticed their wounds, and was immediately astounded.

"The Heaven Path Institute…"

Joanna was stunned.

The three words uttered by the tattooed god left her so overwhelmed that she didn't even notice Tang Ruyan's arrival.

"The president and all the students of the Heaven Path Institute fought and died in the wilderness, during the war. How is it possible…?" she mumbled to herself.

The Heaven Path Institute, which was destroyed in the war, was still standing.

Was it rebuilt? They preserved its legacy?

After hearing her mumbling, the tattooed god couldn't help but ask, "Are you kidding?"

Then, he realized that his tone was too unfriendly, so he quickly stopped. Even so, he was still angry.

The Heaven Path Institute was revered by countless gods. Yet for some reason that woman claimed that it had been destroyed. It was absolutely unacceptable!

"Huh?"

Joanna snapped out of her stupor and looked at him. "What did you say?"

The tattooed god was frightened. He quickly replied, "N-Nothing. I only meant to say that the Heaven Path Institute hasn't been destroyed; you can find countless experts there. Even the high-ranked gods respect the Heaven Path Institute too. How could it be destroyed?"

"It wasn't destroyed?" Joanna was dazed for a moment.

By seeing the guy's expression, she then realized something and was silent for a long time. After that she sighed and said, "You're too little. It seems that such events have already been forgotten."

She shook her head, then changed the topic by asking, "How do you pass the trial?"