Astral Pet Store (WN)

Joanna remained confused after being dismissed from the temple.

Things didn't quite turn out as she had expected; the holy and awe-inspiring Heaven Path Institute had also lost its brilliance. She thought that they would help her without hesitation. But that wasn't the case.

"Why?

"Have we truly been abandoned?" Joanna mumbled in frustration. She returned to her temple and cheered herself up. "If they're unwilling to help, we'll help ourselves!"

She had been a warrior her entire life, never one to admit defeat.

"I will make it happen if I become a Superior God or someone even stronger!

"If there's no other way, I can ask the four Superior Gods to go to his store. We can cut our plane into five pieces and slowly move them back, one step at a time."

Joanna became hopeful again after considering that idea.

Su Ping's store would have an Outstanding Employee nomination once a year. She estimated that she would get three hundred opportunities to visit the Archean Divinity in a thousand year span, which should be more than enough for her to transport her hometown.

A thousand years wasn't a long time for her.

…

On the other hand, inside the temple that Joanna had just visited.

An old man was seated inside the temple; he seemed to be partially real, as he appeared to be sitting there while also looking like a projection. Any direct attack would be useless.

At the moment the old man was looking in a certain direction with a respectful demeanor.

An awe-inspiring power coming from that place was gradually fading away.

"She's already dead? What did the Ancestral God mean by that? That man has caused an Ancestral God to appear. What's so special about her? The Original Ladies Clan has declined, but its members are still living a good life…" the old man mumbled in awe and fear, as the situation left him shocked and baffled.

An Ancestral God had just informed him via telepathy of the woman's identity, telling him that she was already dead, and that the absurd war she had described was going to happen. All the Ancestral Gods were able to peer into the future; it wasn't hard for them to predict what would happen. But, how did the woman know of it?

The whole situation was eerie.

"Is the Heaven Path Institute destined to fight the Heavens and die together with them?" The old man felt confused. The news was too appalling to be shared with anyone. He suspected that the Ancestral Gods would know as soon as he planned to reveal it. After all, if he did plan to reveal it, it would have already been spread in the future.

Ancestral Gods could look into the future and trace it back to the origin, all to give him a warning at that moment.

"If that fateful day does come… What if even someone as I sacrifice myself for what I believe in?" The old man's eyes glittered for a long time before he heaved a sigh. His eyes became sharp; he thought that preparations were in order. The Ancestral Gods didn't inform others of the matter, which meant that the news shouldn't be exposed. However, he could still do some planning.

"A person whom the Ancestral God said to be dead brought such a piece of information to us. Maybe the Realm of Gods will indeed fall into chaos."

…

On the cliff.

Su Ping was devoted to the concepts imprinted on the black tablet. Those ideas looked like the most primitive gathering of laws; they were fully displayed for Su Ping to see; he was completely fascinated.

His understanding of fire had been further improved; he had almost located its origin.

Furthermore, he had inspected many other laws, and his understanding was greatly improved.

His small world was quickly strengthened thanks to this enlightening. Su Ping then had a vague understanding of why so many people had gone to find inspiration observing the black tablet. Watching the primitive laws did give him the feeling that he was getting a sensation for the origin of all laws.

If I can truly grab it, it would surely be the source of all laws, Su Ping thought.

Unfortunately, he was still far from that point. Although the sensation was there, it was just a feeling he had yet to truly grasp. After all, he had yet to fully understand the four supreme laws.

Time flew…

Three days went by.

Su Ping left the cliff. He still had more contribution points, but he chose not to stay any longer since the time allotted to visit that plane was almost up.

Besides the attainment of a deeper understanding of laws, he too accumulated a lot more strength during the three days. There was a lot of divine power on the cliff, and there was also other energy that was the original energy of the Archean Divinity. All of it could be transformed into astral power.

Even more astral power was consolidated inside Su Ping's body; he was surpassing the limits again.

He went back to his temple, and received a servant outside the building; he was the one who received the cultivation elixir distributed once every ten years in the Heaven Path Institute.

"The cultivation elixir?"

Su Ping opened the box and found an emerald pill the size of a ring. He perceived the medicinal fragrance the moment he opened the box; the aroma began to spread. Su Ping felt that his bones and muscles were being stretched, and could easily tell it must have been a very rare medicine.

Su Ping asked for the way to take the medicine. He simply placed it in his mouth once he learned that it should be taken orally.

A stream of scorching, divine power gushed out the moment the medicine entered his throat. Besides divine power, there were also many types of powerful energies within. Su Ping had also detected the power of dragons and phoenixes.

The assorted energy flooded into Su Ping's body. As if conscious, it passed many different parts and then gathered in his astral oceans, which immediately began to boil.

The highly purified astral power inside his astral oceans—with the influx of the new energy—was further condensed. Su Ping was observing carefully, and found that it wasn't because his previous purification had flaws. Rather, the astral power's form was changing. To be more precise, his astral power was no longer simple.

It had changed—

It turned into a new type of energy, of a level higher than astral power, yet slightly lower than divine power.

Su Ping immediately observed the transformation of the astral power in his body, so that he could transform the astral power he absorbed in the future, to turn it into the same new energy.

He could tell that it was better than astral power, at least five times as effective!

Chaos aura is the rarest energy in the world. However, the chaos aura that caused the foundation of the universe has already been exhausted. Even Ancestral Gods would be interested in getting it. No one can get it at this point.

Next to chaos aura is divine power.

However, divine power is thousands of times weaker than chaos aura. Below divine power is deity power, which Green Lady mentioned before. It's even rarer. Then there's astral power, which is the most popular in the Federation. Astral power is generated on every planet, and is sufficient for anyone.

My combat ability will be ten times stronger if I can transform my astral power into divine power, even if I'm not a god, Su Ping thought.

Unfortunately, he didn't know how to transform astral power into divine power, although there was divine power in his body, until the elixir did it and showed the mysteries of its energy structure.

Divine power was one of the gods' core secrets. There probably wasn't any medicine that could help him with the transformation. Even if there were any, it wouldn't be given to a common student such as himself.

Su Ping really felt conflicted as he examined the transformation taking place in his body. A single elixir had increased his energy density by almost five times!

However, the first time was often the most effective one.

No one could have foreseen Su Ping's shocking changes due to the elixir given to the new students; it was unlikely that the Heaven Path Institute had, either. As things stood, all creatures in the Archean Divinity harnessed either divine power or naturally-born energy of their own races. For instance, dragons could transform all absorbed energy into dragon power, which carried the features of their race.

The transformation is almost complete. Maybe I can try to condense the Pendulum Astral Painting, the sixth one! Su Ping thought.

The Pendulum Astral Painting main focus was time; once mastered, he would be able to unite the laws of space and time, and his combat ability would improve yet again.

He immediately tried to condense the Astral Painting.

Infinite energy was condensed in his body; stars made of pure energy and blood took shape. Time quietly flew by.

After an indeterminate length of time, Su Ping heard the system's summoning voice. Their journey in the Archean Divinity had come to an end.

He opened his eyes, still unsatisfied, but he was still delighted by the changes in his body. Although he didn't explore the Heaven Path Institute through infinite resurrections, he had managed to enter. Such a feat was truly rare.

After all, even though he could see a lot of places in the Archean Divinity through resurrections, it was likely that he wouldn't learn much if he was being instantly killed by overwhelming opponents all the time.. The trip would have been nothing but an eye-opener for him.