Astral Pet Store (WN)

"It's time to go back."

Su Ping woke up from his meditation, ready to visit Joanna and Tang Ruyan.

Before he left, he told his servants to not disturb him, since he would spend a long time in seclusion.

That was just an excuse for his departure; otherwise, their mentors would investigate the matter if he suddenly went missing. The bigshots could detect the anomaly if they heard word of this and searched in special ways.

Fortunately, people often go into secluded training for years in this place. Some mentors teach once every few years, or even decades. It probably won't affect me if I just come out once in a while.

Su Ping went to the Fighting Heavens Academy after making the arrangements.

Thanks to the guards who sent a message, Su Ping soon met Joanna and Tang Ruyan. To his surprise, Tang Ruyan had already risen to the Fate State.

In only a couple of days, she had leaped to the Fate State from the Ocean State!

Her energy was not just purely astral power anymore; it was mixed with some sort of special energy, which was rather tough.

Joanna, on the other hand, looked exceptionally calm. Su Ping knew her well enough to realize she was in a bad mood. He guessed the reason and asked, "Have you talked to your mentors? They don't have a way to pull the Demigod Burial back to the Realm of Gods?"

Joanna glanced at Su Ping; her calm eyes were then filled with softness, noticing the care in Su Ping's eyes. She felt really disappointed by the refusal three days prior. She didn't know whom she could turn to if the experts of the Heaven Path Institute were unwilling to help.

She suddenly realized that the person who was willing to help her was Su Ping, who wasn't even a god.

Joanna shook her head and dropped her random thoughts. She said, "They're unwilling to help. I'll discuss the matter with the Superior Gods later; I may have to ask for your help again."

"That's all right. I'll help you as long as I can," Su Ping promised.

Tang Ruyan asked curiously, "What are you talking about?"

"It's a long story, and a private matter of hers." Su Ping shook his head, deciding not to elaborate.

Tang Ruyan stopped asking, since it was a sensitive topic. She simply glanced at Joanna in surprise. She was reluctant to admit that Joanna, who was also a woman, was stronger than her. Still, she knew that the girl was very capable while being just a reincarnation, according to what Su Ping had mentioned. Her original self had to be even stronger.

And yet, for a woman as strong as her to be forced to look for help… This made Tang Ruyan feel weird. She also had the uncanny urge of giving Joanna a hand.

"Visiting time is over. We should head back; just say that you'll be training in seclusion," said Su Ping, going straight to business.

The pair was stunned for a moment; both felt regretful upon remembering they had stayed there for days. The current training was unimaginably effective for Tang Ruyan. As for Joanna, although her idea to relocate the Demigod Burial had failed, she didn't idle by during those days, having already found a route to break through.

Given her maximum divine quality reading in the third test, she had been noticed by one of the mentors' masters who was in the Celestial State. The latter had also realized she was a reincarnation; however, he wasn't bothered by it, and pointed out the way to the Celestial State for her!

For those in the Federation, it was well-unknown that there wasn't a fixed route to the Ascendant State or the Celestial State. Not even Celestials could guide others on how they reached that level. They couldn't even teach their disciples how to reach the Ascendant State!

After all, every Ascendant had a unique path, which was uncopyable!

The only thing Celestials could do was to invest their rare resources on disciples they thought highly of, in order to bring about epiphanies.

Still, the Celestial State master in that place had pointed out a feasible route to the Celestial State for Joanna.

The route was extremely hard. But the idea of hardships wasn't worth mentioning to Joanna. Having a direction was all that mattered!

She had been fighting ever since she picked up the spear. Was any day of her life not hard?

Joanna didn't tell Su Ping the route she was taking, not because she wanted to keep it a secret, but because it was only suitable for gods.

…

After giving instructions to the two girls, Su Ping took them away. He sent them to his small world since they still had some time. Then, he found a secret place and detonated himself, before he resurrected at a random location.

Su Ping saw a lot of things in the Archean Divinity through consecutive resurrections.

He was randomly resurrected in a city, at a beast's nest, and a village of the gods. Su Ping had an even better understanding of the Archean Divinity after only half a day. To his surprise, the Archean Divinity was obviously in order. Except for the desolate lands, all the residences of the gods and the other species seemed rather safe.

This was unlike the Chaotic Realm of the Undead, which was a desolate and chaotic home to terrifying devils.

…

Soon after Su Ping left the Heaven Path Institute, someone went to the temple where he lived.

"An invitation? A challenge invitation?"

The servant who was sent to watch over Su Ping's temple was surprised by the golden invitation she received. Her expression changed when she saw the emblem at the edge of the invitation, as it was a challenge!

Someone challenged her new master to a duel.

Someone is challenging Mr. Su right after entering the Heaven Path Institute. Is he an enemy from the past? Isn't this the mark of the high-ranked Rain Clan? The servant was shocked to see the back of the invitation.

A god from a high-ranked clan was challenging a human being like Su Ping.

She didn't remember hearing about any grudges between the Rain Clan and human beings.

He must be an enemy from the past. Mr. Su said he would train in seclusion when he just came. He must have seen this coming, so he left with an excuse… The servant looked like a girl, but she had lived for almost a hundred years. She thought her speculation was valid, but she still needed to ask Su Ping's opinion.

Mr. Su has just left, and who knows where he went; I'll just wait until he returns from seclusion since he chose to dodge the challenger, thought the servant.

She kept the challenge invitation for Su Ping.

Even though invitations like those couldn't be declined, it was impossible to demand a duel from someone who was training in seclusion.

After all, the training rhythm could be disrupted if the seclusion was interrupted. The Heaven Path Institute advocated for peace and allowed duels, but only if they didn't affect their training.

…

"You're about to exit the Archean Divinity…

"Counting down…"

The system's notifications rang in Su Ping's head.

Su Ping finally noticed that the system—who always talked to him in his heart—had the same voice as the standard notifications. However, the latter sounded rigid and robotic. By comparison, the talkative one was much more free-willed, not hesitating to talk about anything.

"Do not mock this system," declared the system again in Su Ping's head, obviously angry.

Su Ping smiled and focused his attention on what was ahead of him. Above him was a vast sky, while a boundless land was below his feet. He seemed to be flying, with the scenery flashing by.

It wasn't true flight, as he was standing on the top of a gargantuan beast that looked like a cloud. Its full view couldn't be seen clearly; it was just like a moving island from his perspective. However, it moved at a very fast speed, and raised infinite gales whenever it flapped its wings.

Su Ping found himself on top of that beast after a random resurrection, which left him lost for words.

This thing is not as good as the Chaos Perception Dragon, but it must be at least in the Celestial State. Maybe it's even stronger, Su Ping thought with a bitter smile.

Soon after, the countdown was over; Su Ping flashed and disappeared from the beast's back.

The beast suddenly winked; its eyes had been staring at the ground below. Just then it detected some sort of horrifying aura up close.

What was the thing observing it in secret?

The beast flashed and tore the void apart after thinking about that, then vanished into nothingness.