Astral Pet Store (WN)

Green Lady was stunned, not expecting Su Ping to say that. She then shook her head and said. "She's a Deity King. It would be too dangerous if we met her recklessly."

"Have you forgotten your employee benefits? There's no need to fear a thing. I'm here for you," Su Ping encouraged her.

It wasn't easy for them to go there. Su Ping was hoping that Green Lady would enjoy herself to the fullest.

Green Lady remembered her employee benefits too. She looked at Su Ping in shock, realizing from Su Ping's expression that he meant it.

Su Ping had miraculously taken the two of them to the Luofu Realm of Deities in the blink of an eye, so she no longer harbored any doubts. She took a deep breath, feeling excited. "Fine. Let's go ask her. She was one of the Deity Kings involved in the war.

"Even the Luofu Deity Emperor perished in battle. There's no way she could survive, unless she did something in secret."

"Yes." Su Ping nodded.

Their conversation left the three locals in a stupor.

Green Lady then raised her hand and instantly killed the Demon God Insect, which had been quaking in fear since she showed up. It was smart enough to know how strong she was, but it failed to dodge Green Lady's attack and died instantly.

A golden core flew out. Green Lady threw it to Su Ping and said, "The Demon God Insect is a rare creature born from the cracks of the abyss. It contains a special power; its core is a crucial material to make Ascension Pills. It can strengthen you if taken directly."

The local trio shot covetous gazes, now that Su Ping had been given the core, but they had no choice but to give up, considering the powerful senior present.

Su Ping didn't hesitate; he accepted the core and ate it on the spot.

While digesting the core, he said to Green Lady, "This is the map. Let's go."

Green Lady scanned the jade chip with astonishment in her eyes. "The Green Continent Island is exactly the same as it was back then. It is unchanged, without any trace of damage…"

She crushed the jade chip; its perfect condition meant that the Blue Cloud Deity Queen's participation in the war was just a show.

The trio remained with bewildered looks when Green Lady and Su Ping left. After a long time passed, the woman in the group asked in confusion, "Where are they from? Why do I feel like they've ascended from the mortal world? She said that the Great Emperor had perished… Is she not scared of being killed for saying that?"

"She's merely a Golden Deity, yet she has such an unbridled tongue; she's going to suffer sooner or later. A Golden Deity dares to meet the Blue Cloud Deity Queen? She's trying to get herself killed."

The young man in the middle frowned. "Their words were rather odd. They kept talking about the war; there seems to be something going on."

"Unfortunately, the Demon God Insect is gone. We were hoping to reach the top and become Golden Deities with its core!"

…

"What dense energy."

While led by Green Lady, Su Ping absorbed the core in the small world behind her. The energy contained by the core was pure and special; it was deity aura, according to her. Unlike other creatures, the Demon God Insects carried a special power from the abyss, aside from the deity aura.

It was that special power which made the core be seen as rare.

Su Ping constructed a nest of cells next to his astral ocean and stored the deity aura he had absorbed from the core. He then stored the special power elsewhere, in his flesh and blood.

He carefully examined the deity aura and tried to destroy it—

After all, even if something went wrong, he could always resurrect himself in the cultivation site.

Deconstructing energy was a dangerous task; Su Ping's own energy received a backlash. He found how overwhelming deity aura was after his analysis… One part of its energy had already scorched the astral power in his body. Su Ping simply chose to reset himself through resurrection.

Green Lady was completely relieved after witnessing Su Ping's death and rebirth. She coldly went straight to the Blue Cloud Deity Queen's palace.

Deity aura is less powerful than divine power, but it's about eight times as powerful as astral power!

Su Ping had detected the horror of the deity aura during his energy deconstruction experiment; it was a very powerful type of energy. In other words, deities could easily crush peer battle pet warriors of the Federation!

These people used their pets in a different way from how we do in my world. Su Ping recalled the battle he had seen and remembered it with clear detail.

None of the Archean Divinity gods used pets. They simply summoned special illusions that would assist them in battle.

"The cultivation system with pets seems to have been created later on.

"Every age and every world has unique cultivation systems.

"Cultivation systems result from different circumstances. Is it because divine power and deity aura disappeared that we had to resort to astral power and pets? Su Ping thought.

"Green Lady," he suddenly said to the fast moving Green Lady, "Can you tell me about the history of deities and gods? I want to know what happened in the past."

Feeling slightly dazed, Green Lady looked back at Su Ping and then peered forward once more. "History is fake; nobody knows what's real in history. As far as I know, this place used to be a different Realm of Deities mastered by another Deity Emperor! It's said that there are other Realms of Deities beyond Luofu, but the Twilight Deity King never took me there.

"There was chaos before the Realms of Deities came to be. As for the gods you mentioned, I'm not sure. However, there are some ancient species in the Realm of Deities whose auras and appearance are similar to Joanna's. If we have to set a sequence to things, the Realm of Gods may have very well existed before the Realms of Deities."

"The Realms of Gods came before the Realms of Deities?"

Su Ping's eyes glittered.

The Realms of Deities were advanced cultivation sites, and so was the Archean Divinity. But the latter was a superior cultivation site.

The Realms of Deities were born from chaos, which then fell apart in the war that Joanna described, and then turned into the Realms of Deities like this one? Su Ping thought, Deity Emperors are the strongest in the Realms of Deities. If the Deity Kings are cultivators in the Celestial State, Deity Emperors would be a tier above. There are at least two levels above the Celestial State in the Realms of Gods.

Ancestral Gods should be stronger than Deity Emperors. Right now, Deity Kings are at the top in the Realms of Deities. The Celestial State is the top of the Federation. So, as time goes by, the peak of cultivation has been declining…

The energy available for cultivation has also become sparse. From divine power to deity aura, and then astral power, there might have been ages once dominated by other energies.

In other words, I need to find better energy in order to surpass the Celestial State and climb to higher levels.

Su Ping's eyes glittered. The importance of the system became increasingly clear to him. He could have never entered the cultivation sites or absorbed ancient energy without the system's help. Becoming a Celestial would have been his limit if he only trained in the Federation, however talented he was. Energy was everything. There was no chance to rise too high when energy was limiting.

However, I'm still too far from the Celestial State right now, and I don't know much about the cultivation and breakthroughs from that level. Maybe it has to do with energy, maybe not. But I think energy definitely plays a role in it.

After pondering over the matter, Su Ping was more determined to transform his astral power into a more advanced energy.

Su Ping had completely absorbed the core as they traveled. He had been trying to decompose the deity aura, but he underestimated its difficulty. He accidentally blew himself up several times during his various attempts, but he still failed to realize the nature of deity aura, which meant that he couldn't yet transform astral power into deity aura.

Some geniuses from the Federation carry divine power they absorbed from relics or treasures. However, unlike astral power, such divine power can't be replenished after usage. Also, many secret techniques of the Federation are based on astral power.

I have deity aura in my body, and I can learn deity skills, which must be more powerful than the secret techniques based on astral power, Su Ping thought. Joanna's attacks are very powerful, partly because they're based on divine power. I should ask her more about it later.

The two flew quickly as they passed through the Vast Wilderness. Green Lady had been moving at full speed, but still, the island was much bigger than Su Ping expected. It was as large as several galaxies put together.

Su Ping's astral power was quickly being accumulated as they traveled; he cultivated and decomposed the pervading deity aura. He was already in the mid phase of the Star State.

Meantime, Su Ping kept absorbing deity aura on his way, storing it in his body as a lake.

Unfortunately, deity aura and divine power aren't my original powers; I cannot use them to make Astral Paintings. I would have saved a lot of time if I could, Su Ping thought, feeling regretful. He was even more eager to transform his astral power. He believed that he would step up to a much higher level when all of the nine Astral Paintings were completed.

Half a day later—

After traveling full speed without worrying about expenditure, Green Lady finally arrived at the palace where the Blue Cloud Deity Queen lived.

The building was at the center of the island. Several thousand kilometers away from the palace, one could see a vague flight of stairs, extending to reach the palace floating high above the clouds.

There were big cities surrounding the palace, where many cultivators dwelled. They were places where items and secret techniques were being sold, and a lot of organizations were recruiting. There was prosperity in the air.

Su Ping had occasionally detected auras as powerful as that of Green Lady. Even though Golden Deities were only second to Deity Kings on the island, they weren't that rare.

"Even the divine palace is exactly as it used to be…"

Green Lady became even colder as she looked at the palace floating next to the clouds.. The Twilight Deity King had blocked the cosmic breach with his body, yet the Blue Cloud Deity Queen, one of his peers, had obviously been living a great life in the Luofu Realm of Deities.