Astral Pet Store

Su Ping was cheered up by Xie Jinshui’s reply. “That is great. Let’s go now.” He tried to move his legs but almost collapsed.

His face turned even more colorless; Su Ping seemed to be even more anxious than he had expected. Xie Jinshui took Su Ping gently by the arm. “Mr. Su, are you alright? I think you need to take some rest. You must have overworked yourself, given the circumstances.”

“I’m okay...”

Su Ping panted. Hardly had his voice died down when he blacked out. He saw many shadows of demons and fiends in his eyes and the fatigue assaulted him.

“Mr. Su!”

His collapse scared Xie Jinshui and Qin Duhuang. They hurried to aid him; neither of them knew that Su Ping was so badly worn out that he would end up passing out.

This gave them an idea of how much effort Su Ping must have invested when he was hunting down the Otherworld Heavenly King.

Qin Duhuang carried Su Ping up and said to Xie Jinshui, “I’ll have someone escort Mr. Su back to his store and call him a healer. I will leave the safety matters to you.”

Xie Jinshui nodded. It was thanks to Su Ping that the Heavenly King was driven away and the Longjiang Base City was safe. The priority was to take care of Su Ping and make sure that nothing would happen to him.

“Go.”

“Okay.”

Qin Duhuang left right away.

After Qin Duhuang left, Xie Jinshui took a deep breath and called for reports of the other sides.

The north and west sides were secured, which relieved him; he was even more grateful to Su Ping. The north side was secured because of Su Ping’s dragon. Otherwise, the north side would have been the first to be breached, because it would have been almost impossible for the Ye family and the appointed warriors to stop three beast kings.

“Guys, come on!!”

Xie Jinshui unsheathed his sword and charged toward the wild beasts.

The other battle pet warriors answered his call and threw themselves back into battle.

Morale rose at the north and west sides upon learning that the Heavenly King had been chased away. Everyone was full of vigor. Some titled battle pet warriors that had thought about saving some strength were inspired; they went back to the battlefield and soon crushed the wild beasts.

The wild beasts that had arrived to destroy the Longjiang Base City were routed. The battle pet warriors ran wildly among the wild beasts.

Some battle pet warriors were able to team up; they made great contributions by leveraging their combined strength.

The wild beasts cried and the humans bellowed. There were rivers of blood and mountains of corpses around the base city.

Once the Heavenly King left, the battle lasted for three more hours; there would be wild beasts dying or injured every second. Finally, the enemy attacks were repulsed!

Once the wild beasts fled in great disorder, Xie Jinshui sent out the news that the base city was safe again.

All the battle pet warriors that stayed behind to defend the Longjiang Base City were brought to warm, excited tears.

The blood was not shed in vain!

They did it!

They saved the city when the Otherworld Heavenly King and several beast kings were leading the attack!

Everyone was happy and proud of themselves; they grieved at the same time, over the loss of their partners in arms and loved ones.

The five family heads replied to the good news with silence.

The families had sacrificed many battle pet warriors, from the young generation to titled battle pet warriors. Above all, they were their dear family members.

Even though the battle had been won, the price paid was huge. The number of dead wild beasts was beyond count and the number of deceased battle pet warriors was also beyond calculation!

After some break, Xie Jinshui sent someone to track down the fleeing wild beasts and told people to keep on monitoring the situation in case the Heavenly King would stage a comeback.

In the meantime, Xie Jinshui had people identify deceased battle pet warriors and take their remains back.

Those battle pet warriors were all heroes; they had died to protect the Longjiang Base City!

They would never leave their remains in the wild.

The teams that went to collect the remains carried out the mission with sorrowful hearts.

1

AIA

They had identified many deceased battle pet warriors. Some of them were still in the mouths of the wild beasts, their bodies halved. And yet, they had still put up one hell of a fight before they died. Some of the battle pet warriors stuck their arms in the beasts’ heads. Some were still inside the wild beasts’ stomach, badly mutilated.

There were torn limbs on the ground, the current view was definitely gruesome. There was fear on some of the corpses’ faces and violence on others.

Each deceased battle pet warrior represented a broken family.

No one was able to tell how many families would grieve over a lost family member!

The Longjiang Base City was saved.

But the cost had been too high!

After the initial stage of joy dwindled, people were stunned speechless by the number of casualties. The entire Longjiang Base City fell under the shadows of sadness.

Xie Jinshui had been in the mood to throw a party when the first wave of beasts was routed, since only a few battle pet warriors had died and Su Ping had returned in time. But this time, he wasn’t in such a mood. What is there to celebrate when so many have died?

After making arrangements, Xie Jinshui paid a visit to the battle pet warriors from other base cities and sincerely thanked them.

They had helped them greatly. The base city might have already been breached without their help.

It was true that Su Ping had been driving away the most terrifying threat but the other wild beasts weren’t creatures to be underestimated. It was because of the cooperation that they succeeded.

Some had already left Longjiang and gone back to their base cities.

They had achieved the original goal of giving support, and thus no longer needed to stay.

The other forces that had offered help chose to leave after they met with Xie Jinshui.

The Longjiang Base City was safe; they didn’t need to prolong their stay. Xie Jinshui opened up the treasury and gifted the forces from other base cities with either money, treasures, herbs, plants, or eggs of rare pets.

Afterward, he hurried to the Pixie Pet Store.

The biggest credit belonged to Su Ping.

They would have had to deal with greater sacrifices without him, and still, the base city would have been doomed.

No one was able to stop the Otherworld Heavenly King; none of them was even close to the Heavenly King’s strength.

Xie Jinshui was quite worried about Su Ping. He went to the store and saw many familiar faces.

There was also Venerable the Blade and Wu Guansheng, the famous Healing Hands. Xie Jinshui remembered that their first visit to the Longjiang Base City had been because of Yuan Tianchen. But Su Ping was the reason for their following visits and their stay.

Xie Jinshui asked Wu Guansheng at once, “How is Mr. Su? Has he woken up yet?”

Wu Guansheng shook his head. “Not yet. Mr. Su’s situation is... strange. He lost his blood and some new blood has just been generated by his bone marrow. I used my skill to help him generate more blood. He’s stable; he should be up by now, theoretically speaking. But he’s still in a coma. I think his spirit was also severely damaged.”

“He lost his blood?” Xie Jinshui could not believe that.

He remembered how colorless Su Ping looked. How could a person survive when there was no blood?

That would not happen for anyone, not even the battle pet warriors. It was a miracle that Su Ping had been able to survive.

“Mr. Su...”

Xie Jinshui clenched his fists. He didn’t know what to say after Su Ping had gone to such lengths to fight the Otherworld Heavenly King.

Protecting the base city was a given for any mayor, but he had barely done anything.

He didn’t even succeed in getting a legendary battle pet warrior to give them a hand. Xie Jinshui felt he was just a failure, without a single redeeming feature. He was full of remorse and pain. Will she have a solution? Xie Jinshui remembered the resident legendary battle pet warrior. Soon, he saw Joanna who was leaning against the pet room’s door. The girl with a breathtaking face was so aloof that she didn’t seem to be from this world.

ren

The others also turned to see her.

The girl received Su Ping when they took him back to the store, and she would not let anyone hear him. Wu Guansheng tried hard to persuade her and showed her some of his skills. She eventually allowed him to tend to Su

Ping.

“He’s not dying. He’s just worn out. You don’t have to worry about him,” Joanna said coldly.

Her answer was a big relief. “Good, that is good.” Xie Jinshui heaved a long sigh. “It is all my fault. I can’t do anything right. Mr. Su wouldn’t have needed to fight alone if I could have convinced a legendary battle pet warrior to help us. At the very least, there would have been a legendary battle pet warrior helping him deal with the Heavenly King.”

Qin Duhuang fell silent.

He had just reached the legendary rank and the only other person that was at this rank apart from Joanna. However, he left the Heavenly King of Otherworld to a person that was not even at the legendary rank.

“Go back to your business if you have nothing else to do here. You won’t be of any help,” Joanna said.

Her words made them feel even more frustrated. They soon left one after the other.

In one of the pet room’s nursing pens

Su Ping was resting while not moving a muscle; his eyes were tightly shut.

“You were so seriously wounded and yet the existence behind you still hasn’t decided to come out?” After everyone was gone, Joanna sat in the pet room, gazing at Su Ping.

She could tell that Su Ping must have used some special skill; she had already learned something about the skeleton.

It was said that the Skeleton King had the chance to master the skill of possession. The Little Skeleton had woken up and was at the moment resting close to Su Ping.

The Little Skeleton was evidently at the Star Rank, which was an indication that the bloodline awakening had been completed.

“Do you know that you almost got your master killed?” Joann grumpily said to the Little Skeleton, which was scattered in another nursing pen.

The Little Skeleton’s eye sockets glowed and it moved its jaws.

Joanna raised her eyebrows. “Don’t talk back to me. He wouldn’t have ended up like this if you hadn’t allowed him to overdo himself. He almost died. He would have been dead by now if it weren’t for the fact that he’s blessed with a strange and ancient constitution.”

The Little Skeleton closed its jaws and the glow in its eye sockets died down.

Joanna snorted, not saying anything else to the Little Skeleton.

“Why are you doing this? Why do you have to try so hard when you have such a strong support? You should just live your comfortable little life and cultivate. You will grow to reach the Star Rank and even become a god in the future. How stupid,” Joanna mumbled.

In darkness.

Su Ping was having the longest nightmare.

In his dream, the Inferno Dragon died, including the Little Skeleton, the Dark Dragon Hound, and the Purple Python; all of them died.

Despair.

Terror!

“No!!” Su Ping shouted. The next second, he opened his eyes. He sat up. Light leaped into his sight and he was gradually able to see things.

Pain shrouded him.

He looked around, realizing that he was in a nursing pen.

He was back in his store.

After being dazed for a while, Su Ping sat up and dashed out of the nursing pen regardless of the pain.

“What?”

Joanna-who was cultivating and keeping an eye on Su Ping in another nursing pen-was alerted by him. She stepped out from the pen. “You’re up. Where are you off to?”

“How long have I been unconscious?” Su Ping asked.

“Two days.”

Joanna frowned. “You need some good rest. You should know you almost died.”

Two days! Su Ping was filled with a mix of fear and happiness. Luckily, just two days; one more day and he would have been drowned in self hate.

He wanted to get his phone to call Xie Jinshui; only then did he realize that he was wearing a new set of clothes.

“Where’s my phone?” he asked, baffled.

Joanna blushed slightly. “In that locker.”

Su Ping didn’t notice anything unusual about her shyness. He hurried to the locker and dug out his phone.

He called Xie Jinshui right away.

“Sir, It’s Su Ping. Do you have time? We need to get to the Tower now!” Su Ping said in haste.

“Mr. Su, you’re up.” Xie Jinshui was gladly surprised. “No problem, I’ll be right there in a moment.”

Xie Jinshui delegated all of his matters to his secretary after the call. Two days had passed after the wild beasts were driven away. There were no cheers, no celebration in the Longjiang Base City which was in mourning for the heroes that had passed away in the battle.

The survivors had been publishing messages on social websites to honor the deceased.

Dealing with the aftermath was troublesome. Still, Xie Jinshui decided to go to the Tower with Su Ping. Su Ping was on tenterhooks. He checked the state of the Inferno Dragon’s soul in the contract space. The soul’s color was still golden and it was holding on, which relieved his anxiety.

“Sir, you’re going to the Tower?”

Zhong Lingtong was happy to see that Su Ping was up. She was also surprised since he wanted to hurry to visit the Tower.

Even though she wasn’t a battle pet warrior, she had also heard about the Tower. That was a place where legendary battle pet warriors gathered. Why was Su Ping going there?

Tang Ruyan, too, was surprised to find that Su Ping wanted to leave for the Tower as soon as he woke up.

Su Ping was more than happy to see the two girls were still safe and sound. “How are things in the Longjiang Base City? Are the wild beasts

gone?”

“Yes.” Tang Ruyan briefed Su Ping about the current situation.

Su Ping replied with silence. The wild beasts were gone but the deceased would never come back.

The thought of the Inferno Dragon filled him with even gloomier thoughts. He knew all too well how painful it was to lose a loved one.

Soon after, Xie Jinshui arrived in Su Ping’s store.

“Mr. Su, are we leaving now?” Xie Jinshui was glad to see Su Ping had recovered a bit and the hint of rosy color had returned to his cheeks.

Su Ping nodded. “How fast can we get to the Tower?”

“Half a day.” Xie Jinshui could tell how anxious Su Ping was.

Another person arrived while they talked. It was Qin Duhuang.

“Are you going to the Tower? I’m going with you.”

Su Ping didn’t understand but Xie Jinshui did. “Right, you should go. You just reached the legendary rank, so you must report to the Tower. They would scold you if you don’t go in time and they would end up coming here to get you.”

Qin Duhuang nodded.

It had been a rule for years that everyone had to report to the Tower after reaching the legendary rank.