Astral Pet Store

Staring at the cracked space, Dusk said, “You are merely at the first level and need more practice. However, I have detected something strange in you, something that should belong to a god.”

Su Ping didn’t deny it. Dusk must have sensed when the Solar Bulwark was absorbing the blood just then.

“Thank you, sir,” said Su Ping.

Dusk shook his head. “I agreed to teach you sword skills because I only saw demons, undead creatures, and ghosts here for such a long time; your presence is a weird thing. I’ve taught you my skill, so I hope you can deliver your promise.”

Su Ping nodded. “I will spare no pains in finding that goddess for you.”

Dusk nodded. He thought of something and took out a long case.

“You can have this sword since you’ve learned the skill. I have one myself. I have no use for it, given that I don’t practice the use of two swords at the same time.” Dusk handed the case to Su Ping.

Su Ping immediately accepted it.

The case was heavy and cold, as if it were made of ice.

He opened the case right then.

Lying in the case was a dark sword with a curved back; a cold glare was bouncing off from the sword. The crimson gemstones embedded on the handle stood out against the darkness.

Su Ping grabbed the handle, and immediately felt something was pulling his hand. It was as if the sword were going to merge with his hand.

It was a spooky feeling.

Although surprised, Su Ping didn’t let go; he wasn’t afraid of death in that place.

He took out the sword and poured in his energy. The white bandage on the handle came to life and reached for his hand; it became even redder, and it tied his hand with the handle so tightly that he couldn’t even shake the sword off.

There was a wicked and cold feeling at the same time; it crept into him through his hand, searching for the energy inside him and seeking to devour it.

Su Ping tried to suppress the wicked energy with his astral powers but they were swallowed at once. The next second, Su Ping saw a dark glow rise from the blade; the air cracked where the dark glow shone. The blade itself had cracked the space!

Su Ping was surprised. This must be an amazing sword! “Are you sure I can have it?” Su Ping asked.

Su Ping felt flattered. After all, he and Dusk had only known each other for merely a dozen days and they had yet to forge a deep relationship. Dusk had also taught him the skill. Su Ping felt this gesture was a little bit too much.

“You will have enough strength to compete against those at the Fate State with this sword, and you’ll be able to kill them easily while working with your pet. Your only true foes will only be those at the Star Rank and above. At the very least, this will ensure that you remain peerless below the Star Rank,” Dusk explained.

Su Ping looked into his eyes.

“Remember our agreement,” Dusk stated.

Su Ping nodded. “I won’t forget.”

In the following ten days, Su Ping continued to practice his sword skill in the city, under Dusk’s guidance. He progressed by leaps and bounds; he had set aside more time to train the pets this time around. He was able to ensure that his customers’ pets would gain formidable skills. The professional training of the four pets was completed and their respective combat strengths had increased beyond the ten point mark.

The best of the four pets already had a combat strength of 15 points, close to an Ocean State beast king!

Once he returned to his store, he gathered the other pets of the demon family and returned to Ashura city.

Time moved on.

Su Ping knew that it was time to say goodbye to the city after the second group of demon pets had finished their training.

He went to bid farewell to Dusk.

Dusk was not sorry to see that Su Ping had to leave. Rather, he hoped Su Ping would finish training as early as possible to go and find the goddess for him.

Their goodbye was a brief one. Dusk watched as Su Ping took off.

Sadness climbed into Dusk’s eyes as Su Ping was sucked into the swirl and disappeared. “I hope you remember our agreement. I hope you’re still alive... and find this place.”

Dusk looked at his hand. His skin was colorless and dried.

“Even an Ashura cannot live forever...”

“Did the destiny that my father spoke of... leave?”

Dusk’s murmurs vanished. Silence prevailed on the platform, and the entire city which had turned deadly still again.

Back in the store, Su Ping left the trained pets and then picked out dragons for the next training rounds.

He didn’t choose to go to the Realm of Purple-blood Dragons; it was another dragon realm.

The purpose of his trip was to train the pets, not to seek fights. If the Star Rank dragon detected his appearance in the Realm of Purple-blood Dragons, it would surely send out Fate State dragons to hunt him down; this would deprive him of the time needed to train the pets.

He also claimed he would return to that dragon realm when the Inferno Dragon became more powerful than the purple-blood dragons; the time had not come yet.

Su Ping chose another dragon realm and resumed his pet training the journey.

While Su Ping was busy going about his pet training business, war was raging in the Hancheng Base City. The windmills and other pieces of infrastructure outside the base City had been destroyed; wild beasts abounded. Blood had tainted the city wall. There were piles of corpses by the foot of the wall.

The city was in a state of emergency. “We need help on the north side!”

“There are sixteen wild beasts at the ninth rank. We’re losing the north side!”

“Emergency on the east side!”

“We have beast kings heading to the east!”

“Two beast kings on the east. Help! Help!”

“Why aren’t there any reinforcements? Were we abandoned?”

The commanding center inside the Hancheng Base City was receiving a swamp of calls asking for help. People sounded desperate.

There were wild beasts outside, and the base city was on the verge of collapsing. But no more battle pet warriors were joining in the fight. The defense was weakening.

Hopeless!

The guards and the Xuan family which was guarding the east side had abandoned hope when two beast kings showed up among the wild beasts attacking the east side.

They had received no information about the likely arrival of beast kings!

The beast kings had been hiding, only showing themselves at this critical moment!

To make matters worse, no one had heard anything about any legendary battle pet warriors going to help!

The government wouldn’t have hidden the presence of any legendary battle pet warriors, because that would be news that could give hope to the people. They were just glad that they hadn’t been fed with any fake information of any legendary battle pet warriors going to their aid when no one was.

There were no legendary battle pet warriors but there were beast kings. The warriors and the generals’ faces and hearts were clouded.

Given its status as a Class B base city, Hancheng didn’t have the ability to fight against beast kings. Many battle pet warriors, including titled ones, had arrived from other base cities to lend a hand.

Still, that was still not enough when beast kings were striking!

The news that beast kings were approaching the east side had stunned the entire commanding center into silence. All the people who were hurrying to and fro stopped in their tracks.

Beast kings?

People could see the shared feeling of despair in everyone’s eyes.

Why?

Why?!

We’re fighting so hard... Why did this have to happen to us? Did God wish for the Hancheng Base City to perish?

People turned their eyes to the mayor.

The mayor was just as pale as anyone else. He held a file in his trembling hands; he was sure they had not received fake information. He also knew that no legendary battle pet warrior from the Tower would be helping them; he had been told that the Tower was in a state of emergency and no one was able to spare any time to help.

The mayor could neither think, nor see.

The mayor had been running around and asking for help during the past week. He had begged in all manners he could think of, barely taking any rest for a week. That piece of bad news had almost rendered him unconscious.

Bang.

He slumped in his chair, utterly desperate. He thought of something. He discarded his sadness, stood up, and shouted, “Let’s move all the back-up warriors and materials to the east! Send someone to escort the civilians out of the base city from the south!

“Since the beast kings are coming from the east, let’s deal with them on the east side!”

The others were shocked by the order.

One of the generals said, “Sir, we have sent out all the spare hands to the battlefront. We only have the recruits of the reservoir service.”

The other added, “About evacuating. The passageways had been destroyed by the wild beasts; we would have to spend some effort in clearing them. We may encounter more wild beasts in the process. Sir, are you sure about the evacuation?”

They had not evacuated for that very reason.

The mayor turned even paler. No more back-up forces? Is this the end of the Hancheng Base City?

It seemed that the old major had lost all of his vigor in that second, which saddened everyone. Right then, another piece of information arrived.

“It’s about the east side!”

“There’s a third beast king, but this one is going after the other two beast kings! The third one is fighting the two already!”

“Someone came to help!”

“I see a person standing on that beast king! We have reinforcements! We have reinforcements!!”

The person who called in to report sounded excited, happy enough to weep. They had been saved from hell.