Astral Pet Store (WN)

Chapter 357 Two Skills

“Ding!”

“Confirmed: the host’s battle pets have achieved ‘energy strengthening’ and ‘property strengthening’. “30% completion of [Elementary Trainer mission). The host can draw second and third rewards. The host shall finish drawing the rewards within three minutes,” the system stated all of a sudden. But Su Ping was not startled this time, since he was expecting the announcement.

“Property strengthening?”

Su Ping, however, was surprised to hear this. He remembered how he had become more resistant to lightning and how he had made progress in his strength and defense. He didn’t know that those belonged to the property strengthening part.

That was to say, freeloading Heaven’s Tests had helped him complete two parts of the mission.

The remaining part of the mission had to do with enlightening. After getting the Guide to Enlightening, the mission would have been accomplished entirely. “Begin,” Su Ping said, in case three minutes would pass. The rolling wheel that he was familiar with emerged. The many rewards were giving out a faint glow.

Su Ping’s cue made the disc begin to turn. A moment later, Su Ping stopped it.

The disc gradually stopped and a book hopped out.

“Phoenix Flame Refinement (Elementary-level).”

Su Ping was surprised. A refinement method?

“Please pick up the reward.”

“Okay.”

“Use it now?”

“Later,” Su Ping replied. He wanted to draw the second prize first. The book of Phoenix Flame Refinement turned into a beam of light and went back to his storage space. Su Ping darted one look and began to draw the second reward. The wheel started to move again. Soon after, Su Ping stopped it. Another book jumped out.

Strength Enhancement (Elementary-level).

Su Ping raised his eyebrows. It seemed that the three rewards were related to his achievements. For example, after he finished with the skill strengthening part, he got the Elementary Rules of Thunder which could be used to better the skills of his battle pets.

The Refinement book should be related to his energy refinement; it should also be able to help refine his battle pets’ energy.

As for the Strength Enhancement, that clearly was because of the property strengthening, and the effect should be the same as the other two.

Su Ping picked up the Strength Enhancement and activated the two skill books in his storage space without hesitation.

First was the Phoenix Flame Refinement.

Whoosh!

The book of Phoenix Flame Refinement turned into a puff of energy that was submerged into his forehead. A ton of information entered his mind.

In a daze, Su Ping seemed to see a phoenix flying freely in front of his eyes, flying through the vast world. That was a creature that could be compared with dragons, and there were fewer phoenixes than dragons because phoenixes were not really capable when it came to reproducing. This was an almost endangered kind.

Whoosh!

With the phoenix flying around, the fiery flame was swept across the world while burning away.

Countless substances in the world were dissipated, decomposed, and refined under the blazing flames. In the end, only a very small amount of substances remained, emitting a dazzling light.

Su Ping could see the composition of each blazing flame and the decomposing process of each substance.

That strange view opened up his mind.

A long time later.

Su Ping came back to his senses. The sight of the store returned to his eyes. He realized that less than half a minute had passed in reality. That everlasting scene he saw had only taken a short moment.

“Phoenix Flame… Refinement,” Su Ping mumbled to himself.

From the information he received, he learned that this refinement was the actual use of Phoenix Flames to purify energy; such flame was the original, which could only be found in phoenixes that were at the legendary rank. The Phoenix Flame was pure and of high temperature.

A phoenix would resort to the Phoenix Flame whenever it went through a life-threatening crisis.

Using the Phoenix Flame would hurt the phoenix itself.

Using such flames would shorten its life. As such, although phoenixes had a much longer life than other creatures, they still would exercise caution when using this power.

At the same time, the Phoenix Flame was terrifying; it could easily consume everything it touched!

Su Ping didn’t have the constitution of a phoenix; this skill was not something he could master. Still, according to that skill book, he had understood the working mechanism of the Phoenix Flame and he could run a simulation of a human-made Phoenix Flame inside him!

Of course, a human-induced Phoenix Flame would certainly be much weaker. That being said, the refining effect would be practically the same as the real deal. Besides, using this skill would not burn away his life; it would only consume some of his energy.

“Gather!”

Energy began to gather in Su Ping’s body and a flame quickly came into being.

It was more like a cluster of sparks than a flame.

The cluster’s outline resembled the shape of a phoenix. Su Ping commanded with his mind and the spark-made phoenix began to chirp happily and fly around inside Su Ping as if it had life.

Wherever the spark-made phoenix flew past, the astral powers contained in the nearby cell cores would begin to boil, and there would also be a faint puff of steam. That was a sign that the filth was being burnt off.

Su Ping was surprised to see that the astral powers inside him could be refined further by the Phoenix Flame, even after he had gone through the Heaven’s Tests.

That was to say, there were still many foreign matters in his astral powers. Su Ping thought about it and found this understandable. Maybe astral powers were pure only in plain sight. If he were to look under a microscope, he would probably see different things. The beings above the legendary realm would have even purer energy!

None of the refinement processes could be done overnight. They were arduous tasks that would involve long-term effort.

Su Ping let the spark phoenix stop. He wasn’t planning on continuing with the refinement for the time being. With just that short testing, he had sensed that he was losing energy and the pressure on his spirit was increasing. In a few hours, his astral powers would have been exhausted and so would his spiritual power.

He didn’t know that energy refinement could be so laborious.

He had to drive Su Lingyue to the venue that day. He wanted to stay in his best condition lest someone would ambush them on their way.

After all, he had learned the method and he could start the process any time in the future.

Next, Su Ping began to absorb that book of Elementary Strength Enhancement.

The name said “elementary” but that wasn’t how Su Ping saw it at all. He had grown used to how strange the system’s categorizations were.

Several minutes later.

Su Ping had digested the book of Strength Enhancement as well. It was similar to the most basic energy grooming methods used by trainers on the Blue Planet.

There was some difference, though. Strength Enhancement was not entirely about energy grooming; there were more intricate things. Apart from energy grooming, Strength

Enhancement also included energy stimulus and strength increasing runes.

Energy stimulus had the function to revitalize the original cores in the cells to inspire the cells’ potential.

The strength increasing runes was a process where runes were inscribed directly on the inner walls of the cell’s original cores. In a way, it resembled the strength augmentation skills that warriors used on their battle pets. However, the latter only had temporary effects that could be rendered useless by other skills, because the strength augmentation’s runes would only be set over skins and surfaces.

On the other hand, the strength increasing runes would become a part of the inner walls of the original cores, as if formations were engraved on them. The strength increasing runes would constantly enhance the astral powers inside the original cores. The effect would be everlasting, unless heavy injuries destroyed all the original cores in the cells.

After all, when all the original cores inside the cells were broken, that being would turn into smoke and ashes!

Strength Enhancement was one of the skills that belonged to the property strengthening category. There were other skills such as Spirit Enhancement, Speed Enhancement, and Defense Enhancement.

The skill Su Ping obtained would only aid him with the strength part.

After he digested the information, the first thing that popped into his mind was that he wanted to try engraving the speed augmentation and firmness augmentation runes—two of the four basic augmentation methods used in the Federation-onto the inner walls of his original cores in the cells. That way, he would have more than one skill in the property strengthening category. However, the process was hindered the moment Su Ping tried to engrave the first speed augmentation runes.

The runes were unable to produce any reaction from the stored astral powers. To put it simply, the speed augmentation runes were far too rough to influence the astral powers.

Su Ping was a bit depressed to see his test fail.

It seemed that he had to rely on the lucky draws or the system’s shop to get the other property strengthening skills.

“I only used the Strength Enhancement method on the cells of one finger and it has indeed helped double the finger’s strength.”

Su Ping slowly stuck out his middle finger.

The middle-finger was more powerful than the rest.

The middle-finger’s strength was doubled, and this was relative to the original strength of his finger. Similarly, once he exerted a strength equal to fifty kilograms, the runes would increase this to one hundred kilograms… By the time he could exert a strength equal to two hundred and fifty kilograms, the enhancement would turn that into five hundred. The effect would be permanent!

“If I can engrave the runes on this entire arm, and then use the ‘Fist of Exorcist’…”

Su Ping smacked his lips. He couldn’t even begin to imagine that power.