Astral Pet Store (WN)

Pressured by Su Ping’s gaze, the four had to say what they were looking for; only two kinds could be found in the store.

He randomly collected pet food in the cultivation sites, never aiming for bulk or variety. The other pet stores would grow or procure pet food for all families and all ranks of pets. That was basic for pet stores.

The four were surprised after seeing that Su Ping had only been able to find two of the ones they were looking for. Still, they held down the urge to ask questions after the recent scare.

They were the customers… and Su Ping was polite… but somehow, they felt a knife was being held to their throats. “This is Diamond Dragon Grass, which is suitable for your battle pet, the ninth-rank Three-clawed Flame Dragon. Unit price is 1.85 million astral coins.” Su Ping handed over the grass.

“Did you say 1.85 million astral coins?”

The four were wide-eyed. One measly bite of pet food was that expensive?

They would have to spend over ten million if the dragon wanted to take a few more bites!

They were at the titled rank and were quite well off. Still, spending almost two million in one blow was a bit of a stretch. It’s just one bite! That’s outrageous!

The middle-aged team leader asked, “Do you accept payment by card?”

“You don’t have to do that,” Su Ping said, “I told you. You can enjoy getting anything below ten million for free.”

The middle-aged man replied, “I cannot do that… I have to pay. I insist.”

“If you say so.” Su Ping nodded. He didn’t turn the man down.

The middle-aged man: “…”

I was just being polite because I was afraid you would target me!

Why did you agree to that? The middle-aged man smiled instead of revealing his frustration. He swiped his card while cursing inwardly.

He took over the glass jar that Su Ping handed him. The man found that the jar was hot and the heat was radiating from that diamond-shaped red grass blade inside the jar.

How could a single blade of grass give off such heat? His interest was piqued; the man observed the grass in more detail.

“This is a Thunder Vein Fruit, suitable for all battle pets of the thunder family. I only have two left and they are sold at 1.5 million each. You can have both if you want.” Su Ping took another jar from behind the counter. The two purple fruits were the size of cherries and the veins on the surface were twisted, like dragons.

“Well….”

The old man who was talking with Su Ping felt his jaw drop. Three million for two fruits?

This man is robbing us!

Since that middle-aged man had made the previous purchase, the old man decided to buy the fruits after a moment of hesitation… He would consider it as money being spent to fend off evil.

“Do you need anything else?” Su Ping asked.

The four shook their heads at the same time. Nah. We’re good.

Saying yes was daunting at this point. No kidding. Even pet food is forbiddingly expensive. They could not even imagine how expensive the rest of the items were!

They pocketed their stuff, said goodbye and left.

The four then finally felt they could breathe again after they went out the door. The main pet store in the Longjiang Base City was… a trap! They hurried away and soon began to fly. They were heading to the uptown area where they had recently moved into.

“I cannot believe I had to pay three million for the two fruits. F*ck! I thought we were making quick cash in the past. This is what making quick cash really looks like. So, this is how things move in Longjiang…”

“What a dirty base city!”

“I agree…” The four’s hearts were still fluttering with fear.

“Anyway, I cannot believe that battle pet is real. The Void State. Heavens! Can you imagine that?”

“I’m wondering if we were suffering from some illusionary skills. I still cannot buy it. It is beyond reason that a store like that can sell a battle pet at the Void State. Or, do you think the actual boss is a legendary battle pet warrior?”

“I heard that a member from the Qin family has reached the legendary rank. Is the store one of the Qins’ businesses?”

“I’m just glad that we didn’t do anything out of impulse. I’m sure that we would have died miserably if we had fought a legendary battle pet warrior!”

They looked at each other, still panicking. They had just gone out to find food for their pets, but they almost ended up becoming someone else’s food!

That store was surely being run by brigands!

Su Ping turned his attention to Tang Ruyan after the four customers left.

“Heehey… I’m sorry…” Tang Ruyan laughed a hollow laugh and apologized sincerely.

“Sorry for what?” Su Ping said calmly.

“Sorry that I teased them. I shouldn’t have bragged…” Tang Ruyan said quickly and stole a glance at Su Ping.

Su Ping was unable to get angry at her looking like that; he merely snorted to show his attitude. “I’m glad you realize what you did. I don’t care if you’re the head of the Tang family. Remember this: you are my employee while you’re here, and your duty is to receive customers. If they don’t offend you, you cannot offend them. Do you understand?”

“Yes, I do. I do…”

Tang Ruyan bobbed her head with unfettered enthusiasm. Her attitude could not be better.

Su Ping added snappily, “Don’t be so goody-goody now. You almost destroyed the store’s fame. Tell me. What should I do to you?”

“You can do whatever you want…” Tang Ruyan suddenly blushed. “You will have to clean the bathroom for a month,” Su Ping said.

Shocked, Tang Ruyan raised her head and looked at Su Ping with her watery eyes. “That would be an awful waste of my skills. I can warm up your bed or get you drinks instead. How about that?”

“Getting me drinks is part of your job,” Su Ping said, “And I am too busy cultivating to sleep in beds.”

“If you have nothing to object to, this will be the end of the discussion.”

“No, I do object. Can’t you think of something else?”

“Since you already said yes, we will start from today. I will leave the bathroom duties to you during this month.” In the meantime, Su Ping told the system that it didn’t have to take care of the bathroom in the store.

The system answered gladly, “Yes, sir!”

“You…”

Tang Ruyan was dumbstruck. Su Ping then left without hesitation. Tang Ruyan was so pissed she wanted to crush something but the only thing in her hands was air.

In the meantime, the four titled battle pet warriors had already returned to their residence. One of them teased the two who had bought the pet food, “Do you want to find out the effects of millions of worth of pet food?”

The middle-aged team leader and the old man looked at each other. The old man snorted and opened up a swirl; amid lightning bolts, a ninth-rank Thunder Horn Pegasus stepped out.

“Eat this.”

The old man opened the jar and threw the two fruits to the Thunder Horn Pegasus which seemed to be quite interested in the fruits; it opened up its mouth and swallowed the fruits whole.

The two cherry-sized fruits were not enough to make it feel full.

Still, the Thunder Horn Pegasus seemed to be ecstatic. It stomped the ground with its hooves; moments later, strong bolts of lightning surged out from the pet.

“Huh?”

The titled battle pet warriors were surprised. Three of them stepped away, in case they would get hurt.

The old man stood on the spot, wondering what was happening to his ride.

He saw that the lightning bolts around the Thunder Horn Pegasus were growing until the Thunder Horn Pegasus was submerged in lightning. A few minutes later, the lightning bolts began to contract, converging on the pet’s horn. The horn was getting thicker and thicker!

“Is it growing up?” The old man opened his eyes wide.

His Thunder Horn Pegasus had a bloodline at the upper position of the ninth rank but the pet had just reached the ninth rank. However, it broke through to the intermediate position because the thunder grains on its horn had increased from three to six!

The Thunder Horn Pegasus gradually calmed down but it was obviously happy. It rubbed its head against the old man’s neck, while the latter was at a complete loss. The other three were also speechless.

Two fruits and the pet grew. How strange!

Soon, the two of them turned their gazes to the middle-aged man. He looked at the Diamond Dragon Grass and he was full of anticipation. Would his battle pet…

Soon, he summoned his Three-clawed Flame Dragon, a beast with bloodline at the peak of the ninth rank. But the dragon was not that powerful when compared with other dragons. An Inferno Dragon could have overwhelmed a Three-clawed Flame Dragon by its mere presence.

Even so, that dragon was still a good battle pet. “Here.”

The middle-aged man opened the jar and the surge of heat surprised and excited him.

He used astral powers to pick up the Diamond Dragon Grass and feed it to the Three-clawed Flame Dragon.

The latter had a lazy look in its eyes, but that soon changed upon seeing that blade of grass. The beast then concentrated, keeping a firm gaze upon the blade of grass. The dragon had stuck its tongue and eaten that blade of grass before the grass even reached its mouth.

The red blade of grass appeared to be tiny when compared to the dragon’s mouth.

The middle-aged man could tell that his battle pet was happy and thrilled. He was also getting excited. His dragon pet had reached the intermediate position of the ninth rank. A dragon would be perfectly safe after being able to reach the upper position; it would be perfectly safe unless it had to deal with some beast kings!

A few minutes later, the Three-clawed Flame Dragon roared so loudly that the others in the neighborhood were alerted. The Three-clawed Flame Dragon’s scales were trembling and its wings were flapping. The dragon seemed to be in so much pain that it was going to fall at any time.

The middle-aged man was able to sense that the dragon was experiencing pain and a burning sensation. Is this food harmful to the dragon? the middle-aged man asked himself.

He was anxious but there was nothing he could do, other than sharing his astral powers with the dragon.

But the Three-clawed Flame Dragon seemed to be in a much bigger pain. Its cry was miserable.

The dragon scales began to crack and the wings began to crack as well. The broken pieces of dragon scales fell to the ground, like burned pieces of skin. The dragon fell to the ground and its bones were making sounds.

“Damn it. Why!”

The middle-aged man stared at his battle pet in agony. He was losing his mind. Was he sending his own battle pet to his death?

Roar!

The next second, he heard a different kind of dragon roar.

It was similar to the dragon’s previous roar and yet different at the same time. The new roar was more violent!

And it had been the Three-clawed Flame Dragon that was roaring!

While the middle-aged man’s gaze held surprise, the dragon pet’s wings were split; new wings emerged, and from the wound new wings were developed; they were larger, and they had sharp spines on them. New dragon scales were growing out as well. The new dragon scales were of a blood red color.

“Is, is that…”

“I think the dragon has just mutated…” The other two titled battle pet warriors were transfixed.

The Three-clawed Flame Dragon was much more intimidating than before.

The cry of misery vanished. The Three-clawed Flame Dragon stood up again; But this time, the dragon seemed to have become a king of fire.

“I’ve never seen any dragon like this in the Illustrated Book. I think this is a mutation…”

“So intimidating. I’ve only felt such power among the top ten dragons.” “Is it all because of the pet food?” The old man approached the others with a dull look on his face.

He still thought that he had been extremely lucky that the food made the Thunder Horn Pegasus grow. However, this middle-aged man’s dragon mutated directly!

The middle-aged man came back to his senses. The bond of contract confirmed that this familiar and yet strange dragon was his Three-clawed Flame Dragon. “What is that?”

“A battle?”

From the distance came many titled warriors while living nearby.

The middle-aged man then sent his Three-clawed Flame Dragon back to the contract space, but he was still all worked up.

Once could be a coincidence but not twice.

It was beyond comprehension, for that pet food to have such effects!

No wonder that was the best pet food in Longjiang!

Remembering that Su Ping still had much more pet food at the store, the middle-aged man turned around and left; he had to get there.

“Hey, what’s up?”

Someone arrived and stopped them.

An old man with gray hair and a pair of emerald earrings came out from the ground. He smiled a refined smile, “Oh, it’s you. Tell me. What’s that noise?”

The middle-aged man seemed to be scared of the old man. He told the old man their story after a second of hesitation.