Astral Pet Store (WN)

Whoosh!

Since the stress had disappeared, Su Ping moved forward and entered the mouth of the Dark Star Dragon.

“He’s going in!”

“Has he regained his consciousness? That was fast!”

“I think I saw something horrifying in that human’s Soul Mirror…”

Many Golden Crows were astounded when they saw that Su Ping was the first one to go into the Dark Star Dragon; some had noticed the horrifying presence in Su Ping’s Force Field.

“…”

Diqiong remained silent. Once again, Su Ping had surprised her.

…

Are those Dark Blood Worms?

As soon as he went into the dragon’s maw, Su Ping saw clusters of dark worms flying toward him. Those worms were more like snakes; they were creatures of the undead.

Su Ping was not a stranger to the undead kind. He fearlessly ran to them.

Boom!

He wielded his Fist of Exorcist. A Dark Blood Worm received the attack and was dispersed like mist. The creature was reborn from the mist, although having become weaker; it immediately started to run away from Su Ping.

Su Ping would not let that happen. He went after the worm and punched it repeatedly. The worm was only half its original size in the end.

“Let’s go!”

Su Ping grabbed the worm’s tail and yanked it out of the Dark Star Dragon’s mouth.

Seeing him reemerge from the beast shocked the Golden Crows yet again.

It had been a matter of minutes ever since Su Ping went in. How could he have subdued and captured a Dark Blood Worm that quickly?

The young Golden Crows were still countering the dragon’s evil energy when Su Ping came out. He cast them a look and then flew toward Diqiong without delay.

Halfway through, he was shocked to find that a load had been lifted off from his hand. The Dark Blood Worm was gone.

Su Ping stopped at once.

“You’ve passed the second round.”

The Chief Elder’s voice resounded in his mind.

Su Ping was able to breathe. So, he passed the second round. That was to say, the Dark Blood Worm he had just captured must have been taken back by the dragon.

What a stingy dragon!

It wasn’t like he was going to take the worm away with him or anything.

Anyway, Su Ping went back to the place where Diqiong was and waited for the third round.

As Su Ping flew back, two young Golden Crows managed to break free; one of them was the one that had threatened Su Ping just then.

The two Golden Crows were flying toward the mouth of the Dark Star Dragon.

“You got lucky,” said Diqiong, keeping its gaze on Su Ping for a while and eventually looking away; all to pretend that his performance was undeserving of praise.

Su Ping rolled his eyes. “Lucky? I passed because I’m good!”

“Bah.”

Diqiong sneered. “You wouldn’t have found one so easily if that Dark Star Dragon hadn’t cut you some slack and straight off given you a Dark Blood Worm.”

“What?” Su Ping did not understand. The Dark Blood Dragon was making things easy for me?

Su Ping noticed the two young Golden Crows fly into the mouth and disappear into its depths.

On the other hand, just then, he had found a Dark Blood Worm as soon as he entered the mouth. Being the case, Su Ping trusted that Diqiong was not lying to him. But he couldn’t understand. “Why would the dragon do that?”

Diqiong was tongue-tied.

You’re asking why the Dark Star Dragon did that?

Diqiong had also noticed that presence in Su Ping’s Soul Mirror. Being a Golden Crow with an emperor-level bloodline, Diqiong was more sensitive to such terrifying presences since birth.

Diqiong had a general idea why the Dark Star Dragon was making it easy for Su Ping: it was merely afraid of dying.

“Humph!”

Diqiong didn’t share its discovery with Su Ping.

It wasn’t like Diqiong could have told him that he had scared the Dark Star Dragon. That would only make his smug attitude to worsen.

Su Ping was speechless. What’s wrong with this bird? It didn’t finish the sentence!

While Su Ping and Diqiong were talking, the Dark Star Dragon was hovering in the sky and its roars were intimidating. Even some of the adult Golden Crows were shuddering in fear. Many of them had taken a few steps back.

Half an hour later.

The two young Golden Crows that had gone ahead of the others and into the dragon’s mouth were coming back. Su Ping saw them but couldn’t recognize them; he didn’t care who the Golden Crows were as long as he had passed the trial.

As for the ranking, he couldn’t care less about it. He found no fun in boasting to a flock of birds. It wasn’t like he was talking to some pretty girls.

The other young Golden Crows broke free from the evil energy’s influence, then flew into the dragon’s mouth one after the other. The onlookers cheered as the first two young Golden Crows returned.

Feeling bored as they waited, Su Ping sat on the twig and closed his eyes to cultivate.

“Stu… system, didn’t you say that the hope for me passing the Golden Crow’s trial was slim?” Su Ping asked.

He didn’t care about the ranking, but he could tell that he had been doing pretty well up to that point.

He was ranked No. 2 in the first round, and he delivered way above the passing standard!

For the second round, he was the first to go in and the first to return. That was well done.

This was not something the system expected. Su Ping began to wonder if the system was at all reliable.

“What are you getting at?”

The system didn’t sound happy because the first syllable Su Ping had uttered was just to provoke it. “You wouldn’t have passed the first round if it were 10 days ago! But, you cultivated in the last 10 days. Do you have no f*cking idea that you gained strength in your cultivation to prepare for the trial?”

“Being such an intelligent system, how come you can’t avoid that word? I cannot believe you just said that word,” Su Ping replied.

“That’s beside the point!”

“If you say so…”

Su Ping recalled how he had tried to pass the first round. He was trying to mobilize all the strength he had when he lifted that boulder, including the most updated swordplay version.

But he didn’t wield any sword, per se. He just used the swordplay theory in himself.

He used the essence.

The essence was not limited by the shapes of the weapons. He could also become a weapon!

“I think I’ve definitely progressed fast in the last ten days…” Su Ping said to himself.

The system snorted. “Of course! Apart from what you learned during cultivation, your constitution is different from ten days ago. Will you just look at this world? It belongs to the ancient times. What you sense is not astral power in the air, but the chaotic anima born from chaos!

“While being on this Celestial Star, your body has been refined hundreds of times in the past ten days!

“Your bodily strength has reached the peak of the Void State, and when you use other strength augmentation skills, your physical strength can even be compared to that of the Fate State!”

Su Ping was surprised.

My body was refined?

My physical strength could be compared to that of the Fate State?

He lowered his head. He saw that his pores were glistening. The Divine Energy inside him was richer than before.

When visiting the Demigod Burial, he would often bathe in Joanna’s spring, and he had gathered a fair amount of Divine Energy. At the moment, he noticed that most of his blood vessels had become golden; the Divine Energy inside him was twice as much as before!

I’ve stayed here for ten days and this happened?!

“This is a top-level cultivation site. The mere fact of surviving in this place is going to benefit you!” the system continued, “You’ve also been using the Chaotic Star Chart in the past ten days, thus being able to absorb chaotic anima. The result is stunning.

“Besides, you were staying in the nest of that Golden Crow with emperor-level bloodline. The chaotic anima in that nest is over a hundred times richer than in the outside!”

Su Ping blinked.

That nest?

He looked at Diqiong who was looking at the sky.

So, I profited because of that condescending bird?

Su Ping was not all happy about it, because he found that bird was indeed kind of petty.

“What you’ve gained in the past ten days can even be compared to reaching the Solar Bulwark’s second level,” the system concluded.

Su Ping nodded.

He did feel much stronger than before. He just wondered… After collecting the materials he needed and reached the second level, how strong would he become?

…

The second round lasted three days.

Of course, that was calculated based on Su Ping’s time. It was less than half a day according to the time flow on the Celestial Star.

Su Ping cultivated during those three days; he had to remind the system to keep deducting the energy points.

The daily admission fee was 9000 energy points and the renewal was automatic unless he asked to be sent back.

After the second round ended, the Chief Elder announced the result. Su Ping was No. 1!

That was within their expectations, but the Golden Crows were still stunned when they heard it from their Chief Elder.

A foreign creature was able to get first place in a trial for Golden Crows!

This foreign creature is extraordinary!

Those Golden Crows had been born in chaos, and each of them carried an outstanding combat strength. Once they reached adulthood, Golden Crows could reverse time and travel throughout the universe. And yet, they lost to a foreign creature!

“That human…”

A young Golden Crow that was being surrounded by a crowd glared at Su Ping coldly. The bird was from the He family. It didn’t get neither first nor second place in the initial round, then lost its chance at first place again!

I should be the most glamorous one, the star!

Damn it!

“Let’s see what happens in the comprehensive trial.”

“I wonder… What gave him the courage to steal our thunder? He’s underestimating us.”

“We are ancient creatures. That vermin is despicable!”

The other Golden Crows didn’t like Su Ping, either. They could not accept the fact that a foreign creature was swaggering around in front of them!

“Your time out has ended,” the Chief Elder said. Above the head of the Dark Star Dragon appeared a crack leading to nothingness. That was the Dark Star Dragon’s prison.

“You bald bird, you’re kicking me down the ladder, you know?”

The Dark Star Dragon interspersed its message with curses, but it did fly into that nothingness. The dragon’s actions belied the fact that it was a well-behaved creature.

The crack towards nothingness was closed after the Dark Star Dragon left. The Chief Elder looked at the young Golden Crows and announced, “The topic for the third round will be related to skills.

“Here we have a Tablet of Principes. The one able to stimulate the most principles will win!

“The minimum standard is three!”

A wind sprang up as the Chief Elder’s voice faded away. A great amount of massive tablets gradually descended from the sky and landed on the twigs.

The young Golden Crows were like ants when standing in front of the tables; Su Ping was like a grain of sand.