Astral Pet Store (WN)

Su Lingyue, Jiang Xingyu and their friends had found several seats among the crowd. Su Lingyue was waiting for the class to begin with a complicated mindset. Just then, they found their teacher to ask whether the new teacher was real; Cheng Shuanglin had confirmed the fact.

That sorry brother of mine is an advanced teacher of the academy? Isn’t he supposed to be looking after the shop?

Su Lingyue had been asking that question in her mind several times. As Su Lingyue believed, it was already impossible for Su Ping to surpass competitors during an entrance exam and become a student. It would be a giant joke to say that Su Ping could be their teacher.

But an advanced teacher? This is so stupid!

As someone who had spent years together with Su Ping, Su Lingyue gave no credit to what she heard. He killed a Magical Corpse Beast? If Su Ping was that good, he would have already bullied her to death at home.

The class was starting soon. Su Lingyue wanted to see what exactly was going on. It wasn’t Su Ping who appeared on the stage first, but Luo Guxue. Some of the students called out their confusion since they were expecting a different teacher, even though they also loved Luo Guxue’s classes.

“Alright, please quiet down now,” Luo Guxue introduced while looking around the crowded venue. “I’m going to present my friend, also the new teacher who recently joined our academy, Mister Su Ping.”

As soon as Luo Guxue heard about Su Ping’s lesson, she showed up in advance to back him up, so that Su Ping did not meet any trouble dealing with the students, all because he didn’t look like a very convincing teacher.

Her effort indeed paid out because several students who doubted Su Ping chose to trust her.

“You’re up. Stay calm and everything will be good,” Dong Mingsong said to Su Ping in the backstage.

Su Ping didn’t need such encouragement since he had gone through way worse situations before. Though he still appreciated the vice principal’s kindness.

He nodded and went to join Luo Guxue on the stage, immediately attracting everyone’s attention.

“That guy looks exactly the same as in the picture,” a student uttered. “Is he really our teacher?”

Using his enhanced eyesight, Su Ping slowly scanned through the students and could clearly see their facial hairs.

Next, he saw Luo Guxue’s encouraging smile; he walked past her and began addressing the students in a loud voice, while several microphones helped to convey his words to those outside the venue.

“Good day, everyone! I will be your teacher today. My name is Su Ping, Ping as in ‘peaceful’.”

Luo Guxue saw Su Ping’s confident stance and realized that her worries were unfounded.

I should have known. He didn’t seem scared in the least when dealing with that Magical Corpse Beast. Why would he be afraid in front of some students?

She jumped off the stage and quietly became another spectator.

Su Ping continued. “In a moment, I’ll be showing you something regarding Undead-type Astral Pets. You’ll learn a lot if you happen to possess an Undead pet. Or if you don’t, do not worry, for such knowledge will be of great use once you go to barren areas after graduation. There, you will run into Undead-type opponents sooner or later. Knowing how to deal with them more effectively is better than being unprepared.”

A student suddenly stood up and asked out aloud, “Mister Su, everybody’s been talking about how you butchered a Magical Corpse Beast. Is that true?”

More students mumbled something similar because they all wanted to ask the same thing. They were glad that someone was brave enough to act first.

“Yeah, I want to know it too.” “Did you really, sir??”

With someone taking the lead, more and more students joined the chaos until the order in the venue was disturbed.

Su Ping raised an eyebrow. “It is written in my resume. Are you questioning the reliability of the academy’s staff, or my strength, specifically?” The man who raised the question was indeed doubting Su Ping, though he wasn’t going to be so straightforward. “It’s not like that, Mister Su. Just, we hope that you can show us something awesome if you can.”

“He’s right!”

“Show us! Show us!”

The crowd was stirred up again.

Su Ping sighed in frustration. He planned to spend an hour there, which was barely enough to show everything he had prepared to teach the students. Persistent interruptions made him unhappy.

Time to change his way.

“Fair enough.”

Several students with bad intentions smirked when they thought they were going to see Su Ping embarrassing himself for real. Su Lingyue’s seat was pretty far from the main stage, though she didn’t need to see Su Ping’s face clearly to recognize him. His voice, that cheap coat he wore this morningshe couldn’t have mistaken these.

Apart from being surprised to see her brother actually there, she also felt a bit afraid that whatever prank Su Ping had in stock was going to get busted at this rate; their whole family would have to face the consequences of this charade. Each time Su Lingyue heard someone suspecting Su Ping’s ability, she felt her heart grasped by the claws of stress. “Come on out.” Su Ping ripped open his pet space; a small skeleton stumbled out and collapsed on the floor, causing one of its ribs to come loose.

The skeleton quickly re-installed the fallen rib bone before it drew a bone blade and began guarding Su Ping with a serious look.

Through their connection, Su Ping told it that there was no danger around.

Little Skeleton put its blade back and slowly glanced at all those present. The embers in its eye sockets flickered as if blinking.

All the students became quiet when they saw the knee-level skeleton, whereas Su Lingyue closed her eyes in despair.

This is the end, she thought. That guy mentioned something about a skeleton being his pet. So this is it. He’s going to disappoint us all.

Little Skeleton didn’t look much different from ordinary skeletons when idle, because the power of a Skeleton King was usually hidden deep inside its bones. The only thing worth noticing was that Little Skeleton was black instead of pale white.

Before anyone could express an opinion, Su Ping told Little Skeleton to go to the battle ground and show some blade work.

With a simple jump, Little Skeleton leaped several meters high into the air and landed inside another zone beside the stage.

The students watching were surprised again as they weren’t expecting the seemingly weak and squishy skeleton to move like that. Jumping was nothing impressive for Astral Pets, but it was different when a skeleton, which was usually slow and fragile, did such a thing

Little Skeleton began unleashing a dark energy cloud around its form. After displaying a brief and sharp killing intent, it raised its bone blade and slashed at the air in front of it.

Crack!

A blade aura that looked like a giant black crescent traveled a dozen meters before vanishing, leaving a large gash on the floor in its path.

Su Ping gave it another order.

Roar!

Little Skeleton took a step forward, steadied itself, and its small body unleashed a deafening bellow inside the venue.

The students on the front seats cringed as they briefly felt their minds going blank. That felt like a thousand zombies or creepy ghosts were yelling into their ears and directly assaulting their very souls!

That was the end of the performance. Since he couldn’t find any dead bodies close by, Su Ping couldn’t tell Little Skeleton to use Undead Enslaving.

“Now, back.” He opened his pet space again and retrieved Little Skeleton.

Luo Guxue silently nodded in awe while she watched. She recognized that skeleton; it was the same one who killed and enslaved a Magical Corpse Beast. She knew Su Ping had what it took to get the students under his skin.

Just like Su Ping himself, that skeleton could be deceiving on the outside. People wouldn’t know what it was capable of until they saw it with their own eyes. Behind the stage, Dong Mingsong and Feng Yanjing were both staring their eyes out after the display. No matter how Luo Guxue assured them of Su Ping’s skills, they still had their doubts. Now they didn’t have to.

As an experienced battle pet warrior, Dong Mingsong clearly saw the true prowess of the skeleton, not because of the skills it displayed, but the intensive aura of violence only possible for a being who had faced countless foes and survived.

Dong Mingsong glanced at Su Ping’s premature look again and wondered how it was possible for this young man to train the skeleton like that.

Next to Dong Mingsong, Feng Yanjing finally knew why Su Ping was hired as an advanced teacher. That deadly blade strike had told him enough. Feng Yanjing was confident in his strength and defense, yet he wasn’t so sure that he could survive from that attack if he was on the receiving end. As far as he could see, that small skeleton could absolutely win against a Magical Corpse Beast in a direct confrontation.

Moreover, Su Ping seemed to be hiding more tricks under his sleeves.

Meanwhile, the students were gazing at the giant fissure with opened jaws. Including Su Lingyue, who couldn’t believe that her “useless brother’s weak skeleton” could be so deadly.

During a dinner the other day, Su Ping mentioned that his skeleton was “pretty good.” At that time, Su Lingyue thought her brother found a random pet and saw it as a treasure because he had never dealt with many Astral Pets before.

But this… this was more than “pretty good.” Not even elite skeletons of high ranks could effortlessly cut the ground open like that!

Su Ping looked around the venue, before he fixed his sights on the man who openly questioned him a moment before. “Was that good enough?”

The addressed student was blushing furiously. That blade slash might not be enough to kill a Magical Corpse Beast, but no pets in that venue could do better than that, that was for sure.“Yes-yes, sir. I’m sorry…” “Sit down then. Let’s begin our lesson.”

Another student who was standing at the edge of the venue without a seat spoke up, “Mister Su, that skeleton is only one of your, um, average pets, right? Do you have any high-rank ones on you?”

He tried to be polite, which meant he was truly curious about the question.

“Yeah. I wonder what is his strongest pet?” another student followed up.

“A Magical Corpse Beast is of the upper eighth rank. He has ninth-rank pets, right??”

Ninth-rank pets meant the strongest ones below Beast Kings. Of course everyone wanted to see one.

“High-rank pets, huh?” Su Ping knew what they were expecting. “Yeah, I have one. But I have yet to start training it.”

He lifted his hand and summoned the Inferno Dragon whelp.