Astral Pet Store (WN)

Chapter 164 Nie Chengkong

The bus of the Phoenix Peak Academy was being escorted by several veteran professors, including Cheng Shuanglin. They could have asked more of their advanced professors to join. But most of these people had gone to the Mysterious Realm either alone or with their respective settler teams.

If Su Ping were there, he would easily recognize several familiar faces apart from his sister, such as his “top customer” Zhang Baoxing, who managed to earn a ticket all thanks to the Pyro Canine.

Then there was Lu Pengfei, who was already a famous student that always landed at a nice spot on the academy’s ranking list. He had displayed an unnatural improvement during the annual matches, after which his teacher granted him an allowance and sent him there.

Su Yanying was with them, which was to be expected since she was basically the brightest “star” in the academy apart from Ye Hao.

Her friend Lan Lele didn’t tag along this time because Lan Lele’s family thought the expedition to be too dangerous to their liking. Lan Lele did have a good pet, but she wasn’t so good at fighting. As a matter of fact, Lan Lele chose to become a battle pet warrior student just to avoid being appointed as a manager of her family’s boring company instead. However, after spending some time at the Phoenix Peak Academy, she found out that inheriting the family business was actually the merrier choice.

Since “Ye Hao the Champion” didn’t join the trip, Su Yanying naturally became the center of everyone’s attention.

“This road is reserved for expeditionists like us, right?” a student asked, “Why are there so many private cars going the same way?” Cheng Shuanglin explained with a smile, “Those aren’t private, my friend. See their plates? They are specialized cars used by settlers. Civilians don’t have access to them. Be sure to show some respect if you are to meet with any of them.”

“I see!” All the students appeared excited for going to the barrens for the first time in their lives.

Su Lingyue grinned proudly as she almost had the same answer Cheng Shuanglin offered.

“But there are so many of them.”

“Tsk. I heard that many older students already found part-time work in barren areas.”

“Are any of them with these professional settlers, I wonder?”

“Hey, look at that one! It’s different from the others.”

Hearing those words, the students looked outside and saw a black SUV which was slightly bigger than the “ordinary model.” And with different decorations.

Cheng Shuanglin also looked that way. She said with a serious look, “That’s a ‘T-3 Battlefort’, a premium model that costs a ton. Only silver settlers or gold ones can afford that thing.”

The students grew restless again. They were all briefed with relevant knowledge before coming, so they didn’t accidentally offend influential people at the settler base.

“Silver settlers, huh?” Su Lingyue looked at said car carefully and wondered who was inside. She couldn’t see through the car windows.

“Phoenix Peak?” Su Ping checked the bus not far from his position and wondered how many students were in there. He was sure that his dear sister was among the chosen students as well.

Though he didn’t get to look at the bus for much time before their SUV left it far behind.

Su Ping wasn’t worried about his sister’s safety. He believed that the improved Phantom Flame Beast, added with the “Aquatic Blessing,” were enough to get the girl out of trouble. If Su Lingyue still got hurt, it had to be something he had no control over.

They reached the outer checkpoint soon and slowed down. A lot of SUVs and “school buses” were ahead of them waiting to be inspected.

When it was their turn, Ye Chenshan showed his golden badge and was granted passage right away.

They picked up speed after passing through the checkpoint, allowing them to put several more buses behind their tail. On their way, Su Ping saw a bus that belonged to the Berserking Blade Academy, as well as several faces he recognized sitting in the bus, such as Dai Yan and the big man with a bear pet.

For some reason, Luo Fengtian was not there.

Upon arriving at the settler base, Su Ping was a bit surprised to see that the entrance was as crowded and busy as a wet market. Apparently, many settlers who were heading to the Mysterious Realm had to go through there. There were too many cars jamming the flow.

Bit by bit, Ye Chenshan drove away from the crowded path and headed to an independent villa built inside the settler base.

There were several cars of the same size parked in front of the building, which told Su Ping that Ye Chenshan’s team was indeed well-off.

A group of low-rank battle pet warriors was guarding the entrance, who were probably there to earn some quick cash.

It happened that settlers who used the base as their second homes always needed assistants and errand runners. People who graduated from smaller schools could easily gather some starting funds by working there.

The guards politely greeted Ye Chenshan and carefully glanced at Su Ping to memorize his face. After spending several years at the base, all of them had learned they had to know how to tell people they couldn’t mess with. In this place, angry settlers murdering disrespectful people happened almost everyday.

While it was true that settlers were pretty generous when paying their “employees,” these employees had to stay alive to bring their money back.

After going through the entrance and walking past a few courteous servants, Su Ping saw several men sitting on sofas talking loudly in the middle of the living room, while no one was paying any attention to the flashy movie displayed inside an expensive screen.

“Guys, our helper is here!” Ye Chenshan called, making the speakers look his way.

One of the members, Luo Guxue, showed a joyful look and quickly went to meet Su Ping. “Hello, Professor Su!”

The others weren’t expecting her to act that way, even though they had heard about how Su Ping had saved her life before.

Su Ping returned the courtesy and asked, “You’re going as well?” “Of course. I’m with Team Polaris after all.” Luo Guxue was blushing as she spoke, because she thought she would only be a burden if Su Ping was there.

Unfortunately, Ye Chenshan read her reaction in the wrong way. He thought this woman was fond of Su Ping. And he felt annoyed, because Luo Guxue was the only “available woman” in the team.

Still, he was in no place to judge.

Meanwhile, Su Ping was assessing the other team members. The same went both ways.

“Boss.” Ye Chenshan walked ahead and addressed a muscular, middle-aged man.

This man wasn’t exactly big, but his build looked perfectly refined, while those chunks of his seemed to pack some serious strength.

He nodded to Ye Chanshan and spoke to Su Ping with a smile, “You’re the ‘big savior’ Chenshan and Guxue told us about, no? I’ve always wanted to thank you, my friend. Otherwise, our team would have lost not one but two valuable fighters.”

He reached out with his hand; Su Ping accepted the gesture and shook it. Even though Luo Guxue told her team about Su Ping’s exceptionally young age many times as a precaution, seeing Su Ping in person still shocked the other members for good. No one would believe it if somebody told them about a genius who was barely an adult surpassing seasoned battle pet warriors with ease.

A teenager who had killed an eighth-rank Magical Corpse Beast? That was beyond impressive. It was terrifying.

If someone so young entered the Elite Pet Warrior League, he would surely make it all the way to the continental games with a good score.

Ye Chenshan proceeded with a proper introduction. “Boss, this is Mister Su, the shopkeeper I told you about. I guess I don’t have to tell you again how he saved me and Luo Guxue, right? And Mister Su, this here is Nie Chengkong, our team leader, a renowned eighth-rank pet master.”