Astral Pet Store

Inside a cultivation site.

Boom!

While a loud, ear-splitting noise resounded, the ugly beast fell to the ground.

Standing before the fallen figure was a panting, slim girl: Tang Ruyan.

Her dark hair danced in the air; there was more coldness on her delicate face and eyes.

The gods had lost most of their territories to the beasts in that divinity realm. Countless had died after years of wars. Some of the deceased managed to resist the pull from the realms of the undead and stayed on by leveraging their Divine Energy. However, the undead and dark force had gradually affected those souls, gradually turning them into undead creatures.

There was a time when those undead creatures were gods, beasts, or the original undead creatures that had once lived there.

After becoming undead creatures, the previous gods would have a change of temper. They would be seized by the urge to take blood.

“You made a mistake there. You could have used your Glass Bulwark to fend off the spike attack because you’ve reached the peak state of the Glass Bulwark. However, you chose to dodge to the side and thereby missed the best chance and angle to strike back...”

Su Ping was giving her instructions.

Tang Ruyan had been progressing by leaps and bounds.

She had been staying in the cultivation sites day after day and training alongside Su Ping. She had absorbed a fair amount of Divine Energy in the process!

She had also absorbed the full benefit of the herbs that Su Ping had given her. She had also collected other herbs in that place. As such, she had rapidly climbed to the ninth rank; she had become a titled battle pet warrior!

She battled using all the secret skills she had learned when she was in the Tang family and Su Ping had witnessed the entire process.

After seeing her repeatedly using them, Su Ping had also learned the three most important secret skills. With some practice, he had managed to reach the peak of those skills.

That was why he could tell she could have used the Glass Bulwark and fended off the strike of the beast king.

It was true that she was fighting a beast king, but a beast king would not necessarily exert full strength at all times. Just then, it was evident that the beast king had merely wanted to nudge Tang Ruyan away. However, Tang Ruyan didn’t pick up that clue. She hopped to the side and tried to fight back, only to cost her a life!

Phew! Phew!

Tang Ruyan was trying to catch her breath. That was not the first time she had defeated a beast king. She had been thrilled at first. Right then, she had become more than used to that feeling

She did have to die five times to kill one beast king!

Of course, it was true that she wasn’t relying on her battle pets. She counted completely on herself.

She had become used to this method of battling under Su Ping’s guidance and instructions during the past few days. Su Ping had asked why she thought she couldn’t do it when her battle pets could. The thought had eventually made sense to her.

She would not have an excuse to lose if she was fighting a beast king... Su Ping had brainwashed her without her realizing that it was a false claim, to begin with.

Tang Ruyan frowned when Su Ping gave her that piece of advice. She was still under the conviction that she was dreaming. But how could all of it be that real? She could feel the improvement in her. She was sure that when she woke up from the dream-even if she was still at the seventh rank—she would still remember how she fought the battles and that would still be of great benefit to her.

It was just like it happened to people who were trying to solve math problems, later dreaming of a solution, which ended up being correct.

“I understand,” Tang Ruyan said.

She would often complain about Su Ping’s instructions at the very beginning of the training. However, after trial and error, she realized that Su Ping would always be right.

She would achieve good results if she followed Su Ping’s instructions.

She was amazed by his experience... She was also surprised, since her subconscious mind was somehow telling her how powerful that guy was!

She was speechless, after noticing how her subconscious mind would tell her such things. But she remembered Su Ping’s deeds in reality. It might be that she recognized his strength even in her dreams.

This guy is indeed a freak, even in my dreams.

“A big guy is coming. Be ready.” Su Ping did not linger on that subject. He noticed something was coming as he was about to set off.

Boom!

The ground was shaking. He heard a hoarse noise and then a foul smell assaulted him. He saw a behemoth coming toward them.

Another beast king!

That one was even more formidable than the one that Tang Ruyan had just finished. That beast king seemed to be at the Ocean State, like the Swamp War Crocodile that Su Ping once had.

Su Ping gave an order. “Finish it!”

This time, the order was not for Tang Ruyan alone. The Purple Python and the customers’ battle pets threw themselves into the fray as well.

He was training a new group of his customers’ battle pets. He had been journeying around in different cultivation sites for more than a month already.

When the Inferno Dragon saw that beast king, the former stood up and snarled, itchy to join in the fight by itself.

Contrary to its wishes, Su Ping told the Inferno Dragon to stay put.

The Inferno Dragon had gained a combat strength of 25 points after they returned from the Realm of Purple-blood Dragons; dealing with that beast king would only be a warm-up exercise at this point. The Inferno Dragon would only be a big bully for that beast king. On the other hand, the Dark Dragon Hound was lying on the ground. What a lazy dog.

In the meantime, Tang Ruyan had charged toward the beast king.

She was holding a dark sword she had picked up from a place full of remains. There had been many corpses of gods scattered about; they had died because of the many complicated traps in that location. It seemed that the owner of that place had once been a vile character; the proof lay in the structure of the buildings.

Su Ping picked up some skills books there and the skills had a sinister nature.

Some of those skills would require the user to drink blood in order to practice them. A couple of skills would affect the practitioners’ mindset and make them bloodthirsty.

Su Ping would naturally show his disdain for such sinister skills... then he would make the best of the time available and learn them.

He learned them together with Tang Ruyan.

He would not lose anything if she learned them. Besides, his sole purpose of taking Tang Ruyan to the cultivation sites with him was so that she could grow.

It was just that Tang Ruyan was not learning as quickly as Su Ping did. He had mastered the skills when Tang Ruyan was merely halfway through; the skills were of the Fate State. The skills could be too intricate for her, considering the fact that she was at the ninth rank. After all, part of the skills was related to the manipulation of space. Whoosh!

Tang Ruyan resorted to the Shadow Tracing, which increased her speed drastically. That was a legendary skill of the Ocean State and Tang Ruyan was giving her best effort. Like a ghost, she instantly reached the beast king.

Her eyes turned red and her black hair was messy. Her hair became many a machete and she wielded all the blades together with the dark sword she was holding.

She was using one of the skills she had learned together with Su Ping, Demon Possession!

That was a Fate State skill and she was just scratching its surface. She could enter the state after a fashion and could only stay at the elementary level.

Her speed, strength, and perception would increase over time while under such a state. She could also be immune to some element strikes; she would be immune to spatial strikes as well if she could practice the skill to the peak.

Pff!

The black sword left a meters-deep wound on the beast king. Blood gushed out from the wound that was not healing any time soon.

The demonic aura in the wound was sucking out the blood.

That was another skill she had learned, Sword of Blood, also of the Fate State.

It took a great deal of blood to learn that move, and the best kind of blood would be that of undead creatures’ blood. The blood would be used to refine both the sword and the user’s mind. Only when your mind was cruel could your moves be cruel!

Although wounded, the beast king was not an easy target. A dark mist surrounded the howling beast king, which locked out space; no one was able to sense anything while inside. Besides, the dark mist could secretly seep into the enemies’ bodies to devour their energy.

Su Ping had immediately sensed the oddness of the dark mist, but he didn’t warn Tang Ruyan.

If it were him, he could think of dozens of ways to kill the beast king. But he only needed her to find or devise a solution on her own.

While Su Ping was unable to see what was happening, he could sense her situation.

Roar!

The beast king bellowed as it dashed toward Tang Ruyan.

The Purple Python and the other battle pets tried to distract the beast king.

Tang Ruyan was dashing about. While in the Demon Possession state and using Shadow Tracing, she was reaching a speed close to the Ocean State.

She had managed to dodge all of the strikes. Even though she couldn’t see clearly, the Sword of Blood had lent her an ability to sense the trace of the beast king.

Charge!

Her red eyes were filled with darkness. Her hair was spread in all directions. The machetes made with her hair swiftly slashed at the beast king’s neck. That was a fatal part for the beast king. Still, her strike failed.

Because the beast king was merely an illusion!

Roar!!

A large, fierce-looking mouth reached Tang Ruyan and the sharp fangs tore her into pieces right away.

The pain came. She returned to her normal state the next second. The beast king was still roaring in her direction, clearly surprised.

Tang Ruyan realized that she had very likely just died. Frustrated, she wielded her sword again.

Several minutes later. The beast king collapsed on the ground. Tang Ruyan sat on the corpse, panting. Her hair had gone back to normal, coming down to her shoulders and shrinking to its original size. She looked pale; that battle had consumed much of her energy. “You had the battle pets fighting alongside you. Still, you died six times and you made three mistakes.” Su Ping shook his head.

Tang Ruyan was speechless. Su Ping would provide her with negative reviews, crushing her confidence after each battle. I am working hard! Those are beast kings, for god’s sake!

She said those exact words to Su Ping but he disproved of such an excuse.

She didn’t feel good saying those things to Su Ping the freak, either.

“I understand.”

She stood up. “I will be careful next time.”

She knew the mistakes she had made even without Su Ping telling her. She was mad.

She was mad at herself! If that were reality, even a small error would mean the end of her life!

Su Ping said no more since he could tell she had learned her lesson. He took a look at his watch. “It’s about time. Close your eyes.”

Tang Ruyan raised her eyebrows. “What is it about time?”

“Don’t ask.”

“I won’t close my eyes if you don’t tell me the reason.”

“Fine.”

Bang!

Before Tang Ruyan learned the meaning of that answer, she felt pain in her head and she began to lose her sight.

What the heck...

Those words were making their way toward her mouth, but she closed her eyes before she was able to utter them; the last image she saw was Su Ping standing in front of her, watching as she fell to the ground.

She saw Su Ping’s bare feet on the beast king’s corpse.

She could no longer keep her eyes open. She fainted. “Why wouldn’t you listen?”

Su Ping shook his head.

He placed her in his contract space and returned.

“She can protect herself now. It is time for her to go back home,” he murmured.

Su Ping summoned Tang Ruyan after they arrived at the store. She was still unconscious.