Astral Pet Store

“Can we reply to them?” Nie Huofeng asked the worker after finding out that the message had been decrypted.

The worker shook his head and said, “Sir, it’s impossible to send a reply with the technology available on the Blue Planet just yet. Our atmosphere is covered by an extraordinary energy layer. I don’t think the visitors outside know what’s going on down here.

“We can only send out light with the latest technology we’ve developed if we want to reply; it’s the only thing that the energy layer doesn’t block. We’ll send out a message with light bursts and inform them that there’s an established and non-primitive civilization on this planet.”

Nie Huofeng looked at Su Ping, who then raised his palms; he didn’t know anything about that technology, nor was he interested in learning it.

“Okay.” Nie Huofeng nodded.

It could be deduced from the message that the people outside didn’t know what was happening on the Blue Planet. The extraordinary energy that had facilitated the leap must have blocked their probing.

It would be quite a mess if they considered their planet as an undeveloped place.

The worker looked at Su Ping. After confirming that there was no objection, he nodded and said, “I’ll have to invite some specialists…”

“Invite anyone you need!” announced Nie Huofeng, waving his hand.

“Yes, sir!”

…

While the reply was being prepared, Nie Huofeng took Su Ping somewhere else and gave the Lord Badge to him. “Brother Su, you can register now. I’ve already removed my information from it.”

The badge resembled a green crystal; he infused it with astral power and a dark vortex popped up. A bizarre absorption power was then spread out.

“You only need to imprint your soul and astral power in it,” said Nie Huofeng.

Su Ping examined the dark vortex and found no danger. Then, he finally injected his spiritual and astral power into it.

The dark vortex disappeared after the injection. Su Ping instantly felt as if something was linked to his head.

“Lord of Planet No.801013 in the galaxy is applying for registration…”

“Recording your soul and astral power…”

“Recording completed. Please enter your name.”

Several emotionless, mechanical voices echoed in his head.

Su Ping almost thought that the system was messing with him, but then he realized that it wasn’t. The system was quite good at playing dumb, whereas the voices he had just heard were more like genuine mechanical voices.

“The planet number is 801013?”

Su Ping looked at Nie Huofeng, confirming that he wasn’t hallucinating.

“Yes. Did it ask you to enter your name? You can enter anything,” said Nie Huofeng with a smile, “The Lord Badge is a multifunction tool; it can work as a map in an interstellar exploration, which records almost 90% of the Federation. On top of that, it’s also a receiver!

“Once you’re registered as a lord, you can use the badge to enter a virtual world exclusive to lords. You’ll be able to meet the lords of other planets and make friends with them, share intelligence or even practice with them in the virtual arenas…”

He looked at the green crystal badge affectionately.

Su Ping was slightly surprised. What’s this technology? He didn’t know anything about it.

It’s possible to make friends with other lords and practice with them in a virtual world? All with this tiny badge?

“Have you practiced with anyone before?” asked Su Ping curiously.

Stunned, Nie Huofeng blushed and coughed. “I was merely at the Fate State when I became Lord of the Blue Planet. All the other lords I encountered were of the same rank, but they were unwilling to practice or talk with me after they learned where I came from. Otherwise, I would’ve invited them to modify our planet!”

Su Ping was enlightened by this. After considering what the man said in the end, he remarked mockingly, “Even if you had managed to make friends with them, you probably wouldn’t have invited them, would you? Didn’t you keep the Lord of the Deep Caves for yourself?”

Stunned for a moment, Nie Huofeng said with a bitter smile, “Brother Su, would you please let the matter rest? I gave you the astral power that had been accumulated for a thousand years. You were the one who got to enjoy everything…”

“I got it because of my own ability. You didn’t give anything to me.” Su Ping snorted, unwilling to owe him a favor.

Nie Huofeng’s lips twitched. He couldn’t argue with Su Ping, as the Blue Planet would’ve been destroyed without his help…

He heaved a sigh.

Su Ping didn’t press further since the latter didn’t reply. To change the subject, he asked, “Then, did you make no friends even after you reached the Star State?”

Nie Huofeng said with a bitter smile, “Those in my level never bothered to talk to me. The cultivation techniques on the Blue Planet are too weak; equally ranked experts in the Federation can crush us. I couldn’t even resist one attack from any of the Star State experts!

“They can even execute Void State Legends while only being in the Ocean State!”

He sighed and continued, “That’s the reason why I sent out the geniuses of our Blue Planet, hoping they could fetch the powerful techniques of the Federation…”

Su Ping raised his brows and snorted. “You’re simply too weak. It’s not unusual for someone in the Ocean State to kill a Void State enemy.”

Nie Huofeng was stunned for a moment. He finally realized he was only embarrassing himself by talking about that in front of Su Ping.

Su Ping had killed a Star State foe while he was only a legendary warrior.

Why bother talking to such a monster?

“By the way, what’s your registered name?” asked Su Ping.

Nie Huofeng was quite gloomy, but he casually flashed a proud smile when he heard the question. “Your name must be special, so that it’s easier for others to remember you. My name was Fire Cloud Evil God. How does it sound?”

“…”

Why didn’t you call yourself James Bond?

Su Ping was speechless. He wondered about what name to choose.

He would rather not use his real name if it wasn’t necessary; it was always great to keep a low profile. He pondered over calling himself Yan Shuangying¹.

Su Ping quickly remembered that his main purpose was to make money; everything he did should aim toward that purpose. His name could be the best self-advertising tool when he met other lords.

Then, should I name myself…

I’m a Pet Raiser and Seller Contact Me If You’re Interested?

He was dead serious about it. He focused his attention on the virtual dialog box in his head and entered the name.

“The nickname is available. Confirm?”

“Yes!”

The registration was completed!

Su Ping was quite delighted. He had worried for a moment, wondering if the name was too long. It seemed that many people in the vast Federation had long names!

“Personal information checked. Lord of Planet No.801803 in the galaxy, ‘I’m a Pet Raiser and Seller Contact Me If You’re Interested’, has been registered. The information about the planet is as follows. Please confirm…”

Very soon, the basic information of the Blue Planet popped up in Su Ping’s head.

Blue Planet: Tier-5 planet!

Coverage…

Ocean coverage…

Mass…

Average Astral Power Density…

Population…

Su Ping’s head was dizzy after a quick glance, so he decided to review the information later.

The population on the chart was still 13.2 billion, which was still the number before the catastrophe. A fine or even more severe punishments might be imposed if the Federation ever got to inspect the information.

“How did it go? Did you complete the registration? What’s your nickname?” asked Nie Huofeng curiously.

Su Ping shook his head. “It’s a long story.”

“?”

Nie Huofeng was somewhat confused by such a reply.

Su Ping was the only one who could read the newly registered name.

After finally hearing the name, Nie Huofeng was so shocked that three eggs could fit in his mouth. “B-Brother Su, are you kidding?”

“Do I strike you as the comical sort?” asked Su Ping.

Nie Huofeng was at a loss for words. Comical my a**!

You’re the Lord of the Blue Planet, and yet you chose such a stupid and demeaning name. Do you not have any face at all?

What will other lords think when they see that?

Su Ping knew what was on Nie Huofeng’s mind the moment he saw his expression. He patted the latter’s shoulder and said, “You haven’t realized that the face is just a superficial thing. Nobody can slap it if you don’t have one. Don’t overthink.”

“…”

That sounded all too reasonable and irrefutable.

Nie Huofeng stood still with contorted lips for quite a while.

It wasn’t until a long time later that Nie Huofeng finally reacted. He gave a bitter smile when he saw how unconcerned Su Ping was. Then came a sudden though: he wondered how the other lords would feel after being defeated by Su Ping while he used such a stupid name…

He couldn’t help but grin at the thought of that; he could almost picture their weird expressions.

“I’m leaving in three days, so I need to say goodbye to other people,” Su Ping didn’t waste his time and simply said, “Inform me if you receive another message from those spaceships.”

Nie Huofeng came back to his senses and nodded. “I’m on it.”

…

Su Ping left the place and visited his friends.

Although he might return, there was no telling when that would be. Su Ping found Ye Wuxiu, Li Yuanfeng and the others and informed them of his decision.

All of them were shocked, and could only ask for reasons.

Su Ping didn’t tell them the details; they didn’t insist after seeing that he was reluctant. Their feelings were all jumbled up.

They eventually decided to throw a farewell party in his honor.

Apart from Ye Wuxiu and the others, Su Ping also saw a lot of familiar faces in the reestablished Trainers Association behind the defense lines, but he didn’t say goodbye to them; after all, he would come back sooner or later. It was pointless to say goodbye to them. Ye Wuxiu and the others, on the other hand, were the Blue Planet’s top forces; it was important for them to know where their lord was.

Su Ping stared at the scarred land while floating high in the sky. He felt troubled as he saw the busy workers who were repairing and renovating the buildings.

Departure was always upsetting.

After gazing for a long time and finally calming down, Su Ping returned to the shop and told his parents he had to leave. He couldn’t tell them the real reason and had to come up with an excuse.

His parents didn’t ask further, given his lofty position and identity. They might not understand the things he saw from his perspective.

Both of them chose to stay; they were unwilling to leave the Blue Planet and explore a new place. The mature couple preferred enjoying the familiar sceneries and to reminisce about the past.

Su Ping didn’t want to take them against their will.

As for Su Lingyue, she didn’t choose to go either, which surprised Su Ping.

He had thought that she would definitely insist on going out and seeing the world, considering her personality. He didn’t expect that she would decide to stay.

However, Su Ping realized something when he saw her clenched fists.

…Is she unwilling to hold me back?

His eyelids twitched, but he didn’t say anything. He had already forgiven certain people, but they might not have forgiven themselves yet.

Su Ping made a silent promise: The day I really become strong, I’ll give you a vaster and more splendid sky!

Since he was moving to a new place, he dared not guarantee he could look after his sister, which made him even more anxious to become stronger!

Apart from that, Su Ping learned something else during their farewell.

His father, Su Yuanshan, turned out to be a Heaven Executor of the Longjiang Base City.

He had left home under the excuse of setting off to sea when he was actually helping with the Heaven Lock’s defense in another city that was being attacked by the Heavenly King of the Otherworld.

Su Pinig had vaguely sensed the well-hidden energy in his father’s body after he broke through. He was slightly surprised, but not too shocked, when he told him the truth.

Before he left, Su Yuanshan taught him the technique he used to hide his cultivation to Su Ping. The name of the technique was Fog Concealer!

It was an ancient secret technique that Su Yuanshan had acquired from a Mysterious Realm. It could hide a person’s strength quite effectively!

Su Ping didn’t decline the offer; it came from his family anyway. Besides, the secret technique was quite remarkable. His senses had been keen enough, and yet he had never detected the energy inside his father’s body. It was likely that not even Star State experts could notice this unless they examined him carefully!

As for his father’s real cultivation, he was at the Void State, same as all the other Heaven Executors.

Su Yuanshan was the appointed Heaven Executor in Longjiang. There were warriors two generations earlier than him; however, they weren’t related to his family by blood. They were just teachers.

Every Heaven Executor was responsible for protecting the Heaven Lock in the dark, so Su Yuanshan had never revealed his strength unless it was necessary. Su Ping’s family wasn’t well off because of this.

However, Su Yuanshan had secretly helped with Su Lingyue’s training and awakening. She had also inherited his training talent; although her potential wasn’t truly remarkable to Su Ping, she was already quite strong among her peers; her Academy grades were excellent.

Su Ping was more or less relieved to leave them behind when he learned about his father’s real cultivation.

Time quickly went by.

The unknown energy layer outside of the atmosphere was gone the next day, and a lot of spaceships then approached the Blue Planet to investigate.

Just like before, the experts in those spaceships had been blocked by the energy layer and hadn’t been able to see the planet’s condition after it suddenly popped up in their vicinity.

Since the energy had dispersed—plus the light-sent message they had previously received—they found that it wasn’t an ownerless, primitive world, but a legitimate planet registered in the Federation.

Many spaceships lost interest and flew away after confirming the fact.

Some of the remaining spaceships filed requests to land on the planet, intending to find out more about their new neighbor.

The planet was quite mediocre, based on the data collected by their spaceships.

Su Ping didn’t reject their landing requests, which actually made him feel relaxed. It seemed that the federal laws were indeed being observed in most areas in the Federation; no experts could explore them without permission.

The spaceships landed on the Blue Planet after Su Ping’s approval; Nie Huofeng had already assigned an area that would work as a port for them.

More than ten Star State experts disembarked from the spaceships; their intimidating auras made Nie Huofeng feel nervous even though he was prepared.

Led by Su Ping, Nie Huofeng, Ji Yuanfeng and the other legendary warriors welcomed the visitors.

The Star State experts contained themselves when they saw Nie Huofeng. All of them were quite surprised to find that Su Ping was the actual Lord. Some of them straight out asked him why, yet Su Ping simply responded with a smile.

The experts from various planets lost interest after learning about the details of the Blue Planet, some of them leaving right away.

After all—based on the data collected by their equipment—that planet should be a barren, underdeveloped place with little potential; it wasn’t necessary to make friends with the locals if that was the case.

…

On the third day—

Su Ping had entrusted almost everything to Nie Huofeng and Ji Yuanfeng. He didn’t know much about the Federation, so he practically delegated everything to Nie Huofeng, except for the times he had to sign documents with the Lord’s Badge.

Time went by quickly; there were only two hours left before he had to relocate.

While standing outside the shop, Su Ping bid farewell to his parents and Su Lingyue.

Only Tang Ruyan, Joanna and his disciple, Zhong Lingtong, remained inside the shop.

Tang Ruyan worked there, and Su Ping didn’t intend to leave her behind. After all, the shop was in need of hands after the upgrade, and Joanna could hardly run the shop on her own.

Zhong Lingtong wanted to broaden her horizons and experience the more advanced pet training techniques in the Federation. Su Ping was also glad to take her there.

Su Ping looked at Tang Ruyan and asked her, “Have you said goodbye to your family?”

Tang Ruyan was looking outside the shop affectionately. After hearing the question, she withdrew her gaze and said, “Yes… I stepped down from the clan master’s position and gave it to my sister.”

Tang Ruyu? Su Ping remembered the girl’s appearance, and how she had voluntarily stepped out of the safe area during the battle. He offered a silent nod in acknowledgement.

It had to do with the Tangs’ internal affairs; he had no right to intervene anyway.

“What about you?”

“I already told my family,” said Zhong Lingtong, quickly standing at attention.

“Okay…”

Su Ping didn’t say anything else but spoke to the system in his heart. “Prepare to relocate. How will we do that? With my random relocation chance? Have you been trying to manipulate me into using up that opportunity?”

“You’re overthinking,” said the system in disdain, “If I want you to do something, I can simply order you to do so. Do you dare disobey me?”

Su Ping rolled his eyes; the system was too shameless.

However, his worker status didn’t give him any leverage to resist.

“You win!” Su Ping snorted.

The system said casually, “After considering the shop’s performance and current status, I’ve narrowed the range of your random relocation to economies between tier-1 and tier-3 in this solar system. The final destination will solely depend on your luck.”

Su Ping asked, “Wouldn’t people be scared out of their wits if they saw such a huge shop pop out of nowhere?”

“Don’t worry about that. I have the miraculous power to make everybody see this as if nothing is out of the ordinary!” declared the system proudly.

“Is that so?”

Su Ping was annoyed by how cocky the system was acting. “Fine! Let’s just do it randomly!”

“Please confirm.”

“Yes, I confirm! Stop bothering me with all the useless confirmations.”

“The Pixie Pet Store is about to leap… This leap will consume one of the host’s leap opportunities. Leap destination is being selected randomly…”

“Leap countdown…”

“Three… Two… One point five… One… Zero point five…”

“…”

Enough!

Su Ping was almost unable to tolerate the system’s antics anymore.

But soon enough, the countdown reached zero.

Su Ping had already unleashed his astral power, ready to endure an earthquake-like shift, just like the planetary earthquake they had just gone through. He also covered Tang Ruyan and Zhong Lingtong with astral power.

However… One second, two seconds… and nothing happened.

Su Ping was confused. He asked the system, “What about the leap? Has it begun?”

“All done,” replied the system casually.

Shocked by the answer, Su Ping looked at the door, only to widen his eyes.

The Qin family building was no longer part of his outside view; instead there was a broad long street and pointy European style buildings.

The leap was already completed?!

Su Ping couldn’t help but blink. Why didn’t I get to hear anything?

There was no noise, at all!

It was like waiting for an explosion with taut muscles, and then not even getting a fart in the end. What am I anxious about?

“Who knows?” the peeper quickly replied.

Su Ping could picture an annoying man shrugging in his head after hearing the same old tune.

He only rolled his eyes.

At this moment, two voices came from outside.

“Mia, do you want to buy a pet? There’s a great pet shop around here and I know the manager. He can ask the master trainers to pick a pet for you,” said a male voice.

“That’s unnecessary. I just got out to buy pet food, the kind you can find in any shop,” replied a girl in an enthused tone.