Astral Pet Store (WN)

"All right;we've got the key. Let's wander around while we wait for the end of the trial," said Su Ping after the celebration.

The rest could only accompany him, seeing how cautious he was. Only a day and a half remained.

Everybody kept searching, following Su Ping's lead;they found a lot of Star Lords in hiding.

Finally, the last day arrived.

All the Star Lords were gathered around Su Ping. They belonged to various star zones;it was the first time they had met Su Ping, a Star State cultivator from the Golden Star Zone.

Maybe with the key he would rise to the Celestial State directly after the trial.

Su Ping searched the shrunken central continent for the remaining Star Lords, but he didn't meet anyone he knew. He didn't see the girl named Wanyan Shuang, either, who was probably dead. He wasn't really bothered, as she had chosen her own path.

There were 142 survivors in the end, and twenty more tokens.

Su Ping heaved a sigh. Even though he didn't kill many people, countless top geniuses had perished during the trial;every success was founded on countless bones.

The sky above the entire central continent opened up at the last second. Then, everybody saw twelve enormous faces that belonged to the twelve Celestial experts.

They seemed to be elsewhere, and were only there as projections.

The twelve experts were surprised;none of them expected the last moment to be that peaceful. They were supposed to be fighting hard until they entered.

Even if the battle had ended prematurely, it should have been a gory sight.

However, everybody had gathered there, and there was no signs of battle.

"Have you found the key?" asked a middle-aged Celestial expert who looked as majestic as an emperor. His voice echoed in everybody's ears, making many people change their expressions and fall on their knees.

Twelve Celestials were much more intimidating than meeting them separately.

However, every participant was a top Star Lord. They were in awe, but they still kept their grace.

"Replying to you, master. It's been found…" said a Star Lord in the crowd, clasping hands in salute. He glanced at Su Ping with a bitter voice.

The twelve Celestials noticed his expression. A warm and gentle Celestial State expert said slowly, "Who has the key? Please present it;we will trigger the key and send you to the third test immediately."

Everybody fixed their envious and jealous eyes upon Su Ping, while trying their best to hide their emotions.

"I do."

Su Ping didn't keep it a secret;it was impossible to, anyway. He simply took out the key;the stone plate glowed instantly, emanating the power of laws. "Su Ping?"

Shen Huang was thrilled, seeing the direction where everybody was looking and thinking it was Shuai Qianhou who had acquired the key. However, it was Su Ping who was holding it.

He was rather dazed;he didn't see it coming, either.

Not just Shen Huang. The other Celestials were also dumbfounded to see Su Ping.

All of them could clearly see Su Ping's level. Mu Shen and several others even recognized that he was the astonishing genius who had participated in the Universe Geniuses' Contest a while back.

The man had shocked the entire universe by condensing a small world with a Fate State cultivation.

Out of everyone's expectation, he was also the greatest winner of this trial!

All of them looked at Shen Huang with shock and suspicion.

Obviously, it was uncanny for Su Ping-a mere Star State cultivator—to excel in such a way and obtain the key.

The only explanation was that Shen Huang had played a trick.

Shen Huang recovered from the shock, but he was still lost for words upon noticing the other Celestial's expressions.

Stop overthinking. I didn't do anything!

He was puzzled by the whole situation;both Shuai Qianhou and Diaz were there, but the others were not. They were probably dead. Still, Su Ping shouldn't have gotten the key.

Shuai Qianhou had the ultimate treasure;it was impossible that someone like Su Ping would take it away.

So weird…

"What a shame. We disrupted the time and space on this continent to restrain each other. Even we cannot reverse the flow of time and see what happened there…" sighed a Celestial State expert with a frown.

He was truly curious, and wanted to know the reason. He also had another speculation…

The other Celestials looked at Shen Huang thoughtfully in silence.

"Humph. A Star State kid got the key? There must be something wrong. Boy, did you do something? It was supposed to be a fair competition;how did you manage to cheat?" said one of the Celestial State experts with a scolding tone.

The rest of them turned to gaze at Shen Huang.

Shen Huang was rendered speechless. He was as puzzled as everybody else, and yearned for an explanation too. However, while facing the suspicion and hostility of the other Celestials, he said coldly, "We made arrangements to prevent any of us from cheating. Do you think I was capable of challenging the restraints that all the twelve of us set up together?

"Humph, maybe you can't. But how did your disciple get the key? He's barely in the Star State. What a terrible actor!" demanded the Celestial expert.

Shen Huang snorted and replied, "You have to ask your disciples for the answer. Maybe my disciple isn't too strong;your disciples are just too weak!"

He was actually unsure when he said that.

If Shuai Qianhou had the key, he would've said something along the lines of ‘my disciple is the strongest, so he gets the key'. He wouldn't have been plagued by doubts.

However, he wasn't confident of endorsing Su

Ping.

After all, he knew many of the Star Lords present. Shuai Qianhou, for example, was too strong for Su Ping to beat.

"They're weak? Should we have them battle it out?" said the Celestial expert angrily.

Shen Huang sneered and replied, "What a sore loser! If the winner of the duels gets the key, then what's the point of the trial? The winner is king. The result is clear: my disciple has the key, which means that he was destined to have

it!"

"Humph, you want to solve this with talks of destiny? We took that into consideration. There couldn't have been any fortuitous incidents! If you can't explain it, I'll do it for you: you cheated. You gave your disciple an Ascendant State pet, or maybe an unrestricted Ascendant State ultimate treasure!"

The Celestial State expert roared in the end, "That's how your disciple swept the competition, defeating all the Star Lords in the universe!"

"Where's your evidence? You'll be punished accordingly if you don't stop smearing us!" said Shen Huang with a gloomy expression.

"Come on and have a try!"

"Enough!"

The other Celestials intervened in time.

After all, it was unnecessary for the two Celestials to fight. The battle would be prolonged, never reaching a clear outcome. At worst, they would only end up with injuries.

They were too old and experienced to really fight a life-and-death battle, reacting according to the spur of the moment.

"This whole thing is too uncanny. Shen Huang, even if we believe you, you cannot offer a convincing explanation. You wouldn't mind if we examine your young disciple, would you?" asked another Celestial expert who wanted to examine Su Ping;maybe by searching his memories, or maybe in other ways.

But anyway, it would definitely hurt Su Ping tremendously.

Shen Huang changed his expression and roared, "This is the result. Are you going to violate our agreement? My disciple has the potential to rise to the Celestial State, even without the legacy. You'll destroy him if you examine him!"

"It's just the potential. There have been dozens of people who had the potential to rise to the Celestial State;who remembers them?" remarked another Celestial with a casual tone.

"In fact, that's unnecessary;all we need to do is ask the other participants," said some of the other Celestials.

"Indeed. Even if he cheated, the other people must be well aware of it," another Celestial expert supported Shen Huang. They were the latter's old friends. They didn't step up sooner because they had their own concerns.

Shen Huang said coldly, "That's right. investigate your own disciples if you want to investigate. Search their memories and see how they failed!"

"Humph!"

"Shen Huang, be prepared for the consequences if you cheated!" threatened one of the Celestial State experts.

Shen Huang remained cold and silent.

He put up a stubborn front, partly to defend Su Ping and partly to defend his own dignity. It would be a slap in his own face if his disciple was investigated that easily, then it would be a slap in the face.

Deep down, he knew he didn't cheat, but he couldn't yet figure out how Su Ping had managed to acquire the key either.

There was probably one explanation only. Did the untraceable being supporting Su Ping from the shadows lend Su Ping a hand? He put on a grim expression at the thought.

The Celestial experts had been communicating in another time and space;Su Ping and the others couldn't hear them. Once they reached a decision, one of the Celestials asked, "Hongyue, how did he get the key?"