Astral Pet Store (WN)

Chapter 1344 Broken Finger (1)

“Well…”

Su Ping only wanted to fetch some Heavenly Fire and leave quietly; he never expected such a grand reception. Seeing that everybody was looking at him, he could only say, “Hello, everybody. I am Zha Zha Hui[1]…” “???”

Everybody was puzzled.

Su Ping coughed lightly. It was truly embarrassing to play around with memes in an alternate world.

“Dao Child?”

The master of the Red Dome Realm looked at Su Ping, feeling confused. She didn’t think that Su Ping was intimidated by the crowd, but his behavior was indeed unusual.

Su Ping stopped joking around; he asked, “Realm master, what’s this?” He solemnly stared at the stone pillar in front of him. He hadn’t paid attention to it earlier, but now that he was closer, he discovered a familiar aura inside the eye-catching pillar. However, such a familiar feeling didn’t make him feel close or intimate; instead, he was vigilant and even repelled by it.

“Huh?”

The realm master was surprised. Su Ping sensed the unusualness of this thing the moment he got here?

She didn’t say it out loud. Instead, she explained expressionlessly, “This is an innate artifact of the Fire God Palace to test one’s control over Heavenly Fire. Are you interested in giving it a try?”

“An innate artifact?”

Su Ping had picked up a lot of knowledge from the library of the Heaven Path Institute, and knew it was an artifact born in nature. He narrowed his eyes and his pupils changed, and with it the world before his eyes also changed. The surface of the pillar—which was covered in red rocks—was gone, revealing the horrifying scene inside.

“This is…”

Su Ping was shocked, as the pillar was actually a finger!

The appendage’s surface was rotten, some of the flesh gone; the bone could be seen in some parts.

Su Ping looked at the bottom of the finger; it had been severed and buried underground. He was slightly relieved. It would have been appalling to find the finger still connected to the body.

His gut told him that the previous owner was not a God Emperor; it was more likely to have been an Ancestral God. There was also a small chance it was similar to the Golden Crows’ ancestor, but quite slim at that. After all, existences like the crow ancestor were rare, even in the age of chaos.

“Just an artifact?” Su Ping looked at the master of the Red Dome Realm. He had just seen the item’s real appearance through the Original Dao World. He didn’t think that the realm master, a God Emperor, wouldn’t know the truth of the finger.

“Huh?” The realm master felt slightly dazed. Did Su Ping discover the secret inside? Impossible. He’s just become a Dao Child and his vitality aura is awfully young. How could he possibly do that?

She answered with a question of her own, “What did you see?”

Su Ping stared at her for a moment but chose not to dig further. He said, “Nothing. It’s just very interesting.”

“Interesting?”

The realm master considered what Su Ping said. On the surface, she said, “Are you interested in taking the test too? Although you have yet to practice the Heavenly Fire Technique, it can still measure your fire expertise.”

“Is that so? I can give it a try. How should I go about it?”

Su Ping’s eyes glittered since he was willing; he wanted to find out how marvelous that finger was.

“Unleash your power of fire and direct it towards the pillar,” she said with a chuckle, “Being the deputy master of this realm, you’re qualified to cultivate the Heavenly Fire Technique. I’ll transmit it to you now.”

“Okay.”

Su Ping didn’t decline the offer, as there was no such thing as learning too many skills.

The realm master raised her slim finger and light gathered at the tip. She then pointed at Su Ping’s shoulder. He instantly sensed that she was trying to visit his mind, but she didn’t try breaking in. He instantly accepted the transmission.

A tremendous amount of information was swiftly transferred to his mind.

The data was like a series of brooks running towards an ocean; all of it was abundant, yet Su Ping’s mind was more than spacious. He was quick as he sorted it out and found it was indeed a skill related to fire.

Su Ping browsed through the information and found thirteen volumes, each containing a stage.

However, it’s drastically inferior when compared to the Original Divine Fire Technique of the Golden Crows. Su Ping read through it carefully; time passed at a very slow rate inside his mind. He soon discovered more training possibilities beyond the thirteen volumes; after all, the thirteenth volume only addressed the topic of cultivating the Heavenly Fire Dao Heart.

Considering the world that Su Ping saw with the Golden Crows’ ancestor’s help, creating a Dao Heart in the universe was only the first step.

The full control of one’s universe couldn’t be attained without becoming an Ancestral God.

Su Ping opened his eyes and looked at the realm master, who couldn’t have passed him an incomplete skill on purpose; maybe he wasn’t qualified to obtain the rest of the information just yet.

“Given your talent, you should be able to reach the tenth stage very quickly. This is the core technique of our clan; you might become an Ancestral God if you use it. However, the rest of the technique is a top secret of our clan. You can only get the complete version if you’re willing to be married into our clan,” said the realm master while chuckling.

All the people gathered below were stunned. The realm master is that confident in the Dao Child? Whoever cultivated ten stages would be a remarkable God King.

“I’m not interested in marrying anyone just yet… But I wouldn’t say no to a concubine,” said Su Ping.

The realm master smiled, knowing that he was too much of a genius to be tempted by a single technique. After all, the Heaven Path Institute was not short of Ancestral God techniques and Su Ping would certainly have access to them since he was a Dao Child.

“Let me familiarize myself with it,” said Su Ping. He closed his eyes and practiced the technique in his heart.

Everybody exchanged bewildered looks, not knowing the reason why Su Ping would close his eyes all of a sudden.

“Young Master Jing Feng, this Dao Child is on the Chaos Talents Rank. He looks so extraordinary!”

A few guys in the crowd whispered amongst themselves.

A handsome young man who was at the center slightly raised his head and frowned. Even though the guy was a Dao Child, he was unused to looking up at anyone else, which rubbed him the wrong way. He said, “He’s being so rude to my master. What’s with the manners of this Dao Child?”

The others felt wary; bewildered, they looked at each other, none of them dared to say a thing.

Even though they were his followers, the Dao Child of the Heaven Path Institute was too powerful a figure for them to disparage.

Realizing what they were thinking, Jing Feng snorted but didn’t say anything else. He was eager to find out what the legendary Dao Child of the Heaven Path Institute could do.

The best geniuses in the entire Archean Divinity were the Dao Children of the Heaven Path Institute, except for those on the Chaos Talents Rank.

Either identity was a great honor to have, but the latter was harder to acquire, because not everyone on the Chaos Talents Rank was a Dao Child, while every Dao Child had a spot on the ranking

A moment later-Su Ping opened his eyes and said to the realm master, “I’m ready.”

The latter was slightly surprised. The invitation had been done casually; she didn’t really care about the result. After all, Su Ping had proven his potential as a Dao Child; even if the result was subpar, it could only suggest that fire was not his strong suit. If his result was favorable, it would only be a natural outcome.

“Let’s go then, Dao Child,” said the realm master with a smile.

Su Ping nodded and landed.

At the square—the crowd couldn’t help but make way for Su Ping, awed by his identity.

Such a reaction angered the crimson-haired girl mingling in the crowd; she frowned as she watched. Even though she was only there to cultivate for a brief time, that was an organization of her clan anyway, while the attendees were disciples trained in her clan. She felt slightly uncomfortable as she noticed how everyone was being subdued.

“Huh?”

Feeling the hostility in the crowd, Su Ping raised his eyebrows and glanced at them. He noticed that they weren’t too strong, so he simply overlooked it.

There would always be people who didn’t want others to show off. The stronger you were, the more enemies you would have. There might be some smiling faces around them, but their sincerity was questionable.

Su Ping chose to ignore them and went straight to the pillar. While looking at the finger in the rocks, he took a deep breath and raised a hand. A scorching power instantly burst out.

A caw resounded; a figure suddenly erupted behind Su Ping’s back and soared in the sky.

[1] a Chinese meme