Astral Pet Store (WN)

“Tang Linzhan, do you surrender to us, the Situ family?”

The Situ family head was a bit afraid of that Ocean Umbrella that Tang Linzhan still carried. The umbrella had enabled him to kill two beast kings. It was terrifying. Still, the Ocean Umbrella appeared to be broken and gray at the moment. Its energy must have been exhausted.

“Surrender to you?” Tang Linzhan was still trying to catch his breath. But he stood up straight and fatigue ebbed out of his face with those words. Killing intent was getting a hold of him. “I don’t think the Situ family deserves to have me!”

“Humph, since you’re so eager to drop dead, let me grant that wish!” The Situ family head sneered. He looked past Tang Linzhan, at the many titled battle pet warriors of the Tangs. They were struggling to stand up; however, they were unable to do so because of their wounds or possibly due to other reasons. Only the titled battle pet warriors who weren’t affiliated to the Tang family could manage to stand. “The secret weapon means that anyone who has Tang blood in their bodies will have to deal with Space Confinement. Now, do you still want to continue this fight?” He carried on coldly, “Anyone who wishes to surrender can sit down. The Tang family has reached the end. Do you still want to follow your stupid family head who would hurt himself while in cultivation?” “Shut up!” “We will not allow you to insult our family head!!” Some elders bellowed. They managed to stand up, stirred up by anger. They were biting their teeth so hard that their mouths were bleeding.

The elders who were too seriously wounded bore the Situ family head with their glares. They shouted as they tried to stand up. “We would rather die standing up than live sitting down!!” a female titled battle pet warrior cried. She had a broken arm and her clothes were drenched in blood. But she found the strength to stand up on her feet with the help of others; her eyes were glued to the two enemy family heads. “Hmm, courting death!” The Wang family head snorted. He waved his hand and motioned at her. The titled battle pet warriors standing behind him charged toward the Tang family’s titled battle pet warriors. Squish! An arrow penetrated one of the Tang family’s titled warriors.

That arrow pierced through his chest and his armor.

Still in disbelief, that titled battle pet warrior fell to the ground and died. The other titled warriors of the Tang family were heartbroken. They could hardly move given the spatial pressure, not to mention attacking their enemies! “Die!” A titled battle pet warrior of the Situ family swung his sword at a Tang family elder. Furious as the latter was, he was unable to move. He immediately summoned his battle pet.

Roar!

The pet bellowed, but also collapsed the next second. The Space Confinement had made it hard to move about.

That secret weapon was designed to target those who carried the blood of the Tangs. The battle pets had rubbed off some of the Tang family energy on them as well. The titled battle pet warrior of the Tang family was eventually beheaded.

Roar!!

His battle pet witnessed the death of his master. It was losing its mind. Soon, that anger changed to confusion as the contract vanished. The beast shed tears, even though it was baffled by the sense of loss. The beast didn’t understand where the anger came from. Nor why it was crying! It sat on the ground, staring blankly at the small human being that was lying next to it. Bang! Bang! Titled battle pet warriors of the Situ family and the Wang family were killing the Tang family’s titled battle pet warriors one after the other.

As more and more of their peers died, some of the titled battle pet warriors chose to sit down. Fear was written across their faces; begging was the only choice to take at the moment.

Roar!!

Right then, the other titled battle pet warriors who weren’t part of the Tang family went to the rescue. They were unaffected since their blood was different.

The assault from the two families was stopped. “Hmm, a bunch of outsiders. Do you really want to die for the sake of the Tang family?” The Situ family head snorted.

One of the titled battle pet warriors said powerfully, “I owe my life to Tang Linzhan and I shall repay his kindness with my life!”

“He’s right. We may die but we shall no longer have any regrets!”

Another titled battle pet warrior backed him

up.

They had remained up to that point. Leaving had never crossed their minds!

Death?

Of course, they were afraid of dying. But the thing that frightened them the most was to make a choice they would regret for the rest of their lives!

They had to repay the kindness and sometimes, that would mean they would have to give up their lives in the process! Their words touched the Tang family’s titled battle pet warriors and shamed those who had sat down. They lowered their heads, afraid to take another look at the world.

Tang Linzhan was trembling. So many people were dying, people he had once chatted with, laughed with, and protected the Tang family with.

One of them was planning to celebrate his grandson’s first birthday after that.

One of them was going to go to his son’s wedding

But they had died. Died. Even though they were titled battle pet warriors, they were as vulnerable as a withered flower. Tang Linzhan’s hands were shaking. He was furious, in pain, and powerless. He could see that doom was at hand. He had lost all hope. “Tang Linzhan, I can consider not killing the rest of your Tang family members if you’re willing to get down on your knees and admit defeat.” The Wang family head stepped forward.

Tang Linzhan trembled. He was itching to charge, to shout, and to vent his anger on him. But he held down that urge. He knew that doing that would only add more fire to the flames. None of the Tang family members would survive.

“Sir, no!”

“We don’t go by the Tang surname, but we’ll live and perish with the Tang family!” “Sir, we’re here and we’re always ready to sacrifice ourselves for the Tang family! The titled battle pet warriors who arrived from other base cities shouted. They summoned their battle pets, putting themselves between the Tang family and the Situ-Wang front. Still, anyone could tell that the Situ family and the Wang family had greatly outnumbered the Tang family! They had close to five dozen titled battle pet warriors!

Those titled battle pet warriors alone could have surrounded the Tang family compound. The Tang family might have been able to inflict some harm on their enemies but that would be a limited result.

Tang Linzhan looked around. The sunlight cast a warm feeling onto his face, but he felt as cold as ice at the moment.

When all hope was lost, no light could bring him true warmth.

He could only see darkness.

The darkness that he saw in the armors of the Situ and the Wang people. The darkness was all too suffocating.

Eventually, Tang Linzhan lowered his head. He bent his back. He curled his knees. He got down on one knee! “Sir!!”

“No, you cannot!!!” All the Tang family’s titled battle pet warriors and everyone else was screaming. Some of them even burst into tears. The Tang family leader, the one who had been controlling the Tang family for more than a dozen years, a king both feared and revered. How could he kneel?

“Father!!”

Tang Ruyu turned pale. This time, she didn’t call him sir. She called him father. She would rarely address him as father in public. She would do that when she was a kid but she was told not to. “He is my father. Why can’t I call him that?”

“That is our rule!”

After several occasions and rounds of severe punishment, she compromised and never called him father in public again. And yet, the sorrow and grief had drowned her at this moment. She was letting go of the rules. Tang Linzhan didn’t look back. His two knees were on the ground! No one was shouting anymore. They stared at the man on his knees. Tang Linzhan moved his lips. It seemed that he was speaking to the Wang family head and all the people behind him. He spoke with a low voice, “I’m not kneeling because of your powers, but because of them.” The Wang family head could barely hide his smug smile. “Of course, I know that. However, you have to understand that people will only see you kneeling. No one cares about the reason!” He waved his hand. A titled battle pet warrior stepped over. He was holding a device and the image showed Tang Linzhan on his knees. Tang Linzhan suddenly looked up. The killing intent was screaming to escape from his body. “Huh, thanks to this video, I think we’ll have an easy time taking over the Tang family’s properties after your death. After all, why would anyone fight back when you’re on your knees?”

The Wang family head grinned and put away the device.

Bang!

Tang Linzhan stood up. He was going to snatch that device away from the Wang family head. The two titled battle pet warriors standing next to the Wang family head moved faster. They smashed Tang Linzhan away. Tang Linzhan could barely move, let alone fight, all because of the bell’s effect. “Listen up. Kill all of the Tang family members! “Kill also those who came to support the Tang family!” the Wang family head ordered. The Situ family head grinned. How laughable to see Tang Linzhan kneeling, with the hope of saving lives? How innocent. Tang Linzhan’s kneeling meant nothing to them. It wasn’t necessary to satisfy their ego. They simply wanted the Tang family’s wealth. Nothing else mattered.

“Sir!”

Two of the titled battle pet warriors who volunteered to help the Tang family helped Tang Linzhan up. Tang Linzhan was panting; his face was flushed.

“This girl is the future family head of the Tang family. Father, can you let me have some fun with her?”

A young man stepped out from the crowd. Standing next to the young man was a demon pet that was several meters tall, with indistinguishable limbs. A ball of dark mist covered up the pet. Only its fangs could be seen; they implied the pet’s desire to feed. Tang Ruyu was furious. She knew that the young man was the future family head of the Situ family.

He was merely at the seventh rank and he wouldn’t have been able to best her under normal conditions. However, she was still under the influence of that strange pressure. She couldn’t even stand up. “Don’t do this. Kill her directly,” the Situ family head said coldly. Of course, he wanted his son to have that girl as his toy but decided not to see new problems cropping up, given that the Wang family was present. The young man sounded disappointed. “Such a shame. But, I do have to say that destroying beauty is also among my favorite activities.” He didn’t move, but the demon pet suddenly cracked its mouth open as it moved toward Tang Ruyu. Tang Ruyu tried to get away but it was as if she were stuck in a swamp; she could not move at all. On the other hand, the demon pet had moved so quickly that it had almost reached her.

I have to live!! Tang Ruyu shouted to herself. She was going to lead the Tang family and make it the most powerful family of all in the Subcontinent District.

She was going to reach the legendary rank! She wanted to see the world outside the Blue Planet!

She wanted to…

She wanted so many things. She had dreams unfulfilled. Am I going to die? Because of a piece of scum like him?

Pff!

The demon pet opened its mouth and light disappeared around Tang Ruyu. However, the next second, a crack opened in the darkness, and Tang Ruyu saw blood pouring down. The demon pet split was split in two. Right from the middle! A cloud of dark smoke was rising from the corpse as if the demon pet were burning. It screamed and cried, gradually turning into nothingness. No one could utter a word.

“How can you wipe out the Tang family while I’m not here?”

People heard a cold voice.

Surprised, they raised their heads. In the sky, a bird was hovering, although trembling. Standing on the back of the bird was a quite tall and slim one. People were unable to see her look but the strange thing was, they were able to see her eyes, which were cold as ice. The ice had made them feel a chill.

Whoosh!

The bird went back into a swirl.

As the bird went away, the slim person and a white skeleton were left hanging in the air.

“Is, is that who I think she is?”

Some titled battle pet warriors of the Tang family soon managed to see what she looked like, taking them by surprise. It was her!

Tang Linzhan was just as astonished as anyone else was.

“What is she doing here?”

The family heads of the Situ and Wang families recognized that the girl was the former future family head of the Tang family. It wasn’t surprising that they would know how she looked. But they had heard she had been kidnapped by someone and the Tang family had unsuccessfully gone to save her. Why was she there?

“It is you…”

Tang Ruyu was dumbstruck.

My useless sister? Wasn’t she…

Whoosh!

Amid questioning looks, Tang Ruyan slowly landed.

She glanced over at the Situ family and the Wang family; then she saw Tang Linzhan and the others present. She cast a glance at Tang Ruyu, the girl she had just saved, her younger sister, whom everyone considered to be highly gifted.

“Who are you?” a titled battle pet warrior bawled out.

“She’s the future family head,” someone answered the question. As she looked at the pool of blood on the ground, Tang Ruyan could barely control her anger. She originally thought that she had stopped worrying about the Tang family. She didn’t know she would feel that upset when she saw those familiar faces, so full of despair and weakness.

She had also realized that she wasn’t afraid of the titled battle pet warriors present.

If anything, she despised them.

Yes, contempt. She didn’t know why she was having that feeling. She just sensed that those people there, the titled battle pet warriors… weren’t that big of a deal. “I’m not the future family head. I just go by the Tang surname.” Tang Ruyan corrected that answer. “I see that you mean to destroy the Tang family. How could you leave me out?” The Tang family’s titled battle pet warriors were having a rush of mixed feelings. The surname of Tang? But you were no longer acceptable as a family member!

Tang Linzhan wore a cloudy expression. He buried his guilty conscience deep. When Tang Ruyu’s senses returned, she shouted angrily, “Why did you come back? What good can you do when you’re here alone? The Tang family does not need you. We do not have a place for you in our graveyard!” Tang Ruyan turned to her and indifferently, she said, “When I die, I won’t be buried with the Tang family. Don’t you worry. I won’t sully the Tang family.”

“You…”

Tang Ruyu clenched her fingers. “You really shouldn’t have come back. You really shouldn’t.”

Just then, she noticed that Tang Ruyan was the one who killed that demon pet.

Tang Ruyu still remembered when the two of them would train together and she would follow her around like a tail. How things had changed. She wasn’t that small tail. The big sister she had once looked up to had become her mask, her cover.

She was the actual future family head.

Her big sister had let down the elders and their father.

That included the heavy loss of the Tang family because of that big sister. According to their father, anyone who brought insult to the Tang family was a loser, a shame to the family.

But…

Why would you come back? You’re not accepted here! You’re still named Tang Ruyan but you’re no longer one of us! “Yes, indeed, we forgot about you. I can only oblige, now that you’ve come here willingly.” A titled battle pet warrior of the Situ family sneered.

“What a pitiful girl. I heard that she was just a decoy. Now I see that she’s a decoy with no brains.”

“Let me take care of her!”

One man stepped forward. He was bored with all the talking The Situ family head didn’t move to stop that man. He was frowning. He knew that Tang Ruyan was just a decoy for Tang Ruyu. But would she be that stupid in reality, that she would show up by herself to send herself to her doom?

He tried to check if there was some sort of an ambush.

The Wang family head was doing the same thing. Neither minded Tang Ruyan. What mattered was the hidden hazard. Neither believed that Tang Ruyan would be that stupid; they two would be even more foolish if they allowed her to fool them.

The Wang family head had another concern. He had heard a thing or two about that decoy. It was said that some legendary battle pet warrior had taken her in. He had learned this from the Star Organization. But it was unlikely that the girl had escaped from that legendary battle pet warrior. Such being the case, she had to be there under permission.

Or maybe, that legendary battle pet warrior was there with her! After all, no one understood why that legendary battle pet warrior had caught her. Was it her beauty or something else? “Be careful,” the Wang family head cautioned the Situ family head.

The latter was alerted. He thought of the same thing. If that legendary battle pet warrior was watching in the dark, would they anger him if they struck Tang Ruyan? While they were considering that possibility, that titled battle pet warrior had already dashed toward Tang Ruyan. “Look out!” Tang Ruyu cried out.

The Tang family’s titled battle pet warriors were also worried. They recognized that the titled battle pet warrior was an elder of the Situ family.

The elder was not the most powerful one, but he was at the upper position of the titled rank. Killing Tang Ruyan would be child’s play. The Tang family members were still under the influence of that strange bell; they could barely use their astral powers.

Tang Ruyan looked at that old man. He’s so careless, he didn’t even summon his battle pet. What a fool.

Mistake! Mistake! Mistake!

So many mistakes! One glance and she had noticed more than a dozen mistakes.

And he wanted to kill her?

“Go to hell!”

Tang Ruyan remained standing on the spot. The old man reached her and pointed the blade at her… But to her, it was all in slow motion.

She wielded her sword.

One second later, she was done.

Pff!

That titled battle pet warrior fell, turning into several pieces. His head, his body, and his limbs were chopped. He was killed! It was so quick that people were hardly able to tell whether Tang Ruyan had moved at all. Blood was gushing out from the remains.

Some of the blood got onto Tang Ruyan and the Little Skeleton as well.

How unexpected. Tang Ruyu froze on the spot. She stared in disbelief at the girl she was so familiar with, and so unfamiliar with at the same time. Is that really Tang Ruyan? My loser big sister? The Tang family’s titled battle pet warriors and everyone else were dumbstruck. The old man died before they could tell why! What was that?! Those at the peak of the titled rank did notice it had been Tang Ruyan’s doing but she was so fast that even they found it frightening.

Her speed should belong to those at the peak of the titled rank!