Astral Pet Store (WN)

The three Golden Crows gazed down at Su Ping but said nothing.

They were able to determine that Su Ping had not lied that time.

This human came here to look for materials for the second level of the Solar Bulwark.

They were able to see every inch of Su Ping, inside and out. They could even find the Ashura force that he hid inside of him.

They could tell that Su Ping had indeed learned the first level of the Solar Bulwark and he had a trace of the Golden Crow’s energy inside of him.

The Golden Crow sitting on the right that sounded short-tempered and majestic asked Diqiong, “Diqiong, you said you couldn’t kill him, right?”

As soon as the Golden Crow started to talk, Su Ping felt some killing intent!

That Golden Crow meant to harm him!

The inevitable is going to happen… Su Ping exclaimed to himself. His only hope was the system.

Diqiong answered the elder’s question. “Yes. Not only this guy, I couldn’t kill those petty beasts, either. Elders, you can try and find out.”

“Sure thing.”

The Golden Crow was about to strike Su Ping when the Chief Elder shook its head. “Don’t do that. This human man is related to that Heaven Master who once helped our race. We cannot harm the Heaven Master’s descendant.”

The Golden Crow on the right had to stop. “I just wanted to see if the human was as strange as Diqiong described.”

The Chief Elder asked Su Ping, paying no regard to that Golden Crow’s explanation, “If it is okay, can you tell us how you got here? I want to know because I wonder if there are some flaws in our formation. That would be fatal to our entire race. I do hope that you can enlighten us.”

The other Golden Crows gazed at their Chief Elder in surprise. No Golden Crow expected that the Chief Elder would act so kindly toward that tiny creature.

The Chief Elder’s kindness was noticed by Su Ping. Somehow, he was benefiting from some potential association with a certain Heaven Master. Once again, the fact was proof that handsome looks did matter.

“Well, I don’t know how to explain it, but I can say for sure that there’s nothing wrong with your formation. I don’t know how to tell you the details…” That question was a difficult one to answer for Su Ping.

The entire star was closed off but the system was able to send him there. He had to admit that the system was all-powerful.

“Hmm, look at how weak you are. You don’t know anything… You cannot even tell us how you got here. How could you say for sure our formation is fine?” the Golden Crow on the right questioned.

“That is strange.” The Golden Crow on the left agreed.

The Chief Elder finally responded after a few minutes. “Never mind. Since you’re here to find the materials, I will give you a chance to get them, considering that you are the descendant of a Heaven Master. Let’s find out if you can grab a hold of that chance.”

That came as a pleasant surprise to Su Ping. He didn’t believe that he would get away with that explanation.

“Thank you, Chief Elder,” Su Ping said at once.

Su Ping calmed down after he expressed his gratitude. He didn’t understand the Chief Elder. Had he successfully convinced the Chief Elder or not?

He didn’t know.

Anyway, since you don’t really mind about how I got here, why wouldn’t you just give me the materials? Why put me through so many troubles? I’m sure you must have plenty of materials that I need for the second level, Su Ping complained inwardly. The Chief Elder’s decision still felt strange.

Of course, he didn’t voice his doubts out loud.

Regardless of what the Chief Elder’s agenda was, the point was that he would do his best to get the materials. Rolling with the punches.

“The skill you’re training is an inherent skill for the Golden Crows and once you reach level four, you will have the complete Golden Crow bloodline. You will become a Golden Crow!”

The Chief Elder asked, “Have you prepared for that?”

Su Ping already knew that when he read the introduction of the Solar Bulwark. “Yes, I have,” he answered without hesitation.

Becoming a Golden Crow was not a bad thing. As long as his heart and soul remained the same, he didn’t care what shape his body took.

If he could get an invincible power, he was okay with abandoning the human form.

The surrounding Golden Crows gazed at Su Ping. Apart from the elder sitting on the right that never showed sympathy for Su Ping, the other Golden Crows felt better about him. They would feel insulted if any other creature would want to turn into a Golden Crow.

But Su Ping was the descendant of the Heaven Master after all, and that was an amazing identity. It made the Golden Crows feel good about themselves, to think that a descendant of the Heaven Master would want to become one of them.

“Good,” the Chief Elder answered. “After half a day, we will have the awakening trial hosted for the young Golden Crows of our race. I will prepare you a trial space. I will grant you the materials if you can pass the trial. On the other hand, if you cannot, you will have to go back to your world.”

Trial?

Su Ping felt this should be a cause for worry. “Which rank are the young Golden Crows at?”

“They are much weaker than me. Don’t worry,” Diqiong answered with naked contempt.

Su Ping heaved a sigh of relief. Weaker than Diqiong. So, those young Golden Crows are probably at the legendary rank. There was some hope for him.

“Sure.” Su Ping nodded. He had no other choice. He couldn’t have bargained with the Chief Elder of the Golden Crows anyway.

“Diqiong, take him away and have him prepared. Brief him about the trial,” the Chief Elder instructed.

Diqiong was unhappy, being appointed to deal with the human, but still agreed. “What are you looking at? Come with me,” Diqiong urged Su Ping.

Su Ping was speechless as well. He would rather have another tour guide assigned to him but he didn’t want extra trouble so he gave up on that idea.

“You have a chance for the Golden Crows’ trial. How lucky,” the system told Su Ping.

Su Ping raised his eyebrows. “You know about this trial?”

“Of course. There’s nothing that I don’t know about the universe.” The system sounded very proud of itself.

Su Ping sneered. “You know because you snoop around.”

“Piss off.”

“You piss off.”

“You piss off.”

“PISS OFF!”

The two continued that conversation for a bit as Su Ping flew down the twig with Diqiong.

…

As soon as Su Ping went away with Diqiong, the elder sitting on the right blurted out the question, “Brother, why did you decide to keep that human alive?”

The Chief Elder didn’t seem to be offended after being questioned for that decision. The Chief Elder gazed at the tiny human flying across the leaves and answered, “First of all, the human is the descendant of the Heaven Master who once helped us. If the Heaven Master knew that we were treating his descendant with a hostile mind, what do you think he would think of us?

“The world outside is not peaceful. I’d rather have one more ally than an enemy!

“Second, this human is too weak, but he can enter our star without our first ancestor noticing a thing. That is to say, nothing has gone wrong with our formation. So, how did he get in here? What sent him here?

“Third, you just heard Diqiong. The human cannot be killed, not even with Diqiong’s flames. Diqiong has just grown up but she is much more powerful than the human being. The flames should be able to erase gods and demons alike, not to mention a human being.”

The elder sitting on the right asked, “So, why didn’t you let me test him? I wanted to find out why he can’t be killed!”

The Chief Elder darted it a look. “That is the reason why I told him to take the trial. You and I are both elders. What do you think would happen if the human turned out to be a person sent by the Heaven Master to test us? Our relationship with the Heaven Master would come to an end.”

“Do you think that he can pass the test with his strength and the thing inside him?

“He will die in the trial!

“And when he dies, we will find out how he can escape death. If it turns out that Diqiong was wrong, then his death shall not be regretted and no one can blame us for his death.”

The elder on the right was still concerned. “I see that you’re trying to use the trial to test him. But isn’t that too careful when we’re dealing with that puny thing?”

“We can never be too careful,” the Chief Elder said, “Not even when we’re dealing with a bug. If the bug was sent here by the Heaven Master, then none of us can hurt the bug.”

The Golden Crow on the right no longer spoke.

“I didn’t decide to make the human go through the trial just to find out if he can escape death or not. Truth be told, I very much hope he can pass the trial,” the Chief Elder added.

The other Golden Crows were confused.

“We have closed off our star for far too long and we know nothing about the world outside. It will do us good if we can learn a thing or two from that human being.” The Chief Elder heaved a sigh.

The other two elders responded with silence.

…

…

“Be prepared. Half a day here is like 10 days on the Blue Planet!” the system informed Su Ping.

The two of them would often bicker and nitpick, but the system was always serious when it came to important matters.

“Ten days?”

Su Ping was surprised. Half a day on the Celestial Star was 10 days on the Blue Planet?

One day here would be twenty days on the Blue Planet!

“The change of seasons here are different. We are now at the Dark Moon Season and one day is equal to twenty days on the Blue Planet. The days and nights will be even longer once the Celestial Star enters the Divine Illumination Season. One day is equal to one year on the Blue Planet!” the system educated Su Ping.

One day was equal to one year on the Blue Planet!

Su Ping was shocked by this revelation.

How did the creatures on this star calculate time?

He could not imagine the star’s movement.

“The Golden Crows are allowing you to participate in the trial. If you can pass it, they will surely give you the materials. The trial is prepared for the young Golden Crows; they need some stimulation to have their bloodline awaken completely once they reach a certain age!

“The Golden Crows that pass the trial will have their potential released and their combat strength will grow by a large margin! If you aspire to make progress, the trials are going to be a good chance for you,” the system added.

“Seriously?”

Su Ping was surprised.

Potential released?

Combat strength increased?

That was something he was in dire need of!

“Is the trial difficult?” Su Ping asked.

He was very interested.

“Of course. You won’t pass it, considering your current strength,” the system revealed the cruel fact.

Su Ping was speechless. He knew better than anyone else what he was capable of. But hearing it from the system was still a blow to his confidence.

Su Ping asked, “At least I have some hope right? If I didn’t, you wouldn’t have told me all those things.”

The system remained silent for two seconds. “You are not so stupid after all. There are some ways but they are quite hard. Anyway, learn about the trial from that Golden Crow with emperor-level bloodline.”

“Emperor-level bloodline?”

That was a new word he had learned from the system. There were different levels for bloodlines?

Su Ping came back to his senses. He saw that his battle pets were having a hard time in the golden cubes. “Can you let go of my friends? I want them to come back to me.”

Diqiong rolled its eyes. “So troublesome.”

Even so, Diqiong did move the golden cubes toward Su Ping and then all the golden cubes merged into one large golden cube.

He sent his pets back to the contract space as soon they were next to him. If anything happened, he could choose to revive at a random spot and get away from that place.

He learned from the system that the trial could be beneficial for him. The Golden Crows didn’t try to get to the bottom of his background and allowed him to participate in the trial. He wondered what the Chief Elder was thinking about.

That Chief Elder must have lived longer than he could imagine; it wasn’t a creature that Su Ping could understand.

“You, they were…”

Diqiong was surprised when Su Ping stored away his battle pets. “What is that space? You shouldn’t be able to open up a space like that!”

Diqiong could not believe that.

It could not even do that.

Su Ping was surprised by Diqiong’s surprise. “That’s a contract space. You haven’t seen one before?”

“Contract space?”

It was clearly a first for Diqiong to hear the term.

Su Ping had an idea and he verified it with the system. “Do Golden Crows not know about battle pets and summoning?”

The system answered after some hesitation, “The Golden Crows have sealed the star for years; it’s not surprising that they are unaware of it. The pet system came into being after they closed the star and they haven’t seen it.”

Su Ping was speechless.

Huh. The Golden Crows indeed were ignorant in this regard.