Astral Pet Store (WN)

There were three referees underneath each realm.

The nine referees’ hearts were pounding.

They had never seen anything like this!

Counting?

No counting was needed!

There were even more referees than winners!

They had to be courteous, since they had heard word that the winning pets belonged to a Star State bigshot.

Soon after, it was time to check the final score.

The referees instantly announced under everybody’s watch, “Those who carry flags, step forward!”

The announcement contained mental power. Even beasts and birds were able to understand.

All the pets inside the three realms were dumbfounded as they looked at the mountaintop.

Inside the Ocean State realm—the Purple Python slightly craned its head while waiting at the mountaintop. It had easily defeated all the pets that intended to compete with it.

Once it heard the announcement, it looked outside the realm and then slithered down the mountain with hundreds of flags on its back.

All the pets in its way cleared a path.

They were jealous and angry as they saw the flags on its back, but nobody dared to do anything. The gap between them was too vast!

There were some of A+ Vast Sky Thunderous Dragons that could fight against Fate State beasts, but even them had been crushed by the Purple Python with one swing of its tail.

The power of lightning that its tail contained had shattered their skin, causing an excruciating pain.

Nobody dared to try again.

It didn’t take long for the Purple Python to exit the realm.

On the other hand, the white-scaled Vast Sky Thunderous Dragon flew down from the mountain and then left the realm with countless flags while other pets looked at it regretfully.

Inside the Fate State zone—the Little Skeleton, the Dark Dragon Hound and the Inferno Dragon swaggered off the mountain.

As they made their way down, a Fate State pet tried to ambush them to loot a flag.

However, before it even approached the Little Skeleton, the Inferno Dragon had laid a claw on its head and pressed it into the ground. It was then thrown away, heavily wounded.

Such a great force extinguished the remaining fighting spirit of the other battle pets, which could only look as the winners left the realm.

The faces of the three Fate State referees outside the realm showed a slight change; even they felt greatly threatened by the dragon.

The battle pets left the realm soon after.

Once they left, a few battle pets flew out and took flags out of their bodies to prove their achievements.

They had claimed some flags a long time before the Little Skeleton and the others entered the arena; no one had noticed they had been hiding the flags in their bodies.

There were a lot of such pets; thirty of them in total flew out of the three realms. They didn’t dare to leave until the dominators made their exit, fearing that their flags would be snatched.

The referees were at a loss for words, seeing how cautious the pets were. They could definitely imagine the pressure they had endured…

The qualified battle pets were quickly tallied.

There were forty-two in total.

That was not a bad number; unlike most people had expected, not all the pets failed.

Still, they didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, as it was the Pet Contest with the least winners in that phase.

Aside from that, that screening phase was as spectacular as the finals.

Every king of the mountain had the potential to become the global champion of their level!

Once the screening phase ended, the rules and time for the preliminaries were announced.

They would be held the following day.

The rule was simple; just like before, a pet’s opponent would be chosen by drawing lots.

There would be eight arenas as battlefields. The previous preliminaries would usually take half a month to present the city’s top ten.

However… Considering the small number of participants, those preliminaries would probably be over in a day.

…

Su Ping was greatly relaxed once he saw that the screening phase had reached a safe conclusion.

He was glad that no trouble had been caused.

It would have been awkward if any of his pets would have destroyed the arena.

“Let’s go back.” Su Ping spoke to his pets, then sent them back to the contract space remotely when they got closer.

A lot of people had been staring at his pets. If Su Ping would have allowed them to reach him, he would have immediately become the center of public attention, and that fake ordinary face of his would hit the headlines throughout the Kamp Continent.

Becoming famous could be rewarding, but Su Ping’s shop was already popular enough. He would rather not have too many paparazzi following him as if he were a monkey.

Su Ping quickly left the square after getting his pets.

…

The square burst into an uproar after the Little Skeleton, the Inferno Dragon and the other winners disappeared.

Someone noticed a detail!

Those pets… were absorbed into their pet space at the same time!

Coincidence?

Highly unlikely.

The only possible explanation was that those pets… belonged to the same master.

That information was so shocking that many felt as if they were burning with excitement.

To own any of those pets would be a major achievement in life, not to mention owning all of them!

Almost all of those ultimate pets were Class S, and yet they belonged to the same person. Who could be so awesome?

The news quickly spread. Woffett City media went crazy and placed the screening phase of the contest on their headlines.

Shocking!

Three majestic battle pets dominated the screening phase! Very likely Class S!

Unprecedented!

Unknown mysterious battle pets appeared in the screening phase and claimed all flags!

Ultra S battle pets have emerged!

Legendary top battle pets have appeared in the screening phase!

…

The shocking news spread out throughout Woffett City in only one afternoon. It continued spreading to other cities in the Kamp Continent.

Videos, pictures, and analyses of professional pet appraisers were disseminated with the title “Ultra S.”

The entire Kamp Continent was seething; countless people went to Woffett City, hoping to watch the preliminaries of the Ultra S battle pets.

In addition, certain well-informed cross continental forces and organizations—as well as some ancient Fate State families on Rhea—had learned the news from their respective intelligence networks.

All the forces that were aiming to get the Transcendence Fruit fell quiet.

In the middle continent—

At their base, the leaders of the Ryan family were shocked beyond words after learning the latest news.

The footage of the contest almost seemed fake; the events had been utterly incredible!

In particular, the intelligence they had acquired said that dozens of Class A pets had participated in the screening. Most had been either dragons or demons, and tricky in their rank. They also had Class A aptitudes; their competition was supposed to be fierce.

However, all those alleged bad-asses had been suppressed!

On a mountaintop, in a mysterious realm—

Several men were seated inside a house; Pablo was watching a holograph in shock.

“Master Pablo, what do you think?”

“I’m almost certain. They might even be SS pets!”

He couldn’t be mistaken. Even though the Little Skeleton hadn’t done a lot of things, its slashing attack had definitely carried the power of the Star State!

However, the fact that it had been able to enter the special realm suggested that it couldn’t be a Star State creature!

That is, unless it had a secret technique that had never appeared in the Federation. But that was highly unlikely!

The Federation was too vast!

Its territory included countless galaxies; too many ancient relics and mysterious realms had been excavated. If the pet had used a secret technique yet-to-be registered in the Federation’s database, that technique itself would have been horrifyingly valuable!

“It’s only a Fate State beast, it can fight Star State enemies?”

O’Neil was both shocked and solemn. He had vaguely noticed from the holograph that the slash contained the power of laws.

It meant that the skeleton could have mastered laws!

No wonder it crushed the other pets. It was like bullying kindergartners!

Unfortunately, he hadn’t gone to the battlefield, so he wasn’t sure of his findings.

After all, it was impossible to feel the power of laws from a holograph.

At this moment, someone exclaimed in shock, “H-How is it possible?”

O’Neil turned back and found that it was Garland; he knew that the latter always kept his cool. It was rather unbelievable to see him falter.

“What’s wrong?” O’Neil asked, visibly confused.

“Was that…?”

Garland turned around and looked at the woman in black and the old man next to him, who had joined him to fight against Su Ping.

Su Ping had summoned three battle pets during their battle, which were the Little Skeleton, the dragon and the dog in the Fate State zone!

The three pets had shown a remarkable Star State combat ability in the battle against them!

And yet… They had been able to enter the realm?

They were only at the Fate State?

Not just Garland, the woman and the old man were also stunned when they watched the video; they sat on the couch, not knowing what to say.

“D—Did the realm identifiers malfunction?” asked the old man after a long time passed.

O’Neil frowned once he saw their reaction. He said, “No. I had someone inspect the realms. Why? Do you know the pets?”

The old man parted his mouth ever so slightly, but he didn’t know how to describe the matter.He smiled bitterly and retold what had happened earlier. He said, “This is what happened…”

“…”

The room was caught in a dead silence.

Both O’Neil and Pablo were stunned.

Some Fate State battle pets had fought against a true Star State warrior and held their ground?