Astral Pet Store (WN)

"Power of faith?"

Elder Yan was slightly stunned; he immediately realized that Su Ping had probably lost due to the gap in faith power. He chuckled and said, "Of course, you can acquire faith power from your mind. To be more precise, your power of faith is someone else's mental power. However, you can only ask them to give it to you; you cannot rob them of it.

"There are exceptions, though. Some of the strange techniques in ancient times could rob other people of their faith, but the final result wasn't as satisfactory. Such techniques are forbidden in the Federation. Besides, you're too talented to consider them."

"Rob…"

Su Ping became worried upon hearing that.

The power of faith coming from his Force Field was too weird.?Did I rob someone unconsciously?

"Elder Yan, what's the mechanism of a Force Field?" asked Su Ping quickly.

Elder Yan was a bit jolted by the unexpected and quick topic change. Still, he explained, "A Force Field is the manifestation of your mental power and your 'aura', which depends on your spirit. You can hardly intimidate your opponent if you don't have a strong mind.

"You're able to build a Force Field when you accumulate enough mental power. It's just a mental field, similar to the field of laws."

"A mental field?"

With glittering eyes, Su Ping then asked, "Then, can the creatures inside the Force Field provide faith power?"

"Huh?" Elder Yan looked back at the young man, visibly surprised. He replied to that sophisticated question, "Force Field scholars have asked the same question. After having gone through a lot of experimenting, they found that the Force Field manifestations are just virtual.

"Virtual things aren't real entities, which cannot transmit the power of faith.

"Faith power can only be provided by living creatures!

"That being said…" Elder Yan paused for a moment, then said with a weird expression, "Their findings are not absolute. There's still a theoretical scenario where the Force Field manifestations have a foundation on super creatures able to ignore time and space. Such creatures may provide you with faith power, even if they're billions of light years away as soon as they detect you."

Su Ping was surprised.

Existences able to ignore time and space?

In other words, the power of faith from his Force Field was provided by such existences?

Why?

He was stunned, while an even bigger question popped-up in his mind.

He had only glanced at those creatures earlier, merely taking note about how they looked. Nothing more; why were they providing faith power to him?

It was critical for the power of faith to be provided while being friendly!

Su Ping had only looked at those creatures from a distance; they probably didn't even notice him. Even if they did, why would they like him?

Seeing that Su Ping was pondering, Elder Yan smiled and said, "You have a lot of ideas for someone who has barely gotten in touch with the power of faith. As expected of a creative genius, unlike the stupid mortals."

Su Ping snapped out of his reverie and looked at Elder Yan; he suddenly realized that it was better not to divulge the strange scenes in his Fate State to anyone else. After all, what the man had described as a theoretical scenario was a reality to him; that could be even scarier than condensing a small world while still being in the Fate State.

He would have drawn a lot of unnecessary attention if he did.

"Why were those terrifying creatures from the field willing to give power of faith to me…" Su Ping mumbled to himself, baffled.

A long time passed; Su Ping then thought of something and asked, "Elder Yan, what level do you think the existences able to ignore time and space are in?"

Elder Yan was unsurprised by Su Ping's curiosity. He replied with a smile, "They only need to reach the Celestial State. They're practically ever-lasting when they become True Immortals, unless they want to kill themselves."

The Celestial State…

Su Ping was slightly stunned, but the news wasn't too surprising.

Su Ping had visited the Chaotic Realm of the Undead and the Golden Crows' nest; he knew there would be higher levels above the Celestial State; as the Celestial level was just the beginning.

Some of the horrifying creatures he had seen in the Chaotic Realm of the Undead were even more dreadful than Celestials.

Su Ping didn't think any further as he shook his head. He could not figure out why the projections in his Force Field would give him faith power.

However, he was beyond certain that his amount of faith power would reach a horrifying level.

Maybe I only need to meet those existences, but I'll need to visit the Chaotic Realm of the Undead to do that. I met them earlier by accident; I might not be able to see them again, considering the vastness of the Chaotic Realm of the Undead…

Su Ping's eyes glittered as he temporarily dropped the idea.

His primary task at the moment was to reach the top ten of the Divine Lord Rank, so that he could be freed and later return to his store.

He thanked Elder Yan and went back to his training room. He used the time to consolidate his astral power and perfected his small world, filling it with pillars of laws.

Su Ping unleashed his Force Field while he cultivated, merging it with the small world. He immediately detected a horrifying aura that began to spread out of the small world along with thick and abundant power of faith.

One hint of that faith power was already as massive as a mountain, about to make his small world collapse.

They're really giving me faith power.

Su Ping was shocked by this. The scene in the virtual world happened again in reality, so he went ahead and absorbed the power without hesitation. He then discovered that the mist-like power was much heavier than it looked.

A small fraction of the incoming power of faith was as much as all the faith he had previously absorbed!

Su Ping was already a celebrity across the universe by then; countless people knew and worshiped him. However, their power of faith, together with what his pets provided, couldn't amount to a tiny part of the faith coming from the Force Field!

Su Ping struggled to digest that strand of faith, which needed him to use half of his astral power. It would have been impossible to digest even if he exhausted all his reserves had he not broken through to the Star State.

He replenished his astral power by absorbing stones. The astral array in the training room was also suffusing astral power into his body; such a top astral array was quite effective. Even an ordinary person would have been cleansed and modified by it, offering a chance to embark on the path of cultivation.

Nevertheless, they would not be as talented as regular cultivators.

Time flew.

Su Ping consumed even more stones and refined the power of faith. Su Ping finally digested the twenty-three streams of faith power from his Force Field half a month later.

The power of faith floated in his small world like a gentle and soft cluster of clouds.

I wonder how good my power of faith is compared to the Star Lords'…?Su Ping opened his eyes, eager to fight Clowe again.

Right when he was about to take action, he suddenly remembered the materials needed for the Solar Bulwark, wondering if they were ready.

He left the palace and saw Elder Yan who was playing with a few kids outside. All the kids screamed and turned into scurrying little animals.

Su Ping was astonished by the sight; those animals were only in the Star State, but they could already transform.

"You want to challenge him again?"

Elder Yan turned around, then chuckled as he looked at Su Ping. They had only met recently, but he already had an idea about Su Ping's personality.

The young man would either train or challenge; he always liked such battle maniacs. Being of beastly origin—even though he had lived countless years in the Federation with Lord Supreme—he believed in strength from the bottom of his heart. Nobody could survive without having enough strength.

"Hold on for a second."

Su Ping crossed his hands and asked, "Senior, I wonder if you've found the materials I mentioned earlier."

"Oh?"

Elder Yan remembered the matter. He had instructed someone to collect the materials as fast as possible; they should be ready by then, as long as they weren't too rare.

"Let me ask."

Elder Yan then closed his eyes. A few minutes passed, then he opened his eyes again and said, "You're quite lucky, the materials are ready. Two of them are extremely rare, but Lord Supreme has connections. You would have never found them in this lifetime had you looked for them on your own."

Su Ping's eyes glowed with delight. "Thank you, senior."

"Do you want them now?"

"Yes!"

Elder Yan closed his eyes again. He took out a couple of boxes several minutes later; each box contained a rare medicine.

All the materials were for the fourth level of the Solar Bulwark!

His body would be as hard as those of the Star Lords once he attained that level, and he would be able to awaken the natural-born skills of the Golden Crows!

Su Ping was itching to open the boxes immediately; a dazzling light burst out the moment they were opened. One of the boxes had a glowing medicine that looked like a heart.

Su Ping knew it was called Blood Phoenix Crystal, which was part of the remains of ancient Blood Phoenixes when they died under special circumstances.

Su Ping examined the rest of the materials, finding that they were exactly what he needed.

As expected of Lord Supreme. He had asked Su Jin'er to help in looking for the materials, but she only managed to find two of them; the rest were gathered in only a few days.

It had to be noted that Su Jin'er was an Ascendant.

Su Ping took a deep breath, then put away the materials and thanked Elder Yan again. He thought of something else and presented the illustrations and descriptions of the materials needed for the Solar Bulwark's fifth level. He said, "Senior, could you please look for these materials too?"

Elder Yan raised his eyebrows; he read the information and became more and more surprised. "These materials are extremely rare. Even Ascendants would have a hard time gathering them. I don't think Master will be able to collect them all."

"I know, but anything is better than nothing," said Su Ping.

The materials for the fifth level were even rarer. Su Ping was only hoping to get as many of them as possible; he could work on finding the rest on his own.

His body would be as hard as that of an Ascendant if he gathered enough materials to reach the fifth level.

"Okay," Elder Yan promised him.

Su Ping was not one who enjoyed dallying. He returned to his training room.

He took out all the materials he had obtained with an excited mood. He calmed himself down, then began to refine, absorb and digest the materials.

Half a day later—

A dull noise echoed in the training room, which had turned into a scorching red, as having been set ablaze. The temperature inside was surprisingly high too; it would have been burnt down to ashes had it not been for the top astral array.

Even so, the astral array seemed to be burning and cracking at the moment.

The red light inside the training room originated from Su Ping.

His body was entirely red at the moment, covered in bloody sweat.

Bones were cracking inside his body, and all his cells were being torn apart and reassembled, giving him greater strength and special powers in the process.

Su Ping opened his eyes all of a sudden. A sharp, golden light that almost felt substantial was darting out of his eyes, seemingly able to peer into the void.

Flames jumped in his pupils, but they quickly died down.

The heat in the training room was quickly vented and absorbed by Su Ping as his skin turned from crimson to scarlet.

Void Flames!

A layer of flames appeared on Su Ping's skin, burning right next to his body and twisting the air.

This type of divine Golden Crow flame was able to burn anything, including space and time. The laws of time would be nullified upon contact!

Even without his mastering of the laws of time, he could still free himself from time-based shackles by obliterating them with Void Flames.

Whoosh!

Su Ping left the training room; he then saw Elder Yan taking a nap on the swing in the courtyard.

The elder sensed his approach; his eyes opened and glittered when he saw Su Ping. "You seem to have gotten stronger."

Su Ping said with a smile, "I couldn't have done it without the training materials you found for me."

Elder Yan observed him carefully and added, "There's a scary aura coming from your body. Master said that your bloodline traces back to the Golden Crows from primordial times. Those were intimidating creatures; I feel threatened even though your level is still low."