Astral Pet Store

Su Ping didn’t want to go. For one thing, it was because of his store; he could not take it with him. For another, he truly didn’t wish to see the Longijang Base City fall!

He could make a living in another base city. However, all base cities were different. When he visited the Holy Light Base City, he noticed how the city was prosperous and the streets were clean but he didn’t feel like he belonged there.

Only one place could be called home and it could never be replaced!

“Mr. Su, why?” Xie Jinshui found it hard to understand. Why would he stay when not even the legendary battle pet warriors from the Tower had the courage to help them? Was it worth it?

“Do I need a reason?” Su Ping answered with a question.

The others stared at him, baffled.

‘Do I need a reason?’

You do not need a reason?

They felt Su Ping was losing his mind but the young man was more serious and composed than ever before.

He would rather face the fatal danger than leave?

No one said anything for a moment.

“Since Mr. Su is willing to stay, I’m more than happy to keep him company!” Zhou Tianlin said all of a sudden. He took a deep breath and wore a determined look.

He was the one who stunned the others this time.

No one anticipated that Zhou Tianlin would be capable of such a heroic move! Was he saying this because of Su Ping?

However, it seemed necessary to cozy up to Su Ping in this grave situation when the Tower was unwilling to help!

Zhou Tianlin was risking the entire Zhou family with this move!

They saw something that was usually absent on the man’s face. He wasn’t buttering up to Su Ping, and he wasn’t cracking jokes.

Qin Duhuang suddenly shook his head and laughed. “The Qin family has been a resident of the Longjiang Base City for more than a hundred years. My grandpa stayed in Longjiang. My people are still buried in the tombs here. I… am not leaving them here. The Qin family will stay. But I have to stay that we’ll send away some women and the young, just to keep a glint of hope for the future of the Qin family.”

That old man’s words were admirable.

Zhou Tianlin patted Qin Duhuang’s shoulders with a laugh, “Old Qin, let’s see which one of us can kill more wild beasts this time. I have been eager to compete against you, you sly old fox!”

Qin Duhuang didn’t mind the patting. “Gladly. But you’re not as good as me. I won’t make it easy for you!” “Ha, ha!” Zhou Tianlin laughed out loud.

“You…” Mu Beihai stared at them. “Are you crazy? Mr. Su is under the protection of a legendary battle pet warrior and he can leave whenever he wants to. Just the beast kings alone can take your lives, not to mention that the Otherworld Heavenly King can come at any minute!”

Qin Duhuang smiled, “Maybe I am going crazy. Since Mr. Su has the courage to stay, we are more than happy to stay with him. Let’s go nuts!”

“Well said!” the family head of the Ye family suddenly interrupted. The worry on his face vanished. “I feel embarrassed since I usually pride myself of being a heroic man and that the Ye family is the best when it comes to battle. But it turns out that Tianlin is the man with guts in this critical time. Let me tell you the truth. I belittled you before this day. But now I’m willing to say that the Zhou family is more than qualified to be the Ye family’s competition!”

“Screw you. I never had the same feeling about the Ye family. I know that you rank my Zhou family as the fifth one, but my only competition is the Qin family as far as I am concerned!” Zhou Tianlin retorted.

Qin Duhuang laughed. “Bunch of loons!” Mu Beihai stared at the three of them who were chatting and smiling casually. He was fuming at the mouth. “Do you even know what will happen if you stay? Your families will no longer exist in this world! Is it worth it?”

NSV

“We won’t know the answer to that question until we try,” Qin Duhuang answered, “The Qin family is the most powerful family of the Longjiang Base City! When people speak of the Longjiang Base City, they think of the Qin family!

“Even if all of us leave in the end, the Qin family will be the last to go!”

Mu Beihai’s anger was answered by Qin Duhuang’s calmness. Mu Beihai looked into the latter’s eyes; he clenched his fist and punched the air.

“I don’t care what you’re thinking. The Mu family will not go down with you!” he said, gnashing his teeth.

He thought of something and said to Su Ping, “Mr. Su, this is not about you. I hope you can understand!”

Su Ping replied, “You’re overthinking. Whether you want to stay or leave has nothing to do with me. I won’t judge you!

“I want to stay and that is purely my personal decision. I won’t threaten or coerce you to do anything. You are all from big families and you have many family members to think of. If I were you, I would probably leave as well. So, no worries.” Mu Beihai was relieved. He looked at the three but said nothing else.

Qin Duhuang and Zhou Tianlin were not surprised to hear that Mu Beihai would be leaving. They weren’t staying there because of Su Ping. It was true that his determination touched them but they had made the choice on their own. They would stay even if Su Ping planned to leave!

Sure, they might end up dying.

They were trying to accomplish an impossible mission!

But that was the Longjiang Base City!

If they had to go to another base city, they would not feel as alive as they did in their home ground.

The other base cities could never replace their homes!

That being said, they would not keep all of their family members there. They were just going to let some of their battle pet warriors stay. Otherwise, they would send their entire families to their doom!

“I am sorry, but I don’t think the Liu family has any extra manpower to stay behind for another battle,” Liu Tianzong said apologetically. People said nothing to that.

Everyone was entirely free to make their choices. No one could stop anyone from leaving

Xie Jinshui had said nothing the entire time.

He was still quiet even when everyone else had stopped talking

“Xie, what’s your plan?” Qin Duhuang asked, frowning

Xie Jinshui looked at the family heads and then at Su Ping. “I plan to evacuate,” he said in a low voice.

That was a surprise.

Xie Jinshui was struggling. He lowered his head. “I am sorry. As a mayor, I cannot let everyone stay in the city to face this dangerous battle. I hope that some people can leave, especially the women and the kids. They can live in other base cities and carry on with our legacy. As for me… I will stay till the end with you!”

The others were touched by his words.

Qin Duhuang took a deep breath. “Xie, you don’t have to apologize for anything. You’re doing the right thing.” “Indeed. We cannot lose the legacy of the Longjiang Base City!”

“Even after the Longjiang Base City is gone, years later people will still remember that there was once a place called Longjiang!”

Hearing those words, Xie Jinshui was in more agony. “I’m sorry. I’m not a good mayor. We wouldn’t have to make this decision if… if I could have brought some legendary battle pet warriors from the Tower. If I could have persuaded them…”

“Xie, that is not your problem. That is the fate of our base city.” Qin Duhuang patted his shoulders and heaved a sigh.

Zhou Tianlin added, “Yes, relying on ourselves is better than relying on others. The legendary battle pet warriors are not coming. So what? I’ve never fought a beast king before. I sure can find out about that this time!”

The family head of the Ye family looked at Zhou Tianlin. What a surprise. Zhou Tianlin and he were alike in temper.

The Ye family head thought even highly of Zhou Tianlin at the moment. What he did to the Zhou family in the past was wrong. He would have gone after the Liu and Mu families if he had known this earlier.

Mu Beihai said to Xie Jinshui with a clouded face, “Xie, blaming yourself won’t do us any good. Since the idea is to evacuate, we have to talk about the plan right now. It’ll be too late when the beasts arrive!”

“Yes.” Liu Tianzong nodded.

Xie Jinshui took a deep breath and nodded. “Right. We must hurry. I’ve worked out a plan already. Now, hear me out…”

“Sure.”

Soon, Xie Jinshui told them the details about his plan. Mu Beihai and Liu Tianzong added some things. There were people of the Qin, Zhou, and Ye families that had to leave as well. Those without fighting abilities would not be able to help even if they stayed. They had to leave; that way they would save some hope for their families.

They also had to move some of the family assets.

Su Ping was thinking about something else while they were discussing the evacuation plan.

They went their separate ways after the meeting. The five family heads had their own assignments. Xie Jinshui didn’t give Su Ping any instructions; he had done more than enough by volunteering to stay. The evacuation had nothing to do with Su Ping; Xie Jinshui couldn’t ask more of him.

At the store.

Su Ping pulled up the system’s interface and checked his energy points. He used three million energy points in the pool and got three pets. After that, he sold the pets and earned more money. He currently had seven million energy points in total.

He could upgrade the store with three million more.

But upgrading the store would not solve the problem at hand.

I can have the Swamp War Crocodile guard one side, the Dark Dragon Hound another side, and I’ll take care of a third side. The Qin and the Zhu families will guard the remaining side. However, it’ll be difficult for them if beast kings head their way. There are five beasts in total. One side of the city is bound to encounter two beast kings.

The Otherworld Heavenly King will also be here. I’ll have to be the one dealing with that.

Such being the case, the others will have to fight the beast kings.

Eventually, Su Ping made up his mind and went into the room with the pool. He planned on spending all seven million energy points!

If he could get more beast kings, then the chance of succeeding would be bigger! The only trouble would be the Otherworld Heavenly King!

Once inside the room, all that Su Ping could see was a vast starry sky that extended into infinity.

He walked among the stars, with the well in front of him.

“Start!”

Su Ping had made up his mind. He initiated the process without struggling. Minus one million energy points.

Soon, the pool began to glow.

Roar!

Not long after—with the interweaving of chaos and spiritual energy-complicated energy patterns began to materialize, and a roar came from inside!

That roar was extremely loud and full of a murderous aura, which made Su Ping’s eyes glow.

An adult beast!

He saw a stalwart giant shadow slowly rising and floating over the pool. It was a strange monster with wings on its back and a body similar to that of a scorpion. It was a beast king!

“Congratulations to the host for getting the Storm Scorpion!” the system said.

Su Ping checked the properties of the beast king. To his delight, the beast king’s combat strength was 16.5!

Even more powerful than the Dark Dragon Hound!

The Dark Dragon Hound’s combat strength was merely 14.

Su Ping stored the beast and continued.

Soon, the second pet appeared. The roar indicated that it was also an adult! But Su Ping was less fortunate this time. This one was a pet at the peak of the ninth rank.

Su Ping repeated the process without hesitation.

The third one, the fourth one…

Soon, Su Ping had spent all seven million energy points!

He obtained seven pets. Out the seven, two were at the peak of the ninth rank and the other five were all beast kings!

He was quite lucky this time, much more fortunate than the previous round. However, of all the beast kings, only one was at the Void State and had reached adulthood. There was one in its infant stage with combat strength that could barely compare to the sixth rank. As for the other three, their combat strengths were 12, 15, and 16 respectively.

None of the three was as good as the Swamp War Crocodile.

The most powerful of the five beast kings was the Storm Scorpion.

“I tried seven times but I didn’t get even one beast king at the Fate State.” Su Ping was vexed. A beast king at the Fate realm was still a beast king. He could get one according to the system’s rules!

He wouldn’t be as wary of the Overworld Heavenly King if he had one. After all, that was a beast king as well, one at the Fate State at best.

But even if I managed to get one Fate ranked beast king, I wouldn’t be able to use it. I haven’t gotten another Slave Contract yet. A legendary battle pet warrior is required to control a beast king at the Void State. A titled battle pet warrior could easily get hurt by such a beast king.

Su Ping frowned.

He wouldn’t have minded selling a beast at the Void State to a legendary battle pet warrior if the Tower had decided to send one.

But, no legendary battle pet warrior would help them.

The Longjiang Base City had no support from any legendary battle pet warriors! That was to say, the beast king at the Void State was the most powerful battle pet and yet he could not find it a master! How frustrating!

Su Ping heaved a sigh. He put up all the other battle pets for sale except for the beast king at the Void State.

He was about to call Qin Duhuang and the others when his phone rang.

It was from Xie Jinshui.

Su Ping picked it up at once.

“Sir?”

“Mr. Su, help!” Xie Jinshui sounded very afraid and panicky. “I have just been informed that the beasts are coming toward the base city! We haven’t finished gathering the people that we want to evacuate! The beasts will already be here by the time we do. I have to select a group from them and only a few will be able to leave. Mr. Su, the war is about to begin!”

Su Ping was surprised to learn that the beasts had quickly begun to move.

His mind was weighed down by the thought that the general public was still gathering.

“I’ll be ready. Sir, go ahead and finish your job. Evacuate as many as you can,” Su Ping said.

Xie Jinshui replied at once, “Okay, be careful.” Xie Jinshui had hung up before Su Ping could answer.

Su Ping called Qin Duhuang right after.

Unfortunately, the line was busy.

Stunned, Su Ping dashed out from his store, only to see that the buildings across the street were empty. He remembered the evacuation plan. The five family heads were surely helping Xie Jinshui with the evacuation and gathering up some kids and women of their respective families.

“Sir?”

Zhong Lingtong could not help but feel nervous to see Su Ping so flustered.

That was the first time she had seen him like that.

Su Ping didn’t explain himself. He told Tang Ruyan to take care of Zhong Lingtong. Then, he summoned the Dark Dragon Hound and told it to take its dragon form.

Su Ping hopped onto its back and flew to the outer wall of the base city.