Astral Pet Store

Whoosh!

Suddenly, a gigantic Golden Crow stopped in front of Su Ping.

Even inside the golden cube, Su Ping found that burning sensation unbearable.

The surge of heat originated from the gigantic Golden Crow.

Su Ping heard such a majestic voice that he was even feeling the urge to kneel and surrender.

“Lady Diqiong, what are the things that you’ve brought here?”

Even though Su Ping’s willpower had been refined, the Golden Crow still scared him.

That Golden Crow might be at the peak of the Star Rank or even beyond that!

Su Ping was amazed. The Golden Crows were the oldest creatures and they lived long lives. He couldn’t even begin to imagine what rank they could reach.

The proud Golden Crow that captured Su Ping should be at the Star Rank. He could not determine the gigantic Golden Crow’s rank.

“This is a strange creature that calls itself human. I cannot kill it no matter what I do. So, I thought I could bring all of them back to let the elders see.” It was the young female Golden Crow that was doing the talking.

“You cannot kill them?” The gigantic Golden Crow was shocked. There were creatures that they, the Golden Crows, could not kill?

Were these things some wicked undead creatures?

Once this thought arose, the gigantic Golden Crow showed killing intent.

“I’ll be on my way,” the young Golden Crow female claimed.

The gigantic Golden Crow moved out of the way and replied with respect, “Goodbye, Lady Diqiong.”

Su Ping was finally able to learn the name of the Golden Crow that captured him. As the gigantic Golden Crow flew away, Su Ping finally felt the burden being lifted from him. “Your name is Diqiong? I think that golden bird treated you quite nicely. But, your combat strength is not that good. Is it because you enjoy a high status here?”

“Not that good?”

The Golden Crow named Diqiong was pissed. A creature I could squeeze to death is saying that my combat strength is not good?

“Humph!”

The Golden Crow Diqiong no longer paid attention to Su Ping and flew onward.

Su Ping didn’t pursue the question. He looked around as they traveled; the more he saw, the more stunned he was. The Golden Crows were even more intimidating than the one that captured him. One of such Golden Crows could have destroyed the Blue Planet dozens of times over!

Those were true ancient creatures!

Luckily, this place is far away from the world I live in…

That thought alerted Su Ping. He asked the system at once, “Is the Celestial Star marked on the Federation maps?”

The system calmed him down, “Don’t stress yourself over nothing. Your technology cannot detect something this far away. Why else do you think you can live in such comfort?”

Su Ping was relieved. The system was right.

It would be a disaster for humanity if those Golden Crows came into contact with the Federation.

Those Golden Crows were ancient creatures, and every one of them was a warrior. The Golden Crow ‘girl’ that captured him was at the Star Rank. What about the others? It scared him to even think about it.

…

Whoosh!

Diqiong took Su Ping and they gradually went closer to the tree.

It seemed that the tree was close but it took the Golden Crow a long time to arrive. The leaves were enlarged in Su Ping’s sight as they moved closer. Eventually, all that Su Ping could see was a single leaf; its veins were like wide streets running across each other.

Diqiong was flying toward the crown of the tree; Golden Crows greeted her along the way. Su Ping was sure that Diqiong did have a high status.

Even a creature as fast as Diqiong had to fly for over a dozen minutes before reaching a particular twig, where many Golden Crows were resting. Su Ping was unable to tell how many there were. The fact was he couldn’t even see the full body of a single Golden Crow.

Those Golden Crows were similar in size as those doing the patrolling rounds.

I am in their official den!

Su Ping could feel those terrifying breaths around him. He was like an ant served to a group of giants and he couldn’t run away. If it weren’t for the fact that he had been trained in many cultivation sites, the fear alone would have claimed his life.

Su Ping held his breath.

He wasn’t afraid of death but that didn’t make him any less afraid.

Whoosh!

Diqiong was petite when compared to those Golden Crows. Still, the fact remained that Diqiong was as large as an aircraft carrier and it was nothing remotely close to “petite.”

They landed on a twig that Su Ping was only able to partially see. Diqiong grabbed the twig with its three claws and folded its wings, then moved forward. There were some leaves at the end of the twig which blotted out the sky; huge Golden Crows were resting under the leaves.

The closer they were to the leaves, the less sky Su Ping was able to see. Eventually, Su Ping could only see a golden leaf and its veins.

“Nice to meet you, my honorable elders.”

Diqiong bowed before three massive Golden Crows.

The three Golden Crows were even larger than the patrolling Golden Crows Su Ping had just seen. Diqiong was just one-fifth of a single feather on their backs. Compared to them, Diqiong was just like a speck of dust and Su Ping wasn’t even visible to the naked eye.

“Huh?”

While Diqiong was expressing her regards, the Golden Crow sitting in the middle suddenly opened its squinted eyes. “Qiong-er, what is that behind you?”

Diqiong answered at once, “Chief Elder, it is a strange creature I found outside and it calls itself human. I couldn’t kill it no matter what I tried. It has also learned our skills. It must have stolen it from someplace. So, I decided to bring it with its companions for you to see.”

“You cannot kill it?”

The Golden Crow sitting on the right opened its eyes, revealing a sharp look. “Have you tried the special flames?”

“Yes.” Diqiong nodded.

She found the fact strange especially because not even the flames had been enough to kill those creatures.

Diqiong knew that the flames it produced were powerful enough to burn basically anything to dust, except when the opposing creatures were at a higher rank. No armor or shield could withstand that flame!

It was evident that Su Ping was weak, and yet the flames could not kill the creature. It was quite strange.

“I have never heard of anything called a human. Look. There is darkness inside that thing. Is it from the undead family?” the Golden Crow on the left asked.

Its voice was gentle and refined.

The other Golden Crows resting on the surrounding leaves sized Su Ping up with curiosity.

“Look at him…”

The Chief Elder gazed at Su Ping. “If I’m right, he should be the descendant of a Heaven Master.”

“The descendant of a Heaven Master?”

The other two Golden Crows eyed their Chief Elder in disbelief.

“This body structure is odd. In the early days, I once visited a Heaven Master with our forefather, and that Heaven Master looked like this…” The Chief Elder explained.

The other Golden Crows were surprised. This tiny thing was the descendant of a Heaven Master?

Su Ping heard that as well. He raised his head but was only able to see the lower half of the Golden Crows; their upper halves were beyond his sight!

He could not even begin to think how large those Golden Crows were!

He thought the Golden Crows had surely controlled their voices because he could hear them, but it didn’t sound harsh to the ears. It was more like the voices were in his head, like when Diqiong talked to him.

“The descendant of a Heaven Master?”

Su Ping was curious. He had become used to being called a “strange creature.” He would have also found some foreign species strange as well. He was strange and foreign in their perspective.

“System, what is a Heaven Master?” Su Ping asked.

The system answered after a few seconds, “Heaven Master, the master of heaven. You cannot quite see that nor imagine it. You wouldn’t understand.”

“The master of heaven?” Su Ping could not understand.

Heaven?

Isn’t heaven… the atmosphere?

In the old days, people often prayed to heaven for their wishes to come true but that was superstition. According to the scientific definition of modern society, heaven was just the atmosphere and the space outside the planets.

However, it seemed that according to the system, heaven did exist.

The system merely pretended not having read Su Ping’s mind and stopped talking.

“To avoid wars, we, the Golden Crows, have closed the star for years. How come a descendant of the Heaven Master is here?” the Golden Crow sitting on the right asked. That Golden Crow sounded resolute and stable.

“Has something happened to that Heaven Master? Has the Heaven Master sent his descendant to seek shelter here? But this descendant is too weak. Even living is a problem for him,” the Golden Crow sitting on the left argued.

The other Golden Crows eyed their Chief Elder with curiosity.

Diqiong, who had brought Su Ping over, sized him up. Diqiong had heard of the name Heaven Master many times but it had never seen one. There were many Heaven Masters and they were all as powerful as the Golden Crow ancestors. Was this diehard, foul-mouthed guy truly a descendant of the Heaven Master?

A Heaven Master that looked like this?

How ugly!

Diqiong shook its head. As a person, bird, that was a face-judger, it could not bear a guy without any aesthetic value.

Su Ping noticed that Diqiong was shaking its head with eyes filled with contempt. As a face-judger himself, he immediately understood where that contempt was coming from.

It was unbearable.

He preferred death over that humiliation!

One day, I will pluck all of your feathers! Su Ping said to himself.

Diqiong cast a glare at Su Ping.

The Chief Elder spoke again. It did not answer the other two Golden Crows’ questions. The Chief Elder was asking Su Ping, “Human. Where are you from? Why are you here?”

The Golden Crows fixed their gazes on Su Ping.

All of a sudden, Su Ping felt he was shouldering 10 mountains because even the looks from the Golden Crows were overwhelming. He might have lost his mind or even his life if he were any weaker because of the gazes.

Su Ping was relieved since he didn’t sense any killing intent from the Chief Elder’s questioning. “I am Su Ping and I come from a distant planet occupied by humans. I’m just here to look for materials so I can reach the second level of the Solar Bulwark. I want to do that so I can save my friend.”

“Where did you learn that?” the Chief Elder asked again. Su Ping was unable to tell if it was angry or happy.

“Well… one Golden Crow gave me that. I offered a little bit of help in the past.” Su Ping kept a bold face as he spoke.

He could lie without turning a hair to Diqiong but he wasn’t as confident when dealing with the Chief Elder and so many other Golden Crows present.

However, the Chief Elder didn’t seem to have realized it was a lie. “How did you get here? We have closed our star. It is impossible for you to have come from outside.”

Su Ping did not know exactly what the Golden Crow meant by saying “closed the star” but he could somehow work out a theory. He had to bite the bullet. “I have a special method which allows me to teleport here directly. That is my secret, I’m sorry for I cannot tell you the details.”

The Chief Elder kept quiet for a second before it asked, “You’re here just to look for the materials needed for the second level of the Solar Bulwark, right?”

Su Ping nodded. “Yes!”

“Nonsense!”

The Golden Crow sitting on the right snorted. “Do you honestly think you can lie to us? That will never work! We can immediately see through your lies!”

Su Ping moaned and groaned inside. It was unlikely that the Golden Crow was bluffing. He was sure that it was beyond the Star Rank realm, probably on par with beings like the Heaven Master.

He could not even begin to imagine what skills the Golden Crows had.

“I’m just here to find the materials, I want nothing else.” Su Ping didn’t say that he didn’t lie. It was true that he only had one agenda. He didn’t hold a grudge against the Golden Crows or something, so there was no guilt at all. The worst thing that could happen would be torture.

He just hoped that the system was serious when it promised that the revivals were reliable. If the Golden Crows could figure out why he could come back to life and stop that, he would never be able to draw another breath!