“Your highness.”

The middle-aged man approached Diqiong and bowed respectfully.

She quickly told him about the practice telepathically. The senior couldn’t help but look at Su Ping, who was two realms below him. Does he really want to fight me?

Not even Princess Diqiong would dare practice with the Chief Elder’s guards at that level.

Practicing with such a wide gap would prove to be pointless.

“I understand.”

The man didn’t turn her down; he felt it was fitting to accommodate their honorable guest’s request.

“Be careful,” Diqiong said to Su Ping. Both him and the senior crow entered the arena.

They skipped introductions. Right after the middle-aged man said ‘let’s get started’, Su Ping focused all his attention and went full strength, using thirty-six Dao Patterns and his eight small worlds. He was so intimidating that many Ascendant Golden Crows felt scared.

They found it hard to believe that the human’s level was lower than theirs.

Are all human beings as talented as him?

Many crows suddenly understood why their elders showered the human with privileges, even asking Princess Diqiong herself to act as host.

“Huh?”

The middle-aged man was just as surprised. His expression became solemn as he raised a hand, summoning golden light to form a sun; dark red spots were also found on the sphere, where a lot of Dao Patterns were compressed.

Boom!

The man hurled the sun. Su Ping was soon drowned by it; he detected an irresistible force that covered his body. He felt that he was close to dying.

But he didn’t.

Still, all his power had been shattered by the force. He had lost the battle.

He lost faster than he thought he would.

However, his eyes were glittering, as he could infer a more powerful way to use Dao Patterns from that attack!

Compress Dao Patterns…

Su Ping’s body smashed against the branch and fell. His clothes were ragged; there were burns all over his skin. Those injuries couldn’t be healed due to the Dao Patterns’ corruption.

Su Ping grinned in delight despite the excruciating pain. “He only used nine Dao Patterns, but they were more powerful than the thirty-six patterns I used. Concentrate the power… Yes. Why didn’t I do that?”

Diqiong flew over and felt relieved to see that Su Ping was safe and sound on the ground. Still, Su Ping’s mumbled words and smile left her in a daze. She fell silent as her pent up anger faded.

Meanwhile, the senior crow quickly descended and pointed at Su Ping to disperse the effects caused by the Dao Patterns. The power of Su Ping’s own laws quickly fixed his body and replenished his energy, returning to peak status while surrounded by a hazy light.

Someone like Su Ping could stay in top form as long as he wasn’t suppressed by Dao or killed instantly.

That was the advantage of harnessing the paths of time and space.

“An unusual genius…” The middle-aged sighed with a conflicted expression.

Diqiong remained silent.

A long time passed—Su Ping finally woke up from his contemplation and found that his body had recovered. He looked around and saw that all the Golden Crows watching the battle were now gone; only Diqiong was standing nearby with her back toward him. She looked quite sexy in her revealing clothes.

Su Ping stood up with a jump and asked, “Where’s everyone?”

Diqiong slowly turned around and gazed at Su Ping. “You promised to take me away, remember?”

“Of course I do. But your elders wouldn’t let you, would they?” said Su Ping.

“We can sneak away.” Diqiong looked at the vast world around her. “I want to go out and take a look. I want to see if it’s just ruins like the elders said.”

Dazed for a moment, Su Ping said helplessly, “I’ll bring you something from the outside world if that’s what you want. I fear that your elders would beat me to death if I did take you away, although I doubt they can… Cough, in any case, might as well cultivate harder if you’re curious about the outside world.”

Diqiong frowned. “But I have been cultivating really hard…”

She glanced at Su Ping and paused for a moment, deciding to change the subject. “What exactly are you going to bring me from the outside world?”

“Well… How about a movie? Or a TV series? Maybe a videotape?”

Su Ping wasn’t planning to take Diqiong away; not without the elders’ permission. Even if she did go with him, she would have to stay in his store, unless she signed a contract.

Still, he was currently fighting Old Monster Ye and his lackeys and would rather not place Diqiong in such grave danger. The Golden Crows had done him a great favor; taking their princess away would be a poor move.

“What’s a movie?” asked Diqiong in confusion.

She didn’t insist on leaving with Su Ping, knowing it would be too willful of her; the responsibility on her shoulders was too heavy for her to be as childish.

It was just a fleeting desire to go out she was feeling at the moment.

Such desire was getting the better of her, since she truly wanted to leave—

Still, Su Ping’s words quenched her desire; her rationality kicked in.

“A movie… Movies are just records of all sorts of events. Most are fictional, but they’re usually based on reality.”

Su Ping pointed with a finger, reversing time and briefly displaying scenes from the previous battle.

“This is what a movie looks like, more or less,” said Su Ping.

Diqiong understood and thought for a moment. “All right. It’s a deal then. You must visit me again and bring me a movie!”

“Okay…” Su Ping accepted her request, although he felt weird about the whole thing. He didn’t expect that the very first person he would give a movie to in his new life would be a Golden Crow.

Su Ping waved a hand and said, “Until next time.”

Diqiong nodded.

Su Ping communicated with the system and a vortex appeared next to him. He waved goodbye at Diqiong one last time.

She watched as he was absorbed by the vortex, and suddenly felt the urge to follow. That way she would be able to see the outside world…

She overcame temptation in the end.

A caring old man quietly appeared next to Diqiong when the vortex disappeared, affection written all over his face. “You didn’t follow him. It seems that you’ve grown.”

Diqiong bit her lip. “But growing up comes with a price.”

“Growing up makes you abandon more things.” The Chief Elder sighed, seemingly saying those things also for his own sake. His voice was laden with complex feelings.

Diqiong took a deep breath and declared, “I will cultivate hard, until I’m able to get out of this place on my own. I will lead the clan to break our ancestor’s seal and fight the Heavens!”

Delighted, the Chief Elder said, “You must set the ancestor as your role model. I believe that you’ll lead our clan on another expedition!”

…

…

Back from the Golden Crows’ site.

Su Ping found himself at the edge of the Chaos Spirit Pool. He checked himself and found that he was buck naked. Being like that was fine while interacting with the Golden Crows, but not quite so when meeting fellow human beings.

He took out a set of casual clothes from his storage space, then he cleansed his hair and body. He nodded in satisfaction as he looked at the handsome man in the mirror, then walked out of the room.

The store was ablaze with light.

Customers were waiting in line and delivering their pets to the counter.

Their pets were summoned and the store shrunk them to cats and dogs’ sizes; even the most terrifying pets looked small and approachable at the moment. As for the other pets, they looked cute and playful.

The cauldron woman and the sutra old man—who were slacking off—quickly got back to work and started receiving customers once they saw Su Ping appear.

The sutra old man was indeed experienced, greeting Su Ping in a wholesome and warm manner. They had already made eye contact anyway; it was too late for him to pretend to be hardworking.

Su Ping dropped a warning hint at him. He bypassed the customers and went to stand behind the counter. He thought that the store could operate without him, considering the unhurried way Joanna was receiving customers; he only needed to take care of the professional training.

“Thank you for your hard work.”

“It’s okay.”

Joanna was visibly astonished as she glanced at Su Ping, once again noticing a drastic change. He was emitting such a strong pressure that her blood was flowing faster; she could feel that he was actually making an effort to hold back his aura. Nevertheless, she found him extremely threatening.

“Boss Su!”

“Boss!”

“Boss Su, nice to meet you. Ms. Joanna said you don’t accept Ascendant State pets. Is that true?” asked one Ascendant patron.

Everybody turned to look, clearly surprised by the Ascendant’s presence; such experts were bigshots even in the scope of the entire universe.

“Yes, we do. But it will take longer to train them,” said Su Ping.

“Fantastic, Boss Su. The name’s Milaluo; I used to be a rogue cultivator, but now I’m working for Shen Huang. We’re on the same side,” said the middle-aged man with a smile.

“All right. Let’s take care of each other in the future.” Su Ping nodded. He too realized that the guy’s real goal was to make friends with him.

“We can accept Ascendant pets now, but only for normal training,” Su Ping said to Joanna.

Joanna looked at Su Ping again and nodded. “Okay.”

The cost for the normal Ascendant pet training was a billion, which would produce ten million energy points!

Professional training was ten times more expensive than that, which was a hundred times greater than the going rate for the regular pet training below the Ascendant State.

Even though the gap was less wiide, the cost of normal training was actually a hundred times as expensive as that for a Star Lord pet.

I’ll have enough money to pay for a ticket to the Remains of High Heavens and upgrade this store to level 6 if I train ten Ascendant pets.

Su Ping flashed a smile at the Ascendant client as he thought of that, and the prospect of finding more of his peers. Considering his fame and position, many Ascendants would probably be willing to hire his services.

“Your plan is to only train one pet?” Su Ping asked the Ascendant cultivator.

Milaluo was dazed for a moment. He coughed and said, “Well, I was thinking about training two pets. Boss Su, can you train any sort of pet?”

“Yes, any sort.” Su Ping smiled and then asked again, “Just two?”

“Well…” Su Ping’s warm smile suddenly made Milaluo feel he had been tricked. He said with a bitter smile, “The war might break out at any time; I hope to keep the rest of my partners by my side. After all, I only have six Ascendant pets…”

“So few…”

Su Ping thought for a moment and said, “I’ll find some time to catch a few Ascendant pets. Would you like to place an order in advance?”

Milaluo gazed at Su Ping. “You sell Ascendant State pets?”

“Yes, we do. But I’m not sure what kind they’ll be; I have to catch them first.”

“Well…” Milaluo was rather astonished. Su Ping is planning on selling Ascendant pets?

He had heard that Shen Huang’s beloved disciple had performed miraculously during the commandery contest; it was said that he was as strong as a Heavenly Lord.

Even so, the man was still unconvinced.

Besides, not even a Heavenly Lord would sell an Ascendant State pet!

Doesn’t he need them? Wouldn’t his family members need them?

“If they’re up for sale, I’m certainly willing to buy them. But what do you want in return, Boss Su? I’ve always been traveling alone and I don’t have many rare materials…” said Milaluo awkwardly.

The ones who overheard the conversation felt their blood freeze. There are Ascendant State pets for sale in Su Ping’s store!

The entire Celestial Court would be in an uproar once the news were spread out. Indeed, there were stores in the universe that sold Ascendant pets. Such pets could also be found on top auctions too, but they weren’t always available!

Customers would usually need to place orders well in advance. It wouldn’t be seen as bad if such stores would sell one Ascendant pet every hundred years, as such creatures were extremely rare.

“You don’t have to pay with rare materials; all you need is money. Get your money ready… Do you have a few hundred billion? We only accept Federation currency,” said Su Ping.

Shocked, Milaluo quickly said, “Of course. I have millions of those. Are you saying that your Ascendant pets will be sold for only a few hundred billion apiece?”

The annual tax revenue an Ascendant State would collect with a tier-3 planet could be in the dozens of billions.

The income of a tier-1 planet could be a hundred billion.

Ascendants usually lived such long lives that money was just a series of numbers for them.

Some of the rich Ascendants could easily pay thousands of billions for a sector in space.

Still, Ascendant pets were sold for money in Su Ping’s store? And for so little of it?

“Maybe you won’t have to pay hundreds of billions. What you have is enough, if you’re as rich as you claim. Feel free to come regularly,” said Su Ping.

Money had turned into a mere item required by the system. His current identity was enough validation to easily make trillions. One planet—even a tier-5 like the Blue Planet—could be sold for one trillion!

Even though Ascendants had infinite money to spend, the service provided by the store was finite; he could only receive a limited number of customers every day. Even if those powerhouses paid a visit every day, it would still take time to receive them.