Astral Pet Store (WN)

Chapter 191 Qilin Lion

Not long after, Su Ping arrived at a barren mountain chain fully covered by burning earth and of course, groups of fire-type monsters, who immediately sensed his arrival and crept closer.

Su Ping summoned his Inferno Dragon. The dominating aura of the dragon did a quick job scaring lesser monsters away, while slightly stronger ones stayed inside their territories and trembled.

Without minding the monsters, Su Ping headed straight to the biggest volcano in sight. If his memory served him right, the only threat he would come upon was a Qilin Lion that lived at the mountain peak. It was a superior species among all fire-type monsters who could wield many ninth-rank abilities and was immune to dragon will.

He had previously managed to defeat the lion only by throwing himself to death repeatedly. Just then, however, he was confident that his pets could take on the lion just fine; they had grown a lot stronger since that day.

Rather, Su Ping wasn’t planning to kill the lion this time. He wanted to capture it.

As he expected, he saw a large lava pool at the tip of the mountain, which began bubbling madly upon his arrival.

Abruptly, a pillar of fire was shot his way.

The Inferno Dragon growled, then took a leap ahead and blocked the fire attack in Su Ping’s stead.

Splash!

A gigantic creature over a dozen meters in length from head to tail emerged from the lava and stayed afloat above the surface on its burning limbs, gazing down at its enemies with a pair of burning eyes filled with unquenchable anger. Its body was fully covered by glossy, emerald-like scales. Despite its body resembling a bulky lion, it had a long-snouted, reptilian head that was occasionally spitting violet embers. Su Ping summoned Little Skeleton to join him, before he took out four middle-rank beast-catching rings and prayed for a good result.

“Take that!”

Using his astral power, he hurled the rings at the towering beast.

The Qilin Lion felt offended by the attack and summoned a wall of lava, which crashed down upon Su Ping’s position like a tidal wave.

Su Ping quickly pulled the rings back before they were swallowed by the burning liquid.

Welp. I need to subdue it first then. It seems I can’t ambush ninth-rank pets so easily.

Together, Little Skeleton and the Inferno Dragon charged ahead to engage the lion, while the Dark Dragon Hound tried flanking the lion by using its superior speed. Meanwhile, Su Ping stayed outside the conflict zone and hid behind the Purple Python.

It didn’t take long before the Qilin Lion showed several noticeable wounds all over its body, most of which had been caused by Little Skeleton’s unpredictable attacks.

Seeing Little Skeleton fooling their enemy like a pro by teleporting here and there, an idea suddenly flashed in Su Ping’s mind.

Will it work if I let Little Skeleton handle the beast-catching rings?

He called Little Skeleton back to try that out right away.

Little Skeleton seemed a bit confused by the order when it was just enjoying the thrill of chopping its quarry. Still, it listened to Su Ping’s command soon enough and returned, with its bone blade still dripping more blood onto the floor.

Su Ping handed the rings to the skeleton and told it what to do through their spirit connection.

It took Little Skeleton a while to comprehend the new order, during which the Inferno Dragon quickly went on the losing side after losing Little Skeleton’s help; it was being pummeled by the Qilin Lion helplessly.

“Go.” Su Ping urged Little Skeleton so the Inferno Dragon wasn’t further endangered.

Little Skeleton nodded slightly and disappeared. A second later, it somehow flashed on top of the lion’s head, lifted a beast-catching ring, and threw it down.

Ping!

The lion was hopping left and right to find better spots to claw at the Inferno Dragon. Before it could land another hit, its body was frozen solid. It melted into a purple light beam and entered the ring.

“*Whistle* Bull’s eye. Nice!” Su Ping smiled in satisfaction.

He immediately pulled the ring back to him to prevent it from falling into the lava below. If the ring was destroyed, the Qilin Lion would get out and his efforts would have been ruined.

Just like the Flame Blood Dragon, the lion had been ensnared by several impressive chains inside a dark space, which would dangerously tighten up as the lion struggled.

Su Ping sighed in relief and put the ring away, before he ordered the Dark Dragon Hound to jump into the lava pool and retrieve the material he was looking for. The hound whined and looked at Su Ping with a pair of watery puppy eyes.

Su Ping told the Inferno Dragon to push the hound into the lava pool instead; the ferocious dragon heeded the order after giving its comrade-in-arms an almost sympathetic look.

The hound saw the dragon’s claw coming, yelped in despair, and dived into the lava by itself.

A moment later, it returned to the surface and spat out a stagnant puddle from its mouth that looked like melted metal. Even with enough defensive enchantments, the hound’s mouth and tongue were still burned badly.

Su Ping pulled the puddle into his hand and sensed the comforting heat contained inside, before he placed it into his inventory space.

Two more materials, and I can finally level up the Solar Bulwark… He beamed at the thought. After breaking through, my body will finally be strong enough to endure the attacks of ninth-ranked warriors.

He already knew where to find one of the remaining materials which was hidden in another “dragon scale land.” This had left him with only one other material to look for.

Without tarrying, he jumped onto the Purple Python and left this sector behind.