Astral Pet Store (WN)

One by one, Su Ping tried putting the other pets for evaluation.

Unsurprisingly, the Inferno Dragon had the highest net price of 150,000 energy points, most of which had been contributed by its Beast King-level bloodline. While the Dark Dragon Hound and the Purple Python… not so much, even though they could fight rather well.

So basically, an “average” ninth-rank pet could sell for 70 to 80 thousand energy points, which was acceptable. Most customers who needed to buy ninth-rank pets could afford such a price just fine.

Su Ping really wanted to raise the price, which wouldn’t affect his business at all. Too bad he couldn’t.

Damn. Maybe I can sell several pets I found in the Mysterious Realm… They aren’t worth much, but at least they can help me get more customers. I can’t just rely on the students from the academy. They don’t have much money on them anyway.

He saw Joanna yawning in boredom and suddenly got an idea.

“Come. Let’s go to a cultivation plane.”

“Cultivation what now?” Joanna frowned.

Su Ping didn’t explain. He called up the system menu, found the cheapest cultivation plain and paid the price, while selecting Joanna as his partner.

An unknown force soon came and pulled both of them into a foreign, empty world without anything noticeable in view. Su Ping chose this place so he could test something out.

“What is—” Joanna checked the sudden change of environment in awe. She wondered if Su Ping had used the same trick to freely sneak around divine enclosures.

By going there, Su Ping meant to provide some “staff training” before Joanna started helping his business for real. And perhaps show her who was boss in the meantime to get rid of some of her funny ideas.

He took out several beast-catching rings from his inventory and snapped them apart to free what was inside them.

The first one that entered their view was the exceptionally large Flame Blood Dragon that had almost wiped out Su Ping’s team in the Mysterious Realm. It didn’t appear as violent as before after being trapped inside the ring for a few days. Though this didn’t mean it was friendly.

“I’ll consume the last bit of your petty presence, human!!” the creature uttered in human language as it locked its fierce gaze at Su Ping.

As soon as it regained freedom, the full power of an apex ninth-rank monster rapidly returned. “I’ll leave them to you,” Su Ping told Joanna while glancing at several more pets that popped up from the broken rings. “As a worker in the shop, you’ll help me deal with untamed pets.”

In fact, this wasn’t written in Joanna’s “job description.” Otherwise, he would have been free to mass-produce Beast Kings for the shop to sell by catching them from different shape.

Joanna could more or less figure out his plan, though she found it difficult to reject the job because she was still too surprised by the fact that Su Ping could take her to different realms against her will. Or, maybe it wasn’t Su Ping, but the “unknown administrator” in the shop that did it. Nevertheless, she wanted to be careful. Even if Su Ping could only borrow a small fraction of the amazing power, he could still harm her.

Because of the unfair treatment, she felt a rising irritation itching to burst out of her body, yet she didn’t dare not vent it out on Su Ping. The roaring beasts around them were perfect targets for that. “SILENCE!” She bellowed as a golden aura expanded from her position, which swept past the beasts and instantly paralyzed them. “Who… are you?” the Flame Blood Dragon spoke to her, head against the floor in fear.

For a moment, it even thought of going back into the dark prison instead of confronting this terrible woman, who made its soul tremble.

Similarly, the Qilin Lion also quieted down and extinguished the flames around its body, before gazing at Joanna cautiously.

“You don’t deserve to know my name, filthy animals! Prepare to get butchered!” Joanna threatened them as she gathered her golden energy again, creating her divine lance in her hand. She caused a small storm to blow over the empty realm even when the air was thin.

Su Ping jumped at her dangerous display. “Nonono, don’t kill them. You’re supposed to tame them.”

Joanna threw him a hateful glance, before looking back at the beasts. “Whatever. Get tamed, or die! You hear??”.

The Qilin Lion whined and immediately crouched with its head against the floor. Too bad it wasn’t intelligent enough to speak yet.

Following its lead, several more pets who had just gotten out of the rings bowed down. None of them was brave enough to look at Joanna.

As the last one, the Flame Blood Dragon faltered for a moment and also succumbed. It left several deep claw marks on the floor due to unwillingness.

Nice. Su Ping nodded in contentment. She didn’t need to do anything to scare them into submission.

He approached the Flame Blood Dragon and asked a question, “Why were you guarding that Astral Spirit Fruit Tree? Why were there two of you?”

The dragon gave Joanna an uncertain look, before answering Su Ping, “The soul of an ancient dragon king forced our kind to watch over its treasures. For eons, my ancestors couldn’t leave that prison but were otherwise free to breed and grow up. It was… about a century ago. I found the ancient power slowly weakening, so I successfully found a burrow in the cave where I could avoid its control. There, I devoted days and nights trying to pass the ultimatum judgment and become a Beast King, so I could finally be free from the restraint.”

“I see… So, you need to get through some kind of judgment before reaching the level of a Beast King?”

The dragon gave him a strange look. “Indeed. A Beast King is no longer a common creature born of nature. On the contrary, it has enough strength to defy that very nature. This is why the world itself will use a punishing power to test and discourage one from becoming a Beast King.”

Joanna added from nearby, “What you just heard is ‘divine judgment. And yes, a common beast needs to survive it in order to breach its mortal limit, or die trying. Turning into a Beast King is equal to rejecting the role given by this world upon birth. Of course the world will try to prevent it.”

For a moment, Su Ping noticed a hint of sympathy in Joanna’s eyes.

“I see…”

Since all five pets he took back in the beast-catching rings had become obedient, their job was basically done.

Su Ping returned to the shop and picked another cheap cultivation plane with a moderate climate as a temporary “ranch” for the new pets. Then went back to his bored shopkeeper role as he sat on his chair while waiting for customers, only to get nothing at all after a few hours had passed.

And he was rather confused. It was as if the bigger design and all the eye-catching features added to the shop had scared everyone away instead of attracting them.

Don’t tell me all the students are still stuck inside the barren areas??

That would be bad. Since most of his regular customers were students, those who still had time to visit the shop must be the poor ones who didn’t have much money to spend. As long as most of the students were occupied by their fieldwork, he wouldn’t be getting much business at all.

He had already made plans to further promote his shop in the city. But there was no starting it when not a single customer showed up.

“Crap. Hey, Joanna? Can you go outside and help me with, you know, lure customers in?”

“Huh? How do I do that?”

“Well…” Su Ping thought but failed to come up with a proper way that fitted Joanna’s style.

He felt excited the moment he heard approaching footsteps, but was soon deflated when he saw it was his sister.

Su Lingyue entered the shop’s door somewhat carefully and sighed in relief when she saw her brother inside. “Did this all happen overnight?? You said you wanted some new decor, not to completely rebuild everything!” “What do you want?” Su Ping said without looking up. “It’s time to eat, moron.” Su Lingyue frowned at his attitude, but was soon attracted by Joanna’s divine look. “Oh? Who’s this? She’s… wonderful.”

Su Ping decided to get some introductions done since these two were going to spend some time together anyway. “A new employee I just found. Call her Joanna. And Joanna? This is my naughty-naughty little sis, Su Lingyue.” An employee?? Su Lingyue went wide-eyed. Why in the world would such a pretty lady work for this disgusting bachelor? And what does he mean by naughty??

Of course Su Lingyue believed none of what Su Ping said. In her view, someone so appealing had countless ways of earning more money instead of working there. And this probably meant she wasn’t there for the payment, but something else.