Astral Pet Store

Chapter 738: A Crossbreed, and the Cry of the King

A Vast Sky Thunderous Dragon?

Su Ping easily recognized it from a distance.

It was exactly a Vast Sky Thunderous Dragon, one of Rhea's local species that had a Star State bloodline.

However, very few of them could tap into their full potential and really grow to reach the Star State.

That being said, their Star State bloodline was still intriguing; they would invariably reach the Void State the moment they reached adulthood. Those beasts were counted among the best pets of the thunder family; many battle pet warriors loved them.

This one's at the Fate State…

Su Ping looked up at the creature, which was at the moment coming out of the clouds and moving fast as it approached him. He became interested after detecting its level.

He launched an attack without any hesitation.

There was a boom sound; he squeezed his fist, breaking space around him. Then, his fist aura was boosted by his magnificent astral power as it traveled to smash the Vast Sky Thunderous Dragon.

Roar!

The dragon was slightly surprised to see that its attack was deflected with ease. It roared as it felt how powerful the fist was, its brutality surging. It then unleashed thousands of lightning bolts and shot out lightning spheres.

Boom, boom, boom, boom… Thunders were echoing everywhere. The golden fist aura exploded in the midst of that bombardment, raising a chaotic energy storm.

Whoosh!

Su Ping suddenly dashed out of the energy storm. He simply charged at the dragon with sword in hand!

The Vast Sky Thunderous Dragon's purple eyes were contracted due to shock, not expecting Su Ping to dare pass right through the energy turbulence, which could have injured it if it attempted a similar move. And yet, Su Ping remained unscathed!

There was a swoosh; Su Ping entered the secondary space and then used super acceleration. He then reappeared in front of the large beast in the next moment.

The lightning bolts were sizzling, while the Vast Sky Thunderous Dragon was surrounded by an invisible magnetic field, which was its defensive skill. Su Ping was virtually tied up by the invisible lightning bolts since he had trespassed.

However, his resistance to lightning had been improved, becoming special grade when he grasped the "Boom" rule; that was why he wasn't at all injured, although he had been constrained by the lightning bolts. He pointed his cold sword at the Vast Sky Thunderous Dragon's head.

The coldness of the sword seemed to be piercing its skull.

Checkmate!

The dragon seemed to be terrified as it gazed at the human contender hovering close to his head; it was unable to unleash its energy or skills any longer…

It was defeated in just half a minute!

"Appraise!"

Su Ping chose to use the Pet Identification Skill he had acquired from the system. The beast's profile popped up in his mind instantly.

Combat ability: 58!

Level: Fate State!

Aptitudes… low-mid level!

… It's awful!

Su Ping could only regret his luck. He didn't expect that the Fate State Vast Sky Thunderous Dragon didn't even have a low-high level of aptitude.

He lost interest in that beast so he stored his sword. Then, he returned to where the Inferno Dragon was and continued his exploration.

The Vast Sky Thunderous Dragon finally regained control of its body after Su Ping kept his sword. It was rather stunned to see Su Ping leave. This human didn't try to kill me?

How is it possible?

It knew full well that the human being was very likely the one who could have executed it!

Why did he simply let me go?

Also… he no longer tried to catch them?

The beast was at a loss.

On the other side, Su Ping had flown away. He went straight to the central area of the Rumbling Thunder Continent.

"If only I could perform remote appraisals." Su Ping was quite regretful. A lot of time would have been allotted to screening pets if he had the ability.

While the system's identification skill wasn't bad, it had a distance and level restraint; he could only remotely appraise beasts whose level was lower than his own. Those equal or stronger than him had to be checked up close.

Besides, the highest level he could appraise was the Fate State, and only a limited amount of information was acquired whenever he encountered one.

Su Ping encountered a few more beast kings a few minutes later.

There were many other beasts aside from the Vast Sky Thunderous Dragons in the Rumbling Thunder Continent, but the latter were the undisputed dominators. However, their population wasn't large due to years of hunting.

…

Half an hour later—

The Inferno Dragon was flying underneath low clouds.

While seated on one of its shoulders, Su Ping was already able to see the Thunderous Dragon Mountain in the distance.

That landmark looked like a volcano that reached all the way to the sky; its peak was covered by the nearby clouds. The Vast Sky Thunderous Dragons with the purest bloodlines lived on the mountaintop where they could easily draw energy from the thunderstorms.

Su Ping had executed a lot of beasts during the previous half hour. He encountered eight Vast Sky Thunderous Dragons and one of them was stupid enough to once again try to attack when it had already been defeated and then let go. Su Ping simply killed it.

It was a shame that all the dragons he checked had low-low or low-mid level aptitudes. Not even one of them had a low-high level aptitude.

There was a vast Thunderous Wood forest beyond the mountain.

The forest was purple colored, which could endure regular lightning strikes and conduct electricity. Those trees were seen as delicacies by some pets, so they could be sold for a really good price.

But of course, it wasn't a fair deal to pay a ticket fee of ten thousand just to collect Thunderous Wood, which was as dangerous as hunting the Vast Sky Thunderous Dragons. So, hunting was a better choice.

A lot of beasts of the thunder family lived in that forest. Some of the Vast Sky Thunderous Dragons also loved it as a place to stay.

Each tree was hundreds of meters tall. Some could even grow to be a thousand meters tall. The old trees among them were important materials to make certain secret treasures.

However, such old trees had mostly been taken by tough beasts as nests.

Hardly had Su Ping approached the forest when he detected a fair number of lurking beasts. He asked the Inferno Dragon to conceal its aura, as they were very close to the dragon's nesting places and a huge battle could attract all of them, including the Star State dragon kings!

Whoosh!

Su Ping asked the Inferno Dragon to fly into the forest and then he sent it back to the contract space, as it was too big to hide.

He then summoned the Dark Dragon Hound and asked it to follow him, so that he could merge with it and escape in an emergency.

Su Ping performed the Fog Concealer Technique and closed all his pores after the Dark Dragon Hound came out. A Fate State beast would hardly be able to detect him, even if it were standing right in front of him!

Once he reached the forest, Su Ping entered the secondary space and traveled at a high speed.

He would occasionally use his super acceleration to leave some of the unsettled beasts behind.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Su Ping quickly traversed the forest like a conspicuous ghost.

It was after moving a hundred kilometers when he suddenly detected a familiar energy wave from his left side. After focusing on examining the source in detail… he found that it was divine energy!

He was quite amazed, given that divine energy was unique to divine worlds. How could it be found in that place?

He quickly concealed his aura and snuck his way toward the source. Soon after, he reached the back of a tree, which he used as cover to look through the gaps left by its leaves. He then saw an extremely thick tree in a nearby open ground; some of its leaves were golden, which emitted divine brilliance.

There was a cave by the base of the trunk; seven Vast Sky Thunderous Dragons were lying close to the tree.

Su Ping scanned them carefully, only to discover that they were all at the Fate State!

The seven dragons were protecting the tree!

This Thunderous Wood seems to have mutated and is mixed with the air of the gods… Su Ping was quite amazed; the tree seemed to be at least ten thousand years old, reaching close to two thousand meters in height, just like a mountain!

While Su Ping considered whether or not he should snatch that tree, a drakeling suddenly hopped out of the cave. Even though it was young, it was still more than ten meters tall.

That drakeling was also a Vast Sky Thunderous Dragon, but its scales were purely white, much to Su Ping's surprise. It was a white-scaled Vast Sky Thunderous Dragon!

The drakeling was in good spirits as it climbed on the tree after leaving the cave.

The seven dragons guarding the tree were alerted by the sound and looked up, but they didn't stop the young one.

It was at this moment that an enormous head craned out of the cave. It turned out to be an enormous serpent with white scales.

The serpent saw the youngling climbing the tree and quickly slithered forward, catching the kid and making it so that it fell on its body.

The serpent was at least five hundred meters long; the drakeling could barely be noticed in front of it.

The serpent caught the young one with affection in its eyes and was about to take it back to the cave—

Well…

Su Ping's pupils were contracted due to shock.

He had decided to appraise the youngling on a whim, only to find that it had mid-level aptitude!

Su Ping was rather shocked.

It was only at the peak of the ninth rank, yet its combat ability was already at twelve points!

The ninth rank's maximum combat ability was usually an infinite decimal that started with 9.9. It wasn't easy for Su Ping to train his first battle pet with a combat ability above ten.

That young dragon, however, could compare to an ordinary Ocean State beast king in terms of combat ability!

This was all too easy… Su Ping came back to himself and felt ecstatic. He had thought that he would have to go to the Thunderous Dragon Mountain in order to find a Vast Sky Thunderous Dragon with mid-level aptitude in order to accomplish the quest.

After all, a dragon king able to reach the Star State would definitely have a mid-level aptitude.

Little did he expect to meet one that would meet the requirement in the Thunderous Woods, or that it would still be a drakeling!

Whoosh!

Su Ping quickly dashed out when the cub was about to return to the cave.

Hardly had he shown himself when the seven Vast Sky Thunderous Dragons around the tree rose and stared at him.

The white-scaled giant serpent was also alerted. The affection in its eyes was quickly replaced by coldness and brutality, as it gazed at Su Ping warily while covering the young one with its body.

Upon seeing Su Ping's look, the seven Vast Sky Thunderous Dragons became infuriated.

"A human being!"

"He's one of those goddamn hunters!"

"It's merely an Ocean State warrior. Finish him off but don't make too much noise!"

Countless humans had gone to that place to hunt them over the years. They loathed humans because of this.

Su Ping wasn't intending to reason with the beasts. That world was just a jungle. The Vast Sky Thunderous Dragons were actually caged inside that continent and constantly hunted, being clearly weaker when compared to humans! Humans were the weaker species on the Blue Planet, that is why they had nearly been wiped out!

That was the cruel and coldblooded law of the universe!

Su Ping pointed at the drakeling that the white-scaled serpent was protecting and demanded coldly, "Give it to me, and I'll spare your lives!" His words were delivered to their heads telepathically.

"Never!" The white-scaled serpent sent him a telepathic reply with a soft yet furious voice. It suddenly opened its mouth and bared its fangs.

"Rot in hell!"

The eyes of the nearby dragons were cold. The space around Su Ping was instantly constricted. Their Fate State spatial suppression would have crushed him with ease if he were only as strong as those at the Ocean State.

However, in reality, Su Ping waved his fist casually and dispelled their spatial attack.

He then unleashed a brutal aura, with divine energy bursting out of his body. His black hair was fluttering as he took out his sword.

"Don't blame me for fulfilling your death wish." Su Ping snorted and took action. Fused with the Dark Dragon Hound, plus the super acceleration, he emerged in front of the Vast Sky Thunderous Dragon that attacked him and stomped upon it.

After a loud bam, the dragon was smashed in the head; he fell to the ground, completely unable to react. Its neck was broken and its head was bleeding!

The unexpected impact and noise shocked the other six dragons. All of them had detected that Su Ping was merely an Ocean State human. How could he possibly be that strong?

His earlier punch had dispelled the spatial pressure, and none of them could have resisted his following attack!

The white-scaled serpent seemed shocked and infuriated. Its motherly instinct made it wary of that human; he wasn't at all easy to deal with!

Su Ping turned around and looked at the white-scaled serpent. He was going to attack again, but then he frowned and looked up at the sky.

Boom~!

Hundreds of lightning bolts burst out from the tree crown and struck him.

Those lightning bolts were so destructive that they penetrated space like shackles.

Su Ping narrowed his eyes but didn't dodge. He opened his hands instead, and an enormous vortex appeared in his palm. All the lightning bolts headed his way disappeared into the vortex. Moments later, Su Ping emitted electric arcs and seemed to have become even stronger!

The other dragons saw this with bulging eyes. They could not believe that a human could absorb lightning like they did!

It was a special ability manifested on beasts of the thunder family! Is this guy a human or a monster?

Su Ping relaxed his hands and relished the feeling.

He already knew how to absorb lightning, and his body was much more resistant than that of any beast of similar rank, all thanks to training in the cultivation sites.

An enormous shadow suddenly approached them. It turned out to be an even bigger Vast Sky Thunderous Dragon that emitted the aura of a peak Fate State creature!

The newcomer unleashed lightning bolts in a crazy manner and glared at Su Ping.

"Goddamn human, die now!"

It opened its mouth and released a lightning bolt that went straight for Su Ping.

Su Ping raised his head calmly. He sensed that lightning bolts were proliferating in the space around him; it was also hard for him to flash away.

However, he wasn't intending to dodge. He simply extended his sword and covered it with the law of annihilation. Once he made a slashing move, the lightning bolt that was hundreds of meters long was cut apart!

The raging sword aura even collided with the Vast Sky Thunderous Dragon's chest and made it narrow its eyes.

A piece of lightning armor had suddenly appeared on its body to block the sword aura, but the armor was also broken.

The large dragon seemed to be shocked and infuriated. Its mountain-like body landed in front of the white-scaled serpent, ready to protect it.

"You're here…" The white-scaled serpent looked at the enormous Vast Sky Thunderous Dragon with tenderness in its eyes.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Three more dragons arrived and landed behind the larger Vast Sky Thunderous Dragon.

"My father intends to sacrifice you and my son for the sake of the Dragon Ancestor. You need to leave now!" said the magnificent dragon to the white-scaled serpent without looking back.

Its voice was heavy and quite emotional.

The white-scaled serpent was stunned for a moment. Then, its eyes were filled with tears. "Where can we go?"

The entire Rumbling Thunder Continent was the territory of that majestic dragon species. Where could they run to?

Besides, human hunters just like that human visitor were everywhere!

They had nowhere else to run to!

The huge Vast Sky Thunderous Dragon gnashed its teeth with sadness in its eyes. It slowly turned around with deep affection and humanity in its eyes. "Go to the Grieving Frost Swamp. It's a place that my people have abandoned. It wouldn't be a place they would easily go to…"

"What about you?"

"I have to stay, or my father would never let you go!" The large dragon gnashed its teeth and looked at the drakeling's eyes, which were at the moment filled with fright and confusion. It then said with rare tenderness, "Be strong, stay alive, and take good care of your mother!"

The young one was stunned as it gazed at its father.

The leading dragon turned around and roared, "Let's go!"

Roar!!

All that exchange between those creatures sounded like random noises to Su Ping, but they obviously sounded sorrowful and angry.

His countless fights in the past had allowed him to develop a sense for the emotions in the sounds they made, even though he couldn't understand their animal language.

He frowned and said, "I came for your child, but not with the plan to kill it. I can send it back once it's properly trained so it can meet with you anytime."

Once again, he sent his words over to them via telepathy.

"Get lost! All humans are liars!" The magnificent Vast Sky Thunderous Dragon roared back, also using a telepathy.

Su Ping could only sigh in frustration and chose not to say anything else. He was about to take action, but then a huge pressure was imposed on him. Ten or so Vast Sky Thunderous Dragons appeared and flew towards him.

"Hurry!"

The largest dragon let out a roar.

Two Vast Sky Thunderous Dragons next to it quickly fled to the other side of the forest with the white-scaled serpent and their young one.

"Reinforcements? Where do you think you're going?"

Su Ping saw the Vast Sky Thunderous Dragons in the sky and found that all of them were Fate State beings. He could only think on his feet as he quickly chased after them.