Astral Pet Store (WN)
chapter-131

Chapter 131 Putting on the Agenda

As the Inferno Dragon entered the growth period, its strength had increased drastically to the fifth rank!

When the Inferno Dragon reached adulthood, its strength would reach the seventh rank!

On this front, the Inferno Dragon was developing through the same stages as the other dragons. However, there was one thing different. The Inferno Dragon could display more powerful abilities than dragons of the same rank!

A fifth-rank Inferno Dragon could easily defeat the other sixth-rank beasts. Even some sixth-rank beasts of the demon family that were more violent would be at a disadvantage when compared to the Inferno Dragon.

For dragons, to fight creatures of higher ranks was common. Dragons that couldn’t pull this off were useless!

Su Ping’s Inferno Dragon had spent almost all of its short childhood in the dragon king’s heritage ground.

For one-third of this time, the Inferno Dragon had stayed inside the dragon pillar, confronting the attacks and threats of the dragon king’s remnant soul.

For the remaining two-thirds of the time, the Inferno Dragon had been fighting against various beasts inside the dragon scale lands with Su Ping!

While the Inferno Dragon had been born not long before, in about less than half a month, even including the time spent in the cultivation site, the Inferno Dragon had experienced hundreds of battles of various scales and had died over a hundred times!

Compared to the other dragons of the same growth period, the Inferno Dragon had more than 10 times the combat experience!

Even some adult dragons would be inferior to the Inferno Dragon in combat experience. After all, for most dragons, they would enjoy smooth sailing after surviving the difficult period in their infancy stage.

Thanks to this rich experience, the Inferno Dragon had picked many combat skills and abilities. It could defeat other Inferno Dragons of the fifth rank with ease and even be well matched against dragons of the sixth rank!

If the Inferno Dragon were to compete against other average beasts, it would be within the Inferno Dragon’s abilities to fight against a seventh-rank beast after a fashion. Also, the seventh-rank beast might not be able to defeat or kill the Inferno Dragon if the latter was committed to getting away!

Su Ping cast an identification spell and saw that the Inferno Dragon’s aptitude had increased a bit.

With further progress, the Inferno Dragon’s aptitude could reach the below average grade.

Compared to all the Inferno Dragons born since the initial chaos, Su Ping’s Inferno Dragon could be regarded as excellent if it had a below-average aptitude.

In addition to the Inferno Dragon, the Purple Python and the Dark Dragon Hound had experienced great changes as well. Having reached the growth stage, the Purple Python was close to six meters long and had reached the fourth rank as well.

Pets of the combat family usually were the weakest among all pets of the same rank but of other families. But this Purple Python was different. It could even entrap and kill a beast of the element family at the intermediate position of the fifth rank!

The Purple Python’s purple and cyan-colored snake scales had become particularly resistant to outside forces, due to experiences accumulated in many extreme environments of the dragon scale lands. The Purple Python could fend off the usual attacks with fire, thunder, and poison.

The Purple Python was incredibly strong as well.

Generally speaking, pets of the combat family didn’t have a diversified portfolio of skills other than physical strength. In regards to physical strength, the Purple Python had reached the extreme!

To steel the Purple Python’s resolve, Su Ping gave it the roughest treatment. He would throw the Purple Python into all kinds of fatal and extreme environments. Because of that, the Purple Python had died four or five hundred times, more than the deaths of the other pets combined.

How frequently did the Purple Python die to reach such a large number of deaths within the same period of time!?

The Dark Dragon Hound was in the growth period to begin with, since it had evolved from the Managarm. With seven to eight days of training, the Dark Dragon Hound’s strength had reached the sixth rank when in reality, it could compete against a pet of the demon family at the upper position of the seventh rank.

The Dark Dragon Hound alone could be a dominating presence in the Phoenix Peak Academy.

After dark, Su Ping called the pet owners one by one so they could go and pick up their pets the next day. Then, he closed the store and rode back home.

At home, Su Ping didn’t see Su Lingyue. With the help of his astral powers, he noticed that she was cultivating in her room upstairs. It was rare for her not to provoke him, or to beat around the bush to wiggle out information.

Su Ping supposed it was because she had gone to the store and had understood what she could. She knew that he wouldn’t answer her even if she had other questions. Therefore, she didn’t show up willingly to avoid being snubbed.

Su Ping was glad not to see her. He sat down for dinner. His mom went to share some neighborhood stories with him. From this, Su Ping was sure that Su Lingyue didn’t tell his mother about the store. Even though he couldn’t pinpoint the reason why, he was relieved.

It saved him the trouble of making up a story.

After all, Li Qingru had been treating him well and he could have treated Li Qingru the same way he treated Su Lingyue. If Li Qingru had to ask, explaining to her would be bothersome.

After dinner, Su Ping headed upstairs to cultivate.

A mundane night zipped by.

The next day.

The siblings had breakfast together and parted ways.

Su Ping realized that it was Monday when he saw Su Lingyue leave for the academy. When he rode to the store, the long queue was not there. There were still some customers. About seven or eight were waiting for him.

“Mr. Su!”

Those people ran to him when they saw him. It seemed that they were quite anxious.

Su Ping recognized some familiar faces but for a moment, he couldn’t recall their names. He nodded and went to open the door.

Su Ping reminded them, “Those who come to pick up pets line up first.”

Five of the students stood in a line at once. They were all familiar with Su Ping’s rules.

“Mr. Su.” The first one was Zhang Baoxing. After he said the name of his pet, he asked an additional question, “Are you going to give a lecture at the academy today?”.

The other students were eager to find out the answer as well.

Su Ping shook his head. “My lecture is on Wednesday.”

“Oh.” They were disappointed. But soon, they realized that they had dug out information about Su Ping’s lecture. This was an important piece of news. For first graders, this was sensational news.

After all, Su Ping’s lecture was available to first-graders.

Su Ping took out their pets one by one. They were surprised and delighted to find the amazing progress their pets had made after some tests. After they expressed their appreciation to Su Ping, they took their pets and got into the taxi that they had ordered in advance to head to the academy.

They were making use of every bit of time to come and pick up their pets before classes began.

After he sent away those students, Su Ping took care of the other three students’ pets, which made him 120,000 coins.

After all the students had left, Su Ping went back inside. Just like before, he chose some pets for the dummy trainer while he headed to the dragon king’s heritage ground himself. After an hour of training, Su Ping went back to the store and chose another batch of pets to be trained by the dummy. In the meantime, he sat down in the store and poured some water to rest for a while.

Not long after, someone came.

Su Ping looked up. It was the young man who came to train his Wing Beast.

Tang Lang was surprised to see this store so empty. If he didn’t see Su Ping there drinking water, Tang Lang would have thought he had entered the wrong place, or that the store had been rented to someone else.

“Sir, why is there no one here today?”

Su Ping raised his eyebrows. “They have classes today. Don’t you know?”

Tang Lang stood there for a second before he realized that it was indeed Monday. He had time to visit because he had asked for a sick leave from school.

Tang Lang changed to a courteous tone and asked, “Sir, can you train my pet again?”

Su Ping nodded. “Give me the money first.”

Tang Lang was happy that Su Ping did not reject him. The former paid the 100,000 and called out his Wing Beast.

“Sir, can you train advanced pets here?” While Tang Lang handed the Wing Beast to Su Ping, he threw out another question carefully.

While he knew the answer, he was still hoping. If Su Ping was willing, he could have his best pet trained by Su Ping.

“Not right now,” Su Ping answered.

Tang Lang was intrigued. “Then, when will you be able to?”

Su Ping raised his eyebrows. He wanted to start training advanced pets more than anyone. Unfortunately, the service remained unlocked because he had not trained a pet that could reach an above-average aptitude.

“It seems that I must put preparing for professional training on the agenda,” Su Ping said to himself. He answered the young man’s question right after, “I cannot decide the date at the moment. But I suppose within a month at the latest.”

Tang Lang’s eyes glowed. Within a month? If that time could be shortened, then he could enjoy this service before the start of the Elite League, right?

The Elite League would last for three months. The selections and procedures were incredibly complicated. At the beginning stages, he could get by with his pets. If later on, Su Ping’s store could offer training for advanced pets, he would be more likely to stand out!